The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-03-31

as red as blood, and its skin Is covered with
millions of little stickers that run into
your fingers and your mouth, no matter
how careful you are, and Nuke you uncom-
Portable all day. e. ~
They raise all the vegetables here we do
at home, and some more. The most RI
diculous of them all is the cabbage. If
you take stout walking stick. tie head
OF cabbage to its top, and stick the other
end in the ground, you have a Bermuda
cabbage. The farmers set out few
around the edges of their onion beds, and
let them grow When the cabbage is ripe
it is cut off, and the stalk, with merely a
little surprise at finding itself headless,
goes to work and produces another head.
At this time the stalk is increasing in length,
till it reaches sometimes three or four feet.
After awhile, discouraged at having its
head chopped off every two or three
months, the stalk gives up the fight and
dies. Industrious cabbage-stalks may be
seen sticking all over the island preparing
to produce new heads. The onion seed
used is prepared the same as ours, though
it produces very different and much better
onions This is, of course, ON account of
the difference in soil land climate. A for
chile illustration of what a different vege-
table can be raised from the same seed is
furnished by the potato. They send from
here and buy Early Rose potatoes to plant,
and when they come up no Northerner
would believe they were potatoes at all.
When first came here, in passing po-
tato field one day, | asked the driver what
the plants were. He was duly astonished,
knowing that the seed came from my own
country But the vines looked entirely
different from our potato vines. They
looked more like sweet potatoes, with a
broader leaf than ours, more delicate tex
ture and weaker stalks, that bent over the
rows, nearly covering the ground, instead
of going straight up in the air like ours.
But there is no mistaking the onions
They look just like ours taste just like
ours smell just like ours.
Tomatoes should be planted in January
carrots should also be planted, and peas,
cabbage, caulifowers, cucumbers, beans,
turnips and sweet potatoes. In February
corn should be planted, oats, lettuce,
squashes and melons, and fruit vines be set
out In March arrowroot is ready to take
up and potatoes should be hoed The ar
rowroot is planted in April and early
planted potatoes are read to take up,
Onions are to be cultivated for the last
time In May the remainder of the Irish
potatoes are taken out, and oranges are
grated In June onions are taken up and
melons begin to ripen. In July gather
onion seed. In August there is not much
to be done, except transplanting arrowroot !;
it is too dry and hot. In September more
Irish potatoes are planted for an early crop
Turnips are also planted, and cabbage, car
rots, beets, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, onions,
spinach, celery and parsnips. Early Rose
potatoes are planted from the 10th to the
10th of October. In November oats, bar
ley and rye are sOwn. In December SOW
anything that We could SOW around New
York in June
In short, sow anything you please, when
ever you feel like it. Let the shadow of
hoe fall on your garden patch and you
get good crops. While you are asleep
your vegetables are growing, no matter
whether it is July or January The only
reason for having particular seasons to
SOW particular crops Is so that they may
reach the New York market at the right
time to be profitable. Everything raised
in Bermuda brings more than double the
price of our native crops because it always
comes in out of season
The best Of this good land, outside of
the two towns, can be bought for 5000 an
acre-often for much less The crops
raised on little bits of patches would as
tonish Northern farmer. On place not
much bigger than building lot, Ber-
muda gardener raises $500 or $500 worth
of onions, besides several other crops
When the onions are ripe there is busy
time at the wharf on steamer days. Don
key carts and teams come in from every
where, from the uttermost parts of the
earth, sometimes from as much as fifteen
miles away, bringing loads of onions, all
to be shipped to New York. IF the sea-
son is a good one, and onions and potatoes
bring good prices in New York, Bermuda
gardeners are in clover Ir it is a bad
season-that is, if we have so many pota-
toes and onions in the market that Ber-
mudas do not bring high prices-the gar
deners-chew the cud for the next twelve
month and run the credit at the stores 1t
is this credit system that keeps them poor,
and makes the storekeepers rich.