1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
115 
few hours paclc in barrels or boxes alternate lay- 
ers of short dry or cut straw and potatoes, and 
move to a warm room or dry warm cellar ; if to 
a cellar, keep up from the floor and off from the 
wall. With such treatment they will keep eight 
or nine months. J. 0. TnoMPSON. 
Staten Island, N. Y. 
Early Peas. 
— • — 
In this latitude these may be sown the mid- 
dle of April, and in some seasons, even by the 
first of the month. The young plants will en- 
dure a pretty severe frost, and may even be 
covered by a late snow without injury. A warm, 
dry, rather sandy spot, which last year bore 
some well-manured crop, should be selected, 
and if protected on the north by a tight fence 
or wall, so much the better. Lay off the rows 
2J to 3 feet apart for the taller kinds, and 1 to 2 
feet apart for the dwarf sorts. We prefer a 
somewhat scattered drill for the dwarf, and even 
for the tall growing sorts. This is made by 
scooping out the width of a garden hoe, and 
about two inches deep. Some prefer a single, 
narrow row, and others plant in double rows 
6 or eight inches apart. If the seed is soaked 
for 24 hours before planting, in tepid water, 
they will come up much sooner than when sown 
dry. Cover with a hoe or rake, and after they 
are up, keep the ground well stirred and free 
from weeds. The kinds which need support, 
should be furnished with brush when they are 
are a few inches high, and before they get so 
tall, as to fall over. A few short rows may be 
forwarded by a little extra care. Have the rows 
ruu east and west, and set up a board upon the 
north side ; this will reflect the sun in the day 
time, and may be laid over the plants, upon 
blocks or other supports, at night. In this way 
the peas will be protected from frost, and the 
heat the ground has received during the clay be 
retained. Some go to the trouble of making a 
more complete covering by nailing together two 
boards, as for a trough, or gutter : this can be 
put by the side of the plants by day, and at 
night is turned over them and forms a complete 
roof. The early varieties are numerous ; for 
the tall growing sorts we have found the Dan- 
iel O'Rourke and Princess perfectly satisfactory. 
The Washington and European are also good 
early sorts, and recently a variety called the 
Electric has been introduced, which is claimed 
to be the earliest kind. We are each year more 
in favor of the dwarf varieties, as the laborious 
operation of bushing is dispensed with, and 
they can be planted much nearer together. 
Tom Thumb is a good early and remarkably 
dwarf sort, but as a variety for the family gar- 
den, it has the disadvantage that the pods 
all come to maturity about the sam.e time. 
Bishop's Long Pod is an excellent sort, as is the 
Prolific or Strawberry, but neither of these arc 
among the very earliest. 
Large Sugar Beets for Stock or Sugar. 
The March No. of the Agriculturist contains 
some information on "Beet Sugar," by Prof. 
Mot, of Ohio. Having made some experiments 
on beet culture, my experience may be of ser- 
vice to many of your readers. On a plot of 
ground 38 by 57 feet, planted in June (too late 
by two months) the product was, by actual 
weight, 4,226 lbs. They were planted 18 inches 
by 2 feet — should have been 2 feet each way. 
This is the secret of success. They want space, 
light, and air. Manure and prepare the ground 
deep and thoroughly the last of March, or as 
early in April as possible—; frost don't hurl beets. 
Drop two good seeds every two feet. Where 
the plant is large enough, thin out to one, leav- 
ing the best plant. I haul the earth around to 
steady them — cultivate well, and keep clean. I 
found where self sown seed (dropped from seed 
beets) came up very early and were left singly to 
grow where they started on good ground, by 
digging the ground up around them they would 
grow to over 30 lbs. each. 
My neighbor, Dr. F. Hallick, grows them for 
stock. In 1861 the seed came up badly and left 
them thinly scattered : many reached 20 lbs. each. 
In 1862 he planted 18 inches by 2 feet. This crop 
averaged 13 lbs. each. This Spring he intends 
to plant 2 feet each way. Remember to plant 
early. Deep culture, and good ground are es- 
sential to get a fine crop. Do not pull off the 
under leaves — it stops the growth of the beets, 
and pock-marks all the remaining leaves. 
Staten Island, N. Y. J. G. THOMPSON. 
Early Sowing. 
A few bright, warm days, such as always 
occur the latter part of April, are usually suffi- 
cient to bring on an attack of the planting fever. 
The garden must be plowed or spaded, beds 
laid off, and in go the beets, carrots, parsnips, 
turnips, etc. They find a cold bed, the soil is 
packed over them by repeated rains, and many 
of the seeds rot outright, or the slender germs 
fail to lift the heavy soil pressing upon them. 
It is far better to leave sowing most seeds until 
the ground is dry and warm. A few of the 
hardy sorts, such as early peas, potatoes, onions, 
lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, spinach, salsify etc. 
may be put in during the month of April, but 
May 15th is sufficiently early for the generality 
of seeds. They will then come up quickly and 
grow rapidly ; every one knows, that a quick 
grown vegetable is far better than one which 
has takeu a whole season to mature. Beets for 
late fall and winter use do best when sown, from 
the first to the middle of June. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
The Yellows in Peaches. 
