206 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 27 
made by the melting snow and spring rains. A 
heavy mulch of clean rye straw between the rows, 
as little over the foliage as possible and have it 
covered from sight, applied early in winter, so 
that it will become well packed and thoroughly 
saturated, accomplishes this in a very satisfactory 
manner. Bottling this water in large, handsome 
strawberry skins and selling it, is a pleasant way 
of changing water into free silver. I do not know 
of any live, wide-awake strawberry growers in 
this vicinity that cultivate the soil until after 
the fruit is gathered. s. e. hall. 
Illinois. 
The Theory of Culfivation Explained. 
While this method of spring cultivation has 
been recommended by some growers, it seems to 
me to be wrong in theory, and cannot be practiced 
without a very considerable damage to the plants. 
Through the spring and summer, after the straw¬ 
berry plants have been transplanted, the greater 
part of their root-growth is downwards, seem- 
ingly to get as far away from the heated surface 
soil as possible. As soon as the heat of summer 
is over, and the ground has become cool and 
moist, the fine feeding rootlets of the plants 
take complete possession of the upper two or three 
inches of soil. These later formed roots are neces¬ 
sarily the most important of the root system 
of the plants, and their main dependence for support 
in making their spring growth of plants, and in the 
maturing of their crop of fruit. To destroy these 
roots, or any great number of them, by cultivating 
the soil at any time in the spring before the fruit has 
been harvested, will certainly reduce the fruiting 
power of the plants. The second season, the plants 
can receive but little benefit from the old roots that 
were formed early in the preceding year. These 
roots have already performed their most important 
mission, in furnishing to the plants the necessary 
amount of plant food to enable them to perfect their 
growth of plants and fruit buds, after which their 
main value to the plant is as an anchor through the 
winter and spring. By the time the berries have been 
harvested, these roots are practically dead, and as 
soon as the plants recommence their growth, a set of 
new roots start out just above the old roots. These, 
in turn, grow downward and work over the same 
territory as the first set. Again in the fall, a second 
crop of roots takes possession of the surface soil. It 
seems to me that the plan of destroying these surface 
roots by spring cultivation, is about on a par with the 
old plan of laying corn by with a double shovel plow, 
and then splitting the middle with a single shovel, 
sending it down as deep as it will go, thereby robbing 
the plants of the nourishment which they should 
have received from the many rootlets destroyed. 
Indiana. m. h. Ridgeway. 
BRAIN TOOLS FOR BUSINESS GARDENING. 
Forcing Asparagus and Rhubarb. 
A few weeks ago, The R. N.-Y. published a brief 
description of asparagus forcing, which called out a 
number of inquiries requesting further information. 
The accompanying illustrations, from Prof. Bailey’s 
new Forcing Book, show the asparagus forcing house 
CAULIFLOWER TIED TOGETHER FOR SHADE. Fia. 93. 
at Cornell. This structure is about 20x50 feet, the 
frame being made of steam pipes. The sides or walls 
are only 18 inches high, the frame consisting of a 
ridge and three pairs of rafters. The steam-heating 
pipe, or riser, is seen at A, Fig. 90, just beneath the 
ridge, and this feeds two returns upon either side of 
the house, next the walls. When desired to force the 
asparagus, canvas or muslin is stretched over the 
frame, Fig. 89. The plants are grown permanently 
within this house, and, after forcing is over, the roof 
is removed, and the plants continue to grow natur¬ 
ally out-of-doors. No difficulty has been found in 
starting the asparagus into growth in January and 
February. The cover is left on and heat kept up until 
all danger of frost is past. This plan seems likely to 
be thoroughly satisfactory for both asparagus and 
rhubarb, and will do away with the present wasteful 
method of transplanting. The plantation must be 
thoroughly mature—three or four years old—before 
forcing begins; it must be well tilled and fertilized dur¬ 
ing summer, and, as soon as settled weather comes, 
the cover should be removed from the house, and 
FIRE HOTBED. Fig. 94. 
all cutting should be discontinued for that season. 
Strong roots are the first requisite in asparagus 
forcing ; not less than four years old from the plant¬ 
ing of the bed, and five or six-year roots are better. 
Where the permanent bed is not used, the roots are 
dug late in the fall, care being taken not to break the 
clumps, and to retain as much soil as possible. They 
are piled in a shed or cold cellar, where they can be 
had when wanted, covered with earth or litter to pre¬ 
vent them from drying out. Freezing is considered 
an advantage. The roots are commonly forced under 
the benches in a forcing house. A space is made 
under the benches about three inches deeper than the 
clump to be forced ; either a pit dug in the ground, or 
an arrangement of boards on the top of the ground. 
In the bottom are two inches of good soil, and upon 
ONIONS FOR TRANSPLANTING. Fig. 95. 
this the clumps are placed solidly, as closely together 
as possible. Earth is filled in between the clumps, 
and the crowns are covered with about an inch of soil. 
