good for cattle. The Hubbard, Butman, 
Cocoanut, etc, , are among our best squashes, 
and none of them are large. The Perfect 
Gem makes up in quality and productive¬ 
ness what it lacks in size. 
The new pot Marigold “ Meteor” (Calen¬ 
dula officinalis) proves to be a good winter¬ 
blooming plant, and is much admired by the 
ladies. In the greenhouse it blooms nearly all 
Winter. It also does very well indeed in the 
sitting-room. All the flowers do not come 
striped, but all are pretty. It is a fine plant 
for the border, and very easily grown. 
1 saw a young gardener sowing Wakefield 
Cabbage seed on the 25th of January in a 
temperature of about seventy degrees. Be¬ 
fore Spring he will wish he had not done it. 
It is this kind of experience, however, that 
proves to be useful, and so 1 hinted to him. 
March is quite time enough for this kind 
of work, and a much lower temperature 
for stocky cabbage plants. It is well to 
take time by the forelock, but do not take 
too much at a time. Hortxcola. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Abutilon liliaceum album is a yery distinct 
and pretty AbutiJon and is deserving of a place 
in all collections; and on account of its free- 
flowering quahtiesis an excellent plant for the 
window garden. The flowers are of medi¬ 
um siz j , cf a lilac-mauve color, beautifully 
veined with pink, and are produced in the 
greatest prolusion. The habit of the plant is 
excellent, being of upright growth with small 
and neat foliage. 
The genus AJlainmda embraces some of 
our most desirable and showy stove 
plants. Of tuts splendid genus Auerie- 
folia is deserving of being cultivated in 
all collections of choice plants; that is, 
where it can be given sufficient heat 
and moisture. The flowers are of a 
bright yellow color, and are freely pro 
dueed for at least nine months in the 
year, if the plant is permitted to grow. 
As an exhibition or show plant this Ai- 
lamanda is excelled by none. It is easi¬ 
ly cultivated if it can be given a suffi¬ 
cient heat, say a temperature of 50 ° 
or 00 °. Water should be freely given 
and it shoidd be freely syringed. It 
also requires good drainage and a com. 
post composed of one-third well rotted 
manure and two-thir is well rotted sods, • 
During the Summer season it can be 
plunged in the flower border where it 
will liower freely if liberally supplied 
with water. A little manure water 
will prove beneflcial to it. it is per¬ 
fectly free from insects and is easily 
propagated by cuttings. 
The latest novelty in the way of 
tomatoes is a variety of foreign origin 
named President Garfield. As the seed 
is already advertised for sale by some 
of our leading seedsmou, I was pleased 
to see an illustration of its fruit in a 
late Rural. It is said to b'ave caused 
a sensatiou in Europe the past season, 
by the extraordinary character of its 
growth wheie it is said to attain the 
length o£ eight feet, producing fruit 
averaging in weight two or three 
pounds each. But a writer in the Lon¬ 
don Darden says ; “The fruit is ugly 
and inferior, as it is rough and sur¬ 
rounded by excrescences, the figure of 
it resembling a crab w ith its legs cut 
off.” If the Rural’s illustration is 
truthful (of which I am certain) I quite 
agree with the writer. It was my in¬ 
tention to have given it a trial this 
season, but upon seeing the Rural’s il¬ 
lustration, 1 don’t think I will, for I 
cannot imagine of what use such a 
rough and ill-shaped fruit can be. Un¬ 
less grown merely as a curiosity, I 
do not think it w ill be grown anoLher 
season. [Probably ita size alone com¬ 
mends it—and this is more than bal¬ 
anced by its irregularities. We want 
smooth tomatoes.— Eds.] 
What’s in a name ? A great deal, 
especially when we mention Phlox 
Drummondii grandiflora fimbriata ro¬ 
sea alba striata. This is another 
novelty—a Phlox whose flowers are 
described as being finely fringed. It is pos¬ 
sible that it may be a very desirable addition 
to our list of Phloxes, if the plants are so for¬ 
tunate as to escape being suffocated under 
such a lengthy name. It would be interest¬ 
ing to know' if the person who thus named it is 
living yet, as it may be just possible that the 
effect was too much for him. But, seriously, 
why give such a lengthy name to a variety of 
the popular Drummond Phlox ? 
