122 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[July, 



SEASONABLE HINTS, 



Killing Weeds. — Most weeds when pulled or 

 hoed up in hot, dry weather, and left on the 

 surface of the ground, will die in a few days, 

 but not so with those of a succulent character. 

 " Pusley," Purslane, properly speaking, how- 

 ever, cannot be killed in this manner. It 

 is the veritable salamander of the weed 

 family, bidding defiance to heat and sun. 

 The easiest way to get rid of this pest is to 

 rake it into heaps — the larger the better — 

 between the rows of vegetables. The center 

 of the heap will soon ferment and heat, and 

 in a short time reduce the entire mass to a 

 black blotch upon the ground. 



Marketing Vegetables. — Some vegetables 

 must be sent to market in the "rough" for 

 the sake of safe keeping. This reminds us of 

 a case met with not long ago, where a pains- 

 taking but poorly informed gardener first 

 shelled his fine harvest of Lima Beans and 

 sent them to market in barrels — in a most 

 superior shape, as he thought. The green 

 Beans just from the pods, thus packed close 

 together, soon molded, and by the time they 

 reached the commission merchant they were 

 only fit for the garbage cart. All the extra 

 labor that had been thus expended to make 

 the choice Beans sell quickly was lost, and 

 the whole crop besides. There are many 

 such cases where the whole work of the 

 gardener is more than thrown away — for 

 there is the freight to pay. 



The experienced fruit-grower knows full 

 well that these remarks apply to the market- 

 ing of fruits. If the packing is not well done, 

 and the fruit properly sorted, there is often a 

 serious loss. The fruit may be put up in the 

 best condition, and if the customs of the 

 market are not conformed to, it maybe diffi- 

 cult to effect a sale, no matter how fine the 

 fruit. The same is true of many products of 

 the vegetable garden. The regular market 

 gardener will keep himself posted about the 

 requirements of a city market. An attrac- 

 tive package is an essential in securing the 

 highest prices. 



Bushel Crates are easily made, and are 

 very satisfactory for marketing many kinds 

 of vegetables and fruits. The following 

 rule for making a crate to hold exactly a 

 bushel has been given: "Take two end 

 pieces and one middle piece of planed, one- 

 inch stuff, each nine by fifteen inches ; to 

 these nail laths twenty-four inches long, 

 leaving spaces of one inch between them, if 

 for Apples and other large articles, but 

 allow less space if String Beans or such 

 small stuff is to be packed. Leave off a few 

 laths until the crate is packed." If a piece of 

 hoop is put around each end of the crate, it 

 will secure the laths — an important matter if 

 the crate is transported to any considerable 

 distance. 



A neat Label should go with the crate or 

 other package of fruit or vegetables, giving 

 the names of both the sender and the com- 

 mission merchant fully and plainly. If those 

 who send any product of the garden to the 

 market would attend to the seemingly little 

 things, there would be large returns for the 

 labor thus expended. It takes as much 

 thought to sell a crop well as to grow it, and 

 in many cases even more. 



THE CABBAGE BUTTEB.FLY. 



With the exception of the locust, there 

 are no insects so injurious to vegetation as 

 caterpillars, or the young of butterflies 

 and moths. The Cabbage butterfly (Pieris 

 oleracea, fig. 1 ) may be seen fluttering over 

 Cabbage, Radish, and Turnip beds during 

 the last of May and the early part of June, 

 for the purpose of depositing eggs. The 

 yellowish, pear-shaped, longitudinal-ribbed 

 eggs (fig. -!, highly magnified) are laid on 

 the under side of the leaves, seldom over 

 three on a single leaf, and are about a fif- 

 teenth of an inch in length. They are 

 hatched in about ten days ; the young larva? 

 produced from them attain their full growth 

 in about three weeks, and measure about 

 one inch and a quarter in length. 



The caterpillar (fig. 3) is of a pale-green 

 color, shaded slightly with yellow on each 

 side ; it tapers a very little at both ends, and 

 is covered with short down. Besides Cab- 

 bages, this caterpillar consumes various 

 other cruciferous plants. The caterpillars 

 change their coats three or more times. 

