D. M. FERRY & GO'S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



29 



six inches apart, covering the whole with two inches of 

 light soil, and protect from cold and rain. One brick will 

 plant eight to ten square feet of bed. The mushrooms will 

 appear in about six weeks. Water sparingly and with luke- 

 narm water. 



MUSTARD. 



French, Moutard. German, Senf. 



Mustard is not only used as a condiment, but the green 

 leaves are used as a salad, or cut and boiled like spinage. 



Culture— Should be the same as that of Cress. 



SOUTHERN GIANT CURLED.— This mustard is very highly 

 esteemed in the South, where the seed is sown in the fall, and 

 the plants used very early in the spring as a salad. Our stock 

 is the true curled leaf. The seed is brown and produces plants 

 which often grow two feet high and of greater breadth, 

 forming enormous bunches. 



ONION. 



Southern Giant Curled 



WHITE ENGLISH.- The leaves are light green, mild and 

 tender when young; seed light yellow. 



NASTURTIUM. 



French, Capucine. German, Kapuziner Kress. 



Culture.— Sow after the ground is warm, in drills one inch 

 deep, by the side of a fence, trellis work, or some other sup- 

 port, to climb upon. They will thrive in good ground in 

 almost any situation, but are more productire in a light soil. 



TALL MIXED.— Cultivated both for use and ornament. 

 Its beautiful orange colored flowers serve as a garnish for 

 dishes, and the young leaves are excellent for salads. The 

 flower buds, scarcely formed, and the green seed pods pre- 

 served in vinegar, make a pickle greatly esteemed by many. 



For other varieties see Flower Seeds. 



OKRA. 



French, Gombo. German, Ocher. 



This is an annual from the West Indies, cultivated for its 

 green seed pods, which are used in soups or stewed and served 

 like asparagus. It is highly esteemed in the 

 South for making gumbo soup. The pods when 

 young and tender should be sliced in sections 

 and strung on a thread and hung up in the shade 

 to cure like dried apples; in this condition they 

 can be used for soup at any time. 



Culture.— Sow the seed thinly in dry, warm 



soil, in shallow drills two feet apart. After 



the plants are up. thin them out to nine inches 



apart; hoe frequently and draw a little earth 



to the stems as they continue to 



grow. Gather the pods when 



quite green, and about an inch 



and a half long. 



WHITE VELVET.— This vari- 

 ety is a great improvement on 

 the old White or the Green. The 

 plant is of medium height, bear- 

 ing a large crop of white, smooth, 

 tender pods, which retain their 

 tenderness until nearly full size. 



DWARF WHITE.-The long- 

 TE Velvet. est podded variety. Two feet 



, . , liigh, very productive; mature 

 pods a foot long, very thick and fleshy. 



French, Oynon. German, Zweibel. 

 The onion not only contains considerable nutriment and has 

 valuable medicinal properties, but is most useful in counter- 

 acting the bad effects of sedentary life. The disagreeable 

 odor it imparts to the breath may be avoided in a great meas- 

 ure by thorough cooking, or by eating a few leaves of parsley. 



HOW TO RAISE ONIONS. 



This is a question we are asked many times every year, and 

 which we will try to answer from our experience in raising 

 many thousands of bushels. 



Soil.— A good crop of onions can be grown on any soil 

 which will produce a full crop of corn, unless it be a stiff clay, 

 very light sand or gravel, or certain varieties of muck or 

 swamp lands, on which they invariably grow necky and can- 

 not be made to ripen down well, while other muck soils give 

 immense crops of the finest quality. The difference is largely 

 due to the drainage. Muck land must be sweet and well 

 drained, in order to raise good onions ; ordinary swamp land 

 will not do, and even in the best of muck, the first crop is apt 

 to be soft and neck}'. We prefer a rich, sandy loam, with a 

 light mixture of clay. This is much better if it has been cul- 

 tivated with hoed crops, kept clean of weeds and well 

 manured for two years previous, because if a sufficient quan- 

 tity of manure to raise an ordinary soil to a proper degree of 

 fertility is applied at once, it is likelj' to make the onions soft. 



