192 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



While melons are naturally affected by adverse weather con- 

 ditions, which are outside the control of the grower, still the 

 effects of such conditions, whether they are due to extreme 

 drought or extreme wet accompanied by unseasonable tempera- 

 ture, are reduced almost to the vanishing point when the soil 

 conditions as regards humus, cultivation and drainage are all 

 that they should be. 



Another point in obtaining earlier and better melons is to 

 pinch back the runners. As soon as the first runners reach a 

 growth of about fifteen inches the tips should be pinched off. 

 In a few days laterals will be formed and very soon a tiny 

 melon will appear, while, if the experiment be made, it will be 

 found that melons will not appear upon the unpinched runners 

 until two weeks later, and many more will set earlier and there- 

 fore ripen than when the method of pinching is not practiced. 

 It will be necessary to go over the patch several times in carry- 

 ing out the pinching back process. 



\ method of obtaining earlier melons by starting the plants 

 under glass is sometimes adopted. As a melon plant is likely to 

 die. or to be checked so as to be useless, if its roots are at all 

 disturbed, it is necessary to sow the seeds in pots or in what 

 are called "dirt-bands," which are paper pots without bottoms, 

 and very carefully handled during transplanting. When dirt- 

 bands are used they are allowed to remain upon the plants when 

 setting out. The dirt-bands should be from two to three inches 

 each way, which size will hold one plant. They should be placed 

 in a flat and filled up to within half an inch of the top with 

 ti'brous, sandy loam, and three seeds sown in each. Fill up the 

 bands and water. Place the flats with bands in a hot-bed and 

 keep covered closely until germination. As soon as started, give 

 air and aiin to have the plants strong and sturdy. After the 

 second leaves are well formed thin out to one plant to each band. 

 This is best done by cutting off any requiring to be removed 

 with scissors. Water carefully. When first sown the bands 

 should be soaked and then not watered again until on the dry 

 side. Plants grown in these bands generally requiring watering 

 less frequently than when grown in pots. It is not advisable 

 to sow the seed in bands before the tenth or twelfth of May. as 

 they should not lie planted out before the first week in June, and 

 if they have to remain too long they are liable to become checked 

 and little will be gained by the process. A warm still day should 

 be chosen for planting out, and if the plants are well wetted 

 before, they will not notice their removal from the flat to the 

 soil. Three of the plants should be placed in each hill. 



In summing up the subject, to produce good melons they must 

 grow steadily from start to finish, and to do that they must 

 be started righl, fed right, kept free from pests and disease, 

 pinched .back to form early fruit, so as to ripen the crop ahead 

 of bad weather, which frequently catches a late crop. 



BOOK REVIEW DEPARTMENT 



F^iiii.'iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiuiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiw 



The American Rose Annu.^l for 1920, edited by J. Horace 



McFarland; 24mo., cloth, 188 pages, including an index, with 17 



plates in sepia and 3 in colors. 



This excellent work magnificently performs its primary func- 

 tion of making the members of the American Rose Society ac- 

 quainted with "rose progress the world over." The devotees of 

 the Queen of Flowers are indeed fortunate in having the editor 

 that they have, a man thoroughly expert from study and practice 

 of the subject and always wide awake not only to elicit and to 

 stimulate information for his readers but also to interpret and to 

 apply and to correlate it into helpfulness. Any person who may 

 attempt to grow but a few roses, the generally most difficult to 

 manage as it is the most universally loved flower, should quickly 

 find, by giving attention to this book, ample reward for investing 

 in a membership in the Rose Society. The cost of the membership 

 fee would be made up to him by his being guided in the purchase 

 of only one or two plants. And his interest would be inspired 

 and his horizon enlarged by learning of the "labor of love" that 

 Doctor Walter Van Fleet, Captain (jeorge C. Thomas and others 

 arc performing particularly in their effort to produce an ever- 

 blooming rose-bush that shall be finely ornamental and entirely 

 resistant to disease. 



Indeed should every one who grows roses — and who grows 



roses without growing flowers? — send to Mr. E. A. White, the 



secretary, at Ithaca, N. Y., without further delay, two dollars 



for membership in the .'\mcrican Rose Society and obtain a copy 



of this book. 



* * + 



Productive Smai.t, Fruit Culture, by F. C. Sears. M. S. : large 

 24mo., VIII-f-368 pages, with illustrations and index; cloth: the 

 J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London. 



