S6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ap». 



tcrior sweet and cloan. Is there no danjjcr of 

 foul odors during our dry hot weather? Cer- 

 tainly not if you use the dry dust, and if too 

 much trouble to collect this, use the ashes 

 from the kitchen stove. If your soil is a dry 

 one and the vault deep, there will be little dan- 

 ger of any thinsjj of the kind in any case, espec- 

 ially if the earth is well banked up around the 

 outside. The part of the subject relating to 

 the disposition, and value of the compost 

 formed by using the dry dust, we shall turn 

 over to our agricultural papers ; but there is 

 one item that vividly concerns «very one of us. 

 Any one who has worked at underdrainiug 

 will have seen that water finds its way through 

 the soil to drains, even though they be only 2 

 or 3 feet in depth, and as much as 20 or 30 feet 

 distant. If a drain, or even an open ditch be 

 examined in the vicinity of a privy vault, it 

 will be seen that the water has become taint- 

 ed; and even its having leiclied through sev- 

 eral feet of earth has not made it free from 

 this taint. Now the viial (juestion is, are our 

 weils and cisterns, so far away that no con- 

 taminating intluence can possibly gel into 

 ihem in this way? Thej' are many times the 

 <lepth of the nnderdrains, and therefore should 

 be many feet distant, not only from the privy 

 vault, but from the drains that lead from the 

 sink; cellars, etc. Having the well or cistern 

 plastered with water lime is some security, but 

 1 fear not a perfect one, from some observa- 

 tions made. So many stubborn fevers have of 

 late been traced directly to such sources, that 

 physicians are now giving the matter much 

 attention, and the consequence of carelessness 

 in such matters has been showu to result in 

 the worst forms of typhoid fever. 



CHAPTER XV. 



a FTER we have got our walks buiU, our 

 ^2L, ground underdrained, the yard slicked 

 up clear of all rubbish, and every thing tidy, it 

 will be a very good time to think about trees 

 and shrubbery. Although these are very good 

 in their place, too many of them are very apt 

 to become rubbish, and a fcvv well cared for, 

 will give much more pleasure, than a great va- 

 riety, or too many on a small piece of ground. 

 Who has not admired a single tree, a single 

 vine, or possibly one single hill of strawberries 

 that some one had cared for utstil every passer 

 by wanted one just like it? Single specimens 

 of plants or flowers are often sold for great 

 prices just because they are just what some- 

 body wants or becanse they "just suit them." 

 It is the same with bees, poultry, and almost 

 all kinds of stock. Have you never felt that 

 you would cheerfully barter a whole half doz- 

 en indifferent specimens for just one such as 

 you h?.ve .-ecu? How often (lo we And some 

 one who has made a splendid result u-ith a 

 single colony of bees, go straitway and invest 

 in a yard full, and then find that he has not 

 only lost his enjoyment with them, but has 

 really never been able to c<iual the result of 

 his lirst experiments, just because he was too 

 ambitious to do things on a large scale ? Please 

 do be satisfied witii a little, do that little well, 

 and make it pay. If you arc going to purchase 

 trees, get just so many as j'ou are sure will be 

 well cared for, and plant them at such distan- 



ces that they will never make your yard look, 

 lumbered up. 



Jiy all means make your purchase* of somi 

 nurseryman in your immediate neighborhood, 

 and go and select them yourself. The travel- 

 ing men have no reputation at stake, and their 

 principal motive seems to be to sell as much a- 

 pos.-ible in a given time; besides, ther prices 

 are enormous compared with the usual nursery 

 rates. Our predecessor planted our little home 

 stead with apple trees that cost him $1. tach, 

 because they were warranted to produce a crop 

 of apples the next season. For hor.se chestnut 

 trees he paid $2. and other things in propor- 

 tion to the amount of .foO. After about rive 

 years a few of the trees bore a few undesirable 

 winter apples, and then we listened to a man 

 who was doing grafting and didn't want a cent' 

 until the grafts were all growing. He had, oh ! 

 such beautiful kinds of apples, and he even 

 promised to graft a tree with just the kind of 

 apples that used to grow in grandfather's or- 

 chard. What a genial ])!easant man he was, 

 and how he did give it to those unscrupulous 

 fellows that charged a dollar for 10 cent apple 

 trees. When be came around in May for hi'-, 

 money, he wasn't sociable a bit, but presented 

 his bill for two dollars each for the grafts that 

 were of a surety sprouting out all over the 

 trees. It had to be paid, and although it was 

 five years ago, we haven't yet seen any apples 

 "like grandfather's." It would seem that a few 

 such lessons should learn one to save hi? hard 

 earned pennies, but I am fearful they never will 

 at our house, for hardly a year parses, that we 

 don't have the same old story over asain. It 

 is true we don't have any more grafting done 

 at five cents each, but it is usually something 

 equally ridiculous. By the way, I procured 

 some shoots from a tree that I knew to be good, 

 and was rewarded in a few years by a tree that 

 bears loads of nice apples; the fact that I did 

 the grafting, always adds an additional flavor 

 to those same red Astrachans. Of course we 

 can not do all the work ourselves, but we can 

 usually employ some one with whom we are 

 acquainted ; some one who has a fixed abiding 

 place, and who practices accordingly. 



The sight of weeds in a door yard is any- 

 thing but refreshing, but they do have such a 

 way of insinuating themselves into every placfe 

 where one can not get his scythe, or lawn 

 m-»wer, that it seems as though there were no 

 use trying to have it all fresh green grass ; but 

 if all the arrangements are planned at the 

 start, to have every foot of earth where it ca'n 

 be conveniently reached, very much may be 

 done toward lessening this labor. It would be 

 very convenient indeed, if one could fi.x tin- 

 door yard, garden, or even apiary so it would 

 stay nice during the whole season, but unfor- 

 tunately this seems out of the the question. 

 If we are going to have a nice tree, a nice grape 

 vine, or in fact a nice door yard, we must give 

 it attention almost daily. Witli the grape 

 vines especially, if you want to see with what 

 wondrous facility they may be trained into 

 regular forms of beauty, just keep a ball of 

 twine handy, and tie them up and pinch them 

 ofi" just as fast as they commence to sprawl 

 their mischievous tendrils abroad in search of 

 something to tangle up. Daine Nature seems 

 to be wonderfully accommodating to those who 



