5 SEs eek ye ee Pee ter es ee Pe eS Cee ee eee 
Psy ape eR ate be ae 4 : ; : 
OCTOBER CALENDAR. 387 
cleaned up, manured and plowed, and, if the soil is inclined to clay, 
leave the surface rough. 
Flowers. 
In the flower garden, everything that is tender should be taken 
up and put into winter quarters before it is frozen. 
Rake off the lawn and remove everything that is unsightly. Be 
prepared to dig in fertilizers around hardy herbaceous plants, and 
to cover such as need protection. 
ZANZIBAR WATER LILIES—We derived great pleasure from our 
water lilies last year. Our tank is six feet across and eight inches 
deep, and in this we place six inches of rich soil—an old hotbed bot- 
tom would furnish the right thing. In the tank we put six plants 
in the first week in June, and in about two weeks the first flowers 
were open, and the plants continued blooming until the first frost 
in winter. There were from six to ten flowers open every day; the 
flowers opened in the morning and closed in the evening. We had 
one plant in a wooden pail and it bloomed, but the flower was small; 
one of those in the tank measured eight inches across, while that in 
the pail was only three inches. In some respects the flower is not 
equal to our Nymphaea odorata, but the easy manner of growing 
them places them a long way ahead of our natives. You have only 
to put the seed in a bowl or open dish in which is placed a couple 
_ of inches of soil, and keep it covered with water at a temperature of 
70° or 80°, and in about two weeks they will have started to grow. 
At first the growth is slow and the leaves were only about two 
inches across when I planted ours out in June.—Canadian Horti- 
culturist. 
CULTIVATION VS. [RRIGATION.—J. C. V.—Some farmers claim that 
thorough cultivation, and two or three irrigations during the season 
is better than more irrigation. (1) Is this true of potatoes? (2) Of 
what kind of fruit is it true? (3) State approximate number of times 
for cultivation, and likewise for irrigation in each case. (4) How 
late should deciduous fruits be irrigated? and (5) how early in 
spring. 
(1) No, it is not; potatoes, as a rule, should be irrigated at least 
once a week until their maturity, then no more. (2) Of no kinds. 
All fruits require irrigation, especially during the hottest part of 
thesummer. (3) Cultivation ought to follow each irrigation as soon 
as the ground is in a fit condition. Cultivation should be once or 
twice a week. (4) Deciduous fruits should be irrigated until they 
are well matured, and just before and during the ripening season; 
if the weather is hot they require more thorough irrigation. Any 
intelligent farmer will soon learn when to irrigate, and how long to 
keep it up each time. Every farmer knows about when he would 
like to seeitrain. Instead of watching the clouds and praying for 
it to rain, if he is prepared to irrigate he can answer his own prayer. 
—N. G. BLALOCK, M. D., Washington. 
