DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 45 



removal of many herbaceous plants once in two to four. years enables them 

 to thrive all the better, and the labor and risk is of little moment. 



Late in October, the garden is hoed over thoroughly, thus doing spring 

 work in autumn. Some plants every fall, and this year an unusual number, 

 are covered with a little barnyard manure, over which is usually heaped a 

 small pile of earth. Over the bogs are placed quantities of autumn leaves, 

 a foot or more in depth, and to hold the leaves in place, we use coarse wire 

 netting and lath screens. A load or two of coarse marsh hay, consisting 

 mostly of sedges, constitutes the chief material for mulch during winter. 

 It is cheap, tough, dingy in color, so that a few straws left on the ground 

 in spring are much less conspicuous and objectionable than straw of wheat, 

 rye, or oats. 



Much to my regret, owing to partial failure of the artesian wells to supply 

 all the numerous demands of our increased population, we have been com- 

 pelled to resort to the use of river water to keep the ponds and bogs well 

 supplied. This water, as you know, during a portion of the spring, is al- 

 most as dark as coffee. 



To keep in check the water-snails, worms and insects and to prevent 

 the multiplication of mosquitoes, a few sun-fish have been kept in the ponds, 

 and they do their work most effectually. From early August to late Oc- 

 tober, we usually trap about a dozen muskrats, which show no respect for 

 our tenderest and choicest aquatics. Red squirrels and chipmonks receive 

 the same kind of attention as the muskrats, for they are very mischievious. 

 Ground moles are annoying and our efforts to exterminate them usually 

 avail little. This year we used in their runways perhaps ten pounds of 

 pulverized condensed lye, with little evidence that it reduced the number. 

 There are not a few other annoyances to contend with, such as surface 

 water from the sloping banks and quantities of earth from the banks of 

 the roadway passing across the brook above the garden, this earth cover- 

 ing our plants and choking the brook. 



The worst weeds in the garden are quackgrass in a few of the newer por- 

 tions, and seeds of plants that we grow in some of the plots, including an- 

 nual spear grass, narrow-leaved dock, and a few others introduced with 

 the compost. Ten or twelve years ago, I introduced into the deeper pond 

 an aquatic from the South, a plant allied to the water lilies, and known as 

 Caboba Caroliniana. It thrives and spreads rapidly. It is fished out with 

 hoe, rake, and dip-net, but small fragments of stems break off, float about, 

 take root, thrive, and multiply. . To kill quack grass on a sloping bank of 

 the brook, where cultivation is impracticable, three years ago, I used two 

 barrels of salt on an area about four rods long. This cost too much and 

 took too long. This year, at a trifling cost, I spread tarred building paper 

 closely over another portion of a bank of the brook, killing quack grass 

 with perfect success. 



To keep all plants plainly and correctly labelled is no small task. At 

 different times, I have in turn, adopted the style of labels of the two oldest 

 gardens in this country, to soon abandon both for something different. 

 Both of the gardens referred to have made a number of changes in style 

 of labels. For a few years now, the label used may be described as fol- 

 lows: A straight piece of iron one-eighth by three-fourths of an inch in 

 section and eighteen inches long; across the top is riveted a piece of thick 

 sheet steel two and a half by four inches, when the whole is galvanized. 

 For some reason, the names painted on these labels, vary much in dura- 



