270 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1906 



Too bad that these Brussels sprouts could not be 

 screened like the cucumbers. The worms riddled 

 the large leaves but the " sprouts " were untouched 



Ten rows eighteen inches apart permitted 

 the planting of one row every ten days from 

 May ist to August ist, alternating the plant- 

 ings of green and wax beans. These gave all 

 the string beans that a family of three could 

 possibly want. We had them right along 

 from June 18th to October 14th. About 

 the first of August, when the first sowings of 



beans had finished their work, the plants 

 were taken up and five rows of beets for win- 

 ter use were put in. 



TOMATOES — LAST BUT NOT LEAST 



About May 20th we purchased eighteen 

 tomato plants from a gardener for 15 cents, 

 and set them out three feet apart along the 

 west and north fences of the garden. As the 

 plants grow very rank, it is necessary in a 

 small garden to give them some support. 

 For this we broke up an old packing case, 

 from which we cut strips three feet long. 

 Three of these were driven in the ground 

 around each plant, and with shorter strips 

 nailed across the top made a triangular frame 

 two feet high, which was quite sufficient for 

 our purpose. This was the only attention 

 the tomato plants received from us, yet the 

 crop was approximately six bushels. 



ONE REASON FOR OUR SUCCESS 



A word on the preparation of the soil 

 might be well. About April 10th, or ten days 

 after the ground had been turned over, I 

 purchased a load of well-rotted stable 



Tomatoes still a-plenty on October 29th— six bushels 

 from eighteen plants, without any attention beyond 

 staking to keep them off the ground. An easy crop I 



manure, which was raked over the entire 

 garden and then thoroughly mixed with the 

 soil. 



There were two rules which we framed 

 and followed closely from May till Sep- 

 tember, viz.: (1) Keep the ground 

 loose; (2) Keep all the ground busy all 

 the time. 



A Winter Campaign Against Scale Insects— By e. p. Felt 



THE SAN JOSE AND THREE OTHERS THAT ARE OFTEN CONFUSED WITH 

 IT. LOOK OUT FOR THE WORST INSECT PEST OF MODERN TIMES 



New York State 

 Entomologist 



TPHE Southern gardener especially should 

 -*- attend to spraying his fruit trees in 

 January, and even in the North the practice 

 will be profitable. The San Jose scale is 

 the worst of all the scales. In the Southern 

 States it is particularly destructive because of 

 its long breeding period, the young appearing 

 from May untill the following January. 



This scale chooses the valuable fruits for 

 its victims — peach, plum, cherry, pear and 

 apple, in the order named, and devours many 

 ornamentals and the useful currant beside. 

 It is circular, grey, and produces a reddish 

 color on the bark which it infests. Its pres- 

 ence may be easily detected by the yellow 

 juice which exudes when the blade of a knife 

 or even the thumb nail is drawn firmly along 

 the infested shoot. 



There are three other scales often confused 

 with the San Jose, but no one of them so 

 deadly nor so hard to deal with. They are: 



The West Indian Peach Scale, which ac- 

 cording to State Entomologist Smith of 

 Georgia ranks next to the San Jose in danger, 

 and has shown itself capable of destroying 



entire peach orchards in the South. The scale 

 is about one-twelfth of an inch in diameter, 

 of a greyish white color, with a reddish yel- 

 low nipple a little to one side of the centre. 

 The male scales are snow white and linear. 

 This need never be confused with the dark 

 grey or black scales of the San Jose. 



The Oyster Scale is of light brown, about 

 an eighth of an inch long, slender, and pear- 

 shaped, usually slightly curved. It winters 

 in the egg and sometimes forms a thick 

 dirty white incrustation like that of the West 

 Indian Peach scale, but not so yellow. 



The scurfy scale 

 on fruit trees. It is 

 with whale-oil soap 



is common on roses as well as 

 comparatively easy to control 



The West Indian peach scale often confounded 

 with the San Jose scale, which it resembles in color 

 and form, but is larger (about 1-12 inch in diameter) 



The Scurfy Scale, white or greyish-white, 

 is about one-tenth of an inch long expanding 

 regularly from a slender tip. 



The last two thrive upon young apple 

 trees, ash, willow, poplar and Japanese 

 quince. Both may be controlled by thorough 

 spraying with either a whale-oil soap solu- 

 tion, or a kerosene emulsion applied when the 

 crawling young are most abundant. 



But to fight the deadly San Jose and to a 

 certain extent the West Indian Peach Scale, 

 quite different tactics are necessary. A 

 "winter wash" must be applied. Prepara- 

 tions of crude petroleum have been found 

 useful applied in the winter, but we depend 

 almost entirely on a lime-sulphur wash put 

 together in the following way: 



Bring a few pails of water nearly to a boil 

 in a large iron kettle, add 20 pounds of good 

 stone lime following immediately with 15 

 pounds of flowers of sulphur. Stir at once 

 and keep boiling rapidly for at least thirty 

 minutes; then remove, strain through a wire 

 screen such as ordinary mosquito netting and 

 dilute with cold water to fifty gallons. 



An unboiled wash may be made in a barrel 

 or tub, slaking the requisite amount of lime 

 with warm water; add the sulphur and then 

 10 to 12 pounds of sal soda. Stir till the 

 slaking is practically completed, cover with 

 burlap and allow it to stand about 30 minutes 

 or more. Strain and dilute as for other washes. 



Another self-boiled wash is made by sub- 

 stituting from 4 to 6 pounds of caustic soda 

 for the sal soda mentioned above. 



The commonest scale on fruit and ornamental 

 trees is the oyster scale. Its shape distinguishes it 

 from the San Jose scale 



