I89I. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



75 



coal, while the reverse is true. Our climate is 

 extremely treacherous, and it is not easy to leave 

 the greenhouse for six hours, so that when per- 

 fect worlj is to be done the steam boiler and 

 night watchman are essential and economical. 



The number of steam pipes required to main- 

 tain a temperature of 40° in severe weather is 

 found by allowing an inch in diameter of pipes 

 for each three feet of width of the house 

 measured on the rafter. To maintain a temper- 

 ture of .50° will require about twice as much 

 pipe as 40°, and tiO° will require about three 

 times as much. 



Of coarse exposure to the wind will have 

 much to do with the case of heating a house ; in 

 e-xposed situations double the pipe is needed. 



When hot water circulation, not under pres- 

 sure, is used, it will require about double the 

 pipe to do the work that is needed tor steam or 

 water under pressure. 



Water for tender tropical plants, such as Cu- 

 cumbers, should be of about the same tempera- 

 ture as the house, and may be conveniently 

 heated by a coil of pipe in the chimney. 



Shading greenhouses is necessary in spring 

 and summer, and for this purpose a mixture of 

 glue and whiting or of white lead and naptha is 

 good ; lime injures the glass and putty. 



The beds are built of Hemlock or Cypress 

 boards held in place by steam pipe driven into 

 the ground Beds raised from the ground are 

 built of slate on a frame of Cypress It is well 

 to keep the beds as near the glass as may be, so 

 as to get all the light possible. 



Ho w to Keep Our Fruit Lands Fertile. 



(Martin H. Bixbie, be/ore South Haven, Mich., Insti- 

 tute.) 



Orchards and berry plantations on newly 

 cleared land are much better in productive- 

 ness and quality of product, than those 

 planted on old farming lands of the satne 

 natural quality, which common farming has 

 partially unfitted for fruit growing. 



Only a small share of our lands are yet planted 

 to fruit, while the balance are mostly bearing 

 unprofitable grain crops. Sod or turf, the wheat 

 grower's manure is the key to the whole situa- 

 tion, but you must get a good sod, and how to do 

 it is sometimes quite difficult, unless you feed out 

 the produce ot the farm to farm live stock. 



Feed your produce and do not waste the ma- 

 nure. My experience teaches me to remove all 

 manure not well sheltered as fast as possible 

 after made. Spread all tine manures on the 

 surface of the meadows or Oat ground after 

 plowing, and put the coarse, including all straw 

 not needed for bedding stock and teams, on the 

 poorest places of the Corn ground and plow it in. 

 Keep all manures in the sheep pens or other 

 shelter, and not likely to ferment, and such as 

 may accumulate in the meantime, until after 

 haying, and spread on the meadows as soon as 

 possible after mowing the hay crop. 



The old Strawberry bed which will produce a 

 crop after the vines are plowed under, can be 

 seeded to Clover it one has no manure. <)ur great- 

 est ditficulty is with the orchard that is plowed 

 each year and given a clean cultivation. Such 

 constant stirring destroys the vegetable matter 

 in the soil, which, it heavy, becomes very com- 

 pact, and it light, more easily affected by drouth 

 and penetrated by frost. It will be necessary, 

 even with plenty ot barnyard manure, to supply 

 coarse vegetable matter, the same as turf reno- 

 vates in a measure the general farm. 



We make a turf of Kye, b.v sowing towards the 

 end of the summer and plowing under the fol- 

 lowing May, and it has been worth many thous- 

 ands of dollars to the value of our orchards 

 duiing the last fifteen years. But he who de- 

 pends upon Kye alone will find after a few years 

 that he has not given his trees what the stock 

 grower would call a "well-balanced ration." 

 What more may be required and how applied 

 has been a subject of much inquiry and disagree- 

 ment. Barnyard manure is popular, but few 

 procure it in almost the only practicable manner, 

 and that is by feeding purchased .fodder and 

 grain, tor it is purchasable, as in spite of all the 

 advice that can be lavished, some will raise hay 

 and corn to sell instead of to feed, and sell the 

 straw stack instead of spreading it on their farms. 