 When they have completed the feeding stage, 

 they quit the plants and retire beneath 

 palings, or the edges of stones, where they 

 spin a little tuft of silk, entangle the hooks 

 of their hindmost feet in it, and then form a 

 loop or girdle to sustain the body in a verti- 



THE CABBAGE BUTTERFLY. 



eal or horizontal position. Bending its body 

 to one side, the caterpillar fastens to the 

 surface, beneath the middle of its body, a 

 silken thread, which it carries around its 

 back and secures on the other side, and re- 

 peats this operation until the united threads 

 have formed a band or loop of sufficient 

 strength. On the next day it casts off the 

 caterpillar skin and becomes a chrysalis or 

 pupa. This is of a pale-green or whitish color, 

 regularly and finely spotted with black. The 

 sides are angular, the head is surmounted 

 with a conical tubercle, and over the fore 

 part of the body is a thin projection, having 

 in profile a close resemblance to a Roman 

 nose (fig. 4). 



The wings of the butterfly expand about 

 two inches ; they are white, but dusky near 

 the body, and the tips of upper ones are 

 yellowish beneath, with dusky veins. The 

 under side of the hind wings is straw-colored, 

 with broad dusky veins, and the angles next 

 to the body are a deep yellow ; the back is 

 black, and the antennae are blackish, with 

 narrow white rings, and ocher-yellow at the 

 tips. There is an early summer (May) and 

 a late summer (July) brood. 



Gardeners cannot be too careful in destroy- 

 ing the larvas of this Cabbage butterfly. The 

 method is to crush them under the 



foot, as they are easily found by the worm- 

 eaten appearance of the plants. In inclosed 

 gardens, sea-gulls, with their wings clipped, 

 are of service, as they will live entirely on 

 insects, slugs, and worms which may be 

 found in gardens. Francis Rockett. 



[It is easy enough to find the plants at- 

 tacked by the " worms," but not so easy to 

 get at the latter, as they crawl and hide be- 

 tween the dense mass of leaves which form 

 the heads. Innumerable remedies have been 

 recommended — pyrethrum, slug shot, Cay- 

 enne pepper, soap suds, Paris green, London 

 purple, etc., etc. Many have used hot 

 water with good success. Living Cabbage 

 plants will bear for a short time water hot 

 enough to kill the tender caterpillars. The 

 temperature of 160 degrees is found safe 

 and effective. As water will cool somewhat 

 in the application, allowance should be made 

 that it be of the above temperature when 

 it strikes the worms and surrounding foli- 

 age.— Ed.] 



EXPERIMENTS WITH TOMATOES. 



Many growers suppose that to have the 

 Tomato bear early it must be planted on 

 poor soil, and only fertilized in the hill. My 

 experience has been just the reverse, and 

 convinces me that the richer the soil — if. 

 warm and light — the earlier the fruit. Rich 

 soil undoubtedly increases the growth of 

 stalk and leaf at the expense of the crop, 

 but this otherwise wasted vitality is, by 

 proper pruning, readily transformed into a 

 tendency for earlier maturity. 



To fully test this point, on the 20th of 

 March, 1882, four varieties were sown. For 

 the earliest, Acme and Perfection were 

 chosen; for the latest, Trophy and Para- 

 gon. The ground was of medium quality, 

 thoroughly broken to a depth of ten inches, 

 and worked until it became fine and mellow. 

 It was then marked off in rows four feet 

 apart ; every three feet in the row a shovel 

 full of composted manure was placed, well 

 worked into the soil, and the plants set out 

 in the center of these hills. In this way five 

 rows were planted, two of them containing 

 all four varieties in such a way as to give a 

 fair test. 



The five rows were cultivated every three 

 days, weather permitting, and the two con- 

 taining all the varieties, after being set two 

 weeks, were heavily top-dressed with well- 

 kept hen manure, thoroughly mixed with the 

 soil. All laterals or suckers were trimmed 

 off, and at the third pruning one row was 

 left to itself and not pruned anymore during 

 the rest of the season. Two of the five rows 

 were only topped above the third cluster of 

 blooms, with the exception of the row which 

 had been pruned but twice and half of an- 

 other ; all the vines were staked. 



Now, as to the results. In the two rows 

 which had been topped, the fruit was larger 

 than in the others, and ripened fully four 

 days earlier. Ripe fruit was taken from the 

 four varieties on the same day, and fifteen 

 days in advance of those of my neighbors. 

 The half row which was not staked did not 

 produce as fine fruit as the rows that were ; 

 and the plants which were pruned but twice 

 bore the poorest fruit of all, and rotted 

 badly, but kept green longer, and bore 

 later than any. Lifting the vines did not ap- 

 pear to be of any advantage. 



Thos. D. Baied. 



