26 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 465. 



about the roots is also fatal, so that a well-drained soil is essen- 

 tial. This lack of ability to recover from any such check 

 means that the main crop should not be planted until the dan- 

 ger of a chill is over, although a few hardy sorts like the 

 Black-eyed Wax may be planted rather early. To avoid injur- 

 ing the plant and its roots, the soil ought to be made very fine 

 by deep spading, with well-rotted manure thoroughly mixed 

 in when necessary. A dressing of bone-dust and ashes before 

 the crop is planted is also desirable, since the Bean plant needs 

 potash and phosphoric acid more than it needs nitrogen. The 

 ground should be cultivated deeply and thoroughly two or 

 three times before the seed is planted, but after the leaves 

 appear nothing should be done except to cut down the weeds 

 by hoeing on the surface without disturbing the roots. The 

 same principles should be observed in cultivating the climb- 

 ing varieties — that is, deep and thorough fining of the soil 

 before the seed is sown, and then avoidance of tramping or 

 digging about the roots beyond what is absolutely necessary. 



Peppers and Eggplants.— Another suggestion of Professor 

 Tracy's which has been very useful to me is that we should re- 

 member in caring for Eggplants, Peppers and Tomatoes, that 

 they are annuals that have developed in tropical latitudes. In 

 their native home they grow steadily from the time the seed ger- 

 minates until the fruit ripens, and it this habit is interfered 

 with the plants are sure to resent it. Plants like Peas which 

 have their home in cold latitudes can remain stationary for a 

 long time under discouraging conditions, and as soon as these 

 are removed they will at once start into growth with increased 

 vigor; but this is not true of these tropical plants, and there- 

 fore nothing is gained by sowing the seed until there is just 

 time enough for them to reach the proper size for handling 

 and transplanting when the ground has become permanently 

 warm. It they are forced along before this and then held back 

 by cold weather they will spindle into a soft growth and never 

 yield a full crop. 



Tomatoes. — This vegetable comes from tropical America, 

 and it requires from 150 to 200 warm days to produce its fruit. 

 A temperature of at least seventy degrees, Fahrenheit, is 

 needed during the growing season of the plant, and Professor 

 Tracy tells us that ten degrees higher than this, both in the soil 

 and air, is required tor the best maturing of the fruit. In our 

 northern states this high temperature is only reached during 

 August and early September, and the proper temperature for 

 growth does not begin until the first of June, so that the season 

 must be extended artificially by starting young plants under 

 glass. Here the same law holds that has been alluded to in 

 the case of Peppers and Eggplants. Nothing will be gained by 

 sowing the seed so early that the plants become drawn and 

 spindling, for they will suffer a material check when they 

 are set out. In its native habitat for three or tour months the 

 plant grows every day and accumulates enough energy to 

 produce its fruit, and then it dies from exhaustion. If we want 

 a crop of tomatoes in late July or the first of August 

 nothing will be gained by sowing the seed before the 10th 

 of April, because if we give the seedlings the proper light and 

 air and heat to keep them growing strongly, they will be large 

 enough to transplant as early as the soil and air outside are 

 warm enough to receive them without giving them any check. 

 If the seed is sown on the first of March the plants would be 

 of full size by the time it was proper to transplant them. If 

 they have grown so slowly that at the end of these ninety days 

 they are only large enough to set out, this means that they 

 have not acquired that momentum of growth which is neces- 

 sary to produce the best crop. Of course, there are various 

 methods of transplanting which will forestall any wilting or 

 check from this process, but for ordinary cultivation the seed- 

 lings may be put into small pots, shifted on as fast as possible, 

 and while they are growing the ground which is to receive 

 them should be well fertilized and made fine by frequent and 

 deep cultivation, so that the plants may be set out in a warm 

 open soil that has already been cultivated thoroughly and 

 deeply. It is much easier and much better, from every point 

 of view, to do this work before the plants are set out. 



Onions.— Of course, the so-called new culture is the best. 

 Seed can be sown either in the greenhouse or in a hot-bed 

 about the middle of February, and the seedlings should be 

 transplanted into flats and then hardened off in cold frames. 

 Half an ounce of seed will make enough to plant a large area, 

 enough, indeed, for an ordinary sized family. After the ground 

 has been thoroughly worked in the spring the small bulbs 

 should be set in rows eighteen inches apart, and six inches 

 apart in the row. This crop is very troublesome to keep clean 

 when the seed is sown in drills where it is to grow, but when 

 treated in the way recommended the ground can be thoroughly 



cleaned before the young bulbs are transplanted and the labor 

 will be materially lessened. Varieties of a mild flavor are 

 desirable. Prizetaker is one of this kind. It is of good shape, 

 and is also valuable for its long-keeping quality. 



