issb 



(rLEA^i:N"GS LN^ BEE CIJLTUKE. 



'.m 



they were sometliino? we had never seen be- 

 fore, and wt' did not know whether they 

 were to be nsed as snmmei- sqnashes, fall, 

 or winter. Finally we tried selling some of 

 them ; Init none of our customers liked them. 

 We waiteil till fall, and tried them again, 

 bnt with the same result, and we have a lot 

 of them now that nobody wants. We are 

 quite sure we don't want any more such; 

 bnt as we don't know where we got the seed, 

 how aie Ave to be certain we shall not unin- 

 tentionally plant the same thing another 

 year? A few days ago I saw a -pkiure of 

 the S(iuash we never want to see again, in 

 one of l^andreth's catalogues. It is what he 

 calls his •• White Turban.'" and it may an- 

 swe]- a very good purpose on their soil, but 

 we never want anymore White Turban here, 

 even if they irill keep twelve months, as he 

 says. Of course, it is one of the "novelties.*' 

 Now a Diost wiportant point is, it was put in 

 oiu- price list of seeds in 188(i, because Imii- 

 dreth recommended it, and we would not 

 have it in another season for any considera- 

 tion. So much for the value of a simple 

 label. 



After we have decided that every kind of 

 seed sown must have a good plain label, the 

 question comes up. Where shall we put the 

 label V 8;mie of the friends might say, 

 *' Make a diagram of your grounds, in a 

 book, and mark the articles so as to corres- 

 pond with the diagram." This might do 

 very well, but I do not know where we 

 could put the book to keep it from getting 

 lost, carried away, or mislaid. If we are to 

 write on a stake, w^here shall we put the 

 stake? Again, what shall we write with so 

 the rains and sunshine won't obliterate it V 

 I have thought a good many times I had 

 found a pencil or a kind of ink that would 

 write on a smooth stick, so the sun and rain 

 would not fade it. The writing is all faded, 

 however, sooner or later, and one of the re- 

 sults of such fading was. that early cabbages 

 were sold t(» some of our customers when 

 they wanted late ones. Several of my good 

 friends purchased tomato-plants at "A. I. 

 Roofs establishment,"' so as to get some- 

 thing that was absolnlel;/ reliabJc; and in- 

 stead of getting fine large smooth tomatoes 

 they got— what do you thinkV— their garden- 

 patch filled up with great nice vines that 

 hore peor-shcqx (I tomRtoes for pickling, and 

 nothing else. I am afraid that even their 

 broad charity for a particular friend was a 

 little lacking this time. I told the boys on 

 the wagon to supply them with as many to- 

 matoes as the plants would probably have 



borne, and take the pear-!shaped tomatoes 

 off their hands, and sell them, if they could, 

 at some price. This was a great deal of ex- 

 pense and trouble and bother, and it all hap- 

 pened just because a little stake with two 

 words on was lacking; namely, •'■ppnv- 

 shaped." 



Terhaps you begin to surmise, by this 

 time, that I have some i)atent-right stake 

 and label to sell. Xot (|uite that, but 1 

 have found a plan tliat pleases me very well, 

 and 1 think it will please you if you follow 

 it to the letter. First get some stakes like 

 the one pictured below. J^et them be about 

 a foot long, and made of inch boards, so as 

 to be two inches wide at the large end, and 

 slanting to a sharp point at tlie other.* 



I would have them made of pine, because 

 pine is slow to rot. 



STAKK KOK LAUELLNG PLANTS AND VEG- 

 ETABLES. 



The reason why I recommend putting in 

 so much timber is, that we have been so 

 much annoyed by small stakes being broken 

 off by walking over them, or by the horse or 

 cultivator. Stakes made like the cut above, 

 if kicked, or caught by the cultivator, will 

 pull out, and may be put back in the ground 

 again, but they can not well be broken. 

 How shall we mark the stake ':* Have some 

 small-sized tacks in one of your vest pockets 

 (tinned tacks are preferred), and with your 

 finger and thumb-nail tack the label onto 

 the stick— I mean the label on the package 

 of seeds. If you buy a packet of corn or 

 peas from any of the prominent seedsmen, 

 you will find a printed label on the inside of 

 the bag. Tack this label around the stake, 

 folding the papei- where the tacks go 

 through, to make it thicker under the heads. 

 Peter Henderson uses the best and stoutest 

 paper for his seed-bags, of any firm I have 

 dealt with. These labels will stand on the 

 stakes over winter, and lie just as plain in 

 the spring as they were the fall before. Xot 

 only does this label tell the Mnd of vegeta- 

 ble, but it tells of v'hrmi the seeds were pur- 

 chased. When we have a crop of turnips 

 that pleases us, it is quite a gratification to 

 us to see the name of Peter Henderson in 

 large black letters, so plain that you can 

 read it from almost any part of the turnip- 

 patch. AVhere shall we put this stake with 

 its stout paper label securely fastened to it 



•^Thcycan be cut out with a circular saw, for :iri 

 cts. per hundred, and probably even less stsU by 

 the thousand. 



