i8g4. 



• • ' GARDENING. 



eecdingly odd-looking flower now in 

 bloom in the Washington Park conserva- 

 tories there. The plant belongs to the 

 same genus as does the common hardv 

 Dutchman's pipe vine, but the blossoms 

 are of enormous proportions and fan- 

 tastic form, looking like some large bird, 

 and each bloom has a drooping narrow 

 tail some two feet long. The plant was 

 in bloom in one of the greenhouses at the 

 World's Fair last year, and i* in flower 

 in several places throughout the coimtry 

 this summer. It is a native of thetropics, 

 and thrives in a p^tor tu''or planted out 

 in a roonij' greenhouse. Better still, have 

 a large plant well established in a pot or 

 tub in spring, and plant it out of doors 

 in a warm, sheltered, but sunny place in 

 June; train it to a trellis, and give its 

 roots good soil, and abundant waterings 

 in summer. Xot onh' does this one do 

 well ttnder these conditions, but so too 

 do all of the other tropical species that 

 we know. 



Verbena Aibleti.^ is an American 

 hardj- plant with showy purple flowers, 

 and it isn't uncommon in cultivation. An 

 English contemporary having read in an 

 .Vmerican paper that "Verbenas of recent 

 years * * proba'ih- from overfeeding 

 and propagation have been so much dis- 

 eased that the florists have largely dis- 

 carded them." .^nd advises us to get an 

 infusion of Auhletia blood into them. 

 Bless you, no. Ourverbenas are all right. 

 I n fact, notwithstanding the severe drouth 

 we are now suffering from there are fields 

 of verbenas in bloom on Long Island and 

 in Monroe Co., N. Y., that would turn a 

 European's hair gray with envj-. The 

 real fact of the matter is, we get verbenas 

 so good and so easily from seed, and too 

 in such variety that we can't be bothered 

 Iierpetuating them from cuttings with all 

 the winter room and labor that entails. 

 There are lots of other things in the same 

 way, for instance, hollyhocks, tuberous 

 begonias, cinerarias, pentstemons and 

 the like. We have no time to fuss with 

 named varieties and preserving them from 

 cuttings when we can get such good re- 

 sults from s ed. Make gardening easy if 

 you wish to make it popular. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



TAB VEGBTflBie GARDEN. 



Our extremelv severe long-protracted 

 drouth is broken; it lasted up till the 8th 

 of this month, when we had a generous 

 rain, so now we can go ahead and do 

 some work. Read over what was written 

 for last (September 1) issue, most of it is 

 applicable yet. 



The first thing we did after the rain 

 came was to run prong hoes and long- 

 toothed iron rakes between the rows of 

 the young crops to unfasten the surface 

 of the soil about them, and encourage 

 them to grow. This was done particu- 

 larly in the case of yoi ng beets, carrots 

 and turnips, which, if tlie weather from 

 now on isn't favorable, are apt to be 

 behind. 



We had some dwarf curled Uale and 

 Snowball cauliflowermore than ready for 

 planting when the rain came, so we set 

 it out at once, in land emptied of pota- 

 toes. The kale if only half grown when 

 winter sets in will be big enough for use, 

 and as regards the cauliflower, if it will 

 be behind we can lift and store it in a 

 frame or pit about the first of November, 

 it will head all right before Christmas. 



We are now get'inu' trrnund readv for 



sowing German kale in for sprouts in 

 spring. Sow it thinly in rows 15 inches 

 apart as vo i would spinach. Never be- 

 fore did our Brussels sprouts look so bad 

 at this time of year as they do now, on 

 account of the dry parching weather, an- 

 other emphasis that early sowing and 

 early planting is better in the case of this 

 vegetable than delaying it till the time of 

 sowing fall or winter cabbage. If they 

 don't set to making sprouts pretty soon 

 nip the tip ends out of them, this will 

 cause them to shoot out on the sides. 



Of spinach, get in a large sowing at 

 once and in good ground. W e like to sow 

 it in rows 12 to 15 inches apart, on land 

 facing the south, and where water won't 

 lie on it in winter. We are very much 

 troubled at this time of the year by the 

 spinach leaf miner; you will observe its 

 presence in the leaves by the white spots 

 or blisters on them. We know of no 

 practicable remedj-. 



Lettuces are in good form now. Make 

 quite a large sowing of Improved Boston 

 Market, or some other hard headed sorts 

 for frame use. We sow in the open ground, 

 and plant into frames later on. To get 

 gciod lettuces use verj' rich ground. 



Celery will need a good deal of atten- 

 tion, go over it all and pluck away the 

 rusty leaves, then unfasten the earth on 

 each side of the rows with a fork, and 

 draw it up to the roots of the plants 

 packing it firmly about the same with the 

 hands or "handling" it as we say. But 

 this is earth enough. Remember that the 

 cleanest and best celery is obtained by 

 bleaching it between boards. Ordinary 

 boards are laid along the rows and setup 

 on their edges close against the plants, 

 and the earth drawn up against the out- 

 side of the boards to keep them in place 

 but not so as to touch the celery. Paper 

 collars and all other methods of blanch- 

 ing celery as compared with common 

 boards we have found to be clumsy and 

 tedious, and greatly more laborious. 



