452 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 187. 



beds means the failure of the crop. The first sowing is usually 

 made the last week in September — at the time when the north- 

 ern farmer is getting ready for the long winter — and the sow- 

 ing is kept up with seed of both varieties until the first week 

 in November, and this gives a succession of plants for trans- 

 planting into the fields. This transplanting begins in Decem- 

 ber and continues until the middle of January. 



The fields are little pockets of earth scattered here and there 

 over the island, being deposits in the depression between the 

 rocks at some period during the submergence of the island; 

 they seldom contain an area of more than two acres, and the 

 larger proportion of them contain less than half an acre. 

 These fields are usually surrounded with Oleander-hedges to 

 keep off the winter gales which are likely to do some harm to 

 tender vegetation. The soil is prepared with great care 

 by plowing or spading in stable-manure, sea-weed and every 

 artificial fertilizer known in the market. Beds three feet wide 

 are made by treading paths through the field, and in these 

 beds the little plants, about as large as a goose-quill, are trans- 

 planted from the seed-beds. This is a rather slow process, 

 but the Bermudian farmer finds it much the best method of 

 cultivation. It is often asked by Americans, " Why not sow 

 the seeds in the field to begin with, and thus save all this labor 

 of transplanting ? " In the first place, the Onion makes a bet- 

 ter growth and forms a better bulb when transplanted, and not 

 two out of a hundred plants are lost by transplanting, as they 

 are sure to take root, and in two or three days are just as fresh 

 as when they were taken from the seed-bed. Again, it takes 

 from four and a half to five months for the Onion to mature 

 for the market from the seed, and from two to two and a half 

 months of this period, while the plants are in their tender 

 growth, is spent in the seed-beds, where one man can weed 

 and care for enough plants for ten acres. If these plants were 

 in the fields, at this stage, it would take at least ten men to 

 keep the weeds down, and therefore much labor is saved. 

 Bermuda weeds do not succumb to the hoe and sun as in the 

 north, but each weed must be carefully pulled by the roots and 

 carried away to the pig-pen or else spaded deep in the walk- 

 ways. 



I suppose no land is free from plant-disease, and the Onion 

 here has its diseases, though the only one causing much trouble 

 is a fungus growth, attacking the leaf just as the bulb is forming, 

 causing the leaves to rot and arresting the growth of the 

 bulb. 



When the Onion is ready for the market, men, women and 

 children, mostly colored, are employed to pull, pack and cart 

 to the steamer, packing the Onions in bushel crates made 

 from box stuff brought in shooks from Maine. These crates, 

 when ready for packing, cost about twelve cents each. Dur- 

 ing the crop season a steamer is loaded and departs for New 

 York every Thursday. The balance of the year we only have 

 fortnightly communication with New York. 



The number of crates harvested from an acre varies with 

 the year, season and amount of disease. I have known eight 

 hundred crates. to be gathered from an acre, but probably two 

 hundred is nearer the average. The price varies with the 

 season, usually opening in January at $2 a bushel box here, 

 and rapidly dropping to $1.50, and then on down to $1 and to 

 75c. in May. 



The average price paid here for the past six years is as 

 follows: 1886, $1.35; 1887, $1; 1888, $1.65; 1889, 53c; 1890, 

 $1.44 ; 1891, $1.28. 



The quantity shipped for the same period is as follows : 

 1886, 154,000 bushels; 1887, 197,000 bushels; 1888, 163,000 

 bushels; 1889, 227,000 bushels; 1890, 252,000 bushels; 1891, 

 261,000 bushels. 



The total number of acres cultivated on the island in the 

 winter of 1890-91 in Onions, Potatoes, Tomatoes and Beets 

 was 2,422. 



Much alarm was felt over the M'Kinley bill, as onions now 

 pay to the United States a duty of forty cents per bushel, but, 

 after all, the price kept up well through all the season. The 

 Bermudians generally feel that they pay this tax, as that 

 amount has to be paid before they can enter into competition 

 with the American farmer. $104,400 was paid into the United 

 States Treasury by somebody because of the importation of 

 261,000 bushels of Bermuda Onions into the port of New York 

 during the winter of 1890-91. As the average price paid here 

 was less than any year, except one, during the past six years, 

 I am inclined to think we pay the tax. 



Hamilton, Bermuda Island. RusseU Hastings. 



[The illustration of an Onion-field in Bermuda, on page 

 451, gives a fair idea of the general appearance of the 

 scanty farm-fand on the island and the ever-present 

 Cedars. — Ed. J 



Cultural Department. 



