I89I. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



205 



■^,w~- Flat Tnrnips for Oreen Manuring. We 

 have never tried them for that purpose, and be- 

 lieve that Peas or other plants of the same order 

 would ordinarily be preferable, as they not only 

 prepare plant food aheady in the soil for the use 

 of sueceedinyr crops, but also draw nitrogen from 

 the atmosphere. Peas also can be grown almost 

 as quickly as tlat Turnips. .Still in many cases it 

 may be worth while to give the Turnips a trial. 

 The editor of the American Cultivator says: 

 Upon a light sandy soil we know of no better 

 crop to grow for the purpose of plowing under 

 as a green manure than the common white or 

 flat Turnip. The seed is cheap and easily put in, 

 four or five pounds per acre, sown broadcast, 

 being a liberal allowance, and much less if grown 

 in drills. It will grow upon soil where Clover 

 will not, and it is verj' sure to germinate upon 

 any land, and is not killed out by either wet or 

 dry weather. Compared with Clover in value, 

 seven and a half tons of Turnips might be grown 

 where three tons of Clover hay could not, and 

 the Turnips would have in round numbers 10.5 

 pounds of nitrogen to 118 in the Clover, 171 

 pounds of phosphoric acid to 103 in the Clover, 

 and forty-eight pounds of potash to 30H in the 

 Clover. Or in other words tha Turnips are very 

 nearly one-half as valuable as the Clover, pound 

 for pound, for manurial purposes, and they may 

 be sown at any season from March to August, 

 and plowed under at any stage of growth, or not 

 plowed under at all, but allowed to remain until 

 they freeze or rot in the field, by which process 

 they enrich it nearly, but not quite as much as 

 when plowed in. 



:i,4U0. Budding Peaches and Cherries. Bud- 

 ding Peaches is usually performed on seedlings 

 of the year's planting as soon as large enough 

 for the operation in July, August, or even Sep- 

 tember at the north, and as early as June at the 

 south. Mature buds can be procured at this 

 time. The operation should alwE^ys be per- 

 formed at a time when the bark ilips or peels 

 easily. At other times it is tedious and uncertain. 

 Cherry seedlings require two seasons growth 

 before being large enough for budding, othei- 

 wise the remarks about Peaches apply also to 

 the Cherry. When everything is ready for 

 budding, the leaves are rubbed off with the hand 

 for a space of five or six inches above ground on 

 the young stock, and the bud is inserted as low 

 down as the budder can work. Buds are taken 

 from well-hardened shoots of the seasons growth 

 and of the desired variety. The individual bud 

 is usually cut about an inch in length, with a 

 thin-bladed, sharp budding knife, cutting from 

 below upwards, so that the bud is a little above 

 the center. A bit of wood is removed with the 

 bud. This may be left on, although many bud- 

 ders remove it. A smooth spot is then selected 

 on the seedling near the ground, and a vertical 

 cut made a little over an inch long, then a trans- 

 verse cut across the top of the vertical cut, the 

 blade to be given a slight outward motion for the 

 purpose of raising the corners of the bark so as 

 to allow the bud to be pushed in. The entire 

 budded portion is then to be firmly tied, the bud 

 itself only being left uncovered. Matting or 

 rafBa is usually employed as tying material. The 

 bandage must be removed in two orthree weeks, 

 when st<*ck and bud have united. 



2,417. High or Low-headed Apple Trees. The 

 low-headed trees are preferable. Low heads 

 shelter body and large limbs from sun, prevent- 

 ing frost, blight, sun scald, and insure greater 

 freedom from borers. Shade keeps weeds from 

 growing around trees, hence it gives greater 

 freedom from injury by mice, and gives birds a 

 chance at the borers. Wind will not nlow such 

 trees over so easily. Windfall Apples, and such 

 as are dropped by pickers are largely uninjured 

 by the fall. One-half to three-fourths of the 

 crop can be picked from the ground, which re- 

 sults in the saving of a large amount over the 

 picking from ladders. Low-headed trees also 

 are longer lived. Shade helps to retain the fer- 

 tility of the soil, hence gives us finer fruit. We 

 have 10,000 trees in orchard, and speak from ex- 

 perience. We should adopt low heads whether 

 grown east or west. Of course you cannot grow 

 other crops under the trees. If the orchard 

 does not pay, destroy it outright. —E. A. Knodle, 

 Itliuois. 



