as to have the seed washed into the land by 
the rain,” said the Squire. 
“ If this has been your practice I know that 
you have not been successful as a turnip 
grower; you have failed to get a stand about 
half the time, and your crop has often been 
choked with weeds and grass.” 
“ You’ve bit it exactly; but I never thought 
that was the reason,” said the Squire. 
“ It is just the reason, and every seed cata¬ 
logue and agricultural paper ought to print 
this sentence in Italics. Always sow your 
turnips as soon after a rain as the land can 
be raked or harrowed fine. The turnip is a 
plant that must make a quick start to grow 
or it will not succeed, and on our land, a 
rain heavy enough to cover the seed always 
forms a crust which checks the growth of the 
young plant, and also starts a crop of weeds 
which will often smother the turnips. If you 
wait to sow after the rain you destroy all 
these weeds and give a mellow surface for the 
turnips to get a qniek, healthy start.” 
“How many turnips can you grow to the 
acre?” 
“ One year with another, I think about 200 
bushels 8n average crop, but I have grown 
600 bushels on land where I had grown early 
peas and followed with cucumbers, so that 
the turnips were the third crop fur the year.” 
** At what price can they be grown profita¬ 
bly! ” 
“I kept account of the cost for several 
years and found that it was about five cents a 
bushel, pitted. It takes about a pound of seed 
to the acre: no cultivation is needed, and the 
principal cost is gathering. There is occasion¬ 
ally a year of high prices when they will 
bring 50 cents to $1 per bushel, and quite fre¬ 
quently they can be sold by the car-load at 
25 cents to 33 cents per bushel, and at the 
lowest price named they are very profitable, 
and if they will not sell they will pay to feed 
to the stock.” 
How do you keep the crop through the 
Winter?” 
“ Select a piece of ground naturally dry and 
sloping enough to carry eff the water, and 
plow out four furrows, two each way from 
the center; throw the loose earth from these 
out at the sides and build your turnips in a 
narrow rick about three feet high aud wide. 
A hundred bushels will reach 25 or 30 feet. 
When all are filled up in this way, plow along 
the sides to loosen the earth and shovel it on 
to the turnips fifteen to eighteen inches deep. 
At the first freeze protect the outside of t he 
pit with straw' or coarse manure. If you wish 
to market in the Winter, locate the pit where 
it will be convenient to get them out, for it is 
hard wagoning over the fields during a thaw, 
and you cannot handle turnips in very cold 
weather.” 
“You have said nothing about varieties,” 
said the Squire. 
“ There is no variety so popular in the mar¬ 
ket or that gives as good satisfaction as the 
Red Top Strap Leaf, and I think most seeds¬ 
men sell ten pounds of it where they sell one 
of all other varieties.” 
“ You did not say whether you mixed the 
seed with anything to sow it.” 
“No, I do not. I can sow it more evenly 
without. If anyone will simply take what 
seed he can hold between the thumb and fore¬ 
finger and sow a strip five feet wide, he will 
get the plants just about thick enough, and if 
they are tot) thick, they can be thinned by 
passing over them w r ith a smoothing harrow, 
and those that are left will be cultivated at 
the same time. The demand for turnips is 
limited and the market often overstocked; 
but the man who grows a good article and 
watches the market will often make a greater 
profit from them than from any other crop. I 
have sold over $10fl worth from an acre, that, 
aside from gathering and marketing, did not 
cost over $1.00.” 
“Do you grow your own seed?” asked the 
Squire. 
“Generally, and it requires great care. 
The turnips must be handled carefully so as 
not to break the tops, and it will not do to 
cover the crowns with earth, or they will rot- 
They may be set out as early as the land can 
be worked, as a freeze will not injure them. 
When the seed begins to ripen the yellow bird- 
will take it if left too long; but it can be cut 
and cured m the barn as soon as it begins to 
get a little yellow. The seed w ill be good for 
four or five years if it is well cared for. 
Butler Co., Ohio. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 
TURNIPS FOR FALL FEED. 
COL. F. D CURTIS. 
Value of the Crop. 
Very little is said in this country about 
turnips on the farm, but very much might be 
said. Scarcely a farmer ever thinks of turn¬ 
ing them to any account. The Professors are 
largely to blame for this, as they have taught 
us in their everlasting tables, which agricul¬ 
tural writers quote from just as if they were 
authority, that turnips have no value as food, 
or, at least, a value so small as to be compar¬ 
atively worthless. No wonder this sort of 
teaching, which is founded on theory', dis¬ 
courages farmers from attempting to raise 
turnips. The practical truth is that they ate 
one of the most valuable crops. Why ? 
