33° 



GARDENING. 



July 75, 



medium for growing plants. In no place 

 was there any considerable depth of soil, 

 and the subsoil was not of the right 

 nature to retain moisture. For the first 

 lew wttks we had plenty of rain, and the 

 plants in the flower and vegetable gar- 

 dens obtained a good start. A month of 

 drv weather followed this rainy spell, 

 and the plants began to suffer. A por- 

 tion of the garden was cultivated after 

 the last heavy rain stoitn. Four or five 

 days later on making a tour of the gar- 

 den I found that where the soil had 

 been stirred there was plenty of moisture 

 an inch below the surface. Where the 

 rake had not been used, the soil was dry 

 for the first threeorfour inches, much too 

 great a depth of dryness fo- the young 

 seedlings to withstand without injury. 



Too many people stir the soil only for 

 the purpose of destroying weeds. It is 

 probably far moreimportantto cultivate 

 tor the purpose of saving for the plants 

 moisture that would otherwise be lost 

 by evaporation. Perhaps we should 

 never have learned this lesson but for the 

 weeds. Prof. Bailey says: "Weeds have 

 always been the best friend of the farmer. 

 They taught him how to till the soil, and 

 they never allow him to forget the lesson." 



1 he principle is an old one, but many 

 people yet have it to learn. Water rises 

 to the surface of the soil by capillary 

 attraction. From the surface it goes 

 into the air in the form of vapor. By 

 stirring the surface soil the particles of 

 earth are separated to such an extent 

 that the moisture is not drawn between 

 them by capillarity. Hence it is obliged 

 to remain a little below the surface and 

 does not evaporate so rapidly. 



In order to conserve the greatest 

 amount of moisture the soil should be 

 stirred soon after each heavy rain. If no 

 heavy rains occur frequent cultivation 

 should be practiced. During a season of 

 severe drought a frequent stirring of the 

 surface soil will often enable plants to 

 survive which would otherwise die for 

 want of moisture. W. E. Britton. 



PREVENTION OF PEACH LEAf-GURL. 



Many persons attribute the thickening 

 of the leaves of the peach, which has 

 been so common the past two years, to 

 the effect of cold, wet weather, but that 

 it is of a fungus nature has been fully 

 demonstrated, although it is not likely to 

 occur except when the weather is cold 

 and wet soon after the leaves appear. As 

 a ru'e it is much worse upon light than 

 on heavy i-oils. and may be very destruc- 

 tive to some varieties, while others prac- 

 tically escape. Alexander, Hale and 

 Smock are not much injured as a rule, 

 while Elberta.Oldmixon. Mountain Rose, 

 Stump and the local varieties like Early 

 Michigan, Lewis, Kalamazoo and others 

 seem particularly subject to attack. I he 

 leaves begin to thicken and roll soon 

 alter they open, and if the attack is a 

 severe one all may drop Irom the trees. 

 If only a few leaves fall there will be little 

 effect upon the crop, but in some cases 

 not only does all of the fruit drop, but 

 the tree will be so greatly injured that it 

 the attack is severe for threeorfour years 

 in succession it may be killed. 



As long ago as 1892 good results were 

 found from the use of fungicides as a pre- 

 ventive of this disease, and repeated tests 

 by the experiment stations of a number 

 of states, as well as by a large number of 

 fruit growers, have demonstrated that at 

 a slight exnense this disease can be held 

 in check. The failures that have been 

 reported have undoubtedly been due to 

 the fact that the applications were not 



thorough enough, or that they were 

 delayed until it was too late to do any 

 good. 



It seems to be fully demonstrated that 

 the best results cannot be secured unless 

 the spraying is done several weeks before 

 the growth starts. Thus trees sprayed 

 in March have showed little if any injury 

 from curl, while those sprayed asthebuds 

 were opening showed fifty per cent as 

 much injury as others unsprayed. 



From several years' experience the best 

 treatment seems to spray the trees before 

 the first of April either with Bordeaux 

 mixture or copper sulphate solution, one 

 pound to twenty-five gallons of water, 

 and then, as soon as the blossoms have 

 fallen, using Bordeaux mixture. When 

 the spraying is thorough enough to reach 

 every part of the trees the above treat- 

 ment will be found entirely effective, and 

 the result of the spraying will not only 

 prevent severe injury to the trees, but will 

 secure a crop of choice varieties like 

 Elberta in seasons when the fruit on 

 unsprayed trees has been lost. 



L. R. Taft. 



glossy type. Timbrell and Brandywine 

 are amateur berries on account of unat- 

 tractive color and good quality. Wm. 

 Belt is immensely productive, also of 

 good quality, but not so delicate asthose 

 previously noted. When we grow for 

 home use let us grow something tooth- 

 some. John Craig. 

 Ithaca, N. Y. 



QUALITY IN STRAWBERRIES. 



