iSgi- 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



151 



sible slightly sloping to south or southeast. 

 It also should be well prepared by plow and 

 harrow, and made mellow and fine to the 

 whole depth of the surface soil. 



For home use we grow the earliest smooth 

 Itinds, some "First and Best" of any reliable 

 seedsman, or the Alaska, etc., to the extent 

 of a few rows. They are hardier and come 

 a little earlier than the better-flavored and 

 more productive wrinkled kinds above 

 named. After May first we only plant 

 these, and plant enough to be sure we have 

 all the family may want to use. 



The question of staking the vines, says 

 the American Agriculturist, should be de- 

 termined by the availability of labor and 

 brush. As soon as the vine has attained a 

 height of a few inches, it begins to throw 

 out tendrils that seek tor some .support. If 

 this is furnished the vine will expand more 

 than if left to itself, and probably will have 

 a greater fruiting capacity. It brush is not 

 .supplied to encourage vining, there should 

 at least be some protection afforded to pre- 

 vent the vines dropping upon the groimd. 



The pods are quickly soiled by contact 

 with the ground, and in wet weather will 

 rot. To guard against this, stakes may be 

 placed at intervals along the rows, and one 

 or two strands of heavy twine stretched so 

 as to catch the vines when they begin to 

 fall over, or a clean mulch may be spread 

 which will answer the same purpose. 



The mulch, too, would be of value in 

 checking evaporation from the soil in case 

 of drought, but should not be spread until 

 the season is so far advanced that the 

 ground has become thoroughly warmed, or 

 it will retard the earliness of the crop. 



A Simple Strawberry Planter. 



J. H. SAXJSBURY, .MASS. 



This Is made of a two-inch pine plank, 

 size six by eight inches, made Into a perfect 

 wedge, and covered on two sides with a 

 strip of tin six by sixteen inches. 



A piece of Ji inch board, four by eight 

 inches, is nailed on the thick end, projecting 

 an inch on all sides. A little on one side 

 from the center a hole is bored into which 

 the handle is firmly screwed. The latter is 

 an iron rod three and one-half feet long. 



Home-Made Sprayer. 



Spraying, once only an experiment, has 

 now become a necessity, and such not only 

 for the man whose fruit trees and Grape 

 vines count by thousands, but not less for 

 the home grower who only tries to supply 

 his family with fruits and vegetables. 



The selection of the spraying machine, of 

 course, has to be made in proper considera- 

 tion of the circumstances. But nobody who 

 grows fruit should say that he cannot 

 afford the expense of a spraying pump. 

 The purchase of costly machines is no abso- 

 lute necessity. Spraying with the cheapest 

 possible pump is better than no spraying, 

 and in an emergency a pump costing $1.. 50 

 may l)e made to answer the purposes of 

 people whose orchard or vineyard is small. 

 The chief difference will be that of greater 

 convenience and economy in the applica- 

 tion in favor of the higher-priced, improved 

 pumps and nozzles. 



How an effective spraying apparatus may 

 be made very cheaply is told by a corres- 

 pondent of the Germantown Telegraph: I 

 get a small tin force pump which will cost 

 7.5 cents, he says; to this I attach a rubber 

 hose two or three feet long, with an eighth 

 of an inch nozzle. Inside of a half Ijarrel 

 this pump is securely fastened on one side 

 with annealed wire at the top, passing 

 around and through the staves. The bot- 

 tom is fastened in place by a brace and a 

 piece of board three Inches wide and long 

 enough to reach from the stays inside at the 

 bottom, half way up the barrel on the other. 



A notch is cut In the lower end and large 

 enough to lit around the bottom of the 

 pump, pressing hard against It when in 

 place, and also the prongs pressing firmly 

 against the staves. The brace is pressed 

 down firmly and held in place by a nail at 

 the top and one from the outside into each of 

 the prongs at the bottom. A scantling is 

 nailed inside, reaching above the barrel 

 high enough to attach a lever to it by means 

 of a belt to serve as the break to the pump. 

