1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



555 



ver and strawberry foliag^e. Why, they 

 were "too comical for any thing," as the 

 little girls say; and the funny part of it 

 was, ever}' last pansy, big and little, turn- 

 ed its face toward the front door of the cab- 

 in. You see they were all on the north slope 

 above the cabin; and in turning their faces 

 toward the sun it seems as if they took par- 

 ticular pains to face the front door. The 

 boys who work for me told about it, and 

 the little girls in their homes came up to 

 see our pansies and crimson clover, and 

 they told their mothers, and their mothers 

 came; and ^-et all this gorgeous display of 

 beauty came unexpectedl}'. It was indeed 

 a "happy surprise." Just north of the 

 cabin, on the hillside, I planted six plants 

 each of twelve different varieties of straw- 

 berries. The}' were sent me by Mr. Mat- 

 thew Crawford, of Cuyahoga Falls, O. I 

 took care of them myself last season, and 

 the raspberries and other wild plants of 

 the woods were so determined to grow up 

 among those strawberries that I began to 

 think along in the fall I should hardly get 

 my money back for all the time I spent. In 

 fact, I was a little disappointed at the 

 growth the strawberries made. I remem- 

 ber thinking that perhaps there was a 

 little too much clay in the sand on that 

 comparatively hard and stony hillside. 

 Besides, it was so full of roots of trees from 

 stumps that were too green to dig out that 

 many of the weeds had to be pulled out by 

 hand. Well, this spring that strawberry- 

 bed was another of my surprises. The fo- 

 liage was not only larger than any thing I 

 had seen before, but the blossoms were 

 large enough and handsome enough to make 

 beautiful bouquets; and while the frost 

 down here in Ohio for a long while gave 

 every strawberry-blossom "a black eye," 

 up there in the woods there was not a blos- 

 som, big or little, spotted by the frost; and 

 when I left there, June 1, the long stems of 

 fruit were lopping down in every direction, 

 under their loads of great green berries. I 

 shall have to tell you later the outcome. 



By the way, this suggests to me that 

 some of the finest results with strawberries 

 I have ever seen were on new ground, where 

 the woods had just been cleared off. This 

 new ground is nice for potatoes or any thing 

 else, but seems to be specially suited for 

 great crops of strawberries. 



Now I want to give you another short 

 chapter that perhaps might belong under 

 the head of Our Homes. 



There are many homes in our land, en- 

 tirely under the charge of men-folks — some- 

 times temporarily, and, again, right along. 

 A good many times it is very desirable that 

 the good wife have a vacation by herself. 

 Very often there seems to be no way for the 

 husband but to keep bachelor's hall. It is 

 hardly worth while to think of hiring a 

 woman or cook of any kind during the tem- 

 porary absence of the wife. Just now it is 

 hard to get help anywhere, outdoors or in; 

 but a man who works on the farm needs to 

 be well fed. He may not only lose money 



by being on scant rations, but he may lose 

 health and possibly life. Think of poor 

 Rambler. Now, I hope I may be able to 

 give some helpful suggestions. If you can 

 not have a woman or anybody else cook for 

 you, you can afford to have the best of every 

 thing that is to be found in our best fancy 

 groceries in the large cities. A good square 

 meal in a city hotel or restaurant costs 

 about 50 cents; but the food that the aver- 

 age man requires three times a day prob- 

 ably does not cost 10 cents — sometimes not 

 over a nickel. The difference between this 

 and half a dollar is to pay for the cooking 

 expenses, for the various dishes, rent of a 

 convenient room on the street, taking care of 

 the institution, etc. ; therefore the man or 

 boy who does his cooking can have plenty 

 of the best of every thing, and still make 

 money. You can well afford to have not 

 only all the butter, eggs, and milk you want, 

 but you may have potted chicken, boned 

 turkey, canned fruits, vegetables, etc., 

 without feeling you are extravagant. 



A year ago I spoke of getting along with 

 only a few dishes — that is, where you board 

 yourself. A part of the time during the last 

 two weeks I had helping me five men and 

 boys, and two teams. I chose to set all 

 these people at work so as to get my plow- 

 ing and planting done quickly, and get 

 back here to Medina. I had not much time 

 for cooking, so I began to study the matter; 

 and I want to tell you of one little inven- 

 tion of mine that I think may be helpful to 

 the women-folks. Perhaps they will smile 

 when they are told their old friend A. I. 

 Root presumes to teach them how to cook. 

 Wait a minute. I have often told you of 

 my fashion of drinking water hot instead 

 of cold. I have told you of how I would 

 sometimes gladly give a dime or more for a 

 drink of hot water when I am in a hurry. 

 Well, for years I have been in the habit of 

 having in the summer time things handy 

 so I could get this hot water myself. First 

 I have a little coal-oil stove that cost perhaps 

 50 or 75 cents. Then I have a quart tin 

 dipper, made of the very thinnest tin that 

 can be found. The thinner the tin, and the 

 less cold metal there is in it, the quicker it 

 will heat over a coal-oil or gasoline flame. 

 I pour into this dipper just the quantity I 

 want to drink — not a spoonful more. Then 

 this is heated over the flame, either coal- 

 oil or gasoline. In the winter time I often 

 heat it by pressing the round bottom of the 

 dipper on top of a hot stove. With this 

 thin tin pressed close to the top of the 

 hot iron of the stove, the water will boil 

 almost instantly, so I do not have to 

 "wait for the water to boil," when I am in 

 a hurry. Well, I had this arrangement in 

 my cabin. One day in a great hurry I 

 thought I would try cooking an &<^^ in the 

 tin dipper. This dipper is made of pressed 

 tin. There is no seam in the bottom. It is 

 round, like the bottom of a wash-bowl. Let 

 me digress a little here. 



Years ago, when I was making candy for 

 the bees I had much trouble in having the 



