200 



GARDENING. 



Mar. 75, 



eftR DENINB 



PUBLISHED THE 1ST AND 15TH OF EACH MONTH 

 BY 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO 



Subscription Price. $2.00 a Tear— 24 Numbers. Adver- 

 tising rateB on application. 



Entered at Chicago postofflce as second-class matter. 

 Copyright, 18118, by The Gardening Co. 



Address all communications to The Garden- 

 ing Co., Monon Building, Chicago. 



Gardening Is gotten up for Its readers and in their 

 Interest, and It behooves you, one and all. to make 11 

 Interesting. If It does not exactly suit your case, 

 please write and tell us what you want. It Is our 

 desire to help you. 



A8K ant Questions you please about plants. 

 flowerB. fruits, vegetables or other practical gardening 

 matters. We will take pleasure In answering them. 



Send us Notes of your experience In gardening In 

 any line; tell us of your successes that others may be 

 enlightened and encouraged, and of your failures, 

 perhaps we can help you. 



SEND US PHOTOGRAPHS OR SKETCHES Of your 



flowers, gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

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 graved for GARDENING. 



CONTENTS. 



A Chicago street in winter (illus.) 193 



Are windbreaks profitable 193 



Winter enjoyment of trees 193 



Tree cutting*in Boston parks 194 



Trees to adorn streets (illus.) 194 



Pointers on sweet pea culture 195 



Notes ou some of the newer sweet peas 195 



Sweet peas still in the ascendant 198 



Newsweel peas 1 illus.) 196, 197 



Books and bulletins 198 



Melons and cucumbers in adjoining fields — 198 



A word about hotbeds 198 



Societies 199 



Starting specimen chrysanthemums 199 



dotes 2°° 



Lawns and how to treat them 200 



Workers in horticulture — V. (portrait) 201 



1 selection of pears (2 illus.) 202 



Starting celery plants 202 



Tomatoes under glass 203 



Catalogues received 204 



Take down the rake and the spade— 

 the garden awaits them again. 



An Ohio writer on grasses recom- 

 mends blue grass, red top, fescue and 

 white clover for lawns. 



Secure a supply of sweet peas before 

 the stocks of the best varieties now in the 

 hands of the seed merchants are 

 exhausted. 



The forestry division of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture will maintain 

 a model forestry plantation on the 

 grounds of the Omaha exposition. 



Arbor Day' should be observed bj' 

 every owner of a rod of land, and the 

 best way to observe it is by planting 

 trees or shrubs to beautify the earth or 

 to render it more productiv 



A California writer ha that our 

 domestic figs are not up to the standard 

 in flavor because of the absence in this 

 country of the insect which aids in the 

 pollination of the fig in the old world. 



The park system of New York City, 

 not including Brooklyn or other adjoin- 

 ing territory, has cost $50,000,000. In 

 a similar wav Brooklyn has invested 

 $30,000,000; Chicago $29,561,660; and 

 Boston $13,747,000. 



A MONSTER CHRYSANTHEMUM (plant) is 



illustrated in the Gardeners' Chronicle of 

 March 5. The plant measured five and a 

 halt yards across, ten feet through and 

 ix and a half feet high. It was neatly 



trained in pyramidal form, and bore 812 

 flowers averaging eight and a half inches 

 in diameter. This magnificent specimen 

 was grown in the imperial gardens of 

 the Mikado, at Tokio, Japan The variety 

 is an unnamed one, of a deep rose color, 

 striped with white. 



A rose exhibition of an unusually ex- 

 tensive character will be held during the 

 coming summer at Frankfort-on-Main, 

 Germany. Opening early in June, it will 

 continue to September, and if the weather 

 proves favorable the time may be ex- 

 tended to October. 



He was an old campaigner, now 

 engaged in the peaceful toils of hus- 

 bandry, who lately remarked that the 

 fruit prospects this year are such that in 

 the event of war with Spain the United 

 States should be able to thrash the Dons 

 with peaches and apples. 



Los Angeles, California, can safely lay 

 claim to possessing the largest city park 

 in this country, probably in the world. 

 The new park territory, thegift of Griffith 

 J. Griffith and his wife, covers an area of 

 over 3000 acres, and bears the name of 

 donors. 



Urceocharis Clibrani, a hybrid of 

 Eucharis granditiora and Urceolina pen- 

 dula, is attracting considerable attention 

 among English horticulturists, and gives 

 promise of becoming a most useful garden 

 plant. The cross was obtained by Messrs. 

 Clibran & Son of Manchester, and was 

 first exhibited in 1892. 



Prof. Hansen, of Brookings, S. Dakota, 

 has returned from a successful trip 

 through Russia, Turkestan, China and 

 Siberia, having been sent there some time 

 ago by Secretary Wilson, in the interest 

 of the Agricultural Department, to col- 

 lect seeds of plants suitable for the arid 

 regions. The plants will be tested by the 

 experiment stations. 



