16^ 
't’HSi AMEiilcAN 
SEASONABLE BUTTS. 
A properly managed garden shonld now 
present as neat and clean an appearance as 
at any season, and to have it in sue a con 
dition pays well in more than good looks 
only. If successive sowings.of the principal 
vegetables have been made, there will be 
more abundance and a greater variety during 
this month than at any other period. 
Celery.—“I have always raised good Cel¬ 
ery in trenches, and do not feel inclined to 
change for some untried plan,” comments 
one of our readers upon oiir recommenda¬ 
tion, of last month, to plant Celery on level 
ground, instead of in deep trenches. We 
do not believe in “letting good enough 
alone,” when we can better it, and especi.ally 
when, as in this case, the plan is not only 
far from imtried, but is followed by almost 
every progressive market gardener in the 
land. Market gardeners are generally not 
slow in adopting new methods which afford 
advantages over older, more laborious, and 
less profitable ones. But in the family gar¬ 
den, also, this method is decidedly preferable, 
and its general introduction has been more 
instrumental in popularizing this peerless 
winter vegetable than anything else. 
To test the relative advantages of the two 
methods, Br. E. L. Sturtevant, Director of 
the New-Tork Experiment Station, subjected 
them last year to careful trials. The list of 
varieties included twenty named samples; 
one hundred seeds of each were planted in 
boxes, April 11th and 12th, and placed in a 
cold frame, where they were covered during 
severe weather. On July 5th thirty of these 
plants were set in a trench, one foot deep, 
well manured at the bottom with thoroughly 
rotted horse-manure, and thirty idants were 
planted adjacent upon the level without 
special manuring. 
The first data noted were that the varieties 
of Celery required from twenty-six to twenty- 
eight days to vegetate their seeds, and one 
hundred seeds produced upon the average 
fifty-seven plants — the variation between 
varieties being sixteen per cent, of vegeta¬ 
tion for .Seymour’s Solid Red, and eighty-one 
per cent, for Giant White Solid. Averaging 
the results obtained in seventeen samples in 
which the varieties from the two rows are 
separately noted, it was found that, omitting 
fractions, plants gi-own under level culture 
averaged one hundred and seventy-seven 
pounds per hundred plants, while those 
under trench culture averaged one hundred 
and seventy-eight pounds per hundred plants. 
The length of the bleached stems was rather 
greater, and the suckers were rather more 
numerous upon the plants grown in the 
trenches; but, on the other hand, the bases 
of the stems were more often split and 
deformed than occurred in the plants grown 
upon the level. It appears, therefore, from 
this trial, that the trench culture yielded po 
advantage for the increased labor i 7 ivol ved. 
Spinach for winter use should be sown 
without delay, in liberally manured thor¬ 
oughly worked beds. Better keep the seed 
m the paper bag than attempt to raise a 
crop of Spinach on poor soil. Sow in drills 
afoot apart; use plenty of seed, and when 
well up thin out so that tho plants stand 
from three to four inches apart. 
He 
.OEBUOUT POTATO 
In confirmation of the ^j^^ged 
om- former issues that scab is 
by manure nor wme-woim , 
of our ■fibie' interest. 
chusetts, is of considerable 
writes: 
“ The past season 
Potatoes, side by side, on 
,pl.nle<l 
„„ ,od sr.o„4! 
Fertilizer in the hills, ino 
ground were very scabby, while on he 
Lound they wore as nice and smooth as ye. 
some properties necessary to tho pi 1 
Xuent of the tubers f and wha was 
If not, why should they grow smooth on t 
newg^-ound, all other conditions being the 
same? I hunted carefully for wire-worms 
but could not find one. I had about as good 
a crop on the old as on the new ground, and 
satisfied myself that honest chemical ferti¬ 
lizers pay, even if yon have animal manure. 
Another instructive case bearing upon 
this question, in which scab occurred with¬ 
out the agency of wii-e-worms or manures, is 
reported in the New-York Tribune, by PI. 
Wadley, of Iowa: 
“In my root cellar is a place holding 
about ten bushels, sunk two feet below the 
surface, where we always put our late- 
keeping Potatoes. Last season the hii’ed 
girl, about Juno 1st, reported them all gone. 
I did not go down until about August, when 
I moved a box that was standing over one 
end of the hole, where I found about two 
bushels of Mammoth Pearl Potatoes, and in 
reinoring them I found new Potatoes among 
them as large as ray fist, squeezed into all 
sh.apes, and I thought I would cook some of 
them; and when I cleaned the dust from 
them they were comiiletely covered with 
scab —some just beginning to come, some 
eaten into the tubers more or less. When I 
put the Potatoes in cellar 1 picked out every 
one that I thought was scabbed at all. 1 
believe it to bo a fungous growth of some 
kind.” 
