104 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



November, 1918 



greenhouse as early as February i by using hot 

 manure in the same manner as in the hotbed. 



One of our readers asks whether green food for 

 chickens can be grown in an unheated green- 

 house. Anything of this kind must have a grow- 

 ing temperature, the minimum forty degrees; 

 and it would be impossible to maintain such a 

 temperature in an unheated greenhouse. How- 

 ever, there is a solution to this problem in the 

 commonly used oats sprouter. This consists of 

 a series of perforated galvanized trays supported 

 by a framework with a drip-pan at the bottom 

 There is hardly any labor attached to the process 

 of raising green food for chickens with one of 

 these appliances. Simply cover the bottom of 

 the tray to the depth of one inch with oats for 

 sprouting and spray twice a day, or more if they 

 become dry. The drip-pan catches the water 

 that may possibly soak through the several 

 trays. No earth is needed. In a very few 

 days the oats will have sprouted to the height 

 of three or four inches, at which time they are 

 the most valuable as a green food. One square 

 inch is sufficient for a hen. It is advisable to fill 

 the trays at an interval of a day or two, thus 

 maintaining a continuous supply of fresh, green 

 food. Place the oats sprouter in front of a sunny 

 window in the kitchen. Cellar air has not enough 

 life for the successful operation of the oats 

 sprouter. They can be purchased at any large 

 poultry store. 



Some years ago an owner of a country estate 

 on Long Island spent considerable money in 

 trying to grow vegetables in an unheated green- 

 house. He had expert advice from engineers 

 who told him that by going deep enough with 

 the foundations and having sufficient openings 

 in the lower part, he could secure heat from the 

 earth which was always warm at a certain dis- 

 tance down. The experiment proved to be a 

 complete failure. 



Cotoneaster multiflora calocarpa. — After an- 

 other season's observation this plant, growing 

 in the Arnold Arboretum at Jamaica Plain, has 

 demonstrated its unusual worth as a garden plant, 

 especially for a late summer display. Its fruit, 

 which ripened in August, was produced in such 

 enormous numbers as to weigh the lower branches 

 to the ground, and to make the shrub appear 

 from a distance like a great red ball. The fruit 

 began to color before the end of July and was 

 held a long time. This Cotoneaster has blue- 

 green leaves arid white flowers in compact 

 clusters. The flowers stand well above the arch- 

 ing stems so that they make a good display. 

 It would be hard to find a more graceful shrub 



or one which is more delightful in the way it 

 carries its flowers. It proved itself perfectly 

 hardy last winter. Another Cotoneaster, C. 

 soongarica, is fully equal in most respects to 

 the plant just described. It, too, made a won- 

 derful show of fruit this year. It has proven its 

 value, both as a spring and a late summer 

 shrub. Both plants will doubtless come to be 

 familiar in gardens all over the northern United 

 States.— E. I. F. 



Tree-vaccination Worthless. — Claims that the 

 insertion in the bark of trees of capsules, con- 

 taining potassium cyanide and other substances 

 will kill scale on the trees or serve as a remedy 

 for any disease has led to a fine of #100 in the 

 Federal courts upon the makers of a "fertilizing 

 scale treatment," who pleaded guilty to the charge 

 of misbranding and adulteration in an action 

 brought under the Insecticide Act of 1910 at 

 the instance of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture in the Eastern District Court, 

 Pennsylvania. The department tested these 

 capsules for several years on fruit trees to deter- 

 mine whether their use had any deterrent effect 

 on scale and whether the material also actually 

 fertilized the trees as asserted by the makers; 

 and found that they did not kill scale and did 

 not fertilize the trees, but on the contrary, in- 

 jured the tree causing large cankers through 

 which rot fungi may enter and finally destroy 

 the tree. 



Storming the Iris Foe's Trenches. — Early in 

 1 91 7 our Iris germanica began to show yellow 

 stalks, to decay at the crowns of the bulbs. 

 Pulling away a yellowed stalk, we found clinging 

 to its butt a big, yellowish, dirty, but very 

 efficient appearing grub. Examination of an 

 infected stalk showed that a moth had incised 

 it, depositing between the green layers,, well 

 protected, her eggs, about \ inch in length. 

 The larvae from these, hatching, had bored 

 straight down the stalks, growing as they gnawed, 

 on the bulb crowns, there to chew and chew. 

 One bulb hollowed out, they went to the next. 

