The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-01-09
RIM AND ME.
FARM.

Starting Early Potatoes.
A correspondent of the Cottage Gar
dener says: ''To have a few early pota-
toes, l have found the following system
answers well. plant my potatoe-sets in
pots, say about FIVE or six inches in di-
ameter; the soil use is pure turfy
maiden loan and charred earth, with Il
little SCOT, Being in pots they can be
started wherever there is little heat. -
While they are coming on in the pots,
leaves and a little manure are put up in
bit or frame; after the bed is in a fit
condition of heat the surface is covered
eight inches deep with halt-rotten leaves.
When the heat is up the pots may be
plunged in this material, and the plants
kept in the same pots till the young
tubers are the size OF large peas or small
marbles. This can easily be ascertained
by turning them out of the pots.
consider the chief advantage deriva-
BILE from this system is, that as they are
confined in the pots, only limited sup
ply of nutriment is afforded, which
causes the plants to tuber much sooner
than would otherwise be the case.
Whenever l find that the young pota-
L
diately take of the top soil the
pots were plunged in. If l
find the heat is deficient, l add
little new warm manure to the inside of
the bed, and turn it over. Then having
had some good dry, turfy soil, and char
red or burned earth, with the mixture of
a little SCOT, the bed is covered over to
the depth of fourteen or fifteen inches
the potatoe plants are next turned care
fully out of their pots, and planted in a
furrow in rows in the new soil after it
has attained the natural warmth of the
bed.
never use any manure, but a little
soil is put on the drills after the plants
are established. By keeping them near
the glass and well aired at every favora-
BILE opportunity, good crop of natural
favored potatoes will be obtained.
Fruit Garden.
From the last number of the Gard
ner's Monthly" we take the following
article containing some timely sugges-
tons to those who are cultivating fruit:
Pear trees that have not been judi
ciously summer pruned will require some
little in the early months. By far too
many heavy branches are on most trees.
When the tree is in leaf, the one
branch smothers out the other, and, re-
Numbering what we have already said
about the value of healthy leaves, few ar
rive at that perfection necessary to per-
feet fruit. Therefore, prune out enough
of the weaker ones to give the rest every
chance to develop their leaves to the full
lest extent Also prune 40 as to assist
the plant to a conical form, as this ena-
bles the light to act better on all parts of
the tree leaves. If trees have been neg
lected, in pruning too severely to get them
to this shape, the result will be to make
them throw out shoots still more vigor-
ously from near the parts cut away
When these shoot in spring, pull them
out while young with the finger and
thumb. The current of the sap will flow
strongly into the shoots left, and the
ratio of growth will in the end be nearly
equal through all the branches. The
flow of sap through tree is nearly like
that of water through an uneven cOun-
try. A very little obstruction will turn
the course; but that once started soon be-
comes as great stream in the new as in
the old channel.
Apple trees have habit, when old, of
pushing out sappy shoots along the main
branches. These should be cut away in
addition to simple thinning as recon-
mended for the pear.
Dwarf apples and dwarf pears should
be examined now to see what the bOrer
is doing for them. This is the time when
they do the most destruction, as they are
boring down into the stoms for winter
protection. A cut with jack-knife up
and down the stems so as to avoid grid
ling as much as possible is the most GER
tain destruction. Then, in spring, be-
fore the parent insects begin to work, if
oiled paper, or rather tarred paper, be
put about the stem near the ground they
can be kept out. 1t is strange that with
as little time as borer hunting takes, so
many thousand trees should be allowed
to die from their attacks every year.
eve would prefer soft-soaping to paper
ing the bases of the trees. Reg
Above all, for both apple and pear or
chards, we bespeak a liberal dressing-a
top dressing of something or other
Poverty of the surface soil is more Of
ten cause of fruit failure than grass"
''change of climate" or many imaginable
ills brought up from some ghostly cavern
of thought to cover up the poverty of
pocket or of industrial inclinations
The Turf, Field and Farm says those
keeping horses should, twice a week,
throw in handful of salt and ashes. =
Mix them by putting in three parts of
salt to one of ashes. Horses relish this,
and it will keep their hair soft and fine.
1t will prevent bots, collie, etc. A little
ground sulphur mixed with salt and
ashes, and given once in two or three
weeks, is also beneficial. All domestic
animals will be thus benefited
HOME.
A Good Plain Pie Crust.
A quart of sifted -four, a quarter of