March, 1890. 
55 
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mation, for private use is the Bassano. It 
is not popular with market growers because 
of its larger top and its light color, but 
those who seek quality rather than looks 
like it. For market use the Eclipse is 
greatly better than Egyptian, which has 
nothing at all to recommend it except its 
earliness, small top and dark color. In 
quality it is the poorest of beets. While 
the Mohawk Bean is useful from its hardi- 
ness, it is recommended only for this, as 
we have other snap beans of much better 
quality, but of which it is time enough yet 
to speak. For an early corn, too, without 
regard to quality, the Early Adams is as 
yet unexcelled. It can be planted earlier 
than any of the sweet varieties, wh'ch are 
apt to rot when put in cold ground. South 
of Pennsylvania it is still the only early 
corn possible, for the early varieties of 
sugar corn are wdthout exception worthless 
here. We are working in the line of de- 
veloping an early table corn for south- 
ern uses and hope to succeed. Plant 
a little of the Early Adams in a warm 
spot the last of March or first of April, 
and in nine seasons out of ten it will 
come through all right. Of course 
there is always risk in planting these 
tender things early, but the pleasure 
of getting ahead of one’s neighbors 
is the chief joy of the town gardener. 
Early cabbage plants should now 
be in the open ground almost every- 
where. Successive crops for Summer 
and Fall use should be sown at once 
in cold frames. We have never found 
any sort for this sowing better that 
Fottler’s Improved Brunswick. Hend- 
erson’s Succession is said to be fine 
but T am trying it thisyear for the first 
time. As soon as the ground can be 
worked sow some radishes ii a warm 
corner and fertilize the soil with a _ _ 
good commercial ferlilizer, to give = -A 
them a quick start. If cold weath- ^ 
er comes after they are up cover with 
straw. 
TO RAISE CELERY PLANTS. 
Celery seed should be sown the last of the 
month. It is sometimes hard to get them 
started. A good plan is to sew on the north 
side of a brard fence or other half-shaded 
place. Scatter the seed in rows on the 
surface and pat down with the back of the 
shovel, but do not attempt to cover the 
seeds. Cover the bed with an old piece of 
carpet or matting laid flat on the suiface of 
the soil. This will keep it moist and hasten 
the germination of the seed. Watch care- 
fully and as soon as signs of growth appear 
prop the cover up from the young plants 
and gradually take it away altogether as 
soon as they have fairly opened their leaves. 
Of the treatment of the celery plants in 
warm weather we will speak hereafter. 
The best lettuce to sow now in the open 
ground is the Curled Simpson, and the last 
of the month, the Deacon or the Salaman- 
der. Th^se stand hot weather better than 
most other sorts, and when people want 
lettuce in hot weather they are undoubtedly 
best. About the last of the month sow 
seeds of Early Frame or White Spine Cu- 
cumbers in four-inch pots filled with rich 
compost. Pack the pots closely together in 
a frame and cover with the sashes. When 
frost is gone these plants can be knocked 
out of the pots and transplanted to the open 
ground without any disturbance of the 
roots, and will advance the earliness of the 
crop very considerably. Muskmelons and 
lima beans can be treated in the same man- 
ner. We recommend the pots as being far 
more convenient and better than the old 
resource of a reversed sod or a hollowed- 
out turnip. These four-inch pots can be 
bought in Philadelphia for less than one 
cent each, so the Practical Farmer man 
need not be scared at the cost. 
Parsnips and salsify should be sown as 
early as the ground can be prepared. Pars- 
nip seed we sow by dropping a pinch of two 
Buki’ee’s Bush Lima Bean. 
or three seeds along the furrow about six 
inches apart. The plants then appear in 
bunches and are more easily thinned. No 
garden drill I have ever tried will sow 
parsnip, salsify or beets properly. — W. F. 
Massey. 
Bush Lima Beans. 
Singular coincidences sometimes occur. 
Last spring two of our leading seed firms 
sent out a bush Lima Bean, without either 
knowing that the other had such a thing till 
the announcement was made. A bush Lima 
Bean being a great novelty, the conclusion 
was natural that the two were one and the 
same thing but upon comparison they were 
found to be entirely distinct from each oth- 
er. One, known as Henderson’s Dwarf 
Lima, a dwarf Carolina or Seiva Bean of 
the South and, correctly speaking, not a 
Lima at all; the other, Kumerle’s Dwarf 
Lima, is a dwarf variety of Dreer’s Improv- 
ed Lima. This season W. Atlee Burpee & 
Co., of Philadelphia, are introducing the 
third type of Lima beans, and the most val- 
uable of all. A true dwarf, large white 
Lima; a sport from the large Lima pole 
bean, from Chester County, Pa. Our illus- 
tration represents very fairly a plant in bear- 
ing. It makes a complete bush of from one 
and a half to two feet high, with strong 
branches and -bears a large crop of verita- 
ble Lima beans. It is singular that any of 
these distinct beans should have taken the 
bush form at about the same time. Such 
coincidences, however, are not s > very rare 
as some may imagine. We have seen more 
than one instance of it. The Trophy Toma- 
to sported to the yellow form in three dif- 
ferent places at the same time. The whole 
subject is interesting, and furnishes food 
for thought. 
Barnyard Manure for Potatoes. 
For the past three years we' have 
been experimenting with different 
brands of commercial fertilizers on 
potatoes, but owing to peculiar cli- 
matic conditions during the seasons 
of 1887 and 1888 we were unable to 
secure any reliable results. Last year 
experiments were planned with a view 
to ascertainingthe amount of increase 
in yield of potatoes by using barnyard 
manure over that having no manure 
at all ; and at the same time to test 
the question of producing scab by us 
ing fresh barn manure. The soil was 
but moderately fertile, having had no 
manure for at least six years previous 
to this test. The Burbank variety 
was used, cut to pieces of two eyes 
each and planted one foot apart in 
trenches, after the Rural trench sys- 
tem, with a check row between. One 
row was covered, after the trench 
had been filled with soil, with from 
two to three inches of fresh horse 
manure mixed with a small quanti- 
ty of bedding. They were given level 
cultivation throughout the season, and on 
September 10th were dug with the follow- 
ing results : 
Treatment. 
Market- 
aide 
Tubers. 
Small 
Tubers. 
Total Bu. 
per A ere. 
Manured 
264 
44 
.308 
Unmanured 
98 
48 
146 
In favor of manured. . . 
106 
4 
162 
Here we have 166 bushels of marketable 
potatoes in favor of the manured plat, and 
118 bushels more of marketable potatoes per 
acre on the manured plat than the unma- 
nured plat produced altogether. The ma- 
nure, being placed on top of the rows, was 
undoubtedly beneficial in two ways, viz : 
as a fertilizer and also as a mulch. The 
latter part of the season was very dry, and 
those which had no covering suffered some- 
what from the drouth. There was no ap- 
parent difference as to scab between the ma- 
nured and unmanured — J. Troop. 
