568 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[DECEMBER; 
Gardening and Trucking in North 
Carolina. 
MRS. S. A. ELLIOTT, AUTHOR OP “MRB. ELLIOTT’S 
HOUSEWIFE.” 
To prepare seed beds for raising plants of cab¬ 
bage, cauliflower, .cole wort, celery, etc., to be 
transplanted, the soil is covered in January with 
manure, which remains on until the ground is well 
thawed, when it is thoroughly plowed and har¬ 
rowed, then raked and drills made. Celery seed is 
sown in drills in March, in moist, shady locations, 
and frequently moistened with salt water. In May 
the tops and part of the roots are taken off, and the 
plants set in trenches half a spade deep. If kept 
free of weeds, the soil occasionally stirred, and 
; salt water applied, fine healthy plants are pro- 
■ dueed, three feet of the stalks of which can be 
blanched by drawing earth around them uearly up 
to the leaves weekly from August to November. 
Onions are grown in drills by some planters, but 
from a single bulb of the “potato onion,” in a 
hill made rich with well rotted stable manure and 
ashes, tw r o quarts are often produced. For the 
best beets, a trench is filled with a light compost 
<of manure, ashes and charcoal, the seed sown 
along the center of the compost, and the plants 
thinned out to three inches apart. If the soil is 
kept light and free of weeds, the beets will grow 
very large, often to the full size of the trench. 
Early beans are planted the last of March, in 
drills, on a raised bed of soil. Later beans are 
grown after a first crop is gathered. Often the 
vines are allowed to run on the stalks from which 
early green corn has been taken for eating or mar¬ 
keting, or drying for winter. Peas in family gar¬ 
dens are supplied with sticks, and the ends of long 
vines are clipped to hasten podding. For market¬ 
ing, the peas are sown broadcast and no sticks 
nr brush are used. They can be safely sown as 
early as February in the eastern counties, and 
during March in the western section of the State. 
Tomato plants are raised in hot-beds, and set 
out in enriched hills when all danger of frost is 
past. If as soon as the vines bloom the large 
lower leaves are clipped off, the fruit will be two 
weeks earlier. Cantelopes and melons are easily 
raised ; the hills are made very rich with manure 
from the stable or cow pen and a portion of sand. 
In clay or compact soils a little gravel in the hills 
prevents an excess of moisture. Squashes are 
raised in hills similarly prepared, with stable ma¬ 
nure and coal ashes well mixed with the soil. Irish 
potatoes fifteen inches iu circumference have been 
raised in the eastern section. They are planted 
in the month of January and dug iu June. 
Cucumbers are planted in hills with a large pro¬ 
portion of wood ashes, and the vine trained on 
sticks, which treatment prevents the fruit from 
being knotty. A good plau for a small garden is 
to bore large holes in the sides of a cask, below the 
middle; place the cask one foot deep in the 
ground, and fill to the upper holes with stable ma¬ 
nure. Raise the soil to the top of the cask all 
around outside, forming a cucumber hill, plant 
the seed on this and daily fill the cask with water. 
From two to three gallons of cucumbers may be 
cut every day or two from the vines for a longer 
time than the plant usually yields. Brush can be 
placed on the hill for the runners, as they push out. 
The hill is constantly fertilized by the water oozing 
out, and the fruit is perfect in shape. Turnips are 
planted in A ugust after the first crops have been 
gathered, sown both broadcast and also in drills. 
A Cabbage Pest. 
Mr. Chas. Rauchfuss, Jr., Golconda, Ill., sends 
ns the following description of a cabbage pest: 
The yellow eggs are deposited on the underside 
of the leaves in flattened masses. The young 
“worms” soon hatch, and attack and eat the 
forming head voraciously. The full-grown cater¬ 
pillar is about an inch long, pale green beneath, a 
yellow stripe along each side, and three black dots 
on each side of each ring of its body. A few 
black hairs are scattered over the body. Mr. 
Rauchfuss could not rear any butterflies, as the 
caterpillars had all been visited by an Ichneumon 
fly. He finds the worms are hard to kill, having 
tried pyrethrum and coal oil without success. 
This is probably the Southern Cabbage Butterfly 
(Pieris Protodice), more common South than in the 
Northern States. Hot w T ater has been found very 
effective. It should be heated to about one 
hundred and fifty degrees when it strikes the plant. 
Apply with a watering pot having a fine rose. 
Strengthening Wagon Wheels. 
By a not difficult process, wagon wheels which 
have become loose from long use and drying may 
be tightened without the expense of replacing 
spokes or felloes by new ones, or even resetting 
the tires. This is done by inserting a few false 
spokes, as many as are needed, in the manner 
shown in the engraving, so as to both tighten the 
tire and strengthen the wheel. Make them of 
tough, well-seasoned timber, similar in shape to 
the common spoke. The first position is explained 
by a, and the dotted line e shows the final place. 
One end rests upon the hub, and the other just fits 
under the felloe near the old spoke. It is then 
driven firmly between two old spokes at the hub, 
with its outer end midway between them at the 
WAGON WHEEL WITH STRENGTHENING SPOKES. 
rim, so as to force the felloe out firmly against the 
tire. Its size and length must be accurately calcu¬ 
lated to just fit the place it is to occupy. It can be 
fastened more firmly by nails. At the South, and 
in most new countries, such make-shifts as 
this one are quite common and effective. 
