NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



335 



(E. odorata as well as the American (E. biennis, on the sandhills between 

 Burnham and Brean Down, Somerset. — G. S. B. 



Okra, its Culture and Uses. By W. K. Beattie (U.S.A. Dep. Agr. 

 Fanners Bull. 232; figs.). — Okra (Hibiscus esculentus), commonly 

 called Gumbo, has no great value as a food, but the dried pods are exten- 

 sively employed in the Southern States of America as a flavouring to meat 

 stews, and as a salad. 



It must only be cooked in earthenware vessels, as metals are absorbed 

 by the pods, which are thereby discoloured and even rendered poisonous. 



Hints are given for its cultivation, and a descriptive list is added of 

 the different varieties grown. — M. L. H. 



Onion Culture. By Fabian Garcia (U.S.A. Exp. Stn. Xew Mexico, 

 Bull. 52 ; plates). — An increased growth of onions in New Mexico is 

 advocated, and what is called the new method of growing — that is, raising 

 in hot beds and transplanting — is shown to be cheaper and more satis- 

 factory than sowing in the fields and afterwards thinning out. 



Hand culture is recommended rather than horse culture, as avoiding 

 the waste of ground between the rows, and irrigation at regular intervals 

 is desirable. Water applied after the oniens have had a check from 

 drought is liable to cause splitting of the bulbs. The rule is that onions 

 should have attained the size of a lead pencil before being transplanted, 

 but it rs urged that it is more important to transplant in proper time than 

 that the plants should have reached any particular size. 



In the Mesilla Valley, onion seed should be sown in the open seed-bed 

 in September or early in October, or later in a cold frame covered with 

 glass. The seedlings should be transplanted at the end of February or 

 early in March. 



Nitrate of soda, applied at the rate of 600 lbs. per acre in four different 

 sowings during the season, was found to produce a marked improvement 

 in the yield.— M. L. H. 



Orchard Culture, Experiments in. By R. A. Emerson (U.S.A. 



Agr. Exp. Stn. Nebraska, Bull. 79 ; plates). — Experiments were made in 

 clean cultivation of orchards versus various kinds of cover-crops considered 

 chiefly with reference to the two great enemies of fruit trees in Nebraska, 

 viz. summer drought and severe frost. 



A plantation of young trees was made before a very dry summer, and 

 divided for purposes of experiment into plots containing seventy-six trees 

 each. In the plot planted with water-melons, beans, or turnips, five trees 

 died of drought. In the plot planted with Indian corn seven trees died of 

 drought. In the plot given clean cultivation all through the summer, 

 two died. In the plot sown with oats, forty-one died. In the plot sown 

 with millet which was ploughed in the succeeding spring, nine died. 



The percentage of moisture in this soil in another plot bearing no 

 trees, but sown with rye, was also examined occasionally, and this crop was 

 proved to exhaust the moisture more than any other that was tested and 

 to effect this much earlier in the season, when it would have had a still 

 more disastrous effect upon fruit trees. The high percentage of dead 



