The Canadian Horticulturist. 



347 



The Best Fertilizer. 



The fertilizer that every one en- 

 gaged in small fruit culture should 

 use, and that extensively, is a judi- 

 cious mixture of brains and elbow 

 grease. And it must be used in the 

 field, and manufactured on the spot. 

 It is of little value without it is ap- 

 plied every day and every hour in 

 the ' day, from five o'clock in the 

 morning until nine at night during 

 the growing season ; in this way it 

 is as efficacious as a p^it^ent medicine ; 

 it will develop the plants and kill the 

 weeds ; it will keep the ground loose 

 and clean and destroy the insects 

 and worms ; in short it will make a 

 success when everything else will 

 fail. Try it. — L, H. Wilcox be/ore 

 Minnesota State Hort. Society. 



Orchard Care. 



You must keep an eye on your 

 orchard. Never trust to providence 

 and your hired hand, for a careless 

 hand will do more damage in an 

 orchard than he will do good. Keep 

 all tramps out of the orchard that 

 are around after jobs of pruning. 

 Let no man prune in your orchard 

 without you know he is a skilful 

 hand at the business. Wrap your 

 trees early in the fall to keep the 

 rabbits from barking the trees. The 

 best material to use is screen wire. 

 It will keep the borers and mice 

 away from the trees as well as the 

 rabbits. The wire will cost about 

 twenty-two cents per yard, and one 

 yard will make five guards. — Mr. 

 ScHULTZ be/ore the Missouri State 

 Hort. Society. 



Heating a Small Greenhouse. 



My house is a span roof 15 feet 

 square and 10 feet to pitch. It is 

 heated by two oil stoves with two 

 three-inch burners each, and it is 

 very seldom necessary to light more 

 than two burners. Over each stove 

 is a galvanized iron boiler holding 



about three gallons, and without 

 cover. I use the best refined oil and 

 have never noticed any smell in the 

 house. The stoves burn from 10 to 

 12 hours without any attention. A 

 small boiler heated by oil stoves I 

 think would pay manufacturers, as in 

 the south we do not need any costly 

 heating apparatus used at the north. 

 Hot water is the best for heating. — 



E. B. HOLLINGS, S. C. 



Winter Mulchingr of the Strawberry 



When fall comes, cover your 

 plants. If you can get prairie hay 

 it is better than anything else, as it is 

 generally cleaner than straw. Some- 

 times there are foul seeds, which are 

 liable to seed your bed. I wait till 

 the ground is frozen. Don't put on 

 too thickly, as you are liable to 

 smother the plants. When the 

 spring comes you mustn't be in too 

 much hurry to uncover. The ground 

 freezes and thaws and often throws 

 out the plants or breaks the roots. 

 In either case the plants are ruined 

 for that season. Leave the covering 

 until all danger is past, then remove 

 it, except where there are bare spots. 

 If I find any weeds I pull them out, 

 and then put on a coat of fine man- 

 ure or ashes at the rate of 75 to 100 

 bushels per acre. When they are 

 about ready to bear, men have come 

 to me saying that their plants were 

 not going to have any fruit. The 

 Wilson will always bear — indeed, if 

 you have the true Wilson, it is 

 bound to produce fruit as surely as 

 the Canada thistles will propagate 

 themselves. During the more than 

 20 years that I have been cultivating 

 them I have never seen, either upon 

 my own grounds or elsewhere, a 

 good, strong, healthy Wilson plant 

 that was not loaded with fruit. I 

 have known some other varieties to 

 partially fail and other kinds where 

 the failure would be complete. — Hon. 

 J. M. Smith, President of the Wis- 

 consin Hort. Society. 