Put TJp the Rails. 
A runaway horse dashed dowm a village street 
with a boy clinging for life to the shattered vehicle. 
A woman, bonnetless and in a flush of excitment, 
came running along the sidewalk. Losing sight of 
the horse, she stopped und inquired earnestly of by¬ 
standers, “Is the boy saved ?”—“ Is he your son ?” 
asked one of them. — “No;” said she, “but he is 
somebody’s son.” — Long ago, the writer was jour¬ 
neying on foot with an elderly gentleman, his 
father, who many years after lost his life while en¬ 
gaged in a public benevolent enterprise at the 
West. We were near the roadside, when he turned 
abruptly and, going to the central wagon track, 
brought back a stick three or four feet long and 
put it over the fence, remarking that “ such sticks 
were dangerous ; he had known a horse to step on 
the end of one, when the other end turned up and 
inflicted aserious wound.” Wc were seventy miles 
from home, and there was not a relative or acquaint¬ 
ance in whom we were interested within twenty 
miles. The lesson thus quietly taught by example 
left a deep impression, which has exerted an influ¬ 
ence upon the writer during forty years past. 
The incident was forcibly recalled the other day, 
while walking across a stranger’s farm, in com¬ 
pany with a young man. As he was climbing over 
a fence, one of the cross stakes gave way and the 
two upper rails fell down. Our companion started 
on, leaving the rails down. On gently remonstrating 
with him, his answer was, in effect, that it was no 
matter; the owner wouldn’t know who did it. In 
another case, a fine hill of corn was crushed out of 
existence by a careless footstep, which could have 
been easily avoided. In this same town several 
notices are posted up; “Hunters and trespassers 
not allowed on this farm.” Is it any wonder? 
How many fields of grain and other crops are dam¬ 
aged, if not ruined, by the carelessness not only of 
hunters, but of others who thoughtlessly, or worse, 
leave open bars and gates, and knock off the top 
rails of fences, thus allowing cattle and horses to 
enter fields where they may do scores of dol¬ 
lars’ injury iu a night. How contrary to the 
teachings of Him who said, “As ye would, there¬ 
fore, that men should do unto you, do ye even so 
unto them ”—the very foundation of good govern¬ 
ment, of good society. It is the absence of respect 
for this injunction, and a lack of public spirit that 
should be early inculcated in every young person, 
which leads to much damage to public property, to 
cutting and marking the seats, desks, and walls of 
schools, churches, etc. Farmers, more than any 
others class, suffer from injury to their fences and 
the trampling of crops. It is a mean imposition. 
Let a right principle be inculcated by example, as 
well as precept, in the minds of all the young 
children, from their earliest period of intelligence. 
Unfair Treatment at Fairs. 
At a large fair this year, we observed a practice 
which seemed a decided imposition upon many 
thousands of people. We do not specify the par¬ 
ticular fair alluded to, for the criticism applies to 
many others. To make these annual gatherings 
popular, and bring them within the reach of the 
largest possible number, not only the entrance fee 
should be as low as is consistent with liberal pre¬ 
miums and other provisions, but every unnecessary 
expense should be saved to the attendants. An 
extra cost of twenty to thirty cents each will often 
keep part of a large family at home, if not the 
whole of it. In the case referred to, the exhibition 
was in a border town of the county, and the people, 
having pretty good railroad facilities, came in from 
the remoter points in great numbers, the railroads 
offering liberal excursion rates to passengers as 
well as free transportation to exhibited articles. 
The main line, which brought in perhaps twenty 
thousand people from its own depots and from 
several branches, ran within fifteen or twenty rods 
of the exhibition grounds, which, as usual, were 
some ways outside of the village. It would have 
been a very easy matter to stop all trains at this 
point, to let off and take on visitors. But instead 
of this, all were carried to one or the other of the 
regular stations, which were respectively three- 
fourths of a mile and a mile from the entrance to 
the fair grounds. As the result, all arriving by 
railroad had to pay twenty cents each to ride to 
and from the station, in sogie sort of a vehicle (a 
tax of SI upon a family of five), or walk one and 
a half to two miles through dust and heat, and 
use up a good deal of strength that ought to have 
been saved for an all day’s standing examination 
of the articles on exhibition. A large number of 
these people arrived weaiy, having had to rise long 
before daylight, and dispatch the milking and 
morning -chores, in time to take early trains. 
In excuse, it was said that, though the railroad 
people were quite willing to stop the trains con¬ 
veniently, the village people would not allow it, as 
they wished to compel all visitors to pass their 
shops and stores. When such terms are required, 
the officers of our agricultural societies should un¬ 
failingly take the exhibition to less exacting towns, 
or those which will provide grounds convenient to 
the railway stations. In the case referred to, the 
tax upon the visitors in money, or strength, 
amounted to at least 81,0001 We did not hear 
whether or not the village people subscribed that 
amount for the fair, and then reimbursed them¬ 
selves through the hack drivers, or otherwise. 
In a recent tramp through a noted dairy region, 
we found more than two-thirds of the farms with¬ 
out any adequate provision for keeping the cows 
in comfortable, warm, well ventilated enclosures. 
The consequence will inevitably be, that the ani¬ 
mals will use nearly all the food consumed the 
coming winter in keeping their bodies warm, 
leaving little to produce milk just when it would 
bring the highest price and the greatest profit. 
