120 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 474. 



too deeply, and a simple sifting- of soil over the finest kind of 

 seeds after they have been sown upon the surface will suffice, 

 provided the soil is afterward properly pressed against the 

 seed, or " firmed," as it is called. In the case of large seeds 

 gardeners often tramp on the row, and with lighter ones a 

 hoe blade or a block of wood is used for compacting the soil. 



The windows in the uptown flower stores make a brave dis- 

 play even during the Lenten season, a comparatively dull 

 trade time. Under the influence of the bright clear weather 

 of these early spring days the masses of bloom show good 

 color and vigor. Sturdy clumps of forget-me-not, the tiny 

 flowers set in abundant foliage, immense pansies of many 

 hues, long stems of lily-of-the-valley, little bunches of yellow 

 primroses, vases of the beautiful blue cornflower, well-grown 

 heliotrope, giant heads of mignonette, and single, and the 

 deeper-colored double, violets are seen in almost all collec- 

 tions. There are also dainty buds of moss roses, great spikes 

 of forced gladiolus and quantities of Easter lilies. White 

 sweet peas make a delicate showing, and one of the windows 

 had a drapery of Swainsonia, the finely cut leaves and clusters 

 of white flowers being peculiarly effective and satisfying. 

 A row of flowering plants of Amaryllis set in a bed of green 

 foliage plants made a gorgeous display, the rich red flowers 

 borne on their stout stems, some of them two feet high. Large 

 yellow and white marguerites, double white snapdragon and 

 beautiful pink tulips and many other bulbous flowers added 

 to the variety, with French lilacs, Jacqueminot, American 

 Beauty and other roses. Hardly any potted plants in flower 

 are shown now, these being held in the greenhouses for 

 Easter, and only a few pots of violets were seen, and the quiet 

 flowers nearly hidden in the luxuriant leaves seemed espe- 

 cially fitting at this time. 



Bulletin No. 124 of the Cornell University Experiment Sta- 

 tion contains particulars of the pistol-case-bearer, an American 

 insect, which has been known for twenty years, but which has 

 never done any serious damage except occasionally in New York 

 and Pennsylvania. The insect is one of those which are encased 

 in a curious-shaped suit after the fashion of the cigar-case- 

 bearer, and this bulletin gives such an interesting description 

 of the habits of the interesting little animal that no intelligent 

 farmer's boy can fail to be interested if he once begins to read 

 it. Professor Slingerland's work does much more, therefore, 

 than give some immediate information about the pest and the 

 methods of fighting it, it helps to encourage "correct and 

 hopeful habits of thought." Experiments seem to show that 

 the insect can be held in check by a spraying of Paris green 

 or the Bordeaux mixture applied very thoroughly. When it 

 is abundant at least two applications should be made before 

 the blossoms open. If the Bordeaux mixture is applied with 

 the Paris green at the second spraying the apple-scab fungus 

 will receive a check, and this period between the setting of the 

 bud and the opening of the flower is just the time when the 

 bud-moth as well as the cigar-case-bearer needs a dose of poi- 

 son, since all three of these pests often occur together. If any 

 of the pistol-case-bearers are left they can doubtless be poisoned 

 by an application of Paris green made a little while after the 

 petals fall, and this is also the best time to spray for the 

 codlin moth or appleworm. A fruit tree should never be 

 sprayed while it is in blossom. 



Mr. John Craig, of the Canadian Experiment Fruit Farm, 

 read a paper recently before the Michigan Fruit Growers' 

 Association, giving an account of some experiments with the 

 different standard varieties of Peaches and Plums, with a view 

 of testing their relative ability to produce fruit after winters of 

 unusual severity. Twigs of the different varieties bearing 

 fruit-buds were taken from a number of localities in the Do- 

 minion and examined with a lens, and most of the cions were 

 placed in water in a glass-house where the blossoms were 

 allowed to expand. Ot course, the percentage of fruit buds 

 killed on a Peach-tree is not the measure of loss to the crop 

 the ensuing year. If a fruit set for every bud that opened, thin- 

 ning would be absolutely necessary, and the frosting of some 

 buds might prove a help to the crop. Again, the specimen 

 twigs may have been largely cut from the lower branches of 

 the trees where the temperature is colder at critical periods 

 than at the top of the tree where the greater part of the fruit is 

 found after severe winters. The tables presented, therefore, 

 of the different varieties of Peaches and Plums grouped in 

 relation to the power of their fruit-buds in resisting frost, are 

 merely tentative, although they have some value as a list sub- 

 ject to revision. Several interesting facts, however, were 

 noted. For example, tender fruit-buds are not always asso- 

 ciated with tender leaf-buds. As an instance, the Plum Glass 

 Seedling suffers less than most varieties at Qttowa from the 



winter-killing of terminal shoots, but it bears no fruit except 

 after very mild winters. Other varieties which have their ter- 

 minal wood killed back annually, like the Damsons, neverthe- 

 less produce fruit regularly on spurs of the older branches. 

