Marcu, 1916 
ES Ee Gee Aw re Di Ngee Viena GAZ TaNek 83 
and begin to bloom the next season. 
Now you will have Lupine forever. 
There is a pure white form that you 
may be able to find and add for variety. 
A flame of brilliant orange will re- 
ward you every July if you plant the 
Butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa) in 
quantity. The deep woody root breaks 
when dug, but the plant soon recovers. 
Nurserymen sell it, but you can raise 
hundreds for yourself if you plant in a 
seedbed in the spring the seed that you 
gathered from a half-dozen the previous 
October. As the seedlings are tiny they 
should stay in the bed two years before 
being set in their final position. 
This is the showiest Milkweed, but 
the Sand Milkweed (A. amplexicaulis) 
is even more a sand lover. It is a slen- 
der leafy plant and the purplish flowers 
are rather showy in July when in large 
masses. 
In August the Flowering Spurge 
(Euphorbia corrolata), an erect plant 
standing at least two feet, becomes a 
mass of white false flowers. The slen- 
der roots once planted remain forever 
and they go straight down to parts un- 
known. Cypress Spurge (E. Cyparis- 
sias) is the milky moss-like weed on 
the site of old homesteads in the East. 
Under the name of Napoleon’s Plume it 
is often sold as a garden plant, but its 
chief virtue is the fact that it never 
dies, but spreads widely, no matter how 
poor the soil. The flat yellow-green 
flower clusters appear in August, and 
you can think them rather pretty when 
you reflect that nothing else will grow 
there as cheerfully as they. 
In autumn the sand field can glow 
with the purple of Blazing-star, particu- 
larly Liatris scariosa of the dry fields 
of northeastern United States, but L. 
squarrosa, of more southern range, and 
L. elegans, from the sand plains of Vir- 
ginia, will grow as well. Even the Kan- 
sas Gay-feather (L. pycnostachya) will 
grow in very poor soil, though the 
spikes will be shorter than those in the 
hardy border. 
No ferns will grow in such a place as 
this, but several grasses can be de- 
pended on, particularly the wiry sorts. 
Several of the Fescue Grasses are 
among these, and the blue-leaved tufted 
sort sold as Festuca glauca:is carried 
by the nurseryman as plants; it can be 
divided indefinitely when planting. An- 
other tufted grass, one that spreads 
widely by its roots, is the Sea Lyme 
Grass (Elymus arenarius) found in the 
sands of the Great Lakes. The largest 
of our sand grasses, the Beach Grass 
(Ammophila arenaria) often stands 
three feet high. As it thrives in the 
shifting beach sands all along the At- 
lantic seaboard, and is easily raised 
from seed or the rootstocks, it is par- 
ticularly valuable as a sand binder, 
holding the soil in place until shrubs 
and trees have become established. 
Making Over Old’or Poor Trees 
SPRING WORK FOR THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD THAT WILL SAVE YEARS OF TIME IN GETTING GOOD 
VARIETIES—MAKING USE OF WILD SEEDLINGS, AND CHANGING OVER OLD VARIETIES TO NEW ONES 
I. New Trees for Old 
SHO: New 
9» YORK 
De: be in a hurry to abandon the 
old trees on the new place, or the 
trees on the old place which may 
have been neglected for many 
years. Often you can get just as good 
results from these old trees, by using 
the proper methods, as by planting new 
ones. Most vegetables and flowers, 
when seriously checked by the attacks 
of insects or disease, will never fully 
recuperate. But a fruit tree is a very 
different matter. Its vital parts—root- 
system and trunk and bark—may all be 
in robust health in spite of the fact that 
neglect in pruning and spraying have 
caused it to be worthless for many years 
so far as the production of fruit is con- 
cerned. 
There are three general methods of 
converting old trees into new ones: Cut- 
ting back, grafting, and cutting down. 
The methods most generally used, and 
the one which is preferable under ordi- 
nary circumstances, where the varieties 
already growing are satisfactory, is 
that of “cutting back.” To avoid con- 
fusion let is understand a few defi- 
nitions: Light pruning: Cutting back 
surplus new growth, crooked, diseased, 
barked, and unsymmetrical branches. 
Heavy pruning: Removing, in addition 
to the above, some of the larger limbs 
of new growth, and in general opening 
up the tree. Cutting back: Removing 
more or less of the older growth with 
the object of inducing new growth, to 
form a new “head” or frame work. 
De-horning: Removing practically the 
whole top of the tree, leaving only the 
stumps or short stubs of the larger 
branches as a base for the new head. 
These various operations shade off into 
each other with no sharp lines of dis- 
tinction. 
For old trees which have been ne- 
glected for a number of years, cutting 
back more or less severely, according to 
A long neglected apple tree such as this is quite 
capable of being remade into vigorous growth, or may 
be ‘‘worked over” 
After the heavy pruning. Small new growth is left 
to become basis of a new head, but some old wood is 
retained to carry along the root system 
the individual specimen, will generally 
be required; although in some cases 
a heavy pruning of the smaller wood, 
leaving the original head or skeleton in- 
tact will sometimes be sufficient. Cut- 
ting back a tree is a good deal more of 
a job than pruning it, and requires more 
work and greater skill. In the first 
place, one should have a very definite 
idea of the new tree. 
Nine out of ten old, neglected trees 
have grown too tall as well as too bushy. 
The new tree can be planned with a 
spreading, open, and comparatively low 
head. Trees in the small orchard may 
be made as low headed as possible; but 
in the case of a few individual trees 
planted near the house, it is usually best 
to have at least “head room” under the 
lower branches, to avoid injury to trees. 
or fruits by children, light enough to. 
enable grass to grow to within a few 
feet of the trunk, room to work the 
lawn mower, and so forth. The re- 
shaping of the tree is not the only ob- 
ject in cutting back—clean, active new 
wood with normal capacity for fruit 
production is wanted. In making over 
a tree, therefore, after removing all the 
undesirable growth, a few young 
branches should be selected and saved. 
It will make little difference how small 
these are, provided they are healthy, 
straight and favorably situated. 
Very often, on the old large horizon- 
tal limb, a few feet out from the origi- 
nal crotch or head, young branches with 
an upright tendency of growth are to be 
found, which will make a basis for a 
large part of the new head. These 
branches, after the tree has been put 
into shape, develop with almost incredi- 
ble rapidity, since they receive the nour- 
ishment from a fully developed root 
system. The old limbs may be cut off 
just beyond one of these, or several up- 
