October, 1889. 
187 
ORGH IVR JTvm% Gt\R DEN 
inclined to think that more tomatoes can be 
grown under a given space of glass with 
Dwarf Champions in pots than in any other 
way. It is not yet too late to grow them 
( from cuttings for fruiting in February and 
March. The bush Lima bean has been grown 
here in Virginia many years, but it deserves 
all that has been said about it by its dissem- 
inators the past season. It is well known 
here that the climbing variety of the Lima, 
which the catalogues call Sieva, and which 
Virginia people call Butter beans, is more 
productive and of equally good quality as 
the Large Lima, which is grown almost ex- 
clusively North, and the Bush Lima belongs 
to this class, and inherits the productive- 
ness of the climbing sort beside being much 
earlier. It will doubtless remain a standard 
variety especially with these who want an 
early bean for market purposes. 
White Tripoli onion has given us a mag- 
nificent crop of fine large onions from black 
seed, and the days of onion set growing are 
over, except with our old favorite Potato 
onion. We still adhere to this as the best 
onion for spring use and early marketing. 
Here we plant Potato onion sets in October 
and they give us our first green onions in 
the spring. Left to ripen they mature their 
crop late in June and if shipped at once 
they usually find a market comparatively 
bare of onions for a week or two and bring 
good prices. If however the glut of Ber- 
muda and Southern onions is repeated as 
this season the prospect for profit is not 
good . Some growers insist that onions from 
the black seed sown in October are the most 
profitable for early green crops, but I am 
still inclined to favor the Potato onion. 
In snap beans nothing of unusual merit 
has been noticed this season. Golden Wax 
is still the best wax bean for family use and 
Dwarf Flageolet for market purposes. The 
Golden Wax spots worst in wet weather, 
but bears longer and does not get stringy. 
• Dwarf Flageolet has longer and more showy 
pods and gives the bulk of its crop at once, 
but it gets quite stringy later. Of green pod- 
ded snaps the Extra Early Valentine of 
Henderson is a good and pure strain, and 
as good as any. Of pole snap beans we 
have a variety similar to the “Crease back” 
which has been grown for generations here 
in Virginia, which we consider the best of 
all snap beans, but which has never been 
named or catalogued to my knowledge. I 
hope to have some northern seedman test 
them the coming season and if found 
worthy then tney may be put in the lists. 
Don’t send tome for the seeds for I have 
none to sell and don’t know any one who 
has. 
The wet season has been bad for the 
sweet potato crop. Here in Piedmont Vir- 
ginia this crop is not grown to the same ex- 
tent as in the sandy soils of lower Virginia, 
but nevertheless we grow very good sweet 
potatoes here. The Yellow Nansemond and 
Red Nose are doubtless our best potatoes 
but the Hayman Yam or Southern Queen 
has stood the wet season better than others 
and has given a splendid crop which this 
season are fully equal in quality to the Red 
Nose, which is our standard for quality. In 
a goed potato season, however, there is 
no comparison between them. This 
year the Hayman has fully held its own 
while the Red Nose has grown wet and sap- 
py and has run away to vines, giving a very 
poor yield. Winter squashes do not rank in 
this latitude as they doNrrthward. Our 
sweet potatoes take their place at a much 
less cost. Even for pies no squash or pump- 
kin pie can ever compare with sweet potato 
pies. 
South of the Potomac it is still early 
enough for a fall sowing of cabbage seed to 
be planted out on ridges or wintered over in 
frames. But I have long since abandoned 
the whole practice of fall sowing for early 
cabbage, having satisfied myself that I can 
grow equally as early and better crops with 
less expense by starting in hot bed or forc- 
ing house last of January and transplant- 
ing into flats in cold frames and from thence 
to the open ground early in March into 
freshly worked ground. Plants thus treat- 
ed grow off with a vigor that the wintered 
plants do not show and the crop is equally 
as early and of better quality. Lettuce for 
early spring use we prefer to set in a shelt- 
ered place, and protect with a light shelter 
of pine bushes. North of Washington it 
would perhaps be better to put into cold 
frames, and keep the plants exposed to the 
full air at all times except in severe weather 
and at night. Those who want spinach in fine 
condition for table use during the winter 
would do well to try a little sown in a cold 
frame. Here, by sowing early in sheltered 
spots, we can usually have it all winter in 
fair condition without protection, but even 
here it pays for family use to have a little 
under sashes where it will not get scorched. 
