1851 
THE CULTIVATOR 
111 
except on dry, warm, and rich soils. With neglected 
culture, the fruit is not worth gathering. The tree bears 
quite young, and ripens with as little care as fall pippins. 
Insect on the Verbena. 
Extract from a letter of David Thomas, dated 12 mo. 
9, 1850:—Last winter we had a few Verbenas of great 
beauty, in pots; but all perished except two. These 
in the spring were planted out in a bed of sand and 
peat, where they had grown the preceding summer 
most luxuriantly, but after a few weeks both perish¬ 
ed. In the mean time I had added to the same bed 
four splendid ones which Luther Tucker had kindly sent 
me. In a few weeks, three of these also declined, and I 
felt quite discouraged. On taking them up, however, to 
try them in another border, I found the main stems 
covered with a pale green aphis ! This discovery ex¬ 
plained at once the bad condition of the plants ; and 
having destroyed all that I could find, the Verbenas 
came beautifully into bloom towards the close of the 
season. The plant that remained in the bed was not in¬ 
fested. 
u After these plants were potted, we found a few of 
the aphis on each; and now they will be regularly in¬ 
spected. I presume there is nothing new in all this to 
such persons as have the care of green-houses; but to 
new beginners with house plants, the statement may 
possibly be of some value.” 
Planting on Green-Sward in Hot-Beds. 
Suggestions for the more especial benefit of Market 
Gardeners. —In the forwarding of such plants in hot¬ 
beds, as need to be subsequently transplanted, there is 
much advantage in the use of green-swards. They not 
only afford a very natural nutriment to all plants, but 
they allow of subsequent removal with more facility and 
safety than by any other mode. They also admit of a 
longer retention in the seed-bed than by any other 
mode. 
I. Choice and Preparation of Swards. —Choose a 
smooth plat in any old pasture or meadow where the 
soil is good, and its texture sandy, or at least loamy; 
since a clay sod will bake too much, and a coarse gravel 
will be too loose. Especial care also should be exer¬ 
cised in avoiding quack grass and such perennial weeds 
as golden-rod, since it is found that the sprouting of such 
things in the hot-bed is a source of much trouble. With 
a sharp spade cut a line about six inches deep on the 
side of your plat of sward ground, and then another line 
a foot distant. Cut out the intervening space in squares, 
and so on till you have the requisite number. An Irish¬ 
man will cut as fast as two or three can wheel away. 
Sods may be cut larger or smaller than one foot to suit 
varying circumstances, but long and extensive use has 
fixed me at these dimensions as usually the best. Where 
many are needed, and when they are cut a considerab’e 
distance from the beds, they should be loaded upon a 
cart or wagon, gras-sside down. I have been in the 
habit of using from three hundred to twelve hundred a 
year for the last eight years. 
II. Mode of planting upon them. —Having arranged 
the manure in your beds, and slightly covered it with 
earth, cover it with small pine boards one foot square, 
disposed in regular rows. Pine is more durable than 
hemlock, and the knottiest boards are best as well as 
cheapest. In a bed thirteen feet by five and one half, I 
usually put five rows of twelve each. Lay a sod upon 
each board. Now place a small stick very accurately 
in the centre of each sod and then fill all the intervals 
with good garden earth, and make it all level. Then 
withdraw your sticks, one by one, making a hole in the 
center of each sod for your seed. Now sow and cover, 
and your bed is done. I have sometimes sowed my 
seeds thickly in loose earth in a hot-bed, and then sub¬ 
sequently set my plants, when small, upon my sods; 
but I do not like it so well. 
III.— Period of Planting , fyc. —This will depend on 
your after treatment. If you transfer your plants to 
the open ground, using perhaps only some little protec¬ 
tion against severe winds, you may here (at Utica) 
plant tomatoes about the first of April, melons of all 
kinds the 15th, and cucumbers and summer squashes the 
twentieth. Your tomatoes may stand six weeks, i. e., 
to the middle of May; or, if set a little wider apart, un¬ 
til the first of June. Melons may safely remain six 
weeks, but cucumbers and summer squashes should 
never be left in the beds more than four weeks. 
If, however, you are willing to make small protected 
fruiting beds, you may venture to start all the above two 
or three weeks earlier than is there indicated. Such 
beds, however, will hardly pay a market man, especially 
if each of them should require hot manure at the bot¬ 
tom. This, however, for the amateur gardener, is a 
very certain and beautiful mode of securing early fruits 
of all the kinds noticed above. 
After the beds are up and once weeded, they will re¬ 
quire a little earth to be thrown from without, to earth 
up the plants. Thin early and do not force too fast, as 
this will make your plants succulent and tender, and cause 
them to grow beyond their proscribed bounds. The 
success of future removal will depend exceedingly on 
their being stout, short-jointed plants, such as have had 
plenty of air, sun, and, of course, room, and have grown 
with only tolerable rapidity. 
IY. Transfer to the open ground. —To effect this 
cheaply and rapidly, where you have many plants, five 
hands are necessary. Having prepared your places, 
station one hand at the bed, three at the wheel-barrows, 
if the distance is considerable, and one at the new plat 
where they are to be set. Let the man in the bed cut 
carefully, with a broad carving knife between the hills, 
and lift them out one by one, board and all. Then wheel, 
or, if the distance is short, carry them by hand, care¬ 
fully to their new positions. Let the planter, having 
made his hill perfectly flat at the bottom and watered it, 
gently set in his plant, and carefully raising one side, 
withdraw the board, and draw up the earth. A warm 
damp day is best for transplanting; on such a day the 
plants if carefully removed, will scarcely wilt at all. It 
will be necessary, in most respects, to set boards up on 
the west, or northwest side of your rows, and also to 
have canvass covers, one yard square, to lay over each 
hill. Thus they will be protected from the cold winds 
that may be always expected to blow from the 20th of 
May to the 10th of June, as well as protected from an 
