246 THE V 



vania. The quality was also impaired. Tomatoes were 

 slow in ripening, and the wet weather caused them to 

 burst their skins and decay. The canning industry is 

 growing, and new establishments in the southeastern 

 counties packed a large output of tomatoes, green corn, 

 peas, string beans, asparagus and other vegetables. — 

 From report of Fruit Coiiimittct' of Pennsylvania Horti- 

 cultural Association . 



Do not be in a hurry to get tender plants out of 

 doors. Tomatoes, egg-plants, squashes, Lima beans 

 should be put out only after the weather is thoroughly 

 settled and warm. Nothing is gained by haste in these 

 plants. 



Honey Dew. — A very peculiar phenomenon has been 

 observed in the woods in this vicinity. It is a deposit of 

 sweet shining secretion on the leaves of certain trees and 

 entirely absent upon others. It is supposed to fall from 

 the pines, which always abound where this "dew" is 

 found. The secretion, or dew, is conspicuous on the 

 leaves of the holly or ivy, and the pine leaves also 

 glitter with it when the sunlight falls upon them. The 

 holly leaves look as if they had been immersed in alum 

 water, but it is also singular that trees of the same vari- 

 eties can be found growing close together, one of which 

 is covered with the deposit and the other seems to have 

 escaped entirely. The very open winter has encouraged 

 the depredations of an insect upon the holly leaves, 

 which present the appearance of having been riddled 

 with shot. It is in every way a most unusual season, and 

 while the vegetation on the high land is very forward, 

 the river marshes, which generally show the first growth 

 of grass in the early spring, have scarcely began to show 

 any green tint. The alder bloomed in January and was 

 killed, and now the peach trees are in full blossom. — P. 

 S. Hunter, Essex Co., Va. 



[Note. — Honey dew is a secretion from aphides, or 

 plant-lice. These insects are provided with two horn- 

 like appendages near their posterior extremity, and froYn 

 them the sweet secretion is made. This secretion at- 

 tracts ants and other insects, and it is supposed to serve 

 as food to newly-born lice. Ants often "milk" the 

 lice by stroking the nectaries with their antennae. — Ed. 

 Am. G. 1 



Shittim Wood. — It is reported that botanists who 

 examined the rare trees growing near Nashville, Tenn., 

 have decided that they are the "shittim wood of which 

 Noah's ark was constructed." From the popular de- 

 scription given of them, they are closely identified with 

 the Acacia scyal, which grows in the deserts of Arabia, 

 and is common about Mt. Sinai, and is commonly ac- 

 cepted as the shittim wood of which Moses made furni- 

 ture for the Tabernacle. Noah made the ark of gopher 

 wood, which some think means cypress, but in all prob- 

 ability it is a general term for such trees as contain res- 

 inous inflammable matter. The immense size and char- 

 acter of the ark favors the probability that more than 

 one certain species was used in its construction. — W. C. 

 Butler, Philadclphin . 



SA V. 



Keeping Up a Succession. — With a number of 

 vegetables grown in the garden or truck patch, it is 

 quite an item to keep up a supply during the greater part 

 of the growing season. This can be done by making 

 repeated plantings, or still better, by a little care in the 

 selection of the varieties. With quite a number of 

 these that it is desirable to keep in supply, there are 

 early, medium and late varieties, and by planting them 

 a succession can be kept up with less trouble than to 

 attempt to make a number of separate plantings. 



Beets, radishes, lettuce, peas, beans, sweet corn, cab- 

 bage, cucumbers, carrots and melons can, by a careful 

 selection of varieties, be made to furnish a supply with 

 a much less number of plantings than when the whole 

 dependence is placed upon one variety. Turnip-rooted, 

 French-breakfast and any of the larger long kinds, like 

 Chartier radishes, can be sown at the same time, and by 

 the time the first is used, the second will come in- 

 Sweet corn and the other kinds can be managed in the 

 same way. It is always an item to save time and labor, 

 even in the garden ; and while it is an easy matter to 

 plant too large a number of varieties, I have found it 

 profitable to use varieties to a considerable extent to 

 keep up a supply and avoid making repeated plantings. — 

 N. J. Shepherd, Missouri. 



Note^ and Comment. — Tiiose Back -Yards. — 



We have them in the country too, friend Stans- 

 bury, and what shall we do with them ? We may 

 possibly, by persistent effort, get rid of the old wag- 

 on-wheels, plow-points, barrels and such things, but 

 how shall we eliminate the wood-pile, and turn the 

 barren desert of the chip-yard into a ' ' thing of beauty ?" 

 Perhaps we must concede this much to utility, I was 

 going to say, but Victor Hugo's saying that " the beau- 

 tiful is as useful as the useful, perhaps more so," came 

 to mind. Let us at least insist that the area shall be 

 small, and that order shall prevail there, and' find com- 

 fort in the thought that if it continues an eye-sore there 

 but few will think of it. For the rest, let the turf be as 

 bright at the back as at the front of the house. Where 

 the burdocks now thrive so well, perhaps caladiums 

 will prosper. Let us clothe the wood-house with the 

 useful hop and grape, and sow some morning-glories to 

 climb among them and add their radiant beauty to the 

 greenness. Let 'Virginia Creeper hang its fringes from 

 the porch. Plant the clothes-line posts firmly, and let 

 each support a grape-vine. Set a tree or two for shade 

 near by if it be on the north side of the house ; farther 

 off if on the sunny side. Chrysanthemums may have a 

 place there if not too shaded, and hardy roses make the 

 waste to "bud and blossom." Then give these growing 

 things, so close at hand, the dish-water and washing- 

 suds, with which you were wont to invite a fever to your 

 door, and see how they will thrive. Don't throw the 

 ashes from the wood-fires into a pile to waste and be 

 unsightly ; go a little farther off and feed them to the 

 pear and apple trees. And will some one please tell us 

 the I'cst disposition to make of the coal ashes ? Will a 

 thick coat of them under the plum trees really prevent 