Because they can be raised as cheapty as any, 
and can be turned to profitable account at less 
cost than any other cultivated crop. How? 
By feeding them on the ground, which requires 
no labor at all. Do not these two propositions 
present a basis for practical action, which 
farmers should take advantage of? The turnip 
crop coines to maturity and is ready for use 
at a time when the cold has killed other green 
herbage, and stock is vainly trying to get a 
scanty subsistence from frost-bitten grasses. 
A patch of turnips is most opportune at this 
time for all kinds of animals to feed upon. 
No animal will injure itself if allowed a free 
range in the turnip field, but every animal 
thus favored will sliow a gain and go into 
winter-quarters with the flush ness and plump¬ 
ness of Bummer, instead of the dried-up, lank 
condition which usually characterizes animals 
in the late Autumn. As fodder-corn bridges 
over the droughts of mid-summer, so turnips 
are needed just as much to fill up the shortage 
of Autumn. 
If there should be any surplus they can be 
turned to most excellent account, if they are 
“all water,” in feeding the stock in Winter. 
Pigs can be well wintered on turnips, if kept 
in a warm pen, aud cattle and sheep can be 
fattened on them without any meal; and when 
meal is fed, the addition of a few turnips 
renders the meal almost doubly' effective in 
promoting growth. It may be set down as an 
established fact that in stall-feeding turnips 
or other roots fill an important part, and I am 
satisfied that if more roots were fed and less 
meal, growth would be greater. Turnips can 
be spliced in so nicely in skipped hills in the 
corn-field and where early potatoes, beans and 
peas have been grown, in every vacant place; 
and then again, they may be made to follow 
grain, or a crop of clover, so that they may 
occupy places which otherwise would be 
waste, or be a secondary' crop, where another 
has been gathered. 
Turnips may be sown os late as the middle 
of August for Fall feeding, and up to the first 
of August for Winter, or perhaps a week 
later. The land should be made mellow and 
the surface well mixed with fine manure, 
uftless it is naturally rich. A dressing of 
wood ashes, or phosphates, will be beneficial. 
The seed may be sown broadcast for flat 
turnips, at the rate of a pound to an acre, if 
the soil is fine and free from lumps and clods, 
and if not, double the quantity of seed ehculd 
be put in. A brush-harrow is the best for 
covering, and it is an excellent plan, if the 
ground is in the right condition, to roll it. 
This should not be done if the ground is moist 
so that it mil pack and form a crust, which it 
would do if rolled when too moist. The seed 
should not be sown when the ground is wet, 
as it cannot be covered properly. The least 
covering is ail that is required. A clover sod 
is an excellent seed-bed for turnips, and any 
knoll or spot where grass is sparse may be 
turned over and sown to them. No crop 
better fits the ground for a crop another year, 
and if perchance any are left on the ground 
until Spring they will add materially to the 
richness of the soil. 
fbriatiim'jai, 
RAYS. 
In the Spring and early Summer pressure 
of other work compels me to partially neglect 
my Rural friends, but this is involuntary on 
my part, as I consider my little talks with 
them as among my greatest pleasures. My 
notes to day ere mostly' about new flowers, 
and I am compelled to use botanical names in¬ 
stead of English ones, because, were 1 to use 
English ones, 1 should have to manufacture 
them on purpose, and that would lead to 
great confusion- perhaps neither you nor 
anybody else would know what I was talking 
about. If you do not know the plants by 
the botanical names, please take up your 
seedman’s catalogue and refer to them there. 
* * 
It is well to note early the merits and de¬ 
merits of garden plants, especially those we 
raise from seed, and to familiarize ourselves 
with the novelties of the season, so that we 
may be able to make a judicious selection for 
our next year’s garden And having made 
our selection, we should submit it to our seeds¬ 
man before the year is out, so that he may 
order those things we want and which he does 
not usually keep, when he orders his stock of 
seeds. 
* 
GAillardia picta Lobenziana is a va¬ 
riety that originated near Erfurt, and has 
been much advertised. The ordinary form of 
Gaillardia picta is a common garden annual 
that blossoms all Summer Jong, and has large 
ravs of a brownish, crimson-purple color tip¬ 
ped with yellow. The advertisements of 
Lorenz’s variety show lai ge and very double 
heads of flowers and the rays, instead of be¬ 
ing flat and broad, are quilled like those of a 
quilled aster, or a bunch of bouvardias, also 
the inside or disc flowers are shown as fully 
developed and quilled like those of the rays. 
