| Share page |
|
|
||
|
GARDENING. 493
To Guard Cabbages from Depredations of the Caterpillar. Sow with hemp all the borders of the ground wherein the cabbages are planted, and although the neighborhood be infested with cater-pillers, the space inclosed with hemp will be perfectly free and not one of them will approach it.
Preservation of Cabbages. — Cut them so that they may have about 2 inches of stem left below the leaves; scoop out the pith as far down as a small knife will reach, then suspend it by means of a cord, exactly perpendicular, but in an inverted position and daily fill up the hollow part of the stem with clean cold water. It is stated that by this method, cabbages, cauliflowers, brocoli, celery, etc. may be preserved.
Rhubarb prefers a light, rich soil. The ground should be heavily manured every year. It may be forced, and that which grows in pots is more delicate than that grown in the air, if forced in winter and spring. It is one of the best and most certain apperients in infancy, constipation and summer complaints from its astringency, for it is both a tonic and astringent, so good in infantile diseases attended with imperfect digestion and irritations of the intestinal canal.
Calinac.—This valuable vegetable is yet but little cultivated by our gardeners. They, when the roots are boiled tender, are a great improvement to soups, meat-pies and skewered meats, or the roots are scraped, cut in slices and boiled soft, in milk with a little salt and serve hot in butter.
Osage Orange Seed.—Sow them in drills and cover 2 inches deep in the fall season.
Oxalic Acid and Seed.—Soak them in a solution of oxalic acid for a day or two, till they commence to sprout, then take them out and plant them. It is said that by this process seeds 40 years old have been known to germinate.
Roses from Seed.—To raise roses from seed, take the seed when fully ripe, separate them from the pulp, mix them with moist sand and put them in a little box or flower pot; then put them in the cellar, taking care that they are kept moist all winter and from freezing. In the spring sow sand and all in a common hot bed, and when the plants are about an inch high, transplant then till well rooted.
Farming or Garden Tools, when not in use, should be thoroughly wiped and then oiled or greased with anyting that contains no salt.
How the Sandwich Islanders grow Watermelons.—They plant them in the sand. Whether they come in contact with a subsoil and draw nourishment from it, I do not know, but the melon grows large, and is very delicious, in its sandy bed, |
||