1884 .] 
AMEBIGA'N AGEICULTUEIST. 
547 
spring the first moment the land is dry enough to 
work. There are a dozen other little matters of 
more or less importance, but these points, 
properly observed, will do more to ensure success, 
than the whole dozen. As to the best land to se¬ 
lect for sowing onions, we may say that wc have 
had good crops on light sand, and on heavy clay, 
and on black muck, and on soil possessing a greater 
or less degree of all these characteristics. Success 
depends much more on the man than on the soil. 
Hanging Baskets. 
Hanging baskets for plants are made of different 
materials, and in a great variety of forms. Some 
are formed of wire, others of clay, and orna¬ 
mented with fancy mouldings, etc. Very 
pretty baskets in rustic style are made by 
covering the outside of a wooden bowl with 
fantastic knots and roots; this makes a 
pleasing basket, biit we know of none so 
desirable as the old style of semi-globular 
wire basket, when properly filled. 
To fill a wire basket, first obtain some of 
the green moss to be found on the lower 
portion of the trunks of trees in almost any 
shady piece of woods. This is to be used as 
a lining to the basket, turning the green 
side out, and entirely covering the inside of 
the wire form with the moss. Before filling 
the basket with soil, place a handful of 
charcoal or gravel in the bottom, which will 
bold the moisture. Fill the basket with 
rich, loose loam, such as will not harden 
by frequent waterings. Plants that are 
peculiarly suitable for hanging baskets are 
quite numerous, and from them a selection 
may be made that will please the most ex¬ 
acting taste. It is a mistake to crowd too 
many plants into a basket, if they grow 
they will soon become root-bound, stunted, 
and look sickly. If the hanging basket be 
of the ordinary size, one large and choice 
plant placed in the centre with a few grace¬ 
ful vines to droop over the edges, will have 
a better effect when established and grow¬ 
ing, than if it were crowded with plants at 
the time of filling. Hanging baskets being 
constantly suspended, they are exposed to 
draughts of air from all sides, and the soil 
is soon dried out. Hence careful watching 
is necessary in order to prevent the con¬ 
tents from becoming too dry. If the moss 
appears to be dry, take the basket down 
and dip it once or twice in a pail of water ; 
this is better than sprinkling from a water¬ 
ing-pot. In filling hanging baskets, or 
vases of any kind, we invariably cover the 
surface of the soil with the same green 
moss used for lining, which, while it adds 
materially to the pleasing appearance of the whole, 
prevents the soil from diying out or becoming 
baked on the surface. If the surface of the soil 
in pots be covered with moss of this kind, espec¬ 
ially in summer, moisture will be retained, and 
watering be required much less frequently. 
The following is a list of the choice plants suita¬ 
ble for hanging baskets. Those marked thus (t) 
are fine for the centre. Those marked (*) have hand¬ 
some foliage, and this mark (f) indicates that the 
plants have flowers in addition to rich foliage : 
t Begonia glaucophylla scandens ; toxalis; + be¬ 
gonia rex, very fine ; * fittonia ; t cuphea platycen- 
tra (cigar plant); t pandanus (screw pine); + dra¬ 
caena (Young’s) ; + neirembergia ; tcentaureagym- 
nocarpa ; f geraniums, Mrs. Pollock and Happy 
Thought; *tradescantia discolor; *peperomias; 
J gloxinias; * fancy ferns; tageratum (John Doug¬ 
lass, blue); t achyranthes ; J variegated hydrangea; 
*flcus Parcelli; Jgesnerias; *variegated grasses, etc. 
Trailing Plants.— {Fuchsia microphylla; Se- 
dum (stone crop); {ivy-leaved geraniums ; German 
ivy; Indian strawberry vine ; Kenilworth ivy ; ly¬ 
copodium ; moneywort; { trailing blue lobelia ; 
*cissus discolor ; {lysimachia (moneywort) ; {tro- 
pmolums; {torrenia Asiatiea; {mesembryanthe- 
mums (ice plant); } cobsea seandens ; { pilogyne 
suavis ; tlygodium seandens (climbing fern). 
Starting a Farm Garden. 
A properly worked and manured farm garden 
improves every year. Starting with ordinary farm 
land, it is almost impossible to get it in the best 
and highest condition the first season. The chief 
reason for this is probably because, no matter how 
much manure we may use, it is difficult to get it. 
thoroughly mixed with the soil. An eminent 
chemist, the late Professor Way, once said manure 
needed to be digested by the soil before it was in 
the right condition to be assimilated by the roots 
of plants. This may be somewhat fanciful, but at 
any rate, every gardener must have observed that 
raw land, even though it may be heavily man¬ 
ured, seldom gives the best results the first season. 
