328 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[ J ULY, 
shall pay all taxes on the property, and on 
failing, the mortgagee may do so, and have 
the amount of the same added to the princi¬ 
pal : that the costs of foreclosure, if such 
becomes necessary, shall be paid by the 
mortgagor, or that on failure to perform any 
of the conditions or stipulations in the mort¬ 
gage, the whole debt, with interest, shall at 
once become due. All these are valid. 
A Tomato Trellis. 
BT PICKET. 
A tomato trellis which never fails to give 
satisfaction, is shown in the engravings. The 
standards or legs are made of 1 by lj-inch 
stuff, 3 feet long, and tapering slightly toward 
the top. The slats are selected lath. Figure 1 
is an end view of the trellis in position; fig. 2 
shows the trellis folded. Wires extend across 
the top of the trellis, and when in position 
they loop over the ends of the standards, and 
hold it at the proper width. The standards 
are fastened together where they cross with 
l-inch bolts, two inches long. Two lengths 
of the trellis are sufficient for three tomato 
plants. It may be placed in position when 
the plants have attained a bight of six 
or eight inches. At the end of each sea¬ 
son, after the crop is gathered, the trellises 
are taken up, given a coat of paint, folded 
and packed away in a dry place. This form 
1 - 
I. ,.Jf 
i ! 
1 
• 
Fig. 3.— THE TRELLIS FOLDED. 
of trellis has the advantages of strength, 
lightness, and portability. 
When tomatoes are set in rich, heavy soil, 
they run to vine more than to fruit, and con¬ 
siderable pruning will be necessary, to keep 
them from running over the sides of this 
trellis and falling to the ground. We be¬ 
lieve that tomatoes are greatly benefited by 
judicious pruning when the growth is rank. 
Rock-Bed for Ferns. 
A rock-bed for ferns can be easily made in 
any out-of-the-way corner, and the more 
damp and shady the place selected, the bet¬ 
ter the ferns will grow. The ground should 
first be prepared by covering it to a depth of 
two inches with coal ashes and broken bits 
of brick, crockery, or small stones. On this 
bed place various sized stones in an irregular 
pile, so that they do not lay close together. 
The interstices are filled in with soil brought 
from the woods, and planted with wild ferns. 
If carefully transplanted, they will keep on 
growing in their new home as green and 
fresh as if they had not been disturbed. 
Quite a variety of ferns can be found in a 
small extent of woods, some but an inch or 
two in bight, and others with long waving 
plumes. Besides ferns, there are some vines 
to be found in all woods, which are very 
graceful, growing over the stones. Moss also 
should be brought in among the other treas¬ 
ures, and placed around the ferns, for, besides 
adding much to the beauty of the bed, it 
keeps the fern roots moist. The bed should 
be sprinkled every evening or two after sun¬ 
down, and water frequently poured gently 
around the roots and over the stones, so that 
it will run down into the crevices where the 
roots have made their way. Reader. 
Scotch Shorthorns. 
The Shorthorns bred in Aberdeen and other 
northern Scotch counties, during the last 
half-century, have proved thrifty, hardy, 
and profitable—among the best, in fact, of 
all those reared in the United Kingdom dur¬ 
ing the same period. The reason of this is, 
that they are never pampered, but brought 
up exactly as other cattle. There is one 
point of difference between the Scotch and 
English methods of treatment, and this is, 
that in Scotland they allow the heifer to 
bring her first calf at 34 to 30 months of age, 
while in England, the rule is at about 36 
months. The cows are generally good milk¬ 
ers, and the calf is suffered to run with its 
dam until it is six to seven months old. In 
the winter it is fed on turnips, straw, and a 
little bran and linseed or other meal. By 
this method, stock is reared at a moderate 
cost, and at present prices pays the farmer a 
handsome profit when sold. Some American 
breeders prefer the Scotch to the English 
Shorthorns, and have made large importa¬ 
tions of the former, particularly in Kentucky 
and farther West. They consider the Scotch 
cattle more hardy, but we must await the 
rearing of the yoimg stock, for years to 
come, to ascertain if this is true. 
