BUDS, BLOSSOMS, BRUITS. 



361 



her house trimmed. She appeared recently at a second- 

 story window with an old musket, and pointed it out just 

 as the men were beginning operations. In less time than 

 it takes to tell it, there wasn't a park commissioner or a 

 man in their employ to be seen within a square's distance. 



Cut- Flowers on Graves. — The trough form of flower- 

 holders, designed for use on graves, is not yet so well 

 known as it deserves to be. These flower-holders can be 

 filled so that they will look very pretty by the use of a 



Fig, I.— Trough Form of Flowlk-Holder. 



moderate quantity of foliage and flowers, as shown in the 

 engraving (fig, i) of the cross annexed, for there is no 

 special incentive to crowd the flowers. Flowers placed 



Fig. 2.— Trough Flowe:R-Holders. 



loosely in water keep much fresher than if they are 

 crowded. By placing a little sphagnum moss in the 

 bottom of the troughs, and then filling them with water, 

 the foliage and flowers may be kept fresh nearly as long 

 as the water lasts. The holders may be made of zinc or 

 tin, the first being preferable, on the score of durability. 



The forms most in use are shown in the engravings 

 (figs. I and 2). They can be made by any tinsmith at 

 small cost. The metal should be painted green on the 

 outside, so as to be inconspicuous when the designs lie on 

 the sod. 



Cost of Fighting Potato- Blight. — Potato-blights 

 have become regular visitors. The Bordeaux mixture 

 is now generally spoken of as our most effective weapon 

 against them. The Rhode Island Experiment Station 

 gives the following receipe for the mixture; "Six 

 pounds of sulphate of copper (blue-stone) dissolved in 

 four gallons of hot water. 2. Four pounds of lime dis- 

 solved in four gallons of cold water. When the former 

 was cold, the lime solution was thoroughly mixed with 

 it, and when desired for use, the mixture was diluted 

 with cold water to 22 gallons, and strained. It costs, not 

 including labor, 1', cents per gallon. The amount 



needed for a thorough spraying will depend upon the 

 number of rows sprayed and the apparatus employed. 

 The whole five applications required 300 gallons an acre. 

 For one application, therefore, about 60 gallons an acre 

 would be needed, costing about I1.50. The Bordeaux 

 mixture, as we apply it now, however, is only one-half 

 the strength of that used by the R. I. Station, and conse- 

 quently the treatment for blight will cost about 75 cents 

 for each spraying. The market-gardener who raises 250 

 or 300 bushels of potatoes to an acre, and gets 50 cents 

 or more a bushel, can well afford to make these applica- 

 tions, especially for his early crops. Not more than two 

 or three sprayings will be needed to insure safety from 

 blight. 



Birds and Crops. — A careful observer in Buffalo — 

 Professor E. E. Fish — gives as his estimate, that birds 

 save to crops annually over $100,000,000 in the United 

 States. He remarks that "In many sections insect-life 

 is still so abundant as to make human life almost unen- 

 durable. In other sections it is only kept in check by 

 birds, and there is no place in which, were this check re- 

 moved, it would not clearly hold the balance of power. 

 The number of flies, mosquitoes, gnats and other small 

 insects destroyed in one day, in a small area, by warblers, 

 swallows and flycatchers alone, is beyond computation. 

 From daylight until dark, all through the summer 

 months, these birds wage incessant war on the enemies 

 of man. It is known that the bird-hunters of Florida 

 kill birds while they are rearing their young — because of 

 the greater beauty of their plumage at that season — and 

 leave the little ones to starve to death. One who went 

 through the hunting-grounds speaks of the horror it gave 

 him to hear the pitiful screams of these dying little 

 birds. " 



New Tomato Diseases. — The tomato, also, has its 

 blights. According to reports given by growers in the 

 Pacific states, some of them lost every plant in their 

 hotbeds by a disease, the true nature of which has not yet 

 been discovered. The plants simply wilt and die. 'We 

 believe this blight is closely related to that which has 

 proved so destructive to cucumber and melon-vines in 

 various parts of the country. Another fungous disease 

 has made its apperance in the tomato forcing-house of 

 the Cornell Experiment Station. " The first indication 

 of the presence of this disease in tomatoes," says E. G. 

 Lodeman in Cardcti and Forest, " is shown by the foli- 

 age. Small, often vaguely defined leaf-areas lose their 

 dark green color, and become light green ; these portions 

 soon turn yellowish, and at the same time the leaf begins 

 to curl, the outer edge being generally drawn downward. 

 This causes the leaves to appear considerably smaller, 

 which is quite characteristic of the disease. The dis- 

 coloration of the leaves progresses slowly, while the por- 

 tions which were first affected gradually die, giving the 

 leaf a spotted appearance. The spots increase in size, 

 their form becomes very irregular, and in this manner 

 each leaflet succumbs. Upon the fruit, the first symp- 

 tom is a translucent appearance of portions of the outer 

 wall. The centers of these portions turn brown and then 



