July 30, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



6 



73 



mean temperature of forty-five degrees should be maintained, 

 and, if kept cool, Cinerarias are seldom troubled with in- 

 sects. In heated structures they soon become infested with 

 green liy. A mild fumigation with Tobacco-stems should be 

 given weekly as a preventive, for if green fly is not kept off 

 the plants the flowers will not be worth seeing. The plants 

 should be kept growing steadily and rapidly from the seed 

 until they flower. This is essential, and therefore they should 

 be kept clean and healthy, and should never be allowed to 

 become dry, starved or pot-bound. 



Staten Island. W. 1. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



T^ ACH year's experience with the little Bush Lima Bean sent 

 *-* out last year by Peter Henderson &Co. confirms my first 

 impression of its great value; and I had an opportunity to ob- 

 serve it before its dissemination. This Bush Lima is a variety 

 of the Small Lima Bean, and it originated in Campbell County, 

 Virginia. Its small size was a disappointment to many who 

 bought it for the first time, but its earliness, remarkable pro- 

 ductiveness and good quality will atone for this. It is a well 

 known fact in the south that the old large Lima is very un- 

 productive anywhere south of the Potomac, and the small 

 Lima, known south as the "Butter Bean," has always been a 

 favorite sort here. The Small Bush Lima ought to be a favor- 

 ite in the north, on account of its earliness, which prolongs the 

 season for this delicious vegetable. Here in Raleigh we can have 

 the Bush Lima in abundance by the middle of June, nearly a 

 month earlier than the large pole Lima is ready, and the same 

 difference will probably hold good at the north. This season 

 a pint of these beans planted in my garden has given an 

 abundant daily supply to a family of twelve persons since the 

 middle of June, and as I write (July 19th) there is no let up in 

 the blooming and pod-making. I believe now, though disposed 

 to doubt it at first, that a larger yield per acre can be had from 

 the bush than from the pole bean of the same species. This 

 will be accurately tested at the Experiment Station here next 

 year. 



Flat Strap Leaf Turnips for family use should not be sown 

 too early. These Turnips, when in perfection, which is only in 

 autumn, are the sweetest and best for table use. They should, 

 however, be grown almost as rapidly as radishes to be good. 

 If sown too early in highly enriched soil they grow large and 

 pithy and are not so sweet. The middle of August at the 

 north is early enough, and a month or more later in this lati- 

 tude is better. The seed should not be sown broadcast. We 

 usually open furrows with a plow, when they are grown on a 

 large scale, about two and a half feet apart. In these furrows 

 a heavy dressing of superphosphate is sown and a light fur- 

 row turned from each side over the first one, forming a 

 sharp ridge. A roller is then run over the ridges lengthwise, 

 flattening them nearly to the soil level. The seeds are then 

 sown with a drill on the flattened ridges, and over the fertilizer. 



The black flea beetle (Haltica) attacks them as soon as they 

 germinate, but a dusting of air-slaked lime will usually expel 

 them. If the lime alone is not sufficient, use a very small por- 

 tion of Paris green, say one-half of one per cent, of the whole. 



The Chinese Rose Colored Winter Radish can also be sown 

 in the same way and at about the same time, or, better, a little 

 later. In this latitude these are best when sown the last of 

 September, and a second sowing can be made later still if the 

 first ones promise to be too large. We leave them to stand 

 where they grow for winter use protected only by the Chick- 

 weed, which here mats over every fertile spot in winter. Even 

 in the north I think they might be left where they grow and 

 covered with a heavy coat of straw or forest-leaves. They 

 keep well in moist sand in a cool cellar. 



The earthing-up of Celery should not be begun too early, ex- 

 cept of a little for fall use. Celery earthed and blanched in 

 hot weather is not usually a good article. Whenever the win- 

 ters are not too cold the bed system practiced around Balti- 

 more is best. These beds are six feet wide by any length, and 

 the plants are set in rows across the bed a foot apart and six 

 inches in the rows. The whole bed is earthed up en masse and 

 finally covered with forest-leaves, and the plants are allowed 

 to stand where they grow. Celery grown in these beds has a 

 crispness which is not found in Celery that is lifted for storing 

 in winter. Even at the north Celery could be kept if a rough 

 board roof were thrown over the banked base and then cov- 

 ered with straw to exclude the frost. 



The dwarf Celeries are best at the north, but south of the Po- 

 tomac the half dwarf and the old large sorts are the best. In 

 this latitude our chief difficulty is to get it to stop growing. 

