January 25, 1913 



HORTICULTURE 



109 



temperature is correct in the middle of the house, it is 

 too cold at the one end and too hot at the other. This 

 condition is so well known to gardeners and florists that 

 it has become habitual to speak of the warm end or the 

 cool end of the house. We all realize that at times this 

 condition of varying temperature is a convenience and 

 enables us to grow several different kinds of plants in the 

 same house, still there is no reason why the same object 

 may not be attained at our wish, by the use of a few 

 extra valves. The writer refuses to believe that it is 

 beyond the ability of a competent heating engineer to so 

 lay out the pipes as to produce a practically uniform 

 temperature throughout any house. 

 Axiom: — Heating pipes should he so distribuicd as to 

 give an uniform temperature throughout. 



Having dealt with a builders' fallacy we come now to 

 one we have frequently met among the growers, which 

 is, the idea of pushing the fires in the evening sufficiently 

 to raise the temperatures several degrees above the max- 

 imum so as to allow for the drop which usually comes 

 through the night. This is decidedly fallacious reason- 

 ing as a little of that contemplative state of mind previ- 

 ously referred to would show, for night with its ab- 

 sence of light and lower temperatures is a period of rest 

 or partial rest, and if there must be a variation of tem- 

 perature from the maximum, a degree or two lower is far 

 less harmful than the same amount higher; and while 

 on this subject of temperatures I cannot refrain from 

 trying to impress upon young men learning the business 

 the importance of correct tenijieraturcs. and it /.«-• impor- 

 tant, for, given the maximum temperature for any plant, 

 deviation from this is harmful in some degree, more or 

 less, as the deviation be greater or smaller. 

 Axiom : — Maximum temperatures should he maintained. 

 Land Drainage 



As this is work which often comes within the province 

 of the gardener, in making lawns and vegetable gar- 

 dens, and still more so where he has charge of the farm, 

 the writer proposes only to touch upon two of the most 

 frequent fallacies here and to treat upon this subject in 

 a special article at some future date, giving it some 

 measure of that consideration which so important a 

 subject merits. 



The first drainage fallacy is this : Putting drains 

 only two feet or thirty inches below the surface because 

 the subsoil is clay and won't drain (?) or because the 

 ■drainer thinks they will act quicker, or because he wants 

 to do it inexpensively or for any other specious reason. 

 At any such depths as those mentioned there is danger 

 ■of disturbance from frost in any northerly climate, and 

 also from tree roots finding their way into the tile and 

 stopping them up, and as a drain two feet deep will only 

 drain half the area of a drain four feet deep it is obvious 

 that just double the amount of ditches must be dug and 

 twice as many tiles bought, so that instead of a cheap job 

 shallow drains are expensive, and the argument about 

 the clay soil has been proven fallacious innumerable 

 times. Further, it is the consensus of opinion of the 

 best drainage engineers of the world that universal ex- 

 perience has shown four feet as an average depth to be 

 the best under all circumstances. 



Axiom : — Shallow draining is expensive and inefficient. 



Coming now to our second drainage fallacy, viz. — 

 That good drainage is promoted by putting porous ma- 

 terial over the tile with the idea of conducting the water 

 more quickly to the drain, I am not surprised that the 

 average man falls into this error when only a few days 

 ago I heard a professor from our agricultural college 

 advocating this same mistaken idea ; when asked what he 

 would cover the upper joints of the pipe with, his reply 



was to the effect that he preferred gravel to tar-paper. 

 No more pernicious advice could come from a man whom 

 we would expect to be an expert on drainage, for to fol- 

 low it would endanger the whole system. Water which 

 percolates downward through any coarse or porous ma- 

 terial will carry silt with it ; this silt will go into the tile 

 if it can enter the top joints of the drain and will sooner 

 or later block it ; hence, every precaution should be taken 

 to -avoid this. The modern method is to put strips of 

 tar-paper about two-thirds of the way around the tile, 

 leaving only one-third at the bottom open. 

 Axiom: — Water should never enter a drain-tile from 

 the top. 



Lenox, Mass. 



The Red Spider Question 



Mr. Jenkins' article on Red Spider in issue of Jan- 

 uary 4th, was a pleasing relief to see. In these columns 

 red"spider has been warred against times without num- 

 ber and the writer has not "trod on his corns" unneces- 

 f^arilv. Now to find such a minute "'reptile" given such 

 a lashing signifies that there is just cause for continu- 

 ally jogging up readers' memories that such a ferocious 

 enemy exists and may make an appearance at any mo- 

 ment" Few establishments have gone a whole season 

 without making his acquaintance. It certainly is true 

 that a man's ability can in some way be gauged on the 

 pest question, because if the pests are there, first-class 

 results are impossible. 



I do not wish to detract from Mr. Jenkins' article, but 

 when he says damping is of no use against spider I beg 

 to differ. Yes sir; even after considering the instance 

 quoted of red spider on the Cyperus alternifolius leaf 

 half-submerged in water. I have seen similar instances 

 Init there was a cause. To quote one : — A show house I 

 had charge of as an assistant had more than half of the 

 floor area given up to water space, — tanks arranged for 

 effect. It was customary to keep this house as bright as 

 possible at all seasons of the year and batches of plants 

 were grown expressly for this purpose. The one under 

 notice was Clerodendron fallax and they came in there 

 laden with spider. Long before these new comers had 

 finished flowering we had spider, spider everywhere. 

 Things that had been in that house for months, not 

 knowing spider, were now being eaten up. Why? Be- 

 cause of the importation, and while the house had been 

 clean previously, after the stock was once given a chance 

 the moisture was not enough to kill them. Violence was 

 needed. Water "pressure" we know is the best way of 

 eradication. Take vines for instance, which cannot be 

 syringed after a certain period ; what would they be like 

 without damping? Why is it spider always makes its 

 first appearance on a peach tree right where the foliage 

 touches the pipes or hangs over a main ? Take a bench 

 of beans, the dryest end is sure to secure the lead in a 

 "spider race." 



Yes sir; while admitting that damping will not Wl 

 red spider once it has a foothold, it is the greatest pre- 

 ventive we have and prevention is better than cure. 



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