If blanched asparagus is desired, six or eight inches 
of earth must be put over the crowns. The tempera¬ 
ture is kept rather low for a few days, until the roots 
are settled in place ; after that the heat is raised to 
the temperature required for roses. Very high tem¬ 
perature gives spindling shoots. Profuse watering 
is required, and new roots are brought in every three 
or four weeks, to provide a succession. At Cornell, 
plants taken from an old bed November 20, and set 
under benches three days later, gave the first good 
cutting December 14, the last shoots being cut Feb¬ 
ruary 10. Asparagus can, also, be forced very readily 
in a frame or hotbed. It starts with very little heat, 
45 degrees being sufficient to start it in the soil. 
The forcing of rhubarb is very similar to that of 
asparagus. Well-established clumps are dug in the 
fall, and packed in beds under the benches. Soil is 
sifted thoroughly between the clumps, and they are 
then covered with two to six inches of soil. The 
temperature is the same as for lettuce or roses. About 
four or five weeks after placing under the benches, 
the first profitable cutting is usually secured. Both 
asparagus and rhubarb may be forced by placing a 
half barrel over the clump out-of-doors, and then pil¬ 
ing fermenting horse manure about the barrel. 
“ Vegetable Gardening.” 
A reliable manual on growing vegetables, both for 
home and market, is very often called for, and this 
want appears to be supplied by the recent issue of 
Vegetable Gardening, by Prof. S. B. Green, of the 
University of Minnesota. All the familiar vegetable 
crops are treated in detail, and there are some valu¬ 
able chapters on tillage and irrigation, manures and 
injurious insects. 
In discussing transplanting, Prof. Green says that 
this process should be avoided as much as possible. 
One of the reasons why transplanted plants some¬ 
times give better results than seedlings allowed to 
grow where sown, is that they are allowed more room 
to develop in ; but if seedlings that are not moved 
are given room enough for development, they are 
as good as, and generally far superior to, those 
that are transplanted. It is a good plan to shorten 
the tops of cabbage, cauliflower, celery, and sim¬ 
ilar plants when they are moved. If the roots are 
excessively long, it is wise to shorten them also. 
Fig. 92, from Prof. Green’s book, shows one of 
these shortened plants. At its left, is a lanky- 
stemmed plant set deep, and at the right, a plant 
in a manilla paper collar, to foil the cut-worms. 
Tomatoes for transplanting are conveniently sown 
in old fruit cans which have had all the joints 
melted, the body of the can being tied together 
with a wire. Thus prepared, the tins may be put 
in the hotbed or cold frame and filled with earth 
into which the seed or plants are placed. When the 
time comes for planting in the open ground, the 
tins with the plants in them may be very easily 
lifted and removed with the least possible check. 
Plants grown in this way are shown in Fig. 91. 
The arrangement for the ordinary hotbed, heated 
by manure, is sufficiently familiar ; the fire hotbed, 
shown in Fig. 94, is less known. Its outward appear¬ 
ance is similar to the ordinary hotbed, but instead of 
being heated with manure, a flue is used, and it is 
warmed by the smoke. 
Discussing the harvesting and storing of carrots, it 
is stated that, to keep well, they should be growing 
rapidly when dug. The same general treatment as 
for cabbage is recommended for cauliflower ; it is 
also advised that outer leaves be drawn over the head, 
as soon as it begins to form, as in Fig 93. 
In the discussion of onion culture, special attention 
is given to the transplanting of onion seedlings, a 
process now adopted by market gardeners. The seed 
is sown in a hotbed in March, in rows three inches 
apart. For a week or two previous to setting out the 
plants, they are hardened off by a free admission of 
air. When put out, the tops are trimmed as seen in 
Fig 95, and the roots shortened, too, if excessively 
loDg. It is considered doubtful whether it would pay 
to raise common field onions in this way, but it 
is advised for some of the more delicate foreign varie¬ 
ties which bring a high market price. 
In the Cold North, the plan of growing tomatoes on 
the south side of a house or wall will surely be worth 
trying. It is suggested that they be planted in bar¬ 
rels placed in warm corners about the buildings, 
some of the shoots being trained up against the wall. 
The barrel, which has several holes bored in the 
bottom, is sunken in the ground about one-third its 
depth. It is filled half its depth with fresh horse 
manure, well packed, over which a bucketful of hot 
water has been poured. Over this are eight inches of 
good soil, then the barrel is filled to within 12 inches 
of the top with a mixture of well-rotted manure and 
rich, black loam, equal parts. Three plants are put 
TOMATO BARREL. Fig. 9(5. 
in the barrel, trimmed to two shoots each. One 
shoot of each is trained up against the wall, the other 
shoot being allowed to sprawl over the front of the 
barrel This mode of culture in the barrel is shown 
in Fig. 96. 
Barn Ventilation Wanted.— We intend to build 
a barn this spring, size 45x90 feet, with a tie-up 15 
feet wide and eight feet high running the whole 
length of the south side, with 10 windows. We wish 
to provide some system of ventilation that will give 
us good, pure air, also take the foul air from the 
basement. Can any one help us ? h. l. p. 