 Last winter being unusually mild, our Celery nearly all ran up 

 to bloom and seed in midwinter. 



The practice of growing a late fall crop of Irish Potatoes, I 

 believe, is destined to extend not only in the south, but a good 

 deal further north than the experiment has hitherto been made. 

 Years ago, even in the south, a late crop of Irish Potatoes was 

 a very uncertain matter. But we have learned how to grow 

 them here with certainty, and by the use of southern prepared 

 seed Potatoes the planting could be extended with profit 

 northward. The best practice here is to take Potatoes of 

 the early crop and spread them out in a light shed until well 

 greened by the light. These are then bedded on a piece of 

 mellow ground in beds of any convenient width about the 

 middle of July, the Potatoes being laid just so as not to touch 

 each other. The bed is then covered with two or three inches 

 of soil, and left until planting time, which is here from the 

 middle to the last of August. " By this time all the immature 

 potatoes will have rotted or dried up, and the good ones will 

 be well sprouted. These are then planted in shallow furrows, 

 without cutting, and covered with not more than two inches 

 of soil above the potato. The earth is packed to them with a 

 roller, and in the after culture more soil is drawn to them. 

 Growers in the latitude of Philadelphia, by taking these south- 

 ern grown potatoes and planting in the middle of July, could, I 

 feel sure, raise a fine crop. They should plant the seed pota- 

 toes much more thickly, to allow for the rotting, which we do 

 in the beds. The chief point to observe is to cover these late 

 planted potatoes very lightly. Deep planting at this season 

 will always give a bad stand. Southern potatoes, well greened, 

 could be shipped at low rates, since the cuttings of the early 

 crop are the ones generally used. 



Agricultural Experiment Station, Raleigli, N. C. tV. F. Massey. 



I 



The Dewberry. 



N the issue of Garden and Forest for July 9th Mr. Jack 

 writes: " In a wild state the fruit (of the Dewberry) is very 

 variable in size and flavor, but by selection and under cultiva- 

 tion it is possible to produce berries which, for size and flavor, 

 cannot be distinguished from some of the best blackberries." 



One would infer from this paragraph that the dewberry at 

 its best is equal in point of size and quality to the best black- 

 berries, a statement which does scant justice to the delicious, 

 melting juiciness of the dewberry. To my own taste this fruit 

 is surpassed in quality by the strawberry alone. 



Except in form and color the dewberry differs nearly as much 

 from the blackberry as from the raspberry. Its time of ma- 

 turity is between the two, being at its best just as the raspber- 

 ries are failing and before the blackberry-season has really 

 commenced. 



The Dewberry does not succeed well in all localities. In 

 my first trials, which were with Bartell's and the Mammoth 

 varieties at Geneva, New York, the plants were quite unpro- 

 ductive, and the fruits filled out very poorly. In the summer 

 of 1889, however, I saw a plantation of Bartell's Dewberry on 

 the farm of Hon. H. C. Adams, of Madison, Wisconsin, that 

 convinced me in a moment that there is a future for this fruit. 

 The vines were well loaded with the beautiful, glossy berries, 

 many of which were nearly or quite two inches in length, and 

 by the side of them the finest blackberries appeared common- 

 place indeed. And they were superior in taste as well as in 

 appearance. Mr. Adams told me that he had no difficulty in 

 securing several cents more per quart for them than "for 

 blackberries. 



There is certainly a promising field for work in the im- 

 provement of the Dewberry. Seedlings of it may be grown 

 witfi the greatest ease, and require but a short time to come 

 into bearing. The difficulties of cultivating this fruit are little 

 greater than in the case of the Strawberry. The fact that the 

 stems are trailing is an advantage in cold climates, as they are 

 the more easily protected in winter and are more likely to be 

 sheltered by snow. One grower mentioned the fact that the 

 vines of the Dewberry form a natural hiding-place for ser- 

 pents, and in localities where these abound he has found diffi- 

 culty in inducing timid pickers to gather the crop. 



University of Wisconsin, Madison. A. „S. Ooff. 



Erpetion reniforme.— This pretty little Australian Violet will 

 not prove hardy in the colder states, but any one who has the 

 protection of a greenhouse to give it in winter will be de- 

 lighted with the abundance of modest little blue and white 

 flowers all through springand summer. Our plants were raised 

 from seed sown in October last, and kept in the greenhouse 

 all winter, where they commenced to flower in April. The 

 plants form numerous creeping stems, from which come a 

 dense mass of small green leaves, and flowers on stems about 

 two inches high. These latter resemble other Violets, except 



