452 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



one direction, and another in another, and so 

 on; and the result is that every bit of animat- 

 ed nature seems to have some one called on to 

 defend it. 



Dear Byother j^oo/;— Inclosed find clipping from the 

 Sidney Daily Xews, which will give you an idea of 

 the fight on hand. 



REDBIRDS RELEASED. 



" J. M. Fletcher, who lives north of Sidney, came in 

 this morning and asked permission of the mayor to 

 go about the city with the intention of causing all the 

 redbirds in captivity to be liberated. His request was 

 granted, and in company of one of the police he went 

 to several places and caused over twenty birds to be 

 set free. There is a State law against capturing and 

 caging redbirds, and Mr. Fletcher says that he will 

 see that it is enforced. The penalty for its violation 

 is a fine of from W) to SIOO." 



I have witnessed much cruelty by the bird-trappers, 

 who for years have been doing their infamous work, 

 catching the old birds and leaving the young to perish 

 in the nest, then shipping the birds to cities; then as 

 the old ones call in plaintive notes for their young 

 left behind, the cruel owners caU that S7i'et-i singing:/ 

 Now, with a determination to cause that curse to cease 

 in our State, 1 started out, and in two days have 

 caused 29 birds to be released, and more to follow. 

 As the fight has just commenced, will you please give 

 me your moral support through Gleanings? I ex- 

 pect the fight to continue until every native song bird 

 in Ohio is released. I am threatened with shooting, 

 etc., " but none of these things move me." If you have 

 a personal acquaintance with publishers of agricul- 

 tural papers and Youth's Companion, for pity's sake 

 get them enlisted in the fight. Then as I go from city 

 to city or county to county the notice of the work will 

 make the release easier. I shall ask no person for >na- 

 terial aid, but pay my own attorneys out of my own 

 pocket; and lest some impostor should call on you and 

 represent that he was the man doing the work, and 

 wanted a little money to help. I send my photograph. 

 Some of the poor birds had been caged for twelve 

 years; and the joy on being released was enough to 

 move the heart of any person, and ought to have been 

 witnessed by every child in the land. I am working 

 for no reward but from Him who said, " Not a spar- 

 row falls to the ground without your Father's notice." 



Sydney, O., May 21. J. M. Fletcher. 



Permit me, in closing, to beg our agricul- 

 tural papers, the Youth's Companion, and all 

 others who are working for the love of human- 

 ity, and the building up of every thing around 

 our homes that is good and pure and beautiful, 

 to lend a hand and give friend Fletcher the 

 backing and encouragement that he rightly 

 deserves. Our experiment stations in the dif- 

 ferent parts of the United States have been 

 doing a noble work in this direction. Many 

 of the birds that have been pronounced ene- 

 mies of the farmer are now unmistakably 

 proven to be friends; and the fearful destruc- 

 tion that we all have witnessed in the way of 

 noxious insects of late shows this is the result 

 largely, without question, of the killing off of 

 the birds. Somebody has said if all the birds 

 were distroyed we should have a famine in 

 five years worse than any thing the world has 

 ever known; and my impression is that there 

 is at least some truth in it. 



In regard to caged birds, I rarely ever see 

 one without a feeling of pain. My daughter, 

 Mrs. Calvert, once had a canary bird that flew 

 all around the house when the door was left 

 open, and it was about the happiest canary I 

 ever knew. Something happened to it before 

 very long, but I do not remember what. But 

 I suppose this way of keeping birds is seldom 

 practicable. The law against caging our na- 

 tive birds is, I think, a just and humane one. 



GROWING GRAND RAPIDS LETTUCE, BY ONE WHO 

 STARTED OUT ON HIS OWN HOOK. 



Mr. Root: — Nine years ago, after reading your high- 

 pressure-gardening notes, we concluded to build a 

 small greenhouse. The first one we built was 20x100 

 inside. We had good luck from the start. Our trade 

 increased so we have been building more each year. 

 We have at present !4 acre under glass, and are short 

 of lettuce most of the time. 



The center bed in the photo is 8x200, and holds 2700 

 plants We have several times cut 2000 lbs. at one 

 crop from this bed. We burn natural gas, use a 20- 

 horse boiler. There are in this house four steam- 

 pipes, one overhead and one under each bed. 



Now, I think our friend Thomas Slack's plan of a 

 lettuce-house a good one, and 1 intend building on 

 the same plan. 



It would be very hard to explain the secret of rais- 

 ing lettuce under glass. Experience is the best teach- 

 er, although in some cases it might be very dear. In 

 my opinion, good soil, good seed, good plants, and 

 strict attention, is the secret in growing nice lettuce. 

 Then let me add good tobacco dust, for we could do 

 nothing without it. We find it the best and cheapest 

 of any thing for killing all kinds of insects. 



You ask about the children, so I will tell you; but 

 my daughter says you won't care about them. 



Our boy Clinton is 10 years old, over 6 feet tall with- 

 out his shoes. He helps in the greenhouse when not 

 in school. The little girl by him is an orphan, who 

 lives with one of our neighbors. Mabel, our baby, is 

 14 years old ; plays the piano, delivers lettuce, rides a 

 wheel, and does house work. E. M. Miller. 



Bradford, Pa., May 17. 



There are several valuable lessons to be 

 gathered from the picture and description. 

 First, my talks on high-pressure gardening 

 have, at least in this one case, borne good 

 fruit ; but I am inclined to think our veteran 

 friend, whose picture we see standing in the 

 greenhouse, with both coat and vest off, has 

 considerable vim and hard work in his make- 

 up. He says he is out of lettuce most of the 

 time. That has been my experience ever 

 since I got the Grand Rapids lettuce craze. 

 But other cares have prevented me from en- 

 larging as I have many times desired to do. 

 It strikes me that friend Miller has grown 

 some enormous crops. I wish he wotald tell 

 us just how he fixes his beds — manure, soil, 

 etc. I have frequently grown plants, under 

 favorable circumstances, that weighed a pound 

 each ; but he speaks of getting 2000 lbs. of 

 lettuce from 2700 plants. I wish other lettuce- 

 growers would tell us if this is not a little re- 

 markable. In our locality, the one crop from 

 this one bed would bring 10 cts. per lb. Just 

 think of it, friends ! $200 for a single crop 

 (three crops can be grown in a season) from a 

 single bed 8x200 feet! I wish friend Miller 

 would also tell us what his greenhouse cost 

 him. I judge from the picture that it is rath- 

 er cheaply gotten up, and that he has not 

 used very high-priced lumber. I am glad to 

 see his supports are all iron gas pipes. If I 

 ever build any more greenhouses, every thing 

 that goes into the ground shall be iron. Of 

 course, wood is nicer to nail to ; but you can 

 fasten the wood to the iron pipes after they 

 get above ground. I judge, too, that his heat- 

 ing arrangements are not very expensive. He 

 is certainly fortunate in being in the region of 

 natural gas, and there is no nicer way to keep 

 a greenhouse warm during severe winter 

 weather than natural gas. Lettuce will stand 

 considerable cold ; and I have sometimes 

 thought there was more danger, especially 

 with a green hand, from letting the house be- 



