Pebrtary, 1919 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



15 



_. „PHNI COLUMM^I 



Readers Interchanges °f Experiences Jf 



Team Work that Tells. — Several inquiries 

 about the work of the St. Thomas Horticultural 

 Society have come as a result of your editorial 

 of last November and we expect some profit from 

 the exchange of ideas from organizations in Texas 

 and Iowa. We are putting on a "drive" for 

 3,000 members this spring. I am sending a 

 snapshot entitled "conservation." Our society 

 solicits donations of stable manure and these 

 are conveyed to a pile on the outskirts of 

 the city where they are allowed to rot, being 

 frequently turned to hasten decomposition. 

 At our request the city council drew two 

 hundred loads of leaves last fall. Manure and 

 leaves are mixed and when thoroughly rotted 

 is applied to the society's beds or sold in small 

 lots to our members. The idea may not be new 

 to societies but if not the practise is rare. — F. E. 

 Bennett, St. Thomas, Ont., Horticultural Society. 



Organization work to the benefit of the home gardener at St. 

 Thomas. Ontario. Even the city government is brought into line 



Down with the Slugs. — There are two pests 

 that I have fought for several years, and begin 

 to feel that I am on the wrong side of the battle. 

 However I'm not ready to cry for peace! It's 

 the Angle Worm and the Snail that are driving 

 me wild — especially the snail — they have de- 

 stroyed my high bush peas for the past three 

 years; then they take the Bush Limas; and lastly 

 they have worked havoc with my celery and 

 celery cabbage. I find them imbedded deep in 

 under several layers of the outer leaves, totally 

 destroying much that would be edible otherwise. 

 I have laid traps for them — shingle, or anything 

 that will furnish a little shade and dampness, 

 during the heat of the day. Then they work 

 nights, during midsummer I found them im- 

 bedded deeply in the rhubarb crowns; they 

 seemed to do no harm there, but were resting 

 for the night's work. Possibly I have not the 

 right name for them, locally they are called 

 snail or slugs, they look like a chunk of putty, 

 inactive — but wait till dark! Near the wood 

 pile, I placed four or five settings of celery cab- 

 bage but had to give up the game, beaten. If 

 there is any good advice on this question, it 

 will certainly be appreciated. My garden 

 grounds are rather low and are surrounded on 

 two sides by sod. I have air slacked lime and 

 sulphur in barrels, would either of them do the 

 work, or would their combination be better, 

 and in what quantities on a 100- foot square plot? 

 Chas. B. Comstock, III. 



— The Department of Agriculture has devoted 

 one of its recent Farmers' bulletins— Number 

 959 — to garden slugs, especially the spotted 

 variety which is a frequent cause of more or 

 less extensive' damage in gardens, greenhouses, 

 and mushroom cellars. As control measures, 



the author of the bulletin suggests (1) the use of 

 baits — pieces of boiled or baked potato for in- 

 stance — sprinkled with white arsenic; (2) the 

 frequent cleaning up of premises where the slugs 

 are numerous (especially the removal of all bits 

 of wood, dead leaves, and other refuse under 

 which they could hide in the daytime); and (3) 

 the use of dusty materials such as slaked lime, 

 finely powdered salt, and road dust as barriers 

 around mushroom beds, benches, etc. Soot, 

 which gardeners in England and on the continent 

 have long used against these pests, would un- 

 doubtedly prove equally valuable over here, 

 whenever and wherever it can be obtained in 

 sufficient quantities. — Ed.] 



Shirley Poppies. — What Mrs. Brownson has 

 to say about her Shirley Poppies leads me to 

 send a note about mine. For several years 

 past I have not sown seed in the spring. I de- 

 pend on their sowing themselves. They come 

 up all over the garden and go through the winter 

 without protection. At one place in the centre 

 where I have tried various vegetables without 

 success they were growing this fall, a mass of 

 tender green. There is only a thin covering of 

 earth over the rocks, with little pockets in be- 

 tween, but Shirley Poppies and Portulaca thrive 

 there. One would not expect anything with 

 such delicate foliage to survive the winter. This 

 is Maryland to be sure, but we are five hundred 

 feet above sea level and every now and then the 

 mercury falls several degrees below zero. Last 

 winter was exceptionally severe, here as else- 

 where; yet where the snow disappeared the young 

 plants were there ready to begin flowering. 