So great was the demand last Spring for 
seeds of this novelty that many of our seeds¬ 
men who ordered it could not be supplied; of 
course, the price was equal to the demand. 
But 1 managed to get a packet of seed, and 
now have a good crop of plants in full bloom, 
and I can assure you, when I look at the real 
blossoms and the pictures in the advertise¬ 
ments—well, it is enough to make a person 
swear. All of the plants have prominently 
quilled flowers,but most of them have only a 
single outside row; others show a tendency 
to become semi-double, but there is not a full 
double flower or anything approaching it in 
the whole lot. Perhaps in a week or two tney 
may improve a little, just as balsa ns do. 
The first blossoms of balsams are seldom as 
double as the later ones. 
* * 
Browai.lia Roezlex is a beautiful and pro¬ 
fuse annual, but somewhat difficult to man¬ 
age. Mo t of you know the Browallia elata, 
both the blue and white varieties of it, and 
what a free grow iag, prof use-blooming, bor¬ 
der or window annual it is, and that it blos¬ 
soms the whole season through, providing 
you give it water enough. Well, Roezle’s 
Browallia is a smaller grower than Elata, 
but it has very large, pale blue—almostwbite 
—blossoms; and if you succeed first in getting 
the seeds and then in raising them I am sure 
you will be pleased with the plants. It does 
not last so long in bloom as Elata, nor for 
general purposes is it as good, but as a beauti¬ 
ful and showy plant it is better. Now, it is a 
very hard matter to get seeds of it to buy. 
Some of our seedsmen tell me they order it 
from Europe and cannot get it; others order 
it and get Elata instead, but no doubt our 
leading seedsmen have power enough to com¬ 
mand the genuine article. There is another 
Browallia called Cerviakowskii that is adver¬ 
tised as a good thing, but it is only a coarse- 
growing Elata, 
* * 
Dwarf Nasturtium, Empress of India, is 
au English novelty. It is of ordinary dwarf 
and compact form and has very deep, glow 
ing, crimson-scarlet flowers that show well 
above the foliage. But, considering bow pro¬ 
fusely and brightly flowered are dwarf nas¬ 
turtiums generally, f do not see very much in 
the Empress of India to make a fuss about. 
* j|: 
Cloth of gold is a dwarf French marigold 
that also came to me as a novelty from Eug- 
land. Il is now in full bloom. The plants 
are dwarf, compact and profuse, and the 
flowers, as a rule, are of a golden-yellow 
color and very double. But the flowers of 
many of the plants are as much marked 
with brownish crimson as are those of ordi¬ 
nary French marigolds: still all are double. 
This inconstancy of coloring shows the new¬ 
ness of the variety, and that it has not been 
long perpetuated in itself. 
* * 
Some time ago I told you of a tobacco plant 
that is being cultivated in England, and 
which some people claim is even a rival to the 
tuberoBe, so fragrant are its flowers. Its name 
is Nicotiana aillais. Well, Mr. Cullingford 
who introduced it to notice in England, sent 
m« a packet of seeds and now I have a clump 
of it in bloom. It grows about 20 to 24 inches 
high, is not very leafy; the leaves are near the 
ground and it blossoms most copiously. The 
blooms are very large and at the end of the 
long, narrow tube, open wide into a flat, 
white star; the back or outside of the flower 
is faintly brownish or violet tiuged. They 
open in the evening aud keep open all night 
but shut up in the morniug and keep shut all 
day. At night they are highly fragrant, by 
day they are almost scentless. It is the best 
tobacco of its class that 1 know of, but it shall 
never rival the tuberose. 
* * 
It is a bare yard indeed where some Ever¬ 
lasting blossoms are not raised for Winter 
bouquets. Perhaps the showiest of these are 
the Helichrysums. Among my new things 
this year I had a packet of seed of one called 
“ Fireball,” and described as having brilliant 
crimson-maroon double flowers. There is no 
mistake about it—it is as good as is claimed 
for it. Il is one of the best of the Helichrysum 
bracteatum set that I have ever grown. 
* * 
AMMOBIUM alatum grandiflorum, also a 
novelty, and claimed to be larger than the old 
form, is so. It, too, is a good and useful vvhito- 
flowered Everlasting, but beyoud being rank¬ 
er and having somewhat larger flowers than 
the old form, I perceive no other difference. 
