IOO 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 472 



enough to carry the numerous flowers, but arching sufficiently 

 to give the plant a graceful appearance. Ordinary plants 

 carry about a dozen clusters, and they form nice bushy speci- 

 mens from eighteen to twenty-four inches high and something 

 like eighteen inches in diameter, although they were grown 

 somewhat closely together on a bench and received no extra 

 care. 



A writer in the Orchid Review states that for half a dozen 

 years he has treated his plants with ammoniacal vapor, which 

 has increased their vigor and improved the color of the leaves 

 of all species of Orchids. This vapor bath has been adminis- 

 tered on Monday and Thursday nights every week after the 

 houses have been damped down and the ventilators tightly 

 closed. Soot and lime are used to produce the ammonia, but 

 they are not used dry, since it has been found that there is 

 much less danger of injury to the leaves by the use of a liquid 

 solution which can be spread more evenly and which gives off 

 its ammonia more slowly. A bucketful of soot and half a 

 bucketful of lime are put into a tub with twelve gallons of 

 water, and after being thoroughly mixed the liquid is allowed 

 to stand for three days, when it is ready for use. No care is 

 taken to use the clear liquid alone, but the mixture, thick and 

 thin, is spread over the cindered stages of the houses at the 

 rate of three gallons to a house containing 4,000 cubic feet of 

 air space. The tub is then refilled with water, soot and lime, 

 so that the mixture is always ready in three or four days when 

 needed again. 



Every one knows that when seed potatoes are allowed to 

 sprout and the sprouts are broken off, as they often are when 

 the potatoes are kept in a dark cellar, the tuber is perceptibly 

 weakened, the yield lessened and the ripening retarded. The 

 best way to keep seed potatoes is in cold storage, and when 

 thus kept at the Ohio Station they came out sound and fresh, 

 with no sprouts and with unimpaired vitality, even as late as 

 the first of June. It is important, however, that the tempera- 

 ture should never fall below thirty-five, nor should it rise much 

 above forty degrees. In a press circular sent out by the Ohio 

 Station it is advised that the seed potatoes should be shoveled 

 over frequently, as this prevents sprouting to a certain extent 

 where cold storage is not available. Planters are reminded, 

 however, that under certain conditions this sprouting process 

 may be used to advance the early ripening of the crop. If the 

 tubers are placed stem end down in single layers in shallow 

 trays in a light and moderately warm room they will send out 

 short stubby green sprouts which will remain in that condi- 

 tion for weeks, and if the potatoes are then planted without 

 breaking the sprouts they will start immediately. 



In one of the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, an association has 

 been formed for the purpose of beautifying the streets, the 

 unimproved property and the public grounds by proper plant- 

 ing, by promoting a general interest in gardening, and by sys- 

 tematic efforts to abate nuisances and to control the location 

 of houses so far as possible. Lectures are given, with views, 

 to show how house surroundings can be made attractive, and 

 the newspaper reports say that this part of Dayton has shown 

 marked improvement in its appearance. Prizes are offered by 

 the association for the best example of planting in individual 

 grounds, together with the condition of the roadways, gutters, 

 curbs, sidewalks and general appearance of the houses. Prizes 

 are also offered to boys for the best vegetable gardens, as well 

 as prizes open to boys and girls for the best kept back yards, 

 whether planted with flowers, shrubbery, climbers or grass. 

 Photographs are to be taken of the examined gardens, with 

 particular sections and decorations of the streets entered in 

 competition, and a neat pamphlet has been published contain- 

 ing views of the prize-winning grounds last year, and also 

 embodying good advice about trees, shrubs and climbers, with 

 the methods of planting and caring for them. 



One of the useful botanical discoveries made by our experi- 

 ment stations is that which traced the source of the potato 

 scab to an infinitesimal germ that feeds on the surface of the 

 tuber, and from this broadening of our scientific knowledge 

 came the practical advice to use corrosive sublimate, which 

 would kill the fungi on the tubers without injuring their 

 growth. The remedy was so cheap and easy that many large 

 growers have adopted this treatment as a regular part of their 

 farm economy, but the poisonous nature of this fungicide has 

 prevented its general use. Dr. J. C. Arthur, of the Purdue 

 University Experiment Station therefore confers an added 

 benefit upon farmers by the announcement that the new anti- 

 septic known as formalin, which is not very expensive, and 

 which is likely to become cheaper as it is better known, 



makes an efficient remedy for the potato scab, while it is not 

 poisonous. Eight ounces of formalin are added to fifteen 

 gallons of water. The seed potatoes are soaked in the solu- 

 tion for two hours, and then they are cut and planted as usual. 