If your tomato plants areon theground 

 cut them in a little and set a frame over 

 them coveting it with sashes. This is to 

 keep the tomatoes dr\-both overhead and 

 at the root, and get them to keep less 

 watery than they would if left uncovered, 

 also ripen up better. .Also cover up some 

 cucumber plants in the same way to keep 

 them healthy and in good bearing for a 

 long time to come. 



Sow some Telegraph cucumbers for use 

 in winter. Cool and Crisp, and other of 

 our short cucumbers are hardly fitted for 

 greenhouse or ho bed work, because they 

 are short lived, on the other hand the 

 Telegraph will live and gro a? and bear 

 cucumbers all winter long if the condi- 

 tions for such are favorable. 



Mushrooms. 



GOOD FOTflTOBS. 



My soils is a black prarie loam. I be- 

 lieve it is a rule, with some exceptions of 

 course, that a potato that will do well in 

 one soil will do comparatively well on all 

 soil. If it does not, it is likely to prove 

 uncertain on anj- soil and is unworthy of 

 confidence. I would name two varieties 

 for earl}-: Early Market (Ohio style) and 

 Signal, (Hebron style). Formedium and 

 late the best we have are World's Fair 

 and Rural New Yorkir, the latter for 

 yield and the former for quality. 



Clinton, Wisconsin. L. L. Olds. 



The Japa.nese Climbi.ng Cucl-mher.— 

 C. E. A. asks if it is fit to cat. Yes, its 

 cucumbers arc perfectly good to eat, but 

 in our opinion they are not of as good 

 ciualitv as are Cool and Crisp. Improved 

 VVhiteSpine. and otlurof our old sorts. 



MUSHROOMS. 



Attend to the manure as recommended 

 page 411. Be very particular about it 

 not getting over wet, also about its 

 "burning," either evil is almost fat.il to 

 the crop. If the manure is too wet, that 

 is so moist that you can squeeze wet out 

 of it, in making it up it is apt to lorrn a 

 sodden, solid mass, and the spawn will 

 die in it. "Burning" is anoth r fungus 

 growth, and mushroom spawn won't run 

 in it, it v/ill die rather. In the proper 

 preparation of the manure lies th chief 

 secret of success in mushroom gro ing. 

 In well prepared manure, even common 

 quality spawn run and produce a croi) of 

 mushrooms, but poorly prepared manure 

 is repugnant to the mushroom plant and 

 the best of spawn will die in it. In turn- 

 ing the hot manure don't be distressed 

 because a cloud of steam (ammonia) 

 arises and ( scapes, don't fret because you 

 arelosngso much valuable mushroom 

 food; the least burning or over-wetting 

 will do the manure more harm in the eyes 

 of the mushrooms than the escape of all 

 the steam the manure can generate. We 

 save the ammonia partly in this way. 

 When we turn the manure we spread it 

 out a little to cool, then heap it together 

 again, and then throw \ light coating of 

 fresh loam over it. At the next turning 

 this coating is mixed with the manure; 

 we spread out the manure to cool as be- 

 fore, then heap it together, and coat it 

 with loam as before; and so on. This 

 gives us a fine mixture, the loam being 

 loaded with ammonia, and it also helps 

 to reduce the tendency to violent 

 heating. 



When the manure is rotted enough and 

 when there is still fair heat in it, makeup 

 the beds on the floor of a shed, barn, 

 cellar, or other convenient place, about 

 eight or ten inches thick, shaking the 

 manure on lightly so as to unravel it per- 

 fectl}% and tamp it down solidly as you 

 keep fiUing it up. Then cover with some 

 hay or straw to absorb the condensed 

 moisture that otherwise would gather on 

 the surfaceof the bed, wettingthe manure 

 and rendering it uncongenial to the 

 spawn. We don't like to have the tem- 

 perature of the bed rise over 12.^". and 

 we wait till it declines to 100° or less, 

 preferably 90° before we spawn it. Get 

 the spawn at the seed store (an 1 don't 

 accept of it gratis unless you are assured 

 that it has been imported this fall, don't 

 take a cake of what was left over from 

 last spring I, break the cakes into pieces 

 about two inches square, a little more or 

 less, and insert these into the manure in 

 the bed in rows, and about nine inches 

 apart each way, and buried just enough 

 to be covered by the manure. .Make all 

 nice and firm again, and replaccthe straw 

 or hay covering for a • eck, then remove 

 it, and cover the bed all over « ith a coat- 

 ing of loam about two inches thick .\nd 

 over this again replace the hay or straw, 

 to prevent the bed getting d y ijrema- 

 turelv. A month or five weeks afier that 

 look out tor mushrooms, and if you wish 

 to remove the hay covering lest in mov- 

 ing it to get at tlic mushrooms it gets 

 caught ill their hcadsand roots them out. 

 Mushrooms big enough to pick are 

 seldom plucked before in six weeks' time 

 from planting the spawn, and often it is 

 seven or eight. .A. night temperature of 

 55° to G0°, with as little rise in the day 

 time as possib'c. s?ems t • suit mush- 

 rooms better than any o;lier 