Insecticides for Greenhouse Plants. 



T N the press of fall work the cleaning of plants is often post- 

 -*• poned until some more convenient time, and this is usually 

 regretted afterward when the stock is found permanently in- 

 jured by the ravages of scale or other insects. Among Palms, 

 for instance, some of the scale insects are the most trouble- 

 some, and if allowed to remain on the foliage or stems for any 

 length of time the plant will be badly disfigured. A whale-oil 

 soap solution, made by dissolving one ounce of the soap in 

 one gallon of water, or a very weak kerosene emulsion, may 

 be applied with a spray-pump or syringe about once a week, 

 with good effect, though if a plant is badly infested with scale 

 it will need more than mere spraying to clean it. In using the 

 kerosene emulsion it is safest to make the solution rather 

 weak, to guard against injury to the young foliage if the liquid 

 drains down into the heart of the plant. 



Some of the prepared insecticides, for instance, Fir-tree oil,. 

 may also be used in the same manner, and they are doubtless 

 of some value, though much more expensive than the home- 

 made remedies. Thrips are best controlled by the use of 

 tobacco-stems for fumigating, or the infected plants can be 

 dipped in tobacco-water, the latter plan being most convenient 

 where many kinds of plants are grown in the same house. 

 Red spider is seldom found among plants that are syringed 

 properly, but when it gets a foothold in a warm house the 

 plants should be carefully sponged at once. 



The so-called "spot" on Pandanus, and on P. ittilis espe- 

 cially, is caused by a minute mite or insect, and is not, as some 

 have supposed, due to a fungus, and the most satisfactory 

 remedy is thorough dusting with sulphur. The credit of this 

 discovery should be given to Professor Halstead, of the New 

 Jersey Experiment Station, who kindly examined specimens 

 and suggested the remedy which has proved effective in 

 practice. 



The Ferns are subject to various insect pests, the most in- 

 jurious of which are scale and thrips, and as these plants will 

 not endure as much smoke as the insects will, it becomes nec- 

 essary to depend on dipping the plants in weak tobacco solu- 

 tions. Some of this trouble may be avoided, however, by 

 keeping the Fern-house as cool- as the welfare of the plants 

 will permit during the winter. Many of the best-known spe- 

 cies thrive admirably in a temperature of fifty degrees at night. 

 Another troublesome pest to the Fern-grower are the snails, 

 and while the old-fashioned method of spreading about the 

 house cabbage-leaves or pieces of potatoes as traps is still a 

 good one, yet a cleaner and more efficient plan is to sprinkle 

 camphor among the plants. This gum is so obnoxious to the 

 snails that a few pieces the size of a pea thrown in the crown 

 of a large Adiantum will surely drive them out. Of course, 

 the camphor needs renewing from time to time, as it soon 

 evaporates, and, consequently, will cost rather more than the 

 old vegetable remedies. 



Among other insecticides that I have tested for general use 

 are corrosive sublimate, one part in solution with 2,000 parts 

 of water, and carbolic acid in various degrees of strength, but 

 with little success in either case. Acetic ether is useful at 

 times to destroy mealy-bugs in the flower-trusses of Ixoras or 

 Stephanotis, but it should be applied with a camel's-hair brush. 

 Sulphate of lime has been recommended for scale on Orange- 

 trees, but my experiments with this mixture on some young 

 Palms have not proved successful. 



Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Tapllfl. 



Border Flowers in Autumn. 



Erythrol^ena conspicua. — This plant, the "Scarlet Mexi- 

 can Thistle," as it has been styled, promises to be useful for 

 sub-tropical bedding, for, though only a thistle, it has an im- 

 posing appearance when well grown, and when in flower 

 arrests attention at once by the bright-colored bracts of the 

 flowers. From a packet of seeds sown in February we ob- 

 tained three plants, which were liberally treated, and one of 

 these is now flowering. It is six feet high, with branches 

 overshadowing a square yard of ground. The plant is dis- 

 tinct in habit, and, when in flower, very ornamental. It is 

 necessary to sow the seed early in the year to get the plants to 

 flower the same summer, as our seasons are too short, and, 

 as it is, we shall not be able to obtain any seed this year. 



Helianthus mollis. — Of the many species of hardy Sun- 

 flowers this is one deserving of front rank as a hardy garden- 

 plant. I know of no species that flowers with such persistency, 

 for since it began in July we have always had an abundance 

 of bloom, and there are still many to follow until frost comes. 



