i68 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



May, 



tility of most orchai'ds. Some orchards are 

 now, of course, too old to rejuvenate. There 

 may be danger in vigorous orchards of car- 

 rying the cultivation so far that nearly all 

 the energies of the trees will be directed to 

 the production of wood. The grower must 

 determine the culture which shall meet his 

 re(iuirenients. It is true that in the great 

 majority of cases, however, the culture is 

 inadequate. Barnyard man vu'e, when it can 

 be spared, is valuable for the bearing or- 

 chard. That permanent sod is an injury to 

 the orchard is the experience of nearly every 

 successful orchardist. Even as early as 1874 

 Dr. Beal foimd that "trees in grass made 

 less growth, looked yellow in foliage, and 



Seed Drills Protected. 

 bore smaller fruit and apparently less of it. " 

 In ISTii he observed that " the e\idences look 

 more and more strongly every year against 

 the propriety of leaving trees, in our section, 

 in gi-ass. They have stood the severe winters 

 no better, they have borne no better, the 

 Apples are smaller, the trees grow more 

 slowly, a greater proportion of trees have 

 died than of those cultivated each year.— 

 Report of the College Horticulturist. 



Protecting Seed in the Drill. 



Seeds of various kinds are liable to be dis- 

 turbed by sparrows and other birds after 

 sowing. Where gardening is done on an 

 extensive scale, the loss may not be percep- 

 tible, but in the kitchen garden it is often 

 otherwise. And here, the mere fact that 

 the operations are not extended, make it 

 easy to provide some protection against loss. 



One of the best ways we know of for ac- 

 complishing this is shown in the small 

 engraving above. This consists of having 

 two triangular boards, one for each end of 

 a drill, and with three or more nails driven 

 into each of its two upper edges. A stick 

 about one foot long, for supporting a weight, 

 is also inserted into the board on one side, 

 as shown in the engraving. 



To vise these boards one is set up at each 

 end of a drill and having a weight, as a brick 

 or something similar, provided. Then some 

 light twine is passed along the drill, from 

 board to board, back and forth and to pass 

 over all the nails of each. This arrangement 

 of twine will effectually keep away the birds, 

 for they have a great aversion to any such 

 affair. The object of the weights is to keep 

 the twine always taut by providing against 

 the changes by shrinking and stretching. 



Cabbage Growing. 



A. 1'. REID, SOUTH BRIDGETON, MO. 



According to my experience the following 

 are the essential points in cultivating this 

 crop: Manure the ground highly, plow 

 deeply, work thoroughly. As to soil, a heavy 

 moist one is appropriate. The earliest 

 varieties are best sown in hot-beds, and 

 transplanted early into such soil as I have 

 described, setting them a distance of 18 

 inches apart. 



In planting be particular to set the plants 

 down into the soil up to the first leaf, no 

 matter what the length of stem. The later 

 kinds may l)e properly sown in a .seed bed, 

 from the middle to the last of spring. Do 

 not .sow seed too thickly, and thin out so 

 that they wall not make too slender plants 

 with long stumps. Shade and water are 

 necessary generally to late sowings. Hoe 

 often, and stir the ground deeper as the 

 plants advance, drawing up a little earth 

 each time, until heading begins, when they 



should be well dug between and hilled con- 

 siderably. 



When partly headed I think it advisable 

 to lean them over on one side. To thus 

 loosen the roots a little will sometimes avoid 

 the bursting of full grown heads. 



For insects of all kinds the best remedy is 

 to grow and head quickly. The next best 

 with me has been sulphur sifted on often 

 previous to heading and during the process. 

 I have tried many other things but this is 

 the most effectual, though I always watch 

 with pleasure for new remedies with a view 

 to their unprejudiced trial. As to varieties 

 I have found nothing for all general pur- 

 poses that beats the old " Early Winnig- 

 stadt." Although for extreme earliness I 

 would recommend the Little Pixie, Early 

 Wyman or Early Jersey Wakefield. While 

 I make no specialty of this crop, yet these 

 are some of my observations about it as they 

 occur in reviewing experience and study. 



Loss of Manure from Leaching. 



.JOSEPH HARRIS. 



