1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
175 
STARTING PLANTS IN HOTBEDS. 
HOW TO GAIN TIME IN SPRING. 
A Start with Cabbage —Aside from growing 
early vegetables for the table, a hotbed or greenhouse 
may be used to advantage in starting plants for field 
culture. The following plants may be started to ad¬ 
vantage : 'Cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, onion, melon, 
cucumber and sweet potato If a few very early and 
vigorous cabbage or cauliflower plants are wanted, 
they may be grown in pots. Use three-inch pots, three- 
fourths filled with rich earth ; plant three or four seeds 
in each hill. Later, thin to one plant, and fill the re¬ 
maining space in the pots with well-rotted manure. 
These will make premium plants, but the method is 
far too expensive when acres are grown. In this case, 
sow in shallow boxes in rows two inches apart, and 
place these in greenhouse or hotbed. Later, as the 
weather permits, the plant j should be removed to 
cold frames, and covered with cloth-covered sash,-or 
board shutters when necessary to protect from frost 
and heavy rains. It will pay to thin the plants when 
the third leaf has appeared, so they will stand, at 
least one inch apart in the rows. 
Tomatoes Abea<l ol Time.— Tomato and egg¬ 
plant may be grown in the same way as cabbage, but 
as fewer plants are required per acre, and a longer 
season is required for maturity, we should aim to get 
the largest and strongest plants consistent with trans¬ 
planting. Start as advised for the pot-grown cabbage, 
except that four inch pots should be used. Another 
method is to use strawberry boxes, minus bottoms, 
set on a layer of coal ashes. The boxes should be set 
close, and the earth fairly well firmed before planting 
the seed. If “ premium” p’ants are wanted, 12 to 14 
inches high and in bloom by planting time, sow seed 
in three-inch pots in February (for the North), aid 
later shift to six-inch size. If the plants are given 
sufficient room for a no-mal growth, that is all that 
is necessary It is important, in pjt culture, to time 
operations so as to have the plants in just the right 
condition at planting time ; that is, the roots should 
comfortably fill the pot«, but should not be allowed 
to become pot-bound, or matted thickly around the 
inside of the pot. When a plant reaches this stage, it 
is soon stunted unless given more room. When grown 
in pots, the plants may be knocked out and packed 
snugly in trays for removal to the field, and suffer 
very little from transplanting. 
Transplanted Onions.— The method of growing 
Ptizetaker onions by the “ new onion culture” has 
been outlined many times, and will be but briefly 
described. The seeds should be sown in February or 
March (for northern latitudes), and when the bulbs 
are as large as a lead pencil, they are transplanted in 
the field, four inches apart, in rows 12 or 14 inches 
apart. These may be transplanted singly in the 
ordinary way with a dibber, but a more economical 
way is to plow them in as follows : Set a line across 
the field, and turn a shallow furrow with a hand 
plow, away from the line ; drop the plants in the fur¬ 
row with the tops resting over the line ; plow back, 
filling the furrow heaping full, and remove the line 
by an upward jerking motion so as to straighten the 
tops somewhat. One person should follow and tramp 
the earth firmly over the roots. Young folks can work 
to advantage dropping plants. This method is eco¬ 
nomical of seed, saves thinning and hand-weeding, has¬ 
tens maturity, and gives an increased yield over or¬ 
dinary field culture. 
A Move on Melons.— Melon and cucumber plants 
may be started in hotbeds or greenhouses, and the 
season of maturity advanced several weeks. The 
seeds are sown on inverted sods, six or eight weeks 
previous to planting-out time, half a dozen seeds in a 
place, eight to ten inches apart. When settled warm 
weather has arrived, cut the sods in squares, and 
transplant in the field. By this means, we not only 
advance the season of maturity, but we also head off, 
to a great extent, the numerous insect tribes that 
feast on our melon and cucumber vines in their early 
days. This scheme is purely practical, as I have fre¬ 
quently had occasion to prove. 
Sweet potatoes will mature in the northern States 
if the plants are started under glass. Place perfectly 
sound tubers in soil or sand, covering only one-half 
inch ; the tubers should not touch, otherwise, if de¬ 
cay occur in a single tuber, it might readily be trans¬ 
mitted to its neighbors. The plants are removed for 
transplanting when of sufficient size, by pushing the 
fingers down alongside the tuber, and breaking off 
the sprouts with roots attached, without disturbing 
the tubers. A second and even a third crop will be 
produced. 
Besides the plants here mentioned, the plants of 
almost any garden crop may be started under glass 
for future removal to the field, but it is doubtful 
whether there are any besides these that can be so 
treated with profit. It is possible that Lima beans 
could be profitably handled in this way. To the be¬ 
ginner, I would say : ‘ Make haste slowly.” Possibly 
you have been told that it is a very easy and simplj 
matter to grow plants in a hotbed or greenhouse! It 
is neither easy nor simple. If the work is conducted 
on a large scale, the closest attention and much skill 
are required to make it pay. So start out with a 
small hotbed, and work from this, if you will, to 
larger things. Remember that this hotbed must not 
be neglected for a single day after the seeds are 
sown, and during the uncertain weather of March, it 
will need attention many times a day. 
