130 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



QUICK GROWING TREES. 



SEE that Mr. E. B. Rice, of Port Huron, under the above 

 heading in the March number of the Horticulturist, 

 rather deprecates the willow as a wind-break and as an 

 ornamental tree. For the former, in this part of the Pro- 

 vince of Quebec, it has been a great success ; rapid in 

 growth, erect in form and branched to the ground. About 

 twenty-five years ago, the white willow hedge craze had a great run, and hun- 

 dreds of miles of it were planted from small cuttings, about ten inches long. 

 Very few of these hedges were kept clipped, or attended to in any way ; but the 

 wind-screens that have resulted from them in many a drifting road district, and 

 the handsome rows of shade trees, where they were thinned out along the roads, 

 have given them a well-deserved popularity here ; and the trifling cost at which 

 a large plantation or long row can be set out, will always be a strong point in 

 their favor. They are the first to leaf out in the spring and the last to lose their 

 foliage in the autumn, and though they may not produce as much honey as the 

 basswood, their bright, early, golden blossoms are where the bees derive their 

 first store of pollen ; and as individual trees along a village street, few there are 

 which present a more picturesque appearance than well-grown willows. If their 

 roots choke drains, so in a worse degree do elms, but we could hardly condemn 

 the elm on this account. The Carolina, or broad-leaved poplar, is a very rapid 

 grower, and so also is the Russian poplar, introduced by the late Charles Gibb, 

 and both take very easily from cuttings, and either are far preferable, as far as 

 brightness of foliage is concerned, to the Balsam poplar, or so-called Balm of 

 Gilead. But let us not confound with these the common, so-called poplar, or 

 aspen, pretty as a shrub but worthless as a tree. 



Sherbrooke, Que. W. A. Hale. 



Whitewashing: with the Spraying Pump.— The use of Bordeaux 



mixture in the spraying pump suggests that the machine can be used to good 

 purpose in spraying whitewash upon greenhouse roofs, barn basements and 

 fences. We now apply all the whitewash upon our larger glass roofs by means 

 of a pump and nozzle. The whitewash is made in the ordinary manner, of lime 

 and water, and is diluted to about the consistency of thin cream. If a large 

 surface is to be covered, especially if it is difficult to reach, a direct delivery 

 nozzle, like the Boss, or a common discharge nozzle, is used, and the operator 

 stands several feet away. But if it is desired to cover the surface evenly and 

 neatly, the McGowen nozzle is most satisfactory.^ — Cornell Bulletin 61. 



For Rose Sluo. — Try a mixture of two ounces of hellebore to two or 

 three gallons of water. 



