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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1909 



tinguished. The pruner should be able 

 to tell from the fruit scars and blossom 

 scars on what years the trees have blos- 

 somed, when fruit set, and whether the 

 fruit properly matured, as indicated by 

 the character of the fruit scar. By com- 

 paring these evidences of fruitful and 

 non-fruitful years with the amount of 

 growth made each year and with the 



kind and degree of pruning which was 

 done in any season, he may reason out 

 for himself the proper pruning to pursue 

 in order to secure a given result. In 

 other words, the best book on pruning 

 is to learn to read the life history of the 

 tree, during all its past, by the charac- 

 ters which are plainly written on its 

 twigs and limbs. 



LaAVii and Garden Hints for May 



THE busiest month of the year for 

 gardening is May. Plants that 

 have been started earlier in the sea- 

 son must be watched carefully and there 

 are scores of different kinds of plants 

 and seeds that should go in the ground 

 now. Sow your plants in straight lines 

 so that cultivation may be performed 

 easily and to have neatness and order. 

 If you have not yet purchased all the 



Maple Treu Bntcherrd to "Clear " Wires Overhead 



The beauty and usefulness of street trees in our towns 



and cities are being destroyed by telephone and 



traction companies. This reckless destruction 



should be stopped. 



seeds that you require, be sure to get 

 only the best. A difference of a few 

 cents or dollars in cost now will make a 

 great difference in results. 



THE KITCHEN GARDEN 



The soil for vegetables should be dug 

 deeply, and made as fine as possible for 

 the reception of the seeds. When dig- 

 ging, work in plenty of well-rotted stable 

 manure. If wood ashes are available, 

 give an application of them also. The 

 hardy varieties and kinds of vegetable 

 seeds should be sown now. Sow in 

 freshly stirred soil. Seeds require less 

 depth of covering in spring than in sum- 

 mer. Seeds of beets, carrots, parsnips, 

 and beans will germinate more quickly 

 if they are soaked over night. Cucum- 

 ber, squash, melon and corn should not 

 be planted until all danger of frost is 

 past. 



The best time for transplanting is on 

 a cloudy day or late in the afternoon or 

 e\ening of hot days. If the sun is hot 



the following day, the plants may have 

 to be shaded. 



Sow radish seed in good soil. To 

 have them crisp and tender, apply a lit- 

 tle commercial fertilizer to make them 

 grow rapidly. To have a continuous 

 crop, sow the seeds every ten days or two 

 weeks. A good variety is Scarlet White- 

 topped Turnip. 



Among the best varieties of lettuce are 

 Big Boston and Black-seeded Simpson. 

 For parsley, sow Double Curled. There 

 are many good varieties of peas, includ- 

 ing Gradus, Heroine and Stratagem. An 

 excellent carrot is Chantenay. Two of 

 the best onions are Yellow Globe Dan- 

 vers and Large Red Wethersfield. One 

 of the best parsnips is Hollow Crown. 

 The best early beet is the dark Egyptian. 



Keep the surface soil of the vegetable 

 ^'arden well stirred and cultivated. Do 

 not allow the weeds to get a start. 



WITH THE FEUITS 



Every home garden should have a 

 few strawberry plants. Choose varieties 

 that have perfect blossoms. If an imper- 

 fect flowering variety is preferred, there 

 must be planted near it some plants with 

 perfect flowers to fertilize the others. 

 There are many excellent varieties. 

 Those that do well in some localities 

 often are failures in others. Ask a neigh- 

 bor who has been successful with straw- 

 berries for the names of kinds that have 

 done well with him. The blossoms 

 should be removed from the plants during 

 the first season of growth. 



Remove the mulch from the old straw- 

 berry bed and leave it between the rows. 

 It will help to save the moisture, to pre- 

 vent the fruit being splashed with earth 

 during rains and to make the work of 

 picking cleaner for yourself. 



If the garden is large enough, it should 

 contain a few bushes of gooseberries, 

 currants, raspberries and blackberries. 

 Plant them now. 



Watch the currant and gooseberry 

 bushes for worms. Dust the plants with 

 powdered Hellebore or spray with one 

 ounce of Paris green to about ten pounds 

 of water. 



THE FLOWER GARDEN 



If your rose bushes have not yet been 

 pruned, do it now. The best time is just 

 as the buds are starting into growth. 

 Cut out the dead and weak branches. 



Prune back the remaining ones to within 

 a few inches of the old wood. The shoots 

 from the base of the bush may be cut 

 back to about fifteen inches from the 

 ground. Shoots that spring from points 

 below this should be removed. Climb- 

 ing roses may be cut back as desired. 

 If pruned regularly, they will become 

 more compact and will bloom more pro- 

 fusely. 



Plants that have been started from seed 

 in the house should be hardened-off be- 

 fore transplanting to the open. Expose 

 them for a few hours a day to outside 

 influences. 



Sow seeds of nasturtiums, balsam and 

 portulaca after the middle of the month. 

 The latter is an excellent hot weather 

 plant. Sow sweet peas. There is more 

 danger of being too late with these than 

 too early. 



Corms of gladoli may be planted to- 

 wards the end of the month or early in 

 June. Plant them three or four inches 

 deep and about six or eight inches apart. 



Secure and plant some new perennials 



A Hedge of Spiraea Van Houttei 



Residence of Mr. Richard Devlin, Ottawa 



in the herbaceous border. This class of 

 plants are always interesting. 



ON THE LAWN 



Repair the bare patches on the lawn by 

 seeding or sodding. If sods are to be 

 used, cut a square area about the injured 

 patch, and remove the old sod surface 

 and soil from within this square to the 

 depth of a sod. Roughen the surface of 

 the soil with a rake. Lay the sods in 

 strips closely together. Pound firmly 

 with the back of a spade, water immedi- 

 ately and continue the watering until the 

 new sod has made a union with the soil 

 beneath. 



For seeding a lawn a good mixture is 

 Kentucky blue grass. Red Top and 

 White Dutch clover, equal parts by 

 weight. Sow at the rate of one quart to 

 the square rod. 



Trim the evergreen hedge just before 

 growth starts. Never prune back of the 

 growing twigs. A hedge must be clipped 

 regularly each year. 



To be satisfied with our work in trans- 

 planting, it is not sufficient to make a 

 tree live, but it must grow. 



