VEGETABLES. 221 



laro-e heads; all the rest of the varieties were a failure. This is the 

 finest variety of cabbage I ever raised. They are a cross between 

 the Flat Dutch and Drumhead Savoy. Celery was a failure. We 

 grow very fine celery here, but this year not a head was grown, it 

 being too dry. 



Tomatoes were very poor; those exposed to the sun on the south 

 side were partly cooked. The root crop such as beets, carrots and 

 parsnips were nearly a failure. The following varieties I have 

 found to be the best after several years experience. Beets, Mitch- 

 ell's Perfection; carrots, Alneer's Intermediate; parsnips, Hollow 

 Crown. Peas were a fair crop, with Alaska for early, Premium Gem 

 for second and Stratagem for main crop. Sweet corn was very 

 poor, beans and squashes were the same. In seventeen years, '93 

 w^as the worst I have experienced, both in vegetables and fruits; in 

 fact, it was only the cultivator that saved what little we had — by 

 frequent stirring of the soil, we kept them alive. In fruits the only 

 good crop I had was plums; they were verj- fine. 



Effect of Mulch ox the Ripening of Fruit.— It is generally 

 believed that a mulch or heavy cover placed upon the frozen soil 

 around plants will retard flowering and the maturity of fruit, but 

 the results are often unsatisfactory. Careful experiments upon the 

 effect of mulches have been made at the New York Cornell Uni- 

 versity station by L. H. Bailey (B. 59), which indicate that the early 

 bloom of fruit plants depends very largely upon the appropriation 

 of food stored in the twigs, and it is more or less iudependant of root 

 action. This is proved both by direct experiment and by study of 

 the phj^siology^ of plants. It must follow then that the temperature 

 of the twig or branch must be reduced, if its vegetation is to be much 

 retarded. The top of the plant, as well as the soil, must be mulched, 

 and in practice this is possible only with strawberries and other 

 ver3' low plants, or those which are laid down during the winter. 

 There is danger of injuring plants by heavy mulch which is allowed 

 to remain late in spring. If it is desired to retard flowers or fruit by 

 mulching, the practice should not be violent and the plants should 

 be carefully watched. Many strawberrj^ growers are able, by mulch- 

 ing after hard freezing, to delay the ripening of that fruit from two 

 days to two weeks, but a week's delay is usually about the limit of 

 profitable results. — Am. Agriculturist. 



