The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-03-13


your cement in it over slow fire.
Apply with thin paddle slOped oil at
the end, or small paint brush Will
answer if care is taken that the &C.
ment never gets so hot as to scorch,
as this cement will get hot enough to
SINCE feather.
In operating upon large trees there
should never be more than one-hal
of the top worked upon at one time,
as the balance is needed to carry Oil
part OF the force of tho tree, to pre-
vent the graft from growing too fast
and make them liable to he blown oil
by high wind.
When the graft commences grow
ing, the sprouts around the graft must
be Kept rubbed off. -,
When grating is done on small
trees under ground the cement is
really not necessary; only fill i'll with
earth and press firmly with care that
the graft may not be put out OF
place.
When grating small trees on limbs
l make the split with knife without
the mallet, and stick the point of the
blade into the split to hold it open
until the graft is inserted.-S. Miller,
in Southern Horticultural Journal.
HINTS.
Cabbages require deep loan, very
rich and well drained. Lettuce re-
quires loose, rich soil and plenty of
water. Onions should have a rich,
sandy loan and be kept very clean.
Okra, cucumbers, squashes, egg plant
and pepper should not be planted I'M
til all danger from frost is past. Beet
and parsley seed should be soaked in
warm water for twenty-four hours be-
fore planting. Tomato seed should be
sown early in a hotbed or cold frame
and transplanted to open ground as
soon as danger from frost is over.
Large tomato plants generally succeed
better than small ones.
SWEET POTATOES.
Tie ignorance OF the average con-
sumner concerning this delicious
Southern esculent is truly surprising
With the average caterer, potato is
potato, and no questions are asked,
except such as regards the price. A
drummer from Ohio while dining at a
Dallas boarding house, sneeringly re-
marked: "Since 1 have been in the
South have not eaten a good sweet
potato; they're not nice and mealy
like they are in Ohio" The concep-
ton OF good sweet potato as
"mealy," is ignorance on a par wit
that of the editor OF the Texas agri-
cultural paper who advises planting
sweet potatoes by cutting them in
pieces Of two eyes each. A good yam
potato, properly cooked is more de-
licious and wholesome article of food
than the famed banana, but they are
never mealy. And some sweet pota-
toes are only fit for stock feed; there
are also varieties occupying every in
termediate position. There are seve-
raj varieties of the sweet potato which
are quite palatable when properly
cooked, and some are so tasteless as
to be totally unsuited for the table.
The worst potatoes for table
use are usually the most prolific
and best keepers, and consequently
many farmers raised these exclusively
and markets are supplied with them,
and caterers buy and consumers eat
them, and never know what a tempt
ing dish a really good table potato,
well cooked, may be.
Sweet potatoes should be bedded
early. Make the bed in we'll drained
loan or sandy soil. 1t should be well
spaded and TAXED and made rich with
well rotted barn yard manure. Small
potatoes are as good as any for seed.
Place them close as possible without
touching, press into the rich soil and
then cover with pain soil to the depth
of two inches. Two or three inches of
cotton seed hulls on the bed will pro-
tect against freezing, but should be
removed when the young plants begin
to push through.
1t is mistake to suppose that
potato slips can only be planted Just
after ran. Have ridges ready and
the top "stuck off, when the slips
are ready to plant. Before drawing
the slips the bed should be we'll satu-
rated with water and the slips drawn
and protected from dry winds and
sun until dropped on the ridge. If
the weather is dry, let the dropper lay
the slips carefully upon the ridge
eighteen inches apart, and the setter
follow and with his fingers set the
slip up to the first leaf and press the
soil firmly to the roots, leaving a
slight depression into which gill of
water should be poured by any COLI
venient means. Set in this way slips
will grow of as we'll as if set in mud.
When the ground is quite wet the slips
may be simply pressed into the soil
with suitable stick and the dirt
pressed to the plant with the same in
strument. Ii rabbits disturb the bed,
cut potato in pieces the size of a
large bean and infect with strychnine.
A grain of poison is enough for twenty
bats. The depredators will be found