2,U'.i. Eillint; Osage Orange Hedge. A Mis- 

 souri farmer advises to cut down at any time of 

 the year, and cover the stumps with any kind of 

 coarse litter to ttie depth of six or eight inches 

 or more. If you can succeed in keeping the 

 stumps from sprouting for a single season, you 

 will have no more trouble with them. 



2,469. Forcing Tomatoes, etc., in Winter. We 



are not acquainted with any special treatise on 

 forcing Tomatoes and other vegetables, but a 

 good deal of information on the subject is con- 

 tained in our works on Gardening, especially in 

 Gardening for Profit (Henderson), and How to 

 Make the Garden Pay (Greinerj. 



2,4.50. Bustian Mnlberry as a Hedge. We 

 would not want it for that purpose, although it 

 may be used and could be made serviceable to 

 turn stock of almost any kind. .Vt best, however, 

 it makes a sprawling, ugly hedge, and there are 

 certaiuly many things that could be used in its 

 place to much better ad vantage. ~G. K. 



2,470. Fandanns TJtilis Culture. This plant, 

 known as the Screw Plant, attains a considerable 

 size with age, when grown in a congenial green- 

 house. In its native land in the tropics it reaches 

 a height of twenty feet. Still it is not often 

 that specimens above six or eight feet high are 

 met under glass. Young plants are often used 

 in summer vases for lawn and garden em- 

 bellishment, and they stand the sun and wind 

 well. The plant is among the easiest to grow, 

 provided a temperature of not less than 50° to 

 60° at night is provided the year round. It with- 

 stands gas, dust and general illusage as well as 

 any plant of its class we know of. To use con- 

 siderable sand in the soil suits the plants very 

 well. They are increased both by seedsand cut- 

 tings, the former being the means most generally 

 employed. 



2,436. Wintering Tea Boses Out Boors. Ten- 

 der Roses, such as Bon Silene and Saf rano cannot 

 be wintered out doors with perfect success, one 

 year with another, as far north as Chicago. If soil 

 is well drained and not too heavy, and the plants 

 are pegged to the ground in fall and covered with 

 five or six inches of earth, leaves or litter, Roses 

 of the Tea class, to which the varieties named 

 belong, can be brought safely through an aver- 

 age winter. Sometimes, however, they become so 

 weakened that they will never thrive and bloom 

 satisfactorily afterwards being also liable to 

 mildew. The Bengal, Bourban and Hybrid Tea 

 classes of monthly Koees are somewhat more 

 robust than the Teas, and consequently better 

 suited to wintering outside. We are acquainted 

 with specimens of the Hermosa and Agrippina 

 Roses belonging to the latter classes that have 

 been wintered outside through many years as 

 far north as Buffalo. A few points about cov- 

 ering. This should not be done before quite 

 hard frosts sets in, usually about December. 

 Covering too early is apt to cause the shoots to 

 become smothered and to decay. Then in the 

 spring the coat must not be removed too soon— 

 in the north not before the latter part of April. 

 Amateurs are often tempted to apply winter 

 protection too early in the fall, and to remove it 

 as soon as one or two mild days set in in the 

 spring. Haste in either case is a mistake. 



2,463. Address ofTJ. S, Fomologist. Mr. H. E. 

 Van Deman's address is Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C. That this is not known 

 to every fruit grower in the United States only 

 shows that the masses are not in touch with the 

 department as they should be. Mr. Van Deman 

 is trying to make himself and his division useful 

 to producers and lovers of fruits, and this should 

 be more fully appreciated by them than it now is. 