 And so on. Clearly poisons were of no avail, 

 as the pest was covered all its life. What 

 was to be done? We solved it by cutting 

 out each gnawed bulb, exactly as one cuts 

 out apple tree borers. By being ruthless in 

 pulling yellowed stalks and by using the knife 

 freely on gnawed bulbs, we routed the foe. 

 Clean tilth helped. Air-slaked lime made the 

 cuts heal and wood ashes and soot helped to 

 make it unpleasant for the routed pests that we 

 missed when they crawled out to seek new pas- 



Cotoneaiters are valuable for their brilliant show of fruit. C. multiflora calocarpa is shown here laden with white flowers. 



The fruit becomes evident about midsummer 



tures. We won. Now for something better 

 than cure — prevention: (1) Plant Iris only in 

 soil that has been cultivated at least two years. 

 None of ours on old soil were attacked. (2) In- 

 spect stalks each day and on the first sign of an 

 attack, cut, intelligently, but thoroughly. (3) 

 In fall see that each flower stem is off the bulb 

 crowns and burned before October 15th. These 

 hollow tubes are handy lurking places for these 

 pests. (4) Lime the base of the germanica Irises. 



(5) We found the Spanish, English, Persian, Siber- 

 ian, Japanese and native Iris (blue flag) immune. 



(6) The pest, forcing us to fight it, so made us 

 put our Iris clumps in a thorough condition of 

 defense. Fighting one pest, we fought all. 

 The few germanicas we lost have been offset 

 by the betterment in all the other kinds, due to 

 finer defensive culture. — Estelle M. Gilbert, 

 Binghamton, N. Y. 



Handling Gladiolus Bulbs. — I would like to 

 interest you in my way of caring for Gladiolus 

 bulbs. The first collecting of material is the 

 trying part. I have about 50 named varieties 

 and wish to keep each variety separate, as the 

 pleasure of knowing each so intimately as to 

 call each by its proper name — is one of the 

 pleasures of growing them. [ I make two plantings 

 15 to 20 days apart for a succession of flowers, 

 for this about one hundred 5-lb. sugar bags are 

 required, one hundred copper wired three-inch 

 labels, and one hundred painted garden labels, 

 about ten inches in length, two of each of the 

 above for each variety. On the bottom of each 

 bag I wire a label fast and write the name of 

 variety plainly. When I dig the bulbs, cut off 

 the stalks to one and one half inches, drop into 

 bag with the garden label, and tie the top of bag, 

 the increase (small bulblets) are secure. There 

 is no dust or dirt while they are drying. Later, 

 when cured, trim ofF the top of old decay- 

 ing bulb and replace in bag. In this way 

 they are easy to handle and store, and in the 

 spring easy to sort out. One bag of each 

 variety for the first planting, using the garden 

 label for the ground. One-third or one-half 

 dozen of each variety makes a good number to 

 start with. The bags, labels, and garden labels, 

 do service year after year, and who can gainsay 

 that the "glory of the garden" is worthy of all 

 the care we can give. — Mrs. G. W. Bain, Nassau, 

 N. Y. 



An Emergency Garden. — I want to tell about 

 a little garden I made this spring that has aided 

 me so much in feeding my family. My husband 

 raised potatoes, roasting ears, peas and beans 

 in the field but I wanted a kitchen garden all 

 my own. Just outside the yard at one side of 

 the house was a strip of ground that had once 

 been an alley, 25 x 120 ft., but for the last three 

 or four years it had been used for a calf pen. 

 Judging from the size of the weeds that grew 

 it was very rich. There were eight beds the 

 full length of it. In one of the beds I planted 

 a double row of onions early in March. The 

 same day I planted in another bed, lettuce, ra- 

 dishes, mustard, turnips and spinach. And in 

 still another bed I planted double rows of English 

 peas, some of them dwarf. The first of April I 

 planted in the fourth bed, beets, carrots, okra 

 and a few early bush beans. The middle of 

 April, tomatoes, squashes and more bush beans 

 were set out. Elsewhere I planted watermelons. 

 Before long I found that ground mice had eaten 

 all my melon seed so I planted them over, putting 

 in one tablespoon of sulphur in each hill and the 

 mice did not molest them any more. When I 

 worked my onions the last time I set cabbage 

 plants between the rows. I also planted a hill 

 of Crowder peas between each hill of watermelons. 

 I have enjoyed the fruits of my labor, having 

 had all kinds of vegetables and watermelons. 

 There is not a foot of my garden idle, all is 



