Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-27
All Around the Place.

!
Hotbeds in which to grow plants for
early cabbages, tomatoes, peppers and
the like are easy to make. and every
gardener should have at least a small
one in which to grow such plants as
will be needed in the home garden. BY
growing your own plants you will be
able to grow those varieties YOU most
IKE. and you will be sure to have
what you want if you grow them your
self from the seed. The making of a
small hotbed is an easy matter, and
the results more than pay for the lit
tie trouble: while. if the bed is of fair
size. enough plants can be grown to
make the sale of plants practically pay
for the bed. seed and labor. Next Sun
days Star will contain full instruc-
tons for making such a hotbed, writ
ten by successful. practical gardener.
Seeds for the earliest paintings of
cabbages. etc, may be sown in hot
beds at any time now. and the plants
will be ready for setting out by the
time danger of frost is past
Don't overlook the early spring
spraying. of the fkuit trees. Peaches,
apples, pears, plums, etc. should be
sprayed when the buds begin to swell,
reliable lime sulphur mixture being
used in the fight that must be waged
INCREASINGLY against San Jose scale.
= By all means. plan for a good sized
strawberry bed this season, if there is
none on .the place. In this connection
it may be said that no lime should be
used on soil where it is intended to set
out a straw berry bed. Strawberries re-
quire no lime other than that which
exists in the soil. An acid phosphate is
the mineral fertilizer best suited to
their needs.
Many gardeners are interested in the
relatively new faIl-bearing or ever
bearing straw berries. In other parts
of the country. notably in New York
and the New England states. these ber-
ries have been grown for several years,
and hotels. cafes and restaurants make
a specially of serving the fall-grown
berries in September and October Sew
eral fine varieties of the berries have
been developed from the original fall
bearing kind. known as Americas, and
these bear continuously from June or
July until heavy frost the fruit being
as fine as any grown in the regular
season. Plants of the fall-bearing va
rieties may be set out, in this locality
from the middle of May to the end of
the month. and these plants will pro-
duce fine berries by the middle of Au-
gust or even earlier. The plant re-
mains in condition to bear fruit as long
auiring replanting only after the sec
ond or third season. Actual instances
have been reported of gardeners pick
ing ripe berries from plants in rows
covered with the seasons first snow.
Testing seed corn for termination,
always a profitable farm practice, is an
absolute necessity this year in many
sections. In a number of districts the
last corn crop from which seed for the
n La fif1tr " he fol
late in maturing or so moist when har-
vested as to call for special precautions.
high moisture content makes seed
corn particularly susceptible to damage
from freezing or heating. Farmers in
the sections where corn failed to ripen
normally who do not test their seed
early enough to be able to replace their
own bad seed with good seed secured
from other sources will be taking an
unnecessary risk. 1t is also especially
important for holders of seed in such
districts to take unusual care during
the remainder of the winter to protect
it from freezing.
While complete testing for germina-
ton should take place shortly before
the seed is planted, the specialists of
the department believe that it will be
simple forehandedness for farmers
who have any reason to be doubtful
about the viability of their seed to
make a preliminary terminating test
with few typical ears taken at ran
dom from the rack. If these prelimi-
nary tests show that the seed is good
the owner then can continue his pre-
cautions to guard it from weather dam
age. If, however. this test with few
ears indicates that the seed is of low
vitality the farmer should at once make
further tests to satisfy himself as to
whether his seed corn generally is
good or bad.
II a farmer finds his seed is bad he
should take steps at once to meet the
difficulty. The purchase of seed should
not be delayed till spring, especially