Wisconsin Exp. Station. Frederic crane field. 
LATE-PLANTED POTATOES FOR SEED. 
ARE THEY SUPERIOR TO THE ORDINARY CROP ? 
[Some of our readers agree that the best seed potatoes are those 
grown very late in the season. They advocate planting as late 
as July, so as to secure tubers of fair size just before frost. This 
late crop, they say, will be much like the second crop seed from 
the South. What is your opinion or experience in this matter ?] 
Prefer Northern Seed.— If the tubers of the or¬ 
dinary crop can be so kept that they do not begin to 
grow materially before planting, they may be just as 
vigorous and give as good a crop as the tubers from a 
late crop. So far as I have followed reports of experi¬ 
ments with the second-crop potato seed of the South, I 
have not been able to conclude that even this is in any 
marked degree superior for northern growers to north¬ 
ern-grown seed. Some of the experiments, it is tru*, 
have indicated it to be superior, but on the other 
hand, other experiments have shown as good crops 
with the ordinary northern-grown seed. I am a strong 
advocate of the use by our farmers of seed grown 
farther north. For the farmers of Massachusetts, I 
recommand seed grown in northern Maine as being, 
as a rule, superior to that from other localities, and it 
does not appear to me that the use of late-grown seed 
produced as you say is suggested, will be likely to 
give as good results. wm p brooks. 
Massachusetts Experiment Station. 
After Strawberries.— We have followed and ad¬ 
vocated the plan for many years, and this way of 
growing potatoes planted late comes in nicely with 
our strawberry growing. Just as soon as we pick the 
last berries, the vines are turned under, and potatoes 
planted at once. We have had some very good yields 
in this way, and the potatoes are much finer, as a rule, 
than those planted early. In this way, we almost 
entirely avoid scab. Of course, the vines are often 
killed by frost, but where the potatoes are wanted for 
seed, they keep better in the Spring without sprout¬ 
ing than where the potatoes are matured. The prin¬ 
cipal trouble is to keep the seed in good order so late 
in the Summer. We do this by spreading the potatoes 
on the barn floor as soon as there is no danger of 
freezing. In this way, they make short, tough, stubby 
sprouts that are not likely to break off in cutting or 
dropping. It is some trouble to care for and handle 
seed enough for an acre or two, but we think it best. 
Cold storage to keep them from sprouting would be 
all right, but it is usually more expensive. 
Ohio. a. i. root. 
Experience With Blighted Seed.—I have bad 
no experience with either second-crop southern seed 
or late crop northern. Last year I bought some seed 
from a neighbor, who said that the blight struck his 
crop very early and killed the vines when the tubers 
were no more than half grown. They had been kept 
in pits, and I brought them home and put them in a 
warm basement for safe-keeping. For a long time 
after fully-matured potatoes began to sprout, they 
showed no signs of it, and I feared that they had been 
frosted But they sprouted freely a little before 
planting, and made a good stand and growth, but no 
better than my other seed of the same variety, though 
the seed was much firmer when cut. As the tubers 
did not rot, was the blight of as much value in ch( ek¬ 
ing their growth as a late frost would have been ? 
My own crop blighted, but had been growing a much 
longer time before it appeared. I hope to grow some 
for myself, and wish to test it before offering any ad¬ 
vice. It seems to me, however, that well-matured 
seed must be best, and that second-crop seed is more 
valuable as an advertisement than for any other pur- 
P° se< G. A. PARCEL!,. 
Pennsylvania. 
SCIONS. 
The Wisconsin Horticulturist prints the following verses by 
Dr. T. E. Loope: 
Why don’t the Borer’s eggs, Brother, as large as hen’s eggs be ? 
Why don’t he lay the small eggs on oak or linden tree ? 
Why does the scab come, Brother, on apples we want to eat ? 
Why don’t it stay on our neighbor’s, and leave ours fair and neat? 
Why is the fruit-tree agent allowed to roam the land ? 
Why can’t he go to heaven, and with the angels stand ? 
What will the good Lord do, Brother, to the man who “ substi¬ 
tutes ” trees ? 
Will he be hung on a Russian crab to dangle in the breeze ? 
Parsnips may be sown as soon as the ground can be worked; 
sow one ounce of seed to 200 feet of drill, like carrots. They are 
Improved by frost, unlike carrots, and when a sufficient quantity 
for immediate use is taken up in the Fall, the remainder may be 
left in the rows until Spring. 
March Seed Sowing —March is a good month for starting seeds 
in the hotbed, to be transplanted after germination, to the open 
ground, when weather permits. Cabbage, cauliflower, celery, 
cucumber, egg plant, lettuce, onion, parsley, pepper, spinach 
and tomato are to be thus treated. 
