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ODDS AND ENDS 



FROM EVERYWHERE 



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The Shot Hole Borer 



I DO not agree with the information given on 

 page 144 of the November issue about scale on 

 peach trees. Judging from E. H. M.'s inquiry the 

 tree has a bad attack of San Jose scale, which has 

 weakened it to such an extent that the shot hole 

 borer has attacked it. The shot hole borer, as a 

 rule, does not attack healthy trees. It confines its 

 depredations to such as have been weakened from 

 one cause or anothejr. I have seen many trees 

 which, judging from the description, were in the 

 same condition as E. H. M.'s tree, and I believe 

 that, if he allows a large crop of fruit to mature 

 on the tree, he will have no tree next year. 



The only remedy for the shot hole borer is to cut 

 out such limbs or such trees as are badly infested, 

 and to give the tree a heavy application of nitro- 

 genous manure to stimulate it in the hope that it will 

 grow so fast as to smother the shot hole borer by 

 covering its hole, or the entrance to its channels. 



Penna. H. C. 



Another Method of Indexing 



I READ, in the December issue of The Garden 

 Magazine, Mrs. Springer's description of her 

 home-made planting cards. I, too, have my own 

 individual system of indexing the articles that 

 appear from time to time in the magazine. I get 

 a blank book about 35 x 6 in. in size, and index it 

 alphabetically, allowing three pages for such letters 

 as C, F, G, P, and S, as I have found that more 

 articles will come under these letters than the others. 

 The other letters have one page allowed for each. 

 As soon as I receive each month's number, I copy 

 into the book all the titles of subjects that will be 

 of interest to me in my gardening, and opposite 

 the number of the month and year. For instance, 

 under D, I find "Daffodils, planting time, 9-10" 

 (which means September, 1910); "Dahlias, hobby 

 in, 9-10;" "Dusty Miller as bedding plant, 10-10." 

 And should I wish to know what The Garden 

 Magazine has to say about celery or chrysanthe- 

 mums, I look at the items that have been entered 

 under C, and instantly know in just what volume 

 to find what I want. 

 Madison, Conn. L. A. Fox. 



For Killing the Rose Chafer 



ON PAGE 312 of the June issue of The Garden 

 Macazine, directions are given by Mr. Harold 

 Clarke for spraying to kill the rose chafer, in which 

 it is advised to add molasses or glucose to the ar- 

 senate of lead and water mixture. If the supposed 

 object of the molasses or glucose is to improve the 

 sticking qualities of the spray, the supposition is 

 erroneous, for the result is decidedly the reverse. 

 If the object is to furnish a bait to the chafer, to 

 make the mixture more readily eaten, doubtless 

 the advice is well-founded. 



. Various materials are advocated for addition to 

 spray mixtures to improve their sticking qualities, 

 but there is nothing which sticks more persistently 

 than a spray made of water and pure paste arsenate 

 of lead, and there is no other material than paste 

 arsenate of lead that can add more to the already 

 good adhesive powers of bordeaux mixture or of the 

 lime-sulphur spray. 



Missouri. Benjamin C. Auten. 



It is evident that Mr. Auten has not had to fight 

 rose chafers, because five pounds of arsenate of lead, 

 twelve and a half pounds of glucose in fifty gallons of 

 water is rather an expensive spray material, but it 

 does the business. The arsenate of lead will stick 

 to almost all kinds of foliage except the very smooth 

 ones, like cabbage, without the addition of any ma- 

 terial. For smooth foliage the resin oil soap is, 

 without doubt, the best material to add as a sticker. 



The sweetening is added simply to make the ar- 

 senate of lead more appetizing, and I know person- 



ally three orchardists who used that last year, on my 

 recommendation, and who got very satisfactory 

 results. The rose chafer will not eat the arsenate 

 of lead in sufficient quantities to kill him or drive 

 him away without the sweetening; and he is not 

 the only bug that has a sweet tooth, either. 

 Penna. Harold Cearkl. 



A Permanent Bulb Planting 



AVERY excellent permanent bulb planting 

 under pale yellow, golden yellow and cream 

 Azalea mollis, is Crocus sativus, to flower in Nov- 

 ember, in shades of lavender blue; Camassia escul- 

 enta, early May, clear gentian blue, twelve inches, 

 with slender, inconspicuous, linear leaves; English 

 wood hyacinth, Scilla nutans, light blue and nine 

 inches high (or nutans major, which is darker). 



