1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



793 



our early potatoes. The following extract 

 from the Rural New-Yorker shows that 

 friend H. A. March has already used the de- 

 vice for raising American-grown caulifiow- 

 er seed : 



RAISING CAULIFLOWER SEED IN PUGET SOUND. 



To get the plants we sow the seeds about Septem- 

 ber 1, in a rather poor soil, giving- them plenty of 

 room, the rows being a foot apart and the seeds 

 sown thinly in the rows. This gives us stocky and 

 hardy plants, which, we thiuk, are less liable to 

 damp off when transplanted. About November 1 

 we transplant the plants into cold-frames six inch- 

 es apart each way, as we wish to keep them grow- 

 ing a little all winter. The glasses are kept on at 

 night and through heavy rains. In case of a cold 

 snap, we cover the glasses with mats; but that is 

 not often necessary, for we seldom have a tempera- 

 ture colder than i(i° above. Every thing depends 

 on good plants and an early start in the spring, for 

 we raise two crops the same season, and an early 

 frost on our unripe seed is sure to ruin the crop. 

 Now, to set the plants out and make them grow 

 from the start, a line is stretched along one of these 

 flat ridges; a boy goes along, and with a three-foot 

 marker marks the spots for the plants; a man fol- 

 lows with a hoe and makes a hole, about the size of 

 a quart dish, to receive each plant. During the 

 winter we have gathered up 200 or 300 tomato and 

 oyster cans, melted off the tops and bottoms, leav- 

 ing tubes about five inches long by three or four 

 across. Now, armed with a light wheelbarrow with 

 a wooden tray containing from 50 to 75 of these 

 cans, we go to the cold-frame (having well soaked it 

 with water the night before); take a can, set it right 

 down over the plant; press the can into the soil 

 about two inches, and, with a light shove to one 

 side, lift the plant without disturbing the roots; 

 fill our tray and start for the field; run the barrow 

 between two rows, and set a can and plant in each 

 of the holes just made. A boy follows with a wa- 

 tering-pot containing warm water, and pours a gill 

 into each tube, which softens the soil so that the 

 tubes can be lifted right out, leaving the plant 

 standing in the hole. We brush a little dirt around 

 the plant and Arm it with the blade of the hoe. 



Now we have our plants set, and not one ever 

 wilts in the hottest spring day. In two or three days 

 the cultivator is started, and kept a going once a 

 week until the heads begin to form. 



THE IGNOTUM TOMATO. 



At present our orders are considerably 

 ahead of our supply of seed, though we have 

 the promise of quite a little from the friends 

 who received trial packages. One lady who 

 purchased 200 Ignotum plants of us in June 

 was offered $17.00 for the seed she saved. 

 It is gratifying to notice what a prominent 

 position the Ignotum is destined to take 

 among tomatoes. We copy the following, 

 from Garden and Forest, of New York, for 

 Sept. 4 : 



An interesting exhibition of tomatoes was on 

 view at the seed warehouse of J.M.Thorburn & Co., 

 in this city, last week. Eighty varieties were 

 named; and' although several of them were plainly 

 duplicates, the diversity of form and color and 

 texture was so marked that some fifty distinct 

 types could be recognized. The smooth outline 

 and solid liesh of some of the newer varieties, like 

 Thorburn's New Jersey, proves what can be ac- 

 complished by patient selection ; and yet the tomato 

 which, perhaps, showed the most compact and yet 

 the finest texture, was Ignotum, which, as its name 

 implies, is from absolutely unknown parentage. 



THE DWARF LIMA BEANS. 



We have already harvested several bushels 

 of the Henderson dwarf lima. In quality 

 for table use, it is, so far as we can tell, fully 

 equal in flavor to the pole limas. My wife 

 says if she were blindfolded when eating 

 them she could not tell one from the other. 

 The little bushes are very productive, and 

 they ripen quite early, which is quite a 

 strong argument in their favor. Another 



thing, a peck of pods will make more quarts 

 of shelled beans than a peck of pods of our 

 large limas. The reason is, the large limas 

 have so wide a pod according to the size of 

 the bean. It is about as much work to shell 

 the little beans as to shell peas. What shall 

 this new dwarf lima be called? Peter Hen- 

 derson has given it his name; but it trans- 

 pires that the bean was well known in 

 several localities, and has been catalogued 

 for years as the Dwarf Sieva, or Carolina 

 bean. It seems to me it would be a great 

 blunder to change its name just because it 

 has been brought prominently before the 

 public. It may be that Peter Henderson did 

 not know it was already catalogued and had 

 an established name. But if he did not 

 know it, he certainly knows it now. Land- 

 reth has had it in his catalogue some time, 

 and I have also found it in other catalogues. 



THE KTJMERLE LIMA I5EAN. 



This seems destined to prove a wonderful 

 acquisition. Its only fault is the length of 

 time it takes in ripening. Ours are now just 

 right to cook, but we expect frost daily. 

 The beans are monsters. They are not only 

 large around, but fat, or thick through, and 

 one of them makes a bigger mouthful than 

 any other lima bean I ever saw or heard of. 

 They are also wonderfully productive. One 

 of our plants started to run up on a pole, 

 and has branched out until there are at least 

 a hundred pods of immense lima beans. I 

 can not very well count them now, because 

 the whole plant is such a swamp of foliage. 

 They need considerable room, but they will 

 surely give a tremendous crop. We hardly 

 dare take enough of them to cook for a taste. 

 Probably the new crop will not be worth its 

 weight in gold, but very likely the beans 

 will command their weight in silver. Until 

 somebody informs me of a supply of them I 

 shall take the liberty of putting that value 

 on them. 



I promised to have a photograph of the 

 plant ; but it has such a dense pile of foliage 

 there will not be much to see. The pods are 

 all concealed by the great leaves Some- 

 body wrote to me that the pods must be sup- 

 ported on brush or sticks, or they would rot 

 during very wet weather. Very likely this 

 is true ; and although such a support might 

 not be as expensive as poles, it may be well 

 to consider it. 



THE OREGON EVEUBEARING STRAWBERRY. 



At this date, Sept. 27, we have received 

 three different lots, of one dozen each, by 

 mail. On the first ones, on account of the 

 great distance, the moss was apparently as 

 dry as it ever would be, and the plants were 

 in the same predicament. It did not seem 

 to me that there was a chance for them to 

 grow. However, I concluded to give them 

 a chance. They were put in the rich soil of 

 our plant-beds," watered, and shaded, and, 

 strange to say, in a week one of them sent 

 out a little green leaf ; and in a day or two 

 after, another one did likewise. Now, 

 please, friends, do not be in a hurry to say 

 that plants are dead, especially if they are a 

 valuable variety. It will doubtless take 

 sometime for them to make strong plants ; 

 but with strawberries sent a long distance, 



