

QUESTION AND ANSWER DEPARTMENT 



Drying Prunes 



Have prunes been dried in Canada? What 

 system of evaporation is employde? Are 

 evaporators made or put up in this country? 

 — C. T., Welland Co., Ont. 



We have not heard of prunes being 

 dried successfully. It may have been 

 done in British Columbia. Write to Mr. 

 Thos. A. Sharpe, superintendent, Ex- 

 perimental Farm, Agassiz, B. C, for 

 definite information on this point. Sun- 

 drying can be depended upon only 

 in countries that have long seasons 

 of warm ' weather and where the 

 air is dry and the nights are 

 dewless. In some of our most favored 

 fruit districts, however, it may be prac- 

 tised to supplement the work of the eva- 

 porator. If prunes could be dried in 

 this country at all, it probably would 

 have to be done by means of evaporation. 

 There are many styles of evaporators on 

 the market, from the small affairs cap- 

 able of drying two or three bushels a day 

 to the giant factory driers capable of 

 turning out several hundred bushels a 

 day. There are a few firms in Canada 

 that manufacture or put up evaporators. 

 Consult the advertising columns of The 

 [Canadian Horticulturist. 



Spiraea* Van Houttei 



How can Spiraea Van Houttei be propa- 

 f gated.?— W. D. L., Q'Appelle Co., Sask. 



This species of .Spiraea may be propa- 

 gated by means of seeds sown as soon 

 as ripe or stratified until spring. It may 

 be propagated, also, by cutting either 

 mature or green wood. The former may 

 be taken at this season and stored until 

 spring. Green cuttings are made in 

 summer and handled in cold frames. 



Seedling Cannas 



Do seedling cannas attain their normal 

 height the first year?— C. R,, Peel Co., Ont. 

 Much depends upon the size of the 

 seedling cannas when planted out and 

 their culture, whether they will attain full 

 height the first year. As a rule, they 

 scarcely attain the full height the first 

 season. 



Wintering Wallflowers 



Are wallflowers hardy in Canada; if not, 

 would a protection of leaves and straw be 

 sufHcient or must a frame be used.'— C R 

 PncI Co., Ont. 



Wall flowers are not entirely hardy 

 even in the warmest parts of Ontario and 

 a ! rather difficult to keep over winter. 

 It might be possible to save them with a 

 covering of leaves and straw as mention- 



ed, but a cold frame would be safer. 

 Throw some dry leaves or long strawy 

 litter over the plants before severe win- 

 ter sets in, about the middle of Novem- 

 ber, and place boards over the frame so 

 as to exclude moisture. I have wintered 

 them in this way tolerably well. The 

 plants can also be lifted, potted, and 

 kept in a cool window or even in a light 

 cellar during the winter, and planted out 

 again in the spring, or can be left grow- 

 ing in the pots. — Wm. Hunt, O. A. C. , 

 Ouelph. 



Funkias 



What is the best position for Funhia 

 i^randiflora} I bought these for F. alba 

 but they are blue. The clumps are large 

 but soon after coming out the leaves were 

 eaten by some insect. I have them in a 

 south bed which is sheltered from the mid- 

 day sun.— T. L., York Co., Ont. 



Funkias like a partially shaded posi- 

 tion where they get very little sun, the 

 north side of a fence or building being a 

 good position for them. They like a 

 light, loamy soil with some leaf soil mix- 

 ed with it. When planted in a sunny 

 place, the flowers wilt very quickly. The 

 hot sun also burns the foliage. Sprink- 

 ling the foliage with white hellebore pow- 

 der, or spraying with a weak solution of 

 Paris green water — half a teaspoonful of 

 Paris green to a gallon of water, well 

 mixed — has been effective in preventing 

 attacks of the insect that eats the leaves. 

 — Wm. Hunt, O. A. C, Guelph. 



Fall Care of Asparagus 



1. When should asparagu.s stalks 'be cut, 

 why then and why cut at all? 2. Does the 

 ripening of the seed draw much nourish- 

 ment from the root? 3. What other opera- 

 tions are necessary in the fall? — W. A., 

 Carleton Co., Ont. 



I. — Asparagus plants should be cut 

 as soon as they dry sufficiently to be 

 broken down by a harrow or a rake. 

 Thfy should then be gathered and 

 burned. There are various reasons for 

 cutting them. Their removal in time will 

 prevent the scattering of seeds. > jrther- 

 more, they have done their work and are 

 not required longer. They must be 

 removed in order to mak-^ it easier for 

 harvesting the young sprouts the follow- 

 ing spring 



2. — The early development of the seed 

 is dependent indirectly upon the root for 

 the nutriment required but the actual 

 ripening is dependent more particularly 

 upon the leaves and leaf stalks. As the 

 seed is maturing, these latter portions of 

 the plant give up a large part of the 



.'45 



elaborated food that had been stored 

 within them and this passes into the 

 seed. The making of food for asparagus 

 leaves goes on throughout the active leaf 

 period of the plant. The large percent- 

 age of this reserve store of material goes 

 to the root for the growth of next year's 

 shoots, and a small percentage is used 

 up in the formation of the berries, which 

 requires several months. All this time 

 the leaves are doing a double duty 

 simultaneously — namely, the making of 

 the berries and the storage of the roots. 

 It is probable that if there were no 

 berries formed there would be a large 

 amount of food stored in the root. There 

 is no direct withdrawal of nourishment 

 from the roots during the summer, for 

 the formation of the berries. 



3- — The surface of the bed should have 

 a top-dressing of well-rotted stable 

 manure, which should be worked into the 

 soil this fall. Manure left on the surface 

 until spring will prevent early growth. 

 As asparagus is a spring vegetable, it 

 is desirable to have the sprouts appear 

 as early as possible. 



Tomatoes Grown on Trellis 



R. S. Hood, Gait, Ont. 

 The illustration shows some tomato 

 plants that I had growing in my gar- 

 den during the past summer. They are 

 the Majestic variety. I planted them be- 



Tomato Vinei Eleveo Feet High 



side a wire netting trellis, and tied them 

 to it as they grew, which they certainly 

 did. They did not stop growing till Jack 

 Frost took a crack at them on October 

 2nd. They were eleven feet high. 



I took two of the plants to the agri- 

 cultural show held in Gait, on October 

 ist and 2nd. They were quite a curios- 

 ity. The tomatoes were large, smopth 

 and very solid. They were line for "slic- 

 ing and yielded a bountiful crop. 



