234 PRIZE GARDENING 



heads, caused the worms to depart and the cabbage to 

 head soHd. 



Spinach wants very Httle covering, according to 

 F. W. Kilbourne, New Jersey. The seed is large in 

 proportion to the sprout that has to push it up. If it is 

 planted deep and the ground crusts, it has trouble in 

 getting through. 



''On November 20, the plants on my piece 

 averaged about five inches across. With the beginning 

 of winter I top-dress my spinach with short horse 

 manure, about ten tons to the acre. It cuts at the rate of 

 five hundred bushels to the acre. We begin cutting 

 early in the spring, cutting out the biggest and then 

 cultivating. The cultivating and the nitrate of soda, 

 four hundred pounds to the acre, forces it." 



Egg Plc'ts. — Potato bugs destroyed all the egg 

 plants grown around Mr. Kilbourne's place. ''But I 

 saved mine," he says, "by giving them a heavy dose 

 of bordeaux mixture. I noticed one time when using it 

 for blight that the bugs did not admire the taste, and 

 so I sprayed with a small sprayer that I use in the 

 greenhouse, and it was pleasant to watch them march 

 off the plants. Six plants that I left unprotected as 

 an object lesson were completely destroyed. Antici- 

 pating a frost, we had cut all the large tgg plants, 

 covered each fruit with a sheet of newspaper to 

 keep them from the air and to prevent bruising, and 

 stowed them away in the barn. We gathered in this 

 way seven hundred fruit that sold at five cents apiece. 

 The day after the frost we cut three hundred smaller 

 ones, but they did not keep as well." 



C P. Byington's Egg Plant. — Seed was sown in 

 shallow boxes in the house, March 7, and germination 

 and growth encouraged by keeping the soil well 

 moistened with lukewarm water, and the box in a 

 warm, sunny window. The method of transplanting 



