3-12 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTUJRIST. 
[September, 
twenty years eqi loes not surpass, any 
of which we have record in America. When 
he took possession of these hundred acres, 
twenty rears ago, lie did so at a nominal rent, 
but without a lease, with the condition, however 
(a very unfortunate one for the owner), that the 
>wner might enter upon possession at any time 
by paying Mm M. value of iJte crop upon it. Mr. 
H., a man of great energy and shrewdness, at 
once saw his advantage, and took care that his 
grounds should at all seasons he cropped to the 
fullest extent — something which can he better 
done in England than with us. The result was 
that when the owner one day took it into his 
head to take possession, he discovered that he 
would have to pay more for the crop than the 
land was worth, and there was nothing for him 
to do but to sell to the tenant, or go on receiving 
the nominal sum for rent. The result was that 
Mr. H. bought the land, and is now perhaps 
the wealthiest market-gardener around London. 
The next grounds we visited were those of 
George Steele & Sons, of Fulham, a point nearer 
to the City. These grounds were also models 
of order and neatness, although a week pre- 
vious three fourths of the workmen had struck 
for higher wages, aud had gone to hay-making, 
leaving the owners in a bad plight. The garden 
•omprised fifty acres, and the full number of 
hands was seventy-five. Now there were less 
than twenty, and these second-rate. 
Why, it may be asked, does it require seventy- 
five men for fifty acres? Simply because John 
Bull will not believe that land can be better 
dug with a plow and harrow thau with a spade. 
I took some time to argue the poiut with Mr. 
Steele, and he declared that the morrow would 
see for the first time a plow in the market-gar- 
dens of Fulham. Once there, it will remain, 
for there is no one who has had practice with 
both methods but knows that no digging with a 
spade or fork can bring the soil to the mellow 
condition that the plow and harrow can. Upon 
grounds of the extent of Mr. Steele's the use of 
the plow will save full one third of labor. 
Here, too, and at Mr. Hollington's, they were 
using another very primitive tool, which I did 
not ventttre to say anything about, for I thought 
I had trodden hard enough on John's conserva- 
tive toes for one day. The tool in question was 
a planting-stick made out of a spade-handle, 
just such as was iu use thirty years ago by the 
cottagers of England or Scotland to set out a 
few dozen cabbage or lettuce plants for their 
own use. Yet here, where millions ou millions 
of plants had to be set out, no better implement 
had been thought of. The spade-handle dibber, 
even in the most experienced hands, is a wag- 
gling implement, and is hardly more to be com- 
pared in effectiveness to the pistol-handled dib- 
ber in use by the gardeners of New York than 
a sickle is to a cradle in a wheat-field. 
This reminds me that I have not yet seen a 
single machine in the hay-fields in England 
either for cutting or raking ; nothing but the 
ordinary scythe and hand-rake. No doubt 
machines are in use in some districts, but are 
certainly not common, for along the whole line 
of railroad from Liverpool to London we saw 
hundreds of mowers all using the scythe. Yet 
we must not plume ourselves ou any particular 
smartness in the use of implements that lessen 
labor. The necessities of our condition force 
us to their use. When it is found that we have 
two men's work to do, and can only afford to 
pay the high price of one man to do it, then 
necessity becomes "the mother of invention," 
and means are found to accomplish the end. 
I found one practice in Messrs. Steele's 
grounds which our market-gardeners might 
imitate witli profit. The system is a very old 
one, and has been in use probably for fifty 
years, but it is certainly not much used, if at all, 
by market-gardeners in the vicinity of New 
York, Philadelphia, or Boston, where its advan- 
tages would be even greater than those around 
London. It is the common hand-glass, of a size 
about two feet on the side. These would cost 
with us probably about 75 cents or $1 each. 
Messrs. Steele use these glasses in large num- 
bers to forward cauliflower for heading. They 
are placed at distances of two feet apart, and 
three plants of cauliflower are planted under 
each. The hand-glasses are tilled up for ven- 
tilation in sunny weather— used, in fact, just as 
we use a hot-bed or cold-frame, and the cauli- 
flowers are forwarded probably two weeks 
earlier than they would be in the open ground. 
