Evening star., 1915-03-13

! successfully, is the QulICe all 81
ing to experiment with a dozen or tive
bushes this fall, and wait until l see
how they do before making any eX-
tensive planting. Now that we have
are working out is to be a permanent
one. we feel that we can better afford
to go a little slow than to make too
many and too costly mistakes.
| That is the fruit program, as ten
| tatively worked out. Now see how
nicely chickens fit in with it. A good
part of the land in fruit can be used
for chicken range all the year round.
ception of the strawberry patches. all
! the year except during the brief period
when the fruit is ripe. The reason }
make a possible exception of straw
berries is because a neig of mine
let his chickens run in his strawberry
patch this winter, and they ate the
leaves SO close to the ground he
doesn't know whether the plants are
killed or not.
Good Fertilizer for Fruit.
I don't think chickens would bother
grapes at all or currants or goose
berries. They probably wouldn't bother
-aspberries on high growing canes, but
as l am going to follow the system of
pruning to within eighteen or twenty
inches of the ground I'd have to keep
them out of the berry patch except
during the short season of ripened
fruit.
Another advantage of this combina-
ton is that poultry manure is bene-
fetal to all kinds of fruit. except that
1t IS so high in nitrogen that when
applied too heavily to Strawberries 1t
is likely to promote growth of vine at
the expense of fruit
The bees, of course, would not crowd
either the chickens or fruit off the
land. In fact, bees are so necessary to
the proper polleniZing of fruit that in
many of the big commercial orchards
they think it is necessary to keep
swarms for this purpose. the honey
they produce being a secondary mat
ter. There probably wouldn't be
enough bloom of all kinds on my eight
but bees. you know. are no respecters
of line fences, and there is no law to
prevent them gathering honey from
the fields of my neighbors. And 1t is
gain instead of lose through these
depredations. for there is a great deal
of fruit of various kinds grown in our
neighborhood, and l don't know of
within radius of several miles.
Hopes Bees Will Like Him.
/ don't know the first thing about
the handling of bees. and the expert
ment may be d dismal failure. But it
seems to be well worth trying, for it
succeed / am assured l may count
on a profit of from SO to So a hive.
There is voluminous literature on the
subject of bees, and l ought not to
nave difhculty in acquiring the neces-
sary theoretical knowledge. The prac-
tical part is another matter They say
some people succeed and others fail at
bee culture for no other apparent rea-
son than that the bees themselves have
their likes and dislikes. I hope they'll
like me, for / can't imagine anything
more disconcerting than to be unpopu-
lar with a swarm of bees.
We are going to keep one COW and a
horse. and each year I plan to grow
and fatten two or three hogs. That
means, of course. that l shall have to
buy the bulk of both forage and grain.
1t may sound Inconsistent to live in
the country and buy hay for COW and
horse, but after figuring 1t from every
iangle myself and getting advice from
men who know great deal more about
it than l do l am satisfied 1t will be
more profitable to do so and use my
own land for intensive fruit culture,
with chickens and bees on the side.
This program necessarily involves the
abandonment of several highly cherish
ed projects. For one thing. I wanted
to grow alfalfa. l may try that yet on
half an acre or SO of land. With a
COW, pigs and chickens to feed it to,
none would go to waste, and even II ]
had to give up the land later on to
the demands of the fruit program. the
for having grown the alfalfa.