i8g3. 



GARDENING. 



185 



foolishness, no matter what the "printed 

 directions" on insecticide boxes may say. 

 The only way to kill greenhouse cock- 

 roaches is to feed them a little at a time 

 and poison their food. They will eat 

 arsenic or paris green or rough on rats 

 with their cake and sugar without appar- 

 ently any discrimination. But be exceed- 

 ingly careful about these poisons so as 

 not to leave them where pet animals can 

 get at them. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



MUSK MELONS. 



While water melons luxuriate in rich 

 light or sandy land, musk niclons have 

 always done better with us in good 

 loamy soil. They are an uncertain crop, 

 however, not that they won't grow well 

 and bear well, but the first is often of in- 

 ferior (|uality. Take the Hackensack for 

 example, it has large, fine appearing 

 melons and is the most certain of all as 

 regards ripening a crop of fruit. But it is 

 a coarse fleshed melon and of inferior 

 ((uality. To get well ripened melons of 

 first-rate quality gives us a good deal of 

 concern, and we are not alone in this if 

 the wretched trash served at hotels in 

 summer is any criterion of the sort of 

 melons sent to market. In out of door 

 grown melons we can not get and do not 

 expect the rich, luscious and high flavored 

 flesh of the Sion House, Eastnor Castle 

 and other sorts grown in greenhouses 

 ( they refuse to succeed in the open air) , 

 but we believe our seedsmen could get us 

 a very much better article than we now 

 have. How? By rigid selection and hav- 

 ing the seed grown in the region where 

 it is intended to be sold, say in N. J. or 

 Long Island for the eastern states. But 

 this could not be done at a profit. Per- 

 haps not at the price melon se^d is now 

 bought and sold for, but many of us 

 would willingly pay the advanced price 

 for the select article than accept of the 

 commonplace stock gratis. 



For quality Emerald Gem, salmon flesh, 

 leads. Surprise, salmon flesh, we like for 

 its earliness; its quality is fair. Long 

 Island Beauty, green fleshed, somewhat 

 resembling a Hackensack, gave us a fine 

 crop of fair Iruit last year. The Bay view, 

 light green flesh, is a nice melon, but we 

 reject lots of it; and so we do the Chris- 

 tiana. As for the Banana, it has been so 

 worthless with us we don't now bother 

 with it. The Montreal is a big, pale 

 green fleshed melon that seems to deter- 

 iorate rather than improve. The Ban- 

 quet, salmon, is promising, but a couple 

 of years are not enough to give it an 

 abiding test. Whfn Jenny Lind, green, is 

 good she's very good, but the strain 

 doesn't seem to improve much. Netted 

 (iem the same. Favorable conditions, 

 however, bring the Gem up in good order. 

 We don't care much for the White Japan 

 nor for Long Yellow Cantaloupe. Grown 

 in frames the Newport, green, was fine 

 with us; in the open air not so promising. 

 The Osage is one of our best melons; 

 rdthough not as good as Emerald Gem it 

 is better than many, and the plant is 

 healthy, a good cropjjcr and matures a 

 considerable number of its fruits. Of 

 course most all melons that escape the 

 stem borers and other jjests ripen a large 

 proportion of their fruit, but all of this 

 fruit isn't good enough to eat. 



But no one should go by another's ex- 

 perience in growing musk melons, condi- 



have so much to do with it, and insect 

 pests as much as anything. Indeed they 

 don't behave the same with us 3 ear .-ifter 

 year. Our selection for this place would 

 be Surprise, Emerald Gem, Early Hack- 

 ensack (for its certainty), Osage and 

 Long Island Beauty. 



ttOTBEDS. 



We are all making them now. Read 

 what was said about them last month, 

 page 152. We may again repeat that 

 the main points in making a hotbed are 

 a warm, sunny, sheltered spot, perfect 

 drainage and good, fresh, steaming hot 

 manure. Don't make up the bed till the 

 manure is hot; and after making it up 

 don't cover it with loam till the heat has 

 risen well in it again. 



In smoothening oft' and firming the hot 

 manure before putting on the loam be 

 sure it is well firmed around the out edges, 

 also under the rafters or bars, else when 

 the manure begins to rot the bed will sag 

 in the loosely packed spots. Two feet 

 deep of manure makes a nice lasting bed, 

 that requires a three feet deep at front 

 pit— two feet for the manure, six inches 

 for the soil and six inches in front and 

 twelve inches at back of head room. It 

 is a bad plan to slope the bed of the hot- 

 bed as the top of the frame is sloped, the 

 back part dries out too rapidly. 



About five or six inches deep of loam is 

 safe for sowing or planting in and not 

 apt to get too hot at first for sowing 

 seeds of lettuces, cabbage, egg plants, etc. 

 Fortransplanting we don't use much over 

 foui inches deep of soil; but for lettuce 

 plants, carrots, spinach and radish that 

 are allowed to perfect themselves in the 

 frame five or six inches of soil are best, 

 and six or seven for cucumbers. 



