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THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[November, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



With the forehanded gardener this is not 

 a season of leisure ; although the year's 

 sowing and harvesting are nearly completed, 

 he is well aware that next season's success 

 depends largely upon the preparations made 

 now. 



Cold Frames are easily constructed and 

 managed, and are not only useful for win- 

 tering plants intended for early spring plant- 

 ing, but may be made to add materially to 

 the comfort of the household during the 

 winter months. Cold frames differ from 

 hot-beds merely in not having bottom heat, 

 and the same frames may be used for either 

 purposes. A frame for four sashes — that is, 

 twelve feet long and six wide — is sufficiently 

 large enough for a family garden. 



Cabbage and Cauliflower plants raised from 

 seed sown last month should, as soon as 

 large enough, be transplanted to the frames. 

 To produce best plants they should not be 

 planted much closer together than about 

 three inches, or so that a sash accommoda tes 

 from three to four hundred plants, although 

 market gardeners put often double this 

 number under a sash. If the weather is 

 still warm, as is not unfrequently the ease 

 at this season, the newly set plants should 

 be shaded during midday for a few days, 

 and watered when necessary. After they 

 have taken root, little attention is required 

 until severe cold sets in, when the sashes 

 have to be put in place. On warm and 

 sunny days, air has to be given freely, else 

 the plants will become ' ' drawn up " and 

 worthless. 



Lettuce plants set out in cold frames now will 

 make good heads, fit for use in April, and if 

 bottom heat is given they may be had in 

 from two to three months. In fact, Lettuce 

 may be grown all winter in hot-beds ; but for 

 market purposes forcing-houses have largely 

 supplanted this mode of culture. 



Celery. — With hardly any other crop have 

 the ideas of cultivators changed so radically 

 as with this, and methods which were for- 

 merly considered indispensable have now 

 been entirely abandoned. So is the outdoor 

 bleaching of Celery wanted for winter use 

 losing favor with many. The plants are 

 only " handled," and bleached while in their 

 winter quarters. This "handling" consists 

 simply in holding all the leaf-stalks of a 

 plant compactly together with one hand, 

 and with the other drawing and pressing 

 soil around them, and after the entire row 

 has been finished, to draw some more soil 

 toward the stalks with a hoe, and pressing 

 it firm enough to hold the leaves together. 

 Soil in contact with the center or heart of the 

 plants causes rust and decay. 



Italian Onions are now extensively grown 

 from seed in our Southern States. It has 

 been found that in rich, moist, and well- 

 prepared soil, Italian Onion-seed sowed in 

 November produces as fine Onions as those 

 grown from sets of American varieties 

 planted at the same time. Second sow- 

 ings are generally made in January and 

 February. 



Rubbish, vegetable and animal, — anything 

 that will dec ay,— should now be raked up and 

 added to the compost heap. 



REMEDY AGAINST CABBAGE WORMS, 



One of the greatest boons to gardening, 

 says Dr. E. L. Sturtevcmt, in the Station 

 Bulletin, would be the discovery of efficient 

 methods for the destruction of insects, as 

 well as remedies which are easily to be pro- 

 : cured and of easy application. This, how- 

 ever, is a difficult matter to accomplish, and 

 upon a review of the season's work we rec- 

 ognize but little absolute success. 



The Cabbage worms have been abundant 

 and destructive. We have warred against 

 them with tobacco-water, saltpeter, alco- 

 [ hoi, boracic acid, bisulphide of carbon, etc., 

 i in various combinations, but we finally set- 

 i tied upon an emulsion of kerosene oil and 

 soap-suds as the remedy that, all things con- 

 sidered, was the most satisfactory. It ap- 

 pears that one ounce of common yellow, 

 hard soap, one pint of kerosene oil, and one 

 and one-half gallons *of water, well mixed 

 and stirred, and applied by means of a rose 

 from a watering-pot, destroys all worms that- 

 become thoroughly wet with the mixture, 

 and does not injure the plant. Care must, 

 however, be taken to keep the ingredients 

 thoroughly mixed in the pot, for if the oil is 

 permitted to rise to the surface, so that it 

 will pass out upon a few plants, it will prove 

 fatal to the few, while the remainder will 

 not receive enough of the oil to destroy the 

 worms. 



In this case the kerosene is the insecticide, 

 the object of the soap being but to thicken 

 the liquid, so as to retard, in a measure, the 

 separation of the oil from the water. A 

 larger proportion of soap makes the water so 

 thick that it will not flow readily through 

 the fine openings of the rose. A larger pro- 

 portion of »il endangers the plant, while a 

 smaller proportion is inefficient against the 

 worms. 



