254 
April 11 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
about three inches. When warm, settled, spring 
weather comes, the straw should be carefully raked 
from over the plants, and allowed to remain between 
the rows, where it will serve the triple purpose of re¬ 
taining moisture, keeping down weeds, and keeping 
the fruit clean. f. h. ballou. 
Ohio. 
“ THE NEW STRAWBERRY CULTURE.” 
safely holding young plants. 
At the Western New York Horticultural Society’s 
meeting, Mr. L. J. Farmer described a system of 
double transplanting, which was, in its results, very 
similar to potting, but without the expense and some 
of the drawbacks. He digs and trims the plants in 
the usual way in April, and then, instead of setting 
them out in rows in the field plantation, he shears 
the roots, or cuts on a bench with a butcher knife, to 
a length of three inches, and opening a furrow, places 
the plants against the straight side, and fills to the 
crown with earth, packing it firmly as in planting. 
He places them close together, or 24 to a running foot 
of row. Put in carefully in this way, the roots will 
soon emit numerous feeding rootlets, and so connect 
themselves with the soil, that any time after two 
weeks, upon lifting them, a mass of earth will adhere 
to them, as great in weight, as would be contained in 
a two or three-inch pot. When in this condition, the 
plant does not flag or wilt if taken up or reset, as its 
hold upon the soil maintains it just as though the 
soil were in a ball from a pot, but with the added ad¬ 
vantage that the rootlets are not cramped or pot 
bound, but in the best possible shape to strike out 
into the fresh earth and keep up an uninterrupted 
growth. 
The advantages of this double transplanting are 
several. For one thing, one may begin digging plants 
at odd spells before the ground is dry enough to plow, 
and trench them in a dry, warm corner of the garden 
or back yard. As the plants, if properly trenched, 
may be held for six or eight weeks without injury, it 
is possible to plow and fit the ground and rid it of 
weeds, by weekly treatment through the month of 
May with a fine-toothed harrow or Breed’s weeder, 
finally planting them about June 1, upon soil cleaned 
of all early weeds, with no expense of hand hoeing 
around the plants. Another thing is that plants may 
be held for market until those slow-going customers 
who never get around to strawberry planting until 
they see the ripe fruit in the groceries, wish them, 
and the plant grower can furnish them plants that, 
with a very little care, will grow right along and 
make just as good a growth as if set in the permanent 
tch two months sooner. 
Experience with this Method. 
I have trenched in strawberry plants for resetting 
or selling, every year of the past 17, and am sure that 
the claims made by Mr. Farmer are not too great. I 
have explained the method at the local horticultural 
society meetings, and at least a half dozen Ohio plant 
growers practice it to a greater or less extent. One 
very prominent strawberry grower who sometimes 
receives a consignment of plants worth, perhaps, 50 
cents or more apiece, always trenches them in where 
he can water and shade for a time and pet them a 
little, until they recover from their journey, and he 
can plant them out in a permanent row, on a show¬ 
ery or cloudy day. In this way, he saves every 
plant if received in a reasonably good condition. 
For example, a reader is attracted by an advertise¬ 
ment of the Blood and Thunder strawberry, and gets 
a dozen for which he pays $3. They come late Satur¬ 
day night, or just as he is starting down town to busi¬ 
ness. To trench in this dozen of plants in a trench 
12 inches long, set a brick on edge at either end, put a 
bit of shingle on the bricks with a stone on top to keep 
the wind from blowing it away, and to water, is the 
work of only five or ten minutes, while to set the 
same plants in the garden two feet apart, and shade 
and water each separately, would be the work of a 
half hour, while the contingencies of danger would 
be ten times as great. Two weeks later, when there 
is an idle hour and the ground and weather are just 
right, these expensive plants may be removed to their 
permanent position without the wilting of a leaf, or 
the slightest danger of losing a single one. 
