ii6 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



Association in first-class condition, and I will have seventy-five young plants to set next 

 spring. I got one hundred Woolverton strawberry plants from Mr. Little last spring. 

 They are good growers, but shy runners. I intend planting them in check rows. 1 have 

 planted a good many Williams, but they have not done well as yet. Yours truly, 



Ellen Fear, Elmira. 



A Peculiar Calla. 



SiR,--When calling on Miss Kingston, of Port Colborne, recently, that lady drew my 

 attention to a Calla Lily in her drawing-room, having a peculiar flower growth. The plant 

 was in a very healthy condition. On observing it at a distance of a few feet, there ap- 

 peared to be two spathes from the tame stem, fronting each other. Upon a closer exam- 

 ination, one of the formations was seen to be less perfect in form and more irregular in 

 outline, rather longer from base to point and having a small part of its extremity quite 

 green. As the spadix was entirely absent^ it must, I suppose, have been a leaf, although 

 it hsd the exact color and velvety appearance of a spathe. 



J. B., Lindsay. 



A New Tool. 



SiK, — With me the Fay's currant is only a moderate bearer, but is a luxuriant grower. 

 The wood is too weak, and I have not yet been able to form the bushes into a handsome 

 shape. Last year I allowed no shoots to grow more than five or six inches long, and 

 pruned them, as well as the other currant and gooseberry bushes, three times, giving the 

 last pruning immediately after the fruit was picked. As it was the first time I have 

 pruned so often and so closely, I am awaiting the results. I am an amateur gardener, and 

 only a twelfth hour amateur at that, for I am a retired tradesman, "who has seen his 

 winter's sun twice forty times return." I have used a hoe— I call it a weeder — for nine 

 or ten years, which anticipated what is now called the Crescent hoe. It is made out of two 

 pieces of an old scythe blade wanting the back, two ends of which are rivetted together at 

 an angle of a little more than 90°, thus ( Fig. 743) : A small piece of round iron, one-half inch in 

 diameter, is rivetted to it and receives the handle ( Fig. 743). I find it very useful among bushes 

 of every kind, as well as in the strawberry plantation. I run it under about an inch below 

 the surface. My soil is varying loam, and I do not know how it would answer in heavy 

 soil. I find that a common garden rake is improved by fixing the head on a hinge, so that 

 the teeth can move back and forth about 60°. The rakes now have the teeth about square 

 off the back of handle, and made their best work when they are pushed from you at an 

 angle of about 30°, behind a perpendicular line, and the hinge, when the rake is turned 

 toward you, allows it to go as far on the other side of the line. Thus it grinds down lumps 

 without raising them, while, if you wish to rake the refuse off the surface, a few minutes* 

 work alters it to a stiff rake. 



R. Steed, Sarnia, Ont. 



Fig. 744 — Attachment 

 Fig. 743.— Blade of Hoe. of Handle. 



