234 



GARDENING. 



April i^^ 



a long keeper, but on the other hand is 

 the poorest grower in my list of more 

 than forty varieties, and never fiils to 

 set from two to three times the right 

 amount of fruit. The newest winter 

 pears, Fred Baudry and Olivier des 

 Serres have not yet borne; each with 

 me is a poor grower. I plan to try the 

 Easter Beurre in the warmest and most 

 sheltered place onmy groundsas a dwarf, 

 and with the highest culture, hoping to 

 secure in these ways a more complete and 

 even maturing of the fruit. 

 Amherst, Mass. A. D. Mokse. 



SCALE INSECTS. 



I herewith send to you some pieces of 

 branches taken from an apple tree, as you 

 will see they are covered with insects. 

 What are they and how can I get rid of 

 them? They have spoiled a good many 

 trees here. H. M. 



Milwaukee. 



The apple-tree twigs are almost covered 

 with scales of two species of scale insects, 

 viz., the apple-tree bark-louse, Mytilaspis 

 pomorurn { Bouche), and the white scale, 

 Chionaspis furfurus (Fitch); the first 

 named is the brown oyster-shell form, 

 which, from its peculiar shape, was 

 formerly known as "the oyster-shell bark- 

 louse." 



Each of these species is quite destruc- 

 tive to the trees that it infests, and the 

 abundant presence of either one may be 

 fatal to the tree. When a tree has been 

 permitted to become badly infested it is 

 better to cut it down at once and burn it 

 rather "than to attempt to save it. 



In moderate infestations the insects 

 may be killed by thorough spraying with 

 kerosene emulsion at the time when the 

 young have hatched from the eggs and 

 are traveling over the branches prior to 

 their attaching themselves to the bark 

 and sheltering themselves beneath an ex- 

 creted scale. This would be appro.xi- 

 niately from the middle to the end of May 

 for the latitude of New York and Michi- 

 gan. The precise time of hatching may 

 be determined by occasional examination 

 with a magnifying glass during this 

 period. Or, if the spraying is not delayed 

 later than the first of June, it would then 

 probably reach and destroy all the young, 

 even those which have commenced to 

 secrete the scale. The soap emulsion 

 made according to the usual formula may 

 be diluted with ten parts of water. A 

 strong solution of tobacco would prob- 

 ably kill nearly all of the active insects. 

 Two sprayings would be preferable to 

 one. J. A. LiNT.NER. 



Office of N. Y. State Entomologist. 



BUSH ALPINE STRAWBERRIES. 



A. D. M., asks: "Where canlfind plants 

 or seeds of the bush Alpine strawberry?" 



Ans. Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, 

 N. Y., offer both the red and white Bush 

 Alpines in their strawberry catalogue for 

 fall of 1893. A. S. Fuller. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



The first week in May we finish |)lant- 

 ing the plot left for late peas by putting 

 in Yorkshire Hero and Juno and nowpre- 

 ])arc the ground designed for melons and 

 cucumbers by marking deep furrows, ap- 

 plying well-rotted manure strewn in drill, 

 cover with plow, smooth down to make 



a level seed bed, and set your drill to sow 

 the cucumber and melon seed very thick 

 in the rows. Leave the plants at last 

 thinning to stand cucumbers 8 inches, 

 melons 12 inches and watermelons 2 feet 

 apart. Keep the plants well dusted with 

 tobacco dust when young to keep off in- 

 sects and do not thin all at once; do this 

 gradually as the plants crowd each other. 

 In cucumbers nothing is better than a 

 good strain of White Spine for first crop 

 and Long Green for second crop. We like 

 the Emerald Gem muskmelon first rate, 

 also plant Golden netted Gem and Hack- 

 ensack. Taken one year with another we 

 consider the Phinney watermelon up head 

 for northern latitudes. The White-seeded, 

 Ice Cream and Florida Favorite also are 

 grown and both are good. 



We endeavor to keep a succession of 

 sweet com till frost and plant in hills 3 

 feet by 4 feet, plant the following varieties 

 all in one day, depending on White Cob 

 Cory for first pulling, then comes Minne- 

 sota, Crosby, Pee and Kay, Moore's Con- 

 cord, Large Excelsior, Roslyn Hybrid and 

 Late Mammoth. Every 10 days we make 

 another planting of the Late Mammoth 

 to the 4th of July. This gives a desirable 

 succession till frost. 



For the first picking of bush beans 

 plant the Ne Plus Ultra and for second 

 picking Refugee. In wax beans the Im- 

 proved Black Wax is one of the best. 

 Avoid over-crowding the bean plant. 

 Plant in drills 2 feet apart and thin to 8 

 inches in the row. 



The 20th of May is time enough to 

 think of planting Lima beans, tomatoes 

 and plants of sub-tropical origin on Long 

 Island. Holes 4x4 are close enough for 

 Lima beans. Plant 12 or 15 seeds in a 

 hill and when nicely up thin to three. 

 Challenger Lima is our favorite. 



