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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1910 



The Efficacy of Winter Sprays 



BY the intelligent use of winter sprays com- 

 bined with diligent summer treatment for 

 insects and fungous diseases which can be controlled 

 by spraying, we have a means of preventing many 

 troubles which, before the advent of winter sprays, 

 were not satisfactorily controlled. 



Winter spraying has had two objects: First, 

 the prevention of winter injury to trees from low 

 temperatures, which has never come into wide prac- 

 tice, but which was carefully studied by Professor 

 YVhitten, of the Missouri Agricultural College 

 Experiment Station, a number of years ago, when 

 he attempted to prevent the warming up of the 

 twigs of trees during the first warm weather of spring 

 by means of spraying them with whitewash. He 

 proved conclusively that the white cover, because it 

 absorbed less heat than the normal bark, prevented 

 the branches from absorbing heat, thus retarding 

 their germination. As a result their blooming 

 season was delayed so as to avoid periods of hard 

 weather occurring about the time the trees usually 

 start into growth. The delay caused by white- 

 washing was sufficient, in some instances, to save 

 the crop. Whether or not this physiological effect 

 is of any moment when the lime-sulphur spray is 

 used, I am unable to say. 



I am not familiar with any observations which 

 compare the physiological behavior of trees sprayed 

 and those not sprayed with lime-sulphur solution. 

 The lime-sulphur solution has, 

 to a certain extent, the power 

 of changing the color of the 

 branches, the same as does 

 the whitewash; and I should 

 expect that the physiological 

 effect noted as a result of 

 whitewash might, to a certain 

 extent, be found to follow the 

 use of lime-sulphur spray. 



Second, the object in spray- 

 ing trees during the winter or 

 dormant period is usually the 

 control of scale insects or of 

 some fungous disease which is 

 known to pass the winter on 

 the bark or branches of the 

 plant. Besides this,J however, 

 it has been found that the 

 winter spray, particularly of 

 lime sulphur, has proven to be 

 a very satisfactory means of 

 controlling many insects other 

 than scale insects. It is known 

 that the application of lime- 

 sulphur controls, to a very 

 large extent, many plant lice. 

 It is also a means of controlling 

 the pear tree psylla, and is 

 effective in destroying the 



to one yard, which they will keep clear and enrich 

 the soil. The following spring, after spading up 

 the ground in that yard thoroughly and deeply I 

 set the plants and turn the hens into the next run, 

 continuing the rotation each year. All I have to 

 do is to set the plants and pick the berries; set a 

 new bed every year and dig up the old one; and 

 plant every year where the hens were the year 

 before. 



Massachusetts. N. B. White. 



An Apple for Exporting 



THE Yellow Newton Pippin is an apple that is 

 more largely exported from this country 

 than any other variety. It originated on Long 

 Island and was afterward grown at the Pelham 

 Farm on the Hudson River. From there it was 

 exported to England, where it gained its reputation 

 as one of the finest apples for export purposes. 

 Scions of it were taken to Albermarle County, 

 Virginia, and it was there renamed the Albermarle 

 Pippin, the name it still retains to this day in 

 Virginia. It is also grown in the Watsonville sec- 

 tion of California and is shipped from there to 

 England. There are some parts of Washington, 

 Oregon and Idaho where it is now being grown. 

 It is not adapted to Maryland, West Virginia or 

 New Jersey and it only grows successfully in very 

 few localities where the conditions of soil and cli- 

 mate are exactly suited to it. 



In five years any one can have an orchard like this, and producing fruits worth having too. 



"Why not begin yours now ? 



pear blister mite. 



In California, when applied late in the season, 

 it has proved effective in controlling peach twig 

 borer. 



The most satisfactory treatment for anthracnose 

 of the grape is found in the application of the 

 standard iron sulphate-sulphuric acid spray during 

 the winter months. 



Washington, D. C. L. C. Corbett. 



Hens Help the Strawberries 



NEVER plant strawberries on sod land, as the 

 white grub will be sure to destroy the plants, 

 but after a hoed crop there is usually no trouble. 

 Strawberries need new land, or sod that has been 

 turned over and cultivated with some hoed crop, 

 preferably potatoes, for one year. The ground 

 should be plowed deep and enriched with a liberal 

 supply of fertilizer containing considerable potash. 

 With the majority of growers the matted row will 

 give the greatest profit, as it will produce more 

 quarts of berries to the acre. But if a grower 

 wishes to cater to the fancy trade, he will get more 

 profit by growing the plants in hills or in very 

 narrow rows. 



But to grow strawberries cheaply for home use, 

 the following method is the most satisfactory that 

 I have ever tried. I connect three chicken-runs 

 with my hen-house and run the hens in all three 

 yards the first year if they can succeed in keeping 

 down the grass and weeds; if not, I confine them 



In the sections of Oregon, Washington and 

 Idaho, where it is grown, bearing orchards are 

 worth from five hundred to fifteen hundred dol- 

 lars per acre. 



