20 



SOME FLOWERS AND VEGETABLES. 



wild state here and there in low lands from Canada to 

 Georgia. It is a desirable addition to every consider- 

 able collection of shrubs. Occupying a range of lati- 

 tude, in the main squth of Washington, are several va- 

 rieties of no special superiority. The large clethra {C. 

 aciiminnta), a shrub or tree from lo to i8 feet high, 

 native of Kentucky and of the region between Virginia 

 and South Carolina, is classed as a distinct species. The 

 flowers are much like the first named. 



A Valuable Rose. — Another season's trial with the 

 new .polyantha rose, Clothilde Soupert, confirms the 

 forme-r good opinion expressed regarding its behavior on 

 our grounds. During the winter, a year ago, the only 

 protection given our plant was to bend it over and 

 cover it lightly with earth, the same as we did the hybrid 

 perpetuals in the same bed. The plant came through 

 safely and did remarkably well all through the season, 

 giving forth its crop of very double rose-tinted flowers 

 with scarcely an intermission from June to October. 

 When the bloom of the hybrid perpetuals was at low 

 ebb in August and September, the Clothilde Soupert 

 was throwing off large crops of its delightful flowers. 



The Scarlet Clematis (C coccmea) is one of the 

 decidedly good things introduced in recent years. It is 

 quite distinct from any other of our well-known clem- 

 atises. The flowers have thick, fleshy urn-shaped petals 

 of a bright red color, and are produced in great profu- 

 sion throughout the summer. The shoots die back in 

 winter, but new ones spring from the root the next sea- 

 son. It is in interesting and handsome plant. 



New Po.nts in Onion-growing. — We had intended 

 to grow an acre of Prize-taker onions on the system 

 termed " the new onion culture." Changes in the gen- 

 eral plan of the work, however, made it desirable to cut 

 this area down to one-third or less ; and even this scale 

 proved large enough to develop a good many "new 

 points," and to show the real merits of the new way. 



We are experimenters rather than market-growers, 

 and aim for the largest amount of knowledge rather 

 than for the largest amount of cash from a given piece 

 of ground. This makes it necessary to sow seed in 

 various ways, in hotbed and in coldframe, and at 

 various times, and set the plants at various stages of 

 growth, some earlier and some later, some closer and 

 some wider apart, and in land variously prepared. All 

 this again accounts for great lack of uniformity in the 

 crop, and for the fact that different parts of the patch 

 varied in yield, through every stage, from almost nothing 

 to fully 2,000 bushels per acre. With good plants, set 

 early in rich, well-prepared ground, and in an average 

 fair season, the latter figure is easily reached. 



One of the most important of the new points devel- 

 oped this season is that we can not safely dispense with 

 at least moderate artificial heat in growing the plants, if 

 we wish to have them as early and as large as needed 

 for full success. Sometimes the weather in February 

 and March is warm and bright enough to give us good 

 plants even in a coldframe, but the moderate hotbed or 

 greenhouse alone can insure this essential point. 



Stocky plants of from one-eighth to three-sixteenths 

 of an inch in diameter, set early, with ordinary care (say 

 by May first, or at any rate not more than a week later) 

 will be pretty sure to give you an even stand, without 

 gap in the row, that will bear a uniform crop of good 

 marketable bulbs. If you set small, poor, yellowish- 

 appearing plants in June, and the weather is otherwise 

 favorable, you may expect a good crop of immense 

 scallions. After this season's experience, we believe 

 that the character of the plants and the time they are 

 planted, and not the character of the soil, is what deter- 

 mines whether the resulting onions are well-ripened 

 sound bulbs, or worthless scallions, although the pedi- 

 gree of the seed undoubtedly has also a great influence 

 in this direction. It was good, indeed, to see a row 

 of Prize-takers just before harvesting, as grown from 

 these A No. i plants set early in May — every bulb per- 

 fect, weighing a pound apiece and upwards, some of 

 them reaching a pound and a half. It was also a sight 

 to behold — the mass of enormous scallions grown from 

 small plants set in June. 



As to distance between plants in the row, we find that 

 Prize-taker, Spanish King, and the White Victoria (an 

 excellent variety, by the way) do not require, under 

 ordinary circumstances, more than three inches or three 

 and one-half at the outside. The old standard sorts, 

 Yellow Dan vers, White Globe, Yellow Dutch, etc., 

 should be set as close as two or two and one-half inches 

 in the row. All onions can stand crowding pretty well. 

 A foot distance between the rows is ample, and should 

 not be exceeded if the largest yield is aimed at. 



We like uniformity in the distances between the plants 

 in each row. Bulbs of uniform size and the largest 

 acre rate can not be expected, if plants are set promis- 

 cuously from two to six inches apart. The eye of the 

 average youngster is but a poor device for measuring off 

 these small distances. Something to aid him in this 

 task is needed. We get over the difficulty by marking 

 the ground, a foot apart each way, and by telling our 

 hands to set one plant in each cross-mark, and three 

 (for Prize-taker, White Victoria, etc.) or four (for other 

 varieties) between each two cross-marks. 



Another good way is to let a person having a good eye 

 for small distances go ahead of the planters, and with 

 a long-handled dibber (hoe-handle with lower end 

 sharpened to point) mark a hole for each plant. The 

 latter method is probably the best and most expeditious 

 that could be devised. The planters can then do their 

 work with the fingers alone, and dispense with dibbers. 



The cultivation between the rows, as in former sea- 

 sons, was all done with Gregory's finger-weeder and 

 the ' ' Planet Jr. " hand-wheel hoe. In running it we had 

 some trouble with half-rotten tomato-stalks and other 

 stringy rubbish, which had been carelessly left on the 

 ground from the previous year's crop. Everything 

 of a coarse, stringy nature that we can not get entirely 

 out of the way by plowing under deeply should be 

 raked up and taken off the ground before plowing. 

 New Points in Marketing Onions. — The ordinary 



