72 



• GARDENING. 



Noz 



To enjoy to the fullest extent and from 

 near by the rich autumn coloring of these 

 trees, they should be low branched. 

 When the trees are trimmed to a high 

 stem, one has to go a good distance 

 away to see their beauty. Indeed, it 

 required oak trees may be kept almost as 

 bushes by constant pruning. 



Philadelphia. J. Meehan. 



POISON IVY-VlROlNIfl CREEPER. 



In our woods the poison ivy and the 

 Virginia creeper are abundant. Both 

 chmb up the tree trunks, and to a child 

 closely resemble each other. I deemed it 

 prudent to warm my children of the dan- 

 gerous character of the former, and in 

 order to impress it upon their minds, 

 resorted to "Kindergarden" methods. I 

 said, "You havefivefingers on each hand, 

 that is good. The Virginia creeper has 

 five leaflets on each leaf, that is good also. 

 Suppose you were playing with an axe 

 and cut off some fingers so you would 

 only have three left, that would be bad. 

 The poison ivv has only three leafllets on 

 each leaf, and that is bad too." To tell 

 them that one had five and the other three 

 leaflets would in a few days leave them in 

 doubt as to which was which but in 

 putting it to them as above they remem- 

 ber it. W. C. Egan. 



A FINE Wistaria, but pruning, 



DROUTH, and frost ALMOST KILLED IT.— L. 



G. C, Chrisman, Va., writes: "Last 

 winter my wistaria was growing fast at 

 Christmas, the summer's drouth and the 

 severe pruning Mr. C. give it in the 

 spring had held it back until the wet fall. 

 When the cold came it froze and burst 

 open to thegroundanddiedas low down. 

 It has grown up again, however, but will 

 take some years to be the tree it was, it 

 had a trunk 18 inches in circumference. 



The Fruit Garden. 



Some 20 years ago I had a desire to 

 cultivate English gooseberries, but was 

 told by members of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society that it would be in 

 vain, and labor lost.' Nevertheless I was 

 not discouraged as I knew they had been 

 successfully produced for several consecu- 

 tive years by an English gardener on the 

 famous Pratt Place, Oakly, at Waterto wn 

 near by me. 



My brother being about leaving for 

 Europe I asked him when at Liverpool or 

 London, to order from a reUable nursery- 

 man one-fourth dozen each oi best selected 

 ])lants of named varieties, red, white 

 green and yellow. When the plants were 

 received I was more than satisfied, they 

 were strong and vigorous then and have 

 performed admirably ever since. Before 

 receiving the plants, I remembered that 

 the English climate was moist and quite 

 difierent from our dry summers. I there- 

 fore selected a location for the plants on 

 the north side of a tight board fence, six 

 Icet high, where they received the rays of 

 the sun morning and evening, but not in 

 the middle of the day. The soil was 

 originally stiflT clay, but we had it sub- 

 soiled two feet deep working in liberally 

 sand and cow manure and the field stones 

 were utilized for drains. The growth the 

 first year was strong, free from mildew 

 and other ailments. In early winter I 

 cut out several canes from each plant and 

 reduced the remaining ones about half; 



second year we had a good crop of berries 

 in perfect condition, and have continued 

 subsequently to grow them successfully to 

 date, as the printed transactions of Mass. 

 Hort. Society will show by its record of 

 prizes. As a rule I think our failures in culti- 

 vation of fruit, indeed I may say almost 

 any product of thegarden or orchard, is in 

 not carefully studying their requirements. 

 The never to be forgotten Marshall P. 

 Wilder used to remark a man easily dis- 

 couraged in his work was not worthy 

 the name of horticulturist. 



Benjamin G. Smith. 

 Cambridge, Mass., October 22, 1.S9.5. 



PEflR TREE SCALE. 



H. T. T., New Jersey, writes: "Can you 

 give me any information about the scale 

 on the bark of pear trees? I have some 

 trees which I bought from a nursery two 

 years ago and they are covered with 

 scale from the ground up to the top?" 



Were they ours we would root them out 

 and burn them and replace with new 

 guaranteed clean stock. If you wish to 

 save them, you must scrape or scrub 

 them all over with a short, very stiff 

 bristled brush, being particular about the 

 eyes and tips, then wipe them over with 

 a solution of kerosene and whale oil soap. 

 This isn't such a big job as it may seem, 

 an active man will do a good many young 

 trees in a day, and if carefully done the 

 cure is almost complete. For the stems 

 and main branches use a common scrub- 

 bing brush, for the small branches have a 

 worn-out stiff paint brush with the 

 bristles cut hard back to stiffen the 

 stumps. Dissolve a half pound of whale 

 oil soap in a gallon of hot water, and 

 then add a quart or a little over of 

 kerosene, stir it well up together, and use 

 this for the paint or wash. We have used 

 this strength in winter on pear, apple, 

 walnut, lilac, willow, euonymus, and 

 some other trees and shrubs with no ap- 

 parent injury to the bark or buds. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



LEEKS. 



