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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



sulphur in the boiler and cook for half an 

 hour longer, when the necessary hot water 

 to make the sixty gallons should be added. 

 Mr. Geo. E. Fisher, our provincial inspec- 

 tor, gives a slightly different formula, see 

 page 6i, and doubts if the salt is really 

 essential. He writes: — " With good cook- 

 ing appliances the preparation of lime, sul- 

 phur and salt wash is not nearly so serious 

 an undertaking as it may appear. Where 

 only fungus is involved I would prefer to 

 use Bordeaux, but the California wash is a 

 good insecticide as well as fungicide and 

 costs only from one-quarter to one-third the 

 cost of soap, the water for which must be 

 heated also. I have not guaranteed any 

 result from this wash (L. S. & S.) but am 

 asking the growers to join us in making 

 further experiments next spring and they 

 are likely to do so in a wholesale way. The 

 sulphur is supplied in bags of 112 lbs. and 

 ninety-one bags have been applied for. One 

 bag will make seven to eight 30 gallon lots 

 of wash. If it goes on like this I am afraid 

 the people I bought from will not be able to 

 supply the quantity required." 



Cultivation of the Gooseberry. 



1276. Sir, — Please give your method of culti- 

 vation of Gooseberries. 



ANSWER BY MR. STANLEY SPILLET, NANTYR. 



As I pointed out in my last letter the 

 gooseberry has two layers of roots, one layer 

 close to the surface. I visited quite a large 

 plantation last year in which the scuffler had 

 been run close to the bushes, with the result 

 that this upper layer was badly torn. If 

 that had been done a little earlier in the sea- 

 son every berry would have fallen off. Black 

 currants will act in the same way. I lost 

 two crops of gooseberries and black currants 

 by deep cultivation before I detected the 

 cause, and I have never failed to have a crop 

 since. The method that I prefer, one year 

 with another, is to mulch under and about 

 the bushes with fine well-rotted manure, and 

 run the scuffler (a Planet, Jr.) one width 



between the rows. When the conservation 

 of moisture is the sole object in mulching, 

 finely broken pea straw beats everything else 

 I have ever used for that purpose. I prefer 

 the manure because it feeds the bush through 

 the upper layer of roots. 



If pea straw is used, it is better for the 

 purpose if it has lain a year out in the field 

 in a pile. It should be applied early in the 

 spring so that the rains shall flatten it down. 

 The nicest piece of mulching I have ever seen 

 was pea straw well broken by a threshing 

 machine ; it was applied in the fall, and aU 

 the surface was covered with the straw. 



The snow in winter packed it down and 

 the whole piece was as level and smooth as 

 a carpeted floor. I never saw finer Down- 

 ings than grew that year. Mice made paths 

 in all directions under the straw, but not a 

 stem was touched. 



Morris and McCullough, our principal 

 strawberry growers here, use pea straw 

 altogether for covering the vines after the 

 ground has frozen. It is spread thinly and 

 raked off" in spring between the rows, and 

 they find nothing else equal to it. 



For cultivation under and about bushes of 

 all kinds, including Shaffer and Columbian 

 raspberries, my favorite tool is a long- 

 handled shovel, ground sharp both at the 

 point and along the sides of the blade. 

 Early in spring a large shovelful of hard- 

 wood ashes is sprinkled under each bush and 

 then the mulch is applied over the ashes. 

 Our supply of manure is obtained from hotel 

 stables. We have just got in thirty two- 

 horse loads, and it is infested with all kinds 

 of seeds. The strong weeds will grow 

 through the mulch but can be easily cut 

 by running a shovel under the mulch, and 

 this can be done without disturbing the 

 mulch very much. Every second year 

 manure is dug in between rows. Strawy 

 manure js preferred, as it serves to loosen 

 up the clay soil. The ground is dug deep 

 and thrown well back, and the trench thus 

 formed is filled with manure, well tramped 



