December, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



283 



Cocomber Vines in one of the Greenhoatea of R. H. Ellis, Leamington, Ont. 



In two houses, 60 by 100 feet In floor space, Mr. Ellis last spring produced 1,306 baskets of cucum- 

 bers that sold for a littleover $1,200. The plants were started about March 1st, transplanted In the 

 ground without benches about April 15. Picking started May 13. and continued until the last of 

 July. Some of the vines were sixteen feet long. 



very abundant on some kinds of wild 

 mustard. 



The potato flea-beetle (Epitrix cucu- 

 meris) is another troublesome flea-beetle. 

 It attacks potatoes, tomatoes and .'some- 

 times cucumbers. The insect is very 

 small and black and eats tiny holes in the 

 leaves, sometimes affecting them so se- 

 verely that they die. Blight gets a chance 

 to enter through the injured parts. There 

 are several other kinds besides those 

 mentioned that attack various kinds of 

 vegetables. 



Most of the damage from flea-beetles 

 is done early in the spring just after the 

 plants have been set out or the seed has 

 appeared above the ground. In such 

 ca.ses it requires very prompt measures 

 to prevent the destruction of the whole 

 crop if the beetles are numerous. 



(i) Late planting. From what has 

 been said, one might hope that the beetles 

 would soon slacken off, lay their eggs, 

 and either disappear or not attack so 

 voraciously plants that were sown late 

 in the spring. This is usually the case, 

 and in most seasons turnips can be sown 

 with comparative safety after June 2oth 

 as can also many other plants. 



(2) Poisoned Bordeaux mixture. In 

 many cases the beetles can either be de- 

 stroyed or driven away by spraying the 

 plants as .soon as they appear with Bor- 

 deaux mixture, to every barrel of which 

 three or four pounds of arsenate of lead 

 has been added. This will have to be 

 repeated about every third day until the 

 plants get well started, when it can be 

 discontinued. 



On account of the smooth surface of 

 cabbage and some other plants it is well 

 to add a sticker to the Bordeaux. This 

 is made as follows : Boil together two 

 pounds resin .ind one pound sal soda in 



one gallon of water in an iron pot in the 

 open until a clear brown liquid is formed. 

 This will usually take from one to one 

 and a half hours. Add the above amount 

 to every forty gallon barrel of the poi- 

 soned Bordeaux. Many other remedies 

 have been advocated for the destruction 

 of flea-beetles, but poisoned Bordeaux 

 has given the most satisfactory results. 



Selling Vegetables in Hampers 



By selling vegetables neatly packed in 

 hampers to special customers in the large 

 cities, enterprising growers in the United 

 States have worked up, in some cases, 

 large and profitable businesses. Efforts 

 of this kind have been undertaken in a 

 small way already in a few localities in 

 Canada. There are opportunities for a 

 great development of this line of work. 



.Mr. Fullcrton, of Long Island, is one 



of the United States growers who has 

 made a distinct success of this line of 

 work. "From Farm to Family Fresh," 

 was the slogan Mr. Fullerton adopted 

 when he sent out the first Home Hamper, 

 an evolution of years of study of a means 

 to place fresh vegetables in the consum- 

 ers' hand with as little loss of time from 

 field to table as possible. The six-basket 

 hampers he has used have been proved a 

 success, not only by Mr. Fullerton but 

 also by other growers who have tried 

 them. If you have to ship your vege- 

 tables to large city markets it may pay 

 you to try this Home Hamper plan. It 

 will cost something to get it introduced 

 and to educate your future customers, 

 but let one basket go into a high class 

 city home and the prospects are that you 

 will get another order. 



A grower who has the capital and can 

 afford to adopt this plan, could devise 

 no better advertising plan than to secure 

 a list of well-to-do householders in his 

 market, send them a trial hamper of 

 choice vegetables, and enclose a neat cir- 

 cular stating where the hamper can be 

 secured regularly and at what price. Mr. 

 Fullerton has sold the hampers regularly 

 at $1.50 each. 



Every box or basket of vegetables is 

 wrapped in parafline paper. This pro- 

 tects the vegetables from dust and frost 

 and retains the moisture, so that there 

 is no wilting during shipment. How dif- 

 ferent from getting lettuce and other 

 vegetables from the grocer's stand that 

 are often wilted and anything but tempt- 

 ing. 



The plan calls for the growing of a 

 variety of vegetables. But this is no 

 disadvantage. There is, perhaps, too 

 much of a tendency of the grower to 

 narrow to a few crops. A variety of 

 crops makes it possible to rotate from 

 growing a good many crops rather than 

 a few. 



Chuter Members of the Quebec Vegettble Growers' Aisociatioa 



This association was organized one year ago at .M.u'donald College, Que. U now has about 500 



menibers, and receives a provincial grant of .$400 a year. Last summer the association conducted 



experiments with fertilizers at eighteen different places. The second annual convention will be 

 held this month. 



