620 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 20i„ 



serves moisture. I have been particularly struck with the 

 success of an old negro, a porter in a mercantile house in 

 Raleigh, in growing Tomatoes and keeping them up all 

 through the summer. So I sought him out and asked about 

 his method of cultivation. " Well, boss," said he, " I'se jess 

 got a bit of a gyarden to 'muse myself moonlight nights. I 

 keeps a pig and some chickens, and saves their manure, and 

 my boy scrapes up the boss droppin's on the road, and we 

 gits rich dirt and mixes it all up in a compose pile ready for 

 spring. Den, in April, when I sets out my Termatter-plants, I 

 digs a big hole for every one of 'em and fills it mos' full ob 



poses this stem too much to the sun and makes it short-lived. 

 I am inclined to believe that better success will be had here 

 from vines sprawling on the ground, and shading with their 

 foliage not only the stem of the plant but the ground as well. 

 I have abandoned varietal tests of Tomatoes, and will, here- 

 after, study modes of culture and development. 

 Raleigh, N.c. w. F. Massey. 



Dwarf Callas.— About two years ago there appeared in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle a cut of a new dwarf Calla, which created 

 considerable interest among gardeners and florists, inasmuch 





Fig. 99. — Corrective Works in one branch of the Torrent of Grollaz. — See page 621. 



dat compose. De holes is ober a foot deep. On de top f puts 

 some of de sile, and sets de plant right in de middle, wid a 

 stout stake alongside ob it, and ties de vine up to it ; and it 

 jess grows and grows, and keeps a-growin', an' I cuts off de 

 side shoots as soon as I see de blossom on 'em; Dat's all, 

 boss. Dem plants jess keep a-growing', and I cuts out de old 

 straggly stuff now an' then, and has fresh shoots an' Termatters 

 all de time." There is a lecture on Tomato culture ! Such 

 heavy manuring may not do everywhere, but in this climate 

 of alternate deluges and droughts the old colored man's plan 

 works well, and will be tried in my own work next season. I 

 am not sure, however, that it is advisable here to train the 

 plants off the ground. Close training to one main stem ex- 



as it was doubted whether its dwarfed character could be per- 

 petuated. That it is a genuine novelty has been fully proved 

 by a local florist, who imported a number of bulblets last 

 spring. The bulblets were very small, scarcely averaging the 

 size of a pea. About ninety per cent, of the importation lived, 

 and some have now reached the blooming stage. There is 

 every probability of its becoming an important winter-bloom- 

 ing pot-plant. In a six-inch pan it makes an elegant specimen, 

 and it would prove of great value for the decoration of the 

 dinner-table. The plants I saw were single crowns with twelve 

 fully developed leaves, one open spathe, and two others in the 

 process of development, and the whole plant was not more 

 than ten inches high from the soil. The spathes had six to 



