1895. 



• ' GARDENING. 



281 



including a floral calendar." This gives 

 the n:imc, l'an)ily. color, locality, environ- 

 ment niid time ot blooming of a great 

 Tiumberof plants, and the page in the body 

 ol the book where each one is referred to 

 is .ilso noted. .Mtogether it is a delightful 

 book, and tlie ilhistrations drawn from 

 life by the anthoi liimsellarc so truthful 

 as to be an inv;dual)Ie help in recognizing 

 the flowers referred to. 



"rossuMS V. Birds in theGakden.— Wc 

 love birds and delight to encourage them 

 to make their home in the garden, to live 

 in it and breed in it, andwc promise them 

 everv reasonable protection; they have the 

 use of every tree and shrub and vine to 

 build in, no person is allowed to molest 

 their nests, and we keep a gun to save 

 them from the hawks. But in the 'possum 

 they have an unremitting enemy. Hedoes 

 hisWork like a thief, in ti e night. Noise- 

 less and tireless he cliinbs up into the 

 bushes, and up into the trees and vines to 

 get at the birds' nests, for instinctively he 

 knows where they are, and breaks and 

 sucks the eggs. In the morning you find 

 that the robin's nest you were so proud 

 of the day before is tilted to the side and 

 torn and empty, and the broken empty 

 eggshells are scattered on the ground 

 beneath. Don't blame the small boy, for 

 he didn't do it, that is 'possum's work. 

 'Possums are (luite plentiful on Long 

 Island and lots of them find their way to 

 Dosoris; they cross the bridge from the 

 mainland. But their existence here is 

 brief, as sooner or later the dogs will get 

 them. Their habits are nocturnal and 

 their movements very quiet. During the 

 day they stay in holes under some of the 

 sheds, under the logs in the wood pile, 

 under the haystack, under the summer 

 house, and like places; we have also found 

 them lodging among the vines on top of 

 the summer house and up in the branches 

 of trees. They are very prolific, and have 

 ten or a dozen young at a time. They 

 are abroad in winter as well as in sum- 

 mer, and are easily tracked in the snow; 

 birds are then their prey. And they are 

 constant visitors to the pigs' troughs and 

 swill barrel. Look out for your chicken 

 houses, for 'possums love poultry. Baked 

 'possum and sweet potatoes are the joy of 

 the black man's heart. But what seems 

 strange to us is that among the dozens of 

 'possums that the dogs here have killed we 

 have never known the dogs to attempt to 

 eat a 'possum as they would a rabbit. 

 'Possums are bad gardeners, keep them 

 awav. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



TAB VBGBTflBLB GflRDBN. 



Outdoor lettuces, spinach, asparagus, 

 radishes, onions, chives, rhubarb and par- 

 sley are in good using condition. But we 

 must keep up a succession of good fresh 

 vegetables. 



Lima beans may be sown now with tol- 

 erable certainty of success anywhere. 

 Snap beans should be sown at least once 

 a fortnight. Better sow little and often 

 than so much at one time that they 

 would get too old before being used. We 

 keep on sowing peas up till the middle of 

 June; there is very little use sowing them 

 later because of mildew, for thev seldom 

 keep up after the 20th or 25th of July. If 

 not already done, set out egg plants, pep- 

 pers and tomatoes; indeed we sow a few 

 more about this time; they give us less 

 watery fruit in September and October 

 than do the earlier plantings. Keep the 



young celery well watered, thinthe plants 

 a little in the seed beds to make them 

 stocky and well rooted. Break oft' and 

 remove the flower stems of rhubarb. 

 Pluck out the flower heads from "set" 

 onions. Continue to plant out a. few let- 

 tuces wherever there is a little empty 

 space, also sow spinach and radish for 

 succession. If youhaven'tsown thestock 

 of late cabbages, do so now. The seed is 

 cheap, so sow enough, but don't sow 

 thick; better sow thin and have stocky 

 ])lants, for it is seldom that we have or 

 take time to thin them before planting 

 them out ])crmanently. 



Keep the hoc and the hand cultivatoror 

 horse cultivator at work among thecrops 

 to clean the ground, mellow the soil and 

 conserve moisture. And do it often. It 

 is much easier to keep the weeds down 

 when they are tjuite smallthan when they 

 get larger. 



The exhaustive article on the vegetable 

 garden printed in last issue is still per- 

 tinent. 



TAB MUSHROOM BUSINESS. 



M. K. P. F., Bay Shore, N. Y., is anx- 

 ious to go into this business as a money- 

 making venture. He writes: "My busi- 

 ness training has been entirely mercantile 

 and clerical, up to the present, so that my 

 only equipment for an agricultural pur- 

 suit is plenty of muscle and a great desire 

 to succeed financially. * * I would be 

 only too glad to offer my services, merely 

 for the training, in some successful grow- 

 er's cellar." 



