isn.j 



AND EOBTIGULTURIST. 



361 



for identification, and afterwards at our request 

 for some particulars regarding their plant, 

 obligingly sent the following : 



" The flower and leaves that I sent to you 

 came from Mr. Menand at Albanj', but since 

 then Mr. Ames has bought the plant. It is quite 

 large— about seven feet high by four feet through, 

 and has a good head. The stem at the base is 

 eight and a half inches around ; at two feet from 

 the ground it begins to branch, the branches be- 

 ing more inclined to grow upwards than horizon- 

 tally outwards, but if they were trained they 

 would make a fine head. Mr. Menand says it 

 keeps flowering all Winter, the blossoms being 

 produced on the old wood, five or six clusters on 

 a stem. Just now they are growing on the two- 

 year old wood, and one cluster on the three-year 

 old wood. You say it is of slender habit; but 

 our plant is just the reverse, the wood being 

 very strong and shrubbj', and the two and three 



year old wood is furnished with leaves, say twelve 

 or fifteen inches down the stem." 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Cure for Mealy Bug. — "Reader" writes: — 

 "Is there any cure for mealy bug? I have a 

 fine lot of Bouvardias that are badly infested by 

 these pests. I am using whale oil soap. Is 

 there anything better? Please advise in your 

 next Monthly and oblige. 



[We must say that w'e have never had a 

 remedy for mealy bug that was entirely satisfac- 

 tory. If taken in time they may be easily kept 

 down ; but when they once get possession they 

 hold it pretty well. Diluted spirits of wine is fair. 



If any of our readers have a really good reme- 

 dy, easy to apply, we shall be glad to know. — Ed. 

 G. M. I 



>RUIT AND MEGETABLE GARDENING. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Where fruit tr^es are grown among vegetable 

 or farm crops, they will generally take care of 

 themselves, and seize on some of the food in- 

 tended for the crops ; where nothing else but 

 trees are grown they should be top-dressed occa- 

 sionally. It pays to feed orchards as well as 

 other things. The season of leisure is a good one 

 to do it in. The best kind of manure for the 

 purpose is that which can be had the easiest. 

 Where no crop whatever is taken off", coal ashes 

 are good. It is said there is no fertilizing mate- 

 rial in coal ashes, but somehow trees grow won- 

 derfully when top-dressed with them. 



Young growing trees are very much benefited 

 bj' having their bark slit by running the knife 

 up and down freely, they must not be cut 

 cross-wise or horizontally ; also they are much 

 benefited by having their trunks and main 

 branches washed with whitewash, sulphur and 

 soot. These are " old fogy notions," but try 

 them and blame us if they prove wrong. Where 

 branches have grown too thick, cut out the sur- 



plus ones. If this happens to be a large branch 

 paint the scar to keep it from rotting till the 

 wound heals over. If the trees are large, and 

 the old bearing wood seems weak, cut some of it 

 away and encourage young vigorous branches 

 from the interior to take their place. If you 

 have a large orchard of plum trees it may pay to 

 keep a person in early Summer jarring the trees. 

 If you have but a few trees, it is better to invest 

 fifty cents in mosquito netting to cover each 

 tree with, and you may now keep this in view 

 in pruning time, and cut your tree so as to best 

 suit your net. Look after the labels. Much of 

 the interest in an amateur's orchard is in know- 

 ing the names. After years of observation and 

 experiment we have found no fanc^' labelling so 

 gr)od as a good piece of pine wood, about six 

 inches long, one inch wide and the eighth of an 

 inch thick, the name written when fresh painted 

 with white lead, and a piece of very thick copper 

 wire ran through the end. It should be hung 

 around the trunk over a fork, and with a loop 

 many inches round, so as to give room for many 

 years increase in the diameter of the stem. On 

 this the names may be written so large that he 



