Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1892 — ORCHARD AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ORCHARD AND GARDEN.

heeds. Manj’ farmers have an exceedingly bad habit in -regard to their annual supply of seeds. They wait until spring is upon them and then go to town and hqy from their grocer a quantity of whatever sorts he happens to have. These may or may not be good. One thing Is certain, they cannot thus keep abreast with the progress in the agricultural world. As a rule, reliable dealers do not sell their goods on commission in this way. Nothing is saved by buying cheap seed. Nearly all dealers send their catalogues free and thus you can not only have many kinds to select from, but often valuable information is given as to varieties or methods of cultivation. It is a good plan, in some cases, to save one’s own seeds. When this is done, only the very best and earliest specimens should he used. Unless this is a rigorous practice, deterioration will certainly follow. For certain'kinds, the seed-growers have so much better advantages for saving the best seed that it pays to buy of them. A young man recently tried to get a club for seeds, but in many instances was met by the respohse that they could get them cheaper. If some of these cheap seeds should fail to grow, very likely it will be because the moon was not in the right quarter. Coinb ned Koller and .Marker. A neat attachment to a garden roller is the following: Bore holes eight-inches apartlengthwise and put in pins. To mark the garden make these pins each hold a small rope encircling the roller by driving them Into the holes beside the ends of the

rope. More than one row of holes can be used to change distances. Tack strips lengthwise of the roller to mark place in row for setting plants. -—Hollister Sage, in Practical Farmer. Manuring Fruit Tree*. To place manure at the trunks of trees, is very much as ft a man were fed by placing food ar his feet. The feeding roots of trees always extend farther than their branches. Long before the branches meet, the roots interlace. The proper way to feed such trees is to deposit manure in the middle of the rows between the trees where the feeding roots are, rather than at their base where the roots are too large to assimilate nourishment.