THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



165 



cover with the fine soil and firm or pat down 

 with a roller, shovel or hoe. Cut some 

 forked branches from the apple or peach 

 tree and stick through the labels into the 

 soil when each packet is emptied. I use 

 this plan in sowing cabbages, tomatoes, 

 peppers, cauliflowers, egg plants, tobaccos 

 and similar seeds. If sweet potatoes are 

 planted I rake away the top of the seed 

 bed and lay the potatoes as closely as pos- 

 sible without touching one tuber with an- 

 other. Then cover with the dry earth 

 and firm as with other seeds. As soon as 

 planted I give the bed a thorough watering 

 from a sprinkling pot or spray hose, using 

 tepid water from the kitchen stove. The 

 surface must be kept moist, but not wet 

 until the plants are removed or they will 

 burn. On warm sunshiny days the cover 

 should be rolled up and fastened by strings 

 or straps, for a few hours, and when the 

 nights are extra cold or a storm is on dur- 

 ing the day the cover should be protected by 

 boards, blankets or straw put over the top. 

 Two or more cross boards of one or two 

 inch thickness should extend from the 

 front to back on a slant with the frame. 

 Those hold the cover from sagging when 

 filled with rain or snow and prevents it 

 from tearing when straw or blankets are~ 

 thrown on to protect the frame from cold. 

 If fleas should trouble the plants a little 

 more attention to watering will drive them 

 away. I have sown cucumber seeds in 

 strawberry boxes and buried them in the 

 cold frame until ready to transplant, with 

 good results for earliness. The new onion 

 culture requires such a frame for starting 

 the plants, which are transplanted the 

 same as cabbage. My experience has 

 has proven to me that onions germinated 

 in the seed bed and transplanted to the 

 open field when the roots are well formed, 

 will yield almost double the crop and be 

 more uniform in size requiring no thin- 

 ning and less attention in cultivating. The 

 exact time for making and sowing a cold 

 frame varies with localities, but about the 

 middle of March is most suitable for cold 

 sections where the frames are most needed. 



RENEWING OLD CURRANTS. 



Currant bushes are generally neglected 

 on almost every farm where special fruit 

 growing is not made a business investment 

 The unpruned bushes grow in clusters and 

 become the safe harbors for all kinds of 

 insects that destroy orchard fruits. My 

 greatest trouble with pests on orchard and 

 shade trees has been traceable to the old 

 currant clusters, and I have made some 

 important discoveries in connection with 

 the work of renovating the bushes. A few 

 years ago I came into possession of a neg- 

 lected lot containing about one hundred 

 choice fruit trees and a similar number of 

 currant and gooseberry bushes planted be- 

 tween. The bushes were completely 

 wrapped in webs, the leaves stripped and 

 the fruits shrivelled and not worth pick- 

 ing, while the apples, peaches, pears and 

 plums dropped from the trees before ma- 

 turing. The soil was good, the orchard 

 young and the climate not too rigid, so I ' 

 set to work to reclaim the bushes and trees. 



In April I raked the old leaves and 

 trash together, cut out all dead canes from 

 the bushes and dead limbs and branches 

 from the trees and burned them in small 

 piles neath the trees. After thoroughly 

 cleaning the ground I loosened the soil 

 for tree feet round the clusters of currant 

 bushes, to the depth of probably ten 

 inches, using a short handle manure fork. 

 When the digging process was finished I 

 sprayed the bushes top and roots thor- 

 oughly, using the coarse or fire exting- 

 uishing nozzle of the sprayer. The solu- 

 tion used consisted of one pound of lime, 

 one pound of copper sulphate blue 

 vitriol and one tablespoonful of Paris 

 green, dissolved in ten gallons of water. 

 I used about two and one half gallons to 

 each cluster and completely drenched the 

 canes and roots. The first minute of 

 showering brought out hundreds of black 

 spiders, large and small, that had been se- 

 creted in the canes and under the leaves. 

 They dropped in all directions and the 

 ground was spotted with dead crawlers of 

 numerous patterns and sizes. The same 



