688 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



the eucalyptus is also said to be a good substitute for 

 tannin. The eucalyptus requires very little care, if 

 planted where it has a sufficiency of water. If culti- 

 vated in swampy, malarious districts, it would con- 

 tribute in no small degree to making such localities 

 healthful — A. C. Sullivan, Cal. 



Reliable Reports. — What can be more interesting or 

 useful than notes from real experiment grounds where 

 it is known that the experimenter has no commercial 

 interest to influence his conclusions ? It is better 

 even, in some respects, than experimenting on a salary, 

 as at the government stations. Love of the work is a 

 great stimulant to the experimenter. 



Heuchera. — Having found specimens of one of our 

 native alum-roots_ last season, the writer looks with 

 eagerness for the report of the new Mexican species, at 

 the La Salle grounds. 



First and Best Peas. — Reliable notes on the many 

 so-called improvements in these are much needed. 

 One hates to be always decrying the new, for in many 

 directions the advance has been wonderful ; but the 

 grain of salt needs to be thrown in often For years 

 in succession we grew an old variety. Carter's First Crop, 

 for a first early for market gardening purposes ; this 

 was between 1880 and 1890. By delivering directly to 

 customers, and taking extra care to have stock