A LOOK AHEAD IN WINDOW GARDENING. 



401 



One lesson in horticulture I learned better last year 

 than ever before. In order to make a strawbery patch 

 profitable, you must give it thorough cultivation the first 

 season ; if the season be a dry one, this will be all the more 

 necessary. The pet plants that I nursed last summer 

 are all right, while many small patches left to themselves 

 are nearly a failure — dry weather, ground-moles and 

 grubs, combined against them, prevailed 



The same principle will apply to a newly planted 

 orchard. Some people plant an orchard in sod with the 

 intention of digging around the trees afterward, but this 

 is usually neglected and failure is inevitable. 



As June comes on, the round-headed apple-tree borer 

 will be laying her eggs at the base of young apple trees, 

 and in a little while the worm commences to work on the 

 trunk, near the ground. Clear away the earth an inch 

 deep, wrap the stems of the trees with thick brown paper, 

 or a doubled newspaper, for six or eight inches upward, 

 and tie the papers on it. No borers will be found on 

 trees so treated unless they were in the bark before the 

 wrapping was put on. Tarred paper I would not trust, 

 and it will not be any better guard against the borer 

 than ordinary paper. Old rags or cloth will answer the 

 same purpose. Some orchardists say that the borer 

 never attacks a real healthy, thrifty young tree, but, I 

 know better. It sometimes gets into a tree the first sum- 

 mer from the graft. This apple-tree borer benefits but 

 one class, namely, the nurserymen. If all the trees 

 planted out here in the west that the borers have killed 

 within the last ten years had lived and flourished, there 

 would be lamentation among the tree-men, w'ho grow 

 them to sell. 



A revolution in fruit-growing is upon us. The time 

 when clean, perfect fruit grew without any extra care is 

 past, and no one can expect to keep up with the times, and 

 compete in market with his fruit, unless he uses thi 

 sprayer. The codling-moth, once hardly known here 

 on my place, is now so abundant that sound apples and 

 pears will soon be the exception. The cucurlio has had 

 the field for the last season, and not only plums, but also 

 peaches, apricots and nectarines were at its mercy. Two 

 formidable sprayers stand on my porch ; both have been 

 tried and show that they will work well. Just as soon 

 as the blossoms dropped from my Mariana plums, the 

 artillery was opened on the trees of this and all other 

 sorts as soon as they reached the right stage for spraying. 



I shall use 200 gallons of water to a pound of Paris 

 green or London purple, and believe it will protect the 

 fruit from insects, while it will not be likely to injurs 

 the foliage. [Don't forget to mix in some lime. — Ed.] 



Among vegetables I tried the Shoe-peg sweet-corn for 

 the first time last season and found it to be an excellent 

 variety. The ears are short, but the depth of the grains 

 almost makes up the deficiency. The quality of the corn 

 is, in my estimation, unsurpassed, if equaled. The 

 stalks of this corn are small, and it can be planted much 

 thicker than common corn. The Soja bean or pea, as I 

 should call it, is well worth growing, I think, even if you 

 do not use the stalks for food. Kaffir corn is nice for 

 poultry, and one of the best crops we can raise for this 

 purpose. Liitle chicks will eat it when they are but a 

 week old, and seem to flourish on this food. The fodder 

 of the corn is also valuable for stock. 



Montiromery Co., Mo. S. Miller. 



A LOOK AHEAD IN WINDOW-GARDENING. 



THE SELECTION AND SUMMER CARE OF PLANTS. 



E SAY that window-gardening 

 begins with autumn, but sum- 

 mer, or even the month of 

 May, is none too soon to be- 

 gin planning for our winter 

 gardens if we wish to make 

 sure of all the beauty and all 

 the pleasure that may be de- 

 rived from them. 



One of the very first points 

 requiring attention is to pro- 

 vide suitable plant-stock be- 

 tween this month and the time 

 of frosts. Here let the inex- 

 perienced be on their guard ; 

 alike suitable for cultivation in 

 dwellings. Let the list be confined to such plants as are 

 known beyond doubt to be well adapted to this purpose, 

 and do not invite failure and disappointment by attempt- 

 ing to grow others. The list of good winter-flowering 

 plants is so long and so varied that any taste may be 

 satisfied with a choice of thoroughly tested sorts. 



not all pot-plants 



A list of fifty distinct kinds of plants specially adapted 

 to window-culture is given below : 



4 Abelia rupestris. 4 Lantana. 



5 Abutilon, bush and trailing. i Madeira-vine. 



3 Achania. 2 Maurandia. 



4 Agapanthus. 5 Moneywort. 



• Agave. 4 Myrtle (invrtus). 



3 Aspidistras. 3 Neprolepsis (fern). 



4 Amaryllis. 3 Orange. 



3 At-alia Sieboldii. 5 Otiionna sedi/olia, 



3 Begonias. Oxalis rosea. 



4 Cactuses. 2 Petunia. 



5 Calla. 5 Plumbago Capensis. 

 4 Chrysanthemums. 2 Primulas. 



3 Corypha austyalis (palm). 3 Pteris tremuloides (femV 



I Crocuses. 3 P. argyrea lanceolata. 



3 Cyclamen persicicm. 5 Passiflora. 



3 Cypei us alternif alius. 4 Roses, Monthly Bengal. 



3 Date-palm. 3 Sago-palm. 



4 Euonymus Japonica. 4 Saxifraga sarmentosa. 



4 Farfugium grande. 4 Senecio scandens. 

 3 Ficus elastica (India-rubber), i Snowdrops. 



3 Ficus elastica variegata. 4 Tradescantia, trailing. 



5 Geraniums. i Tulips. 

 5 Heliotrope. 4 Vallota. 



I Hyacinth. 5 Vinca 'periwinkle). 



4 Hydrangea hortensis. 2 Wax-plant. 



5 Ivies. 



To have a good stock of these plants by fall, the 

 following course should be pursued : Order from the 

 greenhouse ordinary sizes of all the plants wanted except 

 those preceded by (i), which are bulbous, and (2), which 