 This tank and pump is placed on a one-horse 

 (lump cart. By its side is placed a barrel 

 standing on end and filled nearly full with 

 water, with two or three shingles 

 floating on top to keep it from 

 slopping over. 



In a bo.x a little out of the way 

 have the London purple or Paris 

 green. I prefer the purple be- 

 cause the water holds it in solu- 

 tion. My eight quart pail is also 

 found there. I mount my 

 "vehicle" and drive into the 

 orchard, spraying on the left 

 and right as I pass along. The 

 mi.xture is prepared by putting 

 into the tank three tablespoon- 

 fuls of the poison to six pails of 

 water. To produce the spray 

 simply place the thumb over the 

 end of the nozzle. It often hap- 

 pens that the full, unbroken 

 stream is needed to reach the 

 top of the tree or the inside 

 branches. The spraying should 

 be done twice, first directly after 

 the blossoms fall and again in 

 about ten days, or before the blossom end 

 of the fruit turns down. 



With this aparatus one can spray from 50 

 to 100 trees per day. I gave one small tree 

 a dose three times as strong as the above; 

 it scorched the leaves, but the fruit grew to 

 good size. I concUided it checked the 

 growth, but the Apples were hard and fair. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



A department to ivhu-hall are invited to send note, 

 of experience and observation conceminff topics that 

 1 ecently have been treated on in this Journal. Many 

 siich contributions monthly are welcome. 



Exterminating Gophers (page 10). In 1877 I 

 had the care tor six months of several English 

 Walnut, Almond and Olive orchards and a few 

 vineyards on a ranch 14 miles from Barbara, 

 California, wherein gophers, coons, badgers and 

 mice abounded. Strychnine was used against alj 

 these pesta except gophei's: these killed many 

 trees by eating off all their roots. The owner 

 (Mr. Cooper) gave me 18 traps, and every day 

 before going to work I visited all the places 

 infested with gophers, set my traps, and on my 

 return a few houi-s after, I was sure to find the 

 gopher a prisoner, alive in the trap. Before I 

 left, the 3,900-acre ranch was perfectly clear of 

 gophers. If J. B. will get half a dozen of these 

 traps he can soon and easily clear his land of 

 gophers.— 4. A. Bliimer, Mo. 



Moles and Gophers. A gopher that visits 

 me is generally disposed of in a few hours, and 

 in one case in three minutes. As soon as he 

 arrives and makes a fresh mound I open it up, 

 put in two slices of raw Potato with a little 

 strychnine placed between the slices to make it 

 more palatable! It is a go every time. As to 

 moles, 1 want none of them, grubs or no grubs. 

 I give them fried bacon and rough on rats, then 

 they go to call on Mr. Gopher in the happy hunt- 

 ing grounds— Fi/iocnt Bnismibin. 



The Novelty Business. The pending efforts 

 toward checking the wild advertisments, over- 

 drawn pictures and misleading representations 

 of our seedsmen, nurserymen, and florists, meet 

 my thorough approval. No one can feel more 

 interest in the advancement and improvement 

 in all trees, plants, flowers and fruits than I do, 

 but the unreasonable, deceptive, and in many 

 cases outright dishonest descriptions of things, 

 merely for pecuniary gain, should meet with 

 rebuke. Extravagant descriptions are doing 

 more harm than good, and tend to prejudice the 

 public against all novelties, and even against the 



really good ones. We will take, for example, 

 the Tomato. If every statement on new Toma- 

 toes were correct, as to form, earliness, solidit.v, 

 etc., we would have them to-day ripening about 

 1st of May under very ordinary treatment, as 

 uniformly perfect as would be possible to imag- 

 ine, and so dry you would have to add water to 

 use them. Thirty years ago I saw Lester's Per- 

 fection that would make a very good show any- 

 where to-day.— D. M. 