They require what stock they can feed that the 

 gain will pay for the outlay in feed. In a gen- 

 eral way we had better feed something in which 

 we may have the least competition. It only fed 

 for the winter and for the butcher, lambs are 

 usually quite profitable, and wiH make some 



return for your skUl as well as for the feed 

 Plenty were sold last fall for $2.80 each that are 

 worth now in the Chicago market over $6.00. 



No class is so well fitted by habits of observa- 

 tion and scientific reasoning to begin the breeding 

 and care of thoroughbred stock as trained fruit- 

 growers, and it would be well for each small 

 fruit farm to produce some well-bred domestic 

 animals, the value of which would be due to his 

 skill instead of to the feed, while by so doing he 

 would avoid sending away his money for com- 

 mercial fertilizers. 



A word as to the application of these extra 

 manures. I would apply on the surface when 

 possible eitheras top dressing or in the drill with 

 the Rye, or if later, mound around the tree and 

 spread early in the spring and insure, if possible, 

 a fine strong Rye turf. On tolerably good land 

 Clover may be sown in the fall, and plowed under 

 in tbe spring, to good advantage. 



Another quite popular manure for the orchard 

 is swamp muck. I believe it is valuable princi- 

 pally for heavy soils and its use merely mechani- 

 cal, as it protects the roots in the winter and 

 loosens up the compact soil. Alongside of the 

 last for light soils I would place clay as much 

 more valuable, more particularly for the Pear 

 and Peach. It has not yet come in use as a ma- 

 nure, but from a limited observation and slight 

 experience, I have so much confidence in its 

 value that I shall use it on light soil orchards 

 when I can get it at a fair outlay. Either should 

 be placed around the base of the tree in late fall, 

 and spread before plowing in the spring. 



Is the Mole the Gardener's Friend? 



(Frank Holsinger, before the Missouri Valley Horti- 

 cultural Society,} 



It does seem that something should be 

 done to preserve the lawns from the uu- 

 sightliness in which the mole leaves them. 

 All around we see evidences of their exist- 

 ence. But let me call your attention to the 

 conditiou ot such lawns. Were I to cut a 

 section of the sod, I could show you the 

 cause in quantities of white grubs. The 

 presence of the mole is to feed on this larvae, 

 and could you but count the numbers of this 

 enemy (the grub) to horticulture, you would 

 learn to estimate the value of the mole. 



I think the time is coming when the mole will 

 be preserved and encouraged. They are never 

 killed on my grounds. I think the mole-traps 

 should be relegated to the eighteenth century. 

 Every investigation goes to show that they live 

 on insects, and that they will starve on cereals 

 and vegetables. When confined (as they may be 

 in a tight bo.x) they have been known to consume 

 as many as 700 grub-worms in 34 hours. I placed 

 in a tight box in a peck of soil, 56 white grubs, 

 two cut-worms and a-mole. Next day I emptied 

 and carefully examined the contents, and found 

 five grubs and no cut worms. I then took -'4 

 grains of Corn, soaked so as to be soft and tender, 

 and put them in the same box. Two days later 1 

 emptied and counted the contents. Result, 24 

 grains of Corn and a badly shriveled mole, show- 

 ing signs of hunger. 



It was a Mr. Landis, I think, who first came to 

 to the assistance of the mole. On his ground at 

 Vineland, N. J., he paid 25 cents for all the moles 

 that were sent to him. He was ridiculed, but all 

 know that his enterprise was a great success. To 

 attack a popular idea is unpopular, and it takes 

 a long time to make reform; the mole trap will 

 be sold. Cultivate the moles, and as soon as the 

 larva- are eradicated, the mole will leave the 

 lawn for other pastures Depend upon it, that 

 wherever evidences of the mole are found, there 

 you will find the white grub. 



The California Poppy or Esch- 

 scholtzia, 



(Miss.B. M. Pratt, before California ,State Floral Soc.) 



In 1814, Count Romanyoff, a Russian 

 nobleman, fitted out an exploring expedi- 

 tion, and after two years we hear of him in 

 the bay of San Francisco. Among the party 

 was Adelbert von Chamisso, a naturalist, 

 who discovered our beautiful California 

 Poppy- ancl named it in honor of his friend, 

 Dr. .J. F. Eachscholtz, the physician of the 

 ship, who published, upon their return to 

 St. Petersburg, a paper in regard to it, 

 making this probably the first of our Cali- 

 fornia wild flowers to be named. 