The value of fruits and nuts im- 

 ported bv the United States in the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1897, was $17,126,- 

 932. Plants, trees, shrubs, vines, etc., in 

 the same period cost us $963,977; seeds 

 $1,423,926. Our exports under these 

 heads in that vear amounted to, respect- 

 ively, $7,739,305, $135,047, and $6,028,- 

 432. 



One great trouble in marketing fruit 

 is found in the extensive practice by 

 unscrupulous parties of a system of col- 

 lecting the discarded packages bearing 

 the names and marks of reliable growers, 

 refilling the same with inferior produce. 

 The protection of such packages by the 

 copyright and trade mark laws affords 

 the only way out of this difficulty, and 

 honest growers and packers should at 

 once see to it that their packages are so 

 protected. 



We have received a circular from S. 

 A. Forbes, state entomologist of Illinois, 

 warning fruit growers against the dan- 

 ger of importing the San Jose scale into 

 the state with young trees purchased in 

 localities infested with the pest, also call- 

 ing attention to the necessity for prompt 

 action in the destruction of the scale where 

 it has already made its appearance. Infor- 

 mation concerning this insect may be had 

 on application to Mr. Forbes, at Urbana, 

 111., or to Dr. F. O. Howard, Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



A new wrinkle in park embellishment 

 has been invented by the authorities of 

 Tacoma, Washington. The plan of the 

 park commissioners is to allot space to 

 any one who will donate $5 to the park 

 fund. One hundred roses will be planted 



in this space, the commissioners securing 

 the roses and taking care of the beds. 

 No one save the donor will be permitted 

 to gather any roses from the plot, and 

 the beds will all be marked with the name 

 of the persons who contributed to the rose 

 fund. It has been decided that the beds 

 shall all be of different shape and size. 

 Some will be heart-shaped, others in 

 crescents, round, oblong, square or of 

 some peculiar design. 



An expert on fruit matters, Prof. G. 

 H. Powell, is authority for the statement 

 that the error is almost universally com- 

 mitted of planting apple trees so close 

 that the branches interlock in a few years. 

 A forest-like apple orchard shuts out the 

 sunlight, keeps the ground damp and in 

 condition to harbor diseases. It hinders 

 the cultivation of the orchard, its spray- 

 ing, and the gathering and production of 

 fruit. In fact, many old orchards could 

 not be tilled or sprayed until half the 

 trees had been cut out. The experience 

 in the older apple growing regions has 

 shown the practical disadvantage of close 

 setting, and has enforced the conclusion 

 that the spreading kinds of apples should 

 be set not less than forty feet apart each 

 way. Some of the more drooping varie- 

 ties might be set thirty-five feet apart. 

 I'nder a svstem of active cultivation, 

 apple trees become larger and require 

 more room than the same varieties in sod. 



LAWNS AND HOW TO TREAT TflEM. 



This was the subject of an important 

 lecture delivered recently at one of the 

 regular meetings of the Columbus (Ohio) 

 Horticultural Society, by Mr. F. P. 

 Sperry, who spoke as follows: 



It would be an improvement if ten out 

 of every twelve flower beds, as now used, 

 were to be obliterated with fresh green 

 grass, and the question is, How can we 

 get it? What is essential to procure a 

 green and beautiful lawn? A good lawn 

 is the foundation upon which to build our 

 landscape garden, and in order that 

 our foundation may be founded on 

 a rock, so to speak, we must not for this 

 purpose look upon grass with an eye of 

 the raiser of stock, where the main con- 

 sideration is a crop of two or more tons 

 of hay per acre. We must look for those 

 low-growing grasses that form a close, 

 thick, velvety cushion-like rug, whose 

 stems and blades tend to grow upward, 

 and whose nature is to continually tight 

 for life, and thus, as often as cut down, 

 spring up anew, and furnish us with a 

 perpetual verdure, or natural carpet of 

 pleasing green turf. In order that we 

 mav have this, we must have a deep soil, 

 well drained, the whole area being thor- 

 oughly broken up, plowed, spaded or dug 

 to at least a foot in depth, and preferably 

 two feet. Let every clod be crushed, 

 every stone or stick removed, even as 

 small as a walnut. If the soil is not good, 

 add enough well-rotted barnyard manure 

 to make it good, not rich, for if too 

 strong it would defeat the end in view 

 and make our turf grow too rank and 

 the stalks too coarse. 



We use and recommend barnyard 

 manure because it will give us both fer- 

 tility and humus, which tends to hold 

 moisture as well. Let us here remark, 

 that while we prefer barnyard manure as 

 the best, but on account of its being diffi- 

 cult to procure sometimes, in its absence 

 we would use bone dust and wood ashes 

 in about equal parts, but recommend that 

 they be well worked through the soil. 

 Therefore let the soil be good, not rich, 

 when we want a low growth of fine, soft 

 turf; depth and the power to retain moist- 

 ure are the qualities needed. 