MUSHROOM CULTURE IN NEW JERSEY. 
The French method of cultivating Mush¬ 
rooms, as given in a recent number of Thk 
Ambrican Garden has furnished many val¬ 
uable suggestions to growers, and as an 
additional contribution to the knowledge of 
this subject an account of tho successful 
culture at the Nichols Farm, Millburn N J 
may bo of interest to many. This plaeo is 
noted for the fine Mushrooms it sends to 
tho New-York market, and which sell at a 
romuncratoi’y price. 
Hero an ohl hot-hoiise has boon changed 
into a house for Mushroom culture. Alllho 
ghiss and sashes have boon romoved and e 
sides and roof boarded nn S,„„ii ^ 
sttz-SYr? =- 
norse-mamiro froshlv • ,, . 
the heating iriatorial for tliu”b**i 
coarsostpart of the straw is removed ve,, 
ing a good proportion of the shori ' 
long, with tho dropping The ! ’ 
iH turned over two or throe 
violent heat and smell InwVir 
it. 
Thus 
pi.,^ared, the manure is placed in +1 
to the depth of about fifteen inches*'’' 
manner similar to that of making hot 
and left to heat again. If found to T- 
too cool it is covered with hay to a 
raising the temperature. Should tri''” 
rise over 120 ° Fahr., the beds are made ''' 
again. When the temperature is at 
9 8 °-- 11 ever above this—it is time for sp 
ing. English spawn is preferred tVu' 
French. 
The spawn is placed in. lumps about 
size of hens’ eggs, every eight inches a 
four indies deep. In ten or twelve days it' 
examined to see if the threads of the spa 
h.ave penetrated all parts of the surfa^ 
when it will be fojmd that the threads hav’ 
followed along the straw contained ip t/ 
heap. In case all straw has been removei 
more time is required. " 
As soon as the spawn has penetrated the 
mass, inverted sods, taken from good, rich 
soil, about two inches deep, are placed over 
the entire bed. In from four to six weeks 
the Mushroom will generally appear over the 
surface. For early crops the beds are made 
in September, for the later in November, 
The best temperature for a Mushroom-house 
65°; if much above this the Mushrooms 
to stem, if below 50°, they cease to 
and between 60° and 50° they are 
very apt to become tough. In very eo5i 
weather artificial heat is provided. These 
beds will supply Mushrooms from two to 
three months. Water is given only whea 
necessary, and then only in small quantity 
at a time, in order not to dampen oft the 
stems. 
One of the greatest enemies' to the Mush¬ 
room is the wood-louse. To guard agaiast 
this the house and beds have to be kept very 
clean, and all the wood-work is thoroughly 
whitewashed. J. B. Rogers. 
IS 
run 
grow, 
RAISING SEEDS. 
I'S 
link'' 
blany fanners and gardeners save at least 
a portion of tho seeds they w'ant for their 
own use. Of course, some are careful to 
save only tho best: and wliere this is done 
with a practical knowledge of how to iH' 
prove tho stock, the plan is a good one. 
Yet in a majority of cases good seeds can be 
purchased from those who make secd-gw"' 
ing a business cheaper than you can r-'"”'' 
and save them. ,, 
A common mistake is to save 
largest seeds, irrospoctivo of other qua > 
In many' vegetables oarlinoss is as nnu^ 
desirable as size, while quality slmnUl 
bo lost sight of. To pick for 
tho Poas or Boans that inaturo fii’’i 
take wlmt happens to bo overlookc 
seed, will surely oanso a serious detoriora^^^ 
wliicli will soon cause a considorablo >' ^ 
OMoo not only in tho quality, but tho T”'*' , 
of tho yield. If yon want to save .sori^ 
tliese, soloet one portion of tho g^q„ft 
and do not allow them to bo picked, 
the oarliost inatuvod and host of y,io 
I'orsood. It is only by taking consn ■ 
pains in this rospoct that tho quality 
kept up. , .ciib 
Of [ilants that inaturo sood tho sooo 
such as Parsnips, Salsify, TuriiipS) 
Oarrots, otc., sniool.h spoeimons ’I*’jj,(iii 
Noloctod early, and pains taken to sn 
in tlic host condition possiblo. _ 
N. J. 
