358 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
tree,” often incorrectly called “Purple Fringe,” 
(Rhus Cotinus), the “ Wig-tree ” of England, should 
not be forgotten, as it is perfectly hardy and very 
showy. Among climbers, the Japanese Hall’s 
Honeysuckle ( Lonicera Halliana), is a most valu¬ 
able introduction. It blooms, and keeps blooming, 
and never tires. Our native Trumpet-Creeper (Te- 
coma radicans,) and its oriental brother (T. grandi- 
flora,) are valuable for their rapid growth, and their 
abundance of trumpet-shaped, orange-scarlet flow¬ 
ers, produced from July to October. Some of the 
improved varieties of Clematis are late bloomers, 
and our native Virgin’s Bower (C. Virginiana) 
gives a wealth of white flowers in August, and its 
clusters of fruit are beautiful later. Among the 
vines, ornamental for their fruit, the Roxbury Wax 
Work ( Celastrus scandens) should not be over¬ 
looked. If allowed to run upon a tree, it will soon 
kill it, but upon a trellis it is valuable for its 
glossy foliage and scarlet fruit. By proper care in 
selecting, the shrubbery may be attractive from 
early spring uutil frost comes, and even later. 
Making a Lawn in Autumn. 
Some of our correspondents appear to hesitate 
about laying down a lawn at any other time than 
in spring. If given the choice, we should prefer 
autumn. When the grass seed is sown in spring, 
unless a good “ catch ” is made very early, the 
young grass has to contend with a daily increasing 
temperature. If sown in the fall, the cool nights, 
with their refreshing dews, restore the plants, and 
they grow rapidly during the warm days, while 
there is, usually, at this season, an abundance of 
rain to encourage growth. It is sometimes recom¬ 
mended to sow oats with the grass seed; however 
useful this may be in late spring sowing, it is not 
at all needed in autumn. Oats are of doubtful 
utility at best;. whether the good they do, by shad¬ 
ing the young grass, is not more than offset by de¬ 
priving it of needed nourishment, is a question. 
At all events, oats at this season are not needed. 
In making a lawn now, as at any other season, it 
is well to recollect that the work is to be done for 
many years, and that in no part of the grounds will 
thorough preparation, deep tilling of the soil, and 
abundant fertilizing, pay better than here. In a 
lawn of considerable extent, it is a mistake to sup¬ 
pose that it is necessary to reduce the surface to a 
dead level. For small grass plots, on small places, 
this may be desirable, but a large lawn appears to 
much better advantage if the surface is gently un¬ 
dulating. Various mixtures of seed are offered by 
the seedsmen. Some of these seem to be well con¬ 
sidered, but anything more unsuited to our climate 
than the “ French Lawn Grass,” can not be imag¬ 
ined. Probably not a third of the kinds of grass it 
is said to contain, will survive in our climate. The 
best lawns w r e ever had were sown with “ Kentucky 
Blue-grass ” and “ Rhode Island Bent ” (a variety 
of Red-top), in both eases a small amount of 
“ White Clover ” was added. For strong soils, the 
former, for light and sandy ones, the latter, will 
no doubt give satisfaction. In buying grass seed 
for a lawn, look well to its quality. Some seed of 
“Kentucky Blue-grass” (the same as “June 
Grass ”) sells for twice the price of others, and is 
worth four times as much. Chaff does not always 
cover seed, and the samples should be carefully in¬ 
spected. The advice to use from three to eight 
bushels of seed to the acre, is founded upon the 
uncertain quality of the seed. Probably four bush¬ 
els of fairly good seed would be ample. The seed 
should be divided into two or four equal portions, 
and the sowing made, after thoroughly preparing 
the soil, in different directions. The seed may be 
brushed in, but at this season, a good rolling will 
give a sufficient covering. Where the lawn borders 
on roads or paths, or on shrubbery or other planta¬ 
tions, it will be best to lay a margin of turf, six 
inches or more in width. For small areas, the lay¬ 
ing of sods is advisable, and this may be done now, 
as well as in spring. In most localities, a common, 
or the road-sides, will usually afford a tine, close 
turf. The soil, in this case, should be as thorough¬ 
ly prepared as for seeding, and the turf well beaten 
down, to bring its roots in close contact with the 
soil. If necessary to cover steep banks, sods must 
be used. These may be held in place by the use of 
pins ; plasterer’s lath split, is best. These will de¬ 
cay by the time the sod becomes well established. 
