io6 



GARDENING. 



H. IS, 



CBLERy-LBTTUCE-HOTBEDS. 



The following questions are asked by 

 C. D. J., Jacksonville, 111. 



1. Bleaching Celery.— I can raise 

 celery all right but fail in bleaching it. 

 You know there's a big difference between 

 ijook bleaching and bleaching by a man 

 who docs the work himself, and this is 

 why I come to Gardening. 



,1ns. Non-bleaching is caused by not 

 starting in time The inner or best 

 bleached leaves complete or make their 

 growth after the bleaching process begins, 

 in earthing up green "stemmed" celery to 

 bleach it, we don't mean to whiten the 

 leaves that are already green, but rather 

 prevent the inner or heart leaf stalks from 

 ever getting green. For "summer" celery 

 plant in beds of five rows each, the rows 

 ten inches apart and the plants four to 

 five inches asunder in the rows, but the 

 earth must be very rich, and kept soaked 

 with water. When the plants are a foot 

 high, set a board on edge on the outside 

 of but close up against the outside rows, 

 fastening it there by tacking it to pegs or 

 stak s. This causes the plants all to grow 

 up together in a thicket, bleaching them- 

 selves. For fall celery, bleach in the same 

 way, or if j'our plants are in single or 

 double rows, draw a Uttle earth to them 

 with the hoe, then set a board up against 

 them on both sides, throwing some earth 

 against the boards to hold them up. Do 

 this late in August or early in September. 

 For winter celery, use boards about the 

 middle of September. Banking with earth 

 will do very very well for main or late 

 crop, but the celerj' isn't so spotless by it 

 as when whitened with boards. Thecon- 

 tact of the earth in earthing up giving a 

 more nutty flavor to the celery than the 

 boards do is imaginary only, it is simply 

 a case of how eifectually the light is ex- 

 cluded. Even the self blanching varieties 

 if not boarded or earthed up, no matter 

 how white their hearts may be, will be 

 bitter or stringy if not bleached by exclud- 

 ing light. 



2. Lettuce IN Greenhouse. — "Igrow 

 the Black-seeded Simpson and white Til- 

 ton's Star, andlike them both, but want a 

 better." 



.4ns. We use the smaller white-seeded 

 Tennis Ball, and the Boston Forcing. 



,3. "What is a good manure for lettuces? 

 How would ground bone and stuff from 

 the slaughter house do for them?" 



Ans. For greenhouse purposes we 

 would prefer loam well enriched with 

 finel)' rotted manure, lettuces like manure. 

 For outdoor crops besides rotted manure, 

 Sempers gives the following per acre: 



Nitrate of soda 100 pounds 



Sulphate of ammonia . . 30O 



Dissolved bone meal ... 300 



Dissolved bone black .... o20 



Muriate of potash 100 



Sulphate of ammonia , . .200 pounds 

 Dissolved bone meal . . 100 



Dried blood 100 



Dissolved bone black . . 200 



Muriate of potash 100 



4 .Making A HOTBED.-'Somemakethem 

 6 feet wide, some 12 feet, which is best?" 

 Ans. We prefer the 6 feet arrangement, 

 that is hotbeds made for a row of 6 feet 

 long sashes, and we beHeve this is 

 what is practiced by most private and 

 market gardens. If the manure is put 

 into pits, these are 6 feet wide and with 

 a lining against the frame above ground, 

 but if altogether above ground then the 

 manure heap s'r:ould be 8 or 9 feet wide, 

 to give room enough to place the 6 feet 

 wide frame on and allow of a bank-lining 

 of hot manure against its outsidcs up to 

 the brim. But, suh rosa, an outdoorhot- 

 bed in winter— before February— in the 

 northern states for any crop whatever, 



doesn't pay. Greenhouses can now be 

 built so cheaply and good and heated so 

 easily, that winter hotbeds are very little 

 used. 



MUSHROOMS. 



B. W., New York, asks (1|. "Is the 

 cultivation of mushrooms a paying busi- 

 ness? (2). Can a young man going into 

 it make a living out of it on the start? 

 (3). Can thej' be produced in the open 

 field with any chance of success?" 