The leaves of the camassias, wood hyacinths, and 

 the spring leaves of the autumn-flowering crocus, 

 are green upon the ground under the azaleas, but 

 scarcely distinguishable from bordering grass in 

 which azaleas are best shown. The camassia, a fine 

 true blue, is in its prime with the creamy and golden 

 azalea clusters above it. The wood hyacinth slips 

 into flower almost unnoticed in a lighter tone of blue 

 perfectly in keeping with the camassia, and pro- 

 longs the blue into June. All of these bulbs are 

 well content with a half day's sunshine. As the 



A clump of Colchicum autumnale, often called the 

 "autumn blooming crocus" 



shade of the azaleas grows denser the camassia will 

 eventually dwindle; but at the prices at which the 

 bulbs are quoted such a result may be regarded as a 

 trivial disaster after three years' bloom. In loamy 

 soil, the saffron crocus and the wood hyacinth 

 strengthen with time. Fresh manure, or any mulch 

 too attractive to cutworms in autumn, should, of 

 course, be withheld from an azalea bed so planted. 

 Pittston, Pennsylvania. E. S. Johnson. 



Root Pruning 



THE object of root pruning is to check over 

 luxuriance and to facilitate removal to a fresh 

 site. In the best nurseries the frequent trans- 

 planting leads to the production of fibrous roots and 

 makes the removal of the plants safe and without 

 risk. If, for instance, we have a large specimen tree 

 or shrub which has not been moved for several 

 years, its removal now without any preparation will 

 probably be attended with much risk ; but if a trench 

 is opened round it and the large roots shortened, the 

 trench filled up and the soil rammed in again and 

 left for another year, a new set of roots will have 

 been created, and the specimen may be moved to a 

 fresh site without risk. This only refers to orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs. But in the orchard and 

 fruit garden, root pruning has a different object. 

 It is done for the purpose to bring ever-luxuriant 



200 



trees into bearing; and in some cases only one half 

 round the trees may be done and the other half left 

 to the following season. Open a trench three feet 

 from the stem and work under the base so as to cut 

 the tap roots if possible. 



Root pruning can be avoided in some cases if the 

 knife is not used so much upon the branches of the 

 trees. Of course, if we plant young or badly pruned 

 fruit trees it is necessary to prune to a certain ex- 

 tent, till the proper form has been created. After- 

 ward less pruning will be needed. The more the 

 branches are cut and hacked about, the stronger the 

 growth and the greater the impetus given to the 

 roots, which push deeper into the damp ground and 

 disorganizes the habits of the tree. 



Calgary, Canada. W. R. Gilbert. 



Autumn" Crocuses" 



OH, LOOK at the crocus blossoms at this time 

 of the year" is the remark often made by the 

 uninitiated as they pass through my garden in 

 early autumn, and see clumps of Colchicum au- 

 tumnale that have come into sudden bloom at the 

 roots of trees and shrubs and in out-of-the-way 

 places. A native of Asia Minor, it seems to have 

 adapted itself to our climate, as well as to the wild 

 places of Colchis, from which its name is derived. 



Though apparently resembling the crocus, one 

 difference is that the crocus has three stamens, and 

 the colchicum six, the latter also producing many 

 flowers from the same bulb. The growth of leaves 

 and the perfecting of seed take place in spring, then 

 the flowers come up in autumn without leaves, and 

 last a long while if planted in a cool, moist place. 

 The bulbs must not be injured or disturbed or they 

 will fail to perfect their flowers. Planted during 

 the summer they will give bloom the first season, 

 and may be left undisturbed for years. 



Quebec, Canada. Annie L. Jack. 



Apples in Sandy Soil 



ON PAGE 132 of the November, 1914, number 

 of The Garden Magazine, George T. Powell 

 has a story on " Sandy Soil Possibilities" in which he 

 suggests that winter apple varieties "grown on 

 sandy soil have poor keeping quality and are defici- 

 ent in flavor." I know one farm in Massachusetts 

 which had a small orchard on it, and the soil in 

 which these trees were growing was sandy with a 

 gravel subsoil. The varieties which I distinctly 

 remember growing in this orchard were Red Astra- 

 chan, Porter, Baldwin, and Roxbury Russet. The 

 two winter varieties kept very well indeed, until 

 late in the spring. And it is my recollection that 

 the quality was good, very good. 

 Penna. P. T. B. 



The New Steubenrauch Peaches 



FROM Texas have come several new varieties 

 of the peach, some of which have already proved 

 to be suited to other sections of the country, and 

 all of which, on the authority of Prof. C. P. Close of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, are worth 

 trying. They are the product of Mr. J. W. Steu- 

 benrauch of Mexia, under whose supervision the 

 Carman was accidentally produced some twenty 

 years ago. His purpose was to cross pollinate some 

 of our best varieties and multiply their number, 

 and so to secure a line of choice varieties ripening 

 throughout the season. 



Mr. Steubenrauch chose as the parents of his new 

 varieties the Elberta and the Mamie Ross, the latter 

 a pure seedling of the old Chinese cling. This gives 

 the new stock about 75 per cent, of North China 

 blood. But both these varieties mature rather 

 early, and to secure the later ones, Mr. Steubenrauch 

 chose Bell's October for further crossing. 



All of the new varieties produce yellow fruit with 

 a considerable blush. They include the Eva, Tena, 

 Joe (a third larger than Elberta), Toughina, Millard, 



