78 
April, 1890. 
Garden Work for April. 
In our notes for garden work we usually 
have to keep in mind that the majority of 
the readers of Orchard and Garden prob- 
ably live in a more Northern latitude than 
the writer, and that what would be good 
practice in North Carolina, would be ruin- 
ous in Maryland. Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey. But this Spring seems destined to 
to set us nearer together. Ten days ago. 
here in North Carolina, peas were in bloom 
(this is written March 10th), strawberries of 
fair size, pears had set fruit and were near- 
ly in full leaf. One of my neighbors had 
snap beans up and many people had corn 
sprouting. The mercury stood at 80° in 
the shade on the last day of February, but 
on the morning of March 3d it stood at 20°, 
and our gardens were in ruins. Peas were 
killed, potatoes were cut to the ground, and 
even cabbages that were beginning to head 
were totally destroyed. Only by dint of 
heavy covering did we succeed in saving 
the tomato plants ‘•spotted” out in the cold 
frames. Now we must start again. 
As misery loves company it was some sat- 
isfaction perhaps to know that the mercury 
fell as Jow in North Florida as it did in 
North Carofina. It i- an ill wind that blows 
nobody good, so if we have to start over 
again so do the gardeners at Savannah, 
Charleston and in Florida. The Savannah 
folks were shipping peas, but the Jerseymen 
can get theirs in now nearly as soon as any 
body else. This late and terrible frost, the 
heaviest by 10° that we have had during 
the winter.sliould be an incentive to market 
gardeners in New Jersey to do their level 
best, for Southern stuff will be much scarcer 
and later than usual and good prices may 
be expected. It is usual to set out tomato 
plants here early in April but we have had 
such a scare that much caution will be used. 
SWEET POTATOES 
which are now being bedded here need not 
be started in the latitude of Philadelphia 
for a month later, or at least middle of April. 
I have never found much advantage in 
starting too early with sweet potatoes. The 
ground in the latitude of Philadelphia will 
seldom be warm enough to trust them out 
until late in May or early in June. Here 
some plant in April, but May planted 
“sprouts” will often beat them, and we can 
continue planting and make a crop as late 
as August 1st. In this latitude the bedding 
of sweet potatoes for sprouting is usually 
done very carelessly, but even here it pays 
well to bed under glass. We make a very 
slight hot bed, cover the manure with three 
inches of sand, and when the first heat is off, 
bed the potatoes on the sand as closely as 
possible without touching. Then cover with 
an inch or two of sand and put on the sash- 
es. Be very chary of water until they be- 
gin to sprout and then use tepid or well- 
sunned water to moisten them. I prefer to 
bed in pure sand to avoid fungus growth 
causing “black shank” in the plants, and 
oetter roots are made in the sand. There is 
a diversity of opinion as to the proper size 
of potatoes for bedding. One of our largest 
growers uses no potato less than a pound 
in weight, and claims that he gets better 
plants. But the practice most of us follow 
is to use small potatoes or “slips” raised for 
the purpose. These “slips” are grown by 
making cuttings of the vines in August, 
about a yard long. These are coiled up and 
planted in hills, leaving only the tip of the 
shoot exposed. They make a large crop of 
small sized potatoes which are much sought 
after for bedding purposes. The rakings 
from a pine forest spread broad-cast over 
the land and a dressing of potassic fertili- 
zer under the ridges is considered the hest 
way for manuring the crop. 
VARIETIES OF PEAS. 
In peas for garden planting there is a le- 
gion of names, but few real varieties. Early 
Eclipse is so far the earliest pea tested. It 
is used largely by the Norfolk growers. For 
private use we have found none superior to 
the Alpha which was only two days behind 
the Eclipse and equally as early as Daniel 
O’Rourke and its synonyms which seeds- 
men offer as their own extra early. Market 
gardeners want a pea which gives its whole 
crop early and can be gotten at once out of 
the way. For home use we want a pea of 
high flavor and which will continue longer 
in use, and at same time we want it as 
early as any. We meet all these require- 
ments with Alpha and follow with Premium 
Gem, Yorkshire Hero, Stratagem and Cham- 
pion of England, and have no further use 
for the inferior flavored early peas which 
the market growers use. 