Ot\course there is not room under the glasses 
for the three plants of cauliflower to form their 
heads there, but the object is to forward them 
so that they will be large enough to head in the 
open ground when the glasses are taken off — a 
most important matter with us, as we find the 
trouble always is that we can not get the cauli- 
flowers large enough until they are checked by 
our hot aud dry weather in June. Thus for- 
warded in New York, I think it safe to say they 
would readily briug $1.50 for each hand-glass. 
Variation in a Peach-Tree. 
W. C. M., Barren Creek Springs, Md., writes: 
" I have a peach-tree, six years old, from the 
Ohio bud, on the south-east side of which is one 
small limb which branches into two; the lower 
one last year ripened its fruit much earlier than 
the other branches, and this; year has on it 
peaches of fair size, now ripe, while the rest of 
the fruit is green and hard, scarely colored. Is 
this not uncommon? Can it be accounted for? 
All the conditions of this limb are apparently 
the same as in the other limbs. Is it a 'sport'? 
Would buds from this limb bear as early fruit?" 
— This is an instance of what is now called " bud- 
variation," to distinguish it from another kind 
of sporting from seed. It is not very common, 
but there are a sufficient number of well-recorded 
instances to establish the fact that it occasionally 
happens, not only with the peach but with other 
fruit trees. Some branches of the peach have 
produced nectarines, and rice versa. A tree of 
the well-known peach Grosse Mignonne in 
France produced a branch with fruit so much 
later than the rest, that it was propagated as the 
Grosse Mignonne tardive, or Late Grosse Mig- 
nonne. Such cases have happened with clier-' 
ries, plums, grapes, and other fruits. We can 
not account for the occurrence. The peach, as 
our other cultivated fruits, is in a condition far 
removed from its original one, and we only 
know that there is a tendency not only among 
our cultivated fruits, but with flowers and vege- 
tables, to vary. Buds from the limb in qnestion 
would no doubt propagate the peculiarity. 
Pea-Bugs. — A correspondent says we may 
rid ourselves of Pea-bugs in two ways, provided 
we let none escape before applying the means, 
and provided our neighbors will all take the 
like pains. By one method we involve the peas 
and bugs in good soft-soap suds, stirring a little 
until the bugs rise, and then skim them off and 
burn them. Probably they might, after the 
sudsing, be safely planted with the peas, but it 
is sure work to burn them. Another method is 
to pour scalding water with a quick dash over 
the peas, and atlmost instantly follow it with 
cold. This may seem to endanger peas as well 
as bugs; but we have used this process, losing 
very few it' any peas. But using either process, 
there must be care to sow the peas quickly, or 
they will swell, and be in danger of splitting 
and damaging the germ. A few bugs may es- 
cape from not having opened their cells; but in 
the second year, repeating the means, scarcely 
a bug need he left to propagate its species. 
It is best to treat small quantities at a time. 
A California Lawn-Sprinkler. 
We have recently received from a friend in 
San Francisco an automatic sprinkler such as 
is much in use there, where it is necessary to 
produce an artificial rain to keep lawns green 
iu summer. It is shown iu fig. 1. 
A light tripod, about three feet high, supports 
a revolving head, which consists of three arm- 
like tubes (shown in fig. 2) attached to a hollow 
washer that plays around the tube to which the 
Fig. 1.— CALIFORNIA LAWN-SPRINKLER. 
hose is attached, bringing water from a head. 
The arms are turned a little backward and up- 
ward, and the water as it flows out causes them 
to revolve, flirting a fine spray over a circle of 
from ten feet to thirty feet in diameter, accord- 
ing to the pressure of the water. We are using 
ours with a head of about fifteen feet, and it 
covers a diameter of twenty feet. When this 
area has been well watered, the machine is 
Fig. 2. — TUBES OF SPRINKLER. 
moved to new ground. It requires but little 
attention from a man working in its neighber- 
liood, and is a very useful affair in dry weather. 
AVe are not aware that they are for sale in the 
Eastern States, hut any plumber could make oue 
(mainly of gas-pipe) without much expense. 
- ■ «■ ■ » 
Mr. Sisley's Geraniums. — Mr. Jean Sisley, 
of Lyons, France, is well known as a horticul- 
tural amateur, and now and then he has con- 
