56 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 311. 



Cultural Department. 



Preservation of Soil Moisture by Tillage. 



IN the January issue of that useful little quarterly, The 

 Strawberry Culturist, Mr. J. H. Hale makes the following- 

 record of his experience as to the value of thorough culti- 

 vation as a means of stimulating the growth of Strawberries 

 and other fruit- plants in a dry season. 



In planting out about twenty-five acres of Strawberries last 

 spring, we had exceedingly fine weather for the transplanting and 

 one or two light rains after the plants were set out ; then came 

 nearly four months of extreme drought. Having no means 

 for irrigation, the only way to keep the plants alive and stim- 

 ulate a little growth, was constant cultivation ; so, from one 

 week's end to another, two horses and steel-frame cultivators 

 were kept going, back and forth, among the rows; constantly 

 stirring the soil in every field of berries, from two to four 

 times each week. It came to be rather monotonous work, 

 as there were no weeds to kill, and the average farm- 

 hand does not see much sense in cultivation, except to kill 

 weeds ; but, as I was bound to encourage a growth of plants, 

 the good work was kept up and the plants continued to make 

 a light growth, while, in neighboring fields, where less culti- 

 vation was given, the plants made little or no growth, and, in 

 many instances, On dry knolls, they withered and died. 



Late in August favorable rains came, which continued 

 through September, and the vigor which had been maintained 

 in the plants by thorough culture throughout the drought 

 enabled them to start off and make an enormous growth of 

 runners, so as to mat the ground thickly with new plants be- 

 fore the coming of winter, and, I am satisfied, that the moriths 

 of cultivation, which cost us, perhaps, three hundred dollars, 

 has made us at least three million plants, and will enable us 

 to supply our customers as usual next season and have abun- 

 dant beds for fruiting. 



Liberal manuring is an essential to successful Strawberry- 

 culture, but constant stirring of the ground is even more 

 essential. As noted this season, it is worth ten times its cost 

 in seasons of drought, and at any time pays well, for the 

 more completely the particles of earth are pulverized the more 

 plant-food will become available for the plants. 



The same practice will apply to all fruit-plants, and I noticed 

 it particularly in the Peach orchards the present season ; where 

 the most thorough tillage had been given the trees suffered 

 least from drought, and the fruit was of larger size and better 

 quality than in the orchards where it was not possible to keep 

 the cultivators at work after the growing fruit had so weighed 

 down the limbs that it was impossible to work among the 

 trees. In the cultivated lands the fruit kept on growing all 

 through the season, but in the uncultivated orchards it was at 

 a standstill for six weeks, until the rains came. This taught 

 us the second lesson in the value of cultivation. 



The Snow Creeper of India. 



MR. WATSON'S note on page 35 of the issue of Garden 

 and Forest for January 24th pleasantly renews my recol- 

 lections of this lovely creeper. It is interesting to learn from 

 such a high authority as Mr. C. B. Clarke that the specific name 

 is racemosa. It is generally known in India as Porana panicu- 

 lata, and Mr. Woodraw, lecturer on botany at Poona, whom I 

 met at the Taj Mahal Gardens, called it P. volubilis, and had 

 so named it in his book on Gardetiing in India. It is undoubt- 

 edly a plant that succeeds best in an exceedingly dry and hot 

 climate. It grew and flowered fairly well in the Taj Mahal 

 Gardens, where the soil is irrigated all through the dry 

 season ; but I found that it flourished far better at Rambagh, 

 another Agra garden, where the only moisture it received was 

 the annual twenty-five inches of rain that falls from June to 

 September. There was a wall about fifty yards long by ten 

 feet high, against which a number of plants had been planted, 

 and the growth was so rampant that it had frequently to be 

 thinned back to keep it within bounds. The wall was com- 

 pletely covered with the foliage, and during September and 

 October it was draped with an unbroken mass of dazzling 

 white panicles that hung like drooping folds of finely worked 

 lace. People who are familiar with the large, flaccid corollas 

 of the Morning-glories and other Convolvulaceous plants that 

 are common in gardens, would not, at first sight, be apt to 

 class the minute-flowered Porana in its family group. 



Like many other plants peculiar to dry districts, it is, no 

 doubt, difficult to grow under artificial conditions as a stove- 

 plant ; but we are all so familiar with the wonderful adapta- 



bility of plants to seemingly unnatural conditions that I think 

 it might be well worth a trial, care being taken not to over- 

 water it from October to May. It stands well when cut for 

 table decoration, it flowers with wonderful freeness, and is de- 

 cidedly one of the most striking creepers that grow in the 

 north-west provinces of India. 



