278 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 379.' 



I 



Vegetable Notes. 



N the lath-covered summer greenhouse, lately mentioned, 

 our late Tomato-plants are now (June 21st) just peeping 

 above ground. This crop of tomatoes will begin to ripen 

 here late in September, or if the weather is dry as last fall, not 

 until October. Our object is to have the plants covered with 

 the finest of well-grown green fruit at the coming of frost. 

 This fruit will be better adapted to ripening in the house than 

 would the late remnants on old exhausted plants. An exper- 

 iment made last fall satisfied me that here at least we can have 

 tomatoes easily up to the middle of January with little trouble. 

 As soon as frost cuts the vines we propose to gather all the 

 green fruit, wrap each in thick brown paper and pack in crates, 

 just as the green fruit is wrapped when shipped from Ber- 

 muda. These crates will be placed in a cool dark place, and 

 our experience leads us to believe that all will ripen per- 

 fectly. Some of them, instead of being wrapped, will be placed 

 between layers of raw cotton or cotton-seed hulls. The object 

 will be to delay their coloring until aboutChristmas, and then to 

 ship some of them to the northern market to see if the practice 

 cannot be made to pay as a com mercial matter. The few we kept 

 last winter were in better condition at Christmas than Bermuda 

 tomatoes usually are, and I have no doubt the crop can be 

 made to pay in the south, where the gathering of the green 

 fruit can often be delayed until the middle or last of Novem- 

 ber. It has long been a practice with market-gardeners every- 

 where to gather all the fruit left on the vines and spread them 

 under sashes in cold frames to ripen, but we know of little 

 effort to delay their ripening until a later period. The ripening, 

 when stored in a cool dark place, is slow, but better than in 

 frames, where many get shriveled from sun-heat. 



Another practice which we believe will prove of good value 

 in the south, if properly undertaken, is the preservation of 

 sweet-potatoes by drying. Last summer I advised the evap- 

 oration of sweet-potatoes and their reduction to flour. If 

 put on the market in packages, with recipes for making the 

 many delicious preparations which our people here know so 

 well how to make, the product would prove salable. A 

 lady in Sampson County, in this state, tried this f>lan on a small 

 scale and sent me a package. While the article — which was 

 simplv dried in a stove — was not so pleasing to the eye as it 

 would have been if made in a good evaporator, the dainties 

 made from it were excellent. Made upon a large scale and 

 put up in neatly lithographed packages and properly adver- 

 tised, I have no doubt that sweet-potato flour would soon be 

 as popular as corn-starch. The raw material can be furnished 

 in any quantity and at very low figures. Sweet-potatoes in the 

 south at twenty-five cents per bushel will pay better than cot- 

 ton ; and the evaporating on a large scale would make the 

 culture available at points where the crop under other condi- 

 tions could not be marketed at all. Then, too, the yams, 

 which are so much richer in sugar than the dry potatoes grown 

 northward, would make in this way a superior product. 



Raleigh. N. c. ^- ^- Massey. 



Correspondence. 



Flower Gardens for Children. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The German cities built from the eighth to the tenth 

 century were all inclosed with a high stone wall for defense 

 in those warHke times. The houses facing narrow streets 

 fronted together in irregular shapes and squares. They were 

 built in this way to encompass an area of ground which was 

 divided into suitable parts, according to the size of the houses, 

 and formed the garden, which occupies so large a place in 

 German family life. Here relatives and visitors are received 

 and entertained, and the children learn by constant observa- 

 tion, without any special lesson, the habits of plants. 



The garden of our nearest neighbor, Dr. Steffenhagen, was 

 divided from ours by a Privet-hedge, which allowed my con- 

 stant observation of his Carnation-beds. This flower was his 

 special hobby and study. Every spare moment not taken up 

 in his arduous school-work in the Latin high school in Par- 

 chim, Mecklenburg, he spent over his favorites. We shared 

 his joy over each finely developed flower and mourned with 

 him when a long-awaited promising bud, larger than the rest, 

 turned out to be a " Platzer " — a flower with a split calyx. One 

 spring, by advice of the doctor, my mother designated a bed in 

 our garden for my sole use. True, it was one of the least pro- 

 ductive, being close around the stem of a large Pear-tree. But 

 willing hands and continued care made it one of the brightest 

 spots for years during my school-life. Seeds and plants of 



quick-blooming annuals were provided by our kind neighbor. 

