THE 



Canadian Horticulturist 



CENTRAL EXPERIMENTAL FARM NOTES— VIL 



'HE snow has been gradually disap- 

 pearing- since the middle of March* 

 but there has been little warm 

 ^pj weather since that time and very 

 little rain. Sleighing was g^ood in the 

 country up to the end of March. While it 

 is too early yet to write from experience, the 

 probability is that this spring will not be 

 any earlier than last year. At this date, the 

 14th April, snow may still be seen in places 

 which do not get much sunshine ; the frost 

 is not yet out of the ground, and the weather 

 remains cool. What is now needed is a 

 warm rain, followed by drying winds. 



The benefits of mulching fruits and flowers 

 in autumn are already apparent. Straw- 

 berries in the vicinity of Ottawa which were 

 not covered last autumn will nearly all be 

 killed out. The strawberries at the Experi- 

 mental Farm which were g-iven a lig"ht dress- 

 ing of straw do not seem to have suffered 

 much, but as the covering has not yet been 

 removed some varieties may have been in- 

 jured. The lawn grass which was mulched 

 with manure has a greener appearance than 

 where left uncovered and the grass in a few 



exposed places may be killed outright. It 

 is very probable that bulbs such as hyacinths, 

 tulips, and narcissus where not protected 

 have suffered. At the Experimental Farm 

 we are confident that they will be all right. 

 The tulips already are showing well, and 

 snowdrops are coming into flower. The 

 great advantage of a mulch which will lie 

 loosely over herbaceous plants was ver\' ap- 

 parent this year, as where evergreen boughs 

 were used they came out much fresher. 

 This is especially applicable to pansies, as, if 

 a mulch lies too closely over -them, they are 

 liable to suffer almost as much as if no mulch 

 was given. 



During the past winter extensive experi- 

 ments have been carried on with lime mix- 

 tures of different strengths on apple trees 

 infested with oyster shell bark louse. The 

 trees were thoroughly sprayed with the mix- 

 tures and were made quite white from top 

 to bottom. The object of these experiments 

 was to find out if the oyster shell bark lice 

 could be removed thoroughly and economi- 

 cally from the trees by the use of lime, as 

 there was no evidence to show from experi- 



