342 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. l.i. 





SOWING GARDEN SKKDS IN THE FALT.. 



We clip the following from the Mayfloiver: 

 How many sow their tomato, beet, onion, parsnip, 

 and carrot seed in the tall, just before the ground 

 is frozen? It is true, that plants from seeds thus 

 sown are mucli superior, especially in earliness, to 

 spring'-sown seed. 



As there is no name appended to the above, 

 we suppose it is editorial, from Floral Park, N. 

 Y. We know tomato seeds will stand over win- 

 ter, for they come up all over the garden, when 

 the winter is warm enough; but in our locality, 

 by the time tomatoes come up in the open 

 ground they are usually too late for most people. 

 As we have never seen beets, onions, or carrots 

 come up from self-sowing, we feel a little, 

 doubtful about it. Perhaps, however, it is 

 because very few people allow beets, onions, 

 and carrots to go to seed. We frequently raise 

 our own parsnip seed, and parsnips sometimes 

 come up quite thickly, so we think it quite 

 likely the planting could be done in the fall. 

 The most of our ground, however, especially 

 our heavy clay ground, during >the winter gets 

 packed down so heavily by the sun and rain 

 that we greatly prefer to have it mellowed up 

 and harrowed fine in the spring, before the 

 seeds are put in. With light sandy soil, how- 

 ever, the plan would, very likely, work all 

 right. Can anybody tell us about it who has 

 tried sowing beet, onion, and carrot seed in the 

 fall ? 



By the way, I am greatly vexed many times 

 with our agricultural journals because they do 

 not give the date and residence of writers. In 

 many of the communications a man will say, 

 '• It is not too late to get a crop, if the seed is 

 put in right away now." But with no date to 

 the letter, how is anybody going to know what 

 now means'? The editor may have held the 

 communication a month or two before putting 

 it in. Again, somebody may give full partic- 

 ulars, and tell how he succeeded in getting a 

 great crop, and yet omit to tell where he lives, 

 and give no clew to the reader to guess. What 

 does his communication amount to in such a 



One thing more about sowing tomatoes in the 

 fall. Livingston and Day, two great authori- 

 ties on tomato culture, say that tomato-plants 

 that come up in the garden can never be relied 

 on at all. I think they both state that such 

 seeds are likely to produce a different tomato 

 from any thing you ever had on your grounds; 

 but neither of them could give a reason why. 

 I remember one season of finding a vine that 

 came up unexpectedly, and got so l9.rge in a 

 short space of time that I had not the heart to 

 pull it up. It gave us an enormous crop of 

 most beautiful cherry tomatoes; yet I can not 

 remember that I ever purchased any cherry- 

 tomato seed in my life. The seed may have 

 been mixed in with some other kinds by acci- 

 dent: but our seeds are so very clean that we 

 get nowadays of the regular seedsmen that it 

 hardly seems possible. Is it not more likely 

 that it came from stable manure that vve buy 

 all over town V 



TOMATOES FROM THE SEED IN 2() DAYS. 



Speaking about getting tomatoes in a very 

 short space of time reminds me that friend 

 Mills advertises seed from a strain of tomatoes 

 that has produced ripe fruit in only 26 days 

 from the time the seed was sown. My lirst 

 impression was that he would injure his repu- 



tation among good men by publishing sucl 

 statements. Since then I remember seeing wit! 

 what wonderful rapidity a tomato-plant wil 

 grow when every thing seems to be favorable 

 When we were building our machine-shoj 

 there was some exceedingly rich ground when 

 1 had been having plant-beds. It was mosth 

 old stable manure, so finely rotted that it wa: 

 just beautiful soft black compost. It had t( 

 'be moved at once. For safe keeping I put i 

 down near an evergreen-tree. Tomatoes sprang 

 up almost as if by magic; and, under the in 

 tiuence of the warm July weather, and plentj 

 of warm rains, they grew almost like Jack'; 

 famous beanstalk. I felt sorry for the pooi 

 things, thinking they could be of no possibh 

 use; but they did not seem to feel sorry foi 

 themselves a particle. I supposed that, o: 

 course, it was too late to think of getting tO' 

 matoes from the plants. But the plants wen 

 of full size in almost no time at all; and ther 

 recognizing (or at least it seems they did) thai 

 they would have to "hustle" if they woulc 

 escape frost they sent out blossoms, and hac 

 ripe tomatoes before one would think it possi 

 ble. There was not any thing on our ground 

 where we were raising tomatoes that coulc 

 compare with those by that evergreen-tree. I 

 reminded me of a sitting hen when she steah 

 her nest out in the weeds, and hatches oui 

 more chickens, and finer ones, than the highest- 

 priced incubator ever thought of doing. Is ill 

 not funny that old Dame Nature sometimes 

 when she' gets into a rollicking mood, just beatM 

 all the old veterans, and does not seem to makf 

 any fuss about it either. Well, I planted th( 

 seeds of those wonderful tomatoes—" the ear- 

 liest tomato in the world," etc. They wen 

 planted March 27th, in the very best place ir 

 our best greenhouse; and at present writing 

 just 8 days after, several of the seeds are push- 

 ing through the ground. Only 18 days are lef' 

 out of the 26. The seeds are precious, so w( 

 stuck a toothpick down about each one so as 

 to be sure we did not get swindled by somt 

 volunteer tomato. By the way, did anybodj 

 ever see tomatoes come up in the greenhousi 

 as quickly as they sometimes come up outdoors 

 when every thing is just right? We saved hall 

 of the packet, and we are going to wait till tht 

 very best time in June, and see what we 

 can do with the remaining seeds in getting 

 tomatoes in a short time. If I make it in twict 

 26 days I confess I shall be pretty well pleased. 



THE BI.IZZAHD THE LAST OF MARCH. 



Like most of the rest of you we got caught; 

 but I really do not see how we could have help- 

 ed it very much, unless we went to the expense 

 of more sashes; and in some cases the plants 

 we lost were worth almost enough to pay for 

 sashes to cover them. The trouble was, we 

 had April weather, or almost May weather, 

 during the greater part of March, and the 

 plants would grow in spite of us. I do not 

 know how we could have well kept them back. 

 The tomato-plants crowded the greenhouse so 

 that they had to be put outside. In fact, some 

 of them got long-legged as it was. Well, when 

 they had to go outside, the sashes had to be 

 taken off the cabbage to cover the tomatoes; 

 and our cold-frame cabbage-plants just took 

 hold and grew without any sashes at all. I 

 confess it seems a shame to handle sashes all 

 winter long, and get a splendid lot of cold- 

 frame cabbage-plants clear through the winter 

 up to the last week in March, and then let them 

 freeze for want of sashes. Of course, some of 

 them will fetch up again— may be many of them 

 will: and perhaps they will be as good a sevor; 

 but it will throw them back so late that they 

 are no better than spring-raised plants, unless, 

 indeed, the great bushy roots should give them 



