1887. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



147 



know at any time how many quarts have been 

 brought in you can foot it up in a minute. 



Each evening the record is footed up, the 

 total number of quarts brought in during the 

 day by each picker being written in the last 

 column opposite her number. Then the pickers 

 form in numerical order and pass in a line be- 

 tween your table and the bulletin board. Each 

 picker is given a check upon which is written 

 in ink the date, the number of the picker, and 

 the number of quarts she has brought in during 

 the day. To the use of these checks there can 

 be no objection. As the picker gets her checks 

 she can glance at the bulletin board and see that 

 she is credited with the proper number of quarts. 



As the pickers go home at once, and each 

 check represents a day's wages, it is very rarely 

 the case that a check is lost. If lost, there can 

 be no dispute. No other picker can present it, 

 as it has the number of the rightful owner upon 

 it. By referring to the record sheet for that 

 day, the number of quarts represented by the 

 lost check can be determined. 



A Job printing establishment will rule the 

 record. The date and numbers can be put on 

 the checks in odd moments during the day. 

 And as they are arranged in numerical order, 

 the quarts can be called off and written on the 

 checks as fast as the pickers can walk by. 



Each evening the record sheet is taken down, 

 folded, and the date, number of quarts picked, 

 and whatever other memoranda may be desired, 

 are endorsed upon it. It is then filed away. 

 These sheets furnish a complete account of the 

 season's picking. They also furnish valuable 

 information for future use. They wUl reveal 

 which were the most speedy or reliable pickers ; 

 on what days the most berries ripened ; when 

 the season properly opened and closed, etc. Of 

 lourse it is necessary to keep a book of accounts, 

 not to replace the sheets, but in conjunction 

 with them. And the sheets will furnish data 

 that cannot be put in a book account. 



This system is easy, simple and accurate; it 

 avoids mistakes and misunderstandings; the 

 record is open during each day, eind gives in 

 convenient form a showing for each day during 

 the season. It occasions less expense and 

 trouble than almost any other system. 



We pay off Saturday night for the week 

 ending with the previous day. There is more 

 time for paying off Saturday night than any 

 other, for the pickers must quit earlier, that all 

 berries may be got to the railway station or 

 near-by market. We do not carry many ber- 

 ries over Sunday. As very few, if any, of our 

 pickers waste their wages in saloons, or other 

 vile resorts, being mostly German girls, there 

 is no objection to paying off Saturday nights. 

 We do not include that day in the payment, as 

 we want more time for the preparation of the 

 money envelopes. The amount due each picker 

 is enclosed in an envelope, and the amount and 

 her number endorsed thereon. The pickers 

 form in line, in numerical order, each picker 

 hands in her checks and is handed her envelope, 

 which she must open and count the money en- 

 closed, to avoid misunderstandings. 



Iron Sulphate as a Manure. 



A. B. GRIFFITHS IN JOURNAL CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



MangkLi-Wurzel Crops. Two equal plats 

 were winter manured with 10 tons of farmyard 

 manure, and in spring one cwt. of kainit and 

 one of nitrate of soda, four of superphosphate 

 of lime, and two of common salt. Later a top 

 dressing of one cwt. of nitrate of soda and one- 

 half cwt. of ferrous sulphate were applied to 

 plat A. and only one cwt. of the former used 

 on B. The crop gave in weight for A, 97,682 

 lbs., and for B. 78,3ti9 lbs. In composition the 

 albuminoids and soluble caibohydrates were 

 increased in the crop manured with iron, and 

 the ash analysis gave a larger percentage of 

 iron oxide in both root and leaf in A than in 

 B, while the phosphoric oxide in A was much 

 greater than in B. 



Bban Crops ( ricia faha). Flats of equal 

 size received equal weights of farmyard ma- 



nure, and the same number of seed was planted 

 in each. On A plat was strewn a top dressing 

 of one-half cwt. of commercial iron sulphate, 

 on B, nothing. A yielded of grain and straw, 

 gathered, 7,0ir, lbs., B, 5,193 lbs. ; when dry, A 

 yielded ."i.SlW lbs , B, 4,72(i lbs. In both plants 

 and seed the albuminoids, soluble carbohydrates 

 and ash were increased in A. In experiments 

 for three years, in 1883, A yielded 21 bushels 

 more than B; in 18S4, 1(5 bushels more, and in 

 l&S(j, 20 bushels more. The iron oxide was in- 

 crea-sed in the ash in all the experiments in 

 which iron was used. 



Window Plants. Palm and India-rubber 

 trees were grown in a window that never re- 

 ceived any direct sunlight. One tree of each 

 was treated with iron manure, and one each 

 not so treated. In those fed iron, the leaves in- 

 creased in size, and became rich green in color. 

 Those plants given no ferrous oxide lost nearly 

 all their leaves, while the remaining ones were 

 light green in color. The ashes of the leaves 

 of iron fed plants contained nearly twice the 

 quantity of ferrous oxide as those not so fed. 



Ferrous Sulphate vs. Kainit. Two equal 

 plats of land each received 1.5 tons farmyard 

 manure in the fall, and were planted to six 

 cwts. of Potato tubers each. A received a top 

 dressing of one-half cwt. of ferrous sulphate, 

 and B two cwts. of kainit (containing 16 per 

 cent potash). A yielded 20,lfi0 lbs. of tubers, B, 

 13,440 lbs., and the albuminoids and soluble 

 carbohydrates were greatest in A. The ash 

 analysis of both tuber and haulm gave much 

 more iron and phosphoric oxides for A than B, 

 and the iron seems to replace the potash. 



An Amateur's Success in Raising; 

 Winter Squashes. 



