450 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



so much money to water thoroughly even a 

 small area that he has given up using his ex- 

 pensive outfit. In the arid West this is all 

 right ; but suppose here in the East we go to 

 a good deal of expense, and get our ground 

 thoroughly irrigated just right. Well, if a 

 thunder-shower should come up immediately 

 afterward, our time and money may have been 

 worse than thrown away ; besides, I have nev- 

 er seen any sort of irrigating that was equal 

 to a summer shower. 



I was called away from home for about two weeks in 

 July. The boy who was employed to sprinkle the gar- 

 den did '■ sprinkle " it and nothing more, and I found 

 every thing in it dead or nearly so. It did not recover. 

 Examination showed that the constant wetting of the 

 top soil had called out surface roots ; nothing had pen- 

 etrated to any considerable depth, and two weeks of 

 neglect had brought inevitable ruin. 



This comes right in line with the oft-repeat- 

 ed remark that, when you once commence 

 watering, you must keep it up. 



I had already come to believe in dust mulch when 

 water was not available ; I then came to believe in it 

 without reservation. 



I have already told, in the Farm and Fireside of Feb- 

 ruary 1, how I plant tomatoes. These are given an 

 extra depth, because the tomato sends out roots wher- 

 ever the vine touches the earth. Other vegetables I 

 plant, or transplant, in trenches of depth just suffi- 

 cient so that they will be properly hilled up when the 

 trenches are filled and the garden is level. Then with 

 rake or cultivator I keep the soil to the depth of one 

 or two inches finely pulverized between the rows, and, 

 where possible, between the plants in the row. This 

 dust is a perfect mulch. Moisture will rise through 

 the soil until it reaches it, but will not evaporate 

 through it to any considerable extent : no more will 

 be lost in the hours of sunshine than will be replaced 

 in the night I have found that there is stored in the 

 earth sufficient moisture to provide a constant supply, 

 provided evaporation is checked a .short distance from 

 the surface. There was no time during the drouth of 

 last summer — and it was a wonderfully dry summer 

 in the East — when with the toe of my shoe I could not 

 find moisture. This was a matter of astonishment to 

 visitors when all the soil in the garden glowed wh te 

 in the blazing sun. 



Dust mulch requires much less labor than the hose 

 or watering-pot, even when these can be readily used. 



This is true. Unless there is a period so 

 long between the showers that the weeds be- 

 gin to be visible, by very careful examination 

 (with your spectacles), there is nothing to be 

 done after you have got the surface thorough- 

 ly raked over. It is really a very cheap and 

 easy way to take care of a crop ; but when a 

 shower comes so as to make the least bit of 

 crust, there must be no delay — every thing 

 must stand aside while you go over the whole 

 of your ground and fix the surface at exactly 

 the proper time. 



The mulch remains intact except when it rains or 

 showers or when trodden ; then the rake or cultivator 

 must be applied as soon as possible after the soil gets 

 into suitable condition. If this is delayed, rain (unless 

 very heavy) will prove an actual injury. One day 

 last summer there was a shower of just sufficient du- 

 ration to beat down and saturate the mulch ; a day 

 passed without proper attention, and the next day 

 the moi.sture-line was an inch lower than it had been. 

 The effect of even a slight compacting of the soil is 

 apparent in the early morning. There were many 

 weeks in which the track of a cat could be followed 

 by the dark spots amid the surrounding whiteness, 

 showing that the moisture had risen in her footsteps. 

 So important did I come to consider the inviolableness 

 of the mulch, that, whenever I entered the garden to 

 gather vegetables, or for any other purpose, I raked 

 out my tracks as carefully as if to conceal a depreda- 

 tion. 



In my choice ground, among choice high- 



priced plants, I have done this very thing — 

 taken a fine rake and smoothed over where I 

 or somebody else had been walking ; but I did 

 not know that anybody else had ever thought 

 of being so particular. 



The entire absence of weeds is one of the by-prod- 

 ucts of this system of culture, but of minor impor- 

 tance to my mind. It is rather pleasant, though, to look 

 over even a small garden and see no sign of unpro- 

 ductive vegetation. The owner gets credit, too, for 

 industry which he does not deserve, but which it is 

 pleasant to receive. ''Not a weed!" exclaimed a 

 friend ; " how your back must have ached ! " In fact, 

 I hai n't stooped since planting-time. 



As I remarked to the careful reader of the Farm and 

 Fireside, this is an old, old story. I was gratified last 

 June, while passing through Pennsylvania from Phil- 

 adelphia to Harrisburg, to see the dust-mulch theory 

 applied in practice in that splendid farming region. 

 The weather was very hot, and the yellow soil seenfed 

 hopelessly dry ; but between the long rows of corn, 

 showing only an inch or two above ground, were cul- 

 tivators of all sorts throwing up clouds of dust. A 

 few days later I returned in the wake of heavy show- 

 ers : an increased number of men were toiling over 

 the same fields, pulverizing the moist earth before it 

 should have time to bake. I concluded that, wet or 

 dry, there would be little shortage of corn in those 

 valleys, and I realized as never before the incalcula- 

 ble value of experimental farming and the broad in- 

 fluence of the intelligently conducted agricultural 

 press. S. CusHMAN Caldwell. 



Permit me to add I have never tried any 

 method of cultivation that made things grow 

 as does this dust mulch ; and I believe a pretty 

 good crop might be secured on poor ground, 

 if well underdrained, and worked up fine be- 

 fore planting, and then handle as above. 

 Nothing has been said about the use of the 

 modern weeders used by hand or horse power. 

 But they are just the thing for this kind of 

 business after you get your model garden 

 started right. Now, if you do not handle 

 acres in this way I wouldlJadvise every one of 

 our readers to test the matter thoroughly on a 

 small plot of ground. Let the women-folks 

 test it in their flower-beds. If followed out, 

 there will never be any pulling of weeds at all, 

 because no weeds ever get in sight. 



There is one place where we find a daily 

 watering with the hose works very well— that 

 is, for cabbage, tomato, and other vegetable- 

 plants. When we get behind on orders, and 

 it does not rain, we sprinkle the plants every 

 evening ; and as soon as the ground is dry 

 enough, we work the surface with hand weed- 

 ers. This hurries them along, and enables us 

 to meet the demand. When the plants are 

 very small, just after transplanting, we shade 

 them toward the middle of the day, providing 

 the sun is very hot. 



SCaRLET OR CRIMSON CLOVER IN WEST VIRGINIA. 



I notice some of the friends complain of scarlet 

 clover. I bought two bushels of you in 1807 ; sowed it 

 in corn the last working, spring of 1898, June .5 to 10; 

 plowed under what would have made at least two 

 tons of hay per acre, and sowed to buckwheat July 

 12th (seeded itself). June, 1899, I again plowed under 

 another big crop, and again sowed to buckwheat; 

 seeded itself again, and to-day there is a fine set of 

 clover, all from one sowing. J. L. McKenzie. 



Howesville, W. Va., April 15. 



I take it, friend M., that you let yotir clover 

 stand until some of the seed was ripe. With 

 us it generally blossoms in the middle of May. 

 By the date you mention there would be quite 

 a good lot of seed. You certainly ought to 

 have had a big crop of buckwheat if you 



