172 



TEE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[March 16, 1912. 





N 



Royal International Horticultural 

 Exhibition. — Many of the Home Counties 

 are providing special " Ccunty " Cups or pieces 

 of plate for competition at the Royal Inter- 

 national Horticultural Exhibition next May. 

 The piece of plate illustrated in fig. 72 has been 

 presented by Leicestershire and Rutland. The 

 local hon. secretary is Mr. \V. 11. Divers, 

 Belvoir Castle Gardens, Grantham. 



•The proprietors of the Daily Mail 



the isolation in a crystalline condition of the 

 yellow pigment of hens' eggs. This is termed 

 luteine, and it is proved to be very nearly iden- 

 tical with the xanthophyll of plants. The yolks sprayed with either freshly-made Bordeaux mix- 



_______ _1 1 "■ 1 __. ____ _____ -a * L— a _"_ TV\ 1 ~ L ~ T" 1 "1 %* f~\ S \ 1 ■* 'V *" * I" -~» C% L~* _ • "1 _-_"_ ** * » I _.., I_- _ J _ 



seed taken from an affected crop. Where disease 

 makes its appearance, the affected plants should 

 be removed and burned, and the remainder 



of 6,000 eggs were needed tor the work, ana, 

 finally, only about one-eighth of an ounce of the 

 pigment was obtained. The result serves to 

 emphasise once more the close relationship be- 

 tween the plant and animal worlds. 



ture or with a mixture of potassium sulphide 

 (1 ounce to 3 gallons of water), repeating the 

 spraying after an interval of about a fortnight or 

 three weeks, and again if necessary. Where 

 disease has existed in a previous year, it would 

 be well to commence spraying early in the season 



newspaper have offered a gold cup, valued at 50 

 guineas, for the best new Rose shown in the 



A New Fodder Plant.-A cultivated form as a safeguard, 

 of Helianthus macrophyllus, has been sold dur- 



* _ ■ f A . .. , . _ «. ing the last three or four years under the name 



class for single plants of climbing Roses or that *„ H elianthi," " Helianti," or - Salsefis," as 



_P . _ _P1 __ __ _1 1 • _ T~l **. -1««4« //.lin.U^Tirt av^^ hw afl\ * - _ 



for Seedling Rose plants (climbers excluded). 



Tobacco Growing in Canada. — Canada 

 raises a good deal of the Tobacco which is con- 

 sumed in that country. Tobacco is at present 

 raised almost entirely in Quebec and Ontario. 

 The improvement of the quality in recent 

 years may be imagined when it is stated 

 that some 15 years ago samples of the Tobacco 

 then grown by the Quebec farmer for his own 

 use, upon being submitted to several of the lead- 

 ing Tobacco manufacturers in the United King- 

 dom, was pronounced to be of a quality quite 

 unfit for their oucposes ; that, in their opinion, a 

 use for it might be found for fumigation pur- 

 poses, as an insecticide for greenhouses; and 

 that its commercial value was about Id. a pound. 



a fodder plant. According to the Journal of the 

 Board of Agriculture, it is a perennial species 

 of Helianthus, allied to the Sunflower and 

 Jerusalem Artichoke, but produces tubers that 

 differ from those of the Jerusalem Artichokes in 

 being slender and spindle-shaped. The plant is 

 remarkable for its enormous production of tubers 

 and generally luxuriant growth. The stems 

 above ground grow as high as 9 or 10 feet, 

 and may be used as fodder, either green or as 

 hay or silage. If the crop is not cut for fodder 

 the growth matures and then dies back, and 



The total crop last year was 20,000.000 lbs., two- 

 thirds of the whole crop being raised in the 

 latter province. The yield averages 1,500 lbs. 

 per a i re in normal years, and if well cured com- 

 mands from 6d. to 7_,d. per lb. for " binders, " 

 and from 4d. to 4_d. for pipe Tobacco. Tobacco 

 is generally grown in areas of one to four acres, 

 and it forms a useful adjunct to fruit growing. 

 Recent experiments is Nova Scotia demonstrate 

 that the Annapolis Valley, the pick of Nova 

 Scotia's orchard area, is highly adapted by soil 

 and climatic conditions for the growth of 

 Tobacco. 



The L.C.C. Parks Committee. — It is pro- 

 posed that in the coming year the Parks and 

 Open Spaces Committee of the London County 

 Council shall be composed of the following mem- 

 bers : — Sir George Alexander, Mr. T. 

 Chapman*. Lord Cheylesmore. Mr. H. E. A. 

 Cotton, Baron de Forest, Mr. F. L. Dove, 

 Mr. C U. Fisher, Mr. Stephen Gee, Mr. A. 0. 

 Goodrich, Mr. H. J. Greenwood, Lord Haddo, 

 Mr. T. F. Hobson, .Mr. T. Hunter, Mr. C 

 Jesson, Mr. G. W. H. Jones, Mr. R. C 

 Lambert, Mr. G. Lansbury, Mr. H. C Lea, 

 Major H. B. Lewis- Barned, Mr. J. W. Louden. 

 Ur. G. K. Naylor, Mr. Walter Reynolds, and 

 Mr. Stuart Sankey. Mr. Fisher was the 

 chairman of the Parks Committee last year, and 

 Sir George Alexander and Mr. Walter 

 Reynolds have also occupied the position in the 

 past. 



