August, 1909 



THE CANADIAN HO RTI C U L TUEIST 



173 



Cabbages on Prince Edv^ard Island 



D. J. Stewart, Aitkin's Ferry 



TO produce cabbage, like those illus- 

 trated, which weigh from twelve to 

 twenty pounds, in the short space 

 of time of three and one-half months, one 

 must understand the needs of his crop, 

 and supply those needs, and these are 

 food, water and cultivation. For food, I 

 use barnyard manure and lobster offal or 

 fish waste with nitrate of soda and mur- 

 iate of potash when necessary. While we 

 cannot supply water, we can do much to 

 preserve what we have by plowing down 

 the manure and finishing off the field 

 when the ground is damp, and afterwards 

 keeping the surface fine by frequent culti- 

 vation. 



Use a cultivator with finer teeth than 

 those generally sold by dealers, as the 

 object in cultivating is to kill weeds and 

 stir the soil — not to open trenches for 

 drain tile, as many cultivators do. A cul- 

 tivator with five or seven teeth taken from 

 a spring tooth harrow is the best I have 

 ever used. When your rows are only 

 thirty inches apart, you will have to use 

 the hoe to remove weeds after the cab- 

 bage begin to head if you want clean, land 

 the following year. No definite number 

 of times for cultivating or weeding can 

 be stated as soils, weather and time must 

 determine these for each. 



The three most dreaded enemies of cab- 

 bage in the province are club-root, root 

 maggot and green worm. The first of 

 these is the only one that gives me any 

 worry and the only way to avoid it (avoid, 



Examine your plants before you set them 

 out and if they show any signs of mag- 

 got, wash the roots thoroughly. I have 

 set out badly infested plants after wash- 

 ing without losing five per cent. For 

 green worm, spray with Paris green and 

 water, one pound to about eighty gallons, 



as soon as the worm appears and if you 

 keep them down until the cabbage begin 

 to head, you will not have much trouble 

 then. Much depends on the number of 

 cabbage grown. A row or two in a tur- 

 nip field will have as many worms as an 

 acre and, of course, will have a good 

 chance of being ruined. I have tried salt, 

 hellebore, and other things, and found 

 them useless. 



Mulching the Garden 



A. V. Main, Almonte, Ontario 



E mulching of vegetable crops in 



TH 

 summer is a method of very good 

 manuring that is not practised to 

 any extent. The term "mulching", is 

 simply a top dressing of manure, straw, 

 lawn mowings or a like material to act 

 as a food and manurial agent to the 

 plants treated. We can not discuss the 

 question of its merits, for it is decidedly 

 a great assistance for good crops, and 

 that is what we all want, — bumper crops. 

 What are the chief benefits of mulch- 

 ing? Firstly, it prevents the rapid evap- 

 oration after rain, and conserves the 

 moisture to the plants' benefit; secondly, 

 keeps heavy clay or clammy soil from 

 getting parched, dry and cracked ; third- 

 ly, when rain arrives, the nutriment from 

 the manure is washed down to the roots — 

 plants assimilate manurial feeding and 

 grow rapidly during a rain and immedi- 

 ately after it. We take half-decayed 

 manure or the material from the hot-beds, 

 that have done their work in spring, can 



Under Good Management Cabbages will Grow to Perfection on Prince Edward Island 



not cure, is the word), is not to plant 

 cabbage on land that has had cabbage 

 or any of that family for at least five 

 years, and not use manure from cattle 

 that have been fed club-rooted turnips. 



now be utilized in another form. I have 

 not found straw or lawn mowings to be 

 worthy of the term, "beneficial mulch- 

 ing." Straw is void of plant food, is not 

 suitable for a rooting substance, and is a 



cover for mice, and is unsightly in the 

 garden. 



The manure can be spread out thinly 

 and evenly and cultivation need not halt 

 either, for the manure can glide through 

 the cultivator. In regard to cultivators, 

 I recommend the "Buco" for small gar- 

 dens, and even gardens that run up to 

 several acres. It is light and very effec- 

 tive to run between rows of onions, beets, 

 carrots and parsnips, in fact all crops in 

 rows of a foot or more apart. It is quite 

 an advantage over a hoe or other heavy 

 cultivators. With the "Bucco" you loos- 

 en the ground and leave no foot marks 

 on the cultivated section. 



The period for the application of mulch- 

 ing is about the first of July, when the 

 crops are generally well advanced, all 

 thinned out and weeded, and have been 

 well cultivated. The plants at this date 

 are in good shape for mulching. Vege- 

 tables that respond to this form of man- 

 uring in our garden are tomatoes, grown 

 in single-stake fashion, onions, cucum- 

 bers, melons, beans, beets, cauliflower 

 and particularly broad beans that suffer 

 so much from drought. It is advantage- 

 ous to all vegetables ; however, potatoes, 

 corn, cabbage and squash are not deserv- 

 ing of it, for their own foliage soon cov- 

 ers the space allowed them. A couple 

 of inches is a sufficient covering. With 

 successive dry summers and the grower 

 handicapped for a want of water supply 

 and probably a stiff soil in the garden, 

 mulching is a good substitute to sustain 

 the plants. 



Soil for Palms 



What kind of soil is best for palms?— 

 W. M., Oshawa, Ont. 



Palms require a moist soil with ample 

 drainage material at the bottom of the 

 pot. \\'atcr standing at the roots is in- 

 jurious. The best soil for most palms is 

 one that is composed of well-rotted sod, 

 leaf-mold and a little sand. 



If you are trying any novelties in vege- 

 tables, keep a record of their growth and 

 behaviour and send a few notes for pub 

 lication in Thk Canadian Horticultur- 

 ist. 



