398 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it down and keep the moisture within if you want your trees to 

 bear much fruit and laugh at the hard winters. 



A ride throug-h the grounds of the Jewell Nursery showed the 

 close and really unusual care given to all kinds of growing stock. 

 If any of my readers are inclined to be a little slovenly in their 

 methods, a visit to this nurserj^ and a study of the thoroughness of 

 its methods w^ill send them away w^iser and more successful 

 horticulturists. Of the thousand interesting things there, I will only 

 speak of the Aiken plum. My attention was called to this particu- 

 larly by the startling array of handsome fruit I ran across on the 

 inside of some of the trees when the dense foliage was parted. 

 When the crop was gathered, those within shut out from the light, 

 being still green, were left and had just reached a brilliant matur- 

 ity. It was a pleasing surprise to see them. A visit later in the af- 

 ternoon with Mr. Doughty to the herbaceous perennial block showed 

 many varieties new to a novice in flowers like myself, and I noted 

 down for future use a long list of trying names with which you are 

 not to be burdened. Just before sunset the same guide took me up 

 the bluff side to a convenient vantage ground overlooking this 

 lovely valley and offered me the whole outlook on such terms I dare 

 not accept, and so reluctantly withdrew myself from this scene of 

 enchantment. 



At dark, bidding adieu to our kind friends, we left a place where 

 we would gladly remain without limit. Friend Elliot consumed 

 the hours of the journey in storing and labeling the treasures 

 gathered from every tree, vine and hillside, which overflowed his 

 very liberal accommodations. As for the writer, his treasures 

 were limited to those of the head and heart, both of which were 

 crammed to overflowing and refused at that time to be labeled and 

 sorted out in an orderly manner— and j^ou may judge by this that 

 the opportunity for this useful work has not yet arrived. 



At a later time I may try and draw some lessons from this to us 

 eventful journej^ but in the meantime I have hoped only to please 

 you with glimpses of some of the things which pleased and inter- 

 terested us in passing. 



Carbon Bisulphide.— It is now pretty well known that the fumes 

 of bisulphide of carbon are poisonous to all animal life. This sub- 

 stance is very successfully used for killing insects in stored grain 

 or any animal that can be confined amid the fumes. Prof. J. B. 

 Smith, in Bulletin 121 of the New Jersey Station, tells us that melon 

 growers are using the bisulphide to destroy the melon louse. By 

 keeping close watch of the field, they are able to detect the hills on 

 which the lice begin their work. A light, tight cover of cloth or 

 paper is put over the hill, and under it is placed in a clam shell or 

 small dish a teaspoonful or more of the bisulphide. In about an 

 hour this will kill every louse under the cover. By taking the in- 

 fested hills in time, the lice may be kept out of the field. It is known, 

 too, that the bisulphide may be injected into the soil to kill the cab- 

 bage root maggot. It is a useful insecticide, but should be handled 

 as carefully as gunpowder. — Te^as Farm and Ranch. 



