The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-01
THE FARM AND THE GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST To HOUSE
WIFE AND AGRICULTURIST,

OnfOns-BIight of Egg Plant. To-
matoes Etc.-BOrdeaux Mixture.
December Notes.
So far as farm and garden work is
concerned no doubt there is less done
in this mouth than in any other of the
year In the northern part Of our coun-
try there is more reason for this be-
ing so than it is with us in the South.
There the soil is firmly locked in ice
and covered with snow manY inches
deep. For several months there is no
possible use for pillow or other imple-
ment of outdoor work. Whatever of
these hardy crops that permit of fall
sowing are for awhile tucked beneath
a blanket of snow. Here we have no
persistent snow to protect our several
crops from the fatal freeze and thaw"
of January and later cold waves. If
the latter are too severe and inoppor-
tune, our crops, one and all. even to
wheat, are most likely to be fatally In
3ured.
Our winters are so extremely varia-
bic 1t is impossible to lay out pro
gramme" that will guide us year in
and out. Our fall sowings must always
be attended with some risk. Between
our severest winters and our mildest
there is considerable variety of wealth
er. TO be sure.
Our mildest winter would justify a
vast amount If sowing, a planting
from August to October. Our severest
winter would forbid nearly all of IT.
normal winter itself would permit
of enough to keep one thoroughly busy.
The best we can do is to anticipate
normal winter, and take the risk ac-
cordingly. Very few farmers take any
unreasonable risks beyond the very
risky one of sowing oats as late as
November.
The Middle Georgia farmer is con-
stantly, doing this very thing-one or
another every year or so, hence nearly
every January or February we hear
of a good many oats being killed.
Two years out of three, November
sown oats must necessarily fall before
the freezing blasts of January or Feb
ruary. To insure success we must al
ways anticipate the worst and pre-
pare for it.
Again we should not take any I'M
reasonable risks. We should not sow
more imam we can dlIOiQ " lOSc VI
plant out more than we are able to
protect-granting that there will be
need for protection.
1t requires many years of experience
to get even an ;nkling of the possibili-
ties of farm and garden work likely
to succeed in winter. No two winters
are exactly alike. A very mild winter
is more than likely to be followed by
a very severe one. If we have little
cold weather before Christmas there
will be plenty of it after 1t. The long
est experience can not tell which II
will be, so as to be able to take ad-
vantage of it. We can only Thew to
the normal"
The farmer that has an abundance of
shelter can do much more helpful work
IN the winter than one who has lit
tie or none. 1t pays to have plenty
Of dry shelter where one can work in
bad weather, where compost can be
made, where the implements can be
overhauled and repaired where cold
frames or hot beds can be made, the
harness repaired.
The best success in raising vegeta-
bles cannot be had without the use of
cold frames in which early plants can
be grown strong and stocky by setting
out time
Many small farmers living near the
towns and cities can oftentimes make
the equivalent of bale or two of cot
ton by raising early cabbages. onions,
asparagus, lettuce, English peas,
beets, etc. Some of these crops. such
as lettuce, cabbage, beets, celery can
be had much earlier by raising the
plants in cold frames in December and
January and having them all ready to
put out as soon as the severe weather
3
several weeks in the maturing of the
crop. These early crops are the ones
that bring in the most money.
The Best Way TO Grow Onions.
Is, as has been stated in this column
many times. from the seeds-the black
seeds it is the custom to say, as If there
were any other color of seeds. 1t is
not the easiest things in, the world to
get perfectly fresh seeds-T5 per cent.
good, even that is three-fourths of
which will come up and make a salable
onion.
1t is one of the requirements, of sue
cessful onion culture that buying the
seeds must not be put off to the last
minute or anywhere near 1t. One
must decide we'll in advance what is
needed and correspondence opened
with some reliable scotsman and seeds
procured at least on a guarantee of
being true to name and of the latest
crop. Onion seeds lose their fresh
ness" in a short while. Those two years
old will generally disappoint. New crop
seeds can be had usually by Septem-
ber-even the imported by that time
or by Oct. 10. and from these we must
plant our fall crop in October or No
vember.
1t is very rare that sowings in Sep
TENDER with these fresh seeds are sue
cessful. The air and soil are both too
warm for this crop that early in the
season. Oct. Is is about as early as
the seeds can be sown safely even in
Middle Georgia. The young seedlings
are very impatient of the heat of Sep
TENDER and October days.
To be in possession of first-class seeds
of a variety suited to our soil and sec
ton is very near enough to insure sue
cess.
With good seeds of a proper variety
1t is almost as easy to grow a fine
crop of onions as it is to raise fine tur-
nips or carrots.
The Bermuda onion is excellent for
our use, so are most of the Italian OF
Spanish sorts. The Queen" and the
'Nocera" are about as good. There
may be some of our American varieties
that will give good satisfaction tc
Southern growers. but our own exper-
iments have not shown ii to be the
fact. AS a rule, the fiat kinds have
done best on our thin land. though
time and again we have grown the
giant rocco" globular kind, where
twelve onions would weigh fifteen tc
eighteen pounds. These big over.
grown onions are not good keepers
however. Our own choice is to havs
the onions smaller and more of them