ditions. 
Keeping Box Trees Properly 
I have two pyramid boxwood trees in cement 
boxes, which are constantly shedding their leaves. 
In what temperature should they be kept for best 
results, and how often should they be watered? 
Will they leaf out again in the spring?—J. H. W., 
. Mass. 
—TuE box trees may be suffering either from in- 
sufficient moisture in the air or too much water at 
the root. If the cement boxes do not have proper 
drainage, the trees cannot live in them. If the 
boxes are too large, so that the soil sours, the 
plants must necessarily suffer. It is not so much 
a question of temperature as of moisture con- 
ditions. Box trees will stand quite a good deal of 
frost, but they cannot be expected to thrive in a 
growing temperature at a period when they are 
supposed to go to rest. e room may be too 
warm or the air too dry, which is practically the 
same thing in the final results. The best plan would 
be to ask some local professional gardener. The 
plant would probably do better if it were taken out 
of the cement box, plunged into open ground, 
mulched heavily with stable manure or litter 
around the roots, and given protection from sun- 
shine during freezing weather. Of course it is 
understood that the stable manure must be well 
rotted. 
A “Thatch” Shingle Roof 
I recently noticed on a house what to me was 
a new type of roof, a sort of thatch effect. Where 
and how is such a roofing made, and how much 
would it cost in comparison to an ordinary shingle 
roof ’?—F. B. W., Iowa. 
—THE roof is called a woven shingle roof. It is 
made from ordinary shingles laid in very much 
narrower courses than ordinarily and in irregular 
instead of straight line. The curved edges are 
first built up with boards to the desired curve and 
shingled on top of this. It is a very expensive 
method of making a roof. It costs at least three 
times as much as an ordinary shingle roof and re- 
quires workmen who are skilled in this particular 
work. It would be extremely unlikely that you 
would find this practicable in your locality unless 
workmen there happen to know how to de it or 
are willing to try it out experimentally on a small 
scale first. 
Polishing Black Walnut Wood 
I am making a hall clock from an old black 
walnut bookcase, and I want to know how to finish 
the case, the wood having been scraped and sand- 
papered, so as to make it rich looking. I prefer 
a plain dull finish—S. H. J., New York. 
—To e1ve black walnut a fine polish so as to re- 
semble rich old wood, apply a coat of shellac var- 
nish, and then rub it with a piece of smooth pum- 
ice stone until dry. Another coat may be given 
and the rubbing repeated. After this, a coat of 
polish, made of linseed oil, beeswax and turpen- 
tine, may be well rubbed in with a dauber, made 
of a piece of sponge tightly wrapped in a piece of 
fine flannel several times folded and moistened 
with the polish. If the work is not fine enough it 
may be smoothed with the finest sandpaper and 
the rubbing repeated. In the course of time the 
walnut becomes very dark and rich in color, and 
in every way superior to that which has been 
varnished. 
The Use of Chicken Manure 
Would it be beneficial or injurious to the soil 
to have chicken manure spread on it during the 
winter? If the manure lays all winter would it 
be too hot for the ground in the spring ?—F. C. B., 
New York. 
—IF CHICKEN manure is spread on the ground 
during the winter, by the time that spring arrives 
you will find that you will get prac ically no re- 
sults from it. All the quickly available nitrogen- 
ous matter will be dissolved and washed away. 
Chicken manure furnishes elements in more con- 
centrated form than any other manure. Owing to 
= CARDEN MACAZINE | 
=| READERS SERVICE 
This department will help in dealing with general con- 
Tt cannot render personal professional service 
its concentration it should be mixed with some 
less active material to increase its bulk. The char- 
acter of the material to add depends on whether 
the .soil is light and sandy or a heavy loam or 
clay. For either light or heavy soils it may be 
mixed with wood ashes if it is used at once, using 
three parts of hen manure to one of ashes. For 
light sandy soils with little humus, mix three or 
four times as much rich leafmold or loam. For 
heavy soils use a sandy loam in place of the leaf- 
mold, or road dust or even coal ashes. Hither of 
these composts may be applied as top dressings or 
directly to the plant. 
For a Shaded Strip 
What. flowers will grow in the space under a 
window, about 3 by 6 feet, receiving no sun until 
about two o’clock in the afternoons in summer? 
A Wisteria, planted there now, is very spindly and 
unsatisfactory.—B. F. C., New Jersey. 
—WE Do not see why you should have any diffi- 
culty in growing plants in a plot that gets no sun 
until two o’clock, unless there is excessive drain- 
age around the house foundations and it is quite 
likely, also, that the soil is not of the most fertile 
character. Cultivate the soil and trench it two 
feet deep, adding a good dressing of stable manure 
at the same time, then water copiously during the 
growing season. You ought to be able to grow 
there Begonias, Geraniums, nearly all the hardy 
ferns, Phlox and most of the flowering shrubs if 
these directions are carried out. 
Shaping Evergreens 
What is the best time of the year to trim or 
shape Spruce, Cedars and evergreens in general ?— 
H. Tr C., Mass. 
—THE pruning of all evergreens should be done as 
they start into growth; in your section of the 
country during the month of May. 
Stuccoing a Frame House 
Is it possible to stucco an old house at this time 
of the year or should I wait until spring? Is it 
durable enough to pay to use it instead of paint, 
and what is the probable cost? Is there any choice 
in color ?—M. S. G., Conn. 