* * 
The yellow Marguerite, or Paris Daisy, is 
now a familiar and favorite pot plant for Win 
ter decoration in sitting-room window or con 
servatnry, I struck a few cuttings of it in 
Spring and six weeks ago planted them out. 
They are now in full bloom, aud, too, very 
full, but thecolor of the outdoor raised flowers 
is paler than that of iu-door- raised ones. 
White Marguerites as Summer flowers are 
eclipsed by the many annual and hardy peien- 
nial chrysanthemums now in bloom. 
* * 
If you want a lovely little deciduous tree 
for yr ur front yard, I can recommend Styrax 
Japonica. Naturally it assumes an even, hand¬ 
some form, branches low and horizontally, and 
is apparently pretty hardy. It was in full 
bloom a fortnight ago, when every little twig, 
high and low, was lined beneath with pretty 
pure white silver bells. It is far prettier than 
any of the old snowdrop trees. 
* * 
English or pot marigolds are “as old as 
the hills ” and annual inmates of most country 
gardens. They self sow themselves mo3t 
numerously. A few years ago a variety 
called Meteor was introduced as a novelty, 
and, indeed, it is a welcome one; its flowers 
are very double, striped buff, yellow and 
orange, and of excellent form. It comes true 
from seed and grows as easily ns the com¬ 
moner sorts. Last Spring ray seedsman sent 
me some seeds of a new pot marigold marked 
“ White-tinterl Amber ” It is now iu bloom 
and alongside others, but I cannot recommend 
it. It seems to me to be a very poor Meteor 
without the orange stripes. Its color is pale 
or buff-yellow, tinted with amber if you like, 
an 1 in the most double oues greenish in the 
center. All of them are not double. 
* * 
I am very fond of foxgloves and have a good 
show of them. Sown a year ago and grown 
along in cold frames aud in nursery rows in 
the open garden, with a little mulching about 
them in Winter and planted out ii Spring, 
they have become strong plants, au 1 been in 
good bloom since tw o or three weeks. Most 
of them may live over as perennials, but like 
Sweet Williams, they are iiest treated as 
biennials. 
* * 
The old-fashioned Canterbury Bells are 
showy garden biennials: they are single, hose- 
in-hose and double, aud of many shades of 
pink and blue, also white. Of late yeais a 
new’ form of them called Calyeanthenia, has 
been introduced to our gardens. The flowers 
of this variety somewhat resemble a tea-cup 
set in a saucer—the inflated calyx of the old 
Canter bury Bell has been changed into spread 
ing flower leaves of the same color as the Bell 
It is a novel-appearing flower, but in my opin¬ 
ion not so pretty as the old form. Leon. 
SUMMSR GARDEN NOTES ON THE 
HUDSON. 
The Summer has been cool and wet in this 
locality. Strawberries revel in moisture and 
for once they have had a surfeit of it. The 
fruit set abundantly, but the contiuuous rains 
caused much of it to rot even before it came 
ripe and also resulted in much loss from in¬ 
terference picking at proper times. Still 
a large supply of handsome berries has been 
grown and marketed from these river towns. 
The berries have been uniformly large, some 
very large in fact, by reason of the exceasive 
moisture, although 1 think that, ns a rule, 
tuck increase iu size is at the expense of qual¬ 
ity. The flivor has certainly not this season 
been as high as usual. I have been interested 
in the fruiting of several of the newer sorts 
this Bummer. 
The Manchester, high-priced as it was, is 
included among these. My young plants gave 
some fine fruit which pleased me both in ap¬ 
pearance and flavor As to productiveness, 
however, 1 can not yet speak with certainty. 
The growth and habit of the plant are satis¬ 
factory. 
The Bidvvell has not been productive 
either iu my own gardeu or in other places 
here. The fruit is fine flavored, however, and 
handsome, but rather soft, aud lam unable to 
see the adaptation for market purposes which 
has been claimed for this variety. 
The Glendale I have been greatly pleased 
with. In some respects it resembles the old 
Burr’s New Pine, which I believe has not been 
surpassed for flavor. But tbo plant Is much 
more vigorous and very productive. Ths 
berry is firm and flue flavored, Rightly acid 
perhaps, but peculiar in its resemblance to 
the delicious little forest strawberry, and the 
aroma also reminds one of the woods. The 
hull turns up away from the berry making 
it easy to remove. On the whole I like it. 
Miner’s Prolific has not fully established 
its right to that title with me as yet; but it 
