146 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



June, 



Notes on the May Number. 



■WILLIAM FALCONER, GLEN COVE, L. 1., N. T. 



Keeping Asparagus.— I bury it in cool, 

 moist earth. We have Asparagus from the 

 fli-st of November till the fourth of July, during 

 the winter months, from hot-beds. About 

 April 2.5th we begin cutting out-of-doors. But 

 it dosen't pay to force Asparagus in hot-beds, 

 and, unless for some special occasion, I don't 

 think I shall do it any more. 



Japanese Maples. — Apropos of Prof. Mee- 

 han's remarks, p. 12.5, I would say that I have 

 found that these lovely little bush-trees dislike 

 hot full sunshine in* sunmier, dryness at the 

 root at any time, and exposui-e to bleak winds. 

 The yellow-leaved and rose-variegated.although 

 lovely in early summer, do not maintain their 

 full beauty throughout the late sunmier season ; 

 their leaves are more delicate than the plain 

 deep purple or crimson sorts. We have a fine 

 specimen of the aconitifolmm, and it is a 

 beautiful variety. 



Alvssum saxatile, p. 135.— A lovely hardy 

 plant, in full beauty in May. Perennial, true 

 enough, but only as a biennial can it he had in 

 the ftnest condition. But if you wish the loveli- 

 est mat of yellow among hardy spring flowers 

 get Alpine Wallflower {Chierantlms Alinnus). 

 Among best Gladioluses why omit Brenvh- 

 leyensis? Isn't it the brightest and best and 

 most reliable for general cultivation? At the 

 same time it is the least expensive of any. 



Mr. Stearn's Gooseberries are better 

 behaved than ours. He has, p. 120, "produced, 

 for yeai-s, perfectly satisfactory crops on very 

 dry, sandy soil." We have good success in rich 

 garden soil, where the ground is mulched, but 

 in our sandy land, even mulching did not give 

 us fair bushes, let alone edible fruit. Here- 

 abouts, anyway. Gooseberries are not much 

 appreciated, in fact the small boys would sooner 

 gorge themselves on Cherry Currants than on 

 Downings. When the ground is well mulched 

 with a rough mulching— I use sea-thatch— and 

 the bushes are low-growing, mildew dosen't 

 trouble them much. But the higher the bushes 

 grow the more subject they ai'e to mildew, and 

 none that I have "worked" on the Missouri 

 Cm-rant stock ever escape an early attack. 



Wax or Butter Beans. No matter how 

 good they are, the only Beans admitted to 

 aristocratic tables are the green-fleshed sorts. 

 Of course there may be some exceptions, but 

 the above is the rule about the Eastern cities. 



Flower-Pot Hand-Glass, p. 134.— AU right 

 maybe as a protection against cold at night, or 

 wet cold storms in the daytime, but not as a 

 protection for many days. For seeds it would 

 only be of service till the seedlings would 

 germinate, after which it should soon come off. 

 Pelargoniums, or Lady Washingtons. — 

 I plant out the old plants in summer for stock 

 in a half -shady place, secure and "strike" 

 cuttings from them in September. The old 

 plants I let die; the young ones grown on in 

 winter yield me capital blooming plants from 

 April to June. By timely pinching, and grow- 

 ing the plants in a light, airy gi-eenhouse and 

 near the glass, they become capital bushy stock 

 without the aid of stakes. But if stakes were 

 necessary I should not use them, but, instead, 

 a ring of wire around the outside of the pot and 

 a hook to hold it on to the brim, to this ring 

 tie down the branches. Never syringe or water 

 them over head. To remove Green-fly, dip the 

 plants head foremost (but never the pot of roots) 

 into a paU of tobacco water heated to 130 degs. 

 Sweet Corn.— Don't plant it till Cherry 

 blossoms begin to fall, p. 139. It is now the 7th 

 of May. Cherries are in f uU bloom here on Long 

 Island, but none of the blossoms have yet begun 

 to fall ; my earliest Corn is one and a half inches 

 high, and my second planting in somedaysago. 

 Sea-kale. — Among your vegetables where 

 is Sea-kale ? I grow it and have lots of it in 

 winter, and I can assure you it is a capital 

 vegetable. I raise it from seed sown in spring, 

 or from pieces of the root Uke, and planted in 

 the same way as, Horse-radish. In November I 



dig up the roots and winter them In a cool 

 cellar. And as I want some Kale, fill a box 

 with roots — tops up — and set another box on 

 top to blanch the young gi'owths, which are 

 the parts to be used, and bring into warm 

 quarters anywhere. They are very sensitive 

 to heat and start into growth quickly. 



SOME INQUIRIES ANSWERED. 



280. Beautifying a Rock Mound.— Plant Virginia 

 Creeper, " Boston Ivy," wild or garden Clematises, 

 so that they shall grow over and hide the rockB_ 

 If the soil is scant, scoop out a big basin or blast a 

 hole in the side of the rock and iill it up with good 

 soil and in this plant the vines. And around the 

 edges of the rock set out Canada Columbines, Solo- 

 man's Seal, Lily of the Valley, Orange Butterfly- 

 weed, Periwinkle, and other pretty perennials that 

 will " live forever " in such a place. The yellow or 

 tawny Day-lily {Hemerocallis), if not objectionable, 

 would enjoy a footing there too. Several shrubs, 

 as Nemopanthus Canadensis or Rhus aroniatica, 

 if planted on the upper side, would spread down- 

 ward over the rocks; and Sweet Ferij and Wax 

 Myrtle and Wild Roses form becoming clumps up 

 against them. If diversity be needed. Red Cedars 

 will grow there and assume an upright, columnar 

 form; and Douglas' Golden Juniper, a spreading 

 mat of color. 



