374 



H' I N D FA LLS. 



Remove all the fruit before it commences to ripen as the 

 vines will cease to set any fruit as soon as the seeds com- 

 mence to mature; and be very careful to cut the stem 

 instead of pulling the fruit off. 



The first sowing should be made about the middle of 

 May and afterwards every two weeks up to the middle of 

 July, in order to insure a constant supply. The last 

 sowing does not always mature a full crop, but where 

 cucumbers are in demand, it should invariably be made. 



One of the most desirable varieties for amateur culti- 

 vation is the early White Spine. This is a well-known 

 and popular sort. It is enormously productive; the 

 fruit is of a light green color with few white spines ; 

 flesh tender and of superior quality. Tailby's is 

 the result of a cross between the White Spine and one 

 of the large English sorts. It is as prolific as the White 

 Spine, but grows to a larger size. It has all the desir- 

 able qualities of both its parents and is the best variety 

 for amateurs to cultivate Gen. Grant is decidedly the 

 best variety for frame culture, although i t succeeds 

 equally well when grown in the open ground. The 

 fruit is perfect in form, solid, crisp, and of superior 

 quality. On an average it grows from eighteen to 

 twenty inches in length. — Chas. E. Parnell, N. Y. 



How to Raise Sweet Corn. — Many persons who cul- 

 tivate sweet corn put in the seed for the crop of the en- 

 tire season all at one planting. As a consequence of this 

 unwise practice the crop matures all within a short 

 period, and the supply for the table will last only for a 

 few days. In our own family, we have this savory lux- 

 ury many days before corn in our neighbors' gardens is 

 fit for the table, and clear on to November, we have 

 luscious ears, tender, juicy, and fragrant. 



How do you do it ? That is very easy. About a 

 month before the proper time to put seed corn in the 

 open ground, about a dozen hills are started in flower 

 pots placed on a shelf in a warm room. As growing 

 corn sends out such long and slender roots, it is necessary 

 to use pots that will hold not less than four quarts of 

 earth. Six-quart pots would be preferable to smaller 

 ones. On account of the long roots, young corn cannot 

 be transplanted with satisfactory success, unless the 

 plants are started in pots. Growing corn plants are 

 gross feeders ; and the soil in which the corn is started 

 should be fertilized generously with manure. Let the 

 plants (about four in each pot) be kept in the house un- 

 til the soil has become warm and there is no danger of 

 frost. My own rule as to the better time is when peach 

 trees are in blossom and apple trees are sending out their 

 leaves. Then, an estimate is made as to the amount of 

 ground to be appropriated to sweet corn during the sea- 

 son. The ground is spaded deep and fine for the corn in 

 pots, and the contents of each pot (after being thor- 

 oughly saturated with warm water) are plunged care- 

 fully in excavations scooped out about three feet apart. 

 When there are indications of a cold night, or a cold storm 

 of sleet and rain, every hill is protected by knocking a 

 head out of one end of a barrel or nail keg and placing 

 one over each hill until the cold snap has passed. Cold 



nights and cold storms will retard the growth of young 

 corn in proportion to the severity of the storm and tem- 

 perature. When the plants are set out, the seed for a 

 few hills more is put in the ground. Then in about two 

 weeks from that time a few hills more are planted. This 

 practice is continued until the middle of July, which is 

 about as late in the season (for this latitude) as it will be 

 safe to plant sweet corn. I always save the first mature 

 ears for seed. — Ess E. Tee. 



That Cinnamon Vine. — This new named and vaunted 

 plant is the old Dioscorea Batatas, or Chinese potato. Its 

 rich, glossy leaves and honeyed fragrance ought long 

 since to have welcomed the plant to its new vocation. 

 The vine is in every way prettier than the Madeira, and 

 of more delicate aroma. This cinnamon climber needs 

 no replanting or fall gathering. It is a hardy perennial 

 tuber. Every year vigorous shoots spring from its 

 ground-wintered crop. Along its sprays grow little bulb- 

 lets, from whose planting or droppings new vines start 

 out. 



However cooked, it is a very palatable, white-fleshed, 

 delicate vegetable. In this respect, none of its tribe ex- 

 cel the dioscorea. Bnt the trouble is to dig the tuber i 

 the long, full-grown bulb will weigh eight or ten pounds. 

 To harvest its crop, the earth on one of its sides must be 

 scooped out to the bigness and depth of a post hole. I 

 thisk I have grown them in very rich soil to near three 

 feet in length and of two to three inches in diameter. 

 You cannot hoist it like the carrot or parsnip by fork 

 or spade. The pressure of its growth so hugs the earth 

 to its'noduled surface, and its bulk so swells out as you 

 go deeper, that there is no other plan of harvesting but 

 the post hole. 



That once famous pioneer nurseryman, Wm. R. Prince, 

 of Flushing, in his sonorous advertisement of the plant, 

 declared it the "Alimentary basis of the Chinese Em- 

 pire," whose vast and dense population was made possi- 

 ble by this two-story vegetable. 



Although the plant has cropped in my garden for 30 

 years, I have never given it any special cultivation. It 

 has sown its own seed and every year yielded its tubers. 

 I doubt not that regular planting at the foot of tall poles 

 on which it could climb would reward trial with a pay- 

 ing harvest. Could we have a variety of equal merit for 

 the table that would not take so instinctively the under- 

 ground route to China, it would be a great prize. I have 

 heard of such a rounded bulb, but have never seen one. 



The vine will climb 20 feet in a season, and keeps 

 growing and green till nipped by the frost. No deep 

 soil freezing harms the tuber. No insect, rot or ailment 

 attacks the vine or bulb. — Wm. H. Noble, Conn. 



The Botanical Garden "La Linnaea." — This estab- 

 lishment has been recently opened at Bourg St. Pierre, 

 in the Entremount valley, canton of Valais, Switzerland. 



It occupies the site of the old castle of Quart on the 

 Great St. Bernard road at an elevation of more than 

 5,000 feet above the sea. 



The garden is devoted to the cultivation of mountain 



