I30 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



where the champions of civic improvement, 

 will have here a fine scope for their in- 

 genuity. 



Lawn Grass. — At the Walkerton Horti- 

 cultural meeting much emphasis was given 

 by the writer to the importance of a beauti- 

 ful stretch of lawn about the home. It 

 should be open in the front of the house, 

 and not cut up by gravel roads, nor spoiled 

 by flower beds or shrubs which are in place 

 along the borders ; the lawn should afford 

 a place where the young people may enjoy 

 a game of tennis or croquet, and where the 

 children may join in a romp or game of ball. 

 When speaking on the same subject to the 

 Brampton people, Mr. A. Gilchrist, of West 

 Toronto Junction, who was also one of the 

 speakers, suggested a good mixture for 

 sowing such a lawn ; his formula which he 

 had tried and found most satisfactory even on 

 unfavorable soil, is made as follows : Ken- 

 tucky blue grass, lo lbs. ; Red Top, i lb. ; 

 Vernal, V^ lb. ; White Clover, y^^ lb. He 

 advised trying bone dust as a fertilizer, 

 sowing about twenty pounds of it to every 

 looo square feet of surface. 



Fertility of Orchard Soil is one of the im- 

 portant problems in Ontario, where the 

 humus and the elements of plant food have 

 been to such a large extent extracted by 

 grain crops. Fortunately perhaps for the 

 soil in our province, wheat raising is no 

 longer profitable, and our farmers are being 

 compelled to give attention to hoed crops, 

 or to stock raising, both of which tend to re- 

 store its fertility. 



Mr. Duncan Anderson, in his addresses 

 at Bartonville and Grantham emphasized the 

 great superiority of barn manures over com- 

 mercial fertilizers, not because they contain- 

 ed any more potash, phosphoric acid and 

 nitrogen for the same money invested, but 

 because of the humus they furnished, with- 



out which it would appear that these elerrents 

 cannot well be taken up by the plant. 



Prof. Ladd of North Dakota station, has 

 been making special investigations along 

 this line and finds that as humus decreases in 

 soils they become less productive, less re- 

 tentive of moisture, and inferior in physical 

 quality, while on the other hand it was found 

 that an increase in the percentage of humus 

 was accompanied by an increase in the 

 percentage of phosphoric acid and also 

 with a greater productivity of the soil. 

 As the humus increases it seems to cause 

 portions of the phosphoric acid, till then ex- 

 isting in a insoluble form, to become trans- 

 formed into a soluble form, and thus, pre- 

 sumably, to become more ready available as 

 plant food. The same is true as regards the 

 potash, lime and other soil constituents. A 

 decided increase of humus and nitrogen may 

 be secured in orchard land by growing such 

 leguminous crops as peas or clover, which 

 are nitrogen accumulators. 



The writer had signal success in a mixed 

 orchard of pear, plum and apple trees, which 

 were not growing well and producing very 

 little fruit and that of inferior size. Crimson 

 clover was sown in August, and the follow- 

 ing spring a light dressing of ashes, about 

 fifty bushels, and about fifty lbs. of bone 

 dust, to the acre were sown, and the whole 

 ploughed under. The ground was then cult- 

 ivated until about August ist, when the same 

 treatment was pursued again. As a result 

 the trees became quite thrifty, and bore gen- 

 erous crops of very highly colored fruit, 

 seeming to piove that this treatment was 

 almost ideal. The soil was a clay loam. 



Gold and Wickson Plums. Both these much 

 lauded varieties are condemned by Prof. 

 Waugh of Burlington, Vt., in his last report, 

 for the commercial orchard. The former he 

 says is uncertain in bearing, and gives only 

 light crops of small and second rate fruit. It 



