1895. 



• ' ' GARDENING. 



265 



reset them every morning and afternoon 

 every day till every mole is caught. 



The Kkddick Mole Trap.— Please say 

 wheie I can obtain it. I do not see it ad- 

 vcrtii^ed. 



■4ns. From the Michigan Wire vShovel 

 Co . Niles, Mich. And when you write 

 to them ask them to send you one of their 

 meat-fork hand .scarifiers. This little im- 

 plement costs only a few cents and is one 

 of tlic handiest things imaginable for stir- 

 ring the surface of the ground in little 

 Hower beds. 



:^. Do moles eat the roots of any 

 plants? 



Ans. Not that we know of. They are 

 often blamed for such things, but we be- 

 lieve unjnstly. 



4-. Moles and Parsley.— During last 

 summer I used fine curled parslev for a bor- 

 der. T-ate in the fall I thought it would 

 do to put in boxes under the greenhouse 

 bench for winter use, but I found every 

 plant had been eaten off up to the very 

 crown, only the top of the plants left 

 lying loose on the soil. A. flat of the same 

 |)lants which had not been planted out 

 and had stood all summer was put under 

 the greenhouse bench about November 

 30 It staid there all winter. Late in 

 March I heard, as I supposed, a rat or 

 mouse gnawing in that quarter. The cat 

 heard it too, and soon "pointed" at the 

 flat. I quickly shoved the flat aside, just 

 in time to see his moleship dodge back 

 into his burrow. He soon re-appeared 

 and puss caught him. On inspection I 

 found that every drainage hole in the flat 

 had been gnawed out large enough for a 

 mole or small rat to pass through. Only 

 a few plants were left in the flat — whether 

 those missing had been eaten or not lean- 

 not say. Here is the text, please give us 

 the sermon. 



.4ns. Wasn't the culprit a short-tailed 

 field mouse, and not a mole at all? Its 

 work and how it did it betoken field mice 

 These little rodents are particularly par- 

 tial to parsley. And that iS how the3' 

 work, thej- run a burrow along the row 

 under the leaves and cut the plants 

 through at the neck or a little under it. 

 They burrow under the walls and get 

 into greenhouses in winter, and they are 

 jiersistent pests in cold frames in cold 

 weather, destroying ever\-thing. Moles 

 don't gnaw holes in wood, but field mice 

 do. And although cats will catch and 

 kill field mice they don't care toeat them; 

 on the other hand they don't care much 

 even about catching moles. But terriers 

 are eager for either. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



Do SOME thinking; it will save a deal 

 of unnecessary work. Make a note of 

 what vegetables you need, how much, and 

 when you wish to have them, and work 

 accordingly. Now that planting and sow- 

 ing are in order we are apt to overdo it, 

 and fill up too much of our ground, leav- 

 in i too little space for later crops. Fore- 

 thought will avoid this. Parsnips, salsify, 

 scor/.onera, rhubarb, artichokes, Linia 

 beans and asparagus are a full .vear's 

 crop; that is they occupy the landtiH fall. 

 But peas, beans, beets, com, spinach, and 

 the like are partial crops, that is the early 

 crops will be gathered and off the ground 

 in time for another crop. And as most 

 all late crops like good ground we should 

 see to it now and plan ahead for them. 

 For instance the ground now occupied by 

 transplanted onions, marrow ])cas, early 



corn, and strawberries, after being rid of 

 these crops should be in good heart for 

 celerj'; that occupied by seed onions, early 

 cauliflower and early cabbage, should 

 give us a good place for winter spinach 

 and late turnips. Early potatoes will 

 make room for beets and carrots with us, 

 but further north this may be too late, 

 and so on. 



Asparagus is good now. We cut it 

 clean every morning, never letting a spear 

 grow before well into June. It is very 

 plentiful and cheap this spring, and the 

 farmers (this is the most famous aspara- 

 gus-growing district around New York) 

 are complaining bitterly of thelow prices. 



.\rtichokes.— Confine the Jerusalem 

 ones to their hills, and cultivate between 

 them to get a robust growth on them early 

 in the season, and tubers earlier than usual. 

 The globe artichokes are growing rankly, 

 all we can do to them now is keep them 

 clean, and cut the flower heads for use as 

 soon as they are big enough. 



Snap Beans.— Put in a fresh sowing 

 once a fortnight in good ground in rows 

 21/2 feet apart. We treat the dwarf Limas 

 the same as we do snap beans except that 

 we sow much thinner, and the large 

 seeded ones in 3 feet apart rows, and one 

 sowing, or at most two, lasts all sum- 

 mer. Get in the poles for the tall Limas, 

 even if you don't sow the seed till the end 

 of the month or first of June. 



Beets.— Just about the time that one 

 sowing is up enough to need thinning is a 

 good time to sow again. Sow a little at 

 a time and frequently rather than a big 

 patch and seldom. But after the first of 

 July beets are not apt to get foggy, so we 

 can put in a large sowing. 



Brussels Sprouts -If not already done 

 sow a row at once. 



