GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lo sift, and soon had two or three inches of 

 tliis soil covering- the hot manure inside of 

 the box. 



Just a word about getting good soil for a 

 hot-bed or cold-frame. Florists go long 

 distances to get the right kind of material 

 for " potting-soil." If there is a creek or 

 stream near you, where the dirt or soil is 

 washed down the gullies, you can often find 

 an abundance of very nice friable loam. 

 Perhaps a little sand has washed in with it, 

 though it is a clay soil; and this wash fror.i 

 the hillside is often the very nicest material 

 to help make potting-soil. Let me digress 

 again. 



Last fall our people bought a carload or 

 more of sweet-clover seed with the hulls on. 

 To save transportation charges to our cus- 

 tomers a clover-huller was employed to take 

 the hulls off. Well, these hulls lay in a heap 

 all winter; and this spring, when my eye 

 happened to catch on to them, it looked like 

 a pile of old well-rotted manure. There was 

 a heaping wagon-boxful, and I had it placed 

 right opposite my hastily made hot-bed. 

 This was sifted and mixed with the soil I 

 have mentioned, and I had a " compost " 

 that should have made any gardener happy. 

 Well, after my hot-bed was fixed I planted 

 melons, squashes, lettuce, radishes, beans, 

 some dasheen tubers, and a little of almost 

 every thing else. Then I went up to the 

 greenhouse in our town and got a dozen 

 potted tomato-plants. The manure at first 

 was too hot, even for the tomatoes; but 

 when it cooled off a little I put them clear 

 down where the roots could go into the hot 

 manure if they wanted to; and just now. 

 May 18, I have a little greenhouse that de- 

 lights my heart. Squashes, melons, and all 

 these rank feeders that love bottom heat, are 

 just doing their best.* Of course I have to 

 give them ventilation when the sun comes 

 up; but in the middle of the day my hot- 

 bed is shaded by some evergreen trees. The 

 ground is yet too wet to make garden out- 

 side, although I have had my furrows mark- 

 ed out. My melons, squashes, etc., will be 

 transplanted outside as soon as the weather 

 will permit; and under each hill I am put- 

 ting the manure and rotted clover chaff. 



Much is being said in the papers now 

 about the " backyard garden " as well as 

 about the back-yard chickens. Well, now, 

 it will not pay you to fuss with a small 

 garden unless you can make the ground 

 exceedingly rich. Hunt up the proper ma- 

 teiials, and work them over well together,, 

 then put a shovelful of compost under each 

 hill, and you will get enormous crops. It is 



* The " Helianti " tubers (see previous mention) 

 are makings the biggest progress of any and all the 

 rest. 



some fuss and bother; but I tell you no one 

 knows as yet how much stuff may be grown 

 on just a few square rods of ground if you 

 feed and water the plants properly. Your 

 ground must be well underdrained to take 

 care of the heavy rains such as we have here 

 in the North ; and here is a nice thing about 

 hot-beds or cold-frames : 



Wlien your stuff' has already had too much 

 rain, put on the sashes to keep it off. Some 

 of you may say, when you read this, " This 

 is the wrong season of the year to talk about 

 hot-beds, cold-frames, etc." Well, that is 

 true to some extent ; but you can keep it in 

 mind and be ready to push things another 

 season. And there is one thing more about 

 it. How many of you have had experience 

 in paying out good money for choice plants 

 and had them die under the scorching sun 

 that is liable to come even in May as well 

 as in June? Let me tell you how to avoid 

 all such disappointments — that is, I can tell 

 you how to take a plant that is almost dead 

 and make it come to life, with just such an 

 arrangement as I have described, but with- 

 out the bottom heat. Have some good rich 

 soil, say half manure. Put in some sand to 

 make it friable, and have it carefully sifted 

 so as to get out all the lum^js, stones, etc. 

 If you are not very strong have your glass 

 sash hinged so it can be opened up and 

 hooked against a post or tree. As a 3 x 6- 

 foot sash is rather heavy, a coiled spring at 

 each corner to help raise it up will be quite 

 a convenience. I think it would be better 

 to have the arrangement in the shade of a 

 tree, or, say, a tree that will shade it in the 

 middle of the day. If not, you will want a 

 cloth frame to lay on top of the sash when 

 the sun is very hot. Put a thermometer 

 inside so you can have the heat just where 

 you want it. Now, while the sash is in 

 place, the air will be moist inside of the 

 frame, no matter what the weather is out- 

 side. When you get some new plants, put 

 them in this rich soil and keep the sash down 

 and shaded in the middle of the day until 

 the plants got well rooted.' Then you can 

 gradually harden them off and move them 

 outside almost without a failure if you keep 

 the matter of moisture just right. Do not 

 water too often; and do not let the soil 

 become either too wet or too dry. 



ROOTED cuttings; potted plants, etc. 



I have often spoken of friend Reasoner's 

 big establishment at Oneca, Fla., only five 

 or six miles from my Floiida home. IMr. 

 Reasoner has collected valuable semi-tropi- 

 cal fruits and plants from all over the 

 world, and, in fact, he is shipjiing them 

 daily almost all over the world. Althoush 

 they seldom have frost in that locality, he 