Monlclair, N.J. J. A. Newlin. 



India Rubber Plants. 



THE India Rubber plant, Ficus elastica, is the most satisfac- 

 tory tropical plant in general cultivation, as it can be grown 

 by everybody successfully, or, to put it more exactly, it is very 

 tenacious of life, and in all positions in the dwelling, green- 

 house or conservatory it flourishes with little attention. It 

 revels in abundance of water, yet a temporary dryness dis- 

 tresses it little. Sometimes a fall of temperature will cause it to 

 drop its leaves, making the plants rather unsightly. Judging 

 from the number of leggy and bare plants seen in living-rooms, 

 as well as in greenhouses, it does not seem to be generally 

 known that the production of lateral shoots, or new branches, 

 and bushy specimens is the simplest of horticultural operations. 

 Unless an India Rubber plant is bare in places a single- 

 stemmed specimen, up to five or six feet, is usually the most 

 satisfactory. For larger specimens, or when plants are de- 

 nuded of leaves, branches are most to be desired. To produce 

 these it is usually recommended to pinch out the leading 

 shoot. This will cause branching, but the new growths are 

 not apt to break where they are wanted most, and, besides this, 

 the loss of the leader spoils the plant as a specimen. The 

 simpler practice is to score the main axis where new growths 

 are desired. By making an incision across the stem with a 

 thick-bladed knife through the bark and slightly into the hard 

 wood, a flow of sap will ensue. This will soon be followed by 

 a callous, and from the edge of this a bud will usually be found 

 in a few weeks. This is simply an exemplification of the well- 

 known fact that buds mav be formed from any part of a plant 

 body, and we are all familiar with their occurrence, especially 

 on the stems and roots of hardwood plants. They are 

 more apt to occur near callosities, the result of inju- 

 ries, or near the axis of a leaf, where food is naturally 

 most abundant. It will usually be most satisfactory to score 

 the India Rubber plant above a leaf scar, and a large propor- 

 tion of the cuts will prove effective. My observation seems to 

 show that the new buds progress the most rapidlv on the part 

 of the stem best lighted, and that the growtiis aie made as 

 rapidly under ordinary house culture as in the greenhouse. 



Every one is familiar with the usual practice of shortening 

 India Rubber plants by wrapping sphagnum around the stems 

 where roots are desired. By keeping the sphagnum moist, 

 roots are soon emitted, and the upper shoot may be taken off 

 and planted. They are also propagated in the greenhouse by 

 using single leaves with a portion of the stem, plunging them 

 in sand and keeping at a high temperature, it seems strange 

 that a score kept dry will insure a bud, but if wrapped in a 

 moist medium will produce roots. A ready way to shorten 

 these plants in summer is to bank the earth up the stems, and 

 use the new roots formed instead of the old ones. In this 

 era of rubber-tired wheels, India rubber has become commer- 

 cially of increasing importance, and the demand for the higher 

 grade of the product is especially urgent, as the lower qualities 

 quickly disintegrate after soft vulcanization. I am told by ex- 

 perts that there is no certain test of the commercial gum, 

 though fine dry "upland" Para gum usually produces good 

 results, yet the industry is always subject to uncertainty from 

 our lack of knowledge of the constitution of this substance. I 

 know of one concern which lost a fortune and its reputation 

 for certain finished goods, which it had maintained for a 

 number of years, because they had unwittingly bought gum 

 from some section where the juice had a different structure, 

 rendering it unfit for vulcanization, yet in appearance and 

 working no expert could determine the difference. We 

 progress rather faster in philosophical deductions than plant- 

 knowledge. 



Elizabeth, N.J. J.N.Gerard. 



Seasonable Work. 



AS the days lengthen, signs of growth will be seen among 

 various plants that have been more or less dormant for 

 some months past, and this means that the time for repotting, 

 dividing and propagating is at hand. Caladiums and Alocasias, 

 after their needed winter rest, are about to start, although the 

 foliage of Alocasias does not die off entirely from some of the 

 species, as it does with Caladiums when, they rest. To econo- 

 mize space, many growers shake out Caladium-bulbs in the 

 fall and store them in pans or boxes of sand under the stage 