There are three ways of sowing seeds 

 in frames, namely, broadcast, in narrow 

 rows and in boxes. We preter sowing 

 in rows. When we don't want many 

 plants of a kind, say egg plant or peppers, 

 we sow them in flats or pots and set these 

 into the hotbeds; also many kinds of 

 flower seeds we sow in pots or boxes in 

 the same wav. Be sure to shadethe seeds 

 after sowing them and till they germinate; 

 this saves watering and greatly lessens 

 the tendency to damp off". Don't shade 

 transplanted or growing plants, except 

 very little, for a day or two maybe after 

 planting them. But cucumbers are the 

 better for being shaded lightly all the time. 



The hot steam that forms in fresh hot- 

 beds is very injurious lo plants, let it escape 

 by tilting up one ot the sashes, a fourth or 

 half of an inch night and day till the 

 steam subsides; but you can place a mat 

 or straw over the aperture at night. In 

 the day time ventilate according to the 

 w-eather, beginning a Httle at a time, and 

 shutting up in the'aftemoon, a little at a 

 time. In ventilating we prefer tilting up 

 the sash at the side to raising it at either 

 end, and we can do this as little or much 

 as the occasion warrants. Ventilate at 

 the side opposite to the direction of the 

 wind. 



Hotbeds need covering at night. While 

 straw mats and wooden shutters arc the 

 best, old matting, carpets, sedge, hay or 

 straw may be used. Be very watchful 

 about the covering, for it is no use having 

 a hotbed if we let the frost get in at the 

 top. 



spring when my melons and cucumbers 

 were well up attempted to 'hasten ma- 

 turity' by the application of a couple of 

 tablespoonfuls to each hill. The nitrate 

 'hastened action' quickly for it killed 

 every plant. Plcise tell me how to use it." 

 Vou killed them with kindness. About 

 200 pounds of nitrate of soda applied 

 broadcast, to the acre, is a fair dressing, 

 and instead of applying it all at once it is 

 generally made two parts of for applica- 

 tion in two dressings. Sift a lot of drvish 

 mellow soil and mix it thoroughly with 

 the nitrate of soda, at the rate of four or 

 five parts of earth to one of the fertilizer. 

 This will enable you to distribute it more 

 evenlv over the land. 



Miscellaneous. 



NITRATE OF SODfl KILLED THE MELONS. 



C. W. p., Oshkosh, Wis., writes: "Hav- 

 ing read that nitrateof soda is a valuable 

 fertilizer 'verv quick in action and hastens 

 niaturitv.' etc. I bought some and last 



CflTflLOOUES. 



V.'lughan's Seed Store, 88 State street. 

 Chicago, also 26 Barclay street, New 

 York — A large and full catalogue of flower 

 and vegetable seeds, greenhouse plants, 

 small fruits, roses, etc. Including covers, 

 five full page colored plates of flowers 

 and vegetables, and twenty pages of 

 novelties. 



S, B. HiESTED, Blauvelt.N. V.— Garden 

 and orchard fruit trees of all kinds, small 

 fruits, vines, and nuts; also ornamental 

 trees, shrubs, roses, and perennials, and 

 asparagus, rhubarb, etc. 



Ellwanger & Barry, Mount Hope 

 Nurseries, Rochester, N. Y —A supple- 

 mentary catalogue of their finest fruits 

 and ornamental trees and roses with 

 twentj'-seven half-tone engravings from 

 photographs, showing the plants as they 

 actually are. And how much better they 

 appear in this way than in the ordinarv 

 illustration style. 



Stark Brothers. Louisiana, Mo. 

 Fruit trees of all kinds, roses, etc., as 

 grown in 1000 acres of nurseries, and 

 30,000 acres of orchards 



Edward Gillett, Southwick, Mass. — 

 Hardy flowers, lilies, ferns, orchids, bog 

 plants, roses and native trees or shrubs. 



Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut street, 

 Philadelphia — Flower, vegetable, and 

 farm seeds, greenhouse and hardy jjlants, 

 roses, etc. 



L. L. May & Co.. St. Paul, Minn.— 

 Flower and vegetable, and farm seeds, 

 roses, and small fruits. 



Joitx Gardiner & Co , 631 Market 

 street, Philadelphia— Flower and vegeta- 

 ble seeds, poultry, etc. 



John D. Imlav, 9 N. 5th street, Zanes- 

 ville, O.— Vegetable and flower seeds and 

 plants. 



James J. H. Gregory & Sons, Marble- 

 head, Mass —Vegetable and flower seeds, 

 plants .-ind small fruits. 



E. J. BowEX. San Francisco— Vegetable 

 and flower seeds. 



t;.H.& J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, 

 Conn.— Small fruits, peach and plum trees, 

 asparagus, etc. 



B. .\ Elliott Co., 5-1 Sixth street, 

 Pittsburg, Pa.— Hardy ornamental trees 

 and shrubs, and perennials, also flower 

 and vegetable seeds. 



The Good & Reese Co., Springfield, 0. 

 —Roses, chrysanthemums, greenhouse 

 plants, and flower seeds. 



T. J. DwvER, Cornwall, N. Y.— Straw- 

 berries and other small fruits, grapes, 

 fruit trees, and ornamental trees and 

 shrubs. 



Horsford's NiRSERiES, Charlotte, Vt. 

 —Hardy ornamental herbaceous plants, 

 bulbs, ferns, shrubs, and vines. 



