1023 
^/>e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Garden and Farm Notes 
Notes trom a Maryland Garden 
I liav** • oil my lawn and a long 
poroli l>nx fillf'd with everblooming Be¬ 
gonias. They are stout luxuriant plants. 
All were grown from .seed, and in loohing 
at one of the.se great plants, and thinking 
of the minute seeds, one of which could 
not he felt between finger and thumb, one 
wonders at the potentiality of life in such 
minute forms. A thousand of these Be¬ 
gonia seeds would only show as a little 
red du.st on a pie(.;e of whit<' paper. Xow 
the restih.s of giving that red du.st the 
proper conditions of heaj’. moisture and 
oxygen .are a large bed in the lawn and 
a six-foot box on the porch, covered with 
bloom and making more of the almost 
microscopic .seed carrying the dormant life 
ready to spring into growth another sea¬ 
son. Here in our hot sandy soil the 
geraniums that bed out so beautifully in 
the North, are worthless. But the ever- 
blooming Begonias laugh at heat and 
di'iiught and bloom all the time without 
a pause, scarlet, pink, flesh color and 
white. 
T.ast Winter we had unheard-of cold. 
Crape myrtle trees 20 feet high, mimosa 
trees (Albizzia), Euouymus, um¬ 
brella Cdiina trees and pomegranates, were 
either killed to the ground or killed out- 
i-ight, after standing the Winters, many 
of them, for generations. And now we 
are on the other extreme, for no one re¬ 
members any such heat as we are passing 
through. A temperature of lOS on the 
sixth of Angu.st makes a record no one 
remembers, nor any record of the Weather 
Bureau .shows any precedent for. The 
result is that all beyond the Skinner pipe 
in the garden is a waste of dead vegeta¬ 
tion. There will be a mncli smaller area 
in late Irish potatoes this season. The 
long drought prevented the planting iii 
•Inly. I Jiotieed one i>ateh planted early 
in .Tnl.v vi’hicii from ahsolute negh'Ct has 
been eaten to stumps hy the Colorado 
beetles. Why a mau siiould ])lant a (puir- 
ter of an aoi-e and then let the beetles eat 
them ui> is rather amazing when it is so 
easy to combat thorn. Tlie beetles started 
in on my eggplants, but the hmd aj'seiiate 
made short work with them. Tlie egg¬ 
plants are rtitlnn- later than usual, for we 
usually get tiiem in .Tuly. This Stimmer 
they appeared on the table lor the first 
time Augu.st .‘Id. the Black Beauty being 
the first as usual, hut the New York com¬ 
ing bravely along. But for tlie Iskmiier 
pilie overhead there would have hiani none 
at all. The ground is covi'red with toma¬ 
toes scalded bite liy the heat. :.nd it is | 
now hard rri get good ones amid a great j 
ahnudance. i >nly hen' and there a toma- | 
to got sont" .-.heifer of a little more den.se j 
foliage and was saved. j 
The late canning crop in the fields looks j 
fine as yet, but the eaiining has not yet 
begun in the conimerclal factories, and i 
there i.s' iiii outcry for helji to liaiidle 
what promises to he a great ero)! if the 
sun let.s up and the rain comes. Many 
fields were on the M-rge of collapse when 
a rain came a week ago. hut with the 
scorching heat since the rain is as badly 
needed h.s ever. 
The Nanticoke blackberries are still 
giving us a dail.v feast and will continue 
till near Setiteiuher, and for this we can 
forgive some of their ramiiant thorns. It 
is a pity that it cannot he shipped. 
W. F. M.XfSSKY. 
Weeds in the Garden 
There is no question in my mind that 
land that has been allowed to become 
comiiletely overrun with weed growth 
will, after the weeds have been extermi¬ 
nated. .show splendid returns in cultivated 
croiis. but thi.s niotbod of restoring fer¬ 
tility to the does not apjieal to me 
as being practical. I have liad some ex¬ 
perience with gardens that have liei^ so 
handled, ami 1 fuid that it reiiiiires a per¬ 
sistent and tediou... battle to siilidne the 
weeds. Garden soils at least prove true 
tihe saying that ' the earth is nature’s 
storehoii.se.” f<*r seeds will lie in tlio 
ground for years, and then spring up to 
remind ii.s of past neglect. My garden, 
whicli ha.s not been ’plowed for four years 
in order to get he one surface .. from 
weeds, ami up >n which no weeds have 
been allowed to attain the seed stage, 
still show."^ abundance of pur.slane and 
mallow, as well as docks and some other 
weeds. Our .small family straAvberr.v bed, 
from which we picked 90 quarts of Gandy, 
has been left free from woods, and ap¬ 
peared pretty clean; still I went over it 
with a chi.?el, which appeared to be tiie 
best tool to use. and removed a bushel 
basket twice full of weeds and grass, and 
now after a good rain I notice the sur¬ 
face in jiiaces i.s peppered over with tiny 
weeds of hhe mallow kind, which in a few 
more days will meet their Waterloo. 
There are two conditions that I w’ill not 
tolerate in a garden; that is weedy or 
crusted. The home garden is more than 
“meat and drink”; it is an education to 
the thinking man, and has an influence 
over a growing family that is all for the 
good. II. E. cox. 
A Household Corn Drier 
As the season has arrived for drying 
sweet corn, I send a sketch of a corn¬ 
drying device which is easil.v made and 
will enable the housewife to dry her corn 
(luickly without much labor or fuss. This 
is how to make it: With strips of wood 
1x2 make two frames 1.S in. by SG in. 
Tuck poultry netting on one and wire 
screen on the other one. Hinge the two 
frames together. Next make a light 
frame by ripping a lath in two and fit 
it closely inside the poultry-net frame. 
Cover this light frame with cheesecloth. 
Place this as a bottom over the poultry 
net. _.Now you have a fly-tight place for 
the corn. Spread cut-off corn on thn 
cheesecloth and it is ready to put out in 
the sun and air. To prepare the corn 
put one-balf bu.sbel of husked coi-n in a 
wash boiler laid in loosely with one iiK'b 
of water. Cook the com till the .stai'cb 
is thickened and it is ready to cut ofl'. 
To cut off the corn, place a slmrt board 
in a dishpan and with a shaip knife 
shave off just the ends of the kernels. 
Lay the cob on the board and scrape from 
the cob what remains. Tliis leaves the 
shives on the cob. ]Mix in a tablespoon¬ 
ful of salt and put ou drier. Air must 
have free access to top and bottom of the 
drier. 
If the corn does not get dry the first 
day bring it in and put it out again. 
After taking the corn out of the drier 
put it in a thin sack near the stove 
till thoroughly dry, then put in glass cans 
with covers .just laid on. Corn dried this 
way is equal to or even better in flavor 
than canned corn and will keep two years. 
Wisconsin. o. (i. ckaxdai.t.. 
The spoilt little boy of four years had 
been a source of great ' annoyance all 
through the meal, and when it was over 
a Avomau friend turned to the indulgent 
mother and said: “I can’t think how 
you can let your little boy bo so greedy 
and unruly at meal time. If be were 
mine I should give him a good spanking.” 
“Oh,” said the mother, “you can’t spank 
the poor little chap ou a full stomach.” 
“No,” said her friend, “but you can turn 
him over.”—London Chronicle. 
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i 
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