1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
209 
Taking Produce to Market. 
We have shown various reasons why every 
farmer should have a good garden to supply 
his own family with a variety of vegetables 
the year round. To these we now add the 
fact that in many places the garden may be 
a source of profit. If the farm is within a 
few miles of a town or village, especially if a 
manufacturing place where many laborers 
are employed, there will always be a ready 
sale for all the surplus of the garden at profit¬ 
able prices. In such localities an excess be¬ 
yond all probable wants of the family should 
be provided for in sowing and planting. To 
get the best returns some care must be ob¬ 
served in preparing the articles for market. 
The market-gardeners understand how far 
appearance goes in selling their produce, and 
take great pains to put up everything in at¬ 
tractive form. A farmer in going to a vil¬ 
lage may pull up a half bushel each of beets, 
carrots, or onions, and throw them into his 
wagon body; if he sells them at all, the re¬ 
turns will be small. Let him prepare the 
night before ; pull the same number of these 
vegetables and take them to a shed. Wash 
each kind separately in a tub of water, cut 
off ail long roots and needless leaves, and tie 
them in bunches of 3, 6, or more, according 
to their size. We are sure that the vegetables 
thus treated will bring at least three times as 
much as the same if sold loose and unwashed. 
So with whatever else is offered for sale. 
Store boxes can be had for little or nothing. 
They may be easily cut down to hold pecks 
and half pecks, and be used for peas, beans, 
and other things sold by measure. Some of 
these cut in two to form trays 2 or 3 inches 
deep, may be used for cucumbers, tomatoes, 
etc. A little care in the use of freshly cut 
grass, cabbage, rhubarb, or other large leaves, 
upon which to lay or with which to cover 
vegetables, will add much to their neat ap¬ 
pearance, and will pay well for the trouble. 
Mill the I*o«ato “ Haig's. ’’—It is im¬ 
portant to destroy the first brood of potato 
beetles. This brood comes from the ground 
in early spring, and the beetles soon lay their 
orange-colored eggs in clusters on the under 
side of potato leaves. These eggs are readily 
found by turning up the foliage with a hoe 
handle, and picked off and destroyed. If this 
is omitted, the larvae, or “grubs,” soon hatch 
out, and begin their rapid destruction. Poison 
in some form must now be used. The two 
leading insecticides are Paris Green and 
London Purple. Both are arsenic compounds. 
The “ green” is a manufactured article while 
the “purple” is a by-product or refuse com¬ 
pound from the dye factories and therefore 
cheaper. These substances are used either 
dry or wet. In the former they are mixed 
with 30 to 50 times their bulk of flour or 
plaster, and dusted or sifted on—best while 
the dew is on, or soon after a rain, that the 
wet foliage may retain the substance. In the 
wet method, which is now generally pre¬ 
ferred, the poison is stirred in water—a large 
tablespoonful or so to the pailful—and applied 
through a sprinkler, stirring it very fre¬ 
quently as it does not dissolve. The “ bugs ” 
have been in most potato growing regions so 
long that a full discussion of the subject is 
unnecessary. It is important to remember 
that these arsenic compounds are deadly 
poisons, and to be used with great caution. 
Any “green” or “purple”—it is fortunate 
that they have marked colors—in the house, 
should be put where no one can use them by 
mistake, and out of reach of children. 
About Savoy Cabbages. 
An Englishman once wrote a work “On 
things not generally known.” Were we to 
write such a work, it should begin with 
Savoy Cabbages. Our farmers and others 
raise cabbages year after year, and very good 
cabbages of their kind. But the Savoys are 
of a so much better sort when they come to 
the table, we are sure that, when once tried, 
very few would grow any other., A Savoy 
A SAVOY CABBAGE. 
