December, 1913 



THK (;arden and field. 



earthinp should be RiN'en, takinfj 

 care to draw the soil well up 

 around the stems and not to 

 leave a hollow for the reeeption of 

 moisture around them. 



— Disease. — 



The old sayinij, '; Prevention is 

 better than cure," is very applic- 

 able to Potato culture, and those 

 who ^^•ish to raise a crop of pood- 

 clean, sound tubers, free from 

 disease, should spray their crop 

 occasionally durinjij the growing 

 period with son.e good prepara- 

 tion of Bordeaux mixture. The re- 

 sult will n^ore than repay for the 

 trouble taken. Karthing up will 

 prex'ent spores of the potato dis- 

 ease being washed from the haulm 

 to the tuiaers in the event of the 

 former being attacked. 



— Ants. — 



Ants are usually more of a nui- 

 sance in a garden than a pest. 

 Some people blame them for cut- 

 ting the leaves of certain plants, 

 but it is doubtful. The worst 

 thing they do is to carry aphides 

 or perhaps scale from one part of 

 a plant to another, as thev feed 

 upon the sugary excrescences from 

 the excretory tubes of those ani- 

 mals. There are many things 

 that are disagreeable to ants, such 

 as carbolic acid, and a little of 

 this scattered round about the en- 

 trance to their nests would help, to 

 drive them away. In some cases 

 they are not easily driven away, 

 but if they are persistently harried 

 by one or other means they leave 

 the grounds. 



— Slugs and Snails. — 



One of the oldest remedies for 

 slugs is qpicklime, which is most 

 effective when scattered over the 

 slugs while they are out feeding at 

 night. A good guard against slugs 

 is to have the ground perfectly 

 clean, with nothing in it except 

 the plants intended to be grown. 

 Thev are verv fond of certain cul- 



tivated plants, but it is certain 

 that grass and other htrbage give 

 slugs both food and shelter. A 

 great remQ,dv, therefore, is to keep 

 the ground thoroughly elean whe- 

 ther plants arc being grown there 

 or not. For instance, the ground 

 should not be allowed to lie in a 

 weedy state during the autumn 

 nor winter. As soon as it becomesi 

 vacant it should be turned over 

 and left in the rough if not want- 

 ed at once. 



largely, it may bei, of sand, and 

 indeed any \egetable matter may 

 be cmpIo\cd. In the course of a 

 few years as this v^eget.ablc matter 

 decays the soil will become dark 

 in colouT, indicating a greater 

 fertility. Of course, it is possible 

 to overdo it with decaying veget- 

 able matter, but a dressing of lime 

 would counteract the acidity of 

 sourness that irjight be brought 

 by such heavy applications of 

 vegetable matter. 



Soils and Manures. 



— Fowl Manure. — 



Fowl manure is most valuable 

 when gathered daily or weekly 

 from the fowl house and laid in 

 some shed where it will get quite 

 dry and keep in that fashion until 

 used. It can then be distributed 

 over the ground for the crops in- 

 tended. If dry, it is chiefly a 

 nitrogenous manure. If allowed 

 to get wet it loses some of its 

 nitrogen and the remaining man- 

 urial value would largely depend 

 upon the phosphates iti • contained.l 

 In preparing ground for Onions, 

 Carrots, Parsnips, Beet, etc., the 

 top spit of soil might have a 

 dressing of fowl manure simply 

 hoed into the soil when preparing 

 the ground for sowing. You can, 

 however, use it for a great variety 

 of crops, and if dried it would be 

 very powerful, and we caution youi 

 not to use too much of it on any 

 any piece of ground nor allow it 

 to' get in heaps or lumps. It should 

 be evenly and equally distributed. 



— Coal Ashes and Heavy Soil. — 



Coal ashes are not a maniire, 

 they merely alter the mechanical 

 condition of the soil, making it 

 more porous for water to drain 

 away. Road scrapings are much 

 more valuable as well as the 

 scourings of ditches, consisting 



ALBERT O. PIKE, 



(Late GAMEAU BROTHERS. 



Ciairville INursery, Heotorville. 



All kinds of fruit trees for sale, Citrus trees, Lemons and Oranges a 



speciality. Send for illustrated Catalogue, 

 l elegraphic Address— Pike, Hector ville, Payneham. Telephone— Cen- 

 tral 2768. 



Hens and Potatoes 



A correspondent to the " Rural 

 New Yorker" contributes the fol- 

 lowing interesting experience of 

 raising two crops on the same 

 piece of ground at the same 

 time. Possiblv the American hen 

 is less enterprising or less curious, 

 than her Australian sister. He 

 writes : — 



The best crop I have found for 

 a henyard is the potato crop. I 

 once grew the finest crop of pota- 

 toes in my henyard that I ever 

 grew, and at the least expense. 

 All I did was to plant the potato 

 seed and dig the crop. The hens 

 did the weeding, harrowing, fertil- 

 izing and keeping the bugs off the 

 vines. The potatoes were the fin- 

 est I ever gpaw, not a scab or 

 blemish of any kind, as the ground 

 was free from a worm or larva of 

 any description. I had one; half- 

 acre and dug 100 bushels of pota- 

 toes. It took 200 hens to ca/re 

 for the half acre. I found by 

 axperience that a lesser number of 

 hens will not keep the weeds down 

 nor the bugs off, but a larger 

 number of hens will make the land 

 too rich. All the droppings of the 

 year go on to the crop. By this 

 plan there is no moving of fences 

 nor fouling of the land. How do 

 I prevent the fowls from scratch- 

 ing out the ne^ potatoes ? I place 

 on top of the ground all the pota- 

 toes the fowls can eat and I find 

 they will not dig out any of the 

 potatoes. They are like bipeds 

 without feathers in that they don't 

 dig when they have what they 

 want without exertion. I scatter 

 the grain well over the yard and 

 right over the hills of potatoes, 

 and the hens keep the whole gur. 

 face scratched over, and nnt a weed 

 appeairs. I give some r^reen food 

 at the evening feeding. I grew a 

 crop adioining this henyard and 

 .secured a vneld of (^nr-h If as manv 

 bushels to the acre. 