Manure.— There is no crop where a liberal use of manure 

 is more essential than in this. Even on the deep, black muck 

 onion lands of the Western Reserve, manure is essential to a 

 good crop, and not only is the quantity but the quality of the 

 manure used of the greatest importance. If it is too rank it 

 is quite sure to make soft onions, with many scallions. It 

 should be well fermented and shoveled over at least twice 

 during the previous summer to kill weed seeds. Of the com- 

 mercial manures, we prefer fine ground bone to any other, 

 but large crops are raised by the use of superphosphates. 



Preparation.— Remove all refuse of previous crops in time 

 to comi^lete the work before the ground freezes up, and 

 spread the composted manure evenly, at the rate of about 

 fifty cart loads to the acre. This should first be cultivated in, 

 and then the ground ploughed a moderate depth, taking a 

 narrow funow, in order to thoroughly mix the manure with 

 the soil. Carefully avoid tramping on the ground during the 

 winter. Cultivate or thoroughly drag the soil with a heavy 

 harrow as early in the spring as it can be worked, and then, 

 in the opposite direction, with a light one, after which the en- 

 tire surface should be raked with steel hand rakes. It is impos- 

 sible to cultivate the crop economically unless the rows are 

 perfectly straight: to secure this, stretch a line along one side, 

 fourteen feet from the edge, and make a distinct mark along 

 it; then, having made a wooden marker, something like a 

 giant rake with five teeth about a foot long and standing 

 fourteen inches apart, make four more marks by carefully 

 drawing it with the outside tooth in, and ihe head at right 

 angles to the perfectly straight mark made bj- the line. Con- 

 tinue to work around this line until on the third passage of 

 the marker j'ou reach the side of the field where yoxi began; 

 measure fifteen feet two inches from the last row, stretch the 

 line again, and mark around in the same way. This is better 

 than to stretch a line along one side, as it is impossible to pre- 

 vent the rows gradually becoming crooked, and by this plan 

 we straighten them after everj- third passage of the marker. 



Sowing the Seed.— This should be done as soon as the 

 ground can be gotten ready, and can be done best by a hand 

 seed drill. This should be carefully adjusted (testing it by 

 running it over a barn floor), to sow the desired quantity of 

 seed and about one-half inch deep. The quantity needed will 

 vary with the soil, the seed used, and the kind of onions desired. 

 Thin seeding gives much larger onions than thick. Four or 

 five pounds is the usual quantity needed to grow large onions. 

 We use a drill with a roller attached, but if the drill has none, 

 the ground should be well rolled with a hand roller immedi- 

 ately after the seed is planted. 



Cultivation.— Give the onions the first hoeing, just skim- 

 ming the ground between the rows, as soon as they can be 

 seen the length of the row. The blade of the hoe we use for 

 this purpose is eight inches long and one and one-half broad, 

 with a long, crooked shank, set in a handle five feet long. This 

 hoe allows the earth to pass over the blade without moving it 

 out of its place. Hoe again in a few days, this time close up 

 to the plants, after which weeding must be continued. This 

 operation requires to be carefully and thoroughlj- done. The 

 weeder must work on his knees astride of the row. stirring 

 the earth around the plants, in order to destroy any weeds 

 that have just started. In ten days or two weeks they will 

 require another hoeing and weeding similar to the last: and 

 two weeks later give them still another hoeing, and if neces- 

 sary another weeding. If the work has been thoroughly done 

 at the proper time, the crop will not require further care until 

 ready to gather. 



Gathering.— As soon as the tops die and fall the crop should 

 be gathered by pulling four rows anil laying them in a single 

 one, the tops all one way, and then returning on the next four, 

 forming a similar row, liut with the tops in the opposite direc- 

 tion: laying the tops in this way greatly facilitates the 

 "topping."'' ' If the weather is fine they will "need no att»'ntion 



