Part 37

In general, the conditions of preservation are three; a low temperature, dryness, and exclusion of air. But it often happens, that all these cannot be had, and then a choice must be made between them. Heat and moisture will either germinate the seeds or corrupt them. In long voyages, and in warm regions, moisture contained in the seed, if in a close bottle, is sufficient to destroy the seed. Glass bottles have therefore been rejected. Seeds for long voyages, or for long preservation, are thoroughly ripened and thoroughly dried; but dried without raising the temperature of the air, as this would impair their vitality. They are then wrapped in coarse paper, and put, loosely, in a coarse canvas bag, and hung up in a cool and airy place. In this way seeds will be as nearly secure from heat and moisture—their two worst enemies—as may be. It is probable that some seeds have but a short period of vitality under any circumstances of preservation. Seeds containing much oil, are peculiarly liable to spoil. Lindley suggests that the oil becomes rancid.

The preservation of seeds from one season to another, for home use, is not difficult, and may be described in three sentences: ripen them well, dry them thoroughly, and keep them aired and cool.

RHUBARB.

Rhubarb or pie-plant is becoming as indispensable to the garden as corn, or potatoes, or tomatoes. No family should be without it. It comes in after winter apples are gone and before green apples come in again for tarts. By a little attention it may be had from the last of March through the whole summer. Indeed, it may be had through the whole year. The root contains within itself all the nourishment required to develop the leaves and stalks at first, without any other aid than warmth and moisture. If then it be lifted late in the fall or during open weather in winter, and put in large pots, nail kegs, boxes, etc., put in a warm room, or cellar, it will soon send up a supply of leaves. It is not even necessary that there should be much light, for the want of it only makes the stem whiter and of a milder acid. The roots thus used may either be thrown away, or set out again and not used until they have recovered, which will be in about one summer.

For early spring use, select a warm spot in the garden, and late in the fall dig in around your roots a good supply of rotten manure. Cover them with coarse manure, straw, or litter. As soon as the frost comes out of the ground, knock out the ends of a barrel and put one over each plant from which you propose to gain an early supply. Put a quantity of coarse manure around the outside of the barrel to maintain the warmth, and, in cold nights and during cold rains, lay a board over the open top. Thus treated, you may have tarts in March. But the main supply of this wholesome plant is to arise from open cultivation. The roots may be gained from seed or from division of old roots. Eastern writers recommend sowing the seed in autumn; but in the West spring sowings have vegetated much better than an autumnal planting. In April sow the seed in deep mellow and rich beds. Keep the plants free from weeds and in a growing state during the summer. They may require a little shading during the hottest days of summer. The next spring we transplant them to a trial-bed; for, it is to be remembered, that the seed does not necessarily give a plant like its parent. Let them be set two feet apart every way, and during the season it can be seen which are the largest and best; these are to be raised in the fall, divided and transplanted, and the rest thrown away. Out of a hundred plants, not more than two or three may be worth keeping. In the spring of 1842 we planted seed obtained in New York, for the Victoria Rhubarb (a new kind), which had been imported but a few months. Of fifty plants only three proved worth keeping—one of these for its earliness and the others for size.

When you have secured roots from which you wish to form a bed for your main supply, divide them either in the fall or spring into as many pieces as there are buds on the crown, each piece having, of course, a bud. The smallest slice of root will live, although a large portion is preferable. Do not be too timid in dividing; the plant is exceedingly tenacious of life—it can hardly be killed. We have had roots lying in the open air for weeks, and when replanted growing with undiminished vigor. Every one who has, for a single season, tended a garden, knows what dock is, and how tenacious of life, so much so, as to make it quite a trouble. The rhubarb is a full-blooded vegetable brother, belonging to the same family of plants.

This plant thrives most luxuriantly in a rich, sandy loam; the earth should be spaded and mellowed to at least twenty inches depth. We prepare ground for it as follows: Mark out the row with a line, throw out the top earth on one side; throw out a full spade depth of subsoil upon the other side. Throw back the top dirt, mixing it freely with well rotted manure. Now put in the soil which was taken from the bottom of the trench; as this is comparatively poor—mix it largely with manure. We make rows four feet apart, and set the plants three feet apart in the row. Very little care is needed in after cultivation. The large leaves will shade the ground and check weeds. A good supply of fresh manure, well dug in once a year, will keep the plants in heart and health for a long time.

PEAS.

Peas should be planted among the earliest of seeds. They are a hardy vegetable, and will bear severe frosts in the spring without injury. A light, sandy soil is the best. If manured, let only the most thoroughly rotted be used. Two sorts of peas are sufficient for all ordinary purposes—one early kind, and one for the later and main supply. The number of kinds advertised by seedsmen is very great, and every year adds to the new varieties. Many of them are of little value, and many, hitherto esteemed, are supplanted by better ones. The Early Warwick and Cedo Nulli are fine early peas, unsurpassed till the Prince Albert appeared. This is now esteemed the earliest of peas, ripening at Boston in fifty-three days from the time of sowing, and in England in forty-two days. We hope to be able, soon, to have this variety for distribution. Early peas are seldom of high flavor; none that we ever raised are comparable to the larger and later peas, and it is, therefore, except for market purposes, not desirable to plant very largely of early sorts.

Of late peas we have, after trying many sorts, fallen back upon the old-fashioned Marrowfat, and now raise it exclusively. It will be fit for the table in from seventy to eighty days after planting. Knight’s tall marrowfat is recommended in Hovey’s Magazine (a standard authority), as of “delicious quality and producing throughout the whole season.” We have never had an opportunity of proving it.

