344 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



seed in rows in flat boxes, about three inches deep, and transplanting- 

 as early as the various plants can be handled. This will save a 

 couple of weeks. If you are like myself and cannot get home in 

 time to make a hot bed, then do the next best thing: take your sash 

 into some sheltered and south exposure, I generally get mine out 

 in such a place about the second week in April. Tomatoes which 

 have been in boxes can be put out in good weather — and do not for- 

 get a hill or two of the vegetable marrow (one of the summer 

 squashes.) They come useful in summer and winter as a vegetable, 

 also for pies in fall and winter. We keep them as late as March, 

 though, like all squash, they should be kept warm. My currants, 

 raspberries and strawberries are as near the house as possible. 

 Grape vines may be used for shade against the house. I have only 

 one vine as yet, but it has done well enough to assure me that they 

 may be grown to advantage. To say nothing of the shade, we 

 had sixteen good bunches of fruit last summer. It was an old vine 

 given me two summers ago. It has a southwest exposure. Mine is 

 tied up to screw eyes. They may be grown to advantage even in 

 the city suburbs. It is a very good way to fasten some wire net- 

 ting against the house, strongly, say to ten feet from the ground, 

 putting posts three feet from the house about eighteen to twenty 

 inches high. The fruit can then be seen from the windows. 



Do not forget a few flowers, some strong growing varieties, such 

 as candytuft, batcheler's buttons, calendula, African marigold, 

 zinnea, coreopsis and the many others you may like. These may be 

 planted along the alleyways or walks. A few double flowering pop- 

 pies sown among the vegetables will not harm anything, and they 

 are very attractive. These are not intended to do away with the 

 flower garden, but simply to make the vegetable plat a little brighter. 



It may not be out of place to say that I find it pays me to bestow an 

 extra amount of care on about one-half doz. tomato plants for early 

 fruits. After they get to be good plants in the flats I pick out six 

 of the best, planting them in little crates made out of lath or strips 

 of board, leaving spaces of one-half inch between each slat. Line 

 it with coarse manure or hay to hold in the earth. Mine are about 

 eight inches square. By planting time they will be well set with 

 fruit. Of course, they are not as sturdy from the crates when planted 

 out, but keep well staked, tied and pruned. 



Fighting the Spring Canker Worm.— There are two principal 

 methods of holding this insect in check, according to the New York 

 experiment station. The first is directed against the insect in the 

 adult stage and consists in placing mechanical obstructions, such 

 as bands of tarred cloth, around the trunk of the tree to prevent the 

 females, which are wingless, from ascendingthe tree and depositing 

 their eggs. The second consists of fighting the larvse by spraying 

 with arsenical poison. Although good results have been obtained 

 by the first method,it has been pretty clearly shown that this cannot 

 be depended upon to rid an orchard of the pests. Spraying is, there- 

 fore, of much importance in checking depredations of these insects. 

 For this purpose Paris green and green arsenite or arsenite of lime 

 answer. 