That's all very pretty, but "it isn't all 

 gold that glitters." Very few men indeed, 

 have made fortunes growing mushrooms 

 alone. Mushrooms coupled with some- 

 thing else are all very well, but there is 

 too much risk in themselves alone for us 

 to abide by them only. Ourcorrespondent 

 should call at some of the commission 

 houses in New York that handle mush- 

 rooms and get acquainted with the grow- 

 ers, and see if he can come to some under- 

 standing with one of them. 



BALED MANURE FOR MUSHROOMS. 



W. F. W., Leominster, Mass., asks: 

 "Where can I buy baled horse manure in 

 Boston, suitab e for mushroom grow- 

 ing?" We do not know. Ask some of 

 the Boston agents who deal in horse 

 manure, or ask the Board of Health if 

 the manure there is baled. Some years 

 ago, by order of the Board of Health of 

 New York, the manure here had to be 

 baled and sent out of the city, but the 

 agents had great difficulty in getting rid 

 of the bales, their customers among the 

 farmers refusing to take it. Baling was 

 then done away with. But a few months 

 ago the Board of Health again ordered 

 that the manure, under certain condi- 

 tions, should be baled. 



BIG MUSHROOMS. 



I to-day gathered from an old hotbed 

 two large mushrooms {Agan'ctis catnpcs- 

 tris) which were the largest I ever grew. 

 They measured 8^ t inches and 9 inches 

 across respectively and weighed 1 lb. 2 

 oz. and 1 lb.4- oz. The stems were 2'/jx3M.' 

 inches thick. They were of an irregular 

 shape, caused by crowding each other. 

 There were three smaller ones under 

 them, and all were in a solid clumi). 



Davenport, la. 



F. H. 



Brick Spawn.— G. A., Salt Lake, Utah, 

 wishes to raise some mushrooms and 

 asks where he can get brick spawn. Send 

 to f. C. Vaughan, Chicago, or other good 



seedsmen advertising in Gardening. 

 August is soon enough to begin. 



Insects. 



PLUM TREE APHIS. 



I send you by this mail specimens o. 

 greenfly that are killi g our plum trees; 

 they made their appearance, or were first 

 noticed, two or three years ago on the 

 Abundance plum trees, but now they are 

 on all kinds. Most of them are green, 

 but later some arc black. The Icavescurl 

 up and after a while die. I have tried 

 spraying with different poisons,butdon't 

 seem to touch them— I think on account 

 of their being hid away in the curled up 

 leaves, and the poisons do not get to 

 them. What can we do to destroy them? 



Eaton, 0. S.J. G. 



The insect that is killing the leaves of 

 the plum trees is without much doubt 

 the plum tree aphis. Aphis prunifolii. Not 

 a single individual of it could be found in 

 the closely wrapped package when 

 opened, all those inclosed having been 

 destroyed bj- about a hall dozen of the 

 larva; of two or three species of Syrphus 

 flies which were among the leaves with 

 them; two of them had completed their 

 growth and had changed to their pupal 

 stage There was also with them a lady 

 hug, Coccinella novetunotata, anii a num- 

 ber of eggs which she had deposited, the 

 larvie of which would have aided those of 

 the Syrphus flies in checking the multipli- 

 cation of the aphides. Often these nat- 

 ural enemies of aphides (plant lice) 

 abound in such number that they are able 

 to arrest entirely the attack, but not 

 until serious injury has been done earlier 

 to the foliage. 



The plum tree aphis can be kept under 

 by spraying about the timethat the leaves 

 begin to appear — later the insects will be 

 so sheltered in the curling of the leaves 

 that they can not be reached by insecti- 

 cides. Paris green would be of no service 

 in aphis attack. As the food is taken by 

 suction some substance must be used that 

 kills by contact. Kerosene emulsion is 

 probably the best thing that can be used. 

 Strong soap-suds will also kill all of the 

 young plant lice while they are young, as 

 also a strong tobacco water. A whale oil 

 soap solution would be better for the pur- 

 pose than either of the last two named. 



Albany, N. Y. J. A. Ltntner. 



Miscellaneous. 



cow MANURE. 

 Sun-dried Cow Manure.— W. B. M., 

 Chicago, writes to say that he has used 

 this and also cow manure saved in the 

 ordinary way, "and find the dried to give 

 the best results," Still our experience has 

 been emphatically in favor of stable 

 saved cow manure. We submitted W. B. 

 M.'s letter, and our note page 220, to 

 Prof. I. P. Roberts, Director of the Cor- 

 nell University Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and he replies that he "can find 

 no analyses of cow chips." * * "Pul- 

 verized dry cow chips has without doubt 

 a beneficial physical effect on the potting 

 soil. If cow manure could be dried 

 and fined without exposure, it would con- 

 tain a larger amount of plant food, 

 especially nitrogen, than that dried in the 

 in the open. From the fact that it would 

 contain this larger amount of nitrogen 



