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Gfte 



GARDEN MACAZINE 

 READERS' SERVICE 



This department will help in dealing with general con- 

 ditions. It cannot render personal professional service 



January, 1916 



The Proper Time and Soil for Planting 



What is the best time and soil for planting apples, 

 pears, plums and walnuts? — E. M. G., New Jersey. 

 — Pears and apples, and possibly walnuts, may be 

 planted either in the spring or fall, there being supporters 

 of each method. Plums and other stone fruits are 

 better planted in the spring and, except where condi- 

 tions are known to be favorable, it might be wiser to 

 plant walnuts at the same time. The best soils for 

 these trees vary somewhat as to variety. . On the 

 other hand good results are frequently obtained on 

 soils that could hardly be called the best. As far as 

 apples go any well-drained, fairly strong soil on which 

 corn or potatoes would grow a good crop is satisfactory. 

 In general, pears prefer a heavier soil and plums also 

 do better on a clay type. For walnuts the soil should 

 be deep and fertile. The river bottoms of California 

 supply ideal conditions. 



Old Fashioned Flagstones 



Where can old-fashioned flag stones for a garden 

 walk be purchased? — W. F. B., Mass. 

 — Old flagstones are by no means plentiful and usually 

 require diligent search in any part of the country. 

 Several places in which they might be found are on farms 

 that have them in old stone walls; or in old wells that 

 are being rebuilt or abandoned; or in flagstone walks 

 that are being replaced with cement. Frequently it 

 is possible to take up an old flagstone walk by agreeing 

 to replace it with one of cement. The flagstones are 

 usually large, rectangular ones which can then be broken 

 up and used in smaller, irregular pieces. 



Filling up Cracks in Cement Walls 



How can I remove from dark slate considerable white 

 cement coating? I also find cracks in the stucco in my 

 cottage, and intend to coat the cement and fill the 

 cracks to make waterproof. What shall I use for the 

 purpose? — V. S., Penna. 



— Probably a solution of muriatic acid, i part acid to 

 10 or 12 parts water, will clean off the cement splashes 

 from the slate. It will probably be necessary to scrub 

 the spots with a block of wood after the acid solution 

 is on. Since the cement has probably been there long 

 enough to become thoroughly hardened, it may be 

 impossible to remove every trace of it even with this 

 acid solution. The cracks may be one of two kinds. 

 First, those due to faults of the structure itself, due to 

 movement of the wall or seasoning of the timbers bear- 

 ing the metal lath. Repairs of cracks of this kind 

 mean the addition of new metal lath which will bridge 

 the movement producing the old cracks or perhaps 

 even repairs to the construction itself. Second, if the 

 cracks are in the plastering itself only, repairs can be 

 made by cutting out the cracks to, say, two inches 

 wide, removing all loose plastering and patching with 

 new plaster. If waterproofing is necessary, apply one 

 of the cement paints which should be of the same color 

 as the stucco in order that the wearing effect of time 

 and weather will not disclose too much difference in 

 color when, in the course of years, the stucco begins to 

 show through the paint. 



Making a Tennis Court 



How is a good tennis court made? — Mrs. M. C. 

 E., Mich. 



— Dig down one foot a surface about ioo feet long by 

 50 feet wide. Fill in to a depth of six inches with trap 

 rock. Put in three inches of coarse gravel and pound 

 and water for several days. On top of this put a cover- 

 ing of sandy loam and clay mixed. This last layer is 

 three inches deep. Grade the court toward the centre, 

 so that the ends will be from six to nine inches higher 

 than the surface under the net. The court is 78 feet 

 long and 36 feet wide. Four and one-half feet in from 

 each of the long sides mark a line to make the alleys. 

 Inside the alley lines and eighteen feet from each end 

 of the court, mark the service line. The half court line 

 runs from centre to centre of the surface lines. Place 



the poles forty feet apart and two and one-half feet in 

 the ground. In marking the court use whitewash and 

 paint mixed, not tape. If the court is near the ocean 

 and seashore sand is used for the top dressing, mix in 

 some clay. If the court is built in a clay country, mix 

 in sand. A layer of ashes between the gravel and top 

 dressing will keep out the worms. For the lawn court, 

 remove the sod carefully, spade up the earth, rake, roll, 

 and sprinkle, then put back the sod. A grass court 

 should be rolled once every two or three days and 

 sprinkled well. Cement courts are used and are very 

 fast but are hard to play on. We would suggest that 

 you write to the several manufacturers of Portland 

 Cement for any information that they may have to 

 send out on the construction of cement tennis courts. 

 Possibly the book "Making a Tennis Court" by G. 

 E. Welch, price 55 cents postpaid, will prove of interest. 



Thistles in a Strawberry Bed 



Thistles with roots eight to ten inches long have 

 gotten established in a strawberry bed. How can they 

 be eradicated? — K. A. R., Conn. 



— If the thistles are few and scattered, it would pay to 

 cut them off just below the ground and apply to the 

 cut surface of each root crude carbolic or sulphuric 

 acid, the latter requiring, of course, very careful han- 

 dling. Both these materials will kill neighboring plants 

 and injure the soil if applied in any quantity, so that 

 if there are many thistles it will be better to plow up 

 the field and keep it in a mowed or cultivated crop for 

 a couple of years, putting your strawberries elsewhere. 



Why Wisteria Does Not Flower 



I am one of those unfortunates who have a seedling 

 wisteria that is now seven years old, covering a 

 big trellis, but it has never flowered. A popular lec- 

 turer recently told me to cut the tap root. I am 

 quite willing to do this, if it is practical. — J. G., Mass. 



