June, 1919 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



193 



Pentstemons I exile, the charming Anemone 

 pennsylvanica needs a place of its own or makes 

 a bed its own, and Stylophorum, Heliopsis, 

 Hesperis, Viola cucullata and wild Asters need 

 almost too frequent weeding out. — R. A. S. 



One of the earliest 

 of the spring flowers, 

 Corydalis bulbosa, 

 coming with the 

 Crocus and Snowdrop. 

 Flowers dull violet on 

 ruddy stems and gray 

 green leaves. Seeds 

 freely 







Corydalis Bulbosa. — This small tuberous 

 perennial has been one of the most satisfactory 

 of the early blooming things that I have hap- 

 pened upon. It forms small tufts of glaucous 

 foliage, which push up as soon as there is the least 

 encouragement for growing. This means that 

 the plants are in full bloom at the same time as 

 Crocus and Snowdrops. The flowers are of a 

 dull violet pink which harmonizes well with the 

 ruddy stems and gray green foliage. It must be 

 planted where it will not be disturbed later in the 

 summer, for it loses all foliage very early in the 

 season and is easily forgotten. In semi-wild 

 plantings on the edge of woods where its disap- 

 pearance would make little difference it is very 

 charming and I have seen it used in a rockery de- 

 signed for spring effects where it was most de- 

 lightful. It seeds freely and appears to spread 

 somewhat from the tubers. — B. Y. Morrison. 



Three Attractive Borders for the North Side 

 of House. — Every season several people ask us 

 the secret of our success in growing pink English 

 Daisies on the north side of the house. There 

 is a foot wide border of them around the base of 

 a Clematis covered stump, and they attract 

 considerable attention because they bloom so 

 early and so freely, though they get the sun only 

 in the early morning and the late afternoon. 

 Have just been out to investigate and find the 

 Daisy plants just beginning to show themselves 

 above ground, but over night the border will 

 be all abloom. The explanation of this wonder- 

 ful phenomenon is that we have a patch of Dais- 

 ies growing in a more favored spot that are al- 

 ready in blossom which will change places with 

 those around the stump. We lift the clumps 

 with a ball of earth clinging to the roots and 

 even the blooming plants don't seem to know 

 they have been moved. But one such trans- 

 planting a season has been found necessary. 

 We have them growing in several different sit- 

 uations in the back yard, but there is one spot 

 (sheltered on the north and west where they get 

 the sun until noon) where they thrive best of all, 

 and are always several weeks ahead of the rest. 



We have alternated the plants in this way for 

 several years and it works like magic. If it 

 were not for this scheme the plants around the 

 stump would die out in a couple of seasons — we 

 know because this had almost happened when 

 we saved them by the experiment just men- 

 tioned. They bloom continuously and freely 

 almost all summer and, though they don't 

 amount to much as a cut flower, they are beauti- 

 ful in the border. On the other side of the lot is 

 a row of Spiraea Van Houttei planted at the base 

 of the house, facing the north. In front of these 

 shrubs and just edging the lawn is a border of 

 wild flowers that we transplanted from the woods 

 several years ago. These are in bloom the 

 earliest of all without the ruse of transplanting 

 each year as in the case of the Daisies. Passers- 

 by sometimes cross the lawn to get a nearer view, 

 and we have many times been amused at the 

 look of astonishment at finding them only the com- 

 mon Hepatica or May-flowers as we commonly 

 call them. Their tints — white, two shades of 

 blue, and two of pink harmonize well. After 

 the blossoms are gone the leaves alone are pretty 

 the rest of the summer. A border plant for the 

 northern situation that is in its prime a little 

 later in the season is one of the variegated Day 

 Lilies (Funkia). This has a blossom about 

 Hepatica blue in color but its chief value lies 

 in its beautiful variegated leaves (striped green 

 and white, very much like those of Aspidistra), 

 which hold their beauty till frost. As a foliage 

 plant for the border it has no equal. — Alary 

 Rutner, Traverse City, Mich. 



Controlling the Oak Leaf Roller. — Nothing is 

 accomplished by spraying Oak trees for the oak 

 leaf roller after this pest gets busy in the spring. 

 This insect, which is known to entomologists as 

 archips argyrospila, has been creating much 

 alarm in parts of New England for the past two 

 or three years. It is not a new pest, however, 

 for it has been reported at different times in 

 several states, including Colorado, New Mexico, 

 Oregon, and New York. After a few years' visita- 

 tion it usually disappears, but in the meantime 

 it does a great amount of damage feeding upon 

 the leaves. Most pests of this kind are kept in 

 subjection by spraying with arsenate of lead, but 

 this roller cannot be reached in that way because 

 it spins a fine web over the leaves, this web being 

 so resistant to the spray that the larva is able 

 to keep on eating in perfect security. In the 

 Newtons and nearby towns last year, every leaf 

 on some of the trees was covered with this web. 