Early Greens for Next Spring. 
The city markets in the early part of spring, and 
often in a mild spell in winter, abound in “greens,” 
and there is no reason why these should not be 
equally abundant on every farm. Where the meat 
served is to a great extent salted, green vegetables 
are not only acceptable, but necessary to health. 
Cabbage is for many so indigestible, that it can 
not be eaten, and where this difficulty does not 
exist, a variety is always welcome. Spinach, the 
most delicate and palatable of all the vegetables 
used as greens, can be raised on any good farm 
land, and with very little trouble. The soil being 
well prepared by the use of the plow and harrow', 
mark it off in fifteen-inch drills, and sow the seed 
rather thickly, covering it with about half an inch 
of soil. Use a roller, or pat the soil down firmly 
with the hoe or back of the spade. Some carefully 
go over the rows and tread down the soil over 
them. The fall rains soon bring up the plants; 
they will grow rapidly and be large enough to gather 
in September or October. For use at this time, 
the plants, where they are thickest, are to be cut 
out at intervals, using a stout knife, leaving the 
remainder room to grow. Where the winters are 
severe, scatter straw, leaves or other litter between 
the row's, and slightly cover the plants. As soon 
as the ground thaws, cuttings may be made, and if 
this is done so as to thin the plants a second time, 
the rest will grow all the larger, and be ready to 
use later. “ Sprouts,” as it is called in the market, 
is a variety of kale, a cabbage that does not head. 
This is cultivated in the same manner as spinach. 
If a farmer finds that he has more spinach than can 
be consumed at home, a few' barrels of it will meet 
with a ready sale at the nearest market. 
Preparing Fruit for Market. 
“Farmers are cheats,” we heard a city man re¬ 
mark the other day. “ I do not buy a basket of 
strawberries that has not the best and biggest on 
top, and when the peach season comes, I get a 
dozen or two of fine peaches at the top, while the 
rest of the basket is filled with small, green and 
gnarled fruit; they are all cheats.” The very 
next day after hearing this remark, we were among 
the fruit commission houses, and in one place saw 
some young men, who had bought several crates 
of berries to peddle. They had a lot of smaller 
baskets, to which they transferred the berries from 
the larger ones they had bought, and as they filled 
these, they topped them with the largest berries 
with surprising dexterity. We concluded that all 
the cheating, in strawberries at least, was not done 
by the farmers. That there is much “ deaconing ” 
(the market phrase for topping) of peaches and 
other fruits, we do not doubt, yet the tendency is 
all in the other direction. Take peach-growers, 
for example, those w'ho are regularly in the busi¬ 
ness, and expect to continue it, strive to make 
their brand upon a crate or basket a guarantee of 
honest packing. This is insisted upon at all the 
meetings of peach-growers; only recently we re¬ 
ceived the transactions of a fruit-grow'ers’ society 
in North Carolina, in which this point, honest pack¬ 
ing, was dwelt upon at great length. “ Honesty 
is the best policy,” is not a proverb of the highest 
moral tone, as if implies that it pays to be honest, 
but the peach-growers are willing to adopt it. In 
packing peaches, the first point should be to assort 
them, making as many grades as the condition of 
the fruit requires. When brought to the packing 
shed, the fruit is at once thinly spread in the shade, 
in order that it may cool as much as possible. In 
assorting, any that are at all soft are put aside, to be 
left at home ; then two or three qualities, extras, 
firsts and seconds, are made, and with the best 
growers, the packages of each are alike all 
through. It is allowable to turn the colored sides 
of the top layer uppermost, in order that the fruit 
may appear at its best, but not to select large spec¬ 
imens for the top layer. Those who send peaches 
to market for the first time, will find it to their ad¬ 
vantage to observe this rule. In packing grapes 
for market, the box is opened at the bottom, fine 
large bunches are laid in and the box filled up 
with smaller bunches. This is done in order that 
the fruit, when the top is taken off, may present a 
good appearance, and if the filling is done with 
good fruit, even if not the most select, there is no 
harm done. But if, as is sometimes the case, 
poorly-ripened fruit, and even loose berries are 
used to fill up, the grower will in time find that his 
brand is not in demand in the market. The fruit¬ 
grower, who expects to continue in the business, 
can not well afford to pack his fruit dishonestly. 
