This fertilizing flower, if it withers, may be repeatedly renewed, or rather replaced by fresh flowers, until the flower-leaves of the other begin to fade or fall. It is plain that erect blossoms, especially on fruit-trees, should be chosen for this operation, so that the fertilizing flower may rest securely in its place.

There is a more scientific mode of fertilization, in which this latter precaution is not essential. It is to prepare the blossom you intend to fertilize as above directed, and, taking care to mark the time of its maturing, which will be about the forenoon of the day in which the blossom becomes naturally fullblown, take one or more of the fertilizing flowers in the ripe state that is, when the stamens willingly shed their pollen or dust, and, gathering this upon a fine camel-hair pencil, apply it lightly but freely to the top of the pistil or stigma.

A very little observation and practice will enable one to adopt this mode successfully. The general security for the result will also be increased by fertilizing several blossoms in a bunch, and removing the rest, or even all the bunches upon a small branch, reducing the number of the blossoms in each. To prevent the intrusion of insects, fix over, but not in contact with them, a gauze net, spread upon a wooden frame of any necessary form and size, which should be securely braced to the tree or branch so as to bear the wind, which may be left in its place until the fruit sets.

In plants that are monoecious, as melons, cucumbers, etc., or dicecious, as some grape-vines, it is only necessary to set the plants, to be fertilized by themselves, at least a hundred yards distance from any others of the same kind, and, taking off and carrying away all the mere fertilizers, or false blossoms, as they are commonly called, bring flowers from other plants and fertilize them by either of the processes described above, and with similar precautions against insects.

PRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES OF VEGETABLES. The tendency of seeds to deterioration and intermixture, whether arising from their necessary proximity in small gardens, or from the interest, the ignorance, or the carelessness of

cultivators, gives importance to the production of improved varieties.

This is most commonly effected by careful and long-continued SELECTION, to which high culture should be superadded, in which we continually choose the most perfect or earliest plant, or fruit, or pod from which to obtain our seed.

Upon this latter principle rests the old familiar rule of taking for seed the cucumber or melon growing nearest to the root, etc. This rule, however, is seldom rigidly adhered to, and, if it were, would naturally tend to produce an earlier but smaller-fruited variety than the original.

Perhaps the most promising course for improvement is to choose the second, and generally finer fruit for seed; or, if the object be simply to avoid depreciating the variety, the whole crop, being left ungathered from the first, will yield satisfactory seed. Unless, indeed, it should happen that from peculiar circumstances the plant makes a very extended or a second growth, in which case the earlier product alone should be permitted to seed.

New and improved varieties are also sometimes obtained by careful and intelligent INTERMIXTURE, in which we aim to combine the desirable qualities of both the old varieties in the new one we expect as the product. This valuable result is also sometimes effected accidentally. In such intermixture the general rule is that the product will have the form and appearance of the fertilizer, with the character or peculiarities of the fruit-bearing plant. To illustrate this: Very early peas are generally small. Suppose we desire to produce a variety in which the seed should be larger, but the crop not materially later. Then, on the general rule given, we may fertilize the cedo nulli with the Spanish dwarf, and expect to accomplish our purpose; but if we fertilize the latter with the former we ought not to expect success, though it is not inconceivable that we might succeed, from the accidental concurrence of certain occult causes or combinations connected with the previous processes through which these varieties may have passed in arriving at their present state.

Intermixture is effected only between kinds that blossom at

the same time; and it is probably from blooming a little out of the ordinary season that certain kinds of peaches, and perhaps also apples, often or constantly reproduce seedlings like themselves. The several sub-varieties of the Newtown pippin apple, and other valuable fruits, sometimes attributed to soil, etc., are probably the results of exclusive and perfect self-fertilization in isolated blossoms.

New varieties are not unfrequently obtained by TRANSFER to a different climate. In a period more or less prolonged, the plant becomes acclimated, and its habit fixed in conformity with its new circumstances, and on being returned to its former latitude it can not be identified as one with the variety from which it sprang. The early Canada pea is an instance of this, being the early frame pea raised for a series of years in Canada.