The different varieties of Ageratum Mexi- 
canutn are very pretty and desirable plants 
for flowering in the window garden as well as 
in the greenhouse. They are also excellent 
plants for the flower garden during the Sum¬ 
mer season, wffiere they will be found to be 
very useful for cutting for bouquets, baskets 
of flowers, etc. They are also perfectly free 
from all insects pests, and if the soil is deep, 
they stand our hot dry Summer weather with¬ 
out sustaining any injury. But, notwith¬ 
standing the fact that they will grow' in al¬ 
most any garden soil, no plant will repay a 
little care and attention soonertban the Agera¬ 
tum. When planted in the garden it is there¬ 
fore advisable to prepare the bed thoroughly, 
by digging the soil to the depth of at least two 
feet and w orking in a good portion of w r ell 
rotted manure. Of late considerable atten¬ 
tion has been paid to this pretty species, and 
the result is we have several very pretty and 
distinct vai ieties which are decided improve¬ 
ments on the older sorts. One of the most dis¬ 
tinct and pretty sorts is Ageratum Mexica- 
num variegatum: this is a very pretty plant 
the foliage of which is beanti fully marked 
with creamy white. The flowers are of a 
light blue color. It stands the hot sun well, 
the variegation being uninjured. This variety 
will have to be propagated by cuttings. 
I think that the Epiphyllum truncatum and 
its varieties (see page 841) are best grown 
grafted on the Pereskia aculeata. Indeed, I no¬ 
tice that one of our leading florists, in his cat¬ 
alogue, noticing this fact, remarks:—“We 
can supply small plants on their own roots, 
but such we consider worthless.” When grown 
on their own roots they are at all times liable 
to be destroyed by becoming too w'et at their 
roots; but when grafted on Pereskia this can¬ 
not happen. The flowers will be much finer 
if they are given a temperature of 55 to GO 
degrees when about to open. 
Queens Co., L.I. Chas. E. Parnell. 
•-♦» » ■ - - - 
Strawberries. —I keep mv strawberry 
lants fresh and green, during a drought 
y throwiug wheat straw loosely over the 
bed, takiug it off as soon as the first hard show¬ 
er comes. I find the best way to transplant 
strawberries is to lift them with a garden 
trowel, directly after a rain; a ball of wet 
earth clings to them keeping the roots in their 
natural places. I never lose a plant set in 
this manner ; neither will the hot sun wilt 
them. j. R. 
fix I'D Crops 
i 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL 
FARM. 
CORN EXPERIMENTS OF THE PAST 
SEASON. 
Will Corn chilled in a foot or more apart 
stand the drought better than Com in 
hills? 
Experiments "With Fertilizers. 
THE OUTLOOK. 
It is hard for us to describe, so that the far- 
off reader could make full allowance for the 
unfavorable conditions under which corn was 
raised during the past season on Long Island. 
Even if we had had no drought, the yield 
would have been below an average owing to 
the colil, drizzly, backward season. Many 
kernels rotted in the ground ; many germin¬ 
ated feebly, and finally withered and died. 
The black birds, availing themselves of the 
long period during which the plants were at a 
stand still, destroyed the kernels or the tender 
shoots. Soon after the cold, cloudy, drizzly 
(seldom rainy) weather ceased, the dry 
weather was felt, and by the time sets ap¬ 
peared the leaves were already curled by the 
drought which, with the single break of a 
shower, continued until rain was of no ser¬ 
vice. We are speaking of our upland corn. 
That raised upon lowlands suffered less by the 
drought, of course, but more from the bad 
weather which prevailed in the early part of 
the season. So intent were we upon equaling our 
| great yield of 1880 that kernels were dropped 
six inches apart where the first planting had 
failed, the better to insure a good stand. But 
the weather just at this time was so cold that 
the second planting proved to be an entire 
failure. 
Everybody who has raised corn for many 
years knows that it is never safe in the early 
port of the season, no matter how favorable 
or unfavorable the weather may be, to pre¬ 
dict the yield at harvest. But knowing that 
the soil of our chief experiment field was 
naturally poor; knowing that (except the 
acre and the one-twentieth acre plots) it had 
received no manure in at least seven years ; 
when even as late as June 10 the plants aver 
aged less than three inches high, and were yel¬ 
low and feeble, while the feeblest were rotting 
and dying, we not only despaired of a great 
yield, but were I earful that uiere would be no 
yield at all. Such, indeed, was the general im¬ 
pression, not only among the Rural hands nut 
among our farmer neighbors. One of the lat¬ 
ter who was born and raised just opposite the 
R.ural Farm said to the writer : “I can re¬ 
member this field for 80 years. I have never 
seen a good crop upon it." 