How fine quality in fruits is lost sight 

 of and submerged in the desire to get 

 something that will turn out the boxes, 

 baskets or barrels in quantity! The large 

 grower must cultivate the variety that 

 bears well, ships well, and whose appear- 

 ance will make it sell well. For example, 

 the Ben Davis is probably the most prof- 

 itable apple grown at the present time in 

 the 1'nited States. Under the most favor- 

 able conditions "fair" is the most that 

 cf.n be said of its quality; and when 

 poorly grown a descriptive adjective 

 seems yet to be wanting. Is not the same 

 practically true of Kieffer pear, Marl- 

 boro raspberry — though now being super- 

 seded — and Bubach strawberry? If one 

 has grown Middlefield or Prince of 

 Berries, how one yearns for their rich 

 lusciousness when restricted to Bubach, 

 Beder Wood or Warfield. It seems to me 

 that every seller of strawberry plants 

 should offer a selection to the amateur 

 and another to the professional grower, 

 so that the one may buy quality and the 

 other indulge in quantity. 



These thoughts were impressed upon 

 me in looking over the varieties under 

 test in the Cornell Experiment Station 

 grounds. The following are some berries 

 that would appeal to the amateur; of 

 medium size, round, crimson, glossy, with 

 prominent seeds and, like most berries 

 of this type, very high flavored: Carrie, 

 a seedling of Haviland, with dark green, 

 healthv.deeplv cut leaves; berries pointed 

 or conical, glossy, dark red, fairly firm, 

 rich and luscious". It may be that Carrie 

 will be prized by the professional who 

 caters to a fancy market. The last 

 berries of the season seem to be equal to 

 the first. Ridgeway is strictly an ama- 

 teur sort, a medium sized, roundish, coni- 

 cal, dark red berry; good. Marshall is 

 now pretty well known, usually classed 

 as amateur, but occasionally cultivated 

 by the commercial grower, who always 

 treats the visitor to a dish from this 

 patch. It is almost too dark in color, 

 but buyers are beginning to recognize the 

 fact that this same dark color is a pretty 

 reliable indication of good quality. To 

 know how good a strawberry can be, 

 and to realize with Henry Ward Beecher 

 that "while the Lord might have made a 

 better berry than the strawberry, the 

 Lord certainly never did," one should 

 grow Middlefield, but only for home use. 

 Round, bright red; a good example of the 



TtiE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



"I am pleased with the interest that is 

 now taken in the home production of 

 vegetables," writes E. C. Lindsay, the 

 leading horticulturist and greenhouse 

 man at Duluth, Minn. "Everything 

 grows much faster than farther south 

 and hardy plants will mature here if not 

 planted until they are well along in other 

 states." 



"When I came to Duluth a few years 

 ago, I stopped on the Fourth of July at 

 Mackinae Island, at the junction of Lake 

 Michigan and Lake Huron. I was greatly 

 surprised to find a man putting out cab- 

 bage plants; surprised, not because he 

 was laboring upon our best observed 

 national holiday, but because 1 thought 

 that the heads would never mature. 

 However, he assured me that he always 

 planted about the Fourth and always 

 had splendid cabbages. I had set out 

 30,000 a couple of weeks before in my 

 market garden at Youngstown, Ohio, 

 where I had found that I must plant 

 before June 25 if I was to have my crop 

 mature, and it seemed strange that here, 

 in what I was pleased to regard as 'the 

 frozen north,' things would ripen much 

 quicker than they would several hundred 

 miles farther south. 



"I tell this merely to show how much 

 faster things grow here. The plants 

 seem to know that they must hurry up 

 or get nipped, and the cool climate is just 

 the thing for nice, crisp vegetables. There 

 is more enjoyment in one cabbage or 

 tomato that you grow yourself than 

 there is in a carload of the shipped-in 

 ones Peas are something that every one 

 who has even a little corner of land here 

 should grow, for in the Lake Superior 

 climate the}- go right along, while farther 

 south it is impossible to grow them in 

 the fall because of mildew. I have seen 

 pea vines here in September that bore 

 flowers, peas ready to pick and also ripe 

 seed . ' ' 



Miscellaneous. 



SAN JOSE SCALE LEGISLATION. 



Bulletin No. 7-4 of the Virginia Experi- 

 ment Station contains the Virginia law 

 in regard to this pest. It is gratifying to 

 note thatone state has adopted common 

 sense measures toward preventing the 

 spread of this dreaded insect. The inspec- 

 tor is given power to decide whether in- 

 fested plants shall betreatedordestroyed, 

 the owner having the right of appeal to 

 the Board of Control of the State Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, but the 

 appeal must be taken in three days. The 

 destruction of the treesor theirtreatment 

 is to be done under the supervision of the 

 state inspector but at the expense of the 

 owner. Provision is, however, made 

 that the boafts of supervisors of any 

 county mayjnear the expenses of such 

 work within .their county if they choose. 

 It is made unlawful to offer for sale, sell, 

 giveaway, cAtransport within the bounds 

 of the state/4'ilants, scions, trees, shrubs 



