July, 1915. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



stems have absorbed will be sufficient to 

 keep them fresh for several hours, but 

 the blooms will assuredly be spoiled, es- 

 pecially in hot weather, if allowed to be 

 wet. Therefore, pack them perfectly 

 dry. Simply wrap the ends of the stalks 

 in a little oiled paper and wrap your 

 bunch in half a sheet of tissue paper. 

 Pack in a wooden box with sufficient 

 firmness to prevent movement in transit. 

 It is well to have the boxes labelled con- 

 spicuously on top. "This side up," and 

 "Cut Flowers, with care," You may 

 then despatch your treasured blooms, 

 praying that the express company's em- 

 ployees will not stand your boxes on end 

 or place them in an uncongenial neigh- 

 borhood in the car. A year or two ago 

 I was sending some boxes of flowers by 

 express for exhibition in another town, 

 and of course could not keep away from 

 them while changing cars. My feelings 

 can better be imagined than described 

 when I saw my delicate "Queens" and 

 "Countesses" being loaded on a truck 

 pell mell with enormous boxes of white 

 fish and salmon trout fresh from Lake 

 Huron. The ice alone might not have 

 been too bad, as it was a day when the 

 thermometer stood at ninety degrees in 

 the shade, but I had horrible visions of 

 the drippings soaking through, and the 

 aroma of the fish did not appear calculat- 

 ed to improve the perfume of my flowers. 



Vegetable Reminders 



Keep flowering stalks off of the 

 ■rhubarb. 



Another planting of string beans may- 

 be made. 



Try one more planting of sweet corn. 



Rutabagas may be sown now. New 

 land is the best to use. 



Celery plants may be set out for a 

 late crop. 



Tie tomato vines to stakes. Better 

 not let more than one or two stems grow. 



Plow your old strawberry bed and 

 set the late cabbage, or sow rutabagas 

 on it. 



It is often a good plan to pinch 

 back musk melon and cucumber vines 

 to make the fruit grow more rapidly. 



Are the onions growing nicely? Hen 

 manure or nitrate of soda may be sown 

 broadcast over the field or cultivated in 

 if they appear to be standing still. 



vincingly that it is a good policy to 

 keep the plants off the ground. 



A simple method of training tomatoes. See 

 article. 



Training Tomatoes 



Geo. Baldwin, Toronto, Ont. 



The variety of tomato shown in the 

 illusitrabion on tiiis page is the well- 

 known Chalk's Early Jewel. It is one 

 of the three best varieties for a back 

 garden which is circumscribed by the 

 usual unsightly board fence. 



There are many systems of training 

 and attending to tomatoes. I have 

 tried training them in al- 

 most every conceivable 

 manner and have proved 

 to my own satisfaction 

 that the system here 

 shown is the best method. 

 Four stakes are driven 

 into the ground at an 

 angle of about 75 de- 

 grees, outwards, about 

 six inches from the root, 

 and four feet six inches 

 above the ground. The 

 vine is tied to the stakes 

 with raffia every eight 

 inches up the stake. All 

 laterals and suckers are 

 removed as soon as they 

 come. The fruit is picked 

 as soon as ripe. The 

 roots arc kept moist and 

 the foliage dry, and the 

 leaves snipped off a piece 

 at a time wherever they 

 keep the sun from get- 

 ting at the fruit. T recom- 

 mend the rake for culti- 

 vation instead of the 

 hoe, as with the latter 

 there is a tendency to in- 

 jure the roots which grow 

 close to the surface. 



Thirty-six and a half 

 pounds of fruit were tak- 

 en from this one plant. 



accompanying mi.- i. u 



This should prove con- 



Peeling Vine Rods 



B, C. Tillett, Hamilton, Ont. 



Should vine rods be peeled? Some 

 growers make a practice of peeling all 

 loose bark from the rods, others leave 

 the loose bark on. Some even go so far 

 as to entirely remove the bark so that 

 the green and white wood of the vine is 

 exposed. Having been privileged to 

 watch an expert pruner at work, I am 

 able to say I never saw him do more 

 than remove such loose strips as could 

 be readily removed by a mere rubbing 

 of the hand along the rod, and such as 

 were unsightly. 



If bark is removed I would recom- 

 mend that only loose bark be removed. 

 If a vine is free from insects and clean 

 there is really no good purpose served 

 in removing the bark, but when infested 

 with insects it is a good plan to remove 

 it and apply one of the approved sprays. 



When vines are pruned rather late in 

 the season, as is sometimes the case, 

 they are liable to bleed badly when the 

 sap rises. To avoid excessive bleeding 

 the cut ends should be painted with 

 knotting or styptic as soon as the prun- 

 ing is finished. 



Ginseng Growing 



Wm. Gilgour, Peterboro, Ont. 



It is less than twenty years since some 

 interested men studied the theory of how 

 to grow ginseng successfully under cul- 

 tivation. Since then, there have been 

 small gardens planted over different 

 parts of Canada and the United States. 



Occasionally we hear of men having 

 made fortunes by growing ginseng by 

 the acre. This is nonsense. It is a 

 question if there are fifteen acres under 

 cultivation in Canada and the United 

 States. Men who are in a position to 

 know, say there are not ten acres, and 

 it is a well-known fact that so far as 

 the Northern United States and Canada 

 are concerned, the wild root is nearly 

 exterminated. When we consider that 

 we have to depend on these gardens for 

 our future supply of dry roots and stocks 

 for planting and the long time required 

 from when the seed is planted until it 

 matures, those in the business need have 

 little fear of a fall in prices for the next 

 thirty years at least. 



Take time to visit the nearest park 

 or a neighbor who has been successful 

 in growing trees, fruits, or flowers and 

 study his plants and methods of grow- 

 ing. It is not a difYicult matter to have 

 an attractive home yard and it adds 

 much to the pleasure of living. 