Dr. 0. F. K.; Mass., writes: "I have a 

 lot of leeks and do not know what to do 

 with them. Thev look like big scullions. 

 They are still in the ground. What shall 

 I do with them? In what respect are they 

 better than onions? If one can raise 

 onions why should he raise leeks?" 



The leek is a very hardy vegetable be- 

 longing to the onionlamily. Its clasping 

 leaves form a long, white neck or stem 

 with a faint swelling at the base, it never 

 forms a bulb like an onion, nor can it be 

 dried off bulb-like as we do onions A 

 few will suffice for a family's use. Just 

 before hard frost sets in lift your leeks, 

 and heel them in earth in a packing box 

 or in a corner of the cellar, or in a corner 

 in thegarden out of doors, placing an in- 

 verted packing box over them and some 

 leaves and litter over the box, the object 

 is to keep the frost away from them 

 enough to allow us to get them when we 

 want them and not for any doubt about 

 thtir hardiness. You ask why "why 

 should we raise leeks?" Doctor, wereyou 

 a Welshman you'd reverence the leeli as 

 well as eat it, were you a Scotchman the 

 mention of cock-a-leekie would make your 

 mouth water, were you physician of our 

 grandmother's time you'd prescribe leek 

 milk (milk in which leeks had been boiled 

 till it became thick) to your patients for 

 a cold, and were you a D. D. you'd oc- 

 casionally remind your congregation that 



the leek was one of the good things the 

 IsraeHtes had in Egipt, and for which 

 they afterwards sighed (see Numbers 

 XI 5.). Nowadays leeks are cut up in 

 thin slices and used in vegetable soup, or 

 their long white stems boiled whole are 

 used to flavor soup, and they are also 

 served as a vegetable whole or shredded; 

 stewed leeks, when properly cooked, are 

 an excellent dish with roast meat, in fact 

 they impart a flavor distinct from that of 

 onions or garlic. At the same tinie a 

 hundred times more onions than leeks are 

 used in our homes. 



VlflTERCRESSES CELERY. 



Watercresses.— L. G. C, in Western 

 Virginia, writes: "Please give me some 

 instructions as to raising watercresses 

 for home use. We have plenty of good 

 water all over the place. We have four 

 spring branches, besides our house springs 

 of which there are three, and they never 

 go dry." 



Ans. Nothing can beeasier raised taan 

 water cress. It grows freely in wet 

 ground, in ditches and alongside of small 

 streams. But the best way to grow it is 

 in shallow running spring water on a 

 sandy bottom. It isapt to be washed out 

 of spring branches subject to occasional 

 floodings by freshets. Prepare a bed in 

 one of your spring overflows, afew inches 

 deep — one to four— of water and with a 

 sandy bottom, then get a bundle of cress 

 from some one (if you cannot get it in 

 your neighborhood we will be glad to 

 send you some, for lots of it grow in as 

 spring branch not tar from here) and take 

 the pieces and place them in the water 

 with a stone on top of each piece to fix it 

 to the sand bed. Some folks plant them 

 with a dibble, but a stone, brickbat or 

 clod is as good. The planting may be 

 done now or in spring. 



Celery.— "How would it, do to grow 

 my celery along one of these spring 

 branches and take it up for wintering, as 

 a freshet might take all the dirt off in 

 fall?" 



Ans. Just the place for it we should 

 think. While celery loves moist ground, 

 a stagnant wet land isn't a good place 

 for it, it is too productive of leaf blight. 

 But the moist land alongside of a spring 

 branch is not apt to be sour, hence we 

 should regard it as being a firstrate place 

 for celery. However, celery is so fickle that 

 we must ask you to try it as an experi- 

 ment first before risking your full crop 

 there. 



THE BEAN MILDEW. 



[Phylopbthora Phaseoli Thax). 



The editor of Gardening sends me for 

 determination and further information a 

 box of diseased beans with the statement 

 that some fields of beans are badly 

 attacked by the troublein question. The 

 beans received are infested with what is 

 mw known as the Bean Mildew. This 

 is a genuine fungous disease and the 

 destruction is caused hy a mildew now 

 known to science under the name of 

 Phylopbthora Phaseoli Thax. It is how- 

 ever, of quite recent discovery and for 

 that reason and also because of its possi- 

 ble great injury to the bean industry in 

 the near future it seems wise to present 

 the subject with an engraving to the 

 readers of Gardeni.ng. 



It is already not uncommon upon the 

 Lima beans, as yet the writer has not 

 met with it upon any other sorts of beans 

 and he should be pleased to learn if it-has 

 appeared upon ordinary pole or bush 

 beans. That it is not rare, may be shown 

 bv tlie fact that the writer when wishing 