Last season a friend gave me some seeds of 

 Essex Hybrid Winter Squash, after my large 

 garden was nearly all planted. The soU in the 

 only available spot I did not think suitable, it 

 being on the clayey loam side of the garden. 

 It had, however, been filled up somewhat with 

 rubbish when the house was repaired, and con- 

 tained some mortar, bricks, stones, etc. 



In this place I planted three hUls of seed on 

 the 4th June. They came up quickly and well. 

 Three plants were left to give to each hill. 

 Knowing that Squash require very rich soil, I 

 put a few tablespoonsful of Bowker's fertilizer 

 in each hill at planting time. 



By the 18th of the same month the Striped 

 Cucumber Bug put in an appearance, and then 

 I saturated pieces of muslin in kerosene and 

 strewed them around the hills, and at intervals 

 of several days would pour more kerosene on 

 the muslin ; after that they were not troubled 

 by any enemy, but continued to grow and 

 travel very rapidly. 



I must say I never saw anything grow more 

 finely. The vines were yellow with blossoms, 

 and soon the Squashes began to set. There was 

 quite a severe drought for about three weeks, 

 and during that time I gave them water. 



On Oct 1st I harvested my crop; I took them 

 from the vines, being careful not to bruise 

 them, and laid them on a table in the cellar 

 under the heater pipes. There were some 

 beautiful specimens, and in all I had 164 lbs. I 



And now, April 14th, I have several yet in a 

 fine state of preservation, two weighing eleven 

 and twelve pounds respectively. Being such a 

 late keeper makes this variety very valuable. 

 It is of fine quality, although entirely different 

 from the Hubbard. 



Several years ago I raised three hills of But- 

 man Squashes in very much the same kind of 

 soil, but in rather a shady spot. Then the 

 grubs in the vines near the roots troubled them ; 

 these I cut out and killed, and covered the cut 

 with earth. I gathered in the fall 109 lbs., and 

 they were very handsome, and to my taste 

 more agreeable than either the Hubbard or 

 Essex Hybrid, being more like Summer Squash. 

 But the Butman is not so valuable with re- 

 spect to winter keeping; it will keep only 

 until about January. E. W. L. 



Protection, the Price of Fruit. 



D. 3. UARVm, WATEROWN, N. Y. 



No reference is meant to tariff or politics, 

 but I use the word in reference to the protec- 

 tion that evergreens and other natural objects 

 afford to vineyards, gardens and orchards, in 

 ameliorating and shielding trees and plants 

 from the deadly influence of cold winds. 



People in general seem to believe that during 

 winter trees and plants are quiescent, but this 

 is wide of the truth. No vegetable organisms 

 remain entirely quiet during the winter. 



The functions of plants that go on during 

 what is called the resting season are just as 

 necessary to the plants' welfare as the growth 

 made in summer. In one sense they may be 

 likened to hibernating in animals. But it is in 

 reality more than this, for hibernating is a 

 process of living upon stored up nutritive mat- 

 ter in the shape of fat. 



Plants probably live during winter upon 

 stored-up matter within the cells, their proto- 

 plasm. Now just as an animal might liecome 

 exhausted and die if the winter were imusually 

 prolonged and inclement from exhaustion of 

 the stored nutritive matter, so a plant may 

 become exhausted by impropitious atmospheric 

 conditions and because the winds and storms 

 have been too severe for the plant's vitality 

 and stored economies to surmount. 



This view of the plant's fimctions and econo- 

 mies will explain why our orchards and do- 

 mestic plants are more or less dying out year 

 after year, and why we can no longer grow 

 fruit as we did when the country was new. It 

 was the protection of the forests that made 

 fruitful orchards. 



We must again restore some of the conditions 

 that formerly prevailed. We must not sit down 

 and throw up the sponge as some are disposed 

 to do. Man's control over the forces of nature, 

 to be sure, has its limits, but in this respect 

 he is master of the situation. This kind of pro- 

 teciton has been destroyed ; it may be restored. 



The thing I refer to has been done about 

 Boston and other places, by setting out rows of 

 evergreen trees around the orchards, and in- 

 terspersing them among the trees. There is 

 herein, happily, a double advantage, yes, triple 

 and quadruple. In this way we can again 

 grow our own fruit, and at the same time are 

 reclothing our hills with valuable forest trees 

 that wUl in a few years be more valuable than 

 the orchards they protect. Then there are 

 domestic and aesthetic advantages innumerable. 



Trees by the Roadside Again. 



WM. H. YEOMANS, "tALLARD CO., CONN. 



Much as has been said and written regarding 

 the planting of roadside trees, both for pecuniary 

 advantage and public comfort ; the practice is 

 camparatively little indulged in. Occasionally 

 in New England, in some of the older settled 

 towns, the roadsides will be marke^ by lines 

 of beautiful and majestic trees that stand as 

 the living memorial of some former benefactors' 

 work. How gratified are both man and beast, 

 when upon the dusty highway, under the rays 

 of a scorching midsummer sun, to be permitted 

 to enter the refreshing shade of the archway of 

 overhanging trees. But these cases are the 

 exception rather than the rule. 



We can caU to mind some portions of road 

 thus provided with shade trees; would there 

 were many more. Village improvement socie- 

 ties are doing a good work in beautifying parks 

 and adding to public comfort, but their in- 

 fluence is not far reaching enough. 



How grand, how noble would be that influ- 

 ence that should move public sentiment to an 

 extent that would lead land ownere to set out 

 lines of shade trees by the roadside adjoining 

 their own possessions. What a beautiful change 

 would come over the face of the country ; and 

 how there would come the longing of city resi- 

 dents to be granted so rich a boon as a residence 

 among such delightful scenes. There would 

 no doubt be a stronger desire for rural life,and 

 a consequent draining of our cities. 



