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ODDS AND ENDS 



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"Capping a Spring" 



AN INTERESTING incident regarding the 

 flow of a spring was observed recently, which 

 rather upset the usually accepted ideas about such 

 matters. The theory of driving back the water 

 of a troublesome spring, thus causing it to find 

 another outlet, may seem rather peculiar, especially 

 in the methods employed. 



I am an engineer and was recently engaged in the 

 construction of a large dam across a deep, rocky 

 ravine, and as the reservoir would be a very large 

 one, great care was necessary with the foundations. 

 The dam was to be some seventy feet high, of solid 

 concrete, with a base of about fifty feet in width, 

 thence tapering rapidly to the top. While cleaning 

 off the rock for the first section of concrete, a large 

 spring suddenly gushed up out of a fissure in the rock, 

 about in the middle of the excavation, discharg- 

 ing more than sixty gallons of water a minute. As 

 this would have ruined the freshly placed concrete, 

 washing all the cement out of the mixture, it was 

 necessary to stop its flow in some way. Owing to 

 the amount of water discharged it was impossible 

 to grout up the fissure, though the flow of water was 

 localized to one particular place, the remainder of 

 the crack being closed. 



A length of two-inch iron pipe was fastened 

 vertically so that the lower end was at the spring. 

 This end was wedged in securely, cement and 

 broken stone being tamped around it, and then 

 covered with a large quantity of hurriedly placed 

 concrete. The experiment was a success, as the 

 water, unable to readily find an exit through the 

 closely packed material, took the line of least 

 resistance, rose in the pipe and was thence carried 

 off below the dam by other connecting pipes. 



As soon as the successive sections of concrete 

 approached the top of the pipe, a strong metal cap 

 was clamped over the end to hold back the water. 

 However, after a short time, the pipe was split by 

 the resultant pressure, and it was necessary after 

 considerable trouble to add another length of pipe 

 and carry the water still higher. This proceeding 

 was continued until the thirty foot level was reached, 

 some weeks later, when it was noticed that the 

 water flowed very sluggishly, though still dis- 

 charging a large quantity. The capping was once 

 more attempted, and this time was successful, the 

 end of the pipe being safely covered by that section 

 of concrete. 



The following day it was noticed that a large 

 spring had broken out of the rock some distance 

 below the dam, undoubtedly the same one which 

 had caused all the trouble. It had evidently been 

 forced back by the method adopted, and had then 

 either followed or forced its way through fissures 

 in the rock, until it had found a point of discharge. 



New Haven, Conn. Fred L. Coe. 



Where the Aster Root Louse Comes From 



I WISH to call attention to some discrepancies 

 in two letters published in your February issue 

 and an editor's note following one of them. These 

 three paragraphs concern the root louse of asters. 

 The statement in the first column is substantially 

 correct, except that the editor states that he_ knows 

 of no other host plants for the root lice beside the 

 asters. In regard to this and other points, I would 

 refer to Bulletin 85, part 6, of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, in which 

 it is stated that two species of plant lice attack 

 cultivated asters; that one of these is also found on 

 the roots of watermelon, corn, and pumpkin, and 

 to a less extent on cow peas and radishes. The 

 only cultivated plants attacked by the other are 

 cosmos and China asters. Both, however, may be 

 fov.nd on the roots of a large number of weeds and 

 wild flowers. The lice are transferred from one 

 food plant to another by ants. 



The Glencoe, 111., letter is almost amusing in 

 its total misconception of facts. Arsenate of lead 



could not possibly do any good in combating a 

 sucking insect in the soil. The idea that the plant 

 lice come from "germs" in manure is of course 

 absurd. On the contrary, the injury is less severe 

 in well fertilized soil. 



In the bulletin mentioned above, the methods of 

 combating these species of plant lice consist of crop 

 rotation, the maintenance of soil fertility and the 

 destruction of ant nests. "If asters are planted in 

 ground which has not grown asters or corn, the past 

 year, and which is not located near a field of corn 

 or an infested aster bed, they will not be troubled 

 with this pest provided the wild food plants are 

 removed from the vicinity of the bed." 



Madison, Wis. S. B. Fracker. 



A Criticism of Fruit Varieties 



ON PAGE 104 of The Garten Magazine, Mr. 

 A. E. Wilkinson gives a list of fruit which 

 "are generally successful over the widest region." 

 I want to criticize it. The Harvest, or Early Har- 

 vest apple need not be grown in the same orchard in 

 which Yellow Transparent is growing, as the latter 

 is a little earlier and is a better apple. 



The Baldwin apple is good in New York State 

 and similar latitudes, but it is not so good when 

 grown south of there. It can be grown success- 

 fully in the mountains of Pennsylvania on the 

 heavier soils, but in the lighter soils in the northern 

 part of the state it is not wise to grow it, and only 

 in exceptional places in the southern part of Pennsyl- 

 vania and similar latitudes will it succeed. 



