In a dry season especially, I have several times found it an advantage to mulch tomato, squash, cucumber and melon vines, and one of the best if not the best material to use for this purpose is partially rotted bagasse from a sorghum mill. Stir the soil thoroughly, killing out all the weeds, and then apply. We are subject to drouth here and the ridge land dries out very rapidly, and unless some protection is given the crops will prove a failure. The bagasse will not dry out so easily as the majority of other materials usually used for mulching, and if properly applied will be of considerable benefit. - A.

French Mushrooms Made to Order I - A "mushroom manufacturer" is the latest thing in novelties, even in these days when commercial license is often carried to the utmost possible length. An individual living in the department of the Aveyron, struck by the high price at which mushrooms were being sold in his district, conceived the idea of fabricating the delicacy out of turnips. He cut the turnips into rounds, dried them, and after giving them a dab of the paint-brush, disposed of them to unsuspecting customers as the gen. uine article.

For some time he drove a thriving trade, but unluck-ly for him he one day sold a batch to a gourmet who was not so easily taken in. Indignant at the trick played on him, the gourmet brought an action, which has just resulted in the condemnation of the mushroom manufacturer to two months imprisonment. It was in vain that he pleaded that he had enabled his fellow-citizens to regale themselves on a vegetable which they regarded as a good specimen of the mushroom at a cost far below that commanded by the real article. Vain, too, were his efforts to demonstrate that his mushrooms could be consumed without entailing disastrous consequences on lovers of the delicacy. The court turned a deaf ear to his specious arguments, and has allowed him two months leisure to meditate on the error of substituting dried turnips for honest mushrooms. - London Telegraph.