The Fall Treatment of Garden Weeds 



PP:RIIAPS in no place do weeds give 

 more trouble or look more un- 

 sightly than in the vegetable gar- 

 den. Many gardens are so badly infest- 

 ed with weeds that constant hoeing and 

 cultivation is required throughout the 

 season in order to keep them out of the 

 rows and give the crop a fair chance. 

 This continuous hoeing and cultivating 

 is tedious, laborious and costly and 

 might to a large extent be done away 

 with and time and money saved by pro- 

 per attention being given to the garden 

 in the fall of the year after the crop has 

 been removed. 



Most of the weeds that are pests in the 

 vegetable garden are annuals such as 

 pigweed and lamb's quarters, or winter 

 annuals like shepherd's purse. The ma- 

 jority of them mature seeds late in the 

 fall after the ordinary cultivation of the 

 garden has ceased and the seeds of most 

 of them will germinate as soon as they 

 are mature. The treatment, therefore, 

 is to plow the ground as soon as the crop 

 is removed to prevent the maturing of 

 the weeds. This plowing must be shal- 

 low, not more than three or four inches 

 deep in order to keep the weed seeds in 

 the soil near the surface. Next harrow- 

 thoroughly to form a good seed bed and 

 induce the weed seeds to germinate. As 

 soon as a growth of young weeds is ob- 

 tained cultivate them out. Repeat the 

 harrowing and cultivating several times 

 as by each stirring of the soil more weed 

 seeds will be made to germinate and the 

 young plants destroyed by the cultiva- 

 tion. Thus the soil will be to a large ex- 

 tent freed from the weed seeds that under 

 ordinary conditions would produce a 

 growth of weeds in the crop the following 

 season. 



It is a good practice, especially if the 

 soil is apt to be a little damp and cold, to 

 ridge up the garden last thine before the 

 ground freezes. This will hasten the 

 warming and drying of the ground in the 

 spring and when the ridges are harrow- 

 ed down any weeds that have escaped the 

 fall cultivation will be destroyed. 



If patches of weeds are allowed to seed 

 in the fence corners and waste places 

 near the garden, the foregoing treatment 

 will be of little avail as the soil will be 

 reseeded by every wind that blows. All 

 such patches of weeds must, therefore, be 

 cut before they mature their seeds. 



Care must be taken not to use manure 

 containing weed seeds. Manure sus- 

 pected of containing weed seeds should 

 be piled and allowed to heat thoroughly 

 before being applied. 



"A stitch in time saves nine." Such 

 indeed is the case in dealing with garden 

 weeds. A little time and trouble spent 

 in the fall when the work is slack, a little 



J. Eaton Howitt, M.S.A., Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph 



care given to the cutting of weeds in labor during the busy season of the year, 



waste places at the proper time, and to thus lessening greatly the cost of pro- 



the securing of manure free from weed ducing a crop and adding materially to 



seeds will save a great deal of time and the margin of profit. 



Variety Tests With Beans and Peas 



H. S. Peart, Horticultural Experiment Station, Jordan Harbor, Ontario 



AT the beginning of our work with 

 varieties of vegetables, we en- 

 deavored to secure the leading 

 varieties that have been placed upon 

 the market. Although we grew 104 

 varieties of beans and 109 varieties of 

 peas, many are entirely useless. We 

 would suggest the following varieties as 

 those being worthy of trial by our veget- 

 able growers and kitchen gardeners. 



\^mong the best early beans are 

 Earliest Hopkins Red Valentine, Long 

 Pod Forcer, Davis Kidney, Bountiful 

 Bush, Early Red Valentine, Longfellow 

 and New California Wax. Prolific 

 (■erman Wax, Dwarf Horticultural, 

 Stringless Green Pod, Mighty Nice, 

 Rennies' XXX Best Green, Imnerial 

 Golden Wax, Giant Stringless Green 

 Pod, Early Red Valentine, ripen some- 

 what later, giving a succession of pick- 

 ing. Hodson's Wax was decidedly the 

 heaviest cropper we had but New Pearl 

 Wax, Black Wax, Refugee Improved 

 and Large White Marrowfat are worthy 



of further trial and test for late crop. 



The peas which we would recommend 

 are as follows. Early: — Briggs' Extra 

 Early, Rural New Yorker, McLean's 

 Little Gem, First of All, Prolific Early 

 Market and Rawson's Clipper. Medium, 

 — French Canner, Improved Stratagem, 

 Telegraph, Burpee's Profusion, Heroine, 

 Horsford's Market Garden, Mammoth 

 Melting Sugar, Burpee's Quantity, and 

 Dwarf Gray Sugar. Late, — Rennie's 

 Queen, Matchless, Early Dwarf, Brittany 

 Sugar, Bliss Everbearing, Long Island 

 Mammoth, Black Eyed Marrowfat, 

 Marblehead Early Marrowfat, Prodigious 

 and Royal Dwarf White Marrowfat. 



While there are a number of other 

 varieties grown throughout the province, 

 these are the ones that have proved to be 

 the best with us this season. Growers 

 should not form the opinion, however, 

 that are are recommending these varieties 

 only. Further tests may show that some 

 of the others may be superior to those 

 mentioned. 



Forcing Tomatoes 



W. S. Blair, Macdonald College 



THE variety, "Frogmore Selected," 

 was used in the experiments that 

 were conducted at the Macdonald 

 College, and recorded in the October 

 issuj of The Canadian Horticulturist. 

 The benches contained six inches of soil. 

 There is some diflficulty in transplanting 

 from a six-inch pot to this depth of soil, 

 and we think that a six inch pan would 

 suit the plant as well, and be better for 

 transplanting on account of being shal- 

 lower. 



o\er the plant every few days, for they 

 make very rapfd growth and unless re- 

 moved when small they take considerable 

 strength from the plant. When the 

 plants in the pots are getting large it is 

 advisable to use No- 10 wire, about 

 eighteen inches long, as a support. 



The temperature was kept at sixty de- 

 grees during the night, and in the day 

 time during very dull weather, the house 

 registered about this mark. During 

 bright days the temperature would go up 



The plants were trained to a single to seventy or eighty degrees according 

 stem, and supported with No. 10 wire to the day and in the late spring some- 

 stuck into the soil at one end and fas- times to ninety degrees, 

 tened to wires running over the benches. Tomatoes require plenty of. fresh air 

 These supports were five and one-half in order to make stocky, thrifty growth ; 

 feet long. To these the plants were tied therefore, particular care in ventilating 

 with raffia whenever it was necessary. is necessary. Avoid cold draughts. 



Strong coarse wool twine makes a good 

 support. This twine is tied to a wire 

 running across the bench below and to a 

 similar wire above. The plants are tied 

 to this the same as where wire is used. 

 The plants were trained to a single 

 stem by pinching off all but the upper or 



It is quite important not to water too 

 heavily. The soil should be thoroughly 

 wet to the bottom of the benches and 

 kept moist but not saturated. In winter, 

 two waterings per week are usually 

 quite sufficient. As the season advances 

 and the plants increase in size, more, of 



primary shoot. In pinching off the side course, will be required. During the 

 branches or suckers, it .is necessary to go early growth of the tomato the atmos- 