I believe the chief reason is the climate. It is too 

 warm. Dr. J. K. Shaw of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College has an exhaustive treatise in 

 the 23d Annual Report of that Station on " Climatic 

 Adaptations of Apple Varieties." It shows that 

 the mean temperature from March to September 

 should be taken into consideration when selecting 

 varieties for a given locality. The mean tempera- 

 ture for that period in Pittsburgh is between 61 and 

 62 degrees. The Baldwin succeeds best where it 

 has an optimum temperature of about 56 degrees, 

 so that southern Pennsylvania is too warm for the 

 Baldwin, which causes it to become unhealthy and, 

 therefore, more subject to fungous troubles. Un- 

 less frequently sprayed the leaves drop early, the 

 fruit does not mature properly and hence does not 

 keep in storage. These defects may be overcome 

 to a considerable extent by spraying, but what is 

 the use of growing something that must all the time 



An improvised irrigation system using canvas hose; not so 

 efficient as the iron pipe systems, nor so enduring 



18 



be coddled? And, moreover, this variety is subject 

 to the Baldwin spot; the flesh and skin are filled 

 with brown, bitter spots, a physiological trouble, 

 for which as yet no method of control has been 

 found. 



The Jonathan mentioned in the same list is an 

 excellent apple, but I have seen it spotting so badly 

 in Southern Pennsylvania as to make it absolutely 

 worthless as a commercial fruit. And nobody 

 would care to serve it as a dessert fruit with its 

 brown spots. 



The King is worse than a moderate bearer. It 

 is a shy bearer and it is also a short-lived tree. I 

 have seen many specimens in Southern Pennsyl- 

 vania, twenty-five to thirty-five years old, deterior- 

 ating so fast that all the coddling possible could not 

 bring them back. It is not worth growing in 

 Pennsylvania — at least, not in the southern and 

 middle counties. 



The more I study the apple question, the more 

 I am convinced that a general recommendation of 

 varieties is wrong. One really cannot intelligently 

 tell a man what to plant unless he knows all the 

 conditions under which they are to grow. 



Mr. Wilkinson advised the planting of the Early 

 Crawford peach. There is no doubt about its 

 high quality. But one strongly dislikes to see a 

 barren tree growing in one's garden year after year. 

 The trouble with the Crawfords, early and late, 

 is that they have tender buds; they are easily 

 affected by changing temperatures. I know one 

 man who has a tree twelve years old and it has not 

 yet borne. Another had peaches on his Crawfords 

 (both Early and Late) last year for the first time; 

 the traes were seven years old. Carman and Cham- 

 pion, two tried and tested varieties, would fill the 

 same season; they would extend in both ways from 

 the Early Crawford season, and the grower would 

 get fruit nearly every year, except when some un- 

 usual incident, like the test winter of 1911-1912, 

 comes along or a late freeze when the trees are in 

 bloom or the fruit just set. 



If I was setting peaches for a home garden almost 

 anywhere in the eastern states I would plant Greens- 

 boro, Miss Lola, Carman, Arp Beauty, Champion, 

 Belle of Georgia, Elberta, Crosby, Old Mixon Free, 

 Fitzgerald, Lemon Free, Iron Mountain, Beer, 

 Smock, Salway, Fox, and Late October. Any home 

 garden having this selection can be sure of having a 

 succession of fresh fruit the entire summer, and a 

 few of the varieties — Arp Beauty, Miss Lola and 

 Lemon Free — are almost sure of some peaches each 

 year. 



The same article recommends Japanese Plums. 

 On page 46 of Professor Waugh's "Plums and 

 Plum Culture" is a reproduction of the late J. W. 

 Kerr's opinion of Japanese plums — a bonfire; he 

 burnt his up. If I bought a place and found 

 Japanese plums on it that is what would happen 

 to them. They are even worse about encumbering 

 the ground than Crawford peaches. There was 

 not a Japanese plum raised in the southwestern 

 part of Pennsylvania during 191 2, 1913, 1914. 



We ought to have nursery censors to weed out 

 these undesirable varieties in horticulture, and 

 make the nurserymen stop cataloguing them. Every 

 year the public reads the alluring nursery catalogues 

 which tell all the nice things about the fruits listed 

 and none of the drawbacks. 



Pennsylvania. Harold Clarke. 



A New Sprinkling Idea for Lawn Irrigation 



THE use of canvas or drill hose two or more 

 inches in diameter has been used for some time 

 by gardeners for irrigating vegetables by the flooding 

 method. With sufficient pressure, either from an 

 elevated tank or direct from the pump, this hose can 

 be closed at the end and holes punched at intervals 

 of four feet with a "spatter" containing numerous 

 shingle nails, causing the water to form a con- 

 tinuous even spray the entire length. 