 Since formalin is not corrosive, it can be used in any kind of 

 vessel, and not being poisonous no particular caution needs 

 to be observed, except that it will make the hands smart where 

 there are any abrasions of the skin and its fumes irritate the 

 eyes and throat. Further information about formalin and its 

 uses as a fungicide are promised in a bulletin which will be 

 issued by the station in a short time. 



In a letter to The Friiitmari ' s Guide, of this city, from a Lon- 

 don wholesale dealer in fruits and vegetables, an interesting 

 variety of products is noted in that market in the latter part 

 of February. Baldwin, Greening, Russet and Golden Russet 

 apples came from New York and iVIaine, and in addition Nova 

 Scotia was sending Northern Spies, Cranberry Pippins and 

 Nonpareils, with Newtown Pippins from California, besides 

 apples from France. The supply of Easter Beurre pears was 

 from California, and Italy also furnished varieties of the same 

 fruit, while new crop Bartlett pears, known in the English 

 markets as Williams, were coming from the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Packages of a dozen of the latter fruits, of exception- 

 ally fine quality, sold at wholesale at $2.25 a package. As we 

 stated a fortnight ago, peaches were being received from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, during the summer season of that south- 

 ern country, and new crop grapes. The demand for oranges 

 was supplied by consignments of this fruit from Spain, Palestine, 

 Italy and California. Tangerines, lemons and bananas were 

 in regular supply, and 18,544 pineapples came from the Azores 

 during the current week, from thirty-seven cents to $1.00 being 

 realized for each of the fruits in wholesale lots. New potatoes 

 came from Egypt, Algiers and the Canary Islands, and new 

 asparagus from Spain and France. The choice variety locally 

 known as French Giant sold at the extremely high price of 

 $3.00 to $5.00 a bundle, and slender green stalks, about thirty- 

 two to a bundle, for $1.00 to $1.37, while twenty stalks of this 

 vegetable from Spain brought from fifty to sixty-two cents. New 

 cauliflower was provided by Italy, France and the west of Eng- 

 land, and there were, besides, abundant supplies of turnip 

 tops and other greens at moderate prices. 



Last year the Agricultural Experiment Station of Rhode 

 Island made systematic tests with garden seeds to ascertain 

 their germinating power. Of 233 samples twenty contained 

 three or more poor seeds for every good one, and of twenty- 

 three others more than half of the seeds would not sprout. In 

 continuing the examination 150 more samples have been 

 studied, and the vitality of thirty-four of these last fell below 

 fifty per cent., which means that a purchaser of seeds would 

 receive in most cases less than halt of his money's worth in 

 seeds that would grow. The results vary astonishingly. In 

 some of the samples less than ten per cent, of the seed ger- 

 minated, while in others more than ninety per cent, were 

 good. If there were any uniformity in the percentage of good 

 seed a gardener might know how thickly to sow it, since too 

 many plants in a given space are as disastrous to a crop as 

 too few, but no one can guess how many onion seeds he ought 

 to sow when twelve per cent, in one sample grow, and eighty- 

 six per cent, in another sample. In twenty-three cases seeds 

 bought from the same dealer show a lower vitality this year 

 than they did last, which suggests the possibility that some of 

 this year's seed may have been taken from last year's stock 

 which was held over. At all events, the results indicate that 

 too much ought not to be taken for granted concerning the 

 vitality of seeds, especially when they have been carelessly 

 stored for months. A man who plants bad seed not only 

 loses the money he pays for it, but he loses the use of his land, 

 the fertilizers and the labor wasted in trying to obtain a crop 

 which he never grows. This bulletin well adds that with the 

 struggle now going on to keep the cost of production below 

 the market value of crops the vitality of seeds becomes an 

 important question. Seed of low vitality tends to curtail the 

 yield of a crop, not only because the entire area of the land is 

 not utilized by it, but because it takes crops from such seed, 

 in many cases, longer to mature on account of the lack of 

 vigor in the young plant, and these two considerations so 

 influence the receipts from a crop that it may not be sufficient 

 to meet the expenses of growing it. The purchaser, therefore, 

 ought to have some assurance that his seed is fresh and that 

 it is properly kept, and the only way that such a guarantee can 

 be had is in some agreement between the buyer and the seller 

 by which the latter will regularly test his seed in bulk and fur- 

 nish each purchaser with a truthful statement of the result of 

 the test. 