Manchester, Mass. A. B. Westland. 



Seasonable Notes on Vegetables. 



A LTHOUGH several weeks must elapse before anything in 

 -*"*- the way of planting or seed-sowing can be done in the 

 vegetable garden, there is some preparatory work which ought 

 not to be delayed until the rushing spring season. When the 

 ground is frozen hard and clear of snow, manure may be 

 wheeled on to the beds to advantage, for if this work is left 

 until the frost breaks, the heavy nature of the ground will 

 make hard wheeling, not to speak of the cutting up of roads 

 and grounds which it will cause. Such work is really done best 

 in autumn, at which time the ground should be manured and 

 dug over, with the surface left rough, to enable the frost to 

 penetrate more rapidly and pulverize it. A vegetable garden 

 trenched, plowed or spaded in the fall, has a more present- 

 able appearance than one covered with weeds and de- 

 cayed vegetables, and it is better in every way than one left 

 untouched until the advance of spring makes it necessary to 

 do this work, and often to do it in too much of a hurry. 



Comparatively few private establishments have structures 

 specially set apart for growing vegetables, although, beyond 

 question, such houses offer many advantages. Where this 

 convenience is not available the hot-bed is a necessity, and no 

 time should be lost in preparing one for early Lettuce. For a 

 gentle as well as a lasting heat nothing is better than warm 

 stable-manure and leaves in about equal proportions, thrown 

 into a heap and turned over once or twice. At this season not 

 less than three feet of fermenting material should be put into 

 the beds, and it should be covered with a couple of barrow- 

 loads of rotted manure and one of loam to each sash. Four or 

 five days will suffice to warm through the mass, when the plants 

 may be set out at the rate of forty to fifty to a sash. The beds 

 should be ventilated freely every mild day and a small crevice 

 should be left at each sash at night to allow the escape of any 

 steam. A temperature of fifty degrees is high enough in the 

 morning, and a greater degree of heat will inevitably cause 

 the plants to damp off. Of course, the frames must be well 

 matted and shuttered on cold nights. Of several hundred 

 Lettuce-plants wintered here in cold-frames, from seed sown 

 in September, the white-seeded Tennis Ball and Hittinger's 

 Forcing have proved the most serviceable. In the Lettuce 

 beds a sowing of Scarlet Turnip and French Breakfast Radish, 

 which are quick-growing kinds, can be made. 



Cauliflower and Cabbage plants, in cold-frames, must have 

 abundant air at every available opportunity, and the sash 

 should not be left covered with snow too long, as the plants 

 will become blanched and spindling and will not be able to 

 endure any freezing. Sowings can now be made in the cold- 

 house of Jersey Wakefield Cabbage and of Snowball and 

 Kronk's Erfurt Cauliflower. Sowing of Celery for early use is 

 now seasonable, and I have found no better variety than the 

 Golden Self-Blanching for this purpose. Parsley, which is win- 

 tered indoors or in a cold-frame, will run to seed as the season 

 grows warmer, and a sowing may now be made in small pots 

 to be transferred to a cold-frame or the open ground later on. 

 Chappel's Matchless and Emerald are good kinds. 



About the middle of February a few Cucumbers may be 

 started for setting out in hot-beds a month later. The pots 

 containing the seeds should be set in sharp bottom-heat and 

 covered until they germinate. With the first rough leaf the 

 plants should be transferred to three-inch pots, replunged in 

 heat and shifted later into larger pots before the roots become 

 bound. White Spine, Telegraph, and Tender and True are all 

 good kinds for forcing, either in hot-beds or in a warm house. 

 Sowing of the Early Edmand's Beet may now be made in 

 boxe-i, and seedlings, if transplanted to a general hot-bed 

 when they are large enough to handle, ensures an early crop. 

 Plants pricked out in the open ground toward the end of April 

 will be ready for use a month ahead of those sown out-of- 

 doors. This is a good time, too, to make a sowing of Toma- 

 toes, and when the plants are large enough to set out the 

 weather will be sufficiently warm for them to fruit successfully 

 in a Carnation-house or other cool structure, either in pots or 

 in a bed. If properly trimmed they will interfere little with 

 other plants in the house and will fruit freely until the fruit 

 outdoors is ripe. Conference, a variety certificated by the 

 Royal Horticultural Society of England, Sutton's Perfection 