I sometimes heel in 10,000 in a single day, as I 
employ some high-school boys who can work only 
Saturdays. I use a piece of plowed ground or a last 
year’s potato patch, rake it and fine it, and leave it 
level just as for sowing garden seeds. I then lay 
down a board eight inches wide and twelve feet long, 
and open a V-shaped trench with a shovel about 
three or four inches deep. The plants are put in 
against the farther side of the trench at the distance 
of 12 to the foot, the board given one turn backward, 
and the earth taken from the next trench used to fill 
the first one. Six rows are put in, and then a space 
of 18 inches is skipped for a path. I shade by laying 
a fence rail or post at either end of the rows, and lay 
a rail or six-inch lence board over each space. This 
keeps the ground moist and cool, and still leaves 
plenty of light immediately over the rows. At night, 
the rows are thoroughly watered, and carefully in¬ 
spected, and if the crowns of any plants show un¬ 
covered roots, some fine soil is carried along on a 
shovel and carefully applied with the hand. The 
success of the plan depends greatly upon doing it all 
in a thorough manner. After a few days, the shading 
is removed at night or during a shower. If it be very 
dry, it pays to give the beds of trenched plants a good 
soaking once a week. As 3,000 or more plants can be 
trenched upon a rod square, the watering is not 
tedious, and is far different from trying to water the 
same number of plants spread over a half acre of 
ground. Where trenching is done with a view to set¬ 
ting a plantation later in the season, the ground 
shbuld be kept in readiness, and advantage taken of 
cool lowering weather for the second planting. By 
this methed, a plant seller can utilize the plants left 
on his hands, and thus suffer no loss. 
Mr. Farmer made another, to him, strong point, and 
that was the ease of spraying for rust. He thought 
that two or three sprayings during the six or seven 
weeks the plants were heeled in, would suffice for the 
summer. He uses Bordeaux Mixture. 
Summit County, O. l. b. pikkck. 
SEEDING TO CRIMSON CLOVER. 
Early seeding is the safest and most reliable. By 
early seeding, I mean during the month of August 
and early part of September for this latitude. The 
latter part of July, when the corn crop is usually 
laid by, is none to soon to sow. Usually at that time, 
copious rains fall, and with such conditions, the seed 
will take with even a careless scattering over the 
freshly-plowed ground. But this method is not to 
be recommended unless just before a heavy shower, 
when there is no time to harrow or brush in the 
seed. I got an excellent catch that way last season, 
in a tomato patch, and have frequently hurried out 
before a storm, to sow a piece which I had not time 
to prepare properly. My most successful seeding at 
the last working of corn was to sow half the seed 
before the cultivation, and the rest afterward. This 
is the better plan of the two, and if sown early, and 
a good rain follow, well and good ; but woe betide the 
sowing that gets a light shower, followed by a scald¬ 
ing sun. The seed will germinate in 24 hours under 
such circumstances, and disappear from view in nearly 
the same time. In that case, reseed, if possible, at 
once. 
One of my neighbors had fair success last season 
with his Crimson clover sown in millet, about the 
middle of July. In buckwheat, I have had fair suc¬ 
cess, also in cow peas. To insure the best success, 
however, it is advisable to plow the ground several 
weeks before sowing, keep the surface stirred suffi¬ 
ciently to kill off germinating seeds of weeds and 
grass, harrow and pulverize the soil well before seed¬ 
ing, and follow the seeding with a smoothing harrow 
and a roller. 
If a continuous pasture be wanted, sow Orchard 
grass with it. This will not, in the least, interfere 
with the clover, as a crop to cut or graze, and will 
spring up like magic as soon as the clover is off. 
About 15 pounds to the acre, is the proper amount; 
when the conditions are favorable, 12 pounds is suffi¬ 
cient, but I would rather have it too thick than too 
thin, as I find that it protects itself better when 
thickly covering the ground. A too thin seeding is 
very frequently winterkilled, and a poor stand never 
impresses any one favorably towards Crimson clover. 
I believe much of the unsatisfactory experience re¬ 
corded against this valuable farmers’ friend, comes 
from too late and too careless seeding. I believe it 
to be perfectly hardy the coldest winter in this lati¬ 
tude, provided the plants get well established before 
cold weather sets in. 
1 am this year trying an experiment with Crimson 
clover sown among corn stubble after the crop was 
cut. Thus far, the clover, though small, is looking 
well, and will, undoubtedly, pull through the winter 
all right. One disadvantage in sowing among the 
growing corn, is the liability of the corn drawing all 
the moisture away from the young clover, causing it 
to die out before the corn is off the ground. Especially 
is this the case when a prolonged hot, dry time follows 
the seeding. I have made it an invariable rule to sow 
Crimson clover at tbe last working of beans, corn, 
tomatoes, melons, and other crops, whenever the land 
was not intended for such early spring crops as would 
not be benefited by following such a seeding. Although 
I believe that it would pay to seed for only the fall 
and winter months, if for the sake only of protecting 
the ground through the winter, and catching and 
holding the fertility of the soil, which might other¬ 
wise be lost by leaching or other causes. It is my 
honest opinion that Crimson clover can be made to 
reduce the manure bill on most farms one-half, and 
that, by its persistent use, our farms can be made, in 
a few years, to double their crops. b. s. cole. 
