120 
June. 1890. 
£ 
ORCHARD / and \ GARDEN 
all winter. They will never be popular at 
the North because of the severity of the 
winters. 
SOME ADVICE OX SWEET POTATOES. 
sweet potato, and a little in the way ofgrass 
and weeds will rob you of half the crop. 
ECONOMY OF SPACE IN THE GARDEN. 
In our home garden I plant hills of musk 
June 1st is early enough to get out the melons between each alternate row of our 
main crop of sweet potatoes north of Vir- 
ginia. Here some growers begin in April 
but I do not think even here anything is 
gained by setting sooner than first of May. 
These tender plants of tropical origin do 
not make any headway until the ground is 
warm. My North Carolina friends con- 
sider me very heterodox on the subject of 
sweet potatoes, and I am not sure that from 
their standpoint they are right, for there is 
no doubt that the smooth, dry sweet pota- 
toes of the Nansemoud class, which are 
popular at the North, do get very corky 
and tasteless when grown here. They are 
not near so good here for home use as the 
best of the yam class grown here. But 
North Carolina people allow their prejudice 
against these dry potatoes to keep them 
from making money by tbeir cultivation. 
Market buyers buy largely by their eye and 
are slow to take an odd looking article even 
when it may 
be really best. 
The best of the 
North Carolina 
yams are un- 
couth and ugly 
beside the 
smooth and 
handsome Nan- 
semonds. and 
a s Northern 
people almost 
i nv ariably 
steam their 
sweet potatoes 
they will be 
slow in liking 
any of the yams 
as that method 
of cooking 
would simply destroy them. North Caro- 
lina growers had better take the northern 
market as they find it and grow those 
sorts that northern people want, even if 
their own opinion isthat they are only fit to 
feed to hogs. There seems to be a peculiar 
virtue in pine straw and the Takings from a 
pine woods for growing sweet potatoes, and 
the large market growers in Virginia depend 
largely upon this material spread broadcast 
and plowed in for their sweet potato crop. 
The northern market demands a smooth, 
medium sized potato. Therefore deep plow- 
ing is not advisable for this crop. The best 
market crops are grown on land plowed 
shallow and worked over several times be- 
fore setting the plants. Set on shallow 
ridges and keep the ridges low. High 
earthing tends to make long and unsightly 
tubers. A rank growth of vine does no 
harm if they are not allowed to root fast at 
the joints and thus take matter from the 
leaves that would otherwise be stored up in 
the tubers at the main stem. Clean culti- 
vation is of the utmost importance to the 
early peas. The pea vines do not seem to 
injure them in their early growth and are 
soon out of the way so that the melons have 
the whole ground. I also frequently econo- 
mize space by planting cucumbers between 
the hills of lima beans. They reach their 
best before the bean vines have got ten too 
dense for them. In like manner celery can 
be set between rows of late corn when it 
(celery) is grown in single rows and taken 
up for blanching. The corn furnishes a 
needed shelter from the sun in the early 
stages of its growth and is gone when the 
real celery growing weather comes. Those 
who are always on the watch to let no land 
in the garden lie idle can work in many 
things which the thoughtless gardener mis- 
ses. — W. F. Massey. 
Crowding Celery Plants. 
The accompanying illustration will show 
Fig. 272. The Effects of Crowding Celery Plants. 
1. Two plants to 
2. Four plants to 
3 Six plants to 
4 Twelve plants to 
the inch. 
the inch. 
the inch. 
the inch 
the reader the importance of allowing cel- 
ery plants sufficient room in the seed bed 
and when transplanted. As soon as large 
enough they should be transplanted into 
another bed and partially shaded until they 
start to grow again. The operation of 
transplanting renders the plant more stocky 
and is productive of a large amount of fibr- 
ous roots, the tap root of the seedling being 
cut off in the work. Compare the trans- 
two inches apart each way which will give 
fine plants with plenty of roots for the 
final planting. 
— 
Tlie Vegetable Marrow. 
Those who are fond of the American 
Squash will find this a delicious variety. It 
is much more tender and of finer quality 
than any variety of squash that we have 
eaten. It is an English soit and quite dis- 
tinct from the American Marrow Squash, 
which is often substituted for it. It suc- 
ceeds in this country and requires about 
the same treatment that is given to other 
squashes. It may be planted now in hills 
six feet apart in good soil, some well rotted 
manure being placed in the hill. In shape 
it is cblong, rounded at both ends and of a 
pale green color, turning to yellow as it 
matures. It has been pronounced by some 
writers as inferior to our American sorts 
but the probability is that, in such cases, it 
has not been properly cooked or has been 
allowed to remain too long on the vines, 
becoming hard and ripe before plucked. It 
should be taken before it has attained its 
full size and 
whilst its color 
is yet green. In 
England it is a 
popular veget- 
able and in 
cooking is not 
to be mashed as 
the squash is 
ordinarily pre- 
pared here, but 
after peeling, 
and removing 
the inside pulp 
and seeds it is 
cut into seg- 
ments and boil- 
ed rapidly in 
5. Plant No 4. transplanted malted water un- 
and after two week's growth, til tender with- 
out breaking. It is then drained and serv- 
ed up on toast with butter, pepper aud salt. 
We have grown it for several years and 
consider it the finest in quality of all 
squashes. Not all seedsmen keep this vari- 
ety but it may be obtained true from J. M. 
Thorn burn & Co., 15 John St., N. Y. City. 
Hcudersou’s Bunh Lima Beaus. 
I had the first home Lima beans in mar- 
planted plant No 5 in the figure with the' ket last year and sold them m the pod at 
roots of the other plants and the benefits 
derived may be readily seen. Being cur- 
ious to note the effect of different degrees 
of space allotted to celery plants in the seed 
b'd we carefully examined the roots of 
plants taken from the bed where they had 
been growing at the distances named and 
the dra wing represents very correctly the 
comparative sizes of the plants so taken. 
The ill effects of crowding are greater than 
many suppose and may be avoided. 
The seed should be sown very thinly on 
the surface of the soil and when the plants 
are transplanted they should be put at least 
twelve and a half cents a quart (they gen- 
erally sell in the pod at five cents a quart) 
which I thought was a very good price. 
They bore right along until killed by frost. 
The vines were full of beans all the time. 
In fact I never saw any tiling so productive. 
I have never grown a bean of any kind that 
proved so prolific, and had they been cared 
for as they should have been from i he start 
the y ield would have been much greater. I 
shall plant them again this season aud 
should they prove as fruitful as last year I 
know they will pay me well. — J. M. Gear- 
ing, Madison Co., 111. 
