1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



627 



house running north and south ; and on either 

 side are doors opening into their respective 

 greenhouses. Each house is something hke 

 200 feet long, and perhaps 20 feet wide. All 

 have the long slope on the south except one 

 house. They built one house for a trial on 

 friend Slack's plan, with the short slope to 

 the south. My guide, Mr. Erickson, said 

 they were not yet satisfied that this new plan 

 'was, all things considered, an advantage. He 

 admitted the points mentioned by friend Slack, 

 but said for their work there are several things 

 about the idea that are objectionable. Even 

 during July I found all their houses filled with 

 plants, and all thrifty. They get rid of the 

 ■severe heat by whitewashing the glass ; but 

 they do not give so much ventilation during 

 a hot day as to let the hot dry air in the mid- 

 dle of the day evaporate the moisture from 

 every thing in the greenhouse. That was an 

 important lesson forme. Our greenhouse has 

 too much ventilation, and not enough shading 

 by the glass. Our curtains for shading the 

 glass are on the inside. Friend Pike told me 

 they should be on the outside by all means ; 

 but in that case they would get wet from rain, 

 and, unless very securely fastened, blown off 

 by high winds. I think I shall have to aban- 

 don my curtains, and whitewash my glass as 

 •other people do, another season. Another 

 thing, the long side sloping to the south is al- 

 together too flat (in our house) for very hot 

 weather. I begin to be impressed by the fact 

 that it is a prett}' safe thing to follow the fash- 

 ion of those who build greenhouses or any 

 thing else on a large scale. Vaughan has also 

 a lot of hot-beds and cold-frames outside. He 

 protects valuable plants in these beds with a 

 covering of burlap. The burlap is placed high 

 enough so as to give the plants plenty of room 

 to grow, and it is secured from being torn off 

 by high winds by having strips of long lath 

 tacked on outside of the burlap. Then he 

 has some very pretty grounds surrounding the 

 greenhouses, where there are plants that bear 

 the hot sun without protection. 



I can not tell you of all the beautiful things 

 I saw in that greenhouse ; but I must mention 

 a pretty dooryard belonging to one of his 

 men — Mr. Cropp. At one side of the pretty 

 residence is perhaps an eighth of an acre. It 

 is mostly liwn. But around the outside of 

 the enclosure are groups of shrubbery, the 

 tallest plants being next to the fence (or where 

 I supposed there was a fence, for really no 

 fence was visible), then the smaller things 

 make this living wall slope down gradually 

 A rose-bush that captivated me entirely, or, 

 rather, a group of bushes, Mrs Crcpp told 

 me was the Crimson Rambler. It is a little 

 bit of rose ; but when at its best it is one of 

 the handsomest things in existence. When I 

 got my first glimpse of Dr. Miller's rose-gar- 

 den I found as a center-piece one of these 

 same Crimson Ramblers. When the buds 

 first open they are of a very deep crimson. As 

 they grow older they become lighter in color, 

 so you have on the same bush a beautiful shad- 

 ing from the deepest crimson down to a light 

 pink, and the bushes just h^&x bushels oixos&s. 



At just about dusk I was on the train again 



for Chicago ; and almost as soon as it was day- 

 light I was out with my wheel inquiring for 

 South Park. This is unlike Lincoln Park, but 

 is, perhaps, just as handsome after another 

 fashion. The thing that captured me entirely 

 was the Grand Boulevard. In my simplicity 

 I did not know there was such a thing in Chi- 

 cago or anywhere else. I found South Park 

 by wheeling down Michigan Avenue for eight 

 or ten miles, and I pronounced that avenue 

 very fine ; but on my way back I stumbled 

 into the Grand Boulevard. I struck it just as 

 the boys and girls (of all ages) were going to 

 the city to work. This boulevard has a beau- 

 tiful wide street in the middle, for all sorts of 

 vehicles ; and on eiiher side of this is one of 

 the finest wheel-paths, if not the finest, in the 

 world. No horses or vehicles of any sort are 

 allowed in the wheel-paths. The wheelers go 

 up on one side and down the other, so there is 

 nothing at all in the way. Grand Boulevard 

 may be five miles long, and at the time I struck 

 it there was a perfect stream of wheels all go- 

 ing in one direction, and pretty much all rid- 

 ing at as high a rate of speed as I cared to 

 ride. There were not only hundreds but thou- 

 sands ; and as far as I could see, before and 

 behind, this wheelpath, perhaps 25 feet wide, 

 was occupied by the wheelers. Some years 

 ago an irate person in our town complained to 

 the council because there were so many boys 

 and girls riding wheels everywhere and in 

 everybody's way. He said there were not 

 only strings of them, but regular platoons. 

 Well, the great city of Chicago seems to have 

 recognized that these " platoons" of wheelers 

 of both sexes 7ieed a good nice place to go and 

 come on, and therefore they have provided it. 

 I wonder if the time is not coming when Un- 

 cle Samuel will make similar highways and 

 thoroughfares for those who prefer to travel 

 by the aid of their own muscles rather than 

 by the help of steam, electricity, horse power, 

 or any thing else. 



" Oh ! I am so glad," I said to myself, while 

 in that throng, " that God has permitted me 

 to live during the age of wheels, and that he 

 has permitted me, during this bright beautiful 

 morning, to be 07ie of the fl\ing throng on 

 this boulevard, furnished by the great city of 

 Chicago for its boys and girls." I always like 

 to see a boy and girl just emerging from child- 

 hood to boyhood or girlhood, and to manhood 

 and womanhood ; I like to notice the poise of 

 the boy as he takes up a man's duties ; and 

 (come to think of it) I &x\\oy just as tvell no- 

 ticing the poise of the young woman as she 

 begins to recognize she is a woman instead of 

 the child she has been. Well, in the same 

 way I have always enjoyed witnessing the 

 graceful poise, let us sav, of a 5'oung miss 

 who is getting to be skillful in riding her 

 wheel. Such a young miss, with her braided 

 hair floating in the breeze, happened to be 

 riding just in front of me that morning ; and 

 somehow or other .she kept just in front of me 

 for three or four miles. Come to thii.k of it, 

 may be I kept just in the rear of her and her 

 wheel. I wish to be truthful, you know, even 

 in small matters. Well, she was an expert in 

 riding the wheel. She could remove one hand 



