nirESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED. 



-41 



and it is better to whitewash the glass, the growth being 

 better when there is partial shade. Only a little air is re- 

 quired. When rainy days come the sash may be taken 

 off, as showers are beneficial to the plants. There are 

 many nooks in greenhouses where these plants could be 

 set, to give the luxury of their use out of season. 



2834. Poultry-Manure and Potash. — It was a mis- 

 take to put all the house slops upon the poultry-manure. 

 Presumably the latter is now quite wet, and some of the 

 plant-foods may be leached out. It is better to keep the 

 droppings mixed with dry or simply moist absorbents, 

 and to put the kitchen slops, etc. , upon a compost-heap of 

 horse-manure, muck, turf, etc. Your compost has prob- 

 ably about ^ per cent, of potash, and a little more of 

 phosphoric acid, besides some nitrogen. To make a fer- 

 tilizer for fruit trees of it, I would add to each ton about 

 100 pounds of muriate of potash, or 250 pounds of 

 kainit, and 100 pounds of bone-meal ; and then apply at 

 least two tons gf the mixture per acre. 



2836. Growing Mushrooms in Open Air. — You can 

 try it, although success is not an assured thing. Procure 

 some fresh spawn in August. Lift up pieces of sod here 

 and there in an old pasture that has good loamy soil 

 A-ith a fair percentage of lime ; insert some of the spawn 

 and replace the sod. In October following you may pos- 

 sibly get some mushrooms. 



2838. Raising Sweet-Potatoes. — Make a good hot- 

 bed ; place a little soil or sand upon the heating manure, 

 and upon this the halved seed-potatoes, cut side down 

 and closely together. Then cover with about four inches 

 of sand. Water and air as needed. By June you will 

 have good plants, which are to be set in ridges or ele- 

 vated hills, with rows about four feet apart, plants two 

 feet. Put a shovelful of good compost under each plant. 

 A handful of high-grade vegetable fertilizer mixed in 

 the hill often gives excellent results. 



2839. Cultivation vs. Drouth. — Cultivation for coun- 

 teracting drouth, consists in frequent stirring of the sur- 

 face, xyi or 2 inches in depth. This surface soil, if kept 

 well pulverized, will retain the moisture below and save 

 it for the use of the roots. If the soil is baked or com- 

 pacted the moisture rises to the surface and evaporates 

 rapidly. Cultivation prevents this. 



2840. Best Early Pea. — The market- gardener wants 

 the earliest. We have used Alaska and found it satis- 

 factory, but almost any of the "first earlies " of our 

 seedsmen will do just as well. For a pea to come right 

 after this we would select McLean's Little Gem. Some 

 consider American Wonder unsurpassed as a market- 

 :garden pea. We have never had success with it. 



2846. Ashes and Hen-Manure. — There will be no 

 loss by mixing these if the mixture is applied and incor- 

 porated into the soil without delay. Otherwise loss of 

 ammonia might result. Fresh hemlock-ashes at five 

 cents a bushel are a cheap fertilizer, and you should buy 

 all you can get and apply them to your orchards and 

 small fruit patches freely. It will pay. Compost the 

 -large bones with fermenting horse-manure, or soften them 



by putting in alternate layers with unleached wood-ashes, 

 keeping them moist. The bones can also be utilized by 

 burning, and applying the ashes. 



2843. Sowing Flower Seeds.— Seeds of hardy flow- 

 ers, such as sweet alyssum, pansy, mignonette, larkspur, 

 pinks, sweet-pea, etc. , cannot be sown too soon after the 

 ground of the border is in proper order. 



2858. " Odorless Phosphate." — This is also known 

 as basic slag or Thomas slag, etc., a waste product of 

 the iron industry, and contains no plant-food except 

 phosphoric acid in an available, although not strictly 

 soluble form. On land deficient in phosphoric acid, but 

 containing enough potash and some nitrogen, we have 

 seen good results following the application of this " odor- 

 less " phosphate. But it is not a garden-fertilizer if ap- 

 plied alone. Substances containing potash and nitrogen 

 should be used with it. 



2847. Keeping Violets Fragrant. — Those who handle 

 and sell large quantities would be glad to know how to 

 keep them fragrant as long as the flowers last. A course 

 often resorted to is to wrap bunches of 50 florets or more 

 in odorless waxed paper and keep them in a cool, damp 

 place. Anything that stays the maturing of the blooms 

 and at the same time keeps away fresh air tends to 

 lengthen the odorous period. 



2S37. Lily-of-the-Valley from Seed. — It can be done 

 but is seldom practiced, as new crowns form so rapidly 

 in ordinary cultivation that there need never be a scarc- 

 ity of plants if division of the roots is resorted to. 



2789. Daphne odora. — Where a mistake is often 

 made in growing this delightfully fragrant plant, is by 

 treating it as a pot-plant, in which case it is almost sure 

 to become infested with red-spider and canker. But 

 when planted out in the border or greenhouse, to cover 

 a back wall, or to train over trellises, pillars, etc., it may 

 easily be had to succeed, producing an abundance of 

 pure white flowers of the richest fragrance throughout 

 the summer months. In setting out the plants in border 

 a chief aim should be to have a good soil and suitable 

 drainage. A soil composed of about equal parts of turfy 

 loam and peat with a liberal addition of sharp sand will 

 suit them well. In the absence of peat the proportion 

 of loam might be increased, and some decayed leaves, 

 or hops, etc., be substituted for the peat. All parts of 

 the border should be underlaid with tile drains at a few 

 feet apart. As such plants cannot be removed, the house 

 in which they are grown must admit air freely overhead 

 and at the sides. In the main the cultivation of this 

 species is identical with that of the camellia, where the 

 latter is bedded out. A temperature of 45° to 50° at 

 night is the most congenial. 



2826. Wire Netting as Glass-Protector. — Some ob- 

 jections would be the expense and the fact that it pro- 

 duces shade in a harmful measure. Hail-storms severe 

 enough to break glass are few and far between. Better 

 insure your glass. Write to John G. Eshler, secretary 

 of the Florists' Hail Association, Saddle River, N. J., 

 for particulars. 