2t»2. Mice Destroying Bulbs. — Before planting 

 dust the bulbs over well with red or white lead. 



a'.14. Calla Flowers Failing.— Something the 

 matter at the root. Guess your pots are too big. 

 Lots of leaves is no reason why you should have 

 any flowers. For a large crown use a .'j-iij^h pot. 



iSli. Snails De.stroying Lettuce.— Have the 

 Lettuce crop distant from any other low-growing 

 crop that would shelter the snails, and keep the 

 groimd clean and well loosened all around the patch. 

 The London market gardeners' who are very much 

 troubled by snails eating their lettuces, go out as 

 night is coming on and sow air-slaked lime on the 

 ground all around the lettuce fields and over the 

 lettuce that are nearest the out edge. But the 

 hawthorn hedge rows there harbor snails in a man- 

 ner we in America never experience. 



309. Management of Dwarf Apple Trees.— That 

 depends on local circumstances. Put a stout, 

 straight, neat stake to each tree and thereto tie 

 the main stem. Encourage growth all you can, 

 and so dispose the branches that they will be of 

 uniform size and evenly distributed all around. By 

 summer-pinching cause them to set fruit buds early. 

 Don't induce the branches to sharply incline up- 

 ward, but, rather, outward. But, in good soil and 

 a sheltered situation, you can cause the trees to 

 assume most any shape you please, and inarch the 

 branches together in many fantastic forms. We 

 have many Dwarf Apple trees and in many styles, 

 but, really, we get more fruit from one standard in 

 our orchard than from forty trained dwarfs. 



not ripen as well. The fruit buds do not thor- 

 oughly develop until the wood is partially ripe. 

 I think you can make a much stronger fruit 

 bud by moderate than by over manuring. 



Manures for Grapes. 



Few men are able to speak with greater au- 

 thority than J. B. Moore, of Concord, Mass., on 

 Grape culture, and this is what he told the 

 New England Farmer's Club about manures: 



Any land that is rich enough to bear forty 

 bushels of Corn to the acre is rich enough to 

 grow Grapes. As far as my own course is con- 

 cerned, I have not used manure after planting. 



I have used applications sometimes of bone 

 and ashes, and sometimes of bone and potash 

 salts, with occasional plaster of Paris mixed 

 with it, because the Grape requires more or 

 less sulphur in the soil ; the plaster of Paris is 

 the cheapest way you can get it. It is sulphate 

 of lime, and does not cost much. You can 

 buy a ton for five or six dollars, and it is as 

 good an application for that purpose as any- 

 thing that I know of. 



The reason why you don't want to apply 

 animal manme largely to your Grapes is, that 

 it induces a rank, coarse growth of wood and 

 foliage, which is unfavorable to the production 

 of fruit. You want a fair, moderate giowth 

 of wood and that is all. You want a medium 

 sized wood. The cane should be about the size 

 of your little finger, and it will bear larger 

 bunches and more of them than if it is three 

 times as large. 



You want to have the canes well ripened also. 

 Stimulating the vine by animal manure makes 

 it grow until late in the fall, and the wood wUl 



Accounts With Berry Pickers. 



JOHN M. STAHL, ADAMS CO., ILLINOIS. 



The system which employs checks is objec- 

 tionable. Unless made so intricate as to be 

 even more objectionable, the loss of checks is 

 sure to make trouble. Not all pickers are hon- 

 est; you lose checks, they are found and per- 

 haps turned in on the finder's account. If a 

 picker loses checks she makes a fuss. Some 

 girls must count their checks every fifteen 

 minutes they are in the field. Some imagine 

 that they have lost checks when they have not. 



DAILY ACCOUNT ON BULLETIN BOARD. 



These are little things, but they are both fre- 

 quent and annoying. 



A system of accounts with berry pickers 

 should be easy, simple and accurate ; so devised 

 that mistakes cannot occur, and yet so full that 

 it will show you or any picker at any time of 

 the day what quantity she has picked or what 

 quantity all have picked ; and furnish at the 

 close of the season a complete showing for each 

 day, in convenient form. 



Now I think that some of us in this locali- 

 ty have devised a system that meets all these 

 requirements. A bulletin board is erected just 

 outside of the door of the receiving and packing 

 room. For each day a paper is prepared, to be 

 tacked on the bulletin board. Heavy book 

 paper of the required size can be got at almost 

 any job printing establishment. This paper is 

 ruled with lines half an inch apart, and hori- 

 zontal when the paper is on the board. Along 

 the left margin there is a space ruled off for 

 the numbers, next for the names of the pickers, 

 and then a dozen or more spaces in which to 

 put down the number of quarts brought in by 

 each picker. Every picker has a number. 

 This is important ; let the pickers be referred 

 to by their numbers, not by their names. 



The numbers on the paper begin with one at 

 the top and come in regular order on the paper. 

 Then any picker can at a glance find his or her 

 record. No checks are used during the day. 

 As each picker brings in a load, the number of 

 quarts is marked in a space opposite the number 

 of the picker. As an indelible pencil is used, 

 the pickers cannot accuse you of altering the 

 record in their absence. As you put in the 

 number of quarts in the presence of the picker 

 there will be no oversights or mistakes. The 

 pickers have no checks over which to spend 

 time in counting or disputing when in the field. 

 But the entire record is open to any picker at 

 any time during the day when she comes to de- 

 liver berries. You can see at a glance how 

 each picker is working; or if you desire to 



