1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



189 



are more dependent on nitrogen in an avail- 

 able condition within the soil than are 

 garden vegetables. No matter how good 

 the normal condition of the soil may be, it 

 will not produce paying crops of vegetables, 

 or even fruits, without manure. Certain it 

 is that if a garden will not pay with liberal 

 manuring, it will not pay without it. 



The Insect Powder Industry In 



California. 

 The insect powder put on the market 

 under the trade name "' buhach " is so far 

 superior to the common " Persian" or "Dal- 

 mation " powders, kept by druggists and 

 seedsmen, that progressive gardeners should 

 cease to buy and use the unreliable ordin- 

 ary insect powders and put their trust alto- 

 gether in " buhach " especially as the latter 

 is an American product. We only regret 

 that it is as yet manufactured only in limit- 

 ed quantity, and not sufficient that it could 

 be placed on sale generally in all drugstores. 

 But it seems to us that seedsmen should 

 keep it in stock, recommend it to their 

 customers, and urge it upon them. It is 

 infallible for Cabbage (and many other) 

 worms, also for lice on hens and chickens. 



The only parties now engaged in the 

 buhach industry are the Buhach Producing 

 and Manufacturing Co., of Stockton, Cali- 

 fornia. The Stockton Daily Mail in a recent 

 issue gives a pretty full account of this in- 

 teresting industry, from which the follow- 

 ing is an extract :— Buhach is a fine powder 

 made from the blossoms of the plant Pyrc- 

 thruin cincrdrUrfdlium. Insect powder 

 made from the Dalmatian plant was first 

 put upon the European markets about thirty 

 years ago, and it has been found in the 

 leading markets of the world ever since. 



The plant was introduced into California 

 by a former Dalmatian, one G. N. Milco, 

 who procured some of the seed from his 

 native country. A large tract of land was 

 planted and cultivated near Atwater, Mer- 

 ced County. From the blossoms of the 

 plant grown at Atwater, buhach is manu- 

 factured in Stockton by the company which 

 now has more than 300 acres under cultiva- 

 tion: an acreage which is increased as the 

 demand increases. 



Its cultivation requires careful and intel- 

 ligent supervision, and it cannot be success- 

 fully grown except by irrigation. It re- 

 quires at least three years from the seed to 

 grow plants capable of producing a paying 

 crop of flowers, and then the plant will con- 

 tinue to produce.for four or five years longer 

 although it is in its prime and most produc- 

 tive when four or five years old. It grows 

 to a height of about thirty inches, and is 

 planted in rows four feet apart and from 

 fifteen to twenty-four inches apart in the 

 row. The flowers are generally harvested 

 in the latter part of May. The stalks are 

 cut at the roots of the plant, and then by 

 hand the flowers are broken oft by passing 

 the stems through a sort of comb, which 

 detaches the flowers, which fall into a box 

 and are then carried to the drying ground, 

 where they are spread upon sheets and ex- 

 posed to the rays of the sun during the day, 

 being often turned in the meantime, and at 

 night are covered to prevent them from 

 absorbing any moisture. The perfect drying 

 of the flowers is a most important operation, 

 as in order to retain the volatile oil which 

 gives to the powder its insecticide properties, 

 It is very necessary that the flower should be 

 dried quickly and thoroughly, and be pro- 

 tected during the process from all moisture. 

 A light dew falling upon the flowers during 

 drying process will color them and reduce 

 their insecticide properties. In this respect 

 the California-grown flowers are better 

 cured and consequently more valuable than 

 those grown in Dalmatia. 



It is also a fact well-known to those 

 familiar with the Pyrethrum flowers that 

 they are liable to be adulterated by the ad- 

 mixture of flowers of no value, which, 

 however, closely resemble the Pyrethrum^ 

 and experts may be deceived unless the 

 powder manufactured from the combination 

 is thoroughly tested to prove its strength. 



Powders are sometimes manufactured 

 from the whole plant, including the stems, 

 leaves and flowers, which possess, to a cer- 

 tain extent, the insecticide properties of 

 buhach, and are xindoubtedly far superior 

 in strength to many of the insect powders 

 that are found upon the market ; yet as the 

 blossoms of the Pyrethrum plant are richer 

 in the essential oil which gives the peculiar 

 insecticide properties of the plant, powder 

 manufactured solely therefrom is the strong- 

 est and best that can be made. 



For years after the company first began 

 to introduce buhach, its sale was a very slow 

 one, but finally the merits of the article 

 were fully and generally recognized, and 

 for some years now the demand has been so 

 great that its supply has required the full 

 facilities of the producing concern. 



Bogus Commission Merchants. 



How to secure honest service, and especi- 

 ally honest returns on the part of our com- 

 mission men in the cities, is a serious ques- 

 tion which has become a leading topic of 

 the discussions at farmers' and fruit grow- 

 ers' meetings. Sec'y E. Williams of New 

 .Jersey, at the last meeting of the New 

 Jersey Horticultural Society remarked that 

 the surest way of making fruit growing 

 pay, is, making commission dealers honest. 

 This is not very flattering to the fraternity 

 even of genuine commission men, and yet 

 every spring springs up a crop of bogus 

 commission merchants, compared with 

 which the dealer who retains only an ille- 

 gitimate ten or fifteen per cent of the sales 

 made, must appear innocent as an angel 

 fresh from heaven. 