Saving Seed Corn. 
The growing of good, sound seed corn, that will 
yield a maximum crop, properly begins a year be¬ 
forehand in the shaping of the character of the seed. 
Therefore select the seed for 1884 and 1885 from 
the ears already growing in the field, and give it 
special care. As a rule, any thrifty farmer can 
raise better seed than he can buy, and it should be 
in his programme every year to give his personal 
attention to the growing of his own seed corn. 
There is money in it. The average yield of Indian 
corn for the whole country is not far from twenty- 
five bushels to the acre, and the total yield some¬ 
times reaches one billion seven hundred million 
bushels. With the best husbandry, which means 
good seed, good soil, manure and tillage, it is not 
difficult to raise seventy-five bushels to the acre. 
If fine, 6ound seed corn, with a good pedigree, 
would add only ten per cent to the yield of this 
crop, it would increase the annual yield one hun¬ 
dred and seventy million bushels, worth eighty- 
five million dollars. Every thinking farmer must 
see that he has a money interest in securing sound 
seed corn, and in knowing just what he plants. 
He is suffering loss every year, probably from want 
of a little timely attention to this matter. He 
uses unsound corn, possibly, for seed, selects from 
the corn-crib the best he can find, or borrows from 
a neighbor as careless as himself about the seed 
that he plants. A part of the corn rots in the 
field, and he has to plant over, which makes extra 
expense. The late planted corn is caught by the 
frost, and he suffers loss in the large proportion of 
soft corn that he harvests. The stover is not as 
well cured for fodder, and cattle refuse the mouldy 
mass. Heredity counts for as much in vegetable 
as in animal life. To get maximum crops, you 
must have seed perfect after its kind, with the 
normal quantity of starch, gluten, oil, and other 
constituents that belong to it. The plant must be 
well fed, cultivated, and ripened in’its appropriate 
season to mature this kind of seed. We say, then, 
select your ears for seed corn, as they stand upon 
the stalk, in August or September—perfect ears, 
well capped. Put a string upon them, or some 
mark, by which they can be identified, and let 
them mature upon the stalk. To make sure of 
perfect drying, hang them up in bunches upon the 
south side of a building, or in a well-ventilated 
loft, or room with a fire in it. The perfect drying 
of seed corn is an important item. The corn 
should not be shelled until the cob is thoroughly 
dried. When you are ready for planting, pour the 
seed corn into a vessel of water, and skim off every 
kernel that floats. That which sinks to the bottom 
of the water is the best, and, with suitable condi¬ 
tions of soil and climate, will germinate and bear 
fruit after its kind. Corn yields very 7 kindly to all 
intelligent efforts to increase its productiveness 
and improve its quality. By selecting ears from 
stalks that bear two or more ears, you can increase 
the number of ears. By selecting ears of twelve 
or more rows, you can increase the number of 
kernels upon the cob, always provided that you 
give the corn plant food enough to do its best in 
the harvest. Farmers who look carefully after 
their seed corn, and raise seventy-five bushels 
to the acre, do not doubt that it is a paying crop. 
