68 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



pests, mealy bug and scale. Syringing with fir-tree oil 

 and other liquid remedies will kill some, but at points 

 not reached by the spray enough will always be left to 

 bring forth new breeds. Green-fly and thrips are readily 

 destroyed by applications of tobacco-dust, or by heaping 

 moistened tobacco-stems occasionally under the plants 

 for a night. The great point now is to keep down the 

 pests by all means, for there is no season when their 

 increase is more rapid than during the spring months. 



Double Cropping. — There is pleasure in seeing how 

 much we can make of a small vegetable plat, in the way 

 of double cropping. Radishes furnish us very excellent 

 material for keeping the ground well occupied. The 

 spaces between rows of beans, early cabbages and cauli- 

 flowers, peas, etc., are usually far too wide to be left 

 bare during all the earlierstages andgrowth of thecrops. 

 Plant a row of radishes between each two of the others. 

 They are out of the way when the room is needed. On 

 the same principle you can raise early peas or early 

 potatoes in the cucumber and squash patch, etc. If we 

 make our calculations to have a second crop occupy the 

 ground as soon as the first is cleared off, we may have the 

 garden spot in useful vegetation all the time, and a 

 source of the greatest pleasure and profit. This achieve- 

 ment is well worth a little thought, study and effort. 



Home-Made Subsoil Plow. — The implement 

 illustrated I have used for the past six years with satis- 

 factory results. The standard is a bar of iron two feet 

 long, two and a half inches wide and about half an inch 

 thick, hammered to an edge at the lower end, and then 

 drawn to a flattened point, so as to admit a half-inch 

 rivet to go through near the point, then up through a 



Home-Made Subsoiler, 



steel plate (mold-board) about half an inch thick, and 

 riveted down. The steel plate is made sharp in front' 

 and somewhat pointed, in shape and width about like a 

 man's two hands when placed upon the table with the 

 palms down and thumbs out of sight, showing a little of 

 each wrist. A mortice in the beam admits the standard, 

 and another an iron rod for brace. The beam is about 

 ^yi feet long with a wooden roller in front to gauge the 

 depth. One strong horse will draw this tool in the 

 furrow made by an ordinary plow, and stir up the soil 

 three or four inches below the line of the surface plow- 

 ing. I use it between the rows of strawberries, after 

 picking, with two horses, going as deep as they can draw 

 it, and afterwards I cultivate with a light cultivator. I 



also Use it with excellent success where rows of potatoes, 

 celery, raspberries or young trees are to be planted, 

 going back and forth a few times in the same furrow, — 

 W. J. Noble, Marshall Co., la. 



Carpet-Beds. — Those who admire the striking effects 

 produced by tasteful arrangements of hardy and other 

 flowers planted in beds, will find the following pleasing 

 to the eye if ordinary care be taken in the formation of 

 the bed and the planting of the stock. Shape of the 

 bed should be a six or eight-pointed star. Plant in the 

 center a good strong Gloire de Dijon rose ; around that 

 a row of plumbago (cobalt blue) ; next pink trailing 

 roses, pegged down and kept nipped back short ; then 

 heliotrope (lavender), then Alyssiim saxatile compactum 

 (yellow) ; next Companula carpatica (white), and in the 

 points of the stars put clumps of Myosotis dissitijiora 

 (blue forget-me-not), the outer edge to he. oi Echeveria 

 metallica glauca, or some similar plant. If the lines of 

 demarcation in these are not kept too stiff, but allowed 

 to blend slightly, the grower will be agreeably surprised 

 at the beauty of the grouping, and if the flowers are cut 

 the moment they begin to show seed, the bloom will be 

 considerably lengthened and the beauty enhanced. — G. 

 D. C. Ellis, Ky. 



Laying Down Grape-Vines. — The editor of The 

 Vineyardist is getting quite out of patience, and reason- 

 ably so, with much of the talk about laying down vines 

 at the approach of winter. He says that as most of the 

 vines in his section are now from two to four inches in 

 diameter, and as "stiff as a fence post," and that vine- 

 yards contain from lo to loo acres, he would like to know 

 the practical process by which the laying down of grape- 

 vines so much talked of is done. The lesson 

 is to plant the hardiest kinds that will with- 

 stand our winters unprotected. But it does 

 not follow that we should not cover young 

 vines for some years after planting. Many 

 vines and other growths that might suffer from 

 winter-killing during a season or two after set- 

 ting, may prove perfectly hardybeyond thatage. 



The Strawberry Leaf-Roller.— According 

 to L. O. Howard, United States Assistant 

 Entomologist, the best remedy for this as for 

 many other strawberry insects, consists in 

 burning over the field soon after the fruit is 

 gathered, which does not injure the plants, which in- 

 variably send up new strong leaves and make a dense 

 growth by fall. The repetition of this treatment for two 

 more years will reduce the insects to insignificant 

 numbers. The best plan is to mow the whole field over 

 as close to the ground as it can be done with a mower, 

 and leave the cut leaves and foliage to dry for a few days. 

 Then loosen and rake up the straw mulch, sometimes 

 spreading it over the rows, and fire the field in a gentle 

 breeze. If there is no mulch, scatter straw lightly over 

 the plants, 



The California Quarantine. — The course of the state 

 fruit-inspectors of California in seizing diseased fruit- 

 trees shipped by eastern nurserymen at large expense 



