THEY SAY. 



495 



a frame like that used on a riding cultivator, two mold- 

 boards turning towards each other are hung, quite a dis- 

 tance apart at their forward ends and nearer together at 

 the rear. The rider can control these mold-boards, 

 raising or spreading them at will. The mold-boards are 

 run on either side of the row, throwing the earth towards 

 the plants. — Rural New-Yorkc'r . 



The Tomato in Maryland. — The tomato occupies 

 a conspicuous place in the agriculture of a large part of 

 Maryland. Besides the constantly increasing use of 

 this vegetable, or fruit, in its fresh state, the demand 

 for it for canning has become very large. "The 

 tomato pack " of the whole country, was estimated at 

 3,343,000 cases in 1888, and 2,977,000 cases in i88g. 

 To this aggregate Maryland contributes over twenty- 

 three per cent, or nearly one-fourth. The quantity an- 

 nually canned being from thirty to thirty-five thousand 

 tons, there must be at least forty thousand tons of to- 

 matoes ripened yearly in this state, representing the 

 product of twelve thousand acres of land. Some esti- 

 mates place the area and total product much higher. — 

 H. E. Alvord, Maryland lixpcriinenl Station. 



Glands on Catalpa Leaves. — T. V. Munson, of 

 Denison, Texas, has discovered nectar glands on the 

 leaves of Catalpa speciosa. These glands occur on the 

 under surface in the axils of the large veins. These 

 glands attract bees. This is an interesting discovery, and 

 undoubtedly an important one to apiarists. This fact 

 has been before recorded, however, by several observ- 

 ers. Mr. Munson writes as follows : 



"On June 5, I discovered numerous honey-bees col- 

 lecting honey from the under-side of the leaves of Ca- 

 talpa speciosa. On closer observation I found in the 

 forks of all the ribs with the mid-rib on lower face of 

 leaf a smooth glandular (without stalks) surface (the 

 other parts of the surface being densely pubescent), ex- 

 uding nectar till a little drop would fill the cavity in 

 each fork, whence the bees extracted it." 



Lessening the Work. — A good sharp steel rake and 

 a prong hoe will materially lessen the task of keeping 

 the garden clean. They can be used earlier than either 

 the cultivator or the hoe, will more thoroughly destroy 

 the weeds, and leave the soil in a better tilth. They 

 lessen the amount of hand weeding that is to be done, 

 as they will work closer to the plants. Some soils 

 bake very easily, especially after a shower, and one of 

 these will be found a good tool to break up this crust 

 and give the plants a chance to grow. The prong hoe 

 will work deeper than the rake, so that in order to re- 

 ceive the very best results both are needed, one for the 

 smaller plants and the other for the large ones. 



Plant Patents. — This is an amusing world. What 

 would men do without the Agricultural Department to 

 find fault with ? and yet they are always calling out for 

 it to assist in some of their pet schemes. They de- 

 nounce the tariff and then want it enlarged to protect 

 American seedsmen, although we all along thought 

 these same seedsmen were the largest importers of seeds 



in the country, and only raised a few seeds that are 

 better grown here than abroad. Some things are rather 

 hard to regulate by law, and seed raising is one of them ; 

 but when it comes to naming varieties it is harder to 

 regulate by law than the naming of children. If I raise 

 a seedling turnip, I can call it anything I please, but if 

 any one is disposed to obtain seed of my turnip and 

 raise turnips of their own, they can re-name them from 

 the nine muses or anything else they choose, although I 

 couldn't myself tell the difference in the roots, if there 

 was any. People would buy according to the name they 

 like best and wouldn't trouble themselves about me or 

 the other fellow. If I brought over a German fuchsia 

 or rose with a name that would startle a Russian I would 

 have to change it before i't would be an "American 

 beauty " or the flower would not be appreciated. The 

 law might give me the right to my bush and its sale, 

 but everyone might have their own bushes and own 

 names, patents, copyrights or whatever the law chose 

 to give them. Whoever knew a seedsman to have a 

 new bean, bush or climbing, but every other one had a 

 bean as soon as it was known, just like it, excepting in 

 name ? The only difference between peas is, that each 

 man's is the earliest. We fear that it would do little 

 good to give them all a patent for the earliest lettuce, 

 and if the honors were divided, those with large gardens 

 would raise their own seeds before they would go to a 

 hundred different dealers to be supplied. We would 

 like ' ' Uncle Jerry " to help us, and would help him in 

 doing any real good, but politicians always did mix 

 seeds badly, and it does little good to tell us that the 

 agricultural interests are depressed when with our pre- 

 sent imperfections we can raise more than we can sell. 

 The law cannot change the color of the grass, and is 

 there not an old song that has something in it about 

 " when the trees in summer time their verdure dare not 

 show?" Even the pesky Canadian thistle defies the law. 

 —J. D. W. 



Electric Light Experiments at Cornell. — The ex- 

 periments conducted at Cornell University Experi- 

 ment Station, upon the forcing of plants by means 

 of the electric light, of which we recently published an 

 account, have given admirable and definite results. The 

 experiment was a large and interesting one throughout. 

 The tests were made with many plants and cuttings, 

 the leading plants being radishes, carrots, peas, lettuce, 

 spinach, endive, and cresses. These plants were grown 

 from sowing until maturity, a duplicate house having 

 the same species grown for comparison. The experi 

 ment will be conducted another winter before results are 

 announced. — Agricultural Siiriice. 



Water as an Insecticide. — I find that I am daily 

 placing more reliance upon water as an insecticide. 

 Not long since it was my misfortune to procure a lot of 

 plants which were badly infested with the mealy bug 

 Various reputed remedies were tried in vain, and it 

 seemed as if all the plants in my house would have to 

 be destroyed ; but two weeks of vigorous work with the 

 hose has destroyed nearly every mealy bug in the house. 