IRISH POTATOES. 
In Irish potatoes the early sorts are now 
so numerous that it is hard to give a selec- 
tion. Vanguard has proved very fine here 
but Early Ohio is still a favorite. Early 
Rose is less grown having gotten unproduc- 
tive in many plases. Years ago our garden- 
ers thought it essential that seed of early 
potatoes must be brought here from the 
North every year, but we have found that 
the best seed for our use are the potatoes 
grown late in summer from a spring crop 
grown fron northern seed, so that now 
most growers only use northern seeds for 
the purpose of getting seeds for the late 
crop. These potatoes keep perfectly solid 
and unsprouted until planting time and 
give much better results than northern 
seed. There is less talk now-a-days about 
planting single eye sets of potatoes and 
most growers have settled down in the con- 
viction that good sized pieces of good sized 
potatoes give the best returns. There is al- 
so a tendency to avoid the use of fresh barn- 
yard manure for the potato crop, the opin- 
ion being that it produces a tendency to 
scab. A clover sod with a fertilizer rich in 
potash usually gives the best results. 
It may not pay a market gardener to take 
much risk in too early planting, but in our 
home garden we always run some risk of 
loss of a few seeds for the sake of the possi- 
bility of getting in ahead of our neighbors. 
So we always put in a few snap beans and 
corn a week or two sooner than we think 
perfectly safe from frost. Sometimes we 
are caught, but sometimes and generally 
we come through all right. Don't r sk your 
whole crop of these tender things thus, but 
just a little, so as to be among the earliest. 
The Mohawk bean is rather more hardy 
than others of chis class, but is of inferior 
quali'y to theValentine or the Wax sorts. We 
plant Hend Tson’s Earliest Red Valentine 
and then folio v with Golden Wax. Will 
test the Yosomite this year. A neighbor 
who had it it last year is enthusiastic over 
it. One of the greatest pleasures to the am- 
ateur gardener is trying the “novelties.” 
We get caught very often, but the fun is all 
just as good another season. Stick to the 
old sorts for a crop until you find better, but 
if your garden is partly for pleasure get all 
the fun you can out of the novelties and 
then tell the truth about them. Most of os 
will have to be content with Henderson’s 
Bush Lima bean for a dwarf sort although 
Burpee offers a large Lina of dwarf char- 
acter. But $1 for four beans is a little too 
costly fun for most of us. South of the Po- 
tomac River the Large Lima has always 
been uncertain and unproductive. Dreer’s 
Lima is better for us but the Sieva or Small 
Lima, known in the South as “Butter” bean 
is the best cropper for us. For this reason 
Henderson's Bush Lima which originated in 
Campbell Co., Va., will probably be more 
popular South than North, where the Large 
Lima is more productive. 
Much can be done in forwarding and pre- 
paring tender plants for later setting in the 
open ground by the proper use of hot beds 
and cold frames. After April 1st the cold 
frame can well take the place of a hot bed, 
if we stand ready to cover it from sudden 
frost. In this latitude the tomato plants, 
which we may be afraid to risk out early in 
the month will be kept entirely exposed 
and the sashes only run over them on cold 
nights. Further North the first of April is 
early enough to set these plants in cold 
frames, but they should be exposed to the 
air at every favorable opportunity, so as to 
gradually inure them to the open air. In 
the latitude of Philadelphia, from the 10th 
to the middle of May is early enough to risk 
them outside. 
Parsnips should be sown as soon as the 
ground is fit to work. They will succeed 
best on land that was well manured and 
worked last year. An application of manure 
directly to this crop is apt to make them 
grow forked, and thus diminish their value. 
Salsify is equally hardy as Parsnips but we 
prefer to sow it later, not earlier than last 
of April because the roots will be injured in 
quality by the plant running to seed as it is 
apt to do if sown very early. The new Sand- 
wich Island Salsify promises to entirely 
