404 
FEB IS 
GARDEN SEED AND SOWING. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
Why farmers fail as gardeners; should save 
home-grown seeds; how to select and keep 
seeds; vitality of seals; plenty of seeds 
necessary; successive plantings; get seeds 
in time; seeds for early planting. 
The value of a garden depends to a great 
extent on the quality and not a little upon the 
quantity of the seeds one sows in it. The 
truth ‘‘Whatsoever a man sovveth that shall 
he also reap,” is old, but as true now as wheu 
first uttered. An experience of 30 years as a 
gardener enables me to speak with confidence 
on the subject of garden seeds. I thiuk that 
most farmers fail in one or more of three par¬ 
ticulars in supplying themselves with these: 
1st. The farmer fails in saving seeds of his 
own growth to the extent he ought, aud in the 
right way, and in caring for them when they 
are saved. To be sure, it does not cost much 
to buy what garden seeds he uses in a single 
year, but that little might as well be saved 
■when one is sure that by so doing he can have 
seeds that arc fresh and true from his own 
garden. I would not recommend the farmer 
to try to grow all the seeds he needs, but most 
of them he can save of better average quality 
than those he will be likely to buy. 
When the farmer does save seed, too of¬ 
ten instead of its being the best it is the 
poorest. After the row of beans, peas or com 
is culled he takes what is left for seed. This 
is just what he should not do. He should 
select a section of a row iu the very best part 
of it, put up a slake and give orders that 
nothing is to be gathered for the table from 
the part staked off, A rod or so of a row of 
bunch beans, or of each variety of peas or 
corn, will be enough. Of cucumbers, melons, 
tomatoes be should select some of the uieest 
specimens aud put down a stick with a red 
string tied to it as a sign that these are re¬ 
served. Next, after the seeds are saved, he 
should have a [fface for them, aud take good 
care of them. I think that fully one-half the 
home-saved seeds are eaten up by mice, or 
lost before planting time, simply because a 
special place was not provided for them. Buy 
a good, tight box, made of inch pine, hang a 
tight-fittiug lid to it, divide it into several 
compartments of different sizes and label 
them. Then get a stock ol' good manilla 
paper bags, aud when a lot of seed is perfectly 
cured, put it in a bag, mark the name plainly 
and the year in which it grew, and put it in 
the seed box. Remember that, with a few 
exceptions, seeds are good for from three to 
10 years. Parsnip, onion and carrot do not 
retain their vitality long; but the two last 
will grow the second year if kept well. 
The second particular in which most far¬ 
mers fail is in not baying enough seed. My 
family physician, with a family of four, aud 
an eighth of an acre garden, buys four times 
as many seeds as the average farmer with a 
family of eight or ten. Every farmer should 
plant peas, beam and sweet corn by the quart, 
and yet a majority of them will buy one or 
two five cent papers of each. These staple 
vegetables at least should be planted in such 
abundance that they can be used every day 
while they lust, aud successive planting should 
be made to insure a long continuance. From 
the last of May, wheu the earliest peas are fit 
for the table, until the frost is hard enough to 
spoil the late com, there should not be a day 
when the garden does not contain, in good 
condition for the table, orie or more of these 
stand-bys—peas, beans, and sweet corn—and 
the use of different varieties aud liberal suc¬ 
cessive planting, will easily enable one to have 
them. 
The third particular in which many farmers 
fail is in not getting the seeds they buy in 
time. There is a best time in which to plant 
all varieties, aud to have the best success with 
. them they mast be planted at that time, and 
yet a large per cent, of the orders filled by all 
seedsmen reach them after the seeds should bo 
in the ground. It is just as easy to look over 
the stock on baud, fiud out what is needed 
aud make out an order in February as iu 
April, and it will be much more satisfactory 
to all concerned. 
I find that a majority of farmers do not 
“make garden ’ uutil nearly corn planting 
time, and 1 doubt if most of them know whut 
seeds may be planted early. I have for muny 
years planted the following vegetables just as 
early as the ground can be worked aud 
almost every' year the laud freezes hard after 
they are up, but they' are very rarely injured: 
Beets, lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, cabbage 
and onions. My laud is clayey, uud 1 plow 
in the fall in beds from 12 to 10 feet wide, and 
open the dead furrows so as to drain off all 
surface water, and in this way I can usually 
THE SURAL NEW-YORKER. 
plant a week or two earlier than if the land 
is not plowed uutil spring. Two years out of 
the last 12, I have planted these early crops 
the last week in February: but usually the 
planting is done from March f» to 15. Some 
years my garden has frozen hard enough to 
bear a team, and been covered with snow for 
10 days alter it was planted; but as soon as 
the weather became warm all the seeds would 
come up. The man who would get the most 
good from his garden, must plaut for a suc¬ 
cession through the spring and summer. 
