I89I. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



179 



There should be two or three openings the size 

 of a brick left in the side walls near the srround 

 for the entrance of cold air to drive the heat 

 rapidly upward. Close these when necessary. 

 Attach to the rear end of the furnace a stove- 

 pipe and let it pass through one of the side walls 

 and up on the outside of the evaporator to the 

 height of eight feet. Beneath the trays and 

 above the furnace suspend by wires a strip of 

 sheet iron three feet wide and ten feet long. 

 Bend this in a semi-circle so that the edges of the 

 sides will be two feet apart. Place this sheet 

 iron as near to the trays and as far as possible 

 above the furnace, with its convex side down- 

 ward. It will then direct the currents of hot air 

 into the air chambers on either side of the evapo- 

 rator. From thence the heated currents pass 

 underneath and over the trays to the opening in 

 the center of the trays; from thence upward and 

 out through the ventilator at the top of the 

 evaporator. 



Horticulture Under Glass. 



(T. L. Brown, before the Grand River, Jlivh,, Soeietj/.t 



The construction of a greenhouse should 

 be made with a view to the kind of plants 

 we wish to grow, but as John Thorpe ably 

 puts it, " First, last and all the time to the 

 south." The rays of light in passing 

 through glass lose much of their energy, 

 and the further the light travels before 

 reaching the plants the slower will be their 

 growth, for the light rapidly diminishes 

 from the roof to the benches. 



Plants require all the light it is possible to give 

 them. One unaccustomed to greenhouse plants 

 will invariably mistake height and general ap- 

 pearance upon entering a shady house for the 

 darker green, stockiness and weight of leaf 

 found in lighter structures; and it is only when 

 plants are put side by side that a marked differ- 

 ence can be seen. 



Progressive greenhouse men are continually 

 reducing the shade by using larger panes of glass. 

 The new system of butting the ends of glass to- 

 gether with white lead, when glazing makes 

 such an air tight house that I cannot recom- 

 mend the system for Lettuce culture. So tight 

 are these houses that a tobacco smoke made in 

 the evening will be quite thick the next morn- 

 ing, and one hour of ventilation is necessary to 

 change the air in such a house and get rid of the 

 old fumes. Carnations can be made to grow 

 in such a house, if air in abundance is given 

 every time the opportunity affords. The best 

 Lettuce I have grown is in a house glazed in the 

 old style of lapping the glass. This house is so 

 lull of openings that tobacco smoke escapes in 

 twenty minutes. 



Light also has an intluence upon the develop- 

 ment in color, the same variety of Roses grown 

 in sunny or shady houses when placed side by 

 side, appear like ditferent kinds. Soils also 

 change the color of flowers. A heavy soil in a 

 shady house will produce flowers about the same 

 shade as light soil in a sunny house and to get 

 the fullest development of green, glossy foliage, 

 thick leaf and pure color for Roses, they should 

 have a heavy soil and a sunny exposure. 



An abundance of light or the want of it has a 

 marked effect on Carnations. Put Carnations in 



^^^#^^- 





Pruning Screens. 



a shady house and a few finely developed flowers 

 will be the result. Such fine specimens are 

 caused by the lateral buds dying for want of 

 sufficient light to bring them to maturity and all 

 the energy of the stem that should have borne 

 five or six flowers, has been expended on the one 

 terminal bud, giving some extra fine, long 

 stemed flowei-s. Hinzies' white is a conspicuous 

 variety for its habit to bloom in crops in the 

 shade or bloom perpetually in the sun. I have 

 grown Hinzies' for years in houses facing east 

 and west. About February each year, I destroy I 



the plants to plant Lettuce. This year my Car- 

 nations were full of buds and bloom during 

 February, March and April, being in a house 

 facing the south The quality of soil for Carna- 

 tions has the effect of producing longer short 

 stems, a heavy soil inducing many buds which 

 always slowly develop into good flowers. A 

 light soil produces less flowers and longer stems. 

 I would recommend a medium heavy, or stony 

 soil, and a light structure for the best results 

 with Carnations. 



That most successful Lettuce grower, Eugene 

 Davis, once asked me if I did not think that a 

 house facing east and west was the best for 

 growing Lettuce. I assured him that I was in 

 favor of a south slope for anything for although 

 I was obliged to admit that from March 1, the 

 the east and west was the 

 best, a better average is se- 

 cured in the north and 

 south three-quarters span 

 houses, because I could 

 produce a better article 

 during the winter months, 

 and if not quite so good 

 later, on account of a high- 

 er temperature, a good 

 merchantable article was 

 a certainty. The house 

 facing south gets all the 

 sun there is during the 

 shortest days, and as they 

 lengthen, and the sun 

 rises more to the east, the 

 south-slope house gets 

 more shade, but a good 

 average amount O u r 

 houses, facing east and 

 west, have now, April 20, a 

 large amount of sunshine, 

 and air must be given as 

 early as six o'clock in the 

 morning, while the south houses can be closed 

 until eight. 



Another advantage in the south house is the 

 opportunity to do the watering morning and 

 evening, as the oblique rays of the sun allow 

 four or five hours a day for this work, which 

 cannot be found in the other houses. The light 

 admitted to the south house increases in inten- 

 sity from nine to twelve, and is strong for six 

 hours This bright light, causing a stocky 

 growth, allows the admittance of a large quan- 

 tity of air without wilting the plants. Light is 

 heat. The heat from the sunlight is what we 

 want, using the artificial to keep out the frost. 