Fig. 72. — royal international exhibition* 



(Rose bowl presented by Leicester; hire and Rutland.) 



a heavy crop of tubers is produced which may 

 be fed to horses, cattle, pigs, or sheep. They are 

 also said to be superior to Jerusalem Artichokes 

 for culinary purposes. The plant is propagated 

 by tubers. 



Leaf Spot of Celery. — In the Journal of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society, vol. xxxvii., 

 p. 115, Mr. F. J. Chittenden describes the de- 



Plant and Animal Pigments.— The pig- s tructive parasitic fungus (Septoria petroselini, 

 ments, more particularly the yellow colouring var- ap ji B . and C.) which in 1909 and 1910 



matters of plants and animals, have been frequent 

 subjects of scientific investigation, but until re- 

 cently progress in determining their chemical 

 composition has not been very definite. Will- 



made an important advance in 

 them as either hydrocarbons, 

 of which carrotene, the colouring matter of 

 Carrots, is the best example, or as oxygen com- 



STATTER 



classifying 



attacked Celery to a serious extent in many parts 

 of England. Usually the first symptom of the 

 disease is the appearance of small pale spots on 

 the leaves. These are quite unlike the burrows 

 made by the Celery-fly larva, and on examination 

 with a lens, small, black dots may be seen on 

 them. When the attack is severe, the whole 

 leaf becomes almost olive-green, the foliage 



pounds, closely related chemically to the hydro- -wilts and the leaf-stalk, which is also attacked, 

 carbons : the latter are known as xanthophyll. decays. Even when the attack is not sufficiently 



severe to cauee decay, the growth of the plant 

 is interfered with and the crop diminished. The 



I 



Whjlstatter's subsequent experiments have 

 ieen devoted to the preparation of such pig- 



?nts in a crystalline state, and he has obtained, 

 — ~>ngst others, lycopene, the pigment of 

 atos, in very beautiful, red crystals. Lyco- 



same fungus also attacks Parsley. Investiga- 

 tion showed that a great many samples of Celery 

 seed had the spores of the fungus upon them, and 



The Everyday Uses of Portland Cement.* 



Users of cement will find this substantial 

 volume a valuable addition to their reference 

 library. From our point of view the most useful 

 sections of the book are those dealing with the 

 general properties of cements and concrete and 

 with the application of these materials to garden 

 purposes. Among the many garden applications 

 we may mention in particular the use of cement 

 for preserving wounded trees from further in- 

 jury. Though this use of cement is, of course, 

 well known, the pages devoted thereto contain 

 an excellent, account of the methods to be 



adopted, 



— When trees develop decay there is no 



from 



account 

 which 



we quote the follow- 



ing 



rotting trunk there remains a 



reason why they should be felled unless it is 

 quite impossible to remedy them, but in the 

 majority of rases by the application of cement 

 or concrete, they may be preserved. To fill up 

 the cavities in the tree with cement has been 

 practised for a number of years now, but not 

 always with success, because a mistake has been 

 made in leaving the decay in place. The cement 

 was simply filled in the cavity without any 

 regard to draining or the subsequent healing of 

 the wound. As the cement did not stick to the 

 wood and the swaying of the tree by the wind 

 < ften enlaiged the crack between the wood and 

 the filling, water penetrated behind the cement 

 and decay went on even more rapidly than before. 

 In repairing decayed trees, after the mass of the 

 decay has been removed from the interior of the 



shell of living 



sapwood and bark. Into this cavity a steel 

 brace is inserted and bolted in place. This gives 

 to the tree a stability which by the decay of the 

 supporting heartwood it had lost. Now comes 

 an important operation, the cutting of the water- 

 sheds, which prevent the entrance of moisture. 

 The watersheds consist of a deep groove cut 

 about 1 inch inside the edge and opening out to 

 the ground below. The cement, being packed 

 tightly into these grooves, forms a channel down 

 which the water flows, to be let out at the base. 

 The cavity is then wired throughout, the wire 

 being stretched from nails driven into the wcod, 

 and acting as reinforcing for the cement. l^ 13 

 work having been completed, the cement is made 

 as moist as possible, and then built out into the 

 original outline of the tree. The bark which has 

 been cut back for an inch or so in order to pre- 

 vent bruising while the work is in progress win 

 eventually cover the filled-in wound, the tree 

 thus regaining its normal appearance. In e 

 case of exceptionally large cuvities the opening is 

 covered by large strips of zinc. The cemen 

 then forced down into every crevice and allowe 

 to set, after which the zinc is removed and a coa 

 of fine finishing cement put on and painted t ie 

 colour of the bark. The correction of the forke^ 

 or defective crotches, which are found to a g^ 

 extent in soft Maples and Elms, and to a les^ 

 degree in almost all our landscape trees, forI ^. g 

 large part of the tree surgeon's work. ^ 

 form of crotch usually has its origin in 

 destruction of the original head or leader. n 

 case of this kind a double head is formed by 

 forcing out of two lateral buds. As these s 

 up, forming the new top, the old sturr-P at 



oene — * — * — - -_ - * — — — 



\aL~t 1 ver y closel y related to carrotene. His it is suggested that one of the principal ways . - ubu hed by Th _ A _. c atd p rtl nd Ccme nt M*"* 



^hievement is a remarkable one, namely, in which the disease is spread is the use of such facturers, Ltd., Lcn.cn. is. 6d. net. 