Cabbage.— About the end of the month 

 sow the stock of winter varieties, say 

 Flat Dutch, Drumhead, or other favorite, 

 but if you intend them for family use sow 

 the Savoy varieties, they are so much 

 better tasted. For fall cabbage our gar- 

 deners usually sow between May 15 and 

 liO; for winter cabbage. May 26 to June 

 10. Sometimes the first week of June is 

 safe for us. Of course in localities farther 

 north the time of .sowing should be pro- 

 portionately earlier. 



Carrots. — The early sowings are up 

 nicely and should be hoed, thinned if 

 necessary. Sow a few rows more, enough 

 to keep you in a good supply from the end 

 of June till the last of September. And 

 about the last of June or first of July, 

 whenever there comes a moist time sow 

 enough to do all winter. 



Cauliflower.— Stir the ground well 

 about those planted out. If they wilt in 

 the warm sunshine they are probably 

 infested with root maggots and are 

 worthless, and may De thrown away. 

 Sow some more. And if you have any 

 plants to set out, do it in the cool of the 

 evening, planting firmly, and give them a 

 good watering at the same time. Ol 

 course in moist weather an artificial 

 watering is unnecessary. 



Cardoons grow like globe artichokes. 

 They need lots ot room, say -t by 5 feet 

 between the hills. The heart leaves are 

 the part eaten. They are tied up or 

 earthed up to blanch as we do celery. At 

 best it is a fancy vegetable and cultivated 

 by few. 



Celery.- The seed should have been 

 sown before now. But if it has missed, 

 don't despair, sow again at once. From 

 the moment the seed is sown till it germi- 

 nates it must be kept moist and shaded 

 from sunshine. If the seedlings havecome 

 up very thick don't let them spoil each 

 other by over crowding, thin them con- 



siderably; those left will make very much 

 better and stockier plants. Early 

 celery that has been planted out should 

 get .ill the water it can take, keep it on a 

 continuous rush of growth. 



Chard or leaf beets is a vegetable 

 relished by some, and agood deal grown, 

 still there doesn't seem to be much 

 demand for it. Treat it as you would 

 beets, only give it a little more room, say 

 sow it in rows 18 or 24 inches apart. 



Chervil. — A little of it is verj- nice for 

 flavoring. Sow a row a few feet long in 

 some odd corner, but there is no need 

 using up part of a large open space with 

 it. We like the curled leal better than the 

 tuberous rooted. 



Chives are full grown. Even if you 

 cannot use them all keep them cut down 

 anyway, else they'll get ripened, brown 

 and tough. 



Corn. — Sow some corn once a fortnight 

 right up till the middle of July, and in 

 sowing if you use two or three kinds, say 

 Squantum, Country Gentleman, and Ever- 

 green at the same time, a row or two oi 

 each, the succession will be much more 

 satisfactory than if only one variety were 

 used. The last two sowings should be of 

 considerable extent. Hoe and stir the 

 ground about the growing corn; thin the 

 plants in the hill to about five if a small 

 kind, or four if a strong one. We also 

 disbud our com, that is we pluck off the 

 lower sucker sprouts so as to force the 

 vigor into the main stems. 



Cress. — We don't care much for it as a 

 summer vegetable; in winter and spring 

 it is very welcome. The barbarea or up- 

 land or wild cress as it is called, a com- 

 mon weed by the road side, in any form, 

 in view of the many good vegetables we 

 now have, isn't worth growing. In fact 

 we don't know who does grow it. 



Water CRESSEsonthe other hand area 

 very desirable and excellent relish, and 

 very easy to grow. They love to grow in 

 shallow running water, a brooklet may 

 be broadened enough to make a big water 

 cress patch. It doesn't like mud so much 

 as a rich sandy or gravelly or sand 

 covered bottom. About Glen Cove are 

 several fine plantations of it, and a good 

 deal of money is made selling the cresses. 

 But a water spring isn't at all necessary 

 to grow nice cresses in; we can raise them 

 in a moist patch in the garden. Every 

 little chip, if planted, will grow. 



Cucumbers.— You can sow them in the 

 open garden now. A few hills at a time 

 are enough. On accountof the cut worms, 

 which are exceedingly voracious before 

 the middle of June, and very fond of 

 melons and cucumbers, we sow lots of 

 both of these plants in pots in a cold 

 frame, keeping them there till their first 

 large leaves come on them, then they are 

 a little too big for the cut worms and we 

 can plant them out withmoderatesafety. 



DANDELIONS.-Ifnot already done, dig Up 

 and throw away all of the old roots. Thin 

 the young plants in the rows so as to 

 strengthen those that are left. If you 

 have not sown some for next spring, do 

 at once, and see that the ground is moist 

 before sowing, for while the seeds germi- 

 nate readily in early spring and fall (when 

 not too late) it does not grow easily in 

 summer. 



Ego Plants.— This is one of the vege- 

 tables we should not plant out before the 

 weather is settled and warm, that is be- 

 fore the oak trees and the hickories are 

 in leaf. Keep them in pots or boxes in 

 sheltered places till then. While they like 

 good rich ground we find they do fairly 

 well in light soil if it is rich. 



Garlic is a very strong flavored mem- 

 ber of the onion familv, and sometimes a 