There should be about three plantings of peas, 
four or five of beaus, including the Limas, not 
less than five of sweet corn, and an early and 
late plauting of tomatoes. All the vegetables 
which mature early, like spinach, peas, lettuce 
and radishes, should be planted on adjoining 
plots, and as soon as they are past use, the 
remaius should be at once removed aud the 
land replanted. The laud on which early 
potatoes are grown will grow squashes, cabbag¬ 
es, corn or tomatoes fora second crop. Sweet 
corn may be planted as late as July 4 to 15, 
and there should be three months at least in 
winch there is a constant supply ou hand. A 
rich, well drained garden, planted with good 
seed and thoroughly cultivated, is a joy to the 
housekeeper and will save many dollars to the 
family. 
A NOTE FROM MR. FALCONER. 
Salsify, Sandwich Island Mammoth.— 
Apropos of my note in last year's Rural, 
page 822, J. M., Thorburu & Co. have sent 
me some roots raised by them together with 
the following note: “We.send you to-day by 
express a sample of salsify, as, judging 
from your notes, in a recent number of the 
Rural New-Yorker, you have not been very 
successful iu raising this sort. We hoped to 
send you much larger roots thau these,but our 
stock was pinched by drought late in the sea¬ 
son.” 
Messrs Thorburn’s roots were duly received. 
They are decidedly larger aud heavier than 
miue. They average five ouuces each in 
weight, aud measure 12 inches in length by 
4 % in circumference at stoutest part. Good 
specimens of mint) weigh 3% ounces each, aud 
measure about a foot in length by four inches 
around at the thickest part. The ground in 
which ours were grown is very rich saHdy 
land,but was not freshly manured for the sal¬ 
sify. From towards the end of July till the 
27th. of October we bad an unhroken drought, 
and vegetation suffered severely in conse¬ 
quence. In a piece of sandy laud in a young 
orchard, because of the drought, sort crops of 
any kind were hardly worth harvesting. 
£lvlumnt lineal 
JAPAN WALNUTS. 
On December 0 we received from Mr. Lu¬ 
ther Burbank of Santa Rosa County, Califor¬ 
nia, some specimens of the Japan Walnut— 
Juglaus Seiboldi, or adiantifolia. The trees, 
he tells us, are very rapid growers and pro¬ 
duce a great abundance of nuts. He thinks 
they will prove as hardy as the Amerieau 
blade walnut, hickory or butternut, and will 
prove of very great value to the United 
States; and that they are as worthy of intro¬ 
duction as the Japan Mammoth Chestuut, 
Japan Plum, etc. lie has a cross of the Eng¬ 
lish walnut (J. regia) aud the California black, 
and it is a more rapid-growing tree than any 
other he knows of except the Eucalyptus. 
The original tree is now nine years old, but it 
has not borne yet, as it appears to expend all 
its power in growing. He has grafted aud 
budded several others. 
The illustration, Fig. 90, shows the shape of 
Fig. GO. 
the nuts. The shells ore very thick, the 
meat comparatively scanty aud of much the 
same quality as the black walnut. 
COLD GRAPERY. 
This grapery should face the south, or a 
little east of south, and be on level, or gently 
elevated well-drained land. Border for vines 
should be inside and outside the house; the 
vines planted inside. A grapery may be a lean- 
to or three-quarter span; we prefer the latter. 
A convenient three-quarter span, shown at 
fig. 91 is 18 feet wide, 4 feet high at front, 12 
feet high at ridge and 8 feet high at back. 
Gas pipe supports under the ridge also under 
purlin along the middle of front, slope of roof, 
these supports at 8, 9 or 19 feet apurt, to 
answer the slices of the purlins, so that a sup¬ 
port comes under each splice and another iu 
the middle between the splices. Ventilators 
2)4 or three feet, by four feet six inches, to 
suit the rafters, should be hung along the 
whole way at top; also 18 inches by four feet 
six inches in front. Use double-thick, second- 
quality French glass, 10 by 12 inches wide, aud 
put the lights iu the 12-inch way. Let every 
fifth sash bar or rafter be much shorter than 
the others because into these stout bars the 
screw-eyes to support the wires to which the 
vines are tied, are secured. The screw-eyes 
should be of galvanized iron,14 tois inches long, 
one-quarter inch thick, eye, one-quarter inch, 
thread, two inches. Place them 10 to 12 inches 
apart. Use Btout galvanized wire and run it 
lengthwise along the house. Build back wall 
as recommended by Peter Henderson, page 4; 
tongued and grooved boards well put together 
will auswer for the front: some prefer glass. 
Ends may be boarded, or, better still, boarded 
four foot high, then glass above that. Door 
two feet away from hack wall. Have board 
pathways raised on 2x3 iuch cross-bare to 
walk ou. For rafters, ridge plate and purlins 
use white piue or yellow pine free from sap- 
wood, hemlock spruce kept well painted, or 
pine for sides, aud locust, red cedar or chest¬ 
nut for posts. 
In Fig. 91 the dimensions are given. Posts 
6 
or piers are driven at A, upon which iron pil¬ 
lars rest. Purlin B, runs across middle of 
front slope. The ventilator is three feet wide. 
Fig. 92 shows the same grapery less the north- 
JKmc 
f/zw-yoMEfl 
Fig. 93. 
facing slope, and Fig. 93 the same except two 
feet lower at back aud front. 
GRAPE NOTES. 
