286 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 43S. 



the main crop varieties none surpass the old Champion of Eng- 

 land ; it gives double the yield of any other sort we grow. Evo- 

 lution, Stratagem, Yorkshire Hero and Telephone, while supe- 

 rior to and more popular now than the older variety in Great 

 Britain, do not approach it in all-round good qualities here. 

 Our latest sowing is now well started. We use Advance and 

 American Wonder for our last batch and sow them where a 

 sprinkler can keep the ground moist. It is scarcely worth 

 while to sow Peas as late as the first of July unless plenty of 

 artificial moisture can be supplied. 



Celkry. — The earliest planting of Celery is now growing 

 nicely, and to continue it in good condition it is absolutely 

 necessary to keep the plants well watered. If they once get a 

 thorough drying up at the root they fall easy prey to rust and 

 will not make good heads. Rust on the stems and foliage is 

 the greatest fear of Celery growers. That excellent variety, 

 Golden Self-blanching, is especially susceptible to its attacks if 

 planted out very early. We have proved that if the trenches 

 can be kept well soaked with water and the plants in a good 

 growing state there is little trouble with this disease. Our win- 

 ter crop of Celery has just been planted out on the ground pre- 

 viously occupied by early Peas. We plant in double rows in 

 trenches twenty inches wide. Experience has taught us that it 

 pays to grow this crop where the plants can be watered with the 

 hose and our stock can all be readily watered by hand. To 

 ward off the attacks of rust and leaf-blight we have had good 

 results from spraying the plants with Bordeaux mixture. We 

 give several applications during the season to all our stock, 

 continuing until growth is almost completed. It does not take 

 long to spray a few trenches, and three or four applications 

 during the season will, in many cases, save the crop from ruin. 



Sweet Corn. — Last year we made ourlatest sowing of Mam- 

 moth and Stowell's Evergreen on July 3d, and Crosby sown on 

 July 15th gave us good ears until nearly the end of October. 

 As a general rule, July 4th is as late as we can put in any variety 

 with hopes of getting a picking, although in a favorable 

 season we have had good returns from Crosby sown as late 

 as July 20th. The cultivator must be freely used between the 

 rows ; the ground will bake more or less after every heavy 

 shower, and to hold moisture in the ground and encourage 

 growth it should be frequently stirred. From present appear- 

 ance our earliest variety this season will be First Crop Sugar, 

 Cory and Crosby being a few days behind. 



Tomatoes. — Tomatoes are now ripening freely outdoors on 

 such early sorts as Sutton's Earliest of All and Eclipse. Plants 

 still fruiting indoors freely can be dispensed with by the mid- 

 dle of July. Many private growers now train their plants to 

 trellises or tie them to stakes in preference to allowing them 

 to ramble over the ground at will. An occasional tying and 

 rubbing off of superfluous shoots and side laterals is ail the 

 labor required, and fifteen minutes each week will keep a 

 hundred-foot trellis in excellent order. It is already necessary 

 to think about next winter's crop, and a sowing of a good early 

 variety like Nicholson's Early Chemin, or Eclipse, made by 

 the middle of the month, will give ripe fruit when the outdoor 

 supply is spent. The young seedlings should be pricked off 

 and potted on to keep them growing nicely and of a stocky 

 habit. They are best kept outdoors until the early part of 

 September. 



Cucumbers. — A sowing of White Spine Cucumbers in the 

 open is still seasonable, while the English varieties for frame 

 culture can be sown until the middle of the month and pro- 

 duce good crops without artificial heat. Two or three plants 

 set out in a piece of bench in an ordinary greenhouse in rich 

 compost and liberally treated, will yield an astonishing quan- 

 tity of fruit. Plants in frames are benefited by having the 

 glass whitewashed during the hot summer months, and plenty 

 of water and liquid manure are essentials to a good crop. If 

 black or green aphis appears, fumigation will be necessary, 

 care being taken not to give it too strong and to thoroughly 

 syringe the plants and to ventilate freely early the next 

 morning. 



Miscellaneous. — Lettuces have done very well this season, 

 and very few have run to seed. To keep up a regular supply 

 we make fortnightly sowings. The following all prove them- 

 selves good summer varieties here : Salamander, Black-seeded 

 Tennis-ball, Henderson's New York and Sutton's Cabbage, the 

 last-named being the best. We sow String-beans until August 

 10th with good results. Mohawk and Valentine are good 

 varieties. Brussels Sprouts, Savoys and others of the Brassica 

 family should now be planted out and growing freely ; any 

 vacant ground cropped with Curled Borecole or Savoys will 

 yield good returns. A little chemical fertilizer forked in the 

 ground before the plants are set out will materially assist them. 

