i8g6. 



■ GARDENING. 



25i 



Bio Japan Chkstnuts from Seed.— E. 

 M. G., New Mexico, writes: "I have re- 

 ceived a number of large chestnuts from 

 Japan and have plauted them. May I 

 presume that these seedlings will furnish 

 me with trees bearing nuts similar to the 

 parent, or must I graft from some bear- 

 ing tree of known quality, such as 

 Paragon?" Ans. While it is reasonable 

 to assume tnat a large number of the 

 seedlings raised from large chestnuts may 

 prove to be large fruiting varieties, there 

 is no absolute certainty of this. Our own 

 experience is that seedlings often differ a 

 good deal from their parents in size and 

 fullness of their nuts and the earliness in 

 bearing of the trees. But grafted trees 

 are sure to bear the same sort of nuts as 

 the parents from which the cions were 

 taken. The Paragon is a fine large- 

 fruited chestnut, but it is European— not 

 Japanese. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



TflE VEGETABLE GARDEN IN MAY. 



At this season there will be plenty of 

 work to do in the vegetable garden. 

 Weeds will make their appearance and 

 must be attended to at once. Nowhere 

 does the old saying "Astitchin timesaves 

 nine" apply more forcibly than in the gar- 

 den. To-day the slightest stirring of the 

 soil destroys the tiny weeds by the thou- 

 sands. Wait a week and what a job you 

 have! 



Beets and Carrots.— The early sow- 

 ings will need to be thinned and kept 

 clean. Sowings may be made of beets for 

 succession and of carrots for main crop. 



Bush Beans. — As soon as danger of 

 frost is past, about the 10th of May, sow- 

 ings may be made in rows 2\'-> feet apart. 

 Round pod Valentine for green, atfd Black 

 Wax, are as good as any. Sow for suc- 

 cussion every 10 or 12 days. 



Lima Beans.— Get the ground ready at 

 once and when the cold May storm which 

 usually comes about the 10th or 12th has 

 passed, and the weather settles, make up 

 the hills and plant. If your ground is 

 heavy raise the hill well up. If it is light 

 a slight rise is sufficient. Do not be afraid 

 of putting plenty of seed to each pole. 

 When they are up it is easy to pull out the 

 weak ones and keep only the most vigor- 

 ous. The "Potato" Lima is the best for 

 market; for home use the large white 

 Lima is esteemed. 



CABB.iGE. — Keep the plow and hoe mov- 

 ing in the growing crop. A little nitrate 

 of soda and superphosphate applied 

 between the rows and worked towards 

 the plants will speak for themselves. If 

 an early fall crop is wanted, sow a bed of 

 seeds now. Flat Dutch is a good kind. 



Celery.- Do not neglect the seed bed. 

 Keep it free from weeds and if the plants 

 are too much crowded thin them out. It 

 is better to sow a larger bed and thin the 

 plants, than to sow more thickly and 

 transplant them. 



Cucumbers may be sown out of doors 

 towards the middle of the month. They 

 can also be sown now in the cold frames 

 where lettuce has been grown, and so 

 brought in ahead of the "rush" using the 

 sash to forward them. 



Corn —As soon as danger of frost is 

 past and the ground is warm it maybe 

 planted. White Cory, Crosby, Perry's 

 Hybrid, Early Mammoth, and Stowell's 

 Evergreen are all good kinds for succession 

 crops. 



Lettuce. — Sow for succession everv 



two weeks where the plants are to stand, 

 dropping a few seeds at each place. When 

 well started thin to one strong plant. 

 Salamander is as good as any. White 

 Russian stands the heat well but is not so 

 good as Salamander. 



Peas.— Late peas may be sown yet. 

 Heroine and Stratagem are good. 



Parsley for winter use may be sown 

 where the cold frame lettuce hasstood. If 

 the weather is dry when sowing, the beds 

 may be mulched with salt hay or straw. 

 But be sure and take off the mulching be- 

 fore the parsley comes up. Double Curled 

 is the variety usually grownand it should 

 be mowed off twice before winter to get a 

 short, stocky growth, that will bear 

 frost. 



Strawberries.— If you grow any 

 strawberries look to the mulching. See 

 that it is pushed close to the plants so as 

 to keep the fruit clean and if any large 

 weeds show themselves pull them out 

 carefullv. P. F. 



Miscellaneous. 



J. G. C, Kansas City, Mo., sends us 

 specimens of an insect pest that is doing 

 considerable mischief in his greenhouse. 

 It is one of the thousand-legged worms. 

 Mr. C. writes: "We have used ammonia 

 as strong as we dare, soapsuds, 

 powdered lime, and we have taken all 

 of the plants out of the house and washed 

 the benches and other p;irts of the interior 

 and sprinkled them with powdered lime, 

 then put on two inches deep of cinders on 

 the benches and covered with lime before 

 replacing the pots, and still the worms 

 come, lying under each pot, from one to 

 a dozen of them, and also on top of the 

 cinders. In the greenhouse are three 

 b ds of earth mixed with sheep manure 

 from the stock vards." 



The greenhouse pest of the ; 



municatton proves to be, upon examina- 

 tion of the specimen sent, one of the 

 numerous species of "thousand-legged 

 worms" that occur in the United States. 

 Those that usually come under observa- 

 tion have rounded, cylindrical bodies, as 

 seen in the family of Julida;. Those re- 

 ceived are flattened and spreading out at 

 the sides, where the numerous short legs 

 with which they are furnished have some- 

 what the appearance of a fringe. Most 

 of them are about three fourths of an 

 inch long, of a reddish-brown color, and 

 are apparently full-grown, while others 

 are about one-half an inch in length and 

 whitish. The head bears a pair of seven- 

 jointed antenna;, and the body twenty- 

 nine pairs of legs — one to each of the first 

 three segments, two pairs to the follow- 

 ing thirteen, and the last three legless 

 (apodal), the hinder angles of the seg- 

 ments are acute. 



They evidently belong to the genus 

 Polydesmus, near to the European 

 species Polydesmus complanatus; or "the 

 flattened millipede," which is represented 

 by Curtis and other writers as being one 

 of the most destructive of its kind, feeding 

 upon the roots of wheat, onions, pansies, 

 and several garden products. Dr. Fitch, 

 in his "Tenth Report ou the Insects of 

 New York," has given a detailed account 

 of the habits of one of the "flattened cen- 

 tipedes," which he regards as identical 

 with the European complanatus. It 

 seems, however, to be diflerent, for that 

 species has not been recognized as yet in 

 our country. It is thought that the 

 form that Dr. Fitch wrote of (without 

 any accompanying description) may- 

 have been the Polydesmus Canadensis 

 Newport, figured and briefly described by. 

 Dr. Packard in his "Guide to the Study 

 of Insects," page G77. He represents it 

 as "crawling everywhere over the damp 

 surface of the ground at night in search 

 of the nicest, daintiest food it could dis- 

 cover, and withdrawing into the crevices 

 under chips, stones and similar situations 

 during the daytime." The underside of 

 cucumbers lying on the damp ground 

 were often almost covered with them ard 



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