Vegetables for ExKibition Purposes" 



' I 'HE culture of vegetables, at all 

 ^^1 times a most interesting study, 

 ^^r becomes more so when the object 

 ^K the exhibition table. As exhibitions 

 ^^K which vegetables figure prominently 

 ■Qre held principally in the fall, I shall 

 confine these few remarks mainly to 

 those varieties that are in season at that 

 time of the year. Now we will say the 

 (.xhibitor wishes to take a collection of 

 12 varieties which is ample to test any 

 person's skill. The following is a good 

 selection for a dozen varieties: Celery, 

 leeks, onions, potatoes, carrots, beets, 

 cauliflower, jiarsnips, turnips, tomatoes, 

 brussels sprouts, lettuce, or, should 

 string beans, peas, sweet corn, or egg 

 plant be available they would give a 

 larger selection. 



The varieties chosen should be good 

 types of their respective sorts. I do not 

 care much for the squash family as ex- 

 hibition vegetables. They represent no 

 extra amount of skill in their cultiva- 

 tion. Anyone caa grow squash if they 

 have a manure heap. The same ap 

 plies to other kinds that do not repre- 

 sent much skill. The different sorts of 

 spinach, including Swiss chard, which I 

 do not suppose one person in a dozen 

 would eat if anything else were available, 

 also salsify and Jerusalem artichokes, 

 do not figure very high as exhibition 

 vegetables. 



I have placed celery at the head of my 

 list of 12 varieties. There is no vcge- 



K calls for more skilful cultiva- 



IN July, The Horticulturist published 

 a portion of a bulletin f)n bean diseases 

 recently issued by Prof. H. H. Whetzel, 

 of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Bean 

 Anthracnose was thoroughly discussed. 

 The following extracts on bean blight 

 I^^Bid bean rust, taken from the same 

 ^^^fcUetin, also contain valuable informa- 

 ^^^B)n for bean growers. 



tion than first-class celery. It should 

 be large, without being pithy, or hollow, 

 have a good-sized heart, be well bleached 

 and free from rust and blemishes. A 

 good time to sow seed for the produce to 

 be in good shape late in October is in 

 early May. I prefer to sow in boxes 

 and place in a greenhouse in gentle 

 heat. When ready, prick out into cold 

 frames or anywhere in four or five inches 

 of soil on a hard bottom where water is 

 handy, as th,ey require lots of it. The 

 plants will be ready for the open ground 

 by June 15, and no opportunity of a 

 showery day or so should be lost in 

 getting them out. If the weather is 

 drv, water must be given in abundance 

 if good results are expected. 



Large onions and leeks are exhibition 

 vegetables and the culture is practically 

 identical, except that the leeks require 

 earthing up to blanch them. Onions 

 and leeks cannot be too large for show 

 purposes, and to produce large roots 

 very early sowing is indispensable. 

 Februarv is none too soon to sow in 

 heat in a greenhouse. They must be 

 pricked off into boxes when large enough 

 to handle and kept growing on, gradu- 

 ally hardening off and planted out in 

 very rich soil in the garden in May. 

 These i^lants are very gross feeders and 

 must have very high cultivation to 

 bring them to a high state of perfection. 



Potatoes for exhibition should be of 

 medium size, clear in the skin and have 

 shallow eyes. Very large specimens are 



more than likely to be hollow in the 

 middle. Carrots and parsnips must be 

 large and have very clean skins and 

 uniform tapering roots. Beet roots and 

 turnips should be of medium size, in- 

 clining to small rather than large, as big 

 specimens of these are useless unless it 

 is for cattle feeding. 



Cauliflower should be of medium size 

 with very close and clean white heads. 

 Tomatoes must be of medium size and 

 very round, not corrugated, and should 

 be ripened on the plant. Brussels 

 sprouts, a very telling vegetable when 

 good, should be large and solid, not open 

 and ragged. Lettuce also must be 

 large and very solid. Needless to re- 

 mark, the whole collection should be 

 presented on the exhibition table as 

 fresh as possible and no pains should be 

 spared to keep them so, for if wilted or 

 stale in any way, it would go strongly 

 against them. 



Now as to manner of staging. The 

 collection should be made as artistic as 

 possible, not merely a dish of each kind 

 placed on a bare table in straight lines. 

 This method does not appeal to me. 

 Instead, a background should be formed 

 of the larger kinds and the smaller 

 grouped in front of them ; no receptacles 

 such as dishes, etc., are necessary. The 

 group should be nicely trimmed off with 

 fresh parsley. It is surprising, with the 

 exercise of a little ingenuity in arrange 

 ment, what a beautiful effect can be pro- 

 duced even with a collection of vegetables. 



Bean Blig'Kt and Bean Rust 



BEAN BMCHT 



"The blight is a bacterial disease. It 

 fccaused by a minute parasitic plant 

 Jacferium phascoli) in form and habits 

 of life quite unlike the anthracnose 

 fungus. These tiny bacteria have no 

 mycelial threads and no spores. Ivach 

 little cell is a plant in itself. The first 

 evidence is usuallv to be observed in the 

 leaves. These show large brown dead 

 patches, often spreading through the 

 entire leaf. When wet, the spot is soft 

 nnd watery, but when dry, becomes 



*Exlracts from an address read before the 

 Morris Co, (iardcners' .Society, New Jersey, I'y 

 John Hceremans, 



papery and brittle. On a badly bhghted 

 patch the leaves become dry and curled, 

 as if scorched. Judging from some ob- 

 servations made last season, it seems 

 likely that insects are in most cases 

 the agents by which this disease is car- 

 ried from plant to plant. 



"Through wounds or by way of the 

 stein the bacteria find their way into the 

 pods which, if young, may shrivel and 

 die. In the larger pods they produce 

 spreading watery spots which finally 

 become more or less discolored but never 

 sunken and black as in the case of the 

 anthracnose. 



TKl'ATMICNT oK lJl.Ii;HT 



"No method of treating the seed to 

 prevent the blight has yet Ijcen proposed 

 and properly tested. Professor Barlow, 

 of the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 Guelph, has demonstrated that the bac- 

 teria are readily killed by exposure for 

 10 minutes to water heated to 122 de 

 grees Fahrenheit, while dry beans can 

 endure such a temperature for some 



lime, without injury. While this gives 

 some promise of success the treatment 

 . is open to many of the objections raised 

 in the case of the anthracnose. 



"The sorting of seed affected with 

 blight is very questionable. Owing to 

 the fact that blight-affected seeds are 

 often not discolored, it is manifestly 

 impossible to sort them from the healthy 

 ones. The safest method is to discard 

 all seed known to have come from fields 

 that showed the disease. 



"In regard to destruction of diseased 

 tops and rotation, Professor Barlow says: 

 'A field where beans have sickened with 

 this disease is unfit for growing beans for 

 at least one season, as the germ lives 

 over at least one winter in the stems and 

 leaves left on the ground. How long 

 such a field may remain infected is un- 

 known, for we do not yet know whether 

 the germ can live and increase in the soil 

 where no beans are growing, although 

 this is probable. Bean straw from in- 

 fected fields tnav be burned. If it is 

 fed to animals or used in bedding, the 



