April, 1891. 
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to eat, let it severely alone and plant Geor- 
gia Rattlesnake, Jos. Johnson or Mountain 
Sweet. The old plan of digging a hole fora 
melon or cucumber hill and filling it with a 
rich compost is still the best plan. After 
covering the compost lightly with soil we 
mark it out in quarters and plant a few seed 
in each quarter, weekly, until a good stand 
is on band. 
* * 
* 
The best way to keep bugs from young 
cucumbers, melons or squashes is to dust 
them over with fine bone meal. I have fol- 
lowed this plan for many years and do not 
recollect ever to have lost a hill by bugs. I 
have never used any of the covers or other 
contrivances and I know them to be un- 
necessary. 
* * 
* 
Our readers must bear in mind that these 
notes are read by many in the South, and 
while the planting of these tender vegetables 
must be deferred at the North to the more 
genial weather of May, our gardeners here 
are busy with them early in April. “Corn 
planting time’’ is a better guide for planting 
tender seed in any latitude than mere cal- 
endar directions. — W. F. Massey. 
The Collard. 
It is well known that in all the lower 
country of the Southern States, the produc- 
tion of Fall cabbage is a difficult matter. 
Not only is the climate unfavorable to their 
developement but the insects which attack 
them are more numerous and various. Our 
northern readers have doubtless noticed in 
the seed catalogues “Georgia Collards” 
quoted with the remark that they are a 
headless variety of cabbage grown at the 
South in lieu of something better. The fact 
is that the Collard is a very hardy species 
of the cabbage family, enduring the sum- 
mer heat, resisting the attacks of insects, 
standing out all winter and becoming very 
tender and delicious from the effects of frost. 
Though hardy enough to stand here where 
grown, the Collard is much improved by 
binding the top to the ground and covering 
the entire stem and leaves with earth, only 
leaving the open tip exposed. In this way 
they bleach finely and are far more tender 
than the ordinary headed cabbage. Like 
most southern vegetable products, but little 
attention has been paid to the improvement 
of the Collard. But it is doubtless capable 
of great improvement. In looking over a 
patch of Collards here one can see numerous 
varieties, some with purple leaves, some 
with green savoy-like crumpled leaves, and 
others inclined to be self-bleaching like the 
white plume celery. 
Recently we have received letters from 
two gentlemen in Georgia who claim to 
have improved the Collard to the point of 
making good heads. One of these has sent 
us seeds and the other has promised them, 
and we will start at the North Carolina 
Station in the work of improving the Col- 
lard, much further advanced than we hoped 
for. The great fault with all our Southern 
vegetable growers is too great a reliance 
upon the North for every thing in the way 
of seeds and a neglect to improve the native 
and naturalized plants adapted to the cli- 
mate. The Collard is evidentally a “survi- 
val of the fittest ” for this climate and there 
is no reason why we should not develop 
from it a cabbage in every way suitable to 
our needs. Will the readers of the Orchard 
and Garden in the South who have special 
strains of the Collard aid us in this matter 
by sending in a few seeds to the North Car- 
olina Agricultural Experiment Station? 
It is the same case with garden corn. The 
early sugar corn of the North is useless here, 
and yet every spring our people buy seed 
corn at the stores for garden planting, 
raised at the far North, and meet with 
almost uniform failure. Corn, more than 
most plants, needs to be acclimated to the 
region where grown, and will not at first 
do its best very far north or south of its 
region of growth. That by care in selec- 
tion we can develop a sweet corn suited to 
our climate I have no doubt, but it must 
be done by constant selection for years in 
this climate. We have already made a start 
in this direction and have our common field 
corn thoroughly crossed with sugar corn, 
and hope soon to get a variety fixed in type. 
We would be glad if any of our readers not 
far south nor north of this latitude who 
may have a variety which they have been 
growing for some years, will let us have a 
;ittle to test this spring. Our main work in 
horticulture at the North Carolina Station 
will be in the improvement of vegetables 
and fruits for this climate, and the large 
body of our citizens now interested in the 
truck business can aid us largely in this 
matter. — W. F. Massey. Horticulturist, N. 
C. Agl., Exper. Station, Raleigh, N. C. 
Bedding Sweet Potatoes. 
As stated last month, we prefer to bed 
sweet potatoes in cold frames, covered with 
sashes, and with nothing but sand around 
them. If bedded early in April in northern 
New Jersey it will be better to put a slight 
hot-bed under them, but even then I would 
prefer to use the cold frame and start a lit- 
tle later. Even as far south as northern 
Maryland I never found it any advantage 
to have the sprouts ready for setting out 
earlier than the last week in May or first of 
June. These tender plants will make no 
good growth until the ground is warm. For 
bedding we prefer what are called “slips,” 
rather than the small potatoes from the 
general crop. These slips we raise bj mak- 
ing long cuttings of the vines in July or early 
August, twisting them in a coil around one 
hand and planting the whole cutting of two 
feet or more in the hill, leaving only the tip 
exposed. These cuttings produce a multi- 
tude of small potatoes, which for some unex- 
plainable reason always keep better than 
the potatoes raised from spring plants. If 
you have a good bed of plants sprouted 
early under glass, draw all the first sprouts 
as early as possible and sell them to your 
neighbors who are anxious for the first 
plants. The next drawing you will find to 
be better rooted and every way better plants 
for your own use. Where sweet potatoes 
cannot go out before June there is little use 
in starting them before the last of this 
month. Many gardeners here in North 
Carolina set them in April, but even here 
there is no advantage in the practice. Gar- 
den plants put in the open ground before it is 
well warmed can make but a feeble growth 
and will be outstripped by strong, un- 
checked plants set later. — W. F. Massey, 
Raleigh, N. C. 
Maintaining Earliness. 
Many are the hard problems that confront 
the careful seed grower. Not one of the 
least of these is how to get and keep as many 
good qualities as possible in the early varie- 
ties, without detriment to their earliness. 
I have been breeding and growing early peas 
and corn for twenty five years, in a location 
perhaps the most favorable for the business 
of any in the country. As to the corns, 
either field or sweet, they must be early to 
mature at this, almost their northern limit. 
To secure earliness in these, therefore, is 
not so difficult: but to keep up the size of 
ear and the quality are chief problems. 
With peas it is diff Tent. The first pea cross 
1 ever effected was between Dan O’Rourke 
and Carter’s First Crop. It was a good pea, 
and I afterwards sold it to Mr. Bliss. Sub- 
sequently, I though I could make it larger 
in pod, by sifting out the large seed for 
planting. It did not work that way. The 
immediate result was a stronger, taller and 
more productive vine, with a set-back in 
earliness of six or seven days. As a second 
early sort it was a considerable improve- 
ment; but we now have wrinkled sorts that 
form a close succession with the extra early 
smooth peas, and it has not been particu- 
larly useful, except for private gardens. I 
am convinced that it is not practicable to 
produce an extra early smooth pea of very 
high quality. The best of this class is Raw- 
son’s Clipper, a blue smooth sort. The next 
best, of the same season and a larger pod, 
is Maude S. — T. H. Hoskins. 
The Imported Currant Slug. 
Nematus ribesii Scop. 
This injurious insect was imported into 
this country from Europe about the year 
1858. Since then it has become the greatest 
pest the currant grower has to deal with. 
Its voracious appetite and the great num- 
bers that appear make it a dreaded enemy. 
It is very widely distributed, extending over 
the Eastern States and a greater portion of 
the Western. Usually the insects pass the 
winter in the chrysalis or pupa stage. Early 
in April if the weather be favorable the 
mature insects (Fig. 1. a, male; b, female) 
make their appearance. They belong to the 
