SPRING BUDS AND BLOOMS 79 



Here I have to be tedious again, in insisting 

 that this spraying operation is necessary unless I 

 am to be willing to run a moth-breeding and bug- 

 feeding fruit-garden; that it must be done at the 

 right time and with much care to get a lime-sulphur- 

 arsenate film over every part of every tree and 

 into the heart of every past-blossom; and that 

 to do this the mixing and filtering of the stuff 

 must be managed about as if I was getting a baby's 

 milk ready. No "rough-neck" operators will pro- 

 tect an orchard. It isn't so much trouble, after 

 all, especially after I have discovered that it is a 

 positive "must" operation. 



After spraying, it is a relief to turn into the 

 May garden. These stone steps, alight with the 

 lovely blue periwinkle flowers that we miscall 

 "myrtle" and that are really Vinca minor, remind 

 me of a failure and a success, the telling of which 

 will give time for the lime-sulphur smell to evapo- 

 rate. I saw a similar stone step covered luxuriantly 

 with the glossy foliage of the Wichuraiana rose, 

 and immediately ordered such roses for the home 

 steps. They came, were planted in the shade, 

 between the roots of two hemlocks at the top of 

 the steps where they had no business to be; grew 

 a little, climbed a little, trailed not at all, and next 

 year bloomed into pink Lady Gay roses, not white 



