666 



BITS OF EXPERIENCE AND PROPHECY. 



by getting a good catch from September sowing, the grass 

 would grow off readily in spring, crowding out all the 

 annual weeds that are sure to infest spring-sown grass, 

 and making a sod that by early summer would look as 

 smooth and velvety as that on any old lawn. But the 

 fall-sowing in this instance proved a complete failure. 

 This was due to the drouth, mild though it was, which 

 occurred here in the fall of 1891. Wheat sown at the 

 same date was not injured by the drouth, but this was 

 owing to the difference in covering ; the wheat was cov- 

 ered with an inch or more of soil, while the finer grass- 

 seed was sown on the surface and rolled in. From a 

 wheat-grower's standpoint there was no drouth to speak 

 of ; from our standpoint we readily drew the lesson that 

 it only takes a slight drouth to injure autumn or any 

 lawn-seeding. Hereafter we shall be more loth than 

 ever to risk losing valuable lawn- 

 seed by sowing it in fall. We are 

 convinced that the best time to sow 

 lawn-grass seed is early in spring. 

 Preparations can be made in fall 

 and if the seed 

 is sown on a 

 frozen surface 

 in March, such 

 a thing as the p' 

 seeds failing to ^j, ^ 

 germ i n a t e is / ^ 

 almost impossi- % 

 ble. April sow- «... 

 ings, even, are 

 sure of enough 

 spring rains to 



almost wholly remove any risk of 

 failure. We do not wish to en- 

 courage the deferring of lawn- 

 seeding until May when possible 

 to do it earlier, yet when we have 

 made sowings as late as that 

 month in the north we have usu- 

 ally had fair success, but the 

 stand is less even than from ear- 

 lier sowings. One year when we 

 sowed a half-acre lawn as late as 

 June 2, showers fell so favorably aft 

 ing was a perfect success, and by August the lawn was 

 smooth and green from seed sown two months before. 

 In order not to encourage laggards, let it be stated that 

 this experience was very exceptional. The risk from late 

 spring sowing is not only the probability of insufficient 

 moisture to germinate the seeds that lie on the surface, 

 but a high temperature is less favorable to the growth of 

 grass-seed than is cold weather. 



Pendulous Trees. — Our nurserymen do not, as a rule, 

 train or graft the so-called weeping trees high enough. 

 This is owing, perhaps, to the fact that the needs of the 

 matured tree are less kept in mind than the appearance 

 of the young tree as sold from the nursery. Take, for 

 instance, the well-known Kilmarnock willow ; while this 



Madame Crozy Ca 



ds that the seed- 



should never be grafted less than 5 or 5>^ feet high, hav- 

 ing future development in view, yet we fancy that as a 

 young tree at selling time it is believed to please the 

 buyer's eye better if grafted a foot lower than the height 

 indicated, as it looks more stocky, and buyers like a 

 stocky tree. But this idea is wrong concerning trees of 

 the class named. While trees of ordinary habit grow up 

 and up, so that low forms can later be corrected, those 

 of pendent form are fixed as to the point of branching, 

 and grow down instead of up. 



The objection to low grafting of pendulous trees comes 

 in here : A few years after setting any of the rapid- 

 growing kinds, the branches touch the ground and either 

 draggle on the surface, or else must be trimmed away, 

 destroying much of their beauty. Besides this, a Kil- 

 marnock willow, for instance, will not be as well propor- 

 tioned, will be too low for its width, 

 after 6 or 8 years' growth, if it be 

 grafted but 4 or 4,^ feet high. An- 

 other argument for high grafting 

 is apparent when we consider the 

 value of a weep- 

 ing tree as an ar- 

 bor. In the case 

 of the Camper- 

 down weeping 

 elm, the weeping 

 ash, the weeping 

 poplar, or even 

 the Kilmarnock 

 willow, if graft- 

 ing be done 7 or 

 8 feet high, the 

 tree is ordinarily certain to develop 

 into a handsome arbor, such as 

 would be prized on any lawn. If 

 the point of grafting is 2 or 3 feet 

 lower, as often is the case, the ar- 

 bor-like qualities may be present, 

 but there will be such a lamentable 

 lack of head-room that there will be 

 little inducement to sit underneath 

 jNA. such trees. 



Onion-Culture, Old or New. — 

 the sake of comparison, we planted last spring, in 



For 



the old way, beside our transplanted White Victorias and 

 Prizetakers, a little patch containing a row each of 25 dif- 

 ferent varieties of onions, Blight made its appearance in 

 August, and killed the promising Prizetakers when less 

 than half grown, consequently the "new onion-culture" 

 was not so satisfactory as expected or hoped for earlier in 

 the season, the yield being at the acre-rate of a scant 400 

 bushels ; yet the crop paid for all labor and expense, and 

 gave a net profit of something like |6o an acre. This 

 does not take into account some of the culls yet on hand, 

 or the onions consumed or kept for winter use by two 

 families. The blight reduced the yield more than half, 

 but it resulted in our harvesting and marketing the crop 

 from four to six weeks earlier than in ordinary seasons. 