 This means that in the north there is much to learn on this 

 subject, and after the selection of varieties of merit and of 

 known hardiness the advice to cultivate so as to encourage the 

 ripening of both wood and fruit-buds is the most practical 

 that can now be given. 



The Office of Road Inquiry of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture has published a circular on brick-paving for 

 country roads, which sets forth an experiment made recently 

 by the citizens of Monmouth, Illinois. This vitrified brick, as 

 is well known, is not made of clay, but of a peculiar shale 

 rock, and it is so hard that a sharp-edged fragment of it will 

 cut steel. Iu accordance with a law which authorized the con- 

 struction of macadam or other hard roads in Illinois, the land- 

 owners of Monmouth have laid an experimental section 

 of vitrified brick road at a cost of about ninety cents a running 

 foot. The road is eleven feet wide, and on either side of it 

 there is an earth track for use in dry weather, making alto- 

 gether a road forty feet wide. Stone roads in that region have 

 cost seventy cents a running foot for a track eight or nine feet 

 wide, and, of course, the glazed brick makes a|»iuch smoother 

 surface. It is suggested that in many places, for example, 

 where there is a short roadway subjected to very heavy traffic, 

 as about factories, mines and railway stations, two parallel strips 

 of these brick, from sixteen to twenty inches wide, could be 

 laid through the middle of the macadam road and gauged 

 so that the wheels of all kinds of vehicles could follow them. 

 The decreased traction would be as great as if steel rails were 

 laid in the macadam, and if properly set they would last a long 

 time under any traffic where a macadam road is justified. It 

 is also pointed out that these strips of brick pavement would 

 make admirable bicycle tracks. 



The Wild Garlic, Allium vineale, is not a native of this 

 country, although in Pursh's American Flora, published in 

 1814, it was already reported as common in old fields. It is 

 too well known to need description, and it is one of the most 

 injurious of weeds in the middle Atlantic states ; it disfigures 

 lawns ; it gives an evil flavor to milk and its products ; and, 

 since its bulblets are about the same size as wheat-grains and 

 mature when winter rye and wheat are harvested, these are 

 often ground with the flour and impart a strong flavor to it. 

 Besides this, the bulblets form a varnish-like coating on the 

 rollers of the flour-mills, which makes it necessary to shut 

 down the mill until this gum is washed off. The weed is very 

 difficult of extermination. An acre of land near Germantown, 

 Pennsylvania, was trenched by hand to a depth of three feet, 

 and all the bulbs found were picked out and destroyed, and 

 although the quantity of the Garlic was much reduced, a suffi- 

 cient number of bulbs escaped to reseed the land within afew 

 years. Hand-pulling just at flowering time is only partially 

 successful, and the cultivation of hoed crops is ineffective by 

 itself. If land is plowed late in the fall, so as to leave the 

 bulbs near the surface and exposed to freezing and thawing, 

 many of them will be killed, and the surviving shoots can be 

 destroyed by spring cultivation, after which oats may be sown 

 or corn can be planted. This process repeated for two years 

 will destroy nearly all the Garlic, and the remaining plants can 

 be exterminated by hand. A bulletin published by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture gives some very interesting facts in 

 regard to this evil weed, and it recommends, among other 

 remedies, (1) that the soil should be shaved near the surface as 

 often as the shoots appear; (2) that lime should be put liber- 

 ally on the pastures and meadows to help the grass and crowd 

 out the Garlic, and (3) that hogs should be confined on Garlic 

 patches. It is added that a single drop of carbolic acid on a 

 leaf or shoot will kill the entire plant. Half a teaspoonful of 

 the acid applied so as to strike most of the shoots in a clump 

 as they grow in pastures will kill them all. The cheaper 

 quality of the acid, worth from thirty to forty cents a 

 gallon, is effective, and should be used with little dilution, 

 and applied with a machine-oil can. On the grounds about 

 the White House in Washington, comprising eight acres, an 

 abundant stand of Wild Garlic was nearly all destroyed by a 

 single application of carbolic acid. The cost, including the acid, 

 cans for applying it, and the wages of the boys who did the work, 

 amounted to nearly $10 an acre. The grass was practically 

 uninjured, and during the following season it covered the spots 

 where the Garlic had been destroyed. To complete eradica- 

 tion by this method the land should be carefully looked over 

 during each of two succeeding years in winter or early spring 

 when the plants are not hidden by other vegetation. 