In a letter written some time since by one 

 of the victims to the New York Fruit Trade 

 .Tournal, the following description of the 

 modus iipcrnndl of the bogus dealers is 

 given : " I know of several instances where 

 New York and Philadelphia houses have 

 given prompt returns early in the season, 

 but after large consignments and gaining a 

 large number of customers, prices would 

 suddenly take a tumble and reports became 

 slow and unsatisfactory. In some cases 

 the money would be held back until the end 

 of the season, when the commission mer- 

 chant would fail and his agent would later 

 down come with a pitiful tale of bad luck, 

 and secure a settlement at 3.') per cent." 



The Journal addressed comments on this 

 as follows : " There are two classes of com- 

 mission merchants who are responsible for 

 this hardship : first the sharper, who de- 

 liberately plans to swindle the farmer. 

 Early in Berry, Peach or Apple season he 

 sends out sensational circulars and often 

 false quotations, and makes returns for his 

 first few shipments, of prices much higher 

 than the fruit brought, supplying the de- 

 ficiency from his own pocket. Of course 

 the news of his successful sales is spread 

 among the friends of the happy grower, 

 who drop the established houses they have 

 shipped to for years, and consign to the new 

 merchant. The sequel is short and disas- 

 trous, the consignee often disappearing 

 without taking the trouble to make a per- 

 cent settlement with the shipper. These 

 fellows often turn up the next season under 

 different names. The second are inex- 

 perienced men from among shippers them- 

 selves, who thinking they can control large 

 shipments from their own locality and not 

 counting the expense of conducting a com- 

 mission house, open a place and solicit 



consignments from their friends. Their 

 business is not as good as they anticipated, 

 they are often unable to get as good prices 

 as old houses who have their regular cus- 

 tomers, expenses are heavy and their small 

 capital is .soon exhausted. They become 

 involved and though they strive to pull 

 through, the crisis comes, and before the 

 season is over the unfortunate commission 

 merchant is compelled to suspend." 



The moral is plain. A prudent shipper 

 will not swallow the bait held out by these 

 " new houses with superior facilities," but 

 stick to his old-established firm or firms as 

 long as they treat him with apparent fair- 

 ness. At the same time there is no safety 

 in trusting any of them too implicitly. A 

 little supervision and control will never be 

 out of place. It is a good plan for the ship- 

 per to make an occasional trip to the city, 

 and visit the commissiou store where he has 

 shipped his produce, to inquire the prices at 

 which the goods are selling ; or it he is per- 

 sonally known to the merchant, to send one 

 of his friends on the same errand. 



This may look somewhat like detective 

 work, and perhaps be distasteful to the 

 shipper. Yet while the evil is so great, and 

 the distrust in commission men so general, 

 the shipper can be sure of his ground only 

 by adopting such a course like this ; and if 

 the merchant is honest (and there are such), 

 it will be only to his own advantage if the 

 shipper gets an opportunity to convince 

 himself of this fact. 



The Merits of Wood Ashes. 



In an essay read before the American 

 Horticultural Society at the Cleveland, Ohio, 

 meeting a few years ago, Mr. .1. M. Smith 

 gave an account of the means employed 

 for the prevention of the evil effects of a 

 prolonged drought. Among these means 

 a free use of wood ashes were named as one 

 of the simplest and most effective. 



Recently Mr. Smith has made a compara- 

 tive test of the effects of wood ashes and 

 barn yard manure on a scale large enough 

 to show results that are more than an " in- 

 dication." Two acres lying side by side 

 were treated exactly alike in every respect 

 except that one was manured with unleach- 

 ed wood ashes, and the other with stable 

 mauure. Mr. Smith reports the results of 

 the trial to the Prairie farmer as follows : 



The acre fertilized with ashes yielded .'il 

 bushels the most, and if there was any 

 dift'erence in quality it was in favor of those 

 that had the ashes. Now. the fair inference 

 would be that the ashes were much the best 

 manure for Potatoes. Let us look a little 

 further: The last half of May and the first 

 halt of June were wet and cold, and so far 

 the two acres seemed to keep just about 

 even. After .June 15th the weather became 

 very dry, and there was little rain upon the 

 plants until they were ripe. Very soon 

 after the ground began to get dry it could be 

 plainly seen that those manured from the 

 compost-heap were suft'eriug from want of 

 rain, while those manured with ashes were 

 growing very rapidly. This continued until 

 they were ripe. 



The simple fact is. Potatoes or Straw- 

 berries maniu-ed with ashes stand drouth 

 that would be ruinotis to crops fertilized 

 with any manure I have ever tried. To this 

 fact I attribute the failure of the compost- 

 heap acre to hold its own with the acre upon 

 which ashes were used. I have tried the 

 experiment many times, always with pre- 

 cisely the same result, provided we had a 

 dry season during the growth of the crop. 

 I do not know but the rule will hold good 

 with all farm and garden crops, but with 

 the above named there is no doubt. I do not 

 underrate ashes as manure. I have used 

 them in preference to any fertilizer I could 

 get for Potatoes, many years. 



