HORTICULTURE. 147 



"Plowing early in May and keeping the soil well stirred through the season, end- 

 ing with the sowing of crimson clover in August for the winter cover crop, is the 

 practice of the best growers. Two good mixtures of fertilizers to apply are (1) equal 

 parts of ground bone, muriate of potash, and acid phosphate; and (2) Ik parts of 

 ground bone and 1 part of muriate of potash; 500 lbs. per acre is usually applied. 

 "Where nitrogen is needed, nitrate of soda is one of the Ijest forms, but may be omitted 

 when crimson clover is grown. 



" [Pruning before the buds start and later thinning of the fruit is recommended.] 

 Fire blight and leaf blight are the two worst diseases. In the early stages of the 

 first, cut well below the injury and burn. If Well started or into the body of the 

 tree, destroy it completely. Spraying will control the second. 



"With good trees and proper varieties to begin with and careful attention to details, 

 as outlined, good returns may be confidently expected from the culture of the pear." 



Observations and suggestions on the root killing of fruit trees, 



J. Craig (Iowa Sta. Bid. I^Ii-^i^P- l'79-213,figs. 9). — This bulletin gives 

 a review of the root killing- of fruit trees in the State and the work of 

 the station thereon, supplemented with notes from nurserymen and 

 others. The work covers especially the freeze of February, 1899, 

 when the losses were very heavy. Young- apple trees under 5 years 

 suffered more than older stock. The effect was worse on sandy soils 

 not covered with vegetation. The losses with plums emphasized the 

 value of American stocks. The only grapes exempt from injury were 

 the pure or half blood natives. 



To overcome injury to nursery stock severe heading back with 

 apples gave the best results, and with plums cutting trees back to 

 straight sticks 2 or 3 ft. in height. It was noticed that there was an 

 effort on the part of trees to recover h\ throwing out roots from the 

 scion, especially where the stock had been killed. It was found that 

 banking young apple trees with earth aided this effort. In the case of 

 nursery stock, however, it is advised in cases out of 10 to dig up 

 and burn injured trees. Nurserymen are advised to use hardy stock 

 in grafting. 



There is appended a table of information from 62 leading fruit 

 growers of the State on the subject of root killing by cold. From a 

 canvass of the whole field, the writer concludes that the lack of a pro- 

 tecting blanket of snow coincident with unusually severe cold was the 

 chief cause of the great losses by root killing, and that the amount of 

 loss bore a direct relation to the severity of the frost. Trees suffered 

 most on clean soils and on exposed dr}" knolls with northern aspects. 

 To obviate root killing the writer recommends cover crops, preferably 

 mammoth red clover or hairy vetch; the use of congenial and hardy 

 stocks for grafts; and, on soil well drained, deep planting. 



Coffee grafting — some results heretofore obtained and its future 

 importance, J. G. Kramers {Teysmannia, 10 {1899), No. 11., jyp-oSo- 

 668). — The author gives an outline of the history of efforts made to 

 graft Java coffee on hardy Liberia stocks for the purpose of resisting 

 the attacks of nematodes, points out some reasons for success or 



