1884] 
AMEEIOAl^r AGRICULTURIST. 
483 
Orclmi'd smtl Warden, 
Trees and fruit-bearing sbrubs may still be 
planted, provided the weather remains mild. If 
the conditions are unfavorable, heel-in the trees, 
being careful to cover the roots well with soil, for 
spring planting... .Young trees, planted this fall 
and last spring, should have a steep mound of 
earth, about a foot high at their base, to enable 
them to resist the winds and to keep off mice- 
Rabbits are repelled by rubbing the trunks with 
bloody meat or sprinkling 
with blood. They are at their 
best this month, and a stew 
or pie of fat, young rabbits, 
is a luxury to be procured 
by paying the boys a pre¬ 
mium on those they trap.... 
Make a record of all trees 
planted now or recently; 
noting the number of the row 
and the place of each tree in 
the row is mueh more relia¬ 
ble than any label.... Look 
to gates and fences, and 
make all secure.Keep 
fruit as cool as possible 
without freezing ; open the 
cellar or fruit house when 
the weather allows... .The 
best cider is made in cool 
weather, when fermentation 
can go on slowly. If for 
vinegar, it may be made at 
any time... .Prune grapes, 
currants, and gooseberries 
soon after the leaves fall. 
If more plants are needed, 
make cuttings ; they may be 
planted at once, covering 
them with straw or litter, or 
tied in bundles, labelled, and 
buried in a dry place.... 
Cions may be cut and packed 
in saw-dust in the cellar.... 
Strawberry beds should be 
covered when the surface 
freezes, using straw, swale 
hay, leaves, or cornstalks, 
covering the plants but 
slightly, and the soil between 
them more heavily. Leaves 
may be kept in place by lay¬ 
ing on light brush, or 
sprinkling soil upon them. 
KitcUcii Wsii-tleii. 
Beets and carrots should 
not be exposed to hard 
frosts; parsnips and salsify 
are better for freezing and 
thawing. Roots of all kinds 
may be stored in trenches or 
in small quantities in boxes 
or barrels in the cellar, cov¬ 
ering them with earth.... 
Celery is to be stored in 
trenches a foot wide, and 
deep enough to receive the 
plants, or in a cool cellar in 
long boxes, nine inches wide 
and as deep as the plants are 
tall, placing earth on the bot¬ 
tom of the boxes.Cab¬ 
bages are set on the ground, 
roots up, and covered with 
earth. Por a supply of parsley in winter, take up the 
roots, plant them in a box of sod which is to be set 
in the kitchen window_Plants of cabbage, cauli¬ 
flower, and lettuce for early spring planting, should 
be pricked out into cold frames. Do not cover the 
frames with their sashes until freezing weather. 
floAvei’ Ciiai'deii »»<! 
All improvements, such as new borders, walks, 
and drives, can be better done now than in spring 
....Leave a good length of grass on the lawn to 
protect the roots. Top dress with good compost 
or touch with a small brush dipped in alcohol- 
In watering, wait until the plants show that they 
need it, then give it copiously. Hanging-baskets are 
best watered by plunging them into a pail ofwater. 
WlK're to Ijoolt lor liiiprovniient. 
In wheat, bailey, oats, Indian corn, buckwheat, 
peas, beans, potatoes, apples, pears, peaches, apri¬ 
cots, plums, nectarines, 
quinces, currants, gooseber¬ 
ries, raspberries, strawber¬ 
ries, melons, squashes and 
cucumbers, we must look to 
new -varieties for improve¬ 
ment. But in the case of 
cabbage, cauliflower, beets, 
celery, turnips, carrots, pars¬ 
nips, onions, salsify, etc., we 
should look to careful and 
judicious selection rather 
than to new varieties. Take 
turnips as an illustration. 
The turnip naturally runs to 
seed the first year. But we 
now grow it, not for the 
seed, but for its root. We 
have converted the plant 
from an annual to a biennial. 
We sow the seed in the 
spring or summer, raise a 
crop of turnips with the de¬ 
sired large, nutritious, well- 
formed roots. AVe select the 
best of these roots and set 
them out the following 
spring, and in June or July 
get a crop of seed. The care 
with which we select these 
roots to be set out for seed, 
determines largely the value 
of the subsequent crop. If, 
instead of sowing seed 
from carefully selected and 
transplanted roots, we should 
sow turnips very early in the 
spring, and let such as might 
do so go to seed, and if we 
gathered this seqd, and sow¬ 
ed it again early next spring, 
we would have a far greater 
number of plants that would 
run to seed, and even those 
which did not actually pro¬ 
duce seed, would have a 
tendency in this direction. 
They would have long necks, 
and miserably poor, small 
roots. And if we set out 
these long-necked turnips 
for seed, we should proba¬ 
bly get a big crop of turnip 
seed, but from such seed, 
what kind of turnips should 
we be likely to get ? The 
same remarks will apply to 
cabbage, beets, carrots, pars¬ 
nips, etc. We do not object 
to new varieties. *111 fact, we 
give them a hearty welcome. 
But a new and really valua¬ 
ble variety might be ruined in 
a very few years, if proper 
care is not exercised in se¬ 
lecting the plants. With 
potatoes the case is different. We do not raise po¬ 
tatoes from seed. We grow them as we do apples 
from the bud. If we want a better apple, we get a 
better variety. If we want a better potato, we 
must get a better variety. If we want better cab¬ 
bage, beets, turnips, carrots, onions, etc., our surest 
way of getting them is to be careful in the selec¬ 
tion of those we set out for seed. Our cultivated 
plants, especially those valued for their roots, are 
in an unnatural condition. Their size has been in¬ 
creased by high cultivation and careful selection 
of the best specimens for bearing the seed. 
or ashes; nitrate of soda, and other commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, are best applied in spring_Plant orna¬ 
mental trees and shrubs it the weather is mild. Col¬ 
lect leaves from the lawn and road-side, and store 
under cover or in heaps with boards laid over them 
_Plant hardy bulbs if any are left out-Hardy 
young trees are helped by protection the first win¬ 
ter; evergreen boughs placed around them are 
better than bundling with straw-Have snow¬ 
plows ready for cleaning walks and drives... .Half 
ASTTHOinr BENEZET ALLEN, 
POUNDER .AND FIRST EDITOR OP THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The engraving of Mr. Allen, which our artists have just executed for this Journal, will bo recognized 
as wondorfully natural and life-like by his friends and admirers. An exceedingly entertaining account of 
his visit to Jlr. Allen during tile last week of last September, is given on jiage 509 by Dr. George Thurber, 
who for nearly a quarter of a century has held the position of Editor-iu-Chief of the American Agriculturist. 
Tile labors of tliese two gentlemen in promoting and developing agriculture, are coming to lie recognized in 
every farmer’s home, notwithstanding that the modesty, wliicli always accompanies true wortli and 
merit, has caused them to shrink from publicity. — Publisheus op the American Agricui.turist. 
hardy and tender plants should be taken to 
the cellar before they are injured by freezing. 
Cri-eeiilioitttie siiid. Wiii«l4>w 1‘Uiiits. 
Plants that have been out of doors through the 
summer, need a gradual change to confined air and 
heated rooms... .Begin the fight with insects on 
their first appearance. Green-fly, red-spider, and 
mealy-bug, are most common. Use tobacco smoke 
or tobacco water for the first, a frequent showering 
of the leaves on the under side for the red-spider, 
and for mealy-bugs, pick off with a pointed stick, 
