1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



87 



upon the root of the Strawberry in (Trent nuin- 

 liers and injures the plants by suckinp: the Juiecs. 

 The extent of the injury is vnriiible, depenciintf 

 upon the niuuber i>f the inseets and tlie condi- 

 tion of the phint. Certain varieties of the Straw- 

 berry appear to have a greater power to resist 

 this enemy than do others. This insect was first 

 noticed by Professor Forbes, of Illinois, and has 

 more recently been fully descriljed and named by 

 Mr. C. M. Weed, entomolotfist to the Ohio E.\- 

 l)eriment Station. Rotation has been suggested 

 as likely to prove the best remedy for this pest. 

 Care should also be taken in setting new planta- 

 tions to see that no infested plants are used, or 

 that the insects on them are killed. This may be 

 done by dipping the roots in kerosene emulsion. 



Landscape Gardening. 



Extract of paper read by Counvillor Barding at the 

 Preston and F>tlwood{EngIand)Hortictdtii7'atSoci€ty.) 



Landscape gardening is an art of no mean 

 order. Broadly understood, it is the appli- 

 cation of art to nature. Nature in itself is 

 an e.xemplifier of progress, always chang- 

 ing, and like the sky, presenting scenes like 

 an ever changing kaleidoscope. "Nature 

 is hut art hidden from our view." 



Country Homes. The landscape of the garden 

 must l^ made subser\nent to the buildings. In 

 the arrangement of the house, as a principle, the 

 li\'ing rooms should have east, south and west 

 aspects: stabling and out-buildings be on the 

 north-east; fruit and flower gardens placed on the 

 sunny side of the house, south and west; lawn 

 tennis fronting the drawing-room window. 



The carriage drive from the public highway 

 should be as short as possible, provided, of course 

 sufficient space is left to secure privacy to the 

 house gardens, and pleasure grounds. The longer 

 the carriage drive or approach, the greater the 

 expense incurred in construction and making, 

 and in the constant repairing and mending. 

 Again, the longer and more circuitous or serpen- 

 tine in form, the more inaccessible during the 

 evenings, especially of dark foggy days. The 

 less of gravelled roads and appearance of gravel 

 the better— they are objectionable to the eye- 

 sight. Green is the natural color upon which 

 the eye should rest— the sight of sheep or cattle 

 in the park-like enclosure, sometimes found ad- 

 jacent to a villa, occupying three or four acres 

 as a site, presents a far more picturesque view 

 than turf cut up by a straggling carriage drive, 

 which, however beautiful in itself, mars and 

 spoils the scene. The foot paths communicating 

 with the main roads should be serpentine or 

 curved in form, save only in the kitchen garden, 

 where these should be straight. 



Much judgment and care are required in the 

 planting and grouping of trees and plants, and 

 the laying out of flower beds, so that every step 

 you take may present to the eye a constantly 

 varying scene. These are the keynotes to the 

 whole. This is the finish that displays the skill 

 of the gardener, and embellishes the villa with 

 a charm that adds comfort to the house. 



Public Parks. Parks in or adjacent to towns, 

 provided by corporations or private munificence, 

 are maintained for the enjoyment of ratepayers 

 and the public at large— to provide relaxation, 

 fresh air,exercise, pleasure, and enjoyment for all 

 sorts and conditions of men. First and foremost, 

 the approach to the park should be a main and 

 principal avenue and carriage drive, designed 

 and laid out both for position and views. .VII 

 parks should be laid out in such a manner as to 

 pro^nde a carriage drive through them. Orna- 

 mental water and rough stone-work laid to imi- 

 tate nature, effectually vary and improve the 

 scenes. A great addendum to our parks is music, 

 which always has and will lend a charm to our 

 landscapes. The sweet melody of our native 

 birds swell the music of our parks in early morn- 

 ing and early evening 



Cemeteries, The introduction of landscape 

 gardening, its avenues, walks, trees, flowers, and 

 planting, has long been the custom of civilized 

 countries, to apply to the adornment of our 

 churchyards and cemeteries. There is to the 

 minds of most of us something very beautiful in 

 associating the works and products of vegetable 

 nature, as offerings to the memories of the dead. 



Cemeteries require the hand and skill of the 

 landscape gardener to be exercised on a different 

 principle in the main to that of public parks. In 

 the fine, sunny, bright Sunday afternoons, our 

 public cemeteries are much frequented, by the 

 Inhabitants of the surrounding districts. In con- 

 tinental countries, especially in France, this is 



notably so One day in the year, called La Joitr 

 (Ir Mnii^ is kept specially Siicred, the cemeteries 

 being greatly crowded above all other days. 



