The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-31

reigning supreme. AS we grow THESE
| for the corms, we cut the flowers as
thousands of them opening, we sup
ply all the neighbors with armfuls
we thought that we would test the
quality of Groff's gladiolus. so we
bought 100 of them. So far as they
have bloomed [ have found nothing
| remarkably superior to the general
strain which I have. Those who know
the Parlor ivy (Senecio Scandens)
only as a plant for hanging baskets
in the house, should try it as sum-
| mer climber for the veranda. | nave
/ one which was in a wire basket III
the south bay window of my dining
| room all winter. In the spring
! planted it, basket and all, by the YER
Ianda. 1t is now up to the roof, and
| in rapidity of growth leads the kudZu
vine nearby, which the catalogues say
| grows a foot a day. The Parlor IVY
is so easily rooted from cuttings that
anyone can soon have all the supply
needed to drape a porticQ all around.
1 omitted to say, when Writing OF the
vegetables, that we have just finished
! planting our acre of sweet potatoes
while the first planted ones are nearly
ready for the table. These later pant
! ed ones were cuttings from the Ups
of the first planted ones that are run
ming all over the ridges. These cut
tings viii make potatoes that VIII
| keep far easier in winter than the
early plants from the bed. The cut
! tings root with ease in the moist SOIL.
They are made aLeut Is inches long,
and the butt is coiled around the
planters hand and the coil inserted
| in the ground so that only the tlp is
exposed. Our potatoes are not SO
smooth and pretty as the Nineland
sweets SO popular in New York and
| Philadelphia, but in quality there is
! no comparison. Some of our market
! growers plant the Nansemond for
! Northern shipment, but they will not
| sell at home, as our people want a
potato that they can swallow without
n drink of water The Nansemond is
better suited to the Northern practice
| of steaming, but no Southern man or
/ woman would spoil a sweet potato by
steaming it. Baking is the only way
| to treat a Southern yam, and then it
| is a mass OF jelly-like sweetness Bar
BADGES, white and yellow, Norton and
| Pumpkin vans are the faVorlteS, ana
for quality there are none better than
the long, crooked Spanish, which is
grown only for home use, as IL IS too
unproductive and ugly for market.
But a Spanish potato, when it has
gotten fat in mid-winter. is as
dainty a morSel as one would care TO
eat Baked in its own skin until it
bursts and the jelly-like juice bakes,
too. there IS no potato that can be
J well compared with it, Then, too, we
pare and slice the potatoes ana place
them in 81 baking pan with sprinkle
of sugar and a generous piece of but
ter over them and bake them, and
they are a dish for a free American
citizen The acme of a darkeys hap
piness is vans baked in the ashes on
The hearth with a baked possum. Give
him these and he darkey does not
care how the winter storms howl
l 20 Georgia FARMER
once said to me that he raised Kolbs
Gem melons because he could ship
them North but he grew good melons
to eat at home. In like manner our
truckers grow Nansemond potatoes
because they can sell them North, but
they grow sweet potatoes to eat at
home.
July 14-Now is the time when the
dwellers in the Northern cities are
swelterng in the heat and are Won
dering how the. people down South
can live, while the Southern man goes
TO bed and draws the bed cover over
him and pitieS the people III the
Northern cities, where it stays hot all
night and he rises in the morning
and notes that the mercury is well
down in the sixties. and he is refresh
ed from the nights sleep and thanks
God that he lives where people never
hear of SunStrokeS.
The Grape myrtles, the pride Of the
Southern summer are now getting IN
to bloom Some years ago my Old
friend w. r. Smith. the curator of
the National ardenS at Washington,
sent me some seed OF Grape myrtIes
which he carefully pollenated by hand
with several varieties. l have now
the plants from these seeds and there
is a greater variety of color than /
expected. one makes trusses OF How
erS of a snowy White with = dark puf-
,te,. an. h I. T.ll a
lilac in color; others of the rich PINK
common in the species, and others are
rich purple The time that the Grape
myrtle trees come in bloom, when
other trees and shrubs are without
| flowers, makes them doubly attractive,
and the length OF time they remain
SNOWY, adds to their attractiveness.
Some years ago q Southern man
wrote TO the editor of q horticultural
journal North. asking how he could
make the lilac grow and bloom as
he saw it grow and bloom in the
| North. The editor replied: You have
the Crane myrtle. Can't you leave the
lilac to us?'' And so far as | am con-
| celned, have - ermined to leave the
lilac to the North, for ] have never
! succeeded in getting anything like
| the growth and loom here that we
used to get North. Budded on the
nriYet we can get nice little plants
|
| lastingIy cutting the privet sprouts
out. but never anything like the bloom
/ that ii makes in the North. But the
Grape myrtle is more snowy and
comes at a time when its flowers are
! appreciated, and lasts three times as
! long as the spring lilac. [ measured
a giant Grape myrtle at Edenton, n.
! c., that has a Fascinated trunk elght
feet in circumference, and the tree
was fully forty feet high and a mass
Of clusters of pink flowers 1t was
| q plant from colonial times. Not far
| from my place a neighbor has on his
| lawn plant of Erythrina Crlsta
| CALI. now covered with masses of its
great crimson pea-Shaped MOVERS
This plant has occupied the same
! place for over % years. Every fall
when frost has nippea the leaves the
! top is sawed off and a mound of dry
| sawdust is piled over the stump. This
! is removed in the spring and the
| shoots grow with wonderful rapidity,
! and bloom more profusely than any
plan of the kind / have ever seen.
Some years ago l grew from seed a
plant of double althea, which is pure
white all through. This is the whitest
althea / have ever seen. 1t is pecu- |