110 
June, 1891. 
OR CH RR D rnd'I O I\R D El N 
Seasonable Advice. 
Growing Winter Cabbage— Repelling the Squash 
and Cucumber Bug — Pinching back Melon 
Vines— Handling Crops while Wet— Beets and 
Carrots for Winter Use— Sowing Salsi.fu—Egg 
Plants and Peppers — Sweet Potatoes— Succes- 
sion Crops of Tomatoes. 
The first week in June is a very good time 
to sow seed for the crop of winter cabbage 
in the Middle States, but much too early 
south of Virginia. The little black flea 
beetle is sometimes a great pest, eating the 
plants as fast as they appear above ground. 
We have found that dusting with air-slaked 
lime and tobacco dust is a good prevent- 
ive. If only a small number of plants are 
needed sow in boxes and set them on posts 
on a scaffold about four or five feet above 
the ground and they will usually be entire- 
ly unmolested, as the little beetles seldom 
fly more than a foot or two above the sur- 
face. Another good plan is to sow the seed 
away from the house, out in the edge of a 
wood, like the tobacco planters do, for the 
beetles are usually more plentiful around 
gardens where plants are raised annually. 
In North Carolina and southward, I am 
satisfied that the northern sorts of winter 
cabbage can be grown with fair success by 
deferring the sowing of the seed until Au- 
gust and setting the plants the last of the 
month in a very rich and moist piece of 
land. We made an experiment in this di- 
rection last season. The seed were of the 
Premium Late Flat Dutch variety, and 
were sown about the middle of August and 
not set out until a month later. The au- 
tumn was very dry and unfavorable to the 
crop and yet we had fairly good heads by 
Christmas. Had the fail been rainy the 
crop would have been very good. This 
year we shall sow August 1st and set out 
the last week in the month, and with good 
weather feel sure of good results. Even the 
Col lard crop we think is sown too early. 
The common practice is to sow them in 
March, set the plants out as soon as large 
enough and cultivate until “dog days,” and 
then let them severely alone until fall when 
cultivation begins again. The result is that 
during the summer starvation the plants 
lose their lower leaves and run up with a 
stem sometimes three feet high, with a tuft 
of leaves at the top, and by the time the 
good growing weather of autumn begins 
they are in a tough and unthrifty condition 
and tumble about like long-legged drunk- 
ards. I.ater sowing and heavy manuring, 
with constant cultivation,! am satisfied will 
give better results. 
Now is the time when the garden ama- 
teur at the North is fixing his covers and 
traps to circumvent the squash bugs which 
eat the young plants of cucumbers, squashes 
and melons. Instead of all this bother, do 
as I recommended last month and dust the 
plants over early in the morning with fine 
bone dust and you will have no further 
trouble. If the Colorado potato beetles are 
not so numerous as to threaten the total 
destruction of the potato tops it is best in 
the home garden to pick them off by hand. 
The use of Paris green and London purple 
destroys both friends and foes. There are 
a number of predaceous beetles at work 
destroying the Colorado beetle, and for sev- 
eral years past we have found that they are 
getting the upper hand. When I was in 
Virginia, though I grew 1000 to 1500 bush- 
els of potatoes annually, I had used no 
poison for two years, finding that the des- 
truction of my insect friends would proba- 
bly do me more harm than the beetles 
would on the potatoes. But of course when 
they come as they used to come, in hordes 
sufficient to destroy the entire crop, we 
must use the poisons. 
We have never found any advantage from 
nipping the ends of the vines of cucumbers, 
The Slatted Trellis. Fig. 583. 
melons, etc., as some advise. On the con- 
trary, I think it a bad practice. Don’t work 
among the vines when the dew is on them. 
In fact it is a bad plan to meddle with any 
vegetable crop at this time. Enthusiastic 
amateurs sometimes like to put in a morn- 
ing hour in the garden at thinning or weed- 
ing. If you must do this, be sure that the 
parsnip crop is not one to be handled. Par- 
snip tops when wet will prove very poison- 
ous to the skin of most people, making 
troublesome blisters on all the tender parts 
of hands and wrists. Always cut cucum- 
bers from the vines with a piece of stem at- 
tached, pulling them not only injures the 
vines, but renders the fruit worthless for 
pickles. 
The latter part of the month will be a 
good time to plant the main crop of cucum- 
bers for pickling. For this purpose w T e have 
found nothing better than a good strain of 
White Spine cucumber. 
Beets and carrots for winter use should 
now be sown. Some of the intermediate 
stump-rooted carrots are much better for 
table use than the long sorts mainly used 
for stock feeding. Of beets the old Long 
Blood is good, but I prefer the Pine Apple. 
In sowing these seed in the garden I find it 
best to plant by hand as they drill badly 
from a machine. It is a saving of labor in 
the end, but a little slow at first, to drop a 
seed or two in a place just as far apart in 
the drill as it will be necessary to thin out, 
say four or five inches apart. This makes 
an immense saving of labor in thinning, and 
saves seed. 
Salsify is better sown now than in early 
spring as is usually done. Early sown sal- 
sify gets stunted about mid-summer, loses 
its lower leaves, and if it does not run to 
seed, gets tough. In North Carolina and 
southward, better salsify can be bad by sow- 
ing in August than in spring. Use the large 
Sandwich Island variety. 
Keep up a succession of string or snap 
beans by sowing a row or two as soon as the 
next previous sowing has made a second 
set of leaves. Here the sowings can be kept 
up until September, at the North until 
August. 
Egg Plants should be set out early in the 
month if not set last of May. The ground 
cannot be made too rich for them. The 
New York Improved is a standard sort, but 
Black Pekin is earlier and in the South 
more productive, but of a smaller size. 
Peppers for pickling should also be set 
now. The little Crimson Cluster is the 
most productive and fine for pepper sauce. 
Ruby King is a fine sort for mangoes. 
The first of this month is about the best 
time to set sweet potato plants in the Mid- 
dle States. We prefer to^set Tvhen the 
ground is moderately dry. Make a hole 
with a trowel and let an assistant pour wat- 
er in it. Stick the plant in the water and 
pull the dry earth around it. I prefer to set 
most plants in this way rather than when 
the soil is wet from rain. Set the potato 
slips quite deeply, leaving only the tip 
shoot exposed. Our North Carolina grow- 
ers say that here cuttings from the early 
vines set in July make potatoes which keep 
better in winter than the early plants. The 
cutting is made quite long, two feet or more, 
coiled around the hand and the whole coil, 
except the tip, buried in the soil. These 
cuttings, set here in August, make the best 
of small potatoes to keep over for bedding 
in spring. 
The first of June, in North Carolina and 
southward, a sowing of tomato seed should 
be made for a succession crop to succeed the 
early ones which will be exhausted by mid- 
summer. These plants will fruit late in 
September and will give in this latitude the 
best fruit and finest crop of the season. We 
usually make two sowings in the open 
ground, one early in May and one in June, 