In reply to the washing out theory of 

 N. Y. L., I stated in the March issue, page 

 117, that the underdrains on my farm were 

 not affected by any rain that falls during 

 the growing season. When the ground is 

 saturated with water early in the spring, 

 any rain which falls very soon makes a per- 

 ceptible increase in the flow of watei' in the 

 underdrains; but when the land once gets 

 diy enough to work in the spring we might 

 have a heavy rain without the underdrains 

 showing any effect of it. "On this farm, 

 therefore," I said, "after the land is ready 

 to work in the spring, there is very little 

 risk in sowing nitrate of soda. It will not 

 leach out of the soil for the simple reason 

 that the surface water rarely, if ever, sinks 

 to the subsoils or underdrains." The print- 

 er left out the words " rarely, if ever," and 

 readers must have thought I did not know 

 what I was talking about. But I do! There 

 has been an immense amount of talking 

 and writing on this subject which is well 

 calculated to mislead. 



If nitrate is sown in the autumn and not 

 taken up by the plants, much of it will be 

 washed out of the soil during the winter 

 and spring months. This is a well known 

 fact, and in England and Germany, where 

 nitrate of soda is used to an enormous ex- 

 tent, farmers are cautioned against using 

 nitrate late in the autumn. Many of our 

 agricultural writers who read these re- 

 marks in foreign journals, without stopping 

 to think, rush into print and air their know- 

 ledge in a way that is quite amusing. It is 

 time they wrote less and thought more. 



There is so little nitrate used in this coun- 

 try that it need not be worth while making 

 these remarks if the subject had not an im- 

 portant bearing on the general subject of 

 manures and their application. It must 

 not be forgotten that all nitrogeneous mat- 

 ter used for manure must first be converted 

 into nitrates before the plants can take 

 it up. And if what these writers intimate 

 was true — if nitrates will leach out of the 

 soil during the growing season — then we 

 run great risk in using common manure in 

 the early spring months. Such, as science 

 and experience both teach us, is not the 

 civse. It is not necessary to be scattering a 

 little manure every few weeks. Give the 

 soil a good dressing early in the spring and 

 it will retain it for the use of the plants. 



I know that N. Y. L. can <iuote experi- 

 ments when nitrate of soda sown on com 

 at several times during its growth produced 

 a larger crop than when the same quantity 

 was applied all at once. My answer to this 

 is that the experiments are on too small a 

 scale to be trustworthy. You can prove 

 anything from them you wish. 



Asparagus Bunching for Market. 



The attractive appearance of Asparagus 

 in market depends much on how the bunch- 

 ing is done. The bimches to look well must 

 not only be of uniform size and length, but 

 they should be snugly tied, points which 

 are difficult to secure without some contri- 

 vance to hold the shoots while they are be- 

 ing tied. For this purpose the old buncher 

 of Figure 1 is better than nothing. This con- 

 sists of a board with four pins about six 

 inches long and four inches apart, between 

 which to lay the shoots, and an upright 

 head piece for keeping the tips even. Two 



The Most Simple Form of Asparagus Bunching. 



strings of bast are laid lengthwise of the 

 board before the Asparagus is placed 

 thereon, then when enough shoots for a 

 bunch are in position, the strings are lightly 

 tied and the butts are cut off squarely. 



Where AsparagiLS is grown on a larger 

 scale some improvement on the above de- 

 vice is usually employed. One of the best 

 bunchers in use about the New York mar- 

 kets is shown in Figure 2. This is described 

 by Mr. P. T. Quinn as being both simple in 

 its construction and effective in its working. 

 Almost any man could make one for his 

 own use in a couple of hours. 



It is two and a half feet high, three feet 

 long, and 18 or 30 inches wide on top, having 

 something of the appearance of a saddlers 

 work-bench. In front of the seat is a place 

 hollowed out, with two narrow pieces of 

 iron hoops fastened the proper distance 

 apart and curved so as to give the right 

 shape to each bimch. Tying strings are 

 laid crosswise of this mould before the As- 

 paragus for each bunch is brought into 

 place. 



When enough shoots for a bunch are in 

 place, the tops all being kept even against 

 the head board, the hinged top-piece is 

 brought over them, and the treadle loop is 

 attached to the side-button or hook. Then 

 with the pressure of the right foot on the 

 treadle the bunch is compressed as much as 

 is desired and the treadle is fastened in an 

 iron slot. Tieing completes the work for 

 the time being, and then the bunch is re- 



Ait Aiiitaranuii Biuuldnu Machiitc. 



removed and the tieing of another follows. 

 .Just previous to sending to market the butt 

 ends are squarely cut off. 



Tl~. Clematis in a Grapery. In .such a situa- 

 tion tlicy would iiiit iimount to anythinji:.— C.E.P. 



733. Raspberry Picking. For picking in I use 

 five pound Grape baskets, without handles, 

 strapped to the body, and pickers use two hands 

 in picking.— Ohio Grower. 



