»34 



THE GARDENERS* MONTHLY 



[May, 



of the effect upon them. Last year, however, I 

 had to trim severely a Norway spruce, standing 

 some twenty feet high. It got badly injured during 

 a hail-storm, and in order to get it into shape I 

 had to cut in far towards the stem, taking care to 

 preserve a conical form, and to leave the lower 

 branches the highest. Everybody said I had 

 killed the tree, and I thought so myself. This 

 year, however, far from being a dead tree, it is 

 pushing out new growth with more energy than 

 since I have known it. This leads me to think 

 that perhaps the knife would benefit some other 

 evergreens that are a little lazy. Do all evergreens 

 bear trimming, or is this experience of mine merely 

 an accident ? 



" Your answer will greatly interest me, and prob- 

 ably many more of your readers. Pardon such a 

 long letter, but being really anxious to learn, and 

 knowing no better source of information, I have 

 taken a liberty I should not dare to do often." 



[We know of no department of education 

 wherein it is so necessary to remember that circum- 

 stances alter cases as in gardening. The state- 

 ment, for instance, that blue grass will crowd out 

 all other grasses, is true when the grasses are left 

 to grow up and mature ; but, as our correspondent 

 correctly remarks, it is not true when the grass is 

 in the shape of a closely mown lawn. Or it may 

 be true of a closely mown lawn in the North, where 

 the climate will keep the grass green and growing 

 all the summer long, and where " crab-grass," 

 " fall grass " and other tropical grasses do not find 

 themselves so much at home ; while in Arkansas 

 the fall grasses would have the great advantage. 



So with mowing. Here in the North there are 

 many small growing plants which infest lawns 

 when the grass is kept low. Then they get light 

 and air, and creep and flourish. If the grass is not 

 cut very low there is too much shade for these lit- 

 tle pests, and they get smothered out. We see, 

 therefore, that cutting long or cutting low depends 

 on circumstances. It depends on whether we are 

 plagued with low growing weeds or not. There is 

 no reason for cutting the grass long if we are not 

 troubled with creeping weeds. Just so with leav- 

 ing the mowings on the lawn. These shade the 

 living grass to some extent, and shade tends to 

 weaken what is growing under it. But there may 

 be cases where the shade injures so little- that it 

 would not be worth the trouble of clearing the 

 mowings off. 



Still again, we have an illustration of varying 

 results in the case of evergreens growing in grass. 

 If the evergreen is weak, and we allow tall and 

 rank grass to take away the food and moisture 

 required by the tree, the tree will suffer. It 

 would be what orchardists have got into the habit 

 of calling bad "cultivation;" but if the grass is 

 kept short, and then not much food or moisture 

 abstracted, the shade afforded by the sod, and con- 

 sequent coolness for the roots of the evergreen 

 would be very favorable to the health of the tree, 

 and would then be called the height of good cul- 

 tivation. 



From this it will be seen how difficult it is to 

 give precise details for lawn management applica- 

 j ble to our whole country. It is wholly a matter for 

 ■ local experience. — Ed. G. M.] 



Greenhouse and House Gardening, 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



ROOTING CARNATIONS IN APRIL. 

 BY AUGUST D. MYLIUS, DETROIT, MICH. 



I do not Strike my carnation cuttings so early as 

 is customary. I find April struck plants answer 

 all purposes as well as those rooted earlier. I ar- 

 range a cutting bed by putting a layer of good 

 potting soil at the bottom, two inches deep ; on top 



of this one and a half inches of sand. My bench 

 for carnations is behind the boiler ; over the boiler 

 is the propagating bed for other plants ; the part 

 for carnations is the coolest one. The cuttings are 

 rooted in this bed, and not disturbed until time to 

 plant out of doors. They root in ten to fifteen 

 days, and the roots soon penetrate the sand to the 

 [ good soil beneath. This mode saves time and val- 

 ! uable space in greenhouse. Carnations do not 

 grow much until the cool nights of August and 