We prefer buying our seed to raising it. In this region the pea-bug pierces every seed-pea, and, although the germ is not usually destroyed by this depredator, the seed is weakened, and the certainty of growth very much diminished. If one must plant buggy peas, let them have scalding water poured upon them and turned off again immediately. The bug will be destroyed and the pea not injured.

When peas are up they require but one or two hoeings, as they soon shade the ground so as to prevent weeds from growing. They should be well supplied with brush, strongly set in the ground. When peas are allowed to fall over, they become mildewed and rot. This also happens when the rows are planted so near together as to prevent free circulation of air.

When large quantities of peas are desired they should be sown broad-cast, at the rate of about three bushels to the acre—more rather than less. It leaves the land in fine tilth, smothering all weeds. Thirty bushels to the acre is a fair crop; but eighty-four, and eighty-eight, have been taken.

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AUTUMN-PLANTED ONIONS.—Onions for seed should be planted in October; and, like their more brilliant, but less perfumed, friends of the tulip and hyacinth connections, they will thoroughly root themselves during the autumn and mild winter weather, and be ready for early work, the moment the frost rises from the ground.

PLANT SHADE-TREES.

We would suggest to the editors of newspapers the propriety of establishing in their columns a permanent agricultural department. We are much pleased to see that many excellent papers are doing it, and that others insert occasional articles. Great advantage cannot fail to accrue to our town and rural population by putting into their hands every week, able articles from practical farmers and gardeners upon the various topics of agriculture and horticulture. Let every paper urge the setting out of shade-trees in our villages. It is greatly to be desired, that all our towns should be filled with elms, maples, ashes, locusts, etc. The cultivation of fruit may be much encouraged and promoted by a frequent republication of articles on that subject. The gardens and conservatories of a few very wealthy gentlemen do not constitute a horticultural community. They are of great use in the procuration and cultivation of new varieties of plants, and in testing important matters by expensive experiments. But affluent men and their pleasure grounds are to horticulture, what universities are to common schools; that State is best educated whose whole population are the most thoroughly trained; and that is the horticultural State, all of whose villages, towns, farms, and gardens, are in the highest state of cultivation.

Our desire is to diffuse a love for rural affairs, husbandry, and horticulture among the whole mass of the community.

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WEEDS IN ALLEYS.—It is said that weeds may be entirely destroyed for years by copious watering with a solution of lime and sulphur in boiling-hot water. This, if effectual, will be highly important to such as have garden gravel walks, pavements, etc., through which grass and weeds grow up.

HOT-BEDS.

After a little practice any one can make and manage a simple hot-bed. For a common family one twelve by four feet will be large enough, and nine by four will answer for a small family. Frame.—The frame should be made of two-inch stuff (pine or poplar). The back must be as high again as the front, in order to give the right inclination to the sash. The ends should be nailed fast to corner posts, say four inches square. The back and front are to be attached to those parts by iron bolts, which may be screwed or unscrewed at pleasure. The frame may be taken to pieces, if so made, and put away during the season it is not in use. A frame twelve by four, will take four sash of three feet wide, the other sized frame will take three sash. Where the sash meet, a piece of wood three inches broad and two thick, should be let in from back to front, for the sash to run upon, and it may be allowed to extend back for two feet beyond the body of the frame. Three coats of paint should be put on the outside and inside of the frame, and then, with good care, it will last twenty years. Mark out the ground six inches larger every way than your frame. Dig it out a foot deep. Take fresh, strong horse-dung. Shake it up and mix it thoroughly. Lay it into the bed evenly, beating it down with the back of the fork, but never treading it. Raise the bed three feet above the surface, making the thickness in all four feet. In a week’s time this will have settled six or eight inches. We have for the sake of a gentler and longer continued heat, laid alternate layers of manure and tan-bark, and thus far it has done well with us. Put on the frame and sash and let it stand till the heat begins to raise, which will be two or three days. Then raise the sash to let the steam pass off. In about four days take off the frame, put on about six inches of light, good soil, evenly, all over the bed; replace the frame, and in a day thereafter it will be ready for seed.

Cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, egg plants, peppers, celery, cucumbers, lettuce, together with savory herbs, as sweet marjoram, sweet basil, thyme, sage, lavender, etc., etc. may be sown in drills in the soil prepared as above.

It is difficult to give, on paper, the directions for the care of the bed. The greatest dangers of all, are that of burning the plants by excessive heat, or of damping them off, by too little air. These evils must be guarded against by the admission of as much air as possible. In mild days let the sash be partly open all day, and in very cold days, endeavor to procure a half hour even, at mid-day, for raising the sash and airing the plants. As they grow up, if crowded, they should be thinned out, so as not to run up spindling.

ORIGINAL RECIPES.

When we say original, we don’t mean that no one ever employed the same recipes, but only this, that we have obtained them, not from books, but from good and skillful housewives.

EPICURE’S CORN BREAD.—Upon two quarts of sifted corn-meal, pour just enough boiling water to scald it thoroughly; if too much water is used it will be heavy. Stir it thoroughly, let it get cold; then rub in a piece of butter as large as a hen’s egg, together with two teaspoonfuls of fine salt; beat four eggs thoroughly, and they will be all the better if the whites and yolks are beaten separately, add them to the meal and mix thoroughly. Next, add a pint of sour cream, or butter-milk, or sour milk (which stand in the order of their value). Dissolve two teapoonfuls of saleratus in hot water, and stir it in. Put it in buttered pans and bake it.

In winter, it may be mixed over night and in that case, the eggs and saleratus should not be put in until morning. When ready for the oven, the mixture ought to be about as thin as good mush, and if not, more cream should be added.