Yes, undoubtedly cutting the tap root of a Wisteria 

 would make it flower, but there is an insurmountable 

 difficulty. Wisteria does not have a tap root! Seed- 

 ling wisterias are very uncertain in coming to flower. 

 They will flower eventually, but no one can estimate 

 the number of years required to reach maturity. The 

 vine is a very long-lived plant and takes a long time to 

 ripen. Flowering vines of small size are made by 

 grafting a piece of flowering wood from an old vine 

 onto a young seedling. This can be done if you have 

 greenhouse facilities; otherwise, your best plan is to 

 buy a flowering plant from a nursery. Root pruning 

 may help to force maturity and so induce flowering. 



Value of Pigeon Manure 



Is pigeon manure good for all flowers and shrubs? 

 Is it as good as manure, and should it be put on in the 

 autumn? — L. F., Mass. 



— Pigeon manure is a valuable fertilizer, being parti- 

 cularly rich in nitrogen; but it is one of the so-called 

 "hot" manures; that is, it tends to ferment rather 

 quickly and is liable to injure the roots of plants with 

 which it comes in contact soon after being applied. 

 Since the plant food it contains is relatively soluble, it 

 would be wiser not to apply the manure in the fall, but 

 to mix it with enough dry soil, peat or other absorbent 

 material to keep it in good shape over winter. In the 

 spring it should be spread and harrowed in to the soil 

 previous to the planting of any seeds or plants. 



Storing Carrots Over Winter 



I have about two acres of carrots; what is the best 

 method of storing them over winter? — E. F. K., Wis. 

 — Carrots should be kept in a slightly moist atmos- 

 phere where the temperature will not fall below freez- 

 ing at any time. In other words, they require the same 

 conditions as potatoes. Unless you have a root cellar 

 in your barn where such conditions exist, you can bury 

 the carrots in a trench or pit dug in a well-drained sandy 

 soil in which the carrots are thrown, then covered with 



straw, and finally with earth or litter in a layer suf- 

 ficiently deep to keep out the frost. It will, of course, 

 be a little more difficult to get at roots stored in this 

 manner than if they are kept in a cellar. 



Sprays for Fruits 



When, how, and with what sprays shall I spray the 

 following fruits: strawberries, grapes, gooseberries, 

 currants, raspberries, blackberries, peach, apple, pear, 

 plum?— H. Y. W., Penna. 



— The proper spraying of the various crops you men- 

 tion must depend upon the insects and diseases with 

 which they are liable to be infected. It is impossible 

 to give you a complete list of these enemies and their 

 treatments. In general, however, diseases are of either 

 fungous or bacterial origin. The latter are usually 

 incurable; the former, including most of the rusts, 

 blights, rots, and mildews, should be fought with bor- 

 deaux mixture (lime 4 pounds, copper sulphate 4 pounds 

 and water 50 gallons) or with commercial lime-sulphur 

 preparations diluted according to directions and the 

 season. Insects are of two kinds: the chewing type 

 which may be killed with any poisonous spray, such as 

 arsenate of lead, paris green; and the sucking insects, 

 which require a contact insecticide, such as kerosene 

 emulsion, whale oil soap, etc. You can obtain detailed 

 directions from your State Experiment Station at State 

 College, Pa., from your State Department of Agri- 

 culture at Flarrisburg, and from any good book or 

 government publication dealing with the particular 

 crop in which you are interested. 



Row Cropping the Orchard 



Is it feasible to try to raise potatoes or other crops 

 between rows of young trees; and for how many years, 

 provided each year one half or one third is covered with 

 a nitrogenous crop to be plowed under? — C. A. F., 

 Mass. 



— Our experience has been that, where the soil is in 

 good condition and is so maintained, crops can be 

 grown between the rows of trees for the first six years 

 with little or no injury to the trees and on the other 

 hand supplying very worth while returns. For this 

 purpose a number of crops are grown and a number of 

 opinions prevail as to the best. Occasionally currants 

 and raspberries give excellent results. In other cases 

 strawberries are highly profitable. Of the vegetables, 

 tomatoes, and sometimes potatoes and corn are grown, 

 although we advise the use of crops that are not such 

 heavy feeders as the latter. One very desirable 

 practice, in some cases, is the growing of three or four 

 rows of cow peas or soy beans for seed, and between 

 these rows after they are well up the broadcast seeding 

 of the same crop, the whole to be plowed under after 

 the harvesting of the seed crop to enrich the land. 



How to Prune Fruits 



What is the best method of pruning the following 

 fruits, and when should it be done: Gooseberries, 

 currants, raspberries, blackberries, peach, apple? — 

 W. Y., New York. 



— Pruning is done for two reasons: First, to change, 

 determine or improve the shape of the tree or plant; 

 and second, to stimulate it to the production of fruit. 

 In practically all cases the former is done while the 

 plant is dormant. The latter usually consists of head- 

 ing back the growing shoots or occasionally pruning the 

 roots during the growing season. These principles 

 apply mainly to the peach and apple. Blackberry and 

 raspberry bushes should have the canes that have 

 borne fruit cut out some time between the harvest 

 season and the following spring. Occasionally it is 

 well to head back the new shoots at the same time to 

 prevent their injuring themselves by lashing in the 

 wind and to induce the growth of side branches. _ Cur- 

 rants and gooseberries need rather less pruning — simply 

 the removal of old, weak canes and an occasional clear- 

 ing up. For detailed directions we suggest that you 

 purchase Bailey's "Pruning Book," price, $1.50 net. 