Celery will now be making its best growth 
and the earthing of that which is to be used 
before Christmas should be done as rapidly 
as the growth wall allow. That which is 
intended for later winter and spring use 
should only be earthed enough to keep it in 
an upright shape, until the last of the 
month when the earthing should be kept 
up with its growth during November. The 
very dwarf celeries will do at the North but 
from Philadelphia southward the half dwarf 
and the larger growing sorts are better. 
South of the Potomac, the pink varieties of 
celery I am inclined to believe will usual- 
ly be found best. They grow better in warm 
weather than most white sorts. Cauli- 
flower for heading early in cold frames may 
still be sown, but September would have 
been better. We have long practiced the 
plan of setting six cauliflower plants under 
each sash and filling in with Boston Market 
lettuce between them. The lettuce is head- 
ed and cut out in February and March and, 
by giving air at all favorable times, by the 
time the cauliflower leaves are pressing 
against the glass they will be tough enough 
to do without the glass, which can be re- 
moved to other frames to protect early cab- 
bage, tomatoes and other plants in success- 
ion. In Virginia these frame cauliflowers 
give fine heads in March and April. In 
the latitude of Philadelphia in May. Snow 
Ball is a good sort and quite sure to head 
well. Earliest Dwarf Erfurt is also good. 
Parsley seed sown in a cold frame and pro- 
tected by the glass only will give a desira- 
ble addition to the table during winter and 
spring; or sometimes self-sown plants from 
a bed that has been allowed to run to seed 
may be transplanted to the frames in Octo- 
ber. If you still use bean poles and have 
not adopted the wire netting for such 
climbeis, you will find it economy to take 
them up as soon as the frost has killed the 
beans, and store under shelter. Equal care 
should be taken with the ware netting and 
the stakes to which it was attached. Though 
galvanized, the netting will last much long- 
er if rolled up and put away, than if left ex- 
posed to the weather. 
As a rule we never advise the saving of 
seed in gardens, but there are some things 
which the careful gardener can always save 
to advantage. The main crop of sugar corn is 
one of these things. Any sort of corn is bet- 
ter for seed if saved in the same latitute in 
which it is to be planted. Corn will not do 
well if moved far North or South of the lo- 
cality in which it has been grown for years. 
Stowell's Evergreen is still our favorite su- 
gar corn and it is hard to cure in good con- 
dition for seed. We strip the husks back 
and tie in bunches and hang in an airy place 
during the winter. Early sugar corn we do 
not grow as any of it is worthless in this lati- 
tude, but when it is grown itwill hardly pay 
private growers to allow it to prevent the 
planting of the second crop by standing to 
ripen seed. Tomatoes are one of the vege- 
table crops of which I always like to save a 
few seeds. For this purpose a few plants 
of the desired variety should be planted by 
themselves and the earliest and best fruits 
rigidly saved for se .d and the balance left 
for table use. But any garden crop which 
would interfere with neatness or a second 
crop, or one which requires two seasons 
growth to ripen seed, can never be grown 
as well nor as economically as they can be 
had from the seedsmen. 
Keeping Sweet Potatoes. 
Dig them before they have been hurt by 
frost. Spread them out in the sunshine as 
dug and let them get well dried. Be careful 
to keep the diggers from bruising them by 
throwing them in piles, but have them left 
scattered along the rows as dug. In hauling 
them in handle them as carefully as eggs. 
The best way is to put them into peach 
crates in the field and store them in the 
crates without any further handling. They 
can then be piled up so as to have thorough 
ventilation. Put them in a room in which 
you can command a heat of at least 60° in 
winter, and if they are in good condition 
when stored and not allowed to get chilled 
there will be no trouble in keeping them. 
The Hayman or Southern Queen will keep 
in any dry warm cellar, and are very little 
more trouble than Irish potatoes. — W. F. 
Massey. 
