RADISH 



RAILROAD GARDENING 



1489 



tiers on the Detroit river, in wliicli nearly every cottage 

 has a Radish garden, ranging from a few rods to an acre. 

 On the product of tliese gardens tlie owners depend 

 for a large share of their income. The soil is rich, 

 black, sandy and alluvial with permanent water at a 

 depth of G ft. or less, though the surface is by no means 

 wet or marshy. The gardens are heavily 

 manured, not only in the spring but before 

 each crop is started. They make at least 

 two, and sometimes as many as five crops 

 during the season. The beds are nui'iured, 

 spaded and replanted within a day or two 

 after the roots have been pulled. Weeds 

 are never seen in a Petite Cote Radish gar- 

 den. The only tools used are a spading 

 fork, a steel rake, a marker (made by fixing 

 a row of pegs %-)4 in. in diameter and %- 

 lyi in. long, 1 in. apart in the rounded edge 

 of a narrow board), and a standing board 

 8-12 in. wide and as long as the beds are 

 wide. Having made the soil as fine and 

 smooth as possible, they lay the board 

 across the bed and, standing on it, they 

 make a row of holes by pressing the marker 

 into the soil along its inner edge. They then 

 drop one or two seeds into each hole, cov- 

 ering them with soil with the edge of the 

 standing board as they turn it over and re- 

 peat the process. Only a small part of 

 the garden is planted at once, but sow- 

 ings are made once or twice a week 

 throughout the season, so that there is 

 a constant succession of roots in prime J 

 condition. The variety used is the Long 

 Scarlet. There is a large list of varieties of 

 these spring or forcing Radishes, all of 

 them tracing back to the Scarlet Turnip, 

 Scarlet Half-Long or Long Scarlet type. 



Slimmer Hadishex. — These are a little 

 slower in growth than the preceding but re- 

 main longer in condition. The Long Scar- 

 let type appears in both summer and win- 

 ter Radishes, but the Chartier, Celestial, 

 Stuttgart, etc., are used only for summer or 

 late fall supply. The culture of the sum- 

 mer sorts is the same as that of the spring 

 sorts, except that they should be given more 

 room. /, 



Winter Radishes. — These are of still 

 slower growth and firmer flesh and can 

 be held in good condition almost as read- 

 ily as turnips. The seed may be sown 

 from the last of July till the middle of 

 September, and at the approach of severe 

 freezing weather the roots shot! Id be 

 gathered, packed in sandy soil and either / 



buried out of doors or stored in a cool, / 



damp cellar, where they will remain in 

 good condition all winter. 



Seed-Growing . — In growing seed the 

 summer sorts are treated as annuals. 

 The seeds are sown in early spring, 

 and as soon as the plants reach usable 

 size they are taken tip, topped, care- 

 fully sorted and the best ones reset, 

 whereupon they will speedily take root 

 and throw up seed-stalks. Sometimes 

 seed is grown without transplanting 

 the roots, but as there can be no selec- 

 tion nor even rogueing, the seed so 

 grown is necessarily unreliable. The 

 seed requires a long time to mature, 

 and is not thoroughly ripe until long 

 after the pods have turned brown, and 

 growers are in the habit of cutting and partially dry- 

 ing the stalks and allowing them to stand in the 

 stack or mow for some time before threshing. The 

 later sorts are treated as biennials, the roots being 

 stored during the winter. Most of the Radish seed 

 used in this country is imported, though there is no 

 reason, unless it be the question of cheap labor, to 

 prevent its being grown to advantage here. 



W. W. Tracy. 



RAFFIA is the Malagasy name of a palm which fur- 

 nishes a staple article of commerce called raffia fiber. 

 It is indigenous to Madagascar, where it grows without 

 (iultivation or attention of any kind. One palm leaf, or 

 frond, produces 80-100 long green divisions 2-5 ft. in 

 length, like the leaves of the sugar cane, but of a dark 

 lustrous green color and thicker and 

 stiffer. The under part of this green 

 leaf is of a pale greenish yellow color, 

 and from that side the inner skin is 

 peeled off in the same manner as the 

 skin on the outside of a pea pod, ex- 

 cept that it peels off straight to the tip 

 without breaking. It is then of the pal- 

 est green, and after being dried in the 

 sun assumes a light straw color. This 

 is the raffia fiber of commerce. 



Raffia fiber is extensively used by the 

 natives for making cloths called silk 

 lambas and rebaimas, which bring fancy 

 ^_ prices in Europe and America, where it 

 ri\ is used in the manufacture of various 

 kinds of hats, etc. A large trade is also 

 done in raffia fiber in Europe for use in 

 the manufacture of fancy baskets, but in 

 America, while raffia fiber has been used 

 to a limited extent in the manufacture 

 of hats, its principal use is for tying 

 vines, flowers, asparagus and celery 

 bunches and for grafting. It is soft as 

 silk and not affected by moisture or 

 change in temperature so as to risk cut- 

 '\ ting or wounding the most delicate 

 \ tissues, and it does not break or ravel 

 I when folded or knotted. These qualities 

 I bring it into general use in Europe, 

 I especially in the vineyards of France, 

 1 where it is extensively used, and conse- 

 quently maintain its price. It is virtu- 

 ally inexhaustible in Madagascar, the 

 supply being limited only by the scar- 

 city of labor. For export, the fiber is 

 collected in large skeins, twisted or 

 plaited, and then packed in compressed! 

 bales of about 100 kilograms (220 lbs.) 

 each. About 20,000 bales are exported 

 annually. 



Chas. W. Jacob & Allison. 



RAGGED LADY. Nigella Damas- 

 eena. 



RAGGED ROBIN. Lychnis Flos- 



CUCUji. 



EAG gourd. Luffa. 



RAILROAD GARDENING. Plate 

 XXXII. This expression usually refers 

 to the formal use of flower beds about 

 railroad stations. Such work is ornamen- 

 tal gardening, not landscape gardening, 

 the latter being the art of arranging 

 plants so as to make nature-like pictures. 

 Most of the so-called landscape garden- 

 ing that is done at railroad stations is 

 2064. really ornamental gardening. Carpet 



Ameliorated Rad- beds are relatively costly as compared 

 ish at the end of ^j^jj h^rdy shrubbery. They last but a 

 ioureenerations. j^^ months and then leave bareness, 

 n •- while the best hardy trees and shrubs 



After Carriere. skilfully arranged are interesting all the 

 year round. This making of nature- 

 like pictures with relatively simple, inexpensive and 

 permanent materials is a much higher art than that 

 involved in creating and maintaining formal flower 

 beds. However, both things have their places. Many a 

 tired traveler is cheered by the bright colors of a neatly 

 kept railroad station. Such displays are suitable at the 

 stations if anywhere along the line. They are always 

 preferable to dirt, ugliness and a general air of in- 

 difference. 



