498 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MayI 



else who can send me some wintergreens 

 with the roots nicely packed, I will gladly 

 pay him for his time and trouble. I pre- 

 sume it is going to be a little difficult to 

 grow wintergreens under cultivation ; but I 

 opine it is no more difficult than many of 

 the plants we have already grown in the 

 greenhouse that require shade, a particular 

 soil, special modes of watering, etc. A 

 wintergreen-plant in a pot, loaded with ber- 

 ries, would be as handsome in the way of 

 ornament as almost any thing in the green- 

 house. It is an evergreen; the blossoms are 

 very pretty, and the berries hang on the 

 plants almost the year round, if I am not 

 mistaken. Some of the berries I got of that 

 boy were very large; and if you will look at 

 them closely you will find them very hand- 

 some, not unlike a navel orange, but, of 

 course, of a deeper red.* Under cultivation 

 I believe we may be able to grow them 

 larger still ; and, besides the beauty of the 

 foliage, flowers, and fruit, they are delicious 

 food. The same plant is also called part- 

 ridge berry, because partridges largely sub- 

 sist on them; and I admire the good sense 

 and taste of the partridges. I ate one cup- 

 ful, and enjoyed them very much before it 

 occurred to me I had better take some of 

 them home to plant. 



Now, if anybody has ever succeeded in 

 growing wintergreens under cultivation, 

 that is the person I wish to get hold of. I 

 have planted my berries in a mixture of 

 jadoo and sand. Wintergreens usually grow 

 in a sandy soil where it is rather damp, and 

 the largest plants and berries are usually 

 found where there is decayed wood or a 

 large amount of humus in the soil. At the 

 time the berries are usually gathered in the 

 t^pring the young wintergreen sprouts are 

 shooting forth. When small they have a 

 beautiful crimson tint that makes them 

 about as handsome as an achyranthus. And, 

 by the way, whenever you want to go pic- 

 nicking, always choose some spot where win- 

 tergreens are thick— that is, if there is any 

 such near you. Why, it makes me young 

 again to think of it. 



Now, who will tell us something more 

 about the wintergreen ? When I was trav- 

 eling in Cuba, California, and some other 

 places, sometimes an inquisitive Yankee 

 would want to know what my business was. 

 My usual answer was that I was looking up 

 God's gifts; and this wintergreen-plant is 

 one of his gifts that just now makes me 

 happy to talk about, think about, or read 

 about. Who will get ahead of me in getting 

 some plants to grov; under cultivation? 



WARMING POULTRY - HOUSES FOR GETTING 

 EGGS IN WINTER. 



Of course, this is not a poultry journal, 

 and may be I shall put my foot in it if I 



* I have recently noticed in one of the dailies that a 

 small boy in Northern Michigan, who has a widowed 

 mother, sold over $50 worth of wintergreen berries dur- 

 ing the past season. He and his brothers and sisters 

 picked, then he took them to a nearby city and disposed 

 of them. 



undertake to teach poultry people; but as I 

 am going to make only a suggestion I think 

 our poultry people will excuse me. When I 

 arose at friend Morrow's a little after day- 

 light, as I usually do, there was nobody stir- 

 ring, and there was no fire in any of the 

 stoves. Mrs. Morrow laughingly told me I i 

 would have to go down to the barn to get ] 

 warm until the fires were lighted. That 

 was a novel idea to me, that a barn would 

 be warmer than a house. This, of course, 

 aroused my Yankee curiosity; but when her 

 good husband came along with a milk-pail 

 and asked me to follow him I soon solved 

 the mystery. They not only grow beautiful 

 honey on the Morrow farm, but they have 

 the milk to go with it. One of the first 

 things that struck my eye on coming on to 

 the place was a handsome big barn with a 

 basement laid up with stone in a substantial 

 manner. Inside of this spacious basement 

 1 found thirty or forty head of cattle and 

 horses; and the basement was so snug that 

 the temperature of the whole large room 

 was quite comfortable on that cold frosty 

 morning. In fact, I saw beautiful potatoes 

 in open bins that had been there all winter 

 long— no freezing at all, so all they needed 

 was protection from the light. With the 

 right kind of stable, thick heavy walls, per- 

 haps partly under ground at the back side, 

 the animal heat generated by the live stock 

 keeps out the cold. Then I suggested that 

 the south side should be a little larger so as 

 to accommodate a good flock of poultry, 

 fencing them off with netting. Of course, 

 it might make the stable a httle colder to 

 heat this addition; but as the fowls them- 

 selves furnish considerable warmth I do not 

 think the difference in temperature would 

 be appreciable; and where one keeps a lot 

 of cattle and horses it seems to me it would 

 not be an expensive way of keeping bid- 

 dies comfortably warm. As it is, Mrs. Mor- 

 row has sold over $50 worth of eggs since 

 January 1 ; and she has a 200-egg incubator 

 in operation; and what a nice place it is to 

 work in in winter time, especially when you 

 have zero weather and storms outside ! No 

 wonder the cattle looked sleek, comfortable, 

 and happy. I do not believe the Morrow 

 children, with such a home and comfortable 

 surroundings, will be in a hurrry to get 

 away from the farm and off into the town. 



SUNDAY DAILIES, MUSHROOM-GROWING, ETC. 



The biggest lies are always found in the 

 Sunday dailies. May be you think I am 

 using rather strong language. I do not 

 think I would ever read a Sunday daily at 

 all were it not for the pages that are sub- 

 mitted to me to inquire whether statements 

 are true, etc. The one before me now is 

 taken from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of 

 April 16. One full page is devoted to the 

 mushroom industry. The heading is as fol- 

 lows: 



$50 A DAY GROWING MUSHROOMS IN ST. LOUIS. 



The Remarkable Profits to be Made in this Curious New 