—Srucco cannot safely be applied in freezing 
weather. It would be running an unnecessary risk 
to proceed with the work at this time. It would 
depend entirely on what material the house walls 
are built of, as to how the stucco is applied. The 
choice of color would depend entirely on local con- 
ditions. A cream or buff is frequently used as 
being more attractive than the natural gray, or 
uncolored material. It is, of course, far more 
durable than paint, but is also decidedly more ex- 
pensive, so much so that the two are not usually 
associated as alternatives. The cost is so muc 
a matter of local factors that a contractor in your 
vicinity could give you much more satisfactory 
figures than we eoalen 
Using Old Material for a Garage 
I want to build, cheaply, a garage out of ma- 
terial used in an old barn, the main part of which 
was 10 by 24 feet. I want to make the garage 
12 by 24 feet; trench for foundation 18 inches 
deep, 1 foot wide, with 6 inches of field stone, 
6 inches broken stone, 6 inches smaller stone with 
cement. One foot above ground concrete 8 inches 
wide. There will be no floor above; will it be 
necessary to tie the rafters so as to keep them 
from spreading? Will the roof be a good pitch 
if I use the old rafters?—H. O. T., New Jersey. 
—WE THINK it would be a mistake to carry the 
foundation wall down only 18 inches. It is almost 
sure to be heaved by the frost and the building 
thrown out of line. Carry the foundations down 
3 feet below the surface; make a concrete wall 
above ground not less than 10 inches wide instead 
of 8. It takes very little more material, and an 
8-inch wall is very flimsy unless it is particularly 
well made. The old rafters would onpanently do 
very nicely, giving you a slightly lower pitch, 
FEBRUARY, 1916 
which would be all right. It would be a safe rule 
not to let the pu be less than a third—that is, 
1 foot rise to 3 foot span. It would be better to 
tie the end pairs of rafters and perhaps two or 
three pair in between in order to prevent spread- 
ing. ‘There is no need of tying them all. 
Three Earliest Currants, Grapes and Plums 
What are the three earliest fruiting currants, 
grapes, and plums?—B. D., New Jersey. 
—THE three earliest currants are Fay, Cherry, and 
Perfection, though there is really very little dif- 
ference in the ripening of currants. The three 
earliest grapes are Winchell, Moore Early and 
Worden. The three earliest plums are Red June, 
Burbank, and Abundance, all of which are Jap- 
anese plums; of the Domesticas the three earliest 
are Bradshaw, Reine Claude, and Diamond—at 
least, these three are the earliest that are worth 
growing.—U. P. H. 
The Pine Borer 
_ Our Scotch, Austrian, and Resinosa Pines are 
infested with a worm which during the summer 
bores into the live layers of the bark. The worm 
is almost inaccessible to a wire because his burrow 
is usually irregular and soon fills with hardened 
sap. The worm frequently completely girdles 
limbs of considerable size where they join the 
trunk and sometimes almost girdles the trunk. 
Will you kindly tell me what this worm is, what 
it’s lite’s cycle is and how we may best prevent the 
Uy, which it causes?—C. M. H., Mass. 
—TuIs insect is known as the Pine Sesian, Par- 
harmonia pau Kell., a rather common borer in the 
living bark of limbs and trunks of Pine, though 
rarely abundant enough to cause serious injury; 
it is rather closely related to the much better 
known peach borer, another clear-wing which has 
earned an unenviable reputation because of its 
depredations upon peach. This Pine pest is the 
young of a moderate-sized, blackish-gray, red- 
shaded moth with a wing spread of a little more 
than an inch. Yhe whitish caterpillar, for such it 
is, lives in and moves through the pitch very 
readily, in spite of the fact that this exudation is 
deadly to most insects; and, although it inhabits 
such a protective medium, it is in turn subject to 
attack by certain parasitic flies. The adult is 
abroad during June, through July and into 
August. The little that is known of this insect 
indicates that possibly three years may be re- 
quired to complete the life cycle; that is, the cater- 
pillars live under the bark and in their resin im- 
regnated retreats for nearly three years. The 
injury occurs more frequently just below a branch 
and sometimes near a wound made by an axe or 
where a limb has been wrenched off by the wind. 
This insect, as well as some of its associates, pre- 
sumably deposits its eggs near rough places on the 
bark. 
Without knowing the exact local conditions it 
is difficult to judge as to the practicability of any 
recommendations, because methods of value in 
connection with lawn or park trees would be im- 
practical in the average forest. About the only 
thing that could be done—and this is practical 
only with the more highly valued park trees—is 
to examine them each year, preferably in Septem- 
ber, for signs of injury by the young borers, and 
then cutting out and destroying them. If the in- 
sect is abundant it should not be ‘very difficult, 
after a little experience, to recognize these points 
of initial attack and check the trouble at its in- 
ception. Systematic treatment of this character 
in the spring, probably in mid-May, ought to re- 
sult in freeing an infested grove in a compara- 
tively short time. It is possible that infestation 
could be prevented to some extent by giving a 
light coating of pine tar to the rough areas men- 
tioned above, making the application about the 
middle of June, in order to prevent the deposition 
of eggs. This would probably mean the systematic 
treatment of a anTanes of trees and may be in- 
advisable under the circumstances.—E. P. FELT. 
