^ 78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



expected to succeed in many sections where gardeners have 

 failed with the pole varieties. We endeavor to capture the 

 early bird by starting the plants in the hotbed on small pieces 

 of sod, and transplanting to warm early soil as soon after 

 May 15 as danger from frost is past. One trouble with bush 

 Limas is the fact that the bushes fall over, so that the pods 

 are left in the dirt. The best way to prevent this is to mulch 

 with straw, or, on clean soil, one may sow crimson clover 

 early in July. Most of our gardeners seem to agree that 

 fine stable manure is better than anything else for Lima beans 

 and celery. We do not grow celery yet, but have had good 

 results with Lima beans grown upon fertilizer alone. 



Sweet Corn. — We find this one of the best crops for dis- 

 tant market gardening. Our experience is that farmers on 

 high-priced land do not attempt to grow very much sweet 

 corn. We generally use for this crop all the manure that is 

 left from the strawberries, and always plant on a rye or 

 crimson-clover sod. The most satisfactory early variety, all 

 told, with us, is Cory. As with Lima beans, a few days of 

 advanced earliness count for dollars. We start the first crop 

 in the hotbed on small sods, and transplant in the open field 

 or among spring-set strawberries. Crosby is our second 

 early, and with us is a profitable variety. Last year we 

 planted Shaker's Early and Early Mammoth, but they did 

 not fill the nick, as the plantings of Stowell's Evergreen came 

 on in time. The Evergreen corn is the standby in the mar- 

 kets near New York, and we made seven different plantings 

 of this variety last year. The Shoe Peg or Country Gentle- 

 man is sweeter than the Evergreen, but does not sell so well 

 with us. The kernels seem to be riveted to the cob, and 

 they are certainly death to a soft filling in an upper tooth. 

 At the last cultivation of the sweet corn we always sow 

 crimson clover between the rows, and work it in shallow 

 with a light and small-toothed cultivator. We followed the 

 same plan with squash, melons and tomatoes, — in fact, with 

 every crop where after the last hoeing or cultivating the crop 

 of weeds is likely to cover the ground. Our experience has 

 been that the clover is not only far more valuable than the 

 weeds for turning under, but that it actually crowds the 

 weeds out. I will say, too, that we do not raise or buy any 



