The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-11-25
Bill Ar]p'@ Letter.


potato and many have grown entirely
too large. one yam dug yesterday tip
ped the scales at none pounds, about as
big as an ordinary dressed turkey hen
These monsters come in Well for the
making OF sweet potato rolls and biscuits
and for pies, but are too large to bake
in our usual way our las crop of
roasting ears is now on the table and
arc as fine any during the summer
while the field crop of corn is all har-
vested and stored in the cribs
our Northern friends have not Yet
got to appreciate the Black Eye pea
as a table vegetable Here we grow
them in the garden and leave the vines
on the ground to help out the early
crops next spring. ! have one piece
from which the peas have been gathered
which will now be plowed and next month
will be planted in Irish potatoes and
covered with plene straw for the winter
hoping to get, in this way. an earlier
crop than usual The cover of pine
leaves Will be thick and no cultivation
will be attempted but the weeds that
appear will be pulled out If the spring
season is not too wet this heavy mulch
VIII make good crop The first soWn
spinach is now ready to cut, and the
earliest lettuce promises to be ready for
Thanksgiving. We have constant fight
With the green larvae of the cabbage
moth the lettuce. They seem more
fond Of it than of cabbage and keep up
their work long after frost arrives Hand
picking seems to be the only remedy, for
any poisons We have tried injure the
lettuce as badly as the worms. We are
waiting now to have rain so as to set \
quantity of the Wonderful lettuce in the
open ground. This variety is not SO
good under glass, but it makes immense
heads in the early spring and during
April Will take the place of the frame
, lettuce. TurnipS, of course, are abund
ant. We leave them during the winter
where they grew, merely throwing earth
to the rows, and in the spring the young
growth makes the finest of boiled greens
We tried the Tobasco peppers this sea
son, and for productiveness and pun
gency the little pods are wonderful. Our
plants are now six feet high and still
loaded This has been an unusually sue
cessful season for tomatoes and the
early set plants are still furnishing frui
from late second growth. The sihgu
lar freak of the Honor Bright tomato
still continues. The plants are Of
the vines are loaded now with fruit of {
whitish stray color and still hard anC
unripe. A While black some of them
| did finally turn red but We're tough ant
worthless. A friend in Georgia says the,
have acted in the same way there. Il
would be interesting to know Whethe
the same trouble has been had elSeWher
with this tomato. We are sorry, for tn
variety generally makes the finest 0
fruit
In the flower garden we are now gath
ering the last of the crop of seed of th'
Bonfire Saliva We planted a lot of theS
especially for seed and the crop prom
ises to be fine. Those planted in the
flower beds have been a blaze of scarle
the whole summer through, for tn
Saliva Splenders blooms earlier and lon
ger here than Northward. The last o
the Sternbergias and Nerines haV
bloomed and the winter foliage IS nov
shooting up. The fall bulbs are nov
going in the ground, and We have sen
some thousands of the Bermuda lille
to the moist peaty soils of the eastern
part of the State. where they Will prob
ably succeed better than in our dry soil
The tea roses are, of course, still th'
glory of the garden, and we have abou
rs varieties making their richly colore
autumn buds Clematis Paniculata i
now full of ripe seds. These Will b
gathered and sOWn at once IN the oPe
ground If let dry all winter they Wi
take another year to sDrout, but SOW
now they Will come up IN the sprln
and make fine plants by another fall
Sweet violets are beginning to bloom !
the garden and will be on hand all win
ter. except when the occasional freeze
check them This violet is a single flow
cred one, common all over the state an
we can see no difference between 1t an
tho California violet SO much adVcrtlzcf
One nurseryman az Pinehur5t calls
the PinehurSt violet to please Norther
visitors who flock there in winter t
play golf Others call it the Iarbor
violet. It seeds freely and becomes
weed all over the gar dens here II som
of the Northern florists would try ii uI
der glass | think it would make repu
tatiOn.