6i6 



BUDS. BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



Hoop-Iron Hoe. — The illustration shows a service- 

 able hoe, which any one with mechanical skill can easily 

 make. On an old hoe-han- 

 dle attach a piece of good 

 strong hoop-iron, firmly 

 bolting it. The cutting 

 edges should be filed sharp. 



The Black-Knot Law, 

 passed at the last session of 



the New York legisla- 

 ture, and now in force, 

 covers the following 

 points : "A tree in- 

 fected by this disease 

 is declared to be a 

 nuisance, and the 

 owner of such tree or 

 trees is required to Hoop-Iron Hoe. 



abate t h e nuisance. 



It authorizes the supervisor of any town, or the mayor, 

 to appoint, on the application of resident freeholders of 

 the town, three commissioners, who shall be fruit-growers 

 and residents of the town. It shall be the duty of these 

 commissioners to examine any tree or trees in their town 

 known to be, or suspected of being, affected by the dis- 

 ease, and to mark for destruction the part or parts 

 found to be infected by the black-knot. If the tree is so 

 badly affected that its total detruction is necessary, they 

 are to mark it by girdling its trunk. They must then 

 give notice to the owner, who is required within ten days 

 of such notice to cut away and burn the part or parts 

 thus marked, and in case of a girdled tree, to destroy it 

 wholly, burning the affected parts. If he fails to do 

 this within the specified time, the commissioners are to 

 do it for him, and he renders himself liable to a fine 

 not exceeding $25, or to imprisonment not exceeding 

 ten days, or both, in the discretion of the court. Any 

 justice of the peace in the town has jurisdiction in the case. 

 The commissioners are to receive each $2 a day for the 

 time actually spent in the discharge of their duties, and 

 their necessary expenses. The owner of destroyed trees 

 is debarred from recovering damages against any one 

 destroying the infected trees or parts thereof." 



Filling Vacancies in the Orchard.— As usually 

 practiced, the filling of vacancies in orchards tends only 

 to losses ; loss of the cost of the trees, loss of the labor 

 of setting, loss of the attention afterward paid them, and 

 of the culture given. Losses are most marked in filling 

 vacancies in orchards of large trees, because fruit-trees 

 thus set seldom develop into productive, paying trees. 

 The seeming vacancies in old orchards are really occu- 

 pied by the rootlets or feeders of surrounding large trees, 

 and often more fully occupied than the soil nearer to 

 said large trees, as sunshine, rain, etc., reach the open 

 spots best. Many orchardists think that roots which 

 they do not see occupy no more ground than is covered 

 by the tree-tops which they do see ; hence, they manure 

 and cultivate beneath the branches as far as they extend. 



On closer investigation they would find the spaces be- 

 neath the tree's branches occupied by the main root- 

 stems, while their rootlets or feeders are mostly far be- 

 yond the spread of the top. The universal practice is to 

 set fruit-trees too close, but I know of one orchard 

 where the trees were originally set 50 feet apart. At 

 least half the setting died, leaving many of the trees 100 

 feet apart in the rows, yet the owner said he could not 

 put his plow into a place in the orchard without cutting 

 roots. A Milwaukee gardener once told me that he had 

 followed the roots of strawberry plants four feet. — Z. C. 

 F., Michigan. 



Keeping Begonia-Tubers. — The advice generally 

 given in regard to wintering begonia-tubers is that they 

 be kept in the pots they grew in, at a temperature of 

 about 50°. Those who advise this method must have 

 found it successful ; but, judging from my own experience, 

 not all will find it so. Many wonder why their begonia- 

 tubers make no show of starting in the spring. Upon 

 examining them they find only a skin or shell filled with 

 dust. Such was so frequently my experience, years ago, 

 that I was in despair, and was often disposed never to 

 try them again. However, I resolved upon one more at- 

 tempt, and procured 100 cheap ones from Lemoine in 

 November. They came packed in a box and surrounded 

 with cotton. I kept them so until March, when they 

 began to grow, and I believe I did not lose one. They 

 were a poor lot, for I had ordered the cheapest tubers ; 

 but I believed that I had solved the problem of winter- 

 ing them, and that all I had to do was to take the tubers 

 out, clean them and pack them away dry. The next au- 

 tumn I began to turn them out, and soon found that 

 some of them had been eaten into by some 

 grub. A closer search showed that most of 

 them contained one or more white larvae, 

 one-third of an inch long, and that the 

 holes in which these lay were partly filled 

 with the dust which in former years I had 

 supposed to be the result of dry rot. Since 

 this discovery I take out the begonia-tubers 

 in the fall and examine every one with care 

 for the grub (the larvae, I believe, of a fly 

 of some kind), and then pack them away in 

 boxes. It is a curious fact that tubers 

 grown in the open ground have never been 

 infested, and that certain species seem to 

 be exempt from grubs even in pots. — W. E. 

 Endicott, Mass. 



Home-Made Dibber. — The dibber I use 

 (see illustration) is made of thin spring- 

 steel. It is about 7^ inches long, and i^^ 

 inches wide at the widest part. The handle 

 may be like that of a chisel, or shorter and 

 Home-Made cylindrical, as large as the hand can conve- 

 DiBBER. niently grasp. It should be finished on the 

 emery wheel.— Carl H. Potter. 



The Cultivation of Snowdrops. — One may almost 

 venture to say that the less they are cultivated the better ! 

 By this I really mean to imply that on suitable soils the 