Anne Arundel County, Md. 
SUMMER ROSES FOR THE GARDEN. 
Every one who has a garden desires, yet rarely 
possesses, a class of roses to flower throughout the 
summer months. There is usually a great deal of dis¬ 
appointment to the one unacquainted with roses, who 
makes a selection as per catalogue. This is largely 
due to the misleading names of the classes, or some 
of them, at least. Take the hybrid perpetual, for ex¬ 
ample : under this head, are some of the largest and 
finest roses to be seen, and a great many, seeing the 
name, hybrid perpetual, at the head of the list, and 
knowing that a perpetual bloomer is just what they 
desire, order from that class. Roses of this class are not 
perpetual bloomers at all. They are the popular June 
roses, bearing a fine crop of flowers in the early sum¬ 
mer, but no more, save a few stray blooms which 
sometimes appear towards fall. While an extremely 
hardy class of roses, it is not the kind to get where 
perpetual blooming is looked for. 
The best bloomers are those in the Tea, China and 
Bourbon classes and their hybrids. Where there is 
not much room to spare, as is often the case about 
small gardens, a few plants of these summer roses 
will be sure to please, because of their constant 
flowering. Though not so hardy as the June roses, 
many of them will stand the winters of Pennsylvania 
unprotected, and nearly all of them will do so if cov¬ 
ered slightly for the winter. At any rate, even 
though they had to be purchased every spring, they 
can now be had for a sum no greater than is asked 
for common bedding plants. Even quite small plants, 
when set out in spring in good soil, will thrive 
and grow so fast that from summer until frost comes, 
they furnish abundance of flowers. 
Among some of the hardiest of these everbloomers 
are the following: Hermosa, Appoline, Malmaison, 
Louise Odier, Mrs. Degraw, La France, Caroline 
Testout, Sombreuil, Homer, Gloire de Dijon, Edward 
Desfosses, Archduke Charles, Aimee Vibert, Heine 
Marie Henriette, Marie Ducher and Madame de Vatry. 
Besides the above sorts, noted for their hardiness, all 
of the kinds used for forcing by florists, flower splen¬ 
didly out of-doors in summer. 
If small, dormant plants can be had, they may be 
planted out in the garden as early in the spring as 
the ground will permit, the earlier the better; but if 
in growing condition, the planting should be deferred 
until the days are warm enough so that the foliage 
will not be checked by cold. 
It is the strong heat of the sun in late winter that 
kills so many partly-tender roses, and if they can be 
set where they will be shaded from the mid-day sun 
in winter, it will be found of great assistance to them. 
Pennsylvania. Joseph meehan. 
TWO WAYS OF GROWING TOMATOES. 
A DIFFERENCE OF FIVE HUNDRED B U8HELS PER ACRE. 
There are few special crops of which the yield com- 
monly obtained, even by good growers, is so much 
below the possible production as it is with tomatoes. 
Two or three hundred bushels per acre are considered 
a full crop, and few canneries secure more than an 
average of 150 bushels to the acre planted. This is 
far less than ought to be expected. There has not 
been a season for the past 10 years that I have not 
personally known of fields which prod uced from 700 
to 1,200 bushels to the acre. The past year, a field of 
between three and four acres in Oakland County, 
Mich., gave over 3,000 bushels of beautiful fruit, and 
another of two acres in Jackson County, gave 1,850 
bushels. 
While there are many conditions of soil, culture and 
climate which account, in part, for the small yield 
commonly obtained, I am sure that it is generally due 
to unevenness in the rate of growth of the plants, 
more particularly when they are young, and before 
they commence to fruit. The tomato is an annual 
and a native of tropical America, where, during the 
growing season, the conditions of heat and moisture 
are constantly favorable, and there being no “cold 
spells,” or “ drying days” to check the growth of the 
plants, they move forward steadily from the starting 
seedling to the ripening fruit. A steady, uniform 
rate of growth from start to finish, is the natural and 
normal habit of the plant, and though, by cultivation 
and selection, we may make some changes in the 
character of the fruit, we cannot change the nature 
of the plant itself ; so that any break in its growing 
habit, such as a serious shock, is sure to result in less 
perfect development and fruitfulness. 
Here is an account of the Oakland County crop 
referred to, compared with one on an adjoining farm 
as an illustration. The seed was planted in a small 