There is one caution, however, to be given : 

 if repeated applications of the mixture are 

 made upon the same plants, the more tender 

 varieties will be destroyed or will be injured. 

 We found on trial that, where one or two 

 applications were made without injury to 



I the plant, a large number of applications 

 blighted the leaves, more or less, and five 

 applications entirely destroyed the early 

 varieties ; while large-growing and late vari- 



j eties seemed uninjured, even under severe 



| dosing. The growing Cabbage furnishes so 

 many hiding-places for worms that we can- 

 not hope to destroy them all with a single 

 application, however thoroughly it may be 

 made. The perfect remedy should destroy 



j the worms wherever it touches them, and 

 should not injure the plant in the least under 

 any number of applications. 



STORING POTATOES, 



Potatoes should be dug as soon as the 

 vines are dead. When dug, they should be 

 sorted and put in a cool place until stored 

 away. I build a temporary floor in my lum- 

 ber house some two or three feet from the 

 ground, on which I spread the Potatoes thin 

 enough that they will not become injured. 

 In this way, the air can circulate free all 

 around the Potatoes, which I think is essen- 

 tial to make them keep well before storing 

 in winter quarters. 



When the weather becomes cold, and there 

 is danger of the Potatoes being chilled, they 

 should be moved. Some growers store their 



Potatoes in cellars ; others in pits on straw 

 and with a thick layer of straw over them, 

 covered with soil. But I find that they keep 

 best in forest leaves, and where leaves can 

 be had I would advise their use. 



I store my Potatoes in the garden by mak- 

 ing a good bed of leaves several inches thick. 

 On this I place the Potatoes, and cover again 

 with leaves, which should be entirely dry. 

 Then I begin some fifteen or twenty inches 

 from the pit and dig a trench around, throwing 

 the soil on the heap, covering the leaves five 

 or six inches with soil. As the weather grows 

 colder, more soil is added. As soon as this 

 is done, I build a shed over it by driving four 

 forked stakes in the ground, one at each cor- 

 ner, placing poles in the forks, and covering 

 all with old boards or long cornstalks. The 

 roof should be as low as possible, just touch- 

 ing the top of the heap, and the slope should 

 be toward the north. In this way I have 

 wintered Potatoes for many years, and have 

 always found them as good in spring as when 

 dug. 



Sweet Potatoes. 



Climate makes considerable difference in 

 the modes of storing Sweet Potatoes, and 

 even in the same latitude they may be win- 

 tered successfully in various ways. Some 

 wrap each tuber in a bit of newspaper, line 

 a box or barrel with several thicknesses of 

 paper, lay the Potatoes in carefully, cover 

 with paper, and store away in a cellar. But 

 the most common and most successful way 

 of storing Sweet Potatoes in the latitude of 

 Kentucky is to put them up in road dust. 



In the fall, when the dust is very dry, fill 

 as many boxes or barrels as are needed for 

 storing with road dust, and put them away 

 in a dry place until wanted for use. The 

 Potatoes should be dug before frost, left ex- 

 posed to the sun a day, and then stored away 

 in a cool place. They should be spread very 

 thin over a floor, so as not to heat or sweat. 

 When cold weather sets in, they have to be 

 moved to the cellar. Cover the bottom of the 

 box or barrel with about three inches of dust ; 

 on this place a layer of Potatoes close to- 

 gether, but not so that they touch each other ; 

 cover with dust ; then another layer of Po- 

 tatoes and dust, and so on until the box is 

 nearly full ; then fill up with dust. If the 

 Potatoes have been handled carefully, dug 

 before frost, and the dust is thoroughly dry, 

 put up in this way they will keep through 

 the severest winters. I have tried every 

 mode for preserving Sweet Potatoes I have 

 heard of, but like this best of all. 



T. D. Baird. 



CARTING SAND ON GARDENS. 



Twenty-four years ago, says John J. 

 Thomas, we had three or four inches of 



I sand carted on part of a garden, the soil of 

 which was too clayey for the successful or 

 convenient raising of garden vegetables. 



i When this sand was well worked in, the 

 whole became an excellent sandy loam, just 

 the soil for agreeable working. The labor 

 of drawing on the sand was considerable ; but 

 it was done in winter, when there was little 

 else for the man and team to do, and the 

 fine condition of the soil remains as good as 



] at first, and probably will for a century to 



' come, as the sand does not evaporate, wash 

 away, or become consumed in the growth of 

 plants, as with manure. 



