1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



505 



We grow discouraged because of the little progress 

 we make or seem to make in the Christian life. A 

 man can bfconie a Christian in a tniiuite; hut it takes 

 ti'mf to become a sainf. He can become a Christian so 

 quickly l)ecause that means becoming a pupil A 

 Christian is a learner, a disciple; he is an apprentice 

 in the workshop of Jesus Christ. But perfection in 

 sainthood comes only after long lapses of time, in the 

 majority of cases. It takes years to broaden the sym- 

 pathies. Will power is attained only by the constant 

 choice of the right. The history of tlie growth of a 

 Christian life is in this parable : First the blade, then 

 the ear, then the full corn in the ear. 



A LETTUCE - GREENHOUSE THAT COVERS 

 THREE-FOURTHS OF AN ACRE. 



May 2d it was mj' privilege to look over 

 the lettuce-greenhouses of Mr. S. Shisler, 

 of Beach Citj', Ohio. Nine years ago friend 

 S. took a notion to grow Grand Rapids let- 

 tuce, and built a small greenhouse. His 

 crop the first winter paid for the entire cost 

 of the greenhouse and ev6ry thing connected 

 with it; and every j-ear since then he has 

 been increasing his area under glass until 

 now his plant covers just about three-fourths 

 of an acre. He has been successful from 

 his first investment up to the present time. 

 Although he has expended nothing in the 

 waj' of advertising, he has had more calls 

 for lettuce, all the time, than he could sup- 

 ply. I think his average price is from 10 

 to 15 cts. per lb., according to the season. 

 When I visited the lettuce-greenhouse of the 

 Ohio State University, Columbus, 30U may 

 remember I said they harvested a crop of 

 lettuce every six weeks; but in order to do 

 this they had strong thrift3' plants twice 

 transplanted, to be put into the beds not 

 onlj' the very day but the very hour the crop 

 was removed. Well, Mr. Shisler can take 

 a crop from his beds every /our weeks. He 

 does this by using only potted plants. The 

 seed is sown on good compost, far enough 

 apart to give the little plants plenty of room; 

 and when large enough these are trans- 

 planted, say two inches apart in a good 

 bed of rich soil. After they have made a 

 pretty good root they are placed in 2'4-inch 

 pots. These pots are set in traj's similar 

 to those used for selling strawberries. In 

 fact, Mr. Shisler used to be a strawberry- 

 grower, and he uses his old strawberry- 

 trays for holding these little pots. Of 

 course, he uses the very best of compost, 

 made of old stable manure and sandy loam, 

 to fill the pots. You will remember that 

 these traj's of pots can be easily watered by 

 sub-irrigation. Just set them in a vat con- 

 taining water at just about the right height. 

 The water will then soak up through the 

 pots so as to get them all exactly right. He 

 grows the lettuce in the.se pots until the 

 roots have gone all through the soil and be- 

 gun to " kiss " the sides of the pot, as our 

 English friends express it. Now, then. 



when he cuts a crop from a bed, the ground 

 is worked over, and potted plants put in 

 the place of those he took out. You may 

 say this is lots of work. But he and his 

 grown-up son attend to every thing without 

 any other help than that from the night 

 watchman. This man is employed to fire 

 up, and keep the temperature just right; 

 and between times he does all of the potting 

 of the young lettuce-plants. It strikes me 

 this man must be a pretty good sort of fel- 

 low, to be night watchman and do work 

 enough to earn wages besides his duties as 

 watchman. Yet I have heard watchmen 

 say several times they would rather have 

 some work to do than to sit down and get 

 lazy, and may be become sleepy. 



Mr. Shisler has experimented some on 

 different styles of greenhouses; but he thinks 

 now that the even span with butted glass, 

 and not very steep roof, suits him as well 

 as any. You see there is an advantage in 

 having a roof rather flat, in the way of sav- 

 ing glass. I suggested that heavy wet snow 

 might prove to be a pretty severe strain on 

 a roof made so flat; but he says he has had 

 no trouble from that source. When the 

 snow begins to be rather heavy he puts on 

 more heat from the steam-pipes, and thus 

 melts the snow ofi" quite rapidlj'. He greatly 

 prefers rain water for watering his plants, al- 

 though they have very good well water. As 

 he is out in the countrj' one mile from Beach 

 City he has no aid from the town water- 

 works. A windmill pumps the water into 

 an elevated tank, and this gives him head 

 enough to do all his watering. I believe 

 his windmill pumps the soft water out of 

 cisterns also into this elevated tank. The 

 hotises are all connected. The gutters are 

 down, perhaps, three or four feet from the 

 surface of the beds. The beds are all on 

 the ground. And, by the wa}', he has a 

 splendid arrangement along the paths for 

 supporting the earth in the beds. Instead 

 of using boards, as most lettuce-growers do, 

 he uses cheap heavy slate. One edge of the 

 slate is let down into the ground — or, I 

 might say, set down in the path — deep 

 enough to keep its place. The upper edge 

 rests in a bar of wood perhaps 2 inches 

 square. A groove is made in the under 

 edge to receive the top of the slate. These 

 pine bars are supported by a stake driven 

 in the bed flush with the top edge of the 

 bar. As these stakes in time rot oflF, he 

 thinks he will use iron stakes next time, 

 bolting the wooden bar to the side of the 

 metal stake. The wooden bar does not rot, 

 because it is just above the surface of the 

 ground in the bed. 



Mr. Shisler uses overhead watering. He 

 has pipes running under the ground all 

 over the place, with places to screw on a 

 hose about 50 feet apart. So far he prefers 

 overhead sprinkling; but he thinks he will 

 make some experiments in sub-irrigation. 

 He gets rid of the green fly by fumigation. 



Now, there is something wonderful in the 

 fact that he has grown fine crops of lettuce 

 every winter for nine years, in the same 



