3o6 



THEY SAY. 



Those of us who can do anything to perfection 

 rarely suffer for want of work. Usually it is the ineffi- 

 cient who are unemployed, and this is especially true in 

 the smaller trades and among handicraftsmen. Poor 

 manufacturers, cooks, preachers or gardeners all have a 

 hard time of it. Good ones do well where others find no 

 employment. A good washerwoman is in demand wher- 

 ever white clothing is worn, and can be the most indepen- 

 dent of women. People will condone faults in her that 

 would be endured in no other of the sex. There is 

 always room at the top, but it is hard getting there. 

 We are more likely to be wanted if we give time and at- 

 tention to one thing until we have mastered it so that no 

 one can do it better than ourselves. Gardeners who 

 have thoroughly mastered the arts of vegetable raising 

 are in demand, and so are those who can raise the best 

 stove plants ; but when a man applies for a situation, 

 claiming to grow everything from horseradish to orchids, 

 understands growing pineapples and cherries under 

 glass, is the equal of Robinson as a landscape gardener, 

 while incidentally he can keep the family and the market 

 supplied with small fruits, we are inclined to be suspici- 

 ous of him if we have had experience in hiring garden- 

 ers, or if we engage him we pay dearly for our exper- 

 ience. 



Potatoes in the South.— Mr. Ullathorne's article 

 (p. i68) shows how rapidly the new practice of growing 

 seed potatoes is extending in the south. Only a few 

 years ago we {bought that it was absolutely essential to 

 get northern grown seed for the early potato crop. Now 

 we know that potatoes raised in autumn here from north- 

 ern seed planted in spring give us our best seed, but I do 

 not think it advisable to extend the process further. 

 Enough northern grown potatoes should be planted in 

 spring to furnish seed for the late crop, or deterioration 

 will set in. All the northern potatoes we are now get- 

 ting here (March 15) are badly sprouted and unfit for 

 table use, but I am eating N. C. grown potatoes dug in 

 December last, which have not started an eye and 

 which, upon cooking, show by their dry and mealy con- 

 dition that the starch is still unchanged. It will not be 

 long before the northern markets will seek a spring 

 table supply of these magnificent potatoes to take the 

 place of the clammy sprouted potatoes of spring time, 

 and a new demand will set up for a southern product. 

 Most of our growers plant this late crop too early. We 

 had potatoes last fall which did not appear above ground 

 until after the middle of September, and yet made a 

 better crop than some planted in July. The proper 

 time for planting here is 15th to 20th of August. — W. 

 F. Massey, N. C. Experiment Slntion. 



The Orchid Water Lily. — Would not our florist 

 friends who wish to introduce rare and beautiful plants 

 to public notice find it just as profitable to tell people 

 just what the plants are which they offer, instead of 

 manufacturing new fancy names for them, and not men- 

 tion their scientific ones ? This practice is leading to a 

 great accumulation of "common" names for various 

 plants, which is undesirable. In the last American 



Garden one firm offers the " Orchid Water Lily," and 

 gives no information as to its botanical name. The 

 plant offered is evidently Pontederia crassipes, and is no 

 more a lily than the so-called water lily and other 

 plants called lilies. It is worthy of all the praise these 

 gentlemen give it, and I hope they may sell a great 

 many, for it is a very easy and interesting plant to grow 

 in a tub of shallow water with a little fertile soil at the 

 bottom. The plant has already been called "Water 

 Hyacinth, " and though no more related to hyacinths than 

 to lilies, the spike of bloom suggest the hyacinth more 

 than the lily. — W. F Massey, N. C. Experiment Station. 



Heading Cauliflower. — There is no trouble at all in 

 heading cauliflower set in frames in autumn. We plant 

 six plants to each sash and fill in with Boston Market 

 lettuce. The lettuce is headed and cut during the win- 

 ter, and by the time the cauliflower plants crowd against 

 the glass, if they have been properly hardened by air- 

 ing, the sashes can be stripped off and used on other 

 frames for hardening off tomato plants. Some years 

 ago I had 1,000 sashes in Virginia used in this way, which 

 made^he most remarkable crop of cauliflower I ever 

 saw ; 6,000 plants of Snowball cauliflower made 6,000 

 marketable heads, a result I never had before nor since. 

 — W. F. Massey, N. C. Experiment Station. 



The Phylloxera Restrictions. — The Secretary of 

 Agriculture is in receipt of a communication through 

 the Italian Legation at Washington and the Secretary of 

 State, from the Assistant Secretary of State of the 

 Kingdom of Italy, calling his attention to the fact, that 

 the importation into Italy of plants from countries 

 which, like the United States, have not adhered to the 

 anti-phylloxera convention at Berne, cannot be effected 

 without previous and express authorization of the Royal 

 Minister of Agriculture and commerce. ^ 



In addition to the aforesaid authorization, a certificate 

 must accompany shipments of plants, to be issued by 

 the local authorities and containing the following decla- 

 rations : 



1. That the plants shipped are from earth that is at 

 least twenty metres distance from any vine, or that it is 

 separated from any vine by some other obstacle that is 

 deemed sufficient to prevent the extension of the roots 

 of such vine. 



2. That such earth does not contain any vine. 



3. That no vines have been deposited therein. 



The Secretary of Agriculture requests all whom it 

 may concern in the United States, to take notice of the 

 foregoing regulations, in order that plants sent from this 

 country to Italy may not be refused admission at the 

 Italian frontier. 



Tree Bark. — " For the tr«e of the field is man's life." 

 This being a well authenticated fact, how faithfully man 

 should care for, and tenderly foster the precious life of 

 the tree. The bark is the life-guard of all exogenous 

 plants Unlike the endogens,the seat of life in all north- 

 ern trees is located in the cambium layer next to the bark. 

 In order to insure a long lease of life in certain plants, nat- 



