THE V SA V. 



Root Galls in Forcing-Houses. — Disastrous results 

 sometimes overtake forced tomatoes and cucumbers 

 and other plants, in consequence of galls or knots form- 

 ing upon the roots. 1 hese knots are due to a minute 

 true worm, or nematode, allied to the trichina. There is 

 no remedy, but we can exercise care in excluding the 

 pest. If the house is infested, remove all the earth and 

 wash the benches with lye. Use earth from places 

 where no root-galls have ever appeared. These worms 

 prey upon many kinds of plants in the field. 



A Little Ingenuity in garden tools saves money and 

 makes good crops ; you can often make tools that you 

 cannot buy. Study to save the fingers and the back. 



Transplanting may be safely done at all times, if 

 the plants are puddled in cow-dung. The plants will 

 start at once and outgrow others not treated in this 

 manner. — S B D. 



In Making Hot- Beds, get manure as nearly uniform 

 in kind and age as possible. It should contain straw 

 enough, so that when it is trod down it will not pack 

 hard, but it should not contain so much that it will 

 spring up under the feet. Manure from highly fed 

 horses is best. 



Cabbages after Cabbages. — I have grown cabbages 

 six years on the same ground. The fifth crop took the 

 the prize at our county fair, and the sixth was better 

 than the fifth; but I fertilize. My land originally grew 

 hard-wood and elm. I use bones and spent lime from 

 glue factories for fertilizers. — Richard Branson. 



Keeping Qualities of Pike's Peak Squash. — Your 

 correspondent, in the January Garden, page 58, thinks 

 Pike's Peak Squash a poor keeper. I have kept them in 

 a pile of 75 to 100 tons in a common cellar, sound and 

 without the slightest deterioration, — but really improv- 

 ing in flavor — until April r. With me, for six years, it 

 has been a better keeper than Hubbard or Marblehead. — 

 T. B. Van Orman. 



Hot Water for Melons. — Several years ago I plant- 

 ed some musk and water-melon seeds during a warm 

 spell early in the season, but soon after they came up 

 the weather became cool and they did not grow much. 

 I then made a shallow trench around each hill with a 

 hoe and into it poured one or two pailfuls of boiling 

 water, and when it had all soaked in, filled up the trench. 

 The effect was wonderful ; the vines began to grow at 

 once and continued vigorous throughout the season, 

 ripening their fruit earlier than melons usually do here. 

 If I had had some protector to cover them with on cool 

 nights, I think they would have done still better. — J. T. 

 Macomber. 



Where to Grow Potatoes. — A successful eastern 

 farmer gave me a hint that has paid well. He made his 

 money in potatoes. He always planted heavily when 

 potatoes were cheap in the spring, and lightly when 

 seed was dear in the spring. Everybody plants when 

 seed is dear, and 77VV 7'crsa. When everybody grows 

 potatoes, potatoes are cheap in the winter, and vice 

 versa —S. B. D. 



Small Onions. — A small place in my garden had, a 

 few years ago, a pile of hog-hair placed upon it. This 

 pile was the accumulation of several years' drainage 

 from a packing house. When I removed the pile I found 

 the ground very hard. Yellow Danvers onion was sown 

 upon the land. The onions upon this area came up like 

 needles, good in color, but very thin and small. The 

 bulbs formed fully two weeks earlier than others from 

 the same sowing. They came so early that it seemed 

 useless to have grown sets for early bunch onions. They 

 kept over winter well, and were good when other onions 

 were gone in the spring. Each year, as the ground 

 becomes looser, my onions grow larger upcin this area. — 

 Richard Branson. 



Home-grown Potatoes are very Scarce in Cali- 

 fornia. — The crop was not only light last year, but the 

 bad condition of the roads has prevented the marketing 

 of those in the hands of growers. Potatoes are now 

 going into California from the east. 



Melon Vines Dying. — Musk-melon vines which look 

 well in the morning often wilt during the heat of the day, 

 and revive at night. They behave in this way for several 

 days and then die. In the soil I find hundreds of little 

 white maggots, but I am not sure that they are the cause 

 of the trouble. Transplanted plants have never suffer- 

 ed in this manner. Can some one explain ? — George 



DOERR. 



The Onion for Food. — As an article of diet the 

 onion has not occupied the place it deserves ; it is gen- 

 erally looked upon here merely as a relish, whereas it 

 is really a nourishing food. In the West I have seen 

 miners making their dinners of half bread and half 

 onions. Their unpleasant effects on the eyes while peel- 

 ing may be avoided by holding them under water while 

 doing it. The peculiar flavor of the onion is due to a 

 volatile oil which is very subtle, and consequently to be 

 in perfection it should be eaten as soon as it is taken out 

 of the ground. Their fine flavor is even more volatile 

 than that of green peas or sweet corn. — J. J. H. Gre- 

 gory. 



The East Cannot Compete with the West. — 



Why ? Because of fertilizers and the cost. I was 

 astonished to learn from the United States Agricultural 

 report that New Jersey grows more corn to the acre 

 than Illinois. The Swedes and Germans who are settling 

 on the deserted farms of New England will make farm- 

 ing pay where it did in days of yore. They may not 

 bring much "book-learning," but they will bring an ex- 

 perimental knowledge that will reap dollars to put in 

 the bank.— S. B. D. 



Gardening Under Difficulties. — Here in Nebraska 

 vegetable gardening is beset with difficulties of climate; 

 the winds are high and frequent, and they blow plants 

 from side to side, nearly uprooting them, while the dry 

 and hot air wilts them until it seems as if growing and 

 bearing were almost out of the question. Yet we suc- 

 ceed in growing as large and fine vegetables as are 

 shown anywhere. — Wm. E. Stillon, York, Nebraska. 



