October, 191 1 



THE CANADIA^N HORTICULTURIST 



239 



board fence take it away and put it to 

 a purpose more worthy. For a ginseng 

 garden use, as we have said, woven 

 wire. This gives the maximum of breeze 

 and ventilation. Let the breezes blow 

 upon your plants and through your gar- 

 den. Get all the air and light you can 

 under the conditions of shade described. 

 Everybody knows that dank, ill-ventilat- 

 ed nooks and corners are the breeding 

 grounds of plant diseases. Small won- 

 der if seedlings damp off in such places 

 — it would be a wonder if they did not. 

 Get the air. Get the breezes. Exclude 

 the hot sun. 



Do not hoe the beds ; if you do there 

 is danger of destroying some root bud, 

 or cutting a plant, that the frost has 

 heaved too near to the surface. Better 

 pull out the weeds, and cast them into 

 the fire. 



In the spring, just as you see the 

 plants begin to break the ground, sprav 

 with Bordeaux mixture. It is possible 

 that there might be some spores on the 

 ground waiting to destroy yur plants. 

 The writer has not used pyrox, and 

 therefore will not speak of it now. No 

 doubt it will do all that is claimed for it. 



ATTTCTMN OARE 



Mulch in the autumn with clean, rich 

 alluvial earth. It is not likely to be a 

 culture for disease germs. A top dress- 

 ing of such earth, one inch thick upon 

 the beds every fall, will prove to be a 

 great benefit to the roots. A word or 

 two about .seeds. As elsewhere stated, 

 the seeds when ripe are a bright red. 

 Indeed, a healthy ginseng plant with its 

 bunch of red berries is a thing of beauty. 

 It is generally conceded that the best 

 way to deal with fresh, ripe seeds is to 

 stratify them in moist sand for a year. 

 A seed requires one year and a half to 

 germinate ; hence, if the crop be strati- 

 fied for a year almost absolute protec- 

 tion is obtained. When seeds are re- 

 quired for planting, they can be sifted 

 out of the fine sand very easily. 



All seeds, whether planted in rows or 

 broadcasted, should be covered with 

 earth one inch and a half deep. If seeds 

 are to be sown broadcast, sprinkle them 

 with flour before sowing, so that an idea 

 of the quantity on a given space may De 

 obtained. If whitened with flour they 

 are readily perceived on the surface, and 

 can be covered with earth the desired 

 depth. One thousand seeds to one yard 

 of a five-foot bed will be sufficient. For 

 Ontario, October is the best month lor 

 planting seeds and roots. 



THE PROFITS 



Does it pay? That depends largely 

 upon the man. There are people grow- 

 ing ginseng who will never make it pay. 

 Nevertheless in the hands of the right 



I man it pays. At Blyth, Ontario, in the 

 Hurnia Gin.seng Gardens, with whifch 

 the writer is well acquainted, careful 

 tests have been made and results have 



been obtained that warrant the state- 

 ment that there is no more profitable 

 crop grown than ginseng. The facts are 

 in the concrete. Ginseng speculators 

 have advertised in a most extravagant 

 way the enormous profits to be realized 

 from an acre of ginseng. Of course, 

 such speculators have ginseng stock for 



sale at exorbitant prices, and the ad- 

 vertisement has but one object — to find 

 "takers." All of which we can well 

 afford to pass by. The writer has no 

 disposition, no time for, and The Cana- 

 dian HoRTiciLTURiST has no room for 

 overstatements. 



Celery Storing 



Geo. Syme, Jr< 



CELERY storing is an occupation 

 which is rather uncertain. Much 

 depends on the condition of the 

 celery at the time of storing and also on 

 the weather during the winter. Good 

 healthy celery stored about the middle of 

 October or to the first of November 

 should keep to the middle of April or the 

 first of May. There are three ways of 

 storing celery, which according to my 

 experience, have worked out satisfactor- 

 ily, namely, trenching, housing and pit- 

 ting. . 