The effect is precisely analogous to that induced without change of climate by taking only the very first formed pods for seed. The maturing of the crop is hastened, but its size and yield somewhat reduced.

Transfer to a southern climate tends, of course, in the opposite direction. All this, however, would be greatly affected by the absolute natural fitness or unfitness of the climate to produce the crop which it is sought to change.

New varieties are occasionally produced by DISEASE, which becomes hereditary, but of these it is not worth while to speak.

They are also often INTRODUCED from foreign countries, either by scientific research or under the stimulus of interest. The cocoanut squash (noted in its place) was introduced from Valparaiso by the late Commodore Porter; and the common large white kidney bush-bean, which now abounds in our stores and markets, was brought into New York from Madeira some thirty years ago, when dumpling beans were scarce. At that time it furnished the text for a free-trade article in the New York Journal of Commerce, which indicated clearly that the writer" knew beans."

D 2

CHAPTER VIII.

Sowing, Manner of; Time of; Depth of, etc.-Combination of Vegetable Crops.-Transplanting, Ridging, Hilling, etc.

SOWING.

MANNER OF SOWING.

IN broadcast sowing the land is generally laid off, either by furrows or sight-poles, into spaces of suitable width for two casts of the seed, which meet and slightly overlap as the sower throws the return cast; but in small lots the eye is often depended on to gauge these distances.

To perform the operation rightly, a basket or sheet containing the seed is slung upon the right shoulder and across the breast, so as to be partially under the left arm and governed by the left hand. The sower beats time as he steps, dipping a handful of seed with his right hand at each advance of the left foot, and casting it with a steady sweep as he steps forward with the right. A good sower does not cast the seed from his hand at once, and right before him, as in feeding chickens, which would cause it to fall in streaks, but, by adroit management with his thumb, and an upward cast, spreads it as it issues, causing it to fall in a broad, scattering shower, like the spreading jet of water drops from an engine-pipe when thrown into a showering semicircle by the finger of the engineer.

In broadcasting small beds or plots in the garden a pinch of seed is taken instead of a handful, but the same skill is used to spread it evenly as it is thrown.

In drill sowing, also, a large pinch of seed only is taken, which, in the process of sowing, is strickled along the drill by just such a motion of the thumb upon the fore and middle fingers as a skillful housewife uses in carefully salting a steak. A smart boy accustomed to the work will sow evenly, and of any desired thickness, at the rate of a fast walk, or faster in an emergency.

TIME OF SOWING.

The proper time for sowing varies not only with the various kinds of seeds, but often also with the same kind, according to the period at which the crop is expected to mature, or the use for which it may be wanted. Vegetables intended for spring or summer use, if hardy, should be sown in the fall or at the very earliest opening of spring; if tender, the seeds should be sown and the plants prepared in hot beds, and be set out at the time of the principal corn-planting, or a little earlier if the object is deemed worth the risk. Unless the soil and location of your garden is very favorable, do not plant or sow your full crops, even of early vegetables, until the ground becomes warmed and free; let a border, at most, suffice for extra early experiments.

By this practice you will often excel in the quality and yield of your crops, and sometimes in the earliness of their products. "On time, but not ahead of time," is as good a rule for the garden as for the rail-road.

For all tender vegetables, the planting time of the main corn-crop constitutes a fixed point at which, in all latitudes, it will be found safe to sow or set. The time of leisure between planting and first hoeing is the good time for farmers to make garden, the ground being plowed or dug a month or so before.

Those vegetable crops intended for winter feeding to cattle, and those of the same kind intended for the table, should not be sown at the same time, a large crop being a main object in raising the former, and excellence of quality chiefly desirable in the latter.

All crops for winter use should be sown late enough to avoid the summer heat upon the half-matured crop; those intended for feeding to cattle as early as possible consistently with this indispensable rule; while those for table use should be deferred to as late a period as may in any way consist with the probability of their maturing before winter. Through the cool weather of autumn all vegetables that have not been checked in consequence of too early sowing, or by some other cause, if properly cultivated, grow with great rapidity, and furnish prod