To avoid disappointment the first season, there¬ 
fore, we would earnestly recommend those who 
are about to start a new garden next spring, to 
commence preparation this autumn. If there is 
time for nothing more, remove all the rubbish and 
weeds and large stones. Plow it deep and well, 
and if the soil is dry enough to pulverize, put on the 
harrow and roller, and reduce it to the finest tilth. 
In regard to the application of manure, much 
depends on the character of the soil, the condition 
of the manure, and the amount you can obtain 
now or in the spring. If you have abundance of 
manure, and the soil is rather heavy, plow under 
twenty or thirty tons per acre, eight or ten inches 
deep, and let it stay there. Then, either this fall or 
in the spring, work into the surface soil five or six 
inches deep, another good coat of manure—say 
twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty tons per acre, accord¬ 
ing to the crops you wish to set out in the ground. 
Early cabbages will pay for the most liberal 
amount of manure. Late cabbages will get along 
with less, and so will sweet com, beets,carrots, pars¬ 
nips, salsify, and all the later vegetables. There 
THE NIAGARA GRAPE. 
Dravm and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
is little probability, however, that you will get the 
land too rich. What we particularly wish to sug¬ 
gest is the advantage of good, deep, thorough 
plowing this fall, and the liberal use of manure 
either now or in the spring, or both. On light, 
sandy land it will probably be better to use the 
greater portion of the manure in the spring, and 
supplement it with phosphates and nitrate of soda. 
The Cultivation of Onions. 
Onion growing is a specialty in certain sections 
—principally on black, mucky land. The onions 
are grown year after year on the same land. In 
many localities, where onions were once largely 
grown, the crop has been abandoned, owing to the 
ravages of the onion maggot. This gives farmers 
in places where the crop is not extensively grown, 
a decided advantage. The maggots are not likely 
to be very troublesome for a few years. To those 
proposing to grow onions for the first time, we de¬ 
sire to offer some suggestions: Get the land 
ready for sowing in the fall. Plow it, harrow it, 
piek off the stones and rubbish, and work in all 
the manure you can. Act exactly as though you 
were going to sow the seed, but do not sow 
it until spring. Drill in the onion seed in the 
The New White Grape—The Niagara. 
White grapes meet with a more ready sale, and 
bring a better price in the market than black or 
red varieties. A white grape, possessing all the 
qualities which have made the Concord so popular, 
has long been a desideratum among grape-growers. 
The Martha, a seedling of the Concord, was largely 
planted; the advertisements told everyone “you 
want Martha,” and it for a time had a “ boom,” 
but its quality is so indifferent, that it failed of 
aceeptance as the white compeer of the Concord. 
At the meeting of the American Pomological So¬ 
ciety in 1879, at Rochester, N. T., there was a re¬ 
markable exhibition of new white grapes; no less 
than four varieties were there first placed 
before pomologists, their owners claiming 
for each all the good qualities which should 
make it the white grape that fruit growers 
had so long waited for. These new varie¬ 
ties have been on sale for the past two or 
three years, but the Niagara was offered 
under conditions which restricted its sale, 
save for vineyard planting. It is now, how¬ 
ever, offered in open market by many nur¬ 
serymen, and without conditions. 
The “ Niagara ” originated at Lockport, 
N. T., being a seedling of the Concord, fer¬ 
tilized, as it is claimed, by the Cassady, an 
old white variety. The vine is said to be 
perfectly hardy ; it has leaves shaped much 
like those of Hartford Prolific, being large, 
thick, leathery and downy. A basket of 
the fruit sent us by J. S. Hubbard, Chau¬ 
tauqua Co., N. T., allowed us to judge of 
its quality, and we have had an engraving 
made to show its appearance. The bunch 
is reduced, but a single berry gives the 
average natural size. The clusters are 
medium to large, averaging half a pound 
in weight, though occasionally heavier, 
sometimes shouldered, and compact. The 
berry is large, equalling or exceeding the 
Concord, very nniform, round or slightly 
oval, and clings well to the cluster; color 
light greenish-white, often with a tinge of 
amber in the sun, with a thin whitish 
bloom ; the skin is thin but strong. In 
quality, the fruit is, in our judgment, su¬ 
perior to the Concord; its freedom from 
unpleasant foxiness, and the tenderness 
and sweetness of the flesh, make it very 
acceptable. The Niagara ripens with Hart¬ 
ford Prolific, and is said to hang without 
shrivelling until frost. This variety has 
already been planted extensively, there be¬ 
ing over two hundred acres at Brocton, 
N. T., and the accounts of its prolific char¬ 
acter, early bearing, and freedom from dis¬ 
ease, are well authenticated. The fruit is 
said to keep well; that it is an excellent shipper, 
the specimens that were sent to us bear witness. 