To keep celery in trenches, the out- 

 side leaves should be pulled off, the 

 tops trimmed lightly and the celery 

 packed firmly in the trenches, one spade 

 wide and deep enough so that the tops 

 come on a level with the ground. When 

 the weather becomes cold cover the cel- 

 ery with boards laid flat on the top sup- 

 ported with braces to keep them from 

 pressing too heavily on the celery. It 

 should be watched and aired until the 

 weather becomes severe. Then, cover 

 the boards with a litter of straw. If 

 you can have a little frost in the leaves 

 at the time of covering with the litter of 

 straw the celery will keep better. 



HOUSING CELERY 



Housing, or packing, celery in houses 

 made for the purpose, is the most com- 

 mon method. The celery house should 

 be built about fifteen feet wide, with a 

 gable roof high enough to put in a top 

 bench. This makes it comfortable to 

 work in. Trap doors or air holes should 

 be placed not further than eight feet 

 apart. A door is necessary at each end so 

 that a current of air can be allowed to 

 pass through when necessary to dry up 

 moisture. Trim the plants the same as 

 for trenching and pack firmly in stand, 

 standing the stocks on end after two or 

 three rows have been packed. It would 

 be well to bank up a little dirt to the 

 stocks, cutting square down with the 

 spade so as not to take up too much 

 room. Repack once or twice during the 

 winter. 



PITTING 



Pitting is the easiest and latest 

 method of storing celery. It can be done 

 on the ground where the crop is grown. 

 No trimming is necessary. Piles are 

 made by placing two rows, butt to butt, 

 with the leaves turned out The pits 

 should not be longer than about eight 

 feet and about three feet high. 



for Winter Use 



, Toronto, Ont. 



Cover the top of the pile with a little 

 dirt until the weather becomes severe, 

 then cover completely with dirt and 

 afterwards with a little straw. Allow 

 frost to get down to the celery before the 

 last covering. It is better, if this 

 method is adopted, to grow the celery 

 far enough apart, so that it can be 

 ploughed up to and banked. Leave the 

 celery in banks as long as the weather 

 will permit or until about the middle of 

 November or the first of December. 



Planting Rhubarb 



Prof. W. S. Blair, Macdonald Colleg«, Qaebec 



Ground for rhubarb should be worked 

 deeply at least six to eight inches, and 

 well fertilized. The richer the ground 

 the better the rhubarb. Four or five 

 inches of manure worked in will not be 

 excessive. This plant will, of course, 

 grow on moderately rich ground, but as 

 a rule the one thing lacking in most 

 cases is abundant food material. A 

 friable loam will give the best results. 

 For early rhubarb a southerp slope is 

 advisable. 



Every five years at least the plant 

 should be divided, otherwise the crown 

 gets dense and many small stalks will 

 be formed. The old plant may be lift- 

 ed and split up with a spade, leaving 

 two to three eyes to a piece. Care 

 should be taken not to break the roots 

 of these pieces any more than possible. 



Seedling plants may be planted, but 

 as a rule these are very variable ; and 

 if you have a good strain I would ad- 

 vise division of the roots. Seed of the 

 desired variety may be sown in rows 

 three feet apart early in spring, and 

 thinned to six inches apart, and if the 

 ground is rich these will make fair plant 

 for the next spring planting, or good 

 plants for the following spring. 



The plant may be set in the fall or 

 early spring. We set the plants in ro\ys 

 four feet apart and four feet apart in 

 the rows. It is a good plan to mulch 

 the plantation with 3 to 4 inches of good 

 rotted manure in the fall, which is 

 worked in the following spring. Grass 

 should not be allowed to grow, and .shal- 

 low cultivation should be continued 

 right up to fall, keeping the surface 

 ground loose and friable. 



Strip off the asparagus seeds before 

 they ripen and burn them. 