Washington, D. C. G. B. Brackett. 



Roselle Jelly 



SOME ONE recently lamented that it was 

 impossible, in this latitude, to utilize the 

 roselle plant for jelly, but that we must be content 

 with the beauty of its foliage. It is true that the 

 roselle does not bloom in this latitude, and the 

 seed pods therefore cannot be so utilized; but 

 having lived in California when the plant was first 

 introduced into that state, I remembered the state- 

 ment that in New Zealand, where the jelly is made 

 in large quantities for export, the whole plant — 

 stalk, stems, and all — was used. I tried it this 

 year in Massachusetts and found that a large plant 

 twenty inches high would produce about one- 

 third of a pint of jelly as delicious as that made from 

 the seed pods, and of a clear, transparent red, re- 

 sembling the cranberry in both color and flavor. 



The roselle is an annual. In California seed is 

 usually sown in February or March. The plants 

 are set four to six feet apart in rows six to ten feet 

 apart, and all weeds are jkept down. The plants 

 attain a height of from five to seven feet; the flow- 

 ers are large and yellow, each having a red eye. 

 They last but a single day; in about three weeks the 

 seed pods are fully developed and ready for picking. 



Massachusetts. L. A. W. 



A Tennessee Recipe for Apple 

 Butter 



TO begin with, it is absolutely essential that you 

 have apples. Folks down here rarely ever 

 try to make it out of any other fruit than the regu- 

 larly prescribed apple. In this respect the making 

 of apple butter differs from rye "licker"; to make 

 the cheering beverage all that is necessary is a bit 

 of pure alcohol and ten cents' worth of chemical 

 from the drugstore. Apple butter, though, is 

 peculiar — you must have apples. 



When you have your apples, the next thing to 

 do is to get them ready for boiling. Skin them. 

 To do this hold each one firmly by the head and 

 with a knife remove it's hide. Next dissect it. 

 It is not necessary to have every portion the same 

 size. Remove the seeds. Eat the core. 



I have found after a careful and exhaustive 

 investigation that the main thing necessary to start 

 out into the apple butter industry is to have seen 

 some one else make it. Aunt Sally has seen millions 

 of gallons, has made hundreds of them herself — 

 so has Miss Mary — but neither one knows how 

 many gallons of apples they ever made at one 

 time, or how many pounds of sugar they used. 

 Somebody possibly knows that a given quantity 

 of apples requires for sweetening purposes a given 

 quantity of sugar! 



Apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon for flavor- 

 ing: as many gallons of apples as your cooking 

 utensil will conveniently hold; 

 as much water as is required 

 to cook apples to make sauce ; 

 as much sugar added to please 

 the taste of the maker — say, 

 half a gallon of sugar added 

 to a gallon of apples, after the 

 apples have been cooked until 

 they are soft and mushy. 

 Granulated sugar, white sugar, 

 is the best. When you have 

 poured in your sugar and stir- 

 red the mixture thoroughly, 

 take a spoon or paddle or 

 shovel or something, and taste 

 it. If it is sweet enough, then 

 you have enough sugar; if it 

 is not sweet enough, then you 

 haven't got enough sugar. 

 Then you flavor the whole 

 with cinnamon. Cinnamon 

 bark, not extract. Begin with 

 a piece of bark about the size 

 of your thumb, in length it 

 may be four to six inches long; 

 pulverize it, stir into the apple 

 butter, then taste it again. 

 Be mighty cautious with the 

 cinnamon; too much will spoil 

 the butter. Don't forget to stir^ if you do you 

 will burn the "stuffin"' out of the whole mess. 

 Don't cook it too long, or you will have a glutin- 

 ous substance that will defy any knife or axe after 

 it has been in crocks for awhile. 



Folks down here also use cider in making apple 

 butter. The proportions relative to apples are 

 unknown. You just have to see somebody make 

 it. This is "sweet" cider; I reckon it is used 

 according to the dictates of conscience and judg- 

 ment of the one doing the stunt. 



The whole idea is perfectly simple — you boil 

 apples for a comparatively short time, and behold 

 you have marmalade. You boil them a little 

 longer and, b'gosh, you have apple butter! 



If you don't know how to cook apples you can't 

 make apple butter. You might stand by the 

 side of me and direct me in making bread — tell 

 me to take a pinch of salt, so much soda, and so 

 much of everything, but the result would be vastly 

 different. I have tried it. I tried to make some 

 bread one day when I was younger than I am to-day. 

 My mother gave the directions and I did the work. 

 The bread was a monument to my intelligent 

 industry. It was very much like a monument. It 

 was so firm and had so much strength of charac- 

 ter that I used it for a block to keep my dog id the 

 yard the rest of that winter. The chain finally 

 wore out and the dog lost it. 



Folks have told me how to make apple butter, 

 and I have told you. I cannot make it; can yoo? 

 Tennessee Clyde! 





