November 1, 1909 
The Pea an Ideal Food. 
It is a somewhat regrettable circum- 
stance that the pea, which is one of the 
Most nutritious articles of food, does not 
Meet with a greater measure of popularity 
Says ¢ Science Siftings.’ From the proteid 
(tissne-forming food) standpoint, it is 
much superior to oatmeal, being some 80 
der cent richer in this substance than the 
atter, with a high percentage of carbo- 
hydrates (heat-giving food) and a small 
Proportion of water. In fact, the pea is 
{ideal edible since it possesses practi- 
Cally the whole of the constituents in 
Correct proportions for the buildi:g up 
Of animal tissue. No doubt during the 
Summer season peas are extensively 
€aten, though it is to be feared they are 
fven then regarded more as a tasty 
Pseudo-epicurean dish than as a staple 
article of diet. But it is during the 
Winter that their advantages can be more 
Strikingly secured. , 
Mulching. 
A ‘mulch, or ‘ mulching’ in gardening 
language, means an extra covering of 
Soil, rotten leaves, or manure, either 
S@parately or combined, placed over the 
Toots of plants, either after the latter have 
been newly planted or at any period 
during their growth when it may be 
“onsidered advisable. 
The advantages of mulching may b® 
Summed up as follows:— 
(a) During the hot and dry summer 
months it excessive 
evaporation from the soil, and thus 
not only preserves the moisture for 
the roots to absorb, but it also 
prevents the soil from becoming 
excessively hot by day and cold by 
night, thus maintaining a more 
regular temperature. 
(b) In winter it protects the roots from 
frost, and. also keeps the soil 
warmer. 
(c) When arich mulch is applied to 
_ newly planted trees and shrubs, it 
not only has the above advantages 
but the manurial matters contained 
prevents 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
in it-are washed down into the 
soil, and enrich it with food for the 
benefit of the newly formed or 
forming roots. 
(d) A good nulching of rich manure to 
begun to 
is highly 
them to 
all plants which have 
develop fruit and seeds 
beneficial in assisting 
swell rapidly and more quickly. 
They make a demand upon reserve 
materials, and, if these are not 
quite sufficient to meet the de- 
mand, it is easy to conceive that the 
extra food supplied by means of a 
geod mulching will supply the 
deficiency. : 
——‘ Garden Plants.’ . 
Bell-Glasses. 
The use of bell glasses in our market 
gardens is almost unknown. In. France 
we are told that in the neighborhood of 
Paris alone there are between five or six 
million used, thelargest number in one 
garden 5,000, and the lowest 100 of these 
bell-glasses, or cloches, as they ar there 
called. There are in the same neighbor- 
hood, 466,000 lights for frames, the largest 
number in one garden being 1,4000, and 
the smallest number 60. The profits said 
to be made by. French gardeners under 
the iztensive system of cultivaticn are 
very large. 
enormous quantities. 
Salad plants are grown in 
Growing Turnips. 
Turnips do best in a rich, friable, sandy 
loam, in which medium-sized roots of 
excellent quality may be produced without 
the aid.of much manure. In light, dry 
soils well-decomposed must 
necessarily be supplied, for if the young 
plants lack nourishment sufficiently to 
ensure a healthy growth, insect plagues 
invariably attack them in dry periods and 
the crop will be hard and stringy. But 
perhaps, the most difficult soils to deal 
with are stiff, cold, retentive ones, for 
without a good seed-bed successful results 
Under such 
circumstances it is a good practice to draw 
manure 
are well-nigh hopeless. 
17 
deep drills the required distances, and fill 
them up with light, rich soil, wood ashes 
bone-dust, or guano, in which to deposit 
the seed, whereby the young plant gets 
quickly into rough leaf, and grows out of 
the reach of insects. In dry soils turnips 
are often, in hot seasons, of inferior 
quality, and it is also difficult to get the 
seeds to germinate freely and regularly 
and to induce the young plants t> make a. 
sufficiently rapid growth to escape the- 
ravages. of the fly. 
Tomatoes for Decoration. 
Tomatoes are seldom grown in South 
Australia for decorative purposes; but 
At. 
Christmas festivities, where floral decora- 
they are in England and America. 
tions are largely used, the stems of the- 
grape-fruited tomatoes, from which the 
leaves had been removed, both red and 
yellow kind, and having from twelve to 
twenty fruits on each raceme, and being 
as large as good-sized grapes, make a moat. 
effective display. 
dulous, some eight feet long or so, and’ 
two or three dozen racemes are usually 
The racemés are pen- 
arranged along a stem. The stems are 
often wound round tall epergnes and 
other ornaments, and with .them are 
entwined long, frond bearing shoots of 
Asparagus plumosus. The bright yellow 
and red colors of the fruits show through 
the asparagus, and the whole has a most. 
pleasing effect. 
good to eat. 
The tomatoes are also 
2 ike) se 
rid of this fellow and 
to apray the leaves 
they feed on with 
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