Carrots —Sow these just as early as the ground can be worked ; 
a light, sandy loam, deeply worked, is suitable for them, espe¬ 
cially if heavily manured the previous year. The seed should be 
firmly covered one-half inch, in drills 15 inches apart, thinned 
afterwards to three or four inches in the row. The usual amount 
of seed is one half ounce to 100 or 150 feet of drill. For a late 
crop, sow from May 1 to June 1. We like the Early Ho'-n and 
Danvers varieties for the table; White Belgian is excellent for 
stock. 
Danish Cabbage. —This is now strongly recommended as a late 
market cabbage, makinv very heavy, solid heads. The Danish 
cabbage must not be set out too early; if so, the young plants 
seem likely to drop their leaves and languish in growth. In cen¬ 
tral New York, they should not be set out until the end of June 
or early part of July. Danish Ball-head, Hollander and Solid 
Emperor are good strains of this cabbage. The seed is grown In 
Denmark, like our best strains of cauliflower. 
Test the Seeds. —Good seeds are the most important means 
toward a good garden Fertile soil, thorough preparation, 
abundant fertilizers, go for naught if the seeds be poor. All seeds 
should be tested carefully before planting. A certain number 
counted out and sown in a shallow box, lightly covered with soil 
and kept in a warm place, will soon show what proportion of the 
seeds are viable. If seeds are poor, it is better to learn of it be¬ 
fore they are planted, and thus avoid the delay and loss incident 
to replanting. 
Cauliflower Is one of the most delicately flavo-ed members of 
the cabbage tribe. One ounce of seed produces from 1,500 to 
3,000 plants, according to whether it is sown in the frame or open 
ground. Sow in hotbed in February or March, transplanting to 
cold frame, and thence to open ground when warm enough. For 
Fall crop, sow in open ground early in May, and transplant in 
June. Water freely in dry weather; hoe deeply, and draw the 
earth up towards the stems as they grow. Draw the outer 
leaves over the head as it forms, to shield it from the sun. 
Tender Vegetables, such as egg plants, tomatoes and peppers, 
reflui e more heat in Spring than hardier sorts, such as cabbage, 
lettuce and celery. Where hotbeds and frames are the only 
means of protection, the sowing of the tender sorts should be de¬ 
layed a little later than the hardier vegetables, and it is well to 
keep them separate, for the cabbage, lettuce and celery will take 
plenty of ventilation to harden them before planting out, It is, 
also, wise to use an extra six inches of manure when preparing 
a hotbed for these tender seeds. Very little water should be 
given when the seedlings first come up, for these little plants 
damp off readily, and must not be chilled. 
Tobacco for Woollt Aphis.—A number of our readers want to 
know what western apple growers are doing to fight the Woollv 
aphis. Two years ago, the Missouri Experiment Station issued 
a bulletin recommending tobacco dust. Mr. L. A. Goodman, the 
secretary of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, in a recent 
letter, says: 
“Since the last report of the Missouri Station, we have con¬ 
tinued trying the tobacco-dust cure, also the coal-oil cure. Either 
one seems to accomplish the desired result. Tobacco dust seems 
to be the best where it can be obtained cheap'y enough, and is 
the safest to use. In every case where used properly, and the 
tobacco is of good strength, the reports have shown that it was 
satisfactory. In the use of coal oil, one-half pint to one quart, 
according to size and age of tree, the reports have varied consid¬ 
erably. Trying it is the best plan. Some soils seem to modify 
the strength of the coal oil very materially.” 
The Freeze in Alabama.—O ur entire crops of cabbages, peas 
and potatoes that were planted up to the 13th ult., were killed 
outright, with all other vegetables; four degrees below zero was 
the record. Not more than 200,000 plants will be replanted, as 
nearly all cabbage plants were lost also. The crop will not be in 
now before June. Potatoes, large crop planting, 50 per cent of 
crop now in; estimated that 1,000 barrels were lost, frozen in 
dealers’ and farmers’ hands, but we expect to plant 25 per cent 
more this season over usual years, on account of no cabbage 
Beans, some planted already, and will be an enormous crop of 
them planted this season; they will be the only green crop we 
will have to ship. All peas, also, were replanted, but will be 
later than usual. a. b k 
Mobile, Ala. 
Ben Davis Apple. —Why so much opposition to the Ben Davis ? 
It seems silly continually to talk against our own interests. Eu¬ 
ropeans like the Ben Davis apples; they want them, and they pay 
for them. Why not let them have them and hold our peace ? The 
tree is hardy and an early and abundant bearer; the apples are 
in demand at a good price, and they reach their destination in 
good condition. If Europeans want them, let us furnish them 
and consider ourselves fortunate that we have a good market fer 
something so easily produced. The claim that the Ben Davis is 
not hardy is without foundation, for it stands the climate of 
Maine equal to a native, and in a few years, will be the leading 
market apple in the State, if it is not already. Anything that 
finds a ready market at a good price can hardly be called worth- 