BY E. E. CHAPIN, HAMPDEN CO., MAS 
The yellows, though easily distinguished by 
the weak, sickly sprouts with yellow leaves, 
from which the disease takes its name, seems 
to be a malady of the nature of which but little 
is yet known. The most intelligent cultivators 
who have written upon the subject can give no 
other remedy than the severe one of destroying 
the tree, root and branch, as soon as the disease 
makes its appearance ; the remedies of hot 
water and hot ashes already proposed by some 
of your correspondents would certainly seem 
preferable to this, for if they should destroy the 
tree they would kill the disease with it, and it 
is quite possible that a cure may be effected in 
this way without destroying the life of the tree; 
my reason for thinking so is this : I noticed the 
yellows had made their appearance upon a 
young tree that had just ripened its first fruit, 
about the 1st of September last. I immediately 
began to examine closely, and found that the 
twigs presented nothing unusual ; there was 
about a foot of well-ripened wood, with large 
dark-green leaves, but upon the body and main 
branches was a large number of sickly yellow 
sprouts, most of which were already dead at 
their ends, though they could not have been 
more than three or four weeks in growing. 
The bark of the tree was good, although it had 
a rather dry, feverish appearance. On digging 
away Ihe soil at the root there was not the least 
appearance of any grubs, the bark was perfectly 
smooth and to all outside appearance healthy, 
but on applying the knife, to scrape away a 
little dirt, I was surprised to find that the outer 
bark would scrape away as easily as a piece of 
horse-radish, and disclosed much the same ap- 
appearance underneath. There was, between 
the outer and inner bark, a coating of whitish 
substance, very brittle, full of sap, and easily 
scraped away, and about one-fourth of an inch 
in thickness at the thickest part, which was 
about an inch below the surface of the ground, 
and extending completely around the collar, 
there being no appearance of it above the 
surface, and a gradual decrease, as it went 
down, until there was little or none at the 
depth of seven or eight inches. After scraping 
away all of this substance that could be found, 
leaving the inner bark exposed, I placed fresh 
soil around it, and then cut away all the yellow 
sprouts. The tree appeared perfectly well 
afterwards, and retained its leaves fresh as late 
as any others. When a tree has such a cover- 
ing as this one had, I can readily believe that 
boiling water or live coals, sufficient to destroy 
the life of a healthy tree, might ho applied, not 
only without injury, but with benefit, if it 
should slough away the parasitic growth. 
What Apples to Plant. 
The Fruit Growers' Meeting at the Agricultur- 
ist office have recently given the above subject 
special attention. Lists were submitted by ex- 
perienced cultivators, and votes were taken in 
the same manner as has previously been done 
with pears and grapes. The following list by 
Parsons & Co., for 15 varieties for an orchard of 
50 trees, was almost unanimously adopted. 
SUMMER. 
Yellow Sweet Bough. 
Vellow Harvest. 
Primate. 
Red Astrachan. 
AUTUMN. 
Gravenstein. 
Porter. 
Fall Pippin. 
One or two persons thought the Roxbury Rus- 
set and Newtown Pippin did not succeed well 
enough in all localities to be universally recom- 
mended. For those who wish to plant largely, 
Mr. Carpenter, who has an orchard of 30 acres 
in Westchester Co., proposed the following 20 
varieties, with the numbers for 1000 trees. 
WINTER. 
Jersey Sweeting. 
Rhode Island Greening. 
Hubbardston Nonsuch. 
Baldwin. 
Peck's Pleasant. 
Roxbury Russet. 
Newtown Pippin. 
Tatman Sweet. 
Winter. 
50 Hubbardston Nonsuch. 
50 King Tompkins Co. 
25 Talman Sweet. 
25 Dutch Mignonne. 
200 Baldwin. 
200 R. I. Greening. 
50 Smith's Cider. 
25 Peck's Pleasant. 
25 Melon. 
100 Po'keepsie Russet. 
Summer. 
25 Primate. 
15 Sweet Bough. 
12 Yellow Harvest. 
50 Summer Pippin. 
10 Summer Queen. 
10 Red Astrachan. 
Fall. 
50 Gravenstein. 
3 Jersey Sweet. 
50 Porter. 
25 Fall Pippin. 
For special localities, where they are known 
to do well, he would recommend Newtown Pip- 
pin, Esopus Spitzenberg, Northern Spy, Hawley 
and Swaar. Also as apples promising well : 
Hicks, Belle et Bonne, Jeffries, Drap d'Or, Moth- 
er, Summer Bellfleur, Vermont Strawberry, and 
Vermont Beauty. 
The above lists refer to this vicinity, though 
most of the apples do well in all parts of the 
country. The best general information upon 
varieties adapted to different sections, will be 
found on page 147 of our last volume (May Ag- 
riculturist, 1862) ; and in the reports collected 
from the whole country as published in several 
numbers of volume XX (1861). 