 The less fuel we burn and keep our houses 

 warm with solar light, is not only economy in 

 fuel, but economy in plant growth. 



Frnnnig Screens. When screens and hedges 

 are in a state of rapid growth. It will do to prune 

 or cut them back moderately at midsummer, 

 especially if they are too tall and rampant, and 

 the cutting back is done with a knife, shortening 

 in irregularly the longestsboots or branches, and 

 not shearing off to an even surface. A sheared 

 screen has too stiff an appearance. One cut 

 back with a natural surface has not only a 

 natural appearance, but its continuous growth 

 is preserved, and it has the external form rep- 

 resented in the accompanying engraving, instead 

 of a stiff green wall, which if sheared in summer 

 checks the vigor of the trees so much as to do 

 them permanent injury. A screen of Osage 

 Orange will bear a moderate and irregular prun- 

 ing in summer better than some other feebler 



Work of Cucumber Beetle Larva. 



Cucumber Plant Protector. 



CONDENSED GLEANINGS. 



Protection against the Cucumber Beetle. The 

 Cucumber Beetle Hrst eats the young cotyledons 

 a few days after the plants have come up; and 

 later in the season the larva of the beetle de- 

 scends and and attacks the root, causing the 

 plant to wither and die. The figure (at the left 

 of illustration I represents the root of the natural 

 size, irregularly eaten in spots, and where these 

 spots occur the larva will be found hidden within 

 it. The female deposits her eggs on the stem 

 near the surface of the ground, and from this 

 egg the young larva when hatched eats its way 

 down to the centre of the stem. When full- 

 grown the larva is nearly half an inch long, and 

 nearly as slender as a common pin.— Country 

 Gentleman. The striped Cucumber Beetle (Dia- 

 brotica Httata, Fabr.i, is a most malignant enemy 

 to battle where it has once gained possession of 

 the field. Some protection placed over the bill 

 before the plants appear above ground will 

 prove most satisfactory in the long run. The 

 fact that such protection often aids materially 

 in preventing injury from frost is an important 

 point in its favor. The protector illustrated (at 

 the right of the accompanying sketch) has the 

 raeritof beinglstrong, light, durable and econom- 

 ical of storage, as well as being entirely eflicient 

 and cheap. It is made of five-eights-inch un- 

 dressed Pine lumber, covered over the top with 

 ordinary wire mosquito netting. The frame 

 may be made sixteen inches square at the top, 

 and the sections are cut sn that the bottom is 

 slightly larger, giving flare enough to admit of 

 nesting the boxes together lor convenient stor- 

 age. By cutting the boards in the manner shown 

 in the drawing, they may be "double-nailed," 

 which greatly adds to the stn/ugth of the frame 

 without increasing the weight or cost.— E. S. 

 Goff in^Garden and Forest. 



growers, and will spring up sooner with a second 

 growth; and Norway Spruce is less injured by 

 cutting to a moderate extent than some other 

 evergreens. But if the full vigor of young trees 

 and screens is to be preserved, they must be 

 pruned when in a dormant state, or else the pro- 

 truding shoots are to be merely pinched back.— 

 Orange Judd Farmer. 



EvergreeDS for Lawn. In the front of the 

 lawn there should be at least one or two free 

 groupings of conifers, and then here and there 

 in difierent parts of the place isolated specimens 

 planted to give variety to the other shrubbery. 

 It is not good landscape gardening to plant the 

 trees in a circle around the house so that it is 

 diflicult to see the building from the street. 

 Good views of the house are always desirable, 

 and the trees must be planted at one side, and 

 not too close to the drive or walks. Early gar- 

 deners were led into this mistake by improper 

 calculation. When the trees were first planted 

 they were so small that they did not seem to 

 shut out any view, but when they attained their 

 full growth they were a perfect girdle which de- 

 fled sunlight to penetrate through them —Am. 

 Cultivator. 



Intensive Culture Profitable. An irrigated 

 vegetable garden of ii}4 acres in the suburbs of 

 Paris employs three men, two women and a 

 horse, the latter to pump the water into the res- 

 ervoir for distribution and to draw the loaded 

 cart to market before daylight in the morning. 

 Average product of the little garden per annum, 

 $4,(K)0. Cultivators of 7)^ acres, without irriga- 

 tion and more remote from the city, need fewer 

 hands and realize about $3,000 a year. Peas, 

 String Beans, Asparagus, Chicory, Carrots, Tur- 

 nips, Onions,'Early Potatoes and winter Salsify 

 are the principal articles of production. — Mary- 

 land Farmer. 



Home Made Wheel Weeder. This comes handy 

 for use among the Cabbage beds, <.)nions, etc. 

 The handles from an old cultivator and the 

 wheel came from an old plow. In the wheel in- 

 sert a bolt about five inches long, first plugging 

 up the axle hole with wood and boring a hole of 

 the right size. Take a piece of good hoop iron 

 about 2.5 inches long for a cutter. Bend it in the 

 shape shown and attach to the handles about 

 six inches from the wheel holes. Attach two 

 brace irons about two inches from the bend in 

 the cutter and after sharpening the front edge 

 of the cutter bar you are ready to work. — Home 

 and Farm. 



The Heliotrope. This is easily propagated by 

 seeds or cuttings. It is very easy of cultivation ; 

 in fact it may be grown by the merest tyro, 

 but it would be well to remember that it is 