The latest of more than a dozen very attractive and valuable 

 Farm Manuals, most timely brought out by a house always keen 

 to supply the much needed works of this kind, is almost timely 

 one indeed. Newly aroused appreciation of the salutary and 

 economic worth of closer contact with the earth, the great 

 Mother, in order to derive our natural nourishment from her 

 breast, is now fast to become prevalent. Concerning the rank of 

 fruit in value as food the author shows that the small fruits 

 appro.xmiate, pound for pound, the worth of milk and potatoes, 

 while dried fruits average nearly double the energy value of eggs 

 and the most nutritious beef. And they supply in most enticing 

 form and in form conveniently preserved for use throughout the 

 year, an essential part of the body's needs that is not afforded by 

 the more solid food stuffs. -\nd fortunate it is for the hope 

 of the future thai for various reasons, if not for these alone, the 

 small fruit plants are being planted much more generally than 

 ever before. That they occupy so little space and come into 

 bearing so quickly is being realized, as it ought to be, by the 

 householder who has any garden at all. The designers of private 

 grounds and of gardens should take this into account and every 

 man and woman engaged professionally in work of this kind 

 ought at once to obtain a copy of this book. It is particularly 

 designed for "the instructor who is conducting classes in small 

 fruit culture and the practical grower who has not yet mastered 

 all the details of the business, but who wants suggestions on some 

 of the many points which are constantly coming up for decision 

 on any fruit farm." This purpose is accomplished eminently 

 w'ell, and for these classes it is an eminently successful work. 

 But it is adapted to meet the needs of the hoine garden also. 

 The complete and satisfactory index enables one readily to find 

 the treatment of any topic. Yet the various parts, the one given 

 to selection of sites and to the subject as a whole, as well as the 

 parts devoted to strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currents, 

 gooseberries, and grapes individually, are all worth reading entire 

 as literature. With study and practical experience in the w'est 

 and in Xew England the author, now Professor of Pomology in 

 the Massachusetts State Agricultural College, writes with full 

 understanding of varying climatic conditions. 



The illustrations are many and are clear. The press work 

 seems to be perfect. It is to be hoped that a similarly helpful 

 volume will soon be available to guide in the management of 

 dwarf fruit trees and to advise persons other than those who 

 make the growing of fruit a business. 



* !)! * 



Ccilour IX THE Flower G.\rden, by Gertrude Tekyll ; cloth, 16mo., 

 XIII-l-148 pages and inserts, with 116 illustrations in black 

 and white and index; "Country Life," Ltd., London, England. 



.\Ithough not a new book it is so notable that, now that the 

 war is over, mention of it here may not be out of place. It is 

 what might be expected to result from an extraordinary passion 

 for beauty of leaf and flower, an artistic sense of degree rarely 

 possessed and a life-time experience in fine gardening. From no 

 other combination could arise a work of such value in inspiration, 

 inspiration for the average amateur and professional, as well as 

 for the few who can garden most exquisitely and very expen- 

 sively. For only the last class can a work like this be of great 

 practical worth. Those who are confined to the limits of a 

 rather small .garden or whose work as professional caretakers 

 of large estates is diversified may find but few suggestions to 

 carry out. .American readers not living in the mild and moist 

 Pacific coast regions must bear in mind the caution with which 

 the writ'ngs of English gardeners are always to be read by 

 them. Yet a number of the color harmonies may well be repro- 

 duced in almost anv garden in the temperate zones. The prin- 

 ciples of course hold everywhere. The author's ideas conrernin.g 

 form in planting, to which one brief chapter is entirely devoted, 

 seem all to be artistically correct; instead of broad blocks, each 

 of a certain plant, W'th eminent wisdom she advocates what are 

 not ineptly called drifts. 



The plans and charts are neatly executed. The illustrations, 

 a large number of which, bv the way. ought to be in colors, are 

 excellently clear and well done. 



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Of Interest to Country Estate Owners 



The National Association of Gardeners takes this opportunity 

 to place its Service Bureau at the disposal of owners of country 

 estates when requiring competent gardeners, in the capacities of 

 superintendeiUs, head eardcners or assistant qardeners— thor- 

 oughly (jualified in every particular to assume the responsibilities 

 the positions call for — gardeners truly efficient in their profession. 



The Bureau is maintained entirely at the expense of the 

 association and makes no charce to the employer it may serve 

 01 to the member it may benefit. 



NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



M. C. F.BEL, Secretary 

 286 Fifth Ave. N"ew York 



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