Money in Heavy Horses. 
The prices of the larger breeds of farm 
horses, those for city cart and truck work keep 
well up in our markets, and the supply is 
said to be not nearly equal to the demand. 
It is also noted that the price of this class of 
horses has advanced in England, and a few, 
particularly fancied for breeding purposes, 
have risen beyond all former prices. It is re¬ 
ported that 650 guineas ($3,250) has been re¬ 
fused for a black filly, while two three-year 
colts were sold at 500 guineas each ($2,500), 
and 500 guineas ($2,500), has been refused for 
this season's hire of a famous stallion. These 
are extraordinary prices, but even mares and 
stallions of a more common rank are selling 
at from $300 to $1,500 in both Great Britain 
and the United States We hope that 
the extensive horse-breeding establishments 
now forming on the great Western plains 
will, in a few years, be so successful as to sell 
horses of a superior quality at lower figures 
than those prevailing at present. Our popu- 
ation is now growing so rapidly that even this 
increase in horse-breeding will not keep pace 
with its wants. This business our farmers 
may rely upon, as being a safe and profitable 
one for years to come. 
Evaporating, Canning, Cooking, and 
Exporting Squashes. 
BY J. J. H. GREGORY. 
Within a few years, a large business has 
been developed in the Eastern States in the 
evaporating and canning of squashes. These 
processes enable housewives to bridge the in¬ 
terval between spring and fall, and bring this 
fine vegetable to their tables in the form of 
pie all the year. When carefully put up, the 
evaporated squash makes as good a pie as 
when used fresh-gathered from the vine. 
The extent of the canning business may be 
inferred from the fact that when, in its in¬ 
fancy, I supplied a Boston firm with thirty 
tons of squashes, from which the seeds had 
been removed, to be used for this purpose, 
they informed me that they had already used 
for canning three hundred tons that season. 
A single suggestion, drawn from personal 
experience, to those who may find a market 
for their seeded squashes: When sending 
them by railroad, unless the weather is 
below freezing, be sure and have the door of 
the car open an inch or two, for squashes, 
when seeded, are very apt to develop heat. 
A word about the cooking of the hard-shelled 
varieties. Do not attempt to remove the shell, 
but, after breaking to a convenient size, cook 
by steam, instead of boiling. In bringing it 
to the table, the flesh is generally scraped 
from the shell, but this is not the best way. 
To preserve the fine grain of the squash, and 
keep its dryness, bring it to the table on the 
shell, and so serve it, with the shell as a natural 
dish. We have oysters on the shell; and why 
not squash? The old saying that “ the nearer 
the bone, the sweeter the meat,” may or may 
not be true, but we know from personal ex¬ 
perience, dating from the time when we could 
first handle a knife with safety, that the 
nearer the shell, the finer, richer, and dryer 
is the squash. 
Squashes cannot be raised successfully in 
the British Islands, although the average 
temperature there is higher than ours. That 
period of intense heat which we call our “corn 
weather,” is unknown to the English, and 
hence they cannot succeed in the open ground 
with our hot-weather loving plants, such as 
beans, corn, melons,cucumbers, and squashes. 
In answer to my inquiry how the English 
people liked our American squashes, the re¬ 
ply came that my agent had no means of 
knowing, for, as far as he had been able to 
ascertain, the whole shipment had been 
bought up by shop-keepers to show as curi¬ 
osities in their windows. Further correspon¬ 
dence developed the fact that if they could 
be sold in Covent Garden Market at a shilling 
(twenty-five cents) apiece, very likely a large 
business could be done in them. I shipped 
my squashes by way of Liverpool, and the 
transportation overland from that port to 
London cost as much as the freight across 
the Atlantic; this, in addition to the other 
expenses, would have so much reduced the 
profits that at twenty-five cents each the 
margin on squashes, costing twenty dollars 
per ton in this country, would have been too 
small to make the business inviting. Now 
that we have direct communication by 
steamer with London, it would be wise for 
some enterprising Yankee to try the experi¬ 
ment again. I would advise the shipping of 
none but the hard-shelled varieties, and only 
the ripest of these. 
