184, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
Fuchsia Culture. 
Whoever first recommended Fuchsias as bed- 
ding plants did them great injustice. There 
are few plants less fitted for 
the purpose — in our climate 
at least. They often become 
miserable - looking objects 
under our hot sun, refusing to 
flower, and often losing their 
foliage. Even where Fuchsias 
will flourish and bloom, it is 
a great mistake to use them 
as bedding plants, as their 
flowers have their beauty con- 
cealed by the foliage and their 
own pendent position. Fuch- 
sias to be properly appreciated 
should stand well up, and if 
they can be placed as high as 
the level of the eye, or eveu 
higher, the better will they 
show. We advise our readers, 
instead of planting out the 
little specimens offered by 
florists, to give them larger 
pots, and to continue to grow" 
them in pots or boxes. They 
grow rapidly, and yield readi- 
ly to cutting and pinching, so 
they may be trained in any 
form that pleases the fancy. 
The majority of Fuchsias are 
summer-blooming, and should 
be kept dormant in a cellar 
during the winter. They are 
especially useful plants forthe 
ornamentation of verandas, 
balconies, and like places. 
Large, well - grown plants 
placed at an entrance that is 
approached by a number of 
steps produce a fine effect, as 
here the flowers can be seen 
from below as one ascends the 
steps. The engraving represents the variety "Elm 
City, 1 ' which, though not new, is one of the best. 
•-• HI » fc » i n 
Transplanting Beets and Ruta-Bagas. 
— • — 
Another year's experience makes us confident 
worthy of general adoption. The great labor 
of growing these crops is confined to their care 
while young. Single plants should be left finally 
from 13 to 10 inches apart in the row. By the 
Expert Garden Workmen. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. 
BEET FOR THANSPLANTrfiG. 
that the recommendation to grow mangolds, 
beets, and ruta-baga turnips by transplanting is 
DOUBLE FUCHSrA "ELM CITT." ' 
ordinary process, not only these plants but the 
great number that grow between them, must be 
carefully weeded and cultivated. By the trans- 
planting process, the plants are grown in a seed- 
bed, where they are all preserved to repay the 
cost of their care. The seed is sown early ill 
May, and while these plants are growing to 
the proper size for trans- 
planting, the harrow is 
keeping the field free from 
weeds at a veiy cheap rate, 
and the setting out will re- 
quire less labor and cost less 
money than would a single 
one of the three hand-hoe- 
ings required in the other 
system. The transplant- 
ing is done late in June or 
early in July, according to 
the state of the plants in the 
seed-bed. As the plants are 
pulled the tap-root is cut off 
and the leaves shortened to 
four or six inches. The en- 
graving shows by cross-lines 
how the plants are prepared 
for setting. The planting is 
done by means of a dibble. 
Furthermore, the plant is 
benefited rather than injured 
by being removed and trim- 
med, all the imperfectly developed plants are 
rejected, and the final result will be a much bet- 
ter crop than can be grown in any other way. 
In my long experience with workmen I have 
observed that, other things being equal, the 
man who could move his hands quickest, was 
almost certain to be the man most successful in 
life. Rapid movement of the hands in such 
light operations as writing or type-setting argue 
quick mental decision, and if such a mind is 
well balanced, its possessor is more likely to 
distinguish himself than he who moves more 
sluggishly. Now,two thirds of allgarden oper- 
ations — particularly those of flower-gardening 
— are as light as either writing or type-setting, 
and for many years I have taken great pains to 
stimulate my workmen to rapidity of movement 
in all our light work, and it is astonishing what 
the gain in labor has been in this particular. 
For example, the average work of a man plant- 
ing cabbage or lettuce plants, when we began 
market-gardening, did not exceed 2,000 a day ; 
now, and for many years past, a man, with a 
boy to drop the plants, will set 6,000 a day, 
and one of my old foremen, Jehu Scarry, 
now gardener to Dr. Thos. Vail, of Troj', N. Y., 
has repeatedly planted 10,000 in a da}'. And 
JohnRielly, mention of whose wonderful success 
as a market-gardener has been before made in 
these columns, can tie up 1,200 bunches of celery 
in a day, while the average workman scarcely 
reaches 400. In the lighter work of our green- 
houses rapid movement is even of more im- 
portance, and the rivalry among our workmen 
for distinction in this matter is of great benefit 
to themselves as well as to us. The acknowl- 
edged champion, at present, of our whole force 
of fort}' men is a young Irishman, named 
James Markey. Jim, though not yet 25, has 
been with me a dozen years or more, and from 
the first has distinguished himself for doing all 
light operations quicker and better than any boy 
of his years, and probably to-day can make 
more cuttings, or pot more plants, in the same 
space of time, than any other man in America. 
It is very good average work for one man to 
pot off in 27s-inch pots 2,000 cuttings in ten 
hours. Jim potted off one day of ten hours, 
this spring, 7,000, while his average work of this 
kind is 5,000 a day. Of course, such ability 
the Matthews apple. — {See page 182. ) 
commands its price, and Jim is paid quite twice 
that of most of his fellows, and is much valued 
by me as an example well worthy of imitation. 
