28 



GARDENING. 



Oct. i, 



grasses for decoration, he brought them 

 to me to receive instructions where to put 

 them, as seen in the illustration. He was 

 utterly unconscious of his unusual ap- 

 pearance, but looked so picturesque with 

 the dainty grasses hung over him that I 

 sent him to the photographer. He de- 

 lights in having his picture taken, and 

 while he was indulging in a delighted 

 grin the artist caught it unawares, before 

 he could assume his usual dignified ex- 

 pression. T. B. S. 



YOUNG LADY GARDENERS IN BLOOMERS. 



When I was in London a few weeks ago 

 I went out one day to see the Royal Bo- 

 tanic Gardens at Kew, and how I wish 

 you had been there too, for it surely is the 

 greatest plant repository in the "world. 

 Oh the innumerable variety of plants that 

 is there, outside and inside, every kind of 

 plant that one can think of is there and 

 hosts I never heard of before, let alone 

 ever saw. But there wasn't a plant in 

 all the broad acres of Kew or its villages 

 of glass houses that interested me more 

 than did the young lady gardeners there! 

 Young, bright, pretty, active and inter- 

 ested, there they were a-hoeing among 

 the plants in the herbaceous grounds, 

 watering the pots in the greenhouses, 

 propagating in the pits and doing all 

 manner of professional work that the 

 young men gardeners were doing, and 

 neat and natty were they at it too. But 

 they wore bloomers— blue bloomers, with 

 1 irge apron fronts, light colored waists, 

 and stiff straw hats. They are young 

 lady graduates from the horticultural 

 school at Swanley, in Kent, and I am in- 

 formed are at Kew taking a finishing 

 course in practical horticulture and sys- 

 tematic botany. That they are hand- 

 some young women I allow, that their 

 chosen avocation is one of the noblest, 

 purest, and most inters stiug on earth I 

 know to be the truth, then why cannot 

 they do as good work and be as useful in 

 the garden in women's clothes as in the 

 pseudo-garb of men? Kew, oh Kew, give 

 them back their petticoats! 



Boston, Sept. 18, '96. J. K. M. L. F. 



ROSES-GLEMflTIS. 



C.F.D., Keokuk, Iowa, asks: 1. "When 

 is the best time for setting out 2 year old 

 hybrid tea roses?" 



.4ns. About the middle of April in Iowa. 



2. "Name a few good hybrid tea roses." 

 Ans. Augustine Guinoiseau, white, 



slightly tinged with flesh; Duchess of 

 Albany, deep, rich pink; La France, sil- 

 very rose; Madame Caroline Testout, 

 clear pink rose; Meteor, velvety c imson; 

 Pink Rover, pale pink; and Souvenir de 

 Wootton, rich red. 



3. "Name 6 best everblooming climb- 

 ing roses." 



Ans. There is no rose hardy in Iowa 

 that is everblooming. 



4. 'Best time totransplant established 

 clematis plants?" 



Ans. As soon as the ground is mellow 

 in spring. 



HoRSECHESTNUT TREE LEAVES BURNING 



in summer.— In answer to S. A. H., Indi- 

 ana, would say, that one of the draw- 

 backs to the horse chestnut is leaf disease 

 and early denudation. A deep, rich soil, 

 well drained but with considerable moist- 

 ure in summer suits the tree very well 

 and tends to the health and retention of 

 its foliage. What ails the individual you 

 speak of we are unable to say; if it is a 

 fungoid disease, better submit some of 

 the diseased leaves to a fungus specialist, 

 such as Dr. Byron D. Halsted, New 

 Brunswick, N. J., or to the Agricultural 

 Department at Washington. 



Fruits. 



HOW I GROW GREENHOUSE MELONS. 



To grow the English varieties of melons 

 a greenhouse is needed; we get good 

 crops of them with very little trouble. 

 The greenhouses being about empty in 

 summer we devote one of them to melon 

 growing. The English melons for beauty 

 and high flavor are far superior to the 

 common run of field-grown melons. 



I start the seeds about the 15th of April 

 and have ripe fruit by the first of August. 

 The seeds are planted in a 3-inch pot, 

 three seeds to a pot, and after the seed- 

 lings come up one of them is pulled out 

 and the two s rongest ones left; after they 

 are well rooted they are ready to be 

 planted. I make small compartments of 

 brick on the benches using eight bricks, 

 two deep edgeways; in these little com- 

 partments the soil is put, consisting of 

 three parts loam to one of old cow ma- 

 nure, putting a layer of rough sods in 

 bottom for drainage. When this com- 

 partment is full of roots, move the bricks 

 out about six inches away from the roots 

 using more bricks (but no higher than 

 two deep), then fill in the space with more 

 of the same compost, using it in a rougher 

 state, chopped sods are good. When this 

 again is full of roots more soil may be 

 given, but it is best to wait till after the 

 fruit is well set and has started to swell. 

 This last soiling may be of a richer na- 

 ture and move the bricks out this time 

 at least a foot. When the roots begin to 

 come to the top give a top dressing of 

 loam and manure in equal parts. Manure 

 water in their last stages of growth will 

 help them g eatly. 



