448 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



will have winter onions, which are ready to use almost as soon as 

 the snow disappears in the spring. In the same plat with these 

 onions, leave a row of lettuce and radish to seli-sow, and thus fur- 

 nish a tid-hit in the early spring of these tender, crisp vegetables. 



Mulch the strawberry bed after the ground freezes in the early 

 winter, with a layer of corn-stalks and also a thin layer of straw on 

 top of the stalks. Leave the mulch on the bed until about the twen- 

 tieth of May, as farmers have no time to protect the tender blossoms 

 from an early frost, and consequently get poor berries or complete 

 disaster. Rake the peas and beans before and after coming out of 

 the ground many times, and thus save baking of the soil and much 

 future weeding. Leave others who have more time than you to sow 

 quantities of onion seed, carrots, parsnips, etc. A short row will 

 take all the time that you can spare from other duties. Remember^ 

 time is money on the farm. Cabbage, tomatoes and musk-melons 

 are very easily raised, so, I suppose, are watermelons, but luck in that 

 direction never came my way. 



I thank you for your patience in listening to this reminiscent 

 article, and trust that you, each and all, as well as we, have at least 

 a small orchard and garden, in which you profitably spend many a 

 pleasant hour. 



HOW TO IMPROVE AND BEAUTIFY THE FARM 



YARD. 



MRS. A. W. MASSEE, ALBERT I,EA. 

 (Read before S. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



I mention first, as the most important of the means used to 

 beautify our homes, the grass plot. This should surround the house 

 for the sake of cleanliness and neatness. How many farm houses 

 we see where the back yard is entirely devoid of grass, sometimes 

 given up to pigs — a veritable mudhole, through which the whole 

 family stalk directly into the kitchen, adding much to the work and 

 worry of the overburdened housewife. That place I would take 

 in hand first, and if I could not have some grass I would have some 

 gravel, and plank walks. I would banish the pigs to their proper 

 place and keep them there if possible. When on the farm I have 

 several times been persistently labored with to convince me that it 

 was an tUter impossibility to always keep pigs, especially little ones, 

 in their proper place ; though I might be convinced, it did not restore 

 my pet pansy bed to its normal condition. O, I know all about it! 

 I have been there and the pigs also. 



With some labor and a little care the back yard can be got into 