“ Why, think you" ? wa asked. 
“ Oh, it’s as poor as a beach,” he replied. 
And then he asked “ What manure did you 
use ?” 
“ None, except upon that acre.” 
“ None i ” 
“Noue.” 
The farmer made no reply, but showed 
plainly by a queer little smile, as he looked 
over the field, that we fully deser ved the fail¬ 
ure that seemed obvious enough. 
THE DROUGHT. 
Let us say to our Western and Southern 
readers, that they may the better understand 
the results of this experiment field of corn, 
chat the drought was as severe and protracted 
as any within the memory of Long Island, 
farmers. On many of the inland farms the 
corn was utterly burnt up, while in t he best of 
soil, along the ocean or Bound, the yield was 
not over half an average crop. 
ONE OF THE CHIEF OBJECTS 
we had iu conducting the experiments of this 
field, was to ascertain in how far the great 
yield of Chester County Mammonth and of 
Blount’s White Prolific Corn of 1880 was due 
to the small quantity of concentrated ferti¬ 
lizers then used. The first-named was 
raised on the field adjoining our present 
field to the north. The soil and situa¬ 
tion of the two fields und the length 
of time during which neither had been 
manured or cultivated were so nearly 
alike as to offer fairly equal conditions 
for comparison. As a collateral experi¬ 
ment, the uere (380x132 feet—see di¬ 
agram) was manured with the same 
fertilizer, while the adjoining plot of 
the same kind of corn (Benton) was 
not fertilized. 
THE FIELD. 
Referring to the diagram, the land 
to the north of the curved dotted line, 
running easterly and westerly is high, 
gently-rolling laud and the soil is very 
gravelly. Many stones are from three 
to four inches in diameter. From this 
dotted line to the pond it is less grav¬ 
elly and perhaps rather more of a san¬ 
dy loam. From the pond to the south¬ 
ern boundary, the soil is much the same 
—a sandy loam—but there are places 
—half an acre perhaps in the aggre¬ 
gate—that are not well drained. These 
are indicated by the three clusters of 
shading. With the experiments of 
which we have to speak at this time, 
however, the last mentioned part of 
the field has nothing to do. 
As already stated, the field had been 
in grass and pasture for seven or eight 
years. The tliiu, worn-out sod was 
turned in March. April 24 to 27 inclu¬ 
sive, it was harrowed three times—then 
rolled and again harrowed. The acre 
(132x330 feet) was theu measured off 
and 600 pounds of Mapes’ Com Fertili¬ 
zer, extended with about the same bulk 
of moist soil thoroughly mixed, were 
sown upon it. The plots A. B. C. D., 
&c., were each measured out 6G feet 
long, by 33 feet wide, making them each 
one-twentieth of an acre. The A plot 
was fertilized with seven-and-a-half 
pounds of nitrate of soda, furnishing, 
according to. analysis, pound of 
nitrogen. The B-plot received 17% 
pounds of superphosphate of litne sup¬ 
posed to furnish 2% lbs. of phosphoric 
acid ; the C plot with lbs. of muri¬ 
ate of potash, furnishing 3% lbs. of 
actual potash. The D-plot combines 
the nitrate of soda and superphosphate; 
E-plot the nitrate of soda and muriate 
of potash ; F plot the superphosphate 
and muriate of potash ; G-plot nitrate 
of soda, surperphosphate and muriate 
of potash ; Il-plot 20 pounds of plaster 
(sulphate of lime) only ; O-plot 30 lbs. of 
Lister’s Corn Fertilizer of which we have no 
analysis P-plot, 30 lbs. of Soluble Pacific Guano 
and, finally Q-plot with no fertilizer. The P 
and Q-plots (not shown in the diagram) connect 
with the G and H-plots. The object of the 
experiments upon these small plots, was to de¬ 
termine whether the soil needs any, one, two, 
or all three of the chief ingredients furnished 
by farm manure, and imitated as closely as 
may be by concentrated commercial 
fertilizers. Another object was to sow oats up¬ 
on these same plots next Spring without any 
