THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



227 



pests. Every year a certain amount 

 , of damage is done, and in occasional 

 years, serious loss. A very trouble- 

 some insect in Humber Bay and vicin- 

 ity is the cabbage-maggot. It is diffi- 

 cult to deal with Cabbage some- 

 times overcome the attack; cauliflower 

 never. Many remedies have been rec- 

 ommended, but none are certain. The 

 maggot is best controlled by prevent - 

 1 ing the laying of the eggs by means of 

 a repellant. Preventatives in the form 

 of mechanical obstructions, the plac- 

 ing of tobacco dust about the stem of 

 the plant, the application of an emul- 

 sion of crude carbolic acid and others 

 have been suggested, but where these 

 crops are grown on a large scale, they 

 have not proved practicable. There is 

 work along this line for our experiment 

 stations. 



The onion-maggot is another dreaded 

 enemy of garden crops. It is a near 

 relation of the cabbage-maggot, and 

 works similarly. Up to the present 

 time no efficacious remedy has been 

 discovered. Dusting hellebore or lime, 

 and spraying with soap washes, kero- 

 sene emulsion and other insecticides 

 have been tried, but the maggot usu- 

 ally wins out. Here again is a chance 

 for further investigation. 



A Michigan farmer states the fol- 

 lowing experience: "I have found a 

 practical and effective method to get 

 rid of onion maggots. It is to sow 

 bone black fertilizer broadcast over 

 the onions every seven or eight days 

 until the little thrips or green flies 

 leave. The fertihzer does not kill the 

 flies but simply is obnoxious to them 

 and causes them to discontinue their 

 visits to the onions. The writer has 

 not been bothered with this pest since 

 he began using this remedy in 1901. 

 Besides preventing the destructive work 

 of the maggots the fertihzer more than 

 pays for the trouble and expense of 

 applying it in producing a better yield 

 of onions." 



Blight on the celery and on onion is 

 quite prevalent in vegetable districts. 

 The latter is difficult to combat. Many 

 growers near Toronto have tried vari- 

 ous remedies, notably Bordeaux mix- 

 ture, with disappointing results. In 

 some cases onions sprayed with Bor- 

 deaux are badly affected, while patches 

 immediately adjoining and unspraved 

 are comparatively free from the disease. 



FORCING RADISHES 



On the truck farm of Mr. Thos. Del- 

 worth, of Weston, an interesting dis- 

 cussion took place on the methods of 

 forcing radishes in greenhouses. It was 

 pointed out that the seed should be 

 sifted and only the largest used. The 

 seed will come quicker and more even. 

 Manv small seeds may produce as good 

 radish at maturity as the others, but 

 they take a longer time to grow. Orown 



inside, they are apt to become spindly. 

 It is important to have all the radishes 

 attain marketable size at the same 

 time. This can be accomplished only 

 by having the seed even in size. And, 

 to hasten maturity, only large seed 

 should be used. Reject all seeds that 

 will pass through a sieve with a mesh 

 one-twelfth of an inch in diameter. 



Most gardeners sow the seed in drills 

 thickly and afterwards thin to the de- 

 sired distance. Mr. Rush practises an- 

 other method that he claims is better. 

 It produces a more even crop, and 

 tends to prevent mildew and other 

 diseases. Holes for the seeds are made 

 every three inches in rows the same 

 distance apart. Three or four seeds are 

 dropped at each of these points. No 

 thinning is necessary. 



SOMB PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS 



To demonstrate the action of fer- 

 tilizing elements, singly and in' com- 

 bination with each other, on radishes. 

 Professor Harcourt purposes to under- 

 take some experiments. The work will 

 be conducted, not for the purpose of 

 presenting anything new, but simply 

 to ser^'e as object lessons. Many gar- 

 deners hear and read about the action 

 of the various elements on different 

 parts of a plant, and are not convinced. 

 It was suggested to the professor that 

 a bulletin or pamphlet on this subject, 

 dealing with actual experiments at 

 Guelph, and well illustrated with cuts 

 showing the results, would be of great 

 value to market gardeners, experienced 

 men and novices alike. It would be 

 convincing. Seeing is beheving. Should 

 the experiments result in the discov- 

 ery of anything new, respecting the 

 action of fertilizers, their value will 

 be still greater. We shall follow the 

 work with interest. 



MUSHROOMS 



In the minds of some persons the cul- 

 ture of mushrooms is surrounded with 

 mystery. Mushrooms can be grown, 

 they think, only by the man who knows 

 the secrets and possesses the charm. 

 The business is not for the ordinary 

 gardener. These ideas of the growing 

 of mushrooms are wrong. They are 

 the result of failures on the part of 

 some men who have made the attempt; 

 and they are due, also, to a certain 

 amount of quackery that is practised 

 by some of the men who have been 

 more or less successful. One grower 

 we know, who lives not far from To- 

 ronto, told a dozen pcrsDiis this season 

 that his success with mushrooms is 

 due to a chemical he uses, and which 

 was suggested to him by a tramp. 

 These are some of the reasons for the 

 degree of mystery that enshrouds the 

 very idea of producing mushrooms. 

 But, when the situation is examined, 

 the mystery vanishes. While the cul- 

 tivation of mushrooms is often attended 



with uncertainty, there is no secret 

 about it, nothing more than the secret 

 of careful attention to details, the ex- 

 ercise of skill and good judgment. 



Among the men who grow mush- 

 rooms successfully, and who have no 

 methods in obscurity, is Mr. Delworth. 

 He grows the mushrooms under the 

 benches of his lettuce house. Recently 

 Mr. Delworth harvested, at one cutting, 

 llj pounds off of 280 square feet of 

 bed. The manure for the bed is se- 

 lected with care. It must be good, 

 neither fire-fanged nor rotten. Before 

 using, it is turned every day for eight 

 or nine days. Fire-fanged manure will 

 produce no mushrooms. 



The prepared manure is mixed with 

 soil and packed by layers into beds, 

 9 or 10 inches deep, evenly and firmly 

 and left smooth on the surface. When 

 the temperature falls to about 85 de- 

 grees, pieces of brick spawn- are put in 

 about two inches deep and 10 inches 

 apart. The surface, again, is firmed 

 and smoothed. 



MvisKmelons for MarKet 



W. G. Home, Clarkson 



There are two varieties of melon that, 

 if grown and put on the market in the 

 right condition, would be as much 

 sought after for dessert or eating from 

 the hand as the Early Crawford peach — ■ 

 they are the Rocky Ford and Paul Rose. 

 The conditions in which they should 

 be placed on the market are: first, never 

 ship a melon until it has properly ripen- 

 ed; second, never ship a melon that has 

 ripened on a dead or injured vine; third, 

 ship them in a proper protective package, 

 one that will stand being pitched about 

 like so much stove wood. No discrim- 

 ination is shown in handling packages 

 by the express companies, whether the 

 contents are of a tender and soft nature, 

 or hard. Follow these directions and 

 you will be surprised at the market that 

 can be made, and a paying one, too, by 

 growing melons in the right way. 



Veg'etable Notes 



Study the pecuHarities of the market. 



The squash bug dislikes clean culture. 



Mineral fertilizers are unfavorable to 

 insects, and to some they are deadly. 



When marketing vegetables, no in- 

 dividual of inferior value should be 

 bunched or put up. 



A compost heap, which should be 

 started now, is hke a penny savings 

 bank. Every little helps to increase 

 the aggregate. 



I prefer solid to raised benches in 

 the greenhouse because it does not take 

 very long to run away with much of 

 the profit from the crop if new benches 

 have to be made frequently. Lumber 

 is very expensive. — H. E. Reid, Toronto. 



