THROUGH THE YEAR IN A GARDEN 187 



ten days thereafter and that apples, black- 

 berries, dewberries, pears, quinces and raspber- 

 ries need to be sprayed before budding and 

 cherries just before their buds open. Seedling 

 Hollyhocks should be sprayed with Bordeaux 

 mixture towards the end of the month. Elms 

 should also be sprayed in April in preparation 

 of the season's battle against the pests that in- 

 fest them. 



MAY 



May, birthday of gardens! I wonder if 

 there is a more loved month in the whole Cal- 

 endar? Surely not one that is more to the 

 poets' taste, when, as old-time Edmund Spen- 

 ser was wont to sing, 



"the boughes doe laughing blossoms beare" 



The practical will tell us that we should forget 

 poetry and take to planting, as though plant- 

 ing were not poetry, as though ancient Virgil 

 had not known how to make vegetable-grow- 

 ing as luscious to literature as pepper-pods are 

 to the perpetually prosaic! After all, what 

 are our gardens for? Just to furnish us with 