The chaiiels in cemeteries, their relative posi- 

 tions and situations, guide and rule the positions 

 of the main avenues. Serpentine and curved 

 walks in cemeteries should, if ptissible, be avoid- 

 ed, save on hilly ground. The avenues and walks 

 should invariably, as a general principle, be 

 straight, forming squares and rectangles. At a 

 glance, this provides some regularity in position 

 of the spaces and ground to be used. A main 

 central avenue forms an imposing and effective 

 approach to the central chai>el, which, it is to be 

 hoped, will ere long suftice for classes and sects. 



Admitting this principle, the next best adorn- 

 ment is the introduction of native forest trees, 

 choosing those best adapted for the district, from 

 our Oaks, Limes, Sycannires, Elms, Beeches, 

 Chestnuts, and a hosts of others— long-lived in 

 themselves, and which from generation to gen- 

 ei-ation throw out and form a dignity to the sur- 

 roundings. 



The direction of the roads, avenues, and paths, 

 in their bearing to the compa.ss, must be regu- 

 lated by the highways and public approaches to 

 the cemetery. 



Interim planting of shrubs, not forgetting an 

 abundance of evergreens— "something that lives 

 in winter"— trees and flowers should follow the 

 general line adapted in parks, care being taken 

 that no trees should be planted in positions that 

 would interfere with the advantageous use of 

 the ground. 



All cemetery decoration by means of land- 

 scape gardening should be made subservient to 

 the general purpose for which cemeteries are 

 made and dedicated. Ornamental or fish ponds 

 should have no place in cemeteries. They should 

 only be introduced in the design and laying out 

 of parks. Ornamented seats can, with advantage, 

 be placed in the central or main avenues. 



The careful pruning of trees, also order and 

 cleanliness of avenues, walks, lawns, and flower 

 beds are necessary alike in gardens, parks, cem- 

 eteries, and churchyards. 



Market Gardening as a Business. 



{Extract of paper read by Peter Henderson before the 

 Masschusetts State Board of Agriculture, Decem- 

 ber. 3rd, 1899.) 



Market Gardening is not the profitable bus- 

 iness is was twenty years ago, yet we have 

 so simplified our operations o£ late years that 

 even at the lower prices there is still a fair 

 profit in the business — certainly more than 

 in ordinary farm crops. 



If farmers whose lands are near to the smaller 

 towns, hotels, watering places and summer board 

 ing^houses, would devote a few acres to fruits or 

 vegetables, or both, there is scarely a doubt that 

 every acre so cultivated would be much more 

 profitable than if devoted to ordinary farm crops. 

 Xo one need hesitate to begin the cultivation of 

 either fruit or vegetables crops on any soil that 

 will raise a good crop of corn, hay or potatoes. 

 The farmer, who grows to supply a local demand 

 such as for hotels, boarding houses, &c., has a 

 great advantage in selling direct to the consum- 

 ers. 



When it can be done, select land that is level 

 and well drained by having a gra\'eUy or sandy 

 subsoil, and not less than ten inches in depth of 

 good soil If you are not a judge of soil, observe 

 the farm crops in your neighborhood. If these are 

 not strong and vigorous, rest assured that the 

 soil will not answer for market garden work. 

 Again, get as near to your market as possible, and 

 see that the roads leading thereto are good. For 

 a local market this is not so important. 



Labor, Capital, Etc. The business though 

 healthful and fairly profitable, is exceedingly 

 laborious. The labor is not what might be called 

 heavy, but the hours are long— not less than an 

 average of ten hours a da.v for both summer and 

 winter. No one should engage in it after having 

 passed middle life, neither is it fitted for men of 

 feeble constitution, for it is emphatically a bus- 

 iness in which one has to rough it, and if it is to 

 be prosecuted successfully the owner must put 

 his shoulder to the wheel at least as strongly as 

 his roughest employee. 



The capital required for beginning market 

 gardening in the vicinity of any large city should 

 not be less than S30U per acre for anything less 

 than ten acres. The first year rarely pays more 

 than currant expenses, and the capital of $.300 

 per acre is all absorbed in horses, wagons, imple- 

 ments, sashes, manures, seeds, etc. If the capital 



is insuthcient to procure these properly, the 

 chances of success of are correspondingly dim in- 

 ished. Above all be caivful not to attempt the 

 cultivation of more land than your capital and 

 experience can properly manage. More men are 

 strande<l, both on the farm and garden, in at- 

 tempting to cultivate too much, perhaps than 

 from any other cause. 



