250 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



of a pyramid. Some growers advocate leaving 

 the old canes on the bushes, as a kind of winter 

 support. We prefer to remove them. It looks 

 better, and is safer generally. Many insects and 

 their eggs are removed with them, and perhaps 

 disease spores, too ; and any further drain on the 

 vitality by remaining canes is stopped. 



Cabbage Maygot and Lime Water. We have 

 tried the caustic lime water remedy for the Radish 

 maggot, and are rather inclined to believe that, 

 if thoroughly applied, its effectiveness is beyond 

 tiuestion. Still we do not wish to speak too 

 positively, and jjerhaps excite hopes which, after 

 all, jnity not be realized. Air-slacked lime has 



selves are, however, too often not blameless 

 regarding their faulty ways of handling trees 

 before they ship them to their customers. 



Death in the Well. 



D. S. MARVIN. 



Some of the so-called improvements of the 

 age in which we live are not equal to old 

 devices. There never was a more healthy 

 well than the one described in the " Old 

 Oaken Bucket." A new pump spoils a well 

 for a year, and ever afterwards taints it more 

 or less. Then our wells must be covered, 



Strawberries midway between the Black- 

 berries, and the ground will be as closely 

 planted as it ought to be and raise trees. 



Keep the tree ground clear and trees will 

 be well cultivated. Ground in this way 

 made to carry double, should be well fed. 



When the Strawberries have grown two 

 crops plow them under. The trees will be 

 large enough to bear some the fourth year; 

 by that time the Blackberries will have 

 born two or three crops, when they can be 

 taken out if they interfere with the Peaches. 



Five crops of berries will pay all expenses 



FIG. 1. CURRANT BUSH. 



always been recommended as a remedy for mag- 

 gots by good authority, but seldom done much 

 good in severe attacks, except when applied in 

 excessive quantities. Fresh lime water, which is 

 sure death to earth-worms, and other soft -bodied 

 grubs and worms, can easily be applied directly 

 to the plants so that it will reach almost every 

 maggot, and on account of its caustic nature 

 can be expected to be of greater effectiveness 

 than the milder form of air-slacked lime, which 

 is mostly or wholly a carbonate. We made the 

 lime water very strong, and appUed it to some 

 Badishes until we felt sure the liquid had reach- 

 ed every part of the root. Only in a few in- 

 stances did we find a few live maggots on plants 

 thus treated, a day or two afterwards. The 

 period of maggot attacks was just approaching 

 its end. We shall be on hand with the lime water 

 when another attack begins, and try to reach 

 definite conclusions. In the mean time we should 

 like to have our readers experiment in the same 

 direction. The prize is great — control over one 

 of the worst pests of the garden. It is only a few 

 months since we heard Prof. A. J. Cook, so 

 ready with his devices of lighting insects, pro- 

 nounce his inability to subdue the maggot. We 

 believe that now we are on the right track. To 

 treat plants in seed bed with caustic lime water 

 may turn out to be a most excellent precaution- 

 ary measure, although our untreateil plants in 

 hot-bed were not touched by the maggot. A iter 

 setting our earliest Cabbage and Cauliflower 

 plants, late in April, every other one in each row 

 was kept covered with one of our tile-like plant 

 protectors for a number of weeks. All plants 

 thus treated made a much faster, healthier and 

 more succulent growth than the unprotected 

 ones, and none of them was attacked by the 

 Cabbage fly, until slightly after the protectors 

 were removed. The result is that the protected 

 plants remained in full health and vigor, while 

 the others died— every one of them— victims of 

 the maggot. This may also suggest a way how 

 to prevent injury from maggots. Evidently the 

 fly does not care to enter a tube surrounding the 

 plant. Let us keep on investigating, for the 

 maggot must go. 



Sxicceits and Failure in Planting. Reference 

 was made in a previous issue of the remarkable 

 success that has attended the recent planting 

 operation here this spring. True, the season in 

 the main has been favorably damp and wet, yet 

 at planting time there were some hot weather 

 and dry winds which had a very trying effect on 

 the started trees found on our hands before all 

 could be set in place. Among our evergreens 

 we now detect in certain kinds some loss that 

 had not shown earlier, but this is really no sur- 

 prise; it is directly traceable to these trees hav- 

 ing been imperfectly heeled in by the careless- 

 ness of a workman. The thorough tramping of 

 the sou over the roots after the trees from the 

 boxes were put in place in the trenches and the 

 roots covered had in this instance been neglected. 

 The loss from bad heeling-in of trees the country 

 over is something apalling every year, and the 

 nurseryman gets the blame for the stock thus 

 injured not then growing. Nurserymen them- 



FIG. 2. GOOSEBERRY IN TREE FORM. FIG. 3. RASPBERRY 



which deprives the water of the necessary 

 aeration ; but worst of all, the cover, as usu- 

 ally put on, makes a harbor for toads, rats, 

 mice, worms and insects. 



I cleaned out one of these covered wells a 

 year ago and took out 69 toads, and mauy 

 dead angle worms. The water had become 

 unfit for use ; it is now good and palatable. 

