Radishes Free from Worms. — An English gardener 

 who has had great success in raising radishes makes his 

 radish-beds with nearly or quite one-half soft-coal ashes 

 and soot. Under this plan his beds are not infested with 

 worms. — Michiga n Fa >-mcr 



Grafting Persimmons. — The Japan persimmon is 

 usually grafted on the common persimmon without diffi- 

 culty. Nurserymen usually graft them precisely as they 

 graft apples in winter time, only employing collar-graft- 

 ing instead of cutting up pieces of the roots. — Mcehans^ 

 Monthly. 



Acorns for Profit. — As statistics are the order of the 

 day, says the California Fruit-Gi-oiucr, we would like 

 to know what the acorn crop of California is valued at. 

 Vast droves of porkers are fed upon the crop each year, 

 and the acorn certainly has a very considerable moneyed 

 value as a food product for swine. 



"Blue- Blooded" Gladiolus. — William Ferguson, of 

 Massachusetts, writes that he is making gratifying prog- 

 ress toward the production of a blue gladiolus, and adds : 

 "In all my seedlings which contain blue blood the 

 corms are invariably white in color. I have wondered 

 if other growers have the same results." — American 

 Florist. 



A Mixture for Insects. — In July, when I was treating 

 my vines against the mildew, the idea occurred to me of 

 employing the same insecticide for destroying the insect 

 pests which affected my roses. Consequently, I syr- 

 inged the trees with a liquid composed of the following 

 ingredients, with the result that a few hours later all the 

 insects were in a dead or dying condition, and had fallen 

 off the leaves : Ammonia, i kilogram ; sulphate of 

 copper, 2 kilograms; water, 200 liters. — Journal des 

 Roses. 



Antiquity of the Apple. — Even the 2,000 kinds of 

 apples now recognized make a trifling list compared to 

 the apples of the past. No one knows where the apple 

 was originally indigenous. It is common with the gar- 

 den authors to write that "by the skill of the pomolo- 

 gist the delicious apple has developed from the wild 

 crab." It is just as likely, from American experience, 

 that the wild crab of the Old World is the degenerate 

 escape from cultivated trees. We know that the Greeks 



cultivated it, but as the root of the word is the same in 

 all, even the most barbaric tongues, there is little doubt 

 of its being cultivated long before the dawn of modern 

 civilization. Remains of what must have been very fine 

 specimens of apples are found in the mud under spots 

 where the lake-dwellers of Switzerland had left their 

 cabins to found towns and villages on land. That it 

 traveled with the white man from his early Asiatic home 

 is much more likely than that nature, unaided by man, 

 spread it over the woods and wilds of Northern Europe. — 

 Philadelphia Ledger. 



The Root-Pruning Craze in England. — At the 

 present time many will be lifting and root-pruning their 

 peach trees with the object of curing them of all the ills 

 they are heir to. With young vigorous trees growing in 

 newly made borders of rather strong loam, root-pruning 

 at the end of the first or second year after planting will 

 prove beneficial in checking strong growth and tend to 

 the maturation of the wood. But this operation is gen- 

 erally performed on such trees towards the end of August. 

 This early check gives the trees plenty of time to recover 

 before the end of the growing-season, and ensures a crop 

 of fruit the following year under skillful management. 

 But root-pruning has become a craze with some cultiva- 

 tors, and no matter what the evil is that the trees may be 

 suffering from, the mutilation of the roots is the only 

 remedy which seems to pervade their minds, even al- 

 though it would be more in keeping with the well-being 

 of the trees to promote the development of healthy roots. 

 No peach tree, under good management, should require 

 to be root-pruned more than once during its existence, 

 and this should be done to bring it into a bearing con- 

 dition, when the quantity of fruit it is allowed to perfect 

 can be regulated to suit the capabilities of the tree. In- 

 stead of root-pruning some strong-growing young trees 

 I have obtained the best possible results by pinching, 

 and, except in the case of very strong wood, would 

 strongly advise this means of aiding the ripening process. 

 Pruning the roots, like pruning the branches, has be- 

 come a fad with some, and these faddists always as- 

 cribe a partial success to their fiddling among the princi- 

 pal organs of nutrition, which a better knowledge of 

 plant physiology would teach them was frustrated, more 

 or less, by such unnatural treatment. — Gardeners' 

 Magazine. 



