INDFA LLS. 



243 



done, if we desire to have, in the new and improved va- 

 rieties apple trees with all the hardiness of the parent 

 species. Let the new race of apples be pure American. 

 — F. L. Temple, Mass. 



Double Apples. — Double apples are occasionally 

 found. They are formed by the union of two flowers. 

 Some varieties have a tendency towards such monstros- 

 ity. Fig. I shows a double apple, half size, of very com- 



FiG. I. A Double Apple. 



men occurrence upon a certain old seedling tree, which 

 bears fruit much like the Autumn Swaar. In some 

 years twenty such apples could be found upon this tree. 

 It is not common that double apples are so symmetrical 

 as this. One part usually far outgrows the other, as in 

 Fig. 2, the drawing for which was sent me by a corres- 

 pondent in California. — L. H. Bailey. 



Onions from Sets. — After reading Mr. Crawford's 

 experience in growing onions (see page 33, Jan. issue), 

 I thought I would give our plan of growing them, and if 

 it did not do him any good, it might perhaps help some- 

 one else. We sow the seed in a hot-bed in February. 

 We use a bed fourteen feet long by eight inches wide. 

 We drill the seed in rows three inches apart in the bed. 

 Two beds this size will raise enough sets or plants to set 

 one-eighth of an acre. These, in a good season, will 

 raise from sixty to seventy-five bushels of onions. Of 

 course, the richer your land is the larger your onions 

 will grow, and the more bushels they will make. 



We have been growing them for a good many years 

 on the same ground. We manure it heavily in the fall, 

 and plow under ; then stir the land in the spring as soon 

 as good and dry. You need be in no great hurry, for 

 your plants are growing in the hot-bed. Work the 

 ground as fine as possible. A very good tool for this 

 purpose is a drag or boat made like the roof of a house, 

 that is, one board laps over the other. We have one 

 three feet long, for one horse. We can get around easily 

 with this, on a small piece of ground. We now take a 

 marker like a cross, the stem of the cross being the 

 handle to pull by. Make the cross stick forty inches 

 long ; put a pin in each end of the cross stick, and one 

 in the middle; stretch a line at one side to start with. 

 Take the handle of your marker, place one pin against 



the line, walk backward and draw the marker after you ; 

 this will make three marks. In returning, let the end 

 pin run in the last mark ; you will then make four marks 

 twenty inches apart at each round. We then take a 

 small plow that a boy can pull. One boy pulls and one 

 holds the handles. This makes a furrow about right to 

 set the plants in. Set them about three or four inches 

 apart in the row. Now it is no more trouble to set out 

 these plants (which will be about as large as peas) 

 than to put out sets, and everyone will make a large 

 onion if the land is good. There will be no hand- 

 pulling of grass or weeds, for you can go right to 

 howing or plowing them with a hand plow. None of 

 them will go to seed, and they are much sweeter than 

 when grown by sets. We grow the Yellow Danvers 

 altogether ; they are far the best keeper of any we 

 have grown. We can make money by growing them 

 this way at fifty cents per bushel. — J. W. Simmons, 

 /;/ ( V//<) Farincr. 



How to promote Fruitfulness. — It is not gener- 

 ally understood, even by men of more than average 

 intelligence, that the fruit-buds for a crop of apples, 

 pears, peaches, cherries and currants, must be devel- 

 oped and matured one season in advance of the crop. 

 If no fruit-buds are matured this season on an apple 

 tree, there will be no apples next year. So it is with 

 currant bushes. If the worms are permitted to destroy 

 all the leaves, the fruit-buds cannot be developed and 

 matured, consequently there will be no fruit the suc- 

 ceeding year. During an absence in the summer of 

 18S8, the currant worms destroyed nearly every leaf on 

 the bushes. The crop of currants the next year was a 



Fig. 2. Double Apple, 



complete failure. I am now preparing the bushes for a 

 bountiful crop next season. An eye is kept on the 

 bushes, to see if any worms have appeared. A pail, 

 containing a weak solution of London purple, is kept 

 hanging on a hook in the cellar, where no children or 



