10(1 TRANSACTIONS OF THE TTJ,TNOIS 



visit them with a bucket of air-slaked lime, as a peace-offering to the 

 striped bugs. I plant fall and winter squash six by eight feet apart, the 

 first of May. I prefer for fall Boston Marrow, which keep till January 

 in a dry, cool cellar ; for winter I prefer the Valparaiso to the Hubbard. 

 It produces twice as many pounds to the acre ; the squashes keep about 

 as well, are better in quality, and do not require an axe or beetle and 

 wedges to open them. I am not yet prepared to speak for or against the 

 Marblehead and Butman, having not yet fully tested them. I would 

 advise every farmer who has cows to grow the Valparaiso squash in 

 preference to any thing else for milk production ; for, having tested it 

 with carrots, parsnips, and sugar beets, I know whereof I speak. This 

 l^rings us to 



Tomatoes. — Having tried almost every new introduction for the last 

 ten years, 1 prefer the Canada Victor for early, and Troiihv for late, to 

 any thing now in the market. Neither of these are up to my standard of 

 perfection in flavor, and I hope ere long to produce something superior to 

 either in this respect. In order to get tomatoes as early as possible, I start 

 a few hundred plants in a box from the first to the middle of January ; 

 these are ready to prick into my first hot-bed, say February 15th. I thus 

 gain from two to three weeks in ripening, which is quite an item. In 

 the latitude of (jalesburg it is not safe to put tomato jjlants into the open 

 ground before the i8th of May, as we often get a frost hard enough to 

 kill or injure the plants on the 17th. Tomato plants should be set three 

 feet apart in the rows, and make the rows five feet apart, hoe twice, and 

 cultivate a,s long as you can get a horse between the rows. This closes 

 the list, and a few suggestions will end the chapter. 



Let us remember that gardening, like any other business, will be a 

 failure unless we have a taste for it and a determination to overcome all 

 difficulties, a fortitude to meet cheerfully all disappointments, a perse- 

 \erence that knows no give up, a cheerful spirit that can laugh at mis- 

 takes ever so disastrous, and a disposition to make the most of a success, 

 and remember the lessons taught by failures. 



We should study the requirements of our market and aim to meet 

 them, endeavor to grow only the best varieties, and grow tliem tvell : but 

 above all deal honorably, give full weights and measures, be honest, and 

 an honor to the profession. 



O. L. Barler, of Upper Alton, read the following report : 



The Vegetable Garden is a very old institution. Did. not our first 

 parents tend a garden on " the hill-tops of Eden ? " And has not the 

 human race continued the business for nearly sixty centuries, down to the 

 j;resent day? And are not the essays and teachings put forth upon iJiis 

 subject like " the fish of the sea " for multitude? and yet we are not 

 fully instructed ; every year we need to inquire how to grow a cal)bage — 

 how to make the most out of the vegetable garden. And no wonder ! 

 There is here no fixed science. 



The experiences of last year are not the experiences of this year ; 

 seeds and soils that once brought forth bountifully have failed us in the 



