14 



THE GARDENERS" MONTHLY 



[January, 



when sown at that date a few plants will run to 

 seed, and I am satisfied that if sown in our latitude 

 or in any similar one, in a hot-bed on the ist of 

 March, a large proportion of the crop would 

 run to seed. In Britain the practice is almost uni- 

 versal of sowing in hot-beds about the ist of March. 

 There of course it is a necessity, because the tem- 

 perature is so much lower that it requires a longer 

 season to mature. There is no doubt that the 

 European practice of sowing in hot-beds is the cause 

 of a great deal of mischief here from the fact that 

 our great variety of climate is not taken into con- 

 sideration by gardeners who have had European 

 experience. I think it is safe to say that we have 

 at least a score of complaints every season of celery 

 running to seed from seeds purchased of us and 

 other seedsmen. In nearly all cases, however, we 

 find that the seed has either been sown in a hot-bed, 

 or, in some of the extreme Southern States, sown 

 too early in the open ground. Hence in giving ex- 

 perience in a special locality one should always be 

 careful to state that that practice may not be proper 

 for another section. 



Michigan is proving to be an excellent latitude 

 for celery culture. Last season large quantities 

 grown at Kalamazoo were sent to the New York 

 market — and perhaps also from Detroit — that was 

 ahead in quality of anything we had raised here 

 that season, owing to the unprecedented drouth. 

 As a rule however, celery would not pa)' to ship 

 that distance, because it is rare indeed that our 

 crop fails in this vicinity. I have only seen it fail 

 twice — as it did in 1881 — in thirty years. 



nishes a first class alcohol. The red beet, strong 

 in sugar, produces by fermentation a wine which 

 has been found fully the equal of any produced by 

 the grape in the meridian of the Southern Cross. 



In all worldly troubles there is usually something 

 occurs to give relief, and it will only be another in- 

 stance of the beneficence of this law, if now, with 

 the inevitable fate of grape culture in the old world 

 clearly before us, the beet should arise for all the 

 purposes of wine -making, to give rehef to the dis- 

 tressed grape grower. 



BEET WINE. 



BY M. AUGUSTE DELELIL, GARDANNE-LES-MAR- 

 SEILLE, FR.\NCE. 



All the world knows of the ravages which the 

 Phylloxera has made on the European grape for 

 some years past. The depredations of this terrible 

 pest have been in no ways exaggerated. Ingredi- 

 ent on ingredient, process on process, have been 

 tried, the experimenters having little more than 

 their labor for their pains. In view of this evident 

 result, some, with the encouragement of some 

 learned societies, have had the courage to propose 

 the total abandonment of the culture of this once 

 precious plant, because they have discovered all 

 they desire to replace it in another vegetable. This 

 is neither more nor less than varieties of the com- 

 mon Sugar Beet, which there is now no doubt for 

 wine-making purposes, can be made to succeed to 

 the famous heritage of the vine. The beet fur- 



SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE CALADIUM 

 ESCULENTUM. 



BY MRS. I). M. \V., CHARLESTON, S. C. 



On my arrival in Charleston, S. C, more than 

 forty years ago, Tanyas, " Caladium esculentum " 

 were commonly sold in the Charleston market as a 

 vegetable; and among other things sent by a friend 

 as gifts to us as strangers, on our first going to 

 housekeeping, was a bag of tanyas. What was I 

 to do with them ? My Irish cook declared them to 

 be nothing better than rotten potatoes, she " knew 

 the nasty things well." So they laid on the floor 

 of the piazza till my husband came in ; he said they 

 were very nice — " Boil them a long while as you 

 would potatoes, and eat them wnth plenty of butter ; 

 make them into soup with a good piece of beef." 

 All was done as he ordered, a great dish of greyish 

 white mealy balls appeared on the dinner table, 

 enormous things, tinted with blue and red — very 

 discouraging to look at, worse to eat. 



The next day tanya soup was carefully boiled 

 with all sorts of condiments to make it palatable ; 

 that was better, but two or three spoonfuls were 

 sufficient, and we have never tried tanyas as vege- 

 tables since, though I planted in my garden what 

 remained of the brown rough balls and reaped a 

 I harvest of delight in their lovely growth, which 1 

 ! had then never seen in Europe. 

 1 On what is called the King Street road, the same 

 ; summer, on the edge of a very muddy ditch, inter- 

 1 sected by another equally black and oozy, grew, 

 i apparently wild, a magnificent growth of tanyas. 

 i Year after year they increased and multiplied, till 

 they covered both ditches and much of the sur- 

 I rounding field. In those far-off times of which I 

 write the negroes had a legend that tanyas were 

 I originally brought by them from Africa, and cer- 

 tainly to this day they are eaten by them, and a 

 patch may always be found in their gardens. 



[The editor's recollection of roasted tanyas is not 

 : unfavorable.] 



