RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1313 
t 
Notes From a Maryland Garden 
I have been looking around at the late 
Irish potato crops now being dug, and 
have been very agreeably surprised at the 
crops being made. As I have not room 
for the late > crop of Iris^ potatoes and 
have to buy my Winter supply, I am glad 
to see that others have good yields. I 
have put my Winter supply in the cellar 
at $1.20 a bushel. Under i)resent condi¬ 
tions this is too low a price for potatoes 
to retail at, and even with a good crop 
the price will not make the farmer a 
profit. One vacant-lot gardener near me, 
on a lot less than one-sixth of an acre, 
got 20 bushels of fine potatoes. Of 
course this is no extraordinary yield, but 
it is more than many experienced farmers 
make, and will give one family potatoes 
in abundance and some to sell. 
Just now with me the puzzle is to keep 
my sweet potatoes. Usually I have no 
difficulty in keeping them in the cellar of 
my office, where there is a hot-water boiler 
to heat the little greenhouse. But with 
the great scarcity of coal I determined to 
do without the greenhouse till time to 
start the seed for the Spring garden, and 
hence the boiler and pipes have been 
emptied to prevent freezing. Having a 
lot of big pasteboard boxes which hold 
about a bushel, and were bought for ship¬ 
ping cut flowers in, I shall wrap each 
potato in paper and pack them in these 
thick paper boxes, and pile them in the 
office, where there is fire during the day, 
and wdll use the accumulated papers un¬ 
der and over them, for I have found that 
nothing keeps out cold better than paper. 
A lady correspondent in Eastern North 
Uarolina sent me a bulb of the Paper 
White Narcissus to show the quality of 
bulbs she grew there in the last severe 
Winter. I put it in a glass with w'ater 
and pebbles, and to my surprise it showed 
flower buds at once, after being well root¬ 
ed. and much earlier than I ever had the 
buds appear on the imported French 
bulbs. The bulb was fully as handsome 
as any French ones. 
I find that these Polyanthus Narcissi 
and the Roman hyacinths are not as ten¬ 
der as reputed. They have gotten the 
reputation for being tender because when 
planted early in the Fall they start to 
grow at once. But if they are not plant¬ 
ed till the soil has become cold in late 
November they will remain dormant and 
come on in the Spring. I have had 
Paper White Narcissi to live all right 
when the soil froze below the bulbs. The 
city florists have learned that all the 
American-grown Narcissus varieties, 
when used for Winter forcing, bloom a 
great deal earlier than the imported bulbs. 
A large wholesale floral commission house 
told me that the florists were rapidly com¬ 
ing to prefer the American-grown Nar¬ 
cissus bulbs for Winter forcing. Our 
Summer climate is so conducive to com¬ 
plete ripening that the flowering buds are 
ready to start sooner. 
Over 30 years ago I told my old friend, 
the late Peter Henderson, that I could 
grow the Chinese Narcissus bulbs in 
North Carolina as good as the Chinese. 
“Oh, yes,” said he. “but they will not 
bloom in water like the Chinese, for I 
had some grown in Bermuda and they 
failed in this respect.” I told him that I 
thought the trouble in Bermuda was that 
they did not have the ripening season we 
have, but an everlasting Springtime. He 
had some of the Chinese bulbs at hand 
and gave me several for experiment. I 
took them home and placed them in water 
alongside of some of my own growth. 
Mine bloomed first. I took a' photograph 
of the Chinese and North Carolina bulbs, 
showing mine in bloom and his barely 
showing buds, and sent the picture to 
Mr. Henderson. The production of bulbs 
of many kinds is going to increase in 
this country as various localities are found 
to suit them. I grow here as fine Candi- 
duin lily bulbs as ever came from France, 
and I grow tulip bulbs as fine as can be 
found among any imported lot. But the 
main difficulty is that with labor condi¬ 
tions in this country we cannot produce 
these things as cheaply as the Dutch can 
send them over under normal freight con¬ 
ditions. W. F. MASSEY. 
Cleaning Onion Seeds 
Would you advise me how to clean 
onion seeds? I have a few pounds and it 
is mixed with the heads that it has been 
picked from. I cannot separate the seed 
from the little pods. ii. M. F. 
Spring Glen, N. Y. 
Put the heads in a barrel, box or tub, 
and pound them with an instrument 
shaped like a potato masher, but of ap¬ 
propriate size, till all the pods are broken 
and none of the seeds remain adhering to 
the pods. Then put them in a pan, a 
few quarts at a time, and shake them. 
The seeds will settle to the bottom, and 
the straw rise to the top. Remove the 
straw with the hands. There will, how¬ 
ever, be a considerable quantity of chaff 
intermixed with the seeds. To remove 
this, assuming that you have no screen, 
choose a day when a fair breeze is blow¬ 
ing, and pour the seeds several times from 
one tub into another, allowing them to fall 
a distance of several feet. If the wind is 
of the right velocity, the chaff will be 
blown away, and the seeds will fall into 
the lower tub. Another method, much 
practised, is to place them in a barrel of 
water. The seeds will sink, while the 
chaff will rise to the surface and may be 
skimmed off. It will be nec(>ssary to dry 
the .seeds carefully immediately and thor¬ 
oughly, or a poor germination may result. 
c. o. o. 
/ - 
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