506 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



ground; and, in fact, he has never removed 

 the earth and put in fresh soil — not even in 

 his first greenhouse. Of course, he ma- 

 nures heavily. He dravys in stable manure 

 from the town, and works it over, letting- it 

 ferment until it forms a compost; and this 

 compost is the onlj' manure that he has 

 found profitable. He has not as yet under- 

 taken to grow any thing in his houses in 

 summer. After the last crop of lettuce is 

 taken off — say about the first of May — the 

 whole contents of the bed are permitted to 

 dry up all summer long; in fact, thej' get 

 to be as dry as dust; and my impression is 

 that this thorough drying-out, in a measure, 

 at least, sterilizes the ground. He has 

 never had any rot to do any injury worth 

 mentioning. He has had some damping- 

 off when the plants were young. Of course, 

 he may have trouble from rot or fungous 

 diseases later on; but from the fact that he 

 has had such good success with the same 

 soil for nine years, it looks as if he had not 

 ver3^ much to fear in that direction. Let- 

 tuce-rot is something queer, and oftentimes 

 difficult to be accounted for. One man will 

 have lettuce-rot right along, no matter what 

 he does, whether he uses old ground or new 

 every winter. Another man does not have 

 it at all, no matter what he does. 



When the sun gets to be so hot as to make 

 the lettucedarkincolor, and too tough, Mr. S. 

 gives his glass a good coat of whitewash. 

 So far his rafters are pine, or mostly that. 

 I believe he has been using some chestnut, 

 which does very well where you can find 

 lumber straight-grained, and no knots. He 

 says he does not care for a groove to carry 

 off the drip water. Such water so far has 

 done no harm worth mentioning. 



Mr. Shisler enjoys working nuder glass. 

 He is in love with the business or else he 

 would not have succeeded as he has done. 

 And is it not true, my friends, that the man 

 who is in love with his occupation almost 

 always succeeds, while he who goes into 

 something he does not care much about, 

 just because he gets an idea he can make 

 money by it, seldom finds the money he is 

 looking for? Choose an occupation that 

 you are in love with, and then see to it 

 that 3'ou do not let your love grow cold. 



STRAWBERRIES, JoOO WORTH FROM HALF AN ACRE. 



I sold, two years ago, within a few cents of 8500 worth 

 of strawberries off from 26 rows 220 feet long, and I 

 sold about $oOO from the same patch last year. 



bioux City, Iowa. I<EWis 1,.\mkin. 



Such reports as the above are valuable 

 inasmuch as they indicate that great yields 

 are confined to no particular locality. Mr. 

 Hilbert gave us a big report from Northern 

 Michigan, and Dr. Miller followed with 

 one a little larger from his place; and now 

 we have the above from Iowa. I think sim- 

 ilar results may be accomplished in almost 

 any locality if you go to work right, and 

 have the ambition and enthusiasm that are 

 needed to make a success. 



OUR UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU. 



Our friends may remember that, during 

 the last of April, we had three or four daj's 

 when it was very warm. Wednesday morn- 

 ing, April 29, the thermometer stood above 

 80; and when the weather- telegram reached 

 us at 9:25 in the morning, reading as fol- 

 lows, it occasioned some surprise: 



For Ohio, showers to night ; colder in northern por- 

 tion ; Thursday, much colder, with rain, possibly snow 

 on Lake Erie. 



Washington, April 29. 



As the weather still kept warm all day, 

 there were many jests at the expense of the 

 Weather Bureau. Thursday morning I was 

 up about sunrise, waiting for Ernest to 

 take me out with his automobile; and want- 

 ing something to do while I was waiting for 

 him to waken I got a good broom (it was 

 not a neiv broom; notwithstanding, in }iiy 

 hands it swept tolerably clean) and com- 

 menced sweeping the walk in front of the 

 factory. With the great rush and the call 

 for help in every department of our busi- 

 ness I fear it had been many days since 

 the walk had had a good sweeping; but as 

 Ernest did not wake up I kept on with my 

 sweeping until I got pretty well over to the 

 railroad track; and I was still wielding my 

 broom when the hands came to their work. 

 The machinery now starts at ten minutes 

 before six. Of course, there were quite a 

 good many jokes because the president of 

 the company was sweeping the walk in 

 front of the factory. Some of them asked 

 me if I had " marked my time;" others if I 

 had got a new job; but a large part of the 

 228 hands now busy in our employ bantered 

 me about the snowstorm that the Weather 

 Bureau said was coming. I told them the 

 weather was sometimes late, just as the 

 electric cars and steam cars are sometimes 

 late; but it would be sure to come sooner or 

 later during the day. 



Now, this whole matter was interesting 

 to me because I had a glimpse of the way 

 in which people look at the predictions of 

 the Weather Bureau. I do not remember 

 one in the whole lot who seemed to have 

 faith enough in the Weather Bureau to be- 

 lieve that any great change was coming. 

 Even the good pastor of our church came 

 with a basket, wanting some plants from 

 the greenhouse. I told him he was wel- 

 come to the plants, but I called his atten- 

 tion to the weather-flag; and even he seem- 

 ed to have but little faith in what it por- 

 tended. At 9:50 in the morning the follow- 

 ing telegram came; but as the temperature 

 was still above 80 when noon came, there 

 was still more merriment about the prom- 

 ised snowstorm. 



For Ohio, rain and colder to-night ; Friday, rain in 

 southern portion, rain or snow in northern part ; much 

 colder. 



Washing-ton, April 30. 



I was watching the barometer, however, 

 and I informed everybody there was a big 

 storm close at hand. The weather was so 

 very warm, however, and so few clouds 

 were visible, I myself told Mrs. Root I did 

 not think the grandchildren needed to take 