Commercial Plant Growing. Of late years 

 greenhouses are being largely used in place of 

 hot-bed sashes, both for the purpose of forcing 

 Lettuce, Radishes, Beets and Cucumbers, as also 

 for growing plants of early Cabbage, Cauliflower, 

 Lettuce, Celery and Tomatoes; and in either case 

 we believe that in well constructed greenhouses 

 not only is the work better done, but that the 

 saving in labor in three yeitrs will more than 

 offset the greater cost of the greenhouses. We 

 ourseUes grow immense quantities of vegetable 

 plants of all kinds, all of which are now started 

 in greenhouses, in the following manner. 



We make our first sowing February 1st, in our 

 greenhouses were the temperature will average 

 about 70°; that is, about 60° at night, and about 

 fO° during the day. A hot-bed, made with 

 manure, about two feet deep, in a proper manner 

 produces just about the same temperature and 

 general conditions as a well appointed green- 

 house will. We now invariably sow the seed in 

 shallow boxes (those used in the importation of 

 tin) which arel^ inches deep and about 20 inches 

 long by U wide. We use any light rich soil for 

 the purpose, sowing enough seed in each box to 

 produce 1000 to 1500 plants, or if sown in the hot- 

 bed, without the boxes, each 3x6 foot sash should 

 grow about 5000 plants. 



The plants sown on February 1st will give 

 plants fit to transplant in about three or four 

 weeks. We then use the same kind of shallow 

 boxes, putting in the bottom of each about ^ of 

 an inch of well-rotted manure. Over that we 

 place an inch of any ordinary rich light soil, 

 smoothing it so as to have it as level as possible. 

 In these boxes, which are l-tx20 inches, we put an 

 average of about 1.50 plants. They are then con- 

 tinued to be grown in the same temperature for 

 about ten days ; afterwards placed in a tempera- 

 ture averaging 55°, where they are allowed to 

 remain tor ten or twelve days, and finally placed 

 in cold frames. The boxes should be placed as 

 close to each other in the cold frames as they 

 will stand,— about eight boxes fill a sash, thus 

 holding about 1200 plants. If the weather is cold 

 they are matted; if not the sash will be suflScient 

 protection. For the past five years we have each 

 season grown about half a-million of Cabbage, 

 Cauliflower, Celery and Lettuce plants in this 

 way, and have never failed to get fine plants, 

 much superior to those raised by the old cold- 

 frame plan of sowing in the fall. 



Plants sown on the 1st of February are trans- 

 planted into the boxes 1st of March, and 

 are fit to be placed in the cold-frames March 

 10th or 15th, and make fine plants to trans- 

 plant to the open ground any time after the 1st 

 of April, if they have been carefully attended to 

 by watering, airing and protecting from frost. 

 These dates refer particularly to the vicinity of 

 New York City. In districts where they can- 

 not be planted out sooner than the end of .\pril, 

 then the sowing should not be made before the 

 15th of February, and the process of transplant- 

 ing, etc , gone through as before stated, so that 

 the plants will be in condition to plant in the 

 open ground by end of April. In sections where 

 Cabbage cannot be planted in the open ground 

 before the 1st of May, the sowing should be 

 delayed until near March, and the process of 

 transplanting in the boxes or frames the same. 



Rotation. Manure, etc. Twenty-five .years 

 ago the market gardeners of New Jersey, grew 

 better vegetables than the Long Island men, but 

 they do not now average as good those grown in 

 districts adjacent to New York, where the land is 

 cheap enough to allow one-third to be put down 

 annually with some grass or ilover crop. I 

 believe that in a garden of fifteen acres, if one- 

 third is laid down in grass each year, and the 

 balance kept under the plough, that the gross 

 receipts will be greater and the profits more 

 than if the whole fifteen acres were under tillage. 



The ordinary stable manu re is yet used almost 

 exclusively by the market gardeners Co., N. J., 

 and that too at the rate of seventy-five tons to 

 the acre. Very little phosphates or other con- 

 centrated manures are used on our lands, which 

 are continually under tillage : these are always 

 more telling on land broken up from sod, where 

 the fibrous roots of the sod stand in lieu of 

 stable manure. 