 The forest commissioner of Newton, William 

 W. Colton, has made a careful study of the oak 

 leaf roller, and reports that the eggs begin to 

 hatch about the middle of May, the larva then 

 feeding from 18 to 28 days, after which it changes 

 to the pupa state. In 10 days more the moth 

 appears, laying its eggs on the trees. The egg 

 masses are coated with a heavy varnish, which 

 gives perfect protection from the weather during 

 the winter. If, however, the trees are sprayed 

 with miscible oil while dormant, a large percent- 

 age of the eggs will be destroyed. Mr. Colton 

 recommends one gallon of oil to 15 gallons ot 

 water. Spraying with a nicotine preparation as 

 the leaves begin to unfold will kill many of the 

 larvae. Another spraying three weeks later will 

 end the careers of many more insects. The later 

 spraying with arsenate of lead, though, which is 

 commonly indulged in, has been found absolutely 

 ineffective, although, of course, the lead is needed 

 for gypsy moths in sections where that pest 

 abounds. The early nicotine spraying often 

 drives to the ground many of the larvae not killed, 

 and if a band of tanglefoot is applied to the 

 trunks of the trees, they will not be able to ascend 

 again. Care must be taken, though, to clean 

 the pests from the tanglefoot every day or two, 

 for otherwise they will spin webs over it and cross 

 in great numbers. — E. I. F arrington. 



Success with Dahlias — In the May issue Mr. 

 J. W. Chamberlin, New York, writes of poor 

 results with his Dahlias due to the bug. I have 

 had great success with my Dahlias and my secret 

 may interest others. When my Dahlias are 

 three inches above ground I spray them every 

 third day with an auto-spray having an elbow 

 connection to permit spraying from the bottom 

 up. Make a solution of arsenate of lead, and 

 begin spraying at regular intervals when the 

 plants get above ground. Other good growers 

 have given out this secret and it is well worth 

 trying. In this way the insects are poisoned on 

 their first appearance and get no chance to mul- 

 tiply. Our trouble was the white fly. — Mrs. 

 E. B. Goldstein, White Plains, N. Y. 



Two New Soy Beans. — Through the courtesy 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, I have recently 

 had opportunity to experiment with two newly 

 introduced varieties of soy bean. Hahto is the 

 name of a large green flat bean, which is fully 

 as big as a sieva or small lima when soaked with 

 water. It is recommended for use in the same 

 manner as green lima beans. It is planted as 

 soon as the soil and weather are settled and warm, 

 in rows thirty inches apart, and one foot apart 

 in the row. The plants are stout and erect, 

 producing large amounts of seed and forage. 

 The seeds are ready to be shelled out and cooked 

 in about 115 days from germination, and mature 

 fully in about 135 days. The dry beans con- 

 tain about 15 per cent, oil and 40 per cent, pro- 

 tein. This variety was brought from Japan. 

 I am trying it for the first time. The second 

 variety is aptly named Easy Cook. For it 

 cooks easily even after lying two or three years 

 in storage. I recently cooked some soaked 

 beans of this variety in 50 minutes on the top 

 of the stove, in hard water without soda. Since 

 the one complaint against soy beans for human 

 food has been that they require a pressure cooker 

 for adequate preparation, it is most important 

 to have this variety. We now have, therefore, 

 a vegetable food richer in fat and protein than 

 any other food whatsoever, delicious in taste and 

 texture, easier to cook than the navy bean, and 

 more productive and therefore cheaper than the 

 navy bean. This variety also requires about 

 135 days to mature, and will be cultivated at 

 present only in the southern half of our country. 

 It is so new that the Bureau has no seed for dis- 

 tribution. They are using their entire stock for 

 propagation. We wish them success with this, 

 which is without doubt the greatest food intro- 

 duction for many years. — Henry S. Conard, 

 Grinnell, Iozva. 



Getting Rid of Slugs.— I can help Mr. Corn- 

 stock; at least in my experience the first thing 

 that helped me at all was Sterlingworth Cutworm 

 food. This is a grayish white powdered stuff. 

 I sprinkle it around my garden at four in the 

 afternoon, and gather up hundreds of dead slugs 

 the next morning. But I really think that one 

 of the best ways to fight slugs is to hunt for, and 

 destroy them in October and November. At this 

 time they are ready to lay their eggs, and every 

 slug destroyed then means twenty or thirty less 

 in the spring. I have a big flower border, and 

 many trees on the place, and up to two yea?s 

 ago I always let some leaves lie on this border 

 for protection. Now I rake up every leaf and 

 gather in every slug, in five pound lard pails! 

 Sometimes I get half a pail full in a day, or rather 

 I did. Twice I have tried this, and there is a 

 great decrease in the number of slugs. Also 

 when sowing seeds of annuals, or perennials, 

 or setting young plants, lettuce, etc., I always 

 sprinkle the cutworm food around. Two years 

 ago I could not raise a single Delphinium and 

 even my big plants were killed. — Amelia Mel. 

 Meyer; New Hampshire. 