Tomato plants having been grown and 

 transplanted once under glass are now 

 taken up, placed in hills 4 feet by 6 feet, 

 shading them during heat of the day and 

 at night in case of frost. For early the 

 Red Apple or Early Michigan followed by 

 Dwarf Champion; Beauty and Favorite 

 are the best of the older varieties. 



Pepper plants from the hotbed can now 

 be set 18 inches apart in rows 2 feet asun- 

 der. Large Bell is preferred. 



The first day of June is soon enough for 

 putting out egg plants. Have your 

 plants large and stocky by transplanting 

 once under glass, then set them out 3 feet 

 by 4 and keep them shaded for a few days. 

 They will well repay an extra allowance 

 of well-rotted manure Keep all potato 

 beetles picked off the egg plants twice 

 every day. The spineless strain of the 

 New York Improved is the only kind to 

 plant as a stand-by. 



Squashes may also be planted at this 

 time. Plant the bush and summercrook- 

 neck in hills 4 feet apart for early. The 

 Boston marrow, Hubbard and' Pike's 

 Peak or Sibley for fall and winter use in 

 hills six feet apart. 



Celery we start in cool hotbed in April, 

 transplant in May and plant it out in 

 July. For it give the land an extra coat 

 of well-rotted manure and plant in bot- 

 tom of shallow drills 8 inches apart, the 

 drills being 4 feet asunder. Earth up as 

 the plants advance in size. We esteem 

 the Crawford Half Dwarf and Perfection 

 Heartwell the best ol all. 



The first cultivation of the above vege- 

 tables is done by the use of a small plow 

 with a cabbage mould. Later cultivation 

 consists of weeding and hoeing followed 

 by a one-horse cultivator. 



Silas L. Albertson, 



Loug Island. Market Gardener. 



Miscellaneous. 



Among the hosts of your contributors 

 who crowd the pages of your valuable 

 journal with their experiences as cultiva- 

 tors, many seem content with planting 

 for a single season only, and are satisfied 

 with the flowers and fVuits which they 

 can push ahead and enjoy in one of our 

 short northern summers. This is, it is 

 true, a great satisfaction, but it is only 

 one of the satisfactions which await on 

 the enthusiastic cultivator whose garden 

 is his idol, and whose delight is in watch- 

 ing nature's countless processes of germi- 

 nation and development. 



For thirty years I have found pleasure 

 and profit in observing the results of seed 

 planting and in growing many varieties 

 of bulbs and shrubs and trees from seed. 

 Though this requires much time and 

 patience it is found to pay well, and such 

 experiments invariably prove interesting 

 and occasionally very successful. 



In this busy, oustling age, we hear men 

 say, "Who wants to plant for posterity? 

 Life is too short to plant a nut 

 and wait for its fruit. It is enough for 

 me to plant what will give me this year's 

 flowers or this summer's results, and I 

 don't care to plant a crop which I may 

 not live to reap." 



And yet, those hurrying souls lose much 

 of the pleasure which their garden can 

 afford if they do not experiment a little as 

 they go along; if they donot, while gather- 

 ing the transient crop of the summer, cast 

 an eye ahead also to future possibilities. 

 They lose nothing by doing so, they waste 

 no time. Their interest is stimulated, 

 their knowledge is increased, their taste 

 is cultivated, and surely to stand at the 

 cradle of rare plant or tree, to watch its 

 young growth and to shape its gradual 

 development, becomes of itself an educa- 

 tion and a permanent charm. 



In the last score or two of years I have 

 greatly enjoyed experiments with seed 

 planting as a recreation in a busy life, 

 and I have felt abundantly paid, both in 

 its practice and in its results. 



Lilies, hyacinths, amaryllis, snowdrops, 

 are all easily raised from seed and only 

 time and patience are needed to insure 

 success. Lilium candidum blooms in the 

 fourth year from seed and with a little 

 forcing can be made to bloom in three 

 years. Hyacinths bloom in three years, 

 but being a hybrid forcenturies the sport- 

 ing goes on indefinitely, and we can never 

 expect that the seed product will resemble 

 the parent in color or character, as the 

 variations from the type are endless. 

 Hence experiments with hyacinths are all 

 the more interesting from this fact and 

 new colors appear with each new genera- 

 tion. 



With tulips I have had no success, but 

 snowdrops (galantbus) bloom freely 

 from seed in three years, maintaining the 

 parent type and improving in size of 

 bloom. 



The amaryllis (Belladonna major) pro- 

 duces its like and with flowers improved 

 in size and in tint. The different varie- 

 ties of iris are indefinitely multiplied from 

 seed, even without special care. The 

 yuccas are equally successful and the 1'. 

 filamentosa, ifwell tended, will sometimes 

 bloom in the second year from seed. 



Of shrubs I have had most success with 

 the deutzias, syringa ( Pbiladelphus) , 

 exochorda and a few of the other spir.-eas. 

 The mespilus andsterculiaaud our native 