These melons must have something to 

 run on. We use screw eyes nine inches 

 long, screwing them into the rafters 

 about a foot apart, using five screws to 

 each rafter, that will give the melon vines 

 about six feet to run on and when they 

 run to the top of that nip the ends ofl the 

 vines, in the screw-eyes run wires all the 

 length of the house and tie the vines to 

 them, also cut out all the weak shoots 

 that start from the main vine, if there is 

 no fruit on them. But as it is upon these 

 little side vines the fruit is, it is best to 

 leave them till the fruit is set before cut- 

 ting out the blind ones. Eight melons to 

 each compartment will be enough, that 

 will be four to each plant. 



Keep the vines tied up to the wires; 

 they will need going over mostly every 

 day as they grow fast when they once 

 start. Don't neglect to give them plenty 

 water, they will take it most every day 

 and when water is given give enough till 

 it runs through the bottom of the bench. 

 In their young state give them a good 

 syringing morning and evening. When 

 they begin to show their flowers the 

 syringing should be stopped till after the 

 fruit is set, but in all hot days keep the 

 floor of the house continuously moist, 

 else red spider will be sure to appear. 



Melons grown in thegreenhouseneed to 

 be fertilized by hand, although bees are 

 sometimes plentiful in the greenhouse, it 

 is best not to trust altogether to them. I 

 generally go over the flowers on all bright 

 days. The most simple way to do is to 

 remove the male flower picking off the 

 petals and then dip it into the other blos- 

 som. Nip out the end of all the lateral 

 shoots or vines that have truit on them 



two leaf joints beyond the lruit, that will 

 cause the fruit to swell faster. When the 

 melons are quite large give them some 

 support or they may break thevinedown. 

 I use bass matting, running it around the 

 melons and tying them up the wires. The 

 fruit when ripe will break away from the 

 stem, they can then be put away for a few 

 days and then they are ready for the 

 table. The wire and screws can then be 

 taken out and stored away for another 

 year to give room for your winter 

 plants. David Fraser. 



Mahwah, N J. 



Mushrooms. 



GROWING MUSHROOMS IN SUMMER. 



I wish to know if there is any kind of 

 mushroom spawn that can be planted on 

 the ordinary lawn so that mushrooms 

 will grow freely there. The common 

 meadow mushroom, Agaricuscampestris, 

 grows quite plentifully in the fields here- 

 about, wherever manure has been spread. 

 If spawn will grow under the above con 

 d tions, what kinds is to be preferred, 

 where can it be obtained, and how and 

 when should it be planted? Would par- 

 tial shade or full sun, a damp or a dry 

 spot in the lawn be better? (2.) Can the 

 mushroom be made to grow at other 

 times than in late summer or early fall? 



Chevy Chase, Md. C ~H. V. 



The cultivation of mushrooms in the 

 open lawn is a precarious job and not at 

 all a matter of certainty. Select an o jen 

 lawn or such a place as you would find 

 wild mushrooms growing in, and in Mav, 

 if the weather is dry, plant a lot of good, 

 English brick spawn in it, placing the 

 pieces of spawn two to three inches under 

 the surface of the soil, tamping down the 

 soil on top of spawn. Or, better still, cut 

 and rem ve a piece of sod a foot square 

 or thereabout, and dig out a good spade- 

 ful of earth, and fill up the hole with drv 

 horse droppings tamped down very solid; 

 into this put a piece of spawn and lav on 

 the sod again. If the summer is moder- 

 ately dry you are apt to get a good crop 

 of mushrooms in late summer or fall; if 

 the summer is very wet, the spawn is apt 

 to rot and the crop miss; still we have 

 known the unexpected to happen in this 

 summer crop. You can get good spawn 

 from Dreer or other seedsmen advertising 

 in Gardening. 



2. Yes, mushrooms under special condi- 

 tions can be grown everyday in the year, 

 but during the summer months they be- 

 come so infested with maggots that we 

 find it does not pay to cultivate them ar- 

 tificially. "Then how about the wild 

 mushrooms, why aren't they maggotv?" 

 you may ask. On that point you had 

 better ask no question forconscience sake; 

 instead, take up a two days' open wild 

 mushroom and break it apart, every little 

 pin hole you see in its flesh is a maggot 

 hole. But these little maggots are not 

 poisonous at all, nor do they detract in 

 the least from the flavor ol the esculent. 



OITUATION WANTKII-A Hardener, well experl- 

 O euced In the cultivation of flowers and vegetables 

 Knows the care of greenhouses and frames. Middle 

 age. Good recommendations. Gentleman s p ace 

 preferred. Is a good landscape gardeoer. Address 

 A B. care Chas. Everdlng. Hranford. t onn. 



HARDY ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, VINES, EVER- ^ »„,.., „,,„ .„„ r , mf „, „,„„,„ „ r „.. 

 II GREENS, AND HARDY HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS. S^^d^X^S^^pSE I 



tion. Plana and estimates furnished. Send your list of needs for special rater 

 | THE READING NIKSKRY, JACOB ^V. MANNING, Proprietor, RKAIHNG, MASS 