Wild Asters. The flower described by 

 " A Wild Flower" in March number is the Wild 

 Aster. This is to be found upon the prairies of 

 North Dakota in greatest beauty and perfection, 

 and in shades varying from a pinkish to a royal 

 purple, also white. These Asters are the latest 

 of the seedless variety of flowers found here, 

 even after severe frosts have killed all the other 

 vegetation. Will give botanical name of the 

 species as soon as they again appear.— B. 



Death to Gophers. The quicker they are 

 exterminated the better. Many dogs will kill 

 them, often digging to a great depth after scent- 

 ing them; bird dogs being the best. A small boy 

 can amuse himself by putting a snare at the 

 entrance of the hole, standing a little way off and 

 drawing the string as soon as the gopher puts 

 his head out, which he does very warily at flret 

 to see if he is sate. I give my boys Ave cents 

 each for striped and ten cents for pocket gophers, 

 and I can see their numbers have greatly dimin- 

 ished within two or three years. A shotgun is a 

 good thing; also Corn orWheat soaked in strych- 

 nine, and put far down in their burrows.- B. 



The Knapsack Sprayer.- It would be well 

 to caution parties that have much spraying to 

 do to get a horse machine unless they want to 

 kill themselves. I have both knapsack sprayer 

 and pump drawn by horse, and know all about it. 

 The hand machine is usually leaking or out of 

 order. The pump is fastened to the bottom of 

 the can, and every stroke of the pump springs 

 the bottom, and very soon it cracks. Fortune- 

 ately I am, or was, atinsmith, and have a solder- 

 ing kit, so that I could solder the pump to the can 

 as the can gave out, then when the pump had to 

 be repaired I had to heat the iron and run all the 

 solder off to get the pump out of the can.— Geo. 

 B. Worthen, Ills. 



[The knapsack sprayer is rather a new thing 

 for our manufacturers, and they should have 

 their attention called to any weak point that is 

 found in their machines. It certainly cannot be 

 a difficult thing to make the bottoms of the 

 knapsack sprayer strong enough so jt will not 

 spring. For limited operations, in vineyards and 

 Potato fields, this machine is just the thing, and 

 very much needed. -Ed.] 



Hill Culture of Strawberries. Some grow 

 their Strawberries in matted rows, and are ap- 

 parently successful in getting large yields. We 

 have adopted the hill culture plan in preference 

 to this. There aie mistaken ideas of hill culture. 

 We plant on level surface to be cultivated but 

 one way. Cut off runners and try to develop 

 the plant set in spring or fall as well as may be. 

 We find the following advantages in hill culture, 

 viz.: It is easier to keep down weeds the first 

 season, and in case the bed is to be picked more 

 than one season, it requires less than one-half 

 the labor to clean it up after the first crop is cff 

 than on the matted row plan. All the plant and 

 fruit producing elements in the soil of a space 

 occupied by 18 to 24 plants on the matted row 

 plan, will flow to one plant and develop it to a 

 large size; the roots will spread out on either side 

 to the extent of 14 to 18 inches in search of food 

 and moisture; the berries will be large and well 

 colored. We do not agree with J. R. Peck, Cald- 

 well Co., Mo., on planting as close as he says he 

 does, namely, six inches by two feet. When we 

 have the rows less than three feet apart, we have 

 trouble to get pickers through without smashing 

 and bruising berries, as the stools are six inches 

 and above in length, and when loaded with fruit 

 will lean out from plant and in most cases lay on 

 the ground, hence the reader will see at once 

 that this leaves a clear space less than two feet 

 for pickers to get through. Six inches in the 

 row is by far too close. The ground should be 

 well manured with stable manure or commercial 

 fertilizer. We have grown stout plants the past 

 season on ordinary soil with an application of 

 800 pounds of good fertilizer to the acre drilled 

 in previous to planting.— Hortman Bjos, OJu'o. 

 Tar for Moles. I get rid of the moles in my 

 garden by putting a tablespoonful of tar in their 

 runs and cover it up. The moles will never run 

 through there again. I flnd it a sure cure.— 

 T1'. H. S., N. V. 