2,42.5. When to Sow Seed or Set Plants. Under 

 ordinary circumstances we would rather have a 

 rain follow shortly after planting than plant 

 shortly after a rain. The best soil conditions that 

 can be secured for the operation of seed sowing 

 or plant setting are when the soil Is moist, and 

 yet can easily be crumbled between the fingers. 

 Proper firmingof thesoilovertheseed or around 

 the plant roots, will then make the transplanting 

 process pretty safe and successful. It is only 

 careless work that leads to the loss of any con- 

 siderable portion of good plants under such soil 

 conditions, rain or no rain. As to artificial wat- 

 ering we seldom resort to it, except in a very dry 

 season. There are circumstances, however, when 

 it would better to sow or plant after a rain. Just 

 at this writing, for instance, a long-continued 

 drouth has seemingly taken all the moisture out 

 of the upjjcr f w inches of the ground, and we 

 do not believe that Corn planted in ground some- 

 time before would find the necessary moisture 

 to sprout. There is only one way by which we 

 could secure the germination of seeds, or the life 

 of newly transplanted, shallow-feeding plants, 

 and that is hy freshly jdowingand preparing the 

 land, and sow or plant immediately into the 

 freshly-stirred, j'et moist soil, depositing the 

 seed, and setting the plants somewhat deeper 

 than we would in a season with more rainfall. In 

 some cases even this expediency would not 

 work. A strong loam when quite dry, oft^n re- 

 sists all reasonable elforts to get it pulverized 

 and in proper order for seed sowing or plant 

 setting. If we can wait until after a rain, such 

 soil can easily be made fine and suitable for re- 

 ceiving seed or plants.— G. K. 



2,4:).s. Bemedy for Maple Tree Borer. This is 

 often very destructive to Maple plantations and 

 a hard enemy to fight. It lays its eggs on the 

 trunk of the Maple in .luly and August. The 

 grubs burrow into the liark as soon as they 

 are hatched, and are thus protected during 

 the winter. In the spring they penetrate deeper, 

 and form, in the course of the summer, long and 

 winding galleries in the wood, up and down the 

 trunk. In order to check their devastations, 

 the Maple tree borer should be sought for in 

 spring, when they will readily be detected by 

 the sawdust they cast out of their burrows; and 

 by a judicious use of the knife and stiff wire, 

 they may be cut out or destroyed before they 

 have gone deeply into the wood. As a preventive 

 we would suggest fre<iuent washings of the 

 trunk in July and August with soap suds or 

 alkaline solutions, or spraying with kerosene 

 emulsion, by which means many of the eggs laid 

 on the trunk at that time wdl be destroyed. —O.K. 



2,433. Winter Treatment of Bhododendrons. 

 In the fine gardens of Mr. Hunnewell and of 

 Francis B. Hayes, near Boston, Mass., where 

 Rhododendrons are extensively grown, special 

 provision is made for wintering such kinds as do 

 not stand the cold season safely. A notice of the 

 Hayes Rhododendron cellar, with a cross sec- 

 tional sketch of the same, appeared in our 

 October, 1890, issue. The cellar on the Hunnwell 

 place is built of masonry in a heavily wooded 

 part of the grounds. It is twelve feet high, and 

 has double doors on one side through which the 

 plants are carted. Light and ventilation are 

 provided by windows on the ends and roof. In 

 November the plants are lifted with as good 

 balls of earth as can be had, and are heeled in 

 beds of earth in the cellar. The nature of the 

 root growth of Rhododendrons is favorable to 

 thus lifting them, as the earth is held in the close 

 embrace of many fibrous roots. They are kept 

 in the cellar cool and unintiuenced by varieties 

 of temperature till April, when they are again 

 transferred to their out door places as before. 