 Asparagus beetles are apt to be troublesome in July and 



August. A spraying with Paris green at the rate of one pound 

 to one hundred gallons of water will clear them out. We sow 

 Beet seeds early in August for a winter supply. This is a 

 suitable time to sow Endive to give good heads for blanching 

 in the fall. Onions are doing well now ; a scattering of a 

 special fertilizer fortnightly during the rest of the growing sea- 

 son will help to produce extra-fine bulbs, and careful hoeing is 

 now necessary in order not to break the tops. Peppers and 

 Egg-plants are liable to be broken later in the season by high 

 winds, and we tie each of our plants to a stout stick. To secure 

 fine fruit on Egg-plants plenty of liquid-manure should be 

 applied once a week. If spent and decaying crops are 

 cleared away, and all vacant ground filled with successional 

 crops, the vegetable garden will continue attractive in appear- 

 ance. Weeds now grow apace, and hoeing and cultivating will 

 for some time be one of the principal operations. 



Taunton, Mass. W. N. Craig. 



Greenhouse Plants Burned by the Sun. 



'THE burning of foliage by the sun's heat is a common 

 -*■ occurrence in forcing-houses and conservatories, and is 

 usually caused by irregularities in the glass, these often being 

 thickened portions which serve the purpose of a lens and 

 focus the sun's rays upon a point at a certain distance from the 

 glass. It was formerly supposed that burning was caused 

 entirely by air bubbles and sand spots in the glass, but some 

 good authorities now claim that these do not cause burning. 



During the latter part of last winter the leaves of Lettuce- 

 plants growing on the centre bench of one of our forcing-houses 

 were burned slightly. The house extends north and south, and 

 second-quality, double-thick glass was used in its construction. 

 In certain places a band of strong light was thrown across 

 some of the plants, and close below it a shadow corresponding 

 in width to the bright band. These two bands were found 

 where the glass was lapped, and extended the entire width of 

 the pane, which is fourteen inches. There are several laps in 

 the roof of the house where this occurs and bands of varying 

 degrees of intensity are formed on sunny days. A ther- 

 mometer placed in one of the brightest bands registered 

 twelve degrees higher than when held just outside the band. 

 If the house temperature reached a high point at a time when 

 there was little moisture in the atmosphere the additional 

 increase of twelve degrees in temperature would doubtless be 

 sufficient to burn the plants. 



The presence of the dark band, with the light band directly 

 above it, shows that the amount of light which should fall 

 upon a space, say, three inches wide, was made to fall upon a 

 space of about half that breadth, leaving the other half a dark 

 shadow. At first I was inclined to suppose it was caused 

 entirely by the lap of the glass, the light being either reflected 

 from, or refracted through, the edges of the panes ; yet other 

 laps close by cast scarcely a shadow, and there was no 

 bright band. Examination of these panes of glass ex- 

 posed the real trouble, an irregularity reaching across the 

 lower end of the upper pane in each case. This was evidently 

 the "block-end" of the glass, and a curvature was quite no- 

 ticeable, the convex surface being above. The panes producing 

 the most intense bands were the most curved. This curva- 

 ture would tend to converge the rays toward some point, or, 

 rather, line, beyond the plants, acting much like a lens. There 

 may be a difference in thickness, too, but both surfaces are 

 curved, the upper convex, the lower concave; thus it seems 

 probable that the trouble was caused entirely, or almost en- 

 tirely, by the sun's rays being refracted while passing through 

 the curved glass. 



Agric'l Experiment Station, New Haven, Conn. W. E. Brlttoit. 



Carnation Notes. 



"""PHE outdoor stock is looking extremely well with us this 

 *- season. The plants are benefited by the copious rains of 

 the first half of June and are twice as large as the plants of a 

 year ago. The plants for winter flowering are looked over 

 once a week and tipped. If left longer than a week and 

 allowed to run up almost to flower the plant is exhausted when 

 the pinching back is done, and fails to develop as shapely a 

 specimen later on. Among the newer introductions Delia Fox, 

 Armazindy, Triumph and Abundance are all making good 

 growth, jubilee is at present rather small, but appears to be 

 of a naturally robust habit, and may make good plants before 

 lifting-time. Jubilee is the only variety we have which has 

 unmistakable signs of rust. We spray these plants with 

 Fowler's Arsenical Solution once in ten days, and this kills the 

 spores as they appear. Summer varieties growing out-of- 

 doors are now flowering freely ; the earliest and most florifer- 



