NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



535 



an eminent Bohemian authoress. Before 

 long I hope to send you a biographical 

 sketch of mv uncle. 



Fig. 1970. 



A CONVENIENT and cheaply 



made fruit picker is illustrated 



in the Farm and Home, which 



we copy. It consists of a 



tomato can at the end of a 



stick, described as follows : — 



" A slit is cut in the bottom, which 

 is turned down, and two nails 

 driven through it into end of pole. 

 A notch is cut as at a, to catch the 

 stem of the fruit in. With a turn 

 of the handle, the stem is wrench- 

 ed from the tree and the fruit 

 drops into the can. 



Educated G.\rdeners. — The following 

 clipping from Meehan's Monthly may inter- 

 est our gardening readers : 



Since the old system of garden apprenticeship 

 has been abrogated, some horticultural schools 

 and other institutions have examinations and give 

 certificates to those who successfully pass them. 

 The London Royal Horticultural Society is doing 

 good work in this line. In April, in each year, 

 they have examinations open to all. The ques- 

 tions are such that any first-class gardener should 

 be able to answer promptly and on the spot. At 

 the last examination, there were 236 candidates. 

 Three hundred were taken as high water mark, 

 and only those who received 200 points and up- 

 wards received first-class certificates. Of these, 

 141 were successful. Only one candidate secured 

 the full 300. This was a lady— Miss E. W. Winlo, 

 from the Horticultural College at Swanley, in 

 Kent. It may be noted here that women are be- 

 coming numerous in the horticultural field in the 

 Old World. Of the 141 who received certificates 

 that they were experts in horticultural knowledge, 

 no less than 38 were women. 



A Valuable Winter Wash recommended 



in the Chronicle for cleansing the trunks and 



branches of all of fruit trees from parasites, 



scale or eggs, is as follows : 



For a small quantity, dissolve half a pound of 

 caustic soda in a gallon of water, then add half a 

 pound of commercial potash (pearla.sh), stir weU, 

 then mix both to make five gallons of solution for 

 use. Apply to large stems with a bnish, to small 

 branches and branchlets in the form of a spray 

 either with a knapsack pimip, or other appliance, 

 when the trees are dormant. The formula was 

 given to Mr. J. Wright a few years ago by Mr. 

 Leonard Coates, a large peach grower and nursery- 

 man in California, and published in the "Journal 



of Hortictdture. " This led to experimental trials 

 on different kinds of fruit trees in this country, and 

 these pro%4ng completely satisfactory, the wash be- 

 came extensive!}' and systematically tised by those 

 fruit growers who had thus proved its efficacy. It 

 was, and is still, regularly' used in Califomian 

 peach orchards as the best of all ap>plications for 

 destroying scale, which is there much more persistent 

 in its attacks than in Britain ; indeed, Mr. Coates 

 remarked that he should find it extremely diffictilt 

 to grow peaches with any approach to satisfaction 

 without sprapng the trees with this caustic solution 

 ever}' year as regularly as they are pruned. 



Inspection of Foreign Fruit is being 

 agreed to by importers and buyers in New 

 York. A cargo of lemons from Sicily was 

 honestly opened out and inspected. This is 

 agreed upon as the only means of keeping 

 up the trade w'lXh that country, for if the 

 mean, undesirable rubbish that has been 

 sent to the market late in the season cannot 

 be kept at home and better fruit selected, 

 Sicily will have to give up entirely in favor 

 of California. The success of the latter 

 country is not so much that she grows the 

 best fruit, as that she ships only the best 

 fruit she grows. 



Stile for Wire Fence. — Wire fences are 

 now common all over our country, and are 

 very awkward to climb. We clip from the 

 accompanying illustration from the Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist, as showing a ver\' con- 

 venient stile for climbing such a fence, and 

 one that may easily be put up by an amateur 

 workman. 



When an apple orchard is being planted, 

 different varieties ought to be mixed to- 

 gether in adjacent rows to insure cross fer- 



