THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1241 
-- 
The Home Acre 
Notes from a Maryland Garden. 
The Late Watermelons. —My late 
watermelons of which I wrote in my re¬ 
cent notes, were a bad failure. The vines 
were full of half-grown melons when the 
sizzling hot spell of September struck 
them, and with the heat and drought 
they simply stopped and tried to ripen, 
and the melons were worthless. A con¬ 
tinuation of the favorable weather would 
probably have shown a better result. 
This same hot spell was hard too on the 
early-sown spinach and kale, and a very 
considerable part of the spinach disap¬ 
peared. Later sowings are starting well 
since we had an abundance of rain and 
cooler weather. 
Crab Grass. —Our Northern friends 
hardly realize the luxuriance that the crab 
grass attains here and southward. Rid¬ 
ing through the country the fields of to¬ 
matoes that a while back looked so fine 
with their rows of plants, now show an 
expanse of grass and not a tomato plant 
to be seen. Perhaps the grass was a 
protection from the sun on the tomatoes 
during the heated spell, but with the en¬ 
veloping crab grass the tomato season 
soon draws to an end. 
Sweet Potatoes. —There is an im¬ 
mense area in sweet potatoes this season, 
and the crop is uncommonly fine. While 
the Yellow Jersey varieties are still 
grown for the Northern markets, there is 
an increasing demand locally for the 
same kinds of potatoes that are popular 
in the South. The Nancy Ilall, one of 
the best of the so-called yam varieties, 
is being grown for the local market and 
is selling well. Since I have no room 
in my garden for sweet potatoes, and 
have to buy my family supply, I am very 
glad to be able to get a potato that is 
not so choky as the Jerseys, for a long 
residence in the South has taught me 
the superiority of the yam varieties and 
we no longer care for the dry Jersey po¬ 
tatoes, since we never steam or boil 
sweet potatoes, knowing that baking or 
roasting them is far better. 
Fordhook Lima Beans. —These have 
made a wonderful crop this season and 
are still at it, and of the large Limas 
it is the best here, for the large white 
Limas are very unproductive here. But 
we still grow the small Lima or butter 
bean as we call them, and to my taste 
they are better than any of the large 
Limas. We grow them on a trellis of 
chicken wire netting, for I never like 
to disfigure the garden with a lot of 
poles. This chicken wire of various 
widths is one of the best and cheapest 
supports for climbing plants, for it can 
be used year after year if rolled up and 
put away for the Winter. Stretched to 
stout stakes we can train tomatoes on 
the netting better than on stakes. The 
narrower widths answer well for peas 
of the earlier sorts, but the Champion of 
England will take a five-foot width and 
cover it. 
Alfalfa Hay. —My own opinion is 
that the best way to sell Alfalfa hay is 
to carry it off on four feet of a well-fat¬ 
tened steer, and get most of the nitrogen 
it has captured for us back to the land in 
the manure. Selling legume hay will 
make us buy nitrogen in a fertilizer, and 
we never need to do this if the legumes 
are used for the benefit of the land either 
directly or by feeding to stock. If feed¬ 
ers can afford to pay $20 to $25 a ton 
for it the men who can get but from $10 
to $14 a ton for it can far better afford 
to feed it. 
Everbearing Strawberries. —I have 
had a groat many letters asking about 
the Progressive strawberry since I have 
mentioned it. It is still fruiting (Sept. 
25) but the recent hot weather resulted 
in small berries. So far as the quality 
of the fruit is concerned the Amerieus 
is the best of the everbearing sorts, but it 
does not make the crop that the Progres¬ 
sive does, and makes very few runners, 
so that it is hard to increase. The Pro¬ 
gressive makes an abundance of young 
plants, and these young plants give fruit 
too. I shall use all the runners I have 
to increase my bed, for we want more of 
them. Those growing strawberries com¬ 
mercially for the Northern shipment 
would better stick to the varieties that 
give the heaviest Spring crop. The ever¬ 
bearing varieties are useful for home 
gardens, but they are hardly to be classed 
as of value for the great strawberry ship¬ 
ping season. One reader of The R. N.- 
Y. asks me to give him a list of straw¬ 
berries for home garden only, which will 
give him fruit from the earliest to the 
Fall. I have advised him that he will 
need few varieties. Starting with the 
Early Ozark, the best of the early ones, 
then Chesapeake, thau which there is 
none better, and the Progressive for all 
the season, he will have strawberries 
from Spring till frost. 