 I dug down and cemented it three feet below 

 the top of the wall, then made a six-sided 

 frame with an air trough beside the pump 

 and cemented tip around the frame, so that 

 no worm, insect, or animal can now crawl 

 into the well. 



There are many wells all over the country 

 that contain tainted water, germs of typhoid 

 fever, etc., that might be made pure in thus 

 protecting them from the ingress of organic 

 matter, and by placing a sink from the spout 

 with an underground drain to carry off all 

 waste water and slops. Slops might almost 

 as well be thrown directly into the well, as 

 in the hog wallows beside them, for the 

 pointed water is sure to sink to the lowest 

 drainage point, the well itself. More people 

 die each year from the use of this tainted 

 water, than from whiskey. 



BUSM. 



FIG. 4. BLACKBERRY BUSH. 



Planting a Peach Orchard. 



THEODOBE OOODRICH, UNION CO., ILLS. 



Any soil that will grow afair crop of corn, 

 will grow a Peach tree. After plowing the 

 grounds, lay it off in straight rows 20 feet 

 apart, by running a two horse plow twice in 

 a row, and throwing the dirt each way, as 

 deep as the plow will run. Mark it across 

 in the same way. 



Dig a hole .3 feet across at the intersection 

 of the furrows, 13 inches deeper than the 

 tree is to be set. In the bottom of the hole 

 put a pint of commercial fertilizer, or a 

 half bushel of stable manure, and mix it 

 well with good surface soil. In the absence 

 of these, chip manure, bones or old boots 

 may be put in the bottom of the holes. 

 These materials gradually decay and feed 

 the tree for years to come. Set the tree, fill 

 up the hole treading the earth firmly mean- 

 while, and leaving the tree no deeper in the 

 ground than it was in the nursery. 



The entire ground may be planted to 

 small fruit, either Strawberries alone, or 

 Strawberries and Blackberries. If Straw- 

 berries, set a row in a tree row, leaving out 

 a 6 feet space for each tree, and 4 rows in 

 each middle, making the rows 4 feet apart. 

 If Blackberries or Raspberries are to be add- 

 ed, set them 4 feet in the row, a row in the 

 tree row and one midway between, making 

 the rows 10 feet apart. Plant a row of 



of raising the Peach trees and a handsome 

 profit besides. 



My ground is planted in the way describ- 

 ed. In setting the Strawberries, I plow out 

 a deep furrow, partly fill with compost, 

 level off with soil and set the plants. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



A department to ivhich all are inirited to send notes of 

 experience and observation concerning topics that re- 

 cently have been treated on in this journal. Many 

 such contributiotts monthly would be welcome. 



Why Prices of Fruits Are Low. The chief 

 trouble with A pples is that large and small spec- 

 imens are mixed together, and every man's fruit 

 differs from almost every other man's in size and 

 appearance. Fruit put on the market as A No. 

 1 turns out to be second or third grade. I have 

 seen Apples faced nicely, but eight Inches down 

 they were a poor lot. No wonder the.v bring all 

 sorts of prices. So with berries. Strawberries 

 in our market sell from 3 to a.5 cents per quart, 

 depending on the condition of fruit and reputa- 

 tion of the grower. My berries go to the market 

 just as they are picked in the patch. I do not 

 believe in sorting berries, as the first grade has 

 to bring a big price to let you out whole on the 

 inferior grade. My customers know me and my 

 berries, and never examine my boxes below the 

 top. Fine, stock always holds its own. It is a 

 great mistake to ship berries to more than one 

 commission merchant in the same place at the 

 same time, as this brings the different lots of 

 your own produce in competition with each 

 other, and tends to depress the prices. One com- 

 peting dealer will offer a crate of your berries 

 for 83.00, another for $3.75, and perhaps the third 

 for SS-W; and the lowest figure must prevail in 

 the end.— S. B. Kramer, Franklin Co., 0?iio. 



Living Fence Posts. The advice to plant 

 trees to serve as living posts for a wire fence 

 seems to me of very doubtful utility. In laying 

 out fences along the edge of a piece of woods we 

 have frequently used living trees, sometimes 

 young and and sometimes old —Chestnuts, Oaks, 

 Linden, Beech, Elm and others— in the way sug- 

 gested. This is all right for a time; but soon the 

 bark grows over the wires and staples, and more 

 or less trouble, especially in repairing or remov- 

 ing fences, is the sure result. Often the wires 

 and staples have to be chopped out of trees, and 

 sometimes the wires cut into the wood of younger 

 trees so deep that their lives are endangered. 

 Perhaps all this might be avoided, however, by 

 nailing a board firmly to the tree, and fastening 

 the wire to this. In our 'practice Uving trees 

 have often proved most excellent posts for 

 straight or zigzag rail fences, and I rather favor 

 the plan of planting a row of quick growing 

 timber trees 10 or 12 feet apart (according to 

 length of rails to be used) along a line where a 

 permanent rail or board fence is thought to be 

 desired.— G. B. T. 



Cultivation of Pyrethhums. Fruit and 

 vegetable growers of this country use quite a 

 deal of insect powder every year, but they might 