Management of Grape Cuttings. — I 
have adopted a plan for growing grape cut¬ 
tings similar to that described by Mr. Wood¬ 
ward. This plan is particularly valuable with 
hard-wooded sorts as Delawure, etc. I tie the 
cuttings iu bundles of 100 or less and bury in 
the garden, tops down, so that the ends are 
ubout three inches below the surface. Iu the 
spring l find the ends eallused aud the roots 
are frequently started. They must be han¬ 
dled carefully. J. H. w. 
Sterling, Ill. _ 
Grapes Self-fertilizing. — The Rural 
may be right about grapes being self-fertil¬ 
izing (See Farmers’ Club, page 38j, but I was 
not able to get a presentable bunch of any of 
the Rogers’s—however long the racemes of 
blossoms—until I trained an early-blossoming 
black grape over them on the same trellis. I 
have sometimes had only a berry or two wheu 
the blossoms gave promise of a large bunch. 
Stelton, N. J. o. w. t. 
When the “Alice” Grape is disseminated I 
think the Rural will not be able to say that 
the Catawba is the only grape in market in 
December and January, kept without artifi¬ 
cial methods. WARD D. GUNN. 
Ulster Co., N. Y.. 
CONVENTION OF THE WESTERN NEW 
YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
(rural special report.) 
Patrick Barry insists on more care in cul¬ 
tivating and marketing horticultural pro¬ 
ducts; panygeric on if, P. Wilder; cur¬ 
rants; tost season's fruit crops in W. N. 
Y; potato culture; best roses; Prof. Lint- 
ner on aphides and honey dew; Prof. 
Scribner on fungi; open barnyards de¬ 
nounced; clover, the. great soil renovator; 
feeding for manure; improvement on the 
Lord's method of soil enrichment; grapes; 
plums ; small fruits; down on the Washing¬ 
ton seed distribution. 
Thf. Western New York Horticultural So¬ 
ciety convened in auuual session at the City 
Hall, Rochester, N. Y., on Wednesday morn¬ 
ing, January 20, 1887, with its honored Presi¬ 
dent, Patrick Barry, in the chair. After 
routine work, the following officers were un¬ 
animously elected- President, Patrick Barry, 
Rochester; Vice-Presidents, S. D. Willard, 
Geneva; W. Brown Smith, Syracuse; J. S. 
Woodward, Loekport; aud W. C. Barry, 
Rochester. Secretary and Treasurer, P. C. 
Reynolds, Rochester. 
President Barry iu his annual address said 
agriculture is the base of all our prosperity as 
a nation, aud he was glad to see the effort 
beiug made by the State Agricultural Society 
to awakeu and educate the fanner by means of 
institutes, or meetings iu which practical 
agriculture should be taught. Iustead of 
grumbliug at low prices, it is far better to 
give the land better cultivation aud care and 
produce larger crops. The orchardist, in 
particular, must use more manure and give 
better care to his orchards if he would raise 
better fruit and make more money. He did 
not believe there is any over-production of 
fruits. The trouble is not enough care is used 
in growing, sorting, aud putting up the fruit 
—too much, trash goes to market. Fine, well 
grown fruit, well put up, has sold well even 
in years of large crops aud low prices. He 
said he had known Marshall P. Wilder long 
and well. He was a man of broad views, ex¬ 
pansive ideas, aud a noble heart; iu short, the 
grandest man that ever lived, and his place 
could not be filled, and so long aud wherever 
fruit shall grow aud flowers shall bloom the 
name of Marshall P. Wilder shall bo honored 
and revered. 
A motion was made in accordance with a 
notice which was given at the last meeting, 
to change the name of the society to “The 
New York Ktate Horticultural Society” aud 
have it shortened. This elicited a lively dis¬ 
cussion which showed a great love and pride 
in the members for this old society, and the 
motion was lost by au overwhelming vote. 
Dr. Sturtovuut read a paper on currants, in 
which he said this fruit is one of the youngest 
members of the pomological family. The 
first notice ever given it under its prVsent 
name was in 158G. He thought Hue results 
might be attained by more attention iu cross¬ 
ing and selection. Mr. Barry said that while 
one could hardly fiud a garden without cur¬ 
rants, no fruit is more neglected, and no fruit 
would pay better for good care. He thought 
the white better than red varieties for table 
use, ami wondered why they would not sell 
better. Mr VanDeman said there are several 
varieties of Missouri bluck currants, some 
sweet, some sour, some very good, and others 
very jioor. He hoped to see an effort made 
to improve them. 
The county reports showed an almost total 
failure of the apple crop iu Western New 
York last season except iu the extreme south¬ 
west. The causes generally were, an over 
crop the previous year anil a cold uortheast 
rain storm at the time of blooming last spring. 
There was a fair crop of cherries and pears 
and au iinmcuso crop of plums and straw¬ 
berries. As a matter of interest to raspberry 
growers, u machine was shown by the aul of 
Which one man can gather from 10 to 12 
bushels of berries per day. It consisted of a 
sort of hopper, ou wheels, broad enough to 
run under the bush; by jarring or shaking, 