Which of all our famous beauties is more 

 worthy to represent our state than this hardy 

 little native, that stood on the cliffs overlooking 

 the ocean and saw the first ship come in sight, 

 and has since welcomed so many strangers from 

 all parts of the world. At almost any time of 

 the year, it may be seen growing nearly to the 

 water's edge at the Golden Gate, up to the high 

 Sierras and north or south, helping to give a 

 reason for the name of the Golden State. The 

 sight ot a field in full bloom, with the reflection 

 ot our bright, cloudless sunshine glowing with 

 an intense color, is as impossible to forget and 

 as much a part of the memories of a California 

 trip to a visitor as the Golden Gate, Cliff House, 

 fields of wheat, the Big Trees or even Yosemite. 



What other Hower will bring so clearly to 

 memory a trip to this state in the early spring- 

 time, or, perhaps, a camp in the mountains later 

 in the year, than as little blossom, which, 

 though yielding readily to cultivation and bloom- 

 ing now in nearly all parts ot the world, is still a 

 Californian and always has a homesick look 

 when abroad, which a fellow feeling in his coun- 

 trymen easily recognizes. Even in its budding 

 and unfolding one can read a part of the history 

 ot the state, for the calyx does not slowly open 

 as the flower expands, showing us gradually the 

 opening Hower, but gives us almost its first hint 

 ot the beautiful, golden petals hidden within the 

 little cap, by throwing it off and appearing before 

 us a fully developed blossom. 



Like the early Franciscan Fathers and the 

 pioneers, our little friend takes life as it finds it, 

 making the most of its situation, blooming 

 bravely on in the most unpromising places until 

 rain and prosperity come, then with tbe ready 

 generosity its people have learned springing into 

 fuller bloom, deepening its color, and adding 

 happiness and beauty to all. 



In choosing a floral emblem for a state, it is 

 desirable that the flower should be a native, and 

 not only widely distributed but striking, so that 

 everybody may thoroughly know it. It should 

 be beautiful, easily represented in paintings or 

 carvings; and, foi- this state it seems specially 

 desirable that the flower should be golden in 

 color. All these requirements this little blossom 

 fully satisfies. The typical flower is found only 

 within our borders, though varieties occur as far 

 north as Washington and southeast to Texas— 

 about ten in all, varying in manner of growth, 

 color, or both. One has only to watch the child- 

 ren coming home from a trip to the country to 

 see which flower they love best; and the quanti- 

 ties the florists gather and bring to the city show 

 that the older people may fully appreciate their 

 choice No other California wild flower is so 

 widely known or so highly prized as this. In the 

 Art Gallery of the last Mechanics' Fair, I counted 

 nine paintings of Eschseholtzia, and one each of 

 several other varieties of wild flowers. 



All the golden emblems of the state combined 

 seem to be needed to gi\e this wonderfully glist- 

 ening, brilliant, intense coloring, which after all 

 can never be represented, and, like so many other 

 wonders, people must come here and see to fully 

 appreciate. 



A Talk About Hardy Garden Plants. 



(J. IF. Manning, Jr., before the Society of American 

 Nurserymen.) 



We are by no means confined noW to the 

 plants of the old-fashioned gardens, many 

 of which, though, are indispensable even 

 now, but the number of all hardy kinds 

 well worthy of cultiu'e is an astonishing list. 



This list includes some of the finest ot foliage 

 plants, which equal and even rival many tropical 

 forms, while variety ot form and color in the 

 flowers is not rivaled perhaps except in Orchids. 



Many beautiful forms are in cultivation and 

 found hardy and desirable, which are natives of 

 the snowy Himalayas, the Siberian plains, while 

 China and .Tapan contribute long lists of beauti- 

 ful novelties which are much sought for, which 

 together with the long list of desirable kinds 

 from all other temperate parts of the globe, help 

 to contribute to make a flower garden a most 

 beautiful spot and a fascinating study. 



There are some places where bedding plants 

 can and probably will be used to advantage for 

 some time, but the plants tor the millions are no 

 longer these. They demand something that will 

 require less care and expense in cultivating, that 

 will be hardy, permanent and showy, and of 

 sufficient %'ariety in foliage and flower effect to 

 suit all demands of soil, situation and individual 

 desire, 