 Adonis, Anagallis, Clarkia, Morning-glories and Nasturtiums, 

 Bellis perennis, Snowdrops, Crocus, Primulas and Auriculas 

 were transferred from my mother's beds. Forget-me-nots and 

 the purple-spiked Cuckoo Flower were brought from the mea- 

 dow, and Lilies-of-the-valley from the woods. It was an inter- 

 esting combination of native and cultivated plants, although 

 the wild flowers generally died out for the want of their moist 

 woodland soil. The long and slender shoots of the Ligustrum 

 hedge furnished plenty of material for graceful loops around 

 the border of the bed. 



This little spot of ground gave me the first practical garden- 

 lessons, and besides the pleasure afforded me then has repaid 

 me many times over in the enjoyment of this kind of work 

 ever since. The famed gardens on the terraced banks of the 

 River Po could not have given me the pleasure and genuine 

 delight which I received from that first little flower-bed of my 

 own. I often wonder that parents here in America do not give 

 a space of ground in the city yard or country garden into the 

 care of their children. Such a plat furnishes healthful outdoor 

 exercise and helps to form habits of careful observation and 

 industry. Besides this, it affords the best kind of botanical 

 and horticultural knowledge and prepares for a real apprecia- 

 tion of natural beauty. 



Hartford, Conn. WilJielmtne Seliger. 



Exhibitions. 

 The Boston Rose Show. 



THE annual Rose and Strawberry Show of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society was held in its halls in Boston last 

 week. The Roses, although certainly better than those which 

 appeared a year ago in Boston, were inferior in quality to 

 those which Parkman, Gray and other Massachusetts Rose- 

 growers used to exhibit ten or fifteen years ago, and Rose- 

 growing in Massachusetts, if it is to be judged by these exhi- 

 bitions, is deteriorating rather than advancing. 



The largest exhibitor of Roses was the Honorable Joseph S. 

 Fay, of Woods Holl, who carried off the principal prizes this 

 year, as he did last, securing the special prize for twenty-four 

 distinct kinds, three of each variety, and for sixteen distinct 

 named varieties, three of each variety, as well as the first prize 

 in the secfion for twelve varieties. Mr. Fay took also the first, 

 second and third prizes for the best flowers of three varieties, 

 and for twenty-four distinct named varieties, one flower of 

 each. For the special prizes offered by the society, Mr. Na- 

 thaniel T. Kidder, its President, took the first prize for six 

 blooms of John Hopper, as he did for Marquise de Castellane 

 and Madame Gabriel Luizet. For twelve blooms of any other 

 variety, Mr. Fay was again first with General Jacqueminot, 

 Mr. Kidder being second with Magna Charta. 



Other large exhibitors of Roses were Dr. C. G. Weld and 

 John L. Gardner, of Brookline, both securing numerous prizes. 

 Mr. Fay's Roses were of fair size, although not exceptionally 

 large, well-colored, with good foliage, but, as a rule, lacked 

 substance. Among the dark-colored kinds Prosper Langier 

 was particularly noticeable, as was Jenny Dickson in the pinks. 

 His most interesting Rose, however, was probably the new 

 white Margaret Dickson, which is particularly beautiful in the 

 bud, and which, if it does as well in other localifies as it does 

 at Woods Holl, will be an important addition to the small num- 

 ber of first-rate light-colored hardy perpetuals. In Mr. Gard- 

 ner's collection Abel Carriere was noticeable for its great sub- 

 stance and perfect form. 



Remarkably well-grown and well-flowered Gloxinias were 

 shown by Dr. C. G. Weld, who received the first prize, and by 

 Mr. Charles Francis Adams. 



John L. Gardner and C. G. Weld exhibited small collections 

 of well-grown Orchids. Flowers of Cattleya Arnoldiana, from 

 the greenhouse of Hicks Arnold, Esq., of this city, were shown 

 in excellent condition and attracted much attention, as did 

 the new tropical African variegated Dracaena Sanderiana, 

 which was exhibited by its introducers, Sander & Company, of 

 St. Albans, England ; this is a plant with three or four stems 

 about eighteen inches high, clothed to the base with narrow, 

 acute, thick and leathery, dark green lustrous leaves banded 

 with light yellow stripes. It is as handsome as a good striped 

 grass and will probably be useful as a house-plant, as its tough- 

 ness and tenacity of life must be remarkable, this individual 

 plant having in the last six weeks been shown in Ghent, Chi- 

 cago and Boston. 



Mr. Thomas C. Thurlow made a remarkable display of dou- 

 ble-flowered herbaceous Pseonies in a hundred named varie- 

 ties. Such a collection has never been seen before in Boston, 

 and it should do much to arouse interest in this country in 



