242 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[August, 



size and quality very little if any inferior to Bart- 

 lett, and matures about two weeks earlier. 



The Sunflower as an Industrial Plant. — 

 It may not be generally known that the sunflower 

 (Helianthus annuus), which has lately been 

 brought into such notoriety by the "aesthetic" 

 school, has considerable claims to attention from 

 an industrial point of view. Its somewhat nut-like 

 seeds — or, as Baron Ferdinand von Muller de- 

 scribes them " seed-like nutlets " — afford an excel- 

 lent oil, which is not only useful as a lubricant for 

 machinery, but is one of the best of table oils. The ' 

 seeds, again, afford admirable food for poultry, the 

 stocks furnish a good textile fibre, and the blos- 

 soms yield a brilliant, lasting yellow dye. So 

 highly does Baron von Muller think of the virtues 

 of the plant that he includes it in his hst of selected 

 plants suitable for acclimatization and industrial 

 cultivation in the Colony of Victoria. As much as 

 fifty bushels of seedlings have been obtained from 

 an acreof ground, under favorable conditions, and 

 as much as fifty gallons of oil can be pressed from 

 such a crop. When he states that about six pounds 

 of seeds are required to sow an acre, from which 

 such an enormous return is possible, it is scarcely 

 surprising to be told that " the return from a sun- 

 flower field is attained within a few months." The 

 plants, the same authority states, prefer calcareous 

 soil. Baron von Muller, however, has not by any 

 means exhausted the list of virtues which the plant 

 possesses. The Chinese, who have so far appreci- 

 ated its properties as to use its fibre in adulterating 

 and dyeing their silk fabrics, and its oil not only as 

 a lubricant but as an illuminant, state that its flow- 

 ers supply the best bee food, and that the "cake" 

 left after expressing the oil is superior to linseed 

 cake as a food for cattle. The leaves are also em- 

 ployed as a substitute for or for mixing with tobac- 

 co, and as an ingredient in soap manufacture the 

 oil is highly prized. In face of such testimony to 

 its good qualities, it is interesting to know that sev- 

 eral acres of land are to be sown with sunflowers 

 in the Thames valley next year. Will the "aes- 

 thetes" discard the flower as a symbol of their 

 faith when they find it is actually turned to com- 

 mercial purposes ?^ Colonies and India. 



Quality of Pears. — The Revue Horticole in- 

 timates that the quality of a good pear depends 

 in a great measure on the quality of the person 

 who has charge of it. A fruit, worthless in one 

 man's hands, may be first-rate in the hands of an- 

 other. It observes that the quality of the fruit is 

 determined by modifications of conditions at the 



time fermentation begins ; for what we call ripen- 

 ing is but the incipient stage of fermentation. 

 For instance, in the case of the Vicar of Wink- 

 field, to have this fruit good, it must go gradually 

 to complete maturity. Other kinds are better 

 when maturity is rapid. 



A Good Bee Plant. — Under the name of 

 "White Sage," says the Pacific Rural Press, Cali- 

 fornians know some half dozen species of plants 

 which are not sages at all, but Audibertias, all of 

 which are famous honey-giving flowers, Audibertia 

 polystachya especially so. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Destroying CabbageWorms. — "Reader," Ber- 

 wyn. Pa., writes: A correspondent in the May num- 

 ber of the Monthly, wrote in regard toapoisoning 

 preparation he recommended for destroying "cab- 

 bage slug," viz. Hellebore and water. We find 

 air-slacked lime to answer the purpose nicely. 



Bloomsdale Pearl Onion D. Landreth & 



Sons, Philadelphia, write: We send you for ex- 

 amination three bulbs of Bloomsdale pearl onions 

 grown in Mississippi from sets furnished by us. 

 The sets were planted November 5th, and the ma- 

 ture onions pulled April 12th. You will perceive 

 they measure 19 inches in average circumference, 

 and the combined weight of the three is 4 pounds 

 14 ounces. We have over a bushel of specimens 

 sent us by customers in the Southern States, and 

 should like you to see them, as they constitute the 

 most remarkable exhibition of onions we haveever 

 seen. No variety that we have ever seen is so 

 rapid in development. The flesh, as you will per- 

 ceive, is pure white, translucent, very delicate and 

 so free from astringent oil that the bulbs can be 

 eaten uncooked as freely as apples. Due to the 

 precocious character of the sets, they cannot well 

 be kept for spring planting. We therefore recom- 

 mend them for autumn or winter planting, and 

 anywhere south of the Susquehannathey are found 

 perfectly hardy. 



[The above-mentioned specimens came to hand 

 and were truly of prodigious size, and were all our 

 correspondents claim them to be. 



We obtained a few of the sets of this onion in 

 the spring of 1882, but were rather late in planting 

 them. Their earliness and mild flavor struck us 

 as being such desirable qualities that an endeavor 

 was made to obtain some the present season for 

 further trial, but the order was sent too late. — Ed 

 G. M.] 



