136 [Assembly 



May 27^A— Put out melons. Smooth red and large yellow to- 

 mato plants forwarded in hot bed. 



As suggested last year in a communication to the American 

 Agriculturist, I grew the above toraatos on ^an arched trellisse 

 and found it attended with many advantages over the usual 

 mode. The fruit from being freely exposed to the sun ripened 

 earlier and is of handsomer growth, and being kept from the 

 ground is not subjected to premature decay, whicli when grown 

 in the ordinary way is too apt to be a cause of great waste. 



May dOih — Planted Okra and Marty nia. 



As far north as the State of New- York the cultivation of okra 

 is quite recent, or at most sparingly grown, and at present I am 

 not aware that it is extensively used. In the Southern states it 

 is common and freely used for culinary purposes. It is employ- 

 ed in the preparation of soups, and served up in the popular dish 

 familiarly termed " Gumbaud." 



Requiring a degree of heat seldom prevailing before the first of 

 June, it is not safe to venture planting the seed earlier. All my 

 attempts at an earlier period have resulted in loss and disappoint- 

 ment, but when deferred until warm and settled weather, have 

 never known it to fail. Sown in drills and thinned twelve inches 

 distant, with an additional hoeing, is all the cultivation required. 

 In good ground the white variety will grow six to seven feet high. 

 The green is comparatively dwarfish, and I observed in the 

 Northern states most generally cultivated, but the capsules are 

 more fibrous, coarser and not so well adapted to culinary use. 

 The okra blossoms are large and handsome, and the plant is not 

 inappropriate to ground devoted to ornamental purposes. Mar- 

 tynia, better known as the bufifalo or unicorn plant, I have only 

 grown as an object of curiosity, and am not prepared to speak of 

 its merits as a culinary vegetable, and was not aware that it was 

 used for such purpose until observing at the late fair a few speci- 

 mens labeled " West India pickle," It is a stout growing plant, 

 and when fall grown is about two feet high, spreads fully four 

 feet and produces its fruit abundantly, having when green the 

 hooked horn entire, whicli when at advanced maturity splits 