2,466. Strawberry Saw Fly and Grub. The 



"small worm or caterpillar resembling the Cur- 

 rant worm, perhaps a little smaller, say a half 

 inch long or over," which eats the foliage of 

 Inquirer's Strawberries, is undoubtedly the larva 

 of the Strawberry saw fly. This insect; in its 

 perfect state, is a four-winged fly. It places its 

 egg within the substaee of the stem of the leaf 

 early in May. The eggs absorb moisture from 

 the stem, and increase in size, and in about a 

 fortnight hatch, when the young lar^'a■ at once 

 begin too feed on the leaves. When full grown 

 they are nearly three-fourtbs of an inch long, of 

 a pale greenish color with a faint whitish bloom. 

 The skin is semi-transparent. There is a broken 

 band along each side, of a deeper shade of green, 

 and below this the body has a .yellowish tint. 

 The head is yellowish brown, with six black dots, 

 the jaws dark brown and the under surface yel- 

 lowish. The larva' fall to the ground when dis- 

 turbed. The fly is black, with two rows of large 

 whitish spots upon the abdomen; antennu' black, 

 legs brown. The wings, when spread, measure a 

 little more than half an inch across. Those be- 

 longing to the first brood of larva" appear on the 

 wing early in July, when eggs are deposited for 

 a second brood, which are found during August. 

 They complete their larval growth, enter the 

 ground and construct their earthen cells, in 

 which they remain unchanged until the follow- 

 ing spring, when they enter the pupa state and 

 transform to fiies within a few days. Prof. 

 Saunders recommends hellebore or Paris green, 

 in proportion to an ounce of the former, or one 

 or two teaspoonfuls of the latter to two gallons 

 of wat€r, showered on the vines as soon as the 

 larva' are seen. The enemy that attacks the 

 plant under ground is undoubtedly the white 

 grub, the larva' of the May beetle. Heavy dress- 

 ings of muriate of potash or kainit might possi- 

 bly prove effective in driving this enemy away. 

 If not, the only course to be followed to prevent 

 injury from this source, is to plant on ground 

 that has been frequently plowed and is free from 

 grubs. 



2,451. Water Cress Culture. We rather like 

 the pungent flavor of any kind of Cresses espec- 

 ially when added to Lettuces or other salads. 

 Water Cresses are easily grown in or along any 

 little running water. Procure some cuttings, or 

 seed will do well enough, and scatter along the 

 edge of the stream. It takes root very readily, 

 and multiplies and spreads rapidly. 



2,4,56. Canning Vegetables. Canning Sweet 

 Corn is a rather tedious process, and not often 

 successfully done in the average household. Mrs. 

 S. T. Rorer, principal of the Philadelphia cook- 

 ing school, gives the following directions: Select 

 fine, fresh Corn. Remove husk and silk, and cut 

 the Corn from the cob; pack into jars, pressing 

 down closely and fill to overflowing. Put on the 

 tops, screw them down, place them in a White 

 jar holder, and pour in suflBcient water to half 

 cover the jars. Cover the boiler tightly, and boil 

 continuously for three hours, taking care that 

 there is sufficient water to make a full volume 

 of steam. When done, lift out the jars and 

 screw down the covers as tightly as possible. 

 While cooling, tighten the covers from time to 

 time, and when cold screw tighter still, if possi- 

 ble. Keep in a cool, dark place. Lima Beans 

 are treated somewhat differently. Fill the jars 

 with uncooked Beans, add cold water until run- 

 ning over, lay on the tops— do not screw them 

 down, and pack closely in a wash boiler on a 

 layer of straw or hay; pour cold water in the 

 boiler to half cover, put it over the fire, fit the 

 lid on closely and boil steadily three hours Lift 

 out the jars; see that they are filled to overflow- 

 ing, and screw on the covers as tightly as possi- 

 ble. When cold, screw up again and keep in a cool, 

 dark place. Asparagus and Peas may be canned 

 in the same way. It pays to use glass cans for 

 home canning. The first signs of fermentation 

 can readily be detected, and the flavor of the 

 fruit or A-egetables is far superior to those jiut 

 up in tins. String Beans are easiest to put up. 

 Throw into boiling water, boil rapidly fifteen 

 minutes, and then put up as you do small fruits 

 —that is, in jars heated in warm water; fill to 

 overflowing and screw on the tops tightly. 