Ans. 1. Ucder favorable conditions, 

 yes. The supply of good mushrooms does 

 not equal the demand for them. Poor 

 mushrooms are poor stock. 2. Much 

 depends upon the man and his conven- 

 iences, materials, market, etc. But be 

 very careful, for there are many snags in 

 the way, and even old cultivators not 

 infrequenth' have complete failures. 3. In 

 a general way, no. Of course one can 

 raise mushrooms out of doors easy 

 enough, but not in large quantity or with 

 certainty, besides there is no money in 

 outdoor mushrooms. 



Roses. 



EXHIBITION ROSES. 



A correspondent of the English Gar- 

 deners' Magazine gives an analysis of 

 varieties of hardy roses "compiled from 

 twenty stands of single blooms staged in 

 the chief amateur classes at fourteen of 

 the leading rose shows of the j-ear com- 

 mencing June 20 and concluding with 

 August 6. 



season through, while its time of flower- 

 ing is limited, attractive foliage is an 

 essential quality of a plant, and certainly 

 therj is no hardy shrub in cultivation 

 that can exhibit more charming tints 

 than this rose. Nicholson says of it, 

 "leaflets ovate, toothed, tinged with red, 

 very glaucous, wrinkled, opaque, stems 

 deep red or purple, covered with pale 

 bloom, etc." It forms a bush six feet 

 high and nearly as broad, and at a dis- 

 tance the glaucous shading of its numer- 

 ous small leaflets present an olive tinting 

 that enlivens the surrounding landscape 

 if in harmony. At a closer view this tint- 

 ing is deeper in its coloring, and seems 

 suffused with pink. The deep red of the 

 new stems showing through the "pale 

 bloom" is partly accountable for this. 

 It is a very profuse bloomer and the 

 small, single wild rose flowers are at- 

 tractive. These are followed by bright 

 red heps in such numbers as to produce a 

 marked effect. They remain on the bush 

 nearly all winter and my sp.cimens are 

 now a sight to behold, standing in a foot 

 of snow and completely covered with 

 berries. This rose is a native of Europe 

 and very hardy, I have never protected it 

 and have never had even a tip injured in 

 winter — nor does it seem to have any in- 

 sect enemies. As a shrubbery rose it is 

 a fitting companion to the Japanese i?os<-i 

 rugosa. W. C. Egan. 



ROSfl RUBRirOUA. 



The red leaved rose seems to be but 

 little grown, why I cannot imagine. Its 

 position in the garden is that of a shrub 

 and not a rose for cut flowers. When we 

 take into ci 

 foliage of 



Roses, mulching them with pasty 

 MANURE.— Before our advice about not to 

 do this appeared, page !S6, December 1 

 issue, A. B. 0. of Canada had already 

 laid down his bushes and covered theiii 

 over with just that kind of manure and 

 he now fears the result. To remove the 

 mulch would be awkward, as it is now 

 covered a foot deep with snow. Ans. 

 The roses are all right and so long as the 

 frost is continuous and there is snow on 

 the ground they will remain safe; and 

 even after the snow goes the manure may 

 be leached and tempered enough that it 

 won't hurt the bushes. It is sudden 

 freezing and thawing in the case of past v 

 manure that do the trouble. When the 

 snow goes we would draw the mulch 

 aside a little from over the crowns of the 

 plants and draw a little loose mulch of 

 litter, leaves or anything else over the 

 bared spots, or throw a little loam or 

 sand on them. But we don't apprehend 

 any trouble, the winter is too steady 

 there. 



The Fruit Garden. 



FEflCH AND PLUM TREES FOR BflTfl, MAINE. 



F. C. C. asks "Is the Crosby jieach any 

 hardier for our latitude than any otlicr? 

 Does the curcuUo attack the fruit of 

 Moore's Arctic plum as readily as other 

 varieties?" 



.4ns. No peaches are hardy enough for 

 the Kennebec Valley (where I was born 

 and bred). The curculio bothers Moore's 

 Arctic as badly as any other plum; but as 

 they ripen very early, and set very full of 

 fruit, the grower will usually get a good 

 crop. I have a row of them 800 feet long 

 in front of my grape vines, which are 

 trained on a tight fence 8 feet high; and 

 both both plums and grapes do very well, 

 but some of the Russians are much much 

 larger and better than Moore's Arctic. 

 These Russian tree fruits are showing 

 themselves a monstrous boon to our sec- 

 tio '. With these I can grow as fine tree 

 fruits as anvwhere else in New England. 

 T. H.HosKiNS. 



.Xevvport, Vt., December (>, 189.5. 