Joseph E. Wing. —The papers an¬ 
nounce the death of my old friend Joseph 
E. Wing of Ohio. This comes as a per¬ 
sonal loss, for he has often been my 
companion at the institutes in various 
States. The last time he was at my 
house with Mr. Cary Montgomery, also 
of Ohio, I fed them on one of our East¬ 
ern Shore delicacies, roast muskrat, and 
they found it good too. Few Northern 
people realize what a fine game animal 
the muskrat is, having an idea that it 
is a sort of rat, when it is more kin to 
the beaver, and a vegetarian entirely. 
During the season for fur-hunting here 
our markets are well supplied with the 
dressed muskrats, and the owners of 
large salt marshes get a good annual 
rental for them from the fur hunters, 
and many of the ladies wear coats that 
look like sealskin which are really made 
of the fur of the muskrat, dyed to look 
exactly like seal. Joe Wing, as he was 
familiarly called, will long be remem¬ 
bered for his work in getting people to 
grow Alfalfa, and a large part of the 
planting of the crop (Tone in the East 
has been through the constant efforts he 
made both on the institute platform and 
in the farm press. 
Heat Damage. —The intense heat and 
drought which have succeeded the rainy 
Summer have about cooked the late 
crops. Kale and spinach sown for Fall 
use are almost burnt up. and the lettuce 
plants have nearly all folded their tents 
and passed on. We are waiting anxious¬ 
ly for rain, so that we can sow our Win¬ 
ter crops of kale and spinach, and plant 
our onion sets, for our sandy soil is now 
only hot dust. Turnips manage to live, 
but that is about all they do. Such heat 
and drought after so rainy a Summer 
affect plants worse than an earlier dry 
spell. With the mercury well up in the 
nineties it seems that August was Sep¬ 
tember. w. F. MASSEY. 
Superb Strawberry for Pollination. 
Can the Superb everbearing strawberry 
be used to pollinate the Warfield or any 
other kind? I have always used Dun¬ 
lap with Warfield, but late Spring frosts 
have always cut the blossoms of Dunlap, 
and I have failed to get any berries from 
them. The Warfield stand the frost bet¬ 
ter and are the earliest we can get here. 
Ilow long should the everbearing beds be 
allowed to stand before resetting, and 
should they be restricted to hills, or al¬ 
lowed to form some runners? w. p. n. 
Chardon, O. 
The Superb everbearing strawberry is 
very hardy in blossom, and can be used to 
pollinate any pistillate variety that 
blooms at the same time. The Superb is 
medium to late in ripening its spring 
crop, while Warfield is early to midseason 
in its season of ripening. We do not grow 
the Warfield at the present time, and I 
am not sure as to its time of blooming. 
My impression is that most of its bloom 
would be gone before Superb started, in 
which case it would be useless to pollin¬ 
ate the Warfield. Perhaps some reader 
has tried these two varieties side by side, 
and can tell positively as to their season 
of blooming. If kept in hills everbearers 
can be kept several years. In matted 
rows two or three years is about as long 
as they will prove profitable. I believe 
that for the average grower best results 
from the everbearers can be secured by 
growing them in restricted matted rows 
using care to keep the rows well thinned 
out. If the plants crowd in the row re¬ 
sults will not be nearly so satisfactory. 
TRUCKER, JR. 
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^To grow fast and bear early, trees must have vigorous 
Proofs. «‘Both apple and peach trees planted in blasted holes 
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