 All that is needed is to thin them to stand eight 

 or ten inches apart. I have found that they 

 are more stocky and sturdy when they grow in 

 this way than when sown in the spring. And, 

 besides, they get their blooming done before the 

 very hot weather comes. When I see a fine plant 

 that I would like in some other place I take it 

 up with a great ball of earth so that the root is 

 not exposed, replant it, give it plenty of water 

 and perhaps protect it from the sun for a short 

 time. They seem to grow larger and the flowers 

 last longer if planted where they are shaded from 

 the sun during the hottest part of the day. — 

 Sarah E. Gibson, Hagerstown, Maryland. 



That Rose-bug Again. — Mr. Swift in a recent 

 number wants to find out how to get rid of the 

 rose-bug. I have been fortunate in that I 

 have been bothered with them but very little 

 and last year none at all. Of course, like every- 

 body, I always pick them ofF but that is a hard 

 proposition if the quantity is large. I attribute 

 my freedom from the pests to the fact that I 

 make a practice of applying wood-ashes all around 

 my bushes several times during the year. The 

 caustic liquid which are formed by the action of 

 water, I understand destroys the larvae. The 

 same effect is brought about by the sprinkling 

 of coal-ashes. — L. A. Malkiel, N. Y. 



Real Onions! — There are two varieties of 

 the large Spanish type, namely, American 

 Prizetaker and Denia listed with the leading 

 Seedsmen. Eight of these onions set side by 

 side measure just about one yard in length. I 

 sowed the seed March first in flats, using a light 

 soil well screened. During the month of April 

 the tops were clipped with a pair of sharp shears. 

 (This helps to establish a good root system); 

 they are then transplanted to thumb pots placing 

 one seedling in each pot and placed in hotbed. 

 About the last week in April these are set out 

 to the permanent place in garden about 4§ 

 inches spart. They will do best on a soil of 

 sandy loam type that has been heavily manured 

 and spaded or plowed the previous fall. 



It is essential that you use at least a 4-8 fer- 

 tilizer at the rate of i,coo pounds to acre. If 

 nitrogen or potash cannot be obtained have at 



least three pounds to a hundred square feet of 

 well pulverized acid phosphate, this element 

 helps to mature the bulbs. 



Fit the soil well with hand rake or harrow, 

 mark out rows about fifteen inches apart and 

 ridge very slightly, set the plants about five 

 inches apart in the row. Give frequent culti- 

 vation, as level as possible; never allow them to 

 become dry as the slightest check will retard 

 their growth. Water with hose during drought. 

 When the onions commence to bottom, adjust 

 your hand cultivator to remove the soil, being 

 careful not to injure or bruise the bulbs. I 

 again took first prize at the New York State 



Real onions! Eight of them measure a yard. You can do as 

 well! 



Fair with five handsome Prizetaker onions. 

 Let's grow more Onions, and grow them well. — 

 M. Speegel, Livingston Co., N. Y. 



If Amorpha canescens bore a Chinese or a 

 Japanese label, and had been introduced with 

 the proper amount of "eclat," it probably would 

 be sought out by hundreds of gardeners. Being, 

 however, a native American plant, it is commonly 

 neglected. In the West where this plant has 

 its home, it is called the Lead Plant. It belongs 

 to the Pea family and in the Mississippi valley, 

 where it is found on low hills and prairies from 

 Minnesota south to Texas, it grows three or four 

 feet tall. One of the very few specimens in ' 

 the Eastern States is growing in the shrub garden 

 of the Arnold Arboretum, where it thrives as 

 well as on its native heath. It is really a re- 

 markably handsome plant, and is rendered con- 

 spicuous by the color of its foliage, which is 

 indicated rather faintly by its name. It has 

 an additional merit in the fact that it does not 

 flower until the middle of July. The flowers 

 themselves are violet colored, and borne in great 

 numbers on clustered terminal spikes. — E. I. F. 



A Plant for Sun and Sand. — Wild Bergamot, 

 (Monarda fistulosa), is one of those natives that 

 seem to lose their weedy appearance when met 

 with growing in bold masses. When thus used, 

 however, it becomes an excellent plant for a 



Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) redeeming a dry sandy 

 bank alongside a railroad track 



