QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED. 



53 



2723. Cabbage Root-fly. How can we best protect our 

 cabbages?— F. W. Y., Ohio. 



2724. Fruit-trees for Missouri. What varieties of the 

 several tree-fruits can be recmnmended ? — Northern AJissnurian. 



2725. Gueii Plum. Can it be recommended for western 

 New York?— G. F. T., Syracuse, N. V. 



2726. Manure for Hotbeds. Horse-manure not easily 

 procured here. Can you recommend a substitute?— A. S M., 

 Aarotisburgk. Pa. 



2727. Prevention of Plum-rot. What is best to use? 

 Would any of the mixtures recommended for grape diseases be 

 good?— W. B. F., Kirkwood, O. 



2728. Hedg-e Management. How should we treat our 

 hedges to make them perfect?— F. M. N., Toronto, Can. 



2729. Roses Failing to Bloom. Jacqueminot and other 

 hybrid roses yielded magnificent bloom the first season after plant- 

 ing. They were well treated, and have made a most rampant 

 growth, but not another blossom. What can be amiss? 



2730. Draining the Garden. Soil a stiff heavy red clay 

 filled with granite and limestone. Does it need tile-draining ? If 

 so, how should it be done ? 



2731. Silkworm Eggs. Where can they be procured? 

 and can they be raised in dry cold latitudes, with eight months of 

 winter?— A. F. T., Petofsky, Mich. 



2732- Winter-storage of Bulbs. I put my tulip Ibulbs and 

 some others in paper boxes or bags in a cold room, if I do not 

 wish to plant them until spring. Can the following ^bulbs— tube- 

 rose, calla, spider-lily, freesia, Spanish iris, Easter Lily, Persian 

 ranunculus, Hyacmthus botrioides, Chinese sacred lih — be kept 

 the same way ? or how?— M. I. S., Patchogue., N. Y. 



2733. Training Dewberries. My Lucretias have made 

 eight feet of growth. What is the best way of training them? 

 Will a straw mulch suit them ?— D. A. C, Chatham Center, O.IJ 



2734. Willows Poisoning Water. I have an ice-pond, 

 surrounded by willows. I am told they poison the water. Is this 

 true?— G. S. S., New York. 



2735. Nut-growing for Market. What kinds, if any, 

 would succeed and be profitable near Kansas City, Mo.?— T. A. P. 



2736- Pine Sawdust as Manure. Is it better than straw ? 

 Can it be recommendea as a muicn around trees?— W. A. M., 

 Utah. 



2737. Remedy for Apple-tree Bark-lice. What would 

 you recommend? Is there any way to prevent their apoearance?- 

 E. W. W , Me. 



2620. Increasing- Easter and Auratum Lilies.— That 

 depends on how much you wish to increase them, and 

 why, your knowledge of, and inclination to these things, 

 and convenience for them. They can be increased from 

 scales or from seeds, and such stock three years old will 

 make blooming plants. There is also a natural increase 

 of large and small bulbs every year. After the plants 

 have finished their growth and died down, the bulbs may 

 be dug up and the ripest ones, that is, the large ones that 

 most readily separate into scales, may be broken up, and 

 the scales sown broadcast in shallow flats in sandy soil, 

 and covered over an inch deep. Tlten put the fiats into a 

 partly-shaded coldframe to stay till the following spring, 

 when the scales will have calloused and small bulbs be- 

 gun to form. Leave them in these flats for a year, and 

 next year transplant the bulbs into a frame. Auratums 

 do not break up so well, but are easily raised from seed ; 

 the seeds, however, may take six, twelve or twenty-four 

 months to germinate. We sow the seed as soon as it is 

 gathered, in flats or in frames, and keep them cool over 



winter, no matter if they do freeze. Our cut-flower florists 

 insist that it does not pay them to raise their lily-bulbs 

 or keep over old ones, and just as soon as the pot-plants 

 have done blooming they dump the bulbs into the rot- 

 pile. Yes, the bulbs would be good enough for blooming 

 another year, but not so good, they claim, as fresh im- 

 ported bulbs, and they can not afford to run any risks or 

 grow second-quality stock. — Wm. F.\lconer. 



2627. Prickly Comfrey for Forage.— The plants 

 grow well, and one dairyman in New York state has 

 grown fifty tons per acre. This is an exception, and it 

 can safely be said that farmers can not afford to grow the 

 crop in place of corn, rye or clover for soiling purposes. 

 In several feeding-trials the writer found it very hard to 

 induce cows to eat it. When eaten, good results were ob- 

 tained. It is easily propagated by dividing its roots, and 

 for this reason it is difficult to eradicate. To destroy the 

 plants plow out and pick them up.— Wm. H. Caldwell. 



2614. Pears for Profit. — Of 100 trees to be divided 

 between Bartlett and Anjou, I would plant seventy-five 

 Bartlett and twenty-five Anjou. The latter are not quite 

 so well known as the former, but the trees are a little more 

 vigorous and hardy, and less liable to blight. But why 

 confine the list to two varieties ? Would it not be better 

 to have a succession ? An orchard of one or two varie- 

 ties may embarrass the owner to harvest, from the diffi- 

 culty of getting additional outside help in an emergency. 

 But the regular force on the place can more easily gather 

 the fruit if it ripens gradually through the season than 

 if all at once. 



Then again, the table is much better supplied by a suc- 

 cession of earliest to last. Here is the difficulty. There 

 are few good early pears for either table or market. The 

 Osband Summer is a pretty little early pear, of fair 

 quality, but the trees are so very subject to blight that I 

 would not plant it again. For a late variety do not under 

 any circumstances plant the Rutter. It came highly rec- 

 ommended to me for its good qualities, but it is without 

 exception one of the poorest pears I ever tasted. I would 

 not give the tree standing-room in the orchard. Neither 

 would I plant the Seckel. The trees are vigorous and 

 tolerably free from blight, but the fruit, although of fine 

 quality, is too small for market. My answer so far has 

 been to tell people what not to plant — information that 

 would have been very valuable to me a few years ago. — 

 T. E. Goodrich, ///. 



2726. Manure for Hotbeds.— The difliculty of obtain- 

 ing asufficient quantity of horse-manure of the right kind 

 for hotbed-making is one experienced by many garden- 

 ers, but it is not one that should discourage anybody. 

 Of course it is generally conceded that fresh horse-manure 

 from well-fed and hard-worked horses is unsurpassed for 

 hotbed-making by any other manure. While dry straw 

 should be sorted out, any coarse litter that is well wetted 

 with urine, is all right and may be left in. Dry leaves, 

 gathered in fall or early winter, and used for bedding, 

 also come handy to add to the bulk of the manure. Sheep- 

 manure can also be used to good advantage, and even 

 hog-manure, from well-fed animals and mixed with suf- 

 ficient litter, will answer. In short, any manure that is 

 rich and moist (not wet) can be used for this purpose. 

 Once we had a quantity of muck from rabbit-pens, mixed 

 with the animals' dung and urine, and this gave a good. 