Cabbage is as much superior to the common 
hard-headed kinds as the best cultivated 
grape is superior to the common fox-grape of 
the woods. Indeed, the English works on 
Gardening treat of Cabbages under one head 
and Savoys under another, as if the two 
were entirely different vegetables. The 
Savoys are a distinct race of cabbages; their 
leaves are always strongly bullated, as the 
botanists would say, but “blistered” will 
perhaps describe the peculiarly wrinkled 
character of the leaves. The heads are never 
very hard, but the loose outer leaves cook 
tender. The engraving gives the general ap¬ 
pearance of this race of cabbages. When 
our garden experience commenced, there 
were various other cabbages and “The 
Savoy.” Now the catalogues give half a 
dozen varieties of Savoys, beginning with the 
“Early Ulm,” and ending with the “ Drum¬ 
head Savoy.” We do a good service to those 
who do not know this class of cabbages to 
advise them not to make a sudden change 
from old and approved kinds, but to sow 
among their late cabbage seeds a paper of the 
“Drumhead Savoy.” We are sure when 
enjoying a farmer’s “boiled dinner” next 
winter, they will thank us for the suggestion. 
<4ol«leii Hell, or Horsy tliiin.— We 
once used some stems of this as stakes for a 
house plant, and they soon came into full 
bloom. By placing cuttings of this very 
common shrub in water, the bright yellow 
flowers may be had in mid-winter. The 
Leather-leaf (Cassandra calyculata), very 
common in northern swamps and cranberry 
bogs, will bloom finely when thus treated. 
Melons and their Enemies. 
Each succeeding year, raising a good crop 
of melons seems more difficult, largely due 
to the increase of insect enemies. Last year 
the drouth cut off the crop over a wide area, 
but in seasons of sufficient rain the melons 
are far less abundant than formerly.. Though 
some insects attack the vine after its growth, 
and even injure the fruit itself, the greatest 
difficulty is with those which beset the very 
young plant before it is fairly established and 
vigorous, and it remains weakly the whole 
season. The first step in melon culture is to 
get strong young plants. In field culture, 
growers put in a great abundance of seed, 
trusting that a sufficient number of plants 
may escape, by the aid of dusting with lime, 
to make a stand. In the home garden, where 
every care is taken to forward Tomato plants, 
similar care might be profitably given to the 
melon. The method advised last month, p. 
142, for cucumbers—sowing the seeds upon 
inverted sods, will also answer for melons ; 
soil. The object, thus late in the season, is 
not so much to hasten the plants, though 
covering on cool nights will aid in this, but 
to have them where they can be cared for 
and kept free from insects. A free dusting 
of air-slaked lime, or a mixture of wood ashes 
and land plaster, will aid in keeping off in¬ 
sects. We have not tried the Insect Powder 
( Pyrethrum , described elsewhere), but do not 
doubt it would be useful. The frames cov¬ 
ered with mosquito net, mentioned last 
month, to put over the plants after they are 
set in the open ground, are well worth the 
little trouble required to make them. Such 
frames, covered with one pane of glass each 
hill, will do much to forward melons. The 
great point is to get strong plants as soon as 
possible before the later insects attack them, 
and if the hills are not well manured, a little 
guano worked in with the soil will be of 
much service. After the plants are well es¬ 
tablished and promise a crop, the White 
Grub, or the Squash-borer, may put a sudden 
end to some of them. If a vine suddenly 
wilts, dig it up and find the White Grub at 
the root before it goes to another plant. 
Covering a few inches of the lower part of 
the stem with earth has been advised to 
prevent the borer from depositing its eggs. 
The varieties of melons are numerous, and 
the catalogues offer new ones every year. 
Some of the old kinds are of the highest 
quality, if they can be had true to name, 
but melon seeds sometimes get badly mixed. 
Among the green-fleshed sorts, “Ward’s 
Nectar” has long been our standard of ex¬ 
cellence. “ Cassaba” is very large and good. 
Of those with salmon-colored flesh, “Sur¬ 
prise ” will convince those who think melons 
of that color are not good, that here is an 
exception—indeed, it is of the highest quality. 
“ Christiana,” of the same color, is one of the 
earliest. This, for some years, had so badly 
deteriorated as to be valueless. Within a 
short time some New England growers have 
found pure seed and restored it to its original 
excellence. If one raises several kinds of 
melons in his garden, he cannot depend upon 
his own seed. It may be pure, but more fre¬ 
quently will produce a crop of mongrels. 
Melon seed will keep good, if not improve, 
for 10 years or more, and when one gets 
hold of a good sort it is well to lay in a 
stock of seeds to last for sevei'al years. 
