256 



BOOKS AND BULLETINS. 



The seed was sown in flats in the greenhouse late in 

 February, or about six weeks before time for sowing 

 out-doors. The gain due to transplanting is threefold : 

 it gives the plants a longer season in which to grow, 

 enables them to grow during the cool and moist weather 

 of spring, and it gives more uniform results. Mr. Green 

 thinks that upon mucky soils, in years when all condi- 

 tions are favorable, the transplanting would not produce 

 much marked differences, particularly with such sorts as 

 Danvers But the interesting point about the whole 

 operation is the fact that it costs less per bushel to grow 

 onions by transplanting them than by the ordinary 

 method ! This is due to the fact that the yields are 

 greater, and the extra cost of transplanting is fully offset 

 by the saving of labor in weeding and thinning. And 

 green bunch onions can probably be obtained, with a 

 little extra care, as early as from sets. 



Tests of Varieties of Vegetables for i8go. Biilh- 

 iin 1^0 . 14, Pennsylvania ExpL'rimenl Stalion. Bv Ceorgc 

 C. Blitz. Pp. 75. Reports are made upon 

 Vegetable many vegetables, but no summariesor com- 

 Tcsts. parative statements are given. For mar- 



ket gardeners the following early cabbages 

 are recommended : Early Wakefield, Succession, All 

 Seasons, Henderson's Summer, Early Flat Dutch. 



The Iron King seed drill will not work satisfactorily 

 upon heavy soils, but it is recommended for looser land. 



Legget's Powder Gun, for applying dry 

 Implement insecticides, is a good implement. The 

 Tests. Victor spraying outfit, made by Field's 



Force Pump Co., is a good device for 

 orchards. Plant bed cloth is serviceable for late hot- 

 beds. ' ' It cannot take the place of glass in early spring." 



Black Knot on Plums. A Few Ornamental 

 Plants. Bulletin No. ij, Pennsylvania Experiment Sta- 

 tion . By George C. Butz. Pp.8. Illustrated. Professor 

 Butz calls attention to the prevalence 

 Black Knot. and destructiveness of black knot, and 

 urges everyone to destroy it. It attacks 

 the wild choke-cherry, and this tree must therefore be 



looked after. Cut off and burn the diseased portions 

 in early winter. "Every piece of wood in which the 

 fungus occurs should be collected and burned at once, as 

 the winter spores are known to have ripened in severed 

 branches. Burning the material is, therefore, an essen- 

 tial part of the remedy. Every trace of the disease 

 should be destroyed, not only from one orchard, but 

 from neighboring orchards." Ten large knots which 

 appeared low down on large branches were sliced off, 

 and only two of them reappeared. 



Professor Butz calls attention to the reintroduction of 

 old plants, and warns planters to be cautious in buying 

 novelties. "Many plants regarded as new in cultiva- 

 tion, and often advertised as such, treat us with surprises 

 when we find in records that they 

 were introduced to cultivation fifty or Ornamentals, 

 one hundred years ago. Many per- 

 sons interested in flowering plants will remember their 

 disappointment in the last three years in growing the 

 much-made-of novelty from Mexico, Mina lohata, adver- 

 tised and illustrated as a thing of beauty, flowering pro- 

 fusely ; but greater was that disappointment upon learn- 

 ing that the plant was known to cultivation fifty years 

 ago, and was soon discarded for the same reason that 

 will cause it to be dropped now, namely, its failure to 

 blossom with ordinary cultivation." He recommends 

 for out-door culture Arundo Donax, Bocconia cordata, 

 Staelivs lanata, .'Ister Novct-Angliiv and CEnothera Mis- 

 soiiriensis. These plants are found to be hardy in Penn- 

 sylvania, and the list is a good one so far as it goes ; but 

 there is not enough of it to be of much use, and the in- 

 formation is by no means new. Grevilleas are recom- 

 mended for indoor culture, and G. robiista is figured. It 

 IS stated that "an original plant [of a given species] may 

 be acclimated, produce healthy leaves, perfect flowers 

 and fruit, but the succeeding generations from seed or 

 cutting may struggle for years before the species is truly 

 acclimatized." This is new teaching, and in the inter- 

 est of science it ought to be amplified, and further in- 

 formation obtained. L. H B. 



