172 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



this way a large amount of vegetable matter 

 is provided, which decays during the winter 

 and permits of early spring plowing. Some 

 orchardists turn in sheep or hogs in the fall 

 to eat up the fallen fruit, along with the ex- 

 cellent pasture aflforded by the Cow Peas, 

 and find themselves well, repaid with fat 

 marketable live stock. 



For sowing in drills, about 3 pecks of 

 seed per acre is sufficient and it should be 

 covered about two inches deep. 



The Cow Pea, like other legumes, has 

 the faculty of taking up the free nitrogen of 

 the atmosphere, holding it fast and ming- 

 ling it with the soil ; so that only the min- 

 eral elements, phosphoric acid or potash, 

 need to be added to make a complete fertil- 

 izer for the soil. 



The North Carolina State Horticultural 

 Society has published a bulletin on the Cow 

 Pea, to which we would refer any reader 

 who is interested in studying further the 

 question of its value for orchard land. We 

 shall be much pleased to hear from any 

 reader who has had any experience with 

 this pea. 



Where Doctors Disagree. — At the Fruit 

 Growers' Institute, at Colborne, Mr. Coyle 

 seemed to have some curious notions about 

 grafted fruit. He said : "I have during 

 twenty years' experience in the fruit trade, 

 noticed this, that fruit from grafted stock will 

 not carry such a long distance, will not stand 

 as long in storage, will not give as good 

 color, as that grown on the original stock." 



Surely Mr. Coyle forgets that he has no 

 apples in his orchard of the varieties he 

 names, which were not grafted, either upon 

 young seedlings by the nurseryman, or top 

 grafted on old trees in the orchard. 



No doubt the question of the best variety 

 to use as stock is still an open one and 

 worthy of most careful study ; and if it were 

 possible for nurserymen to use Tallman 

 Sweet Seedlings no doubt the results would 



be excellent. But the choice of scion is 

 perhaps more important than that of stock, 

 for in it we are propagating the individual 

 characteristics of the tree from which it is 

 cut, such as size, color, flavor, etc.; and 

 this individuality in breeding is seldom if 

 ever considered by the professional nursery- 

 man in grafting seedlings. The orchardist 

 should carefully consider it in top grafting, 

 and choose his scions from those trees which 

 bear the finest fruit and the most of it. 



The Grape Vine may be easily grafted, and 

 a knowledge of this may transform a profit- 

 less vineyard into one of great value. This 

 work must be done early in the season 

 before the buds begin to swell. The 

 scion should be about six inches long, 

 and is inserted very much in the same way 

 as described for cleft-grafting the apple, ex- 

 cept that the old vine is cut some three or 

 four inches below the surface of the ground, 

 arid that no grafting wax is used. Instead, 

 the cleft stock is tied with a string, and the 

 earth is carefully heaped about the scion so 

 as to leave but one bud above the surface. 



In case the old vine is too knotty for cleft- 

 grafting, the work may be accomplished by 

 splice-grafting a smaller branch. This is 

 done at a distance of two or three feet from 

 the stump, and the grafted branch is then 

 laid down and fastened in place with a peg. 

 The earth is pressed about the scion, leav- 

 ing a bud above the surface, which is the 

 only one that should be allowed to grow. 



Currant Anthracnose. — The loss of foliage 

 by our currant bushes, early in the season, 

 is becoming a serious hindrance to the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of this fruit.- For a long 

 time we thought ourselves helpless to con- 

 trol this evil, but it is now shown that it 

 may be largely prevented by spraying with 

 poisoned Bordeaux mixture. 



There are two distinct fungi to which this 

 loss of currant foliage is due, viz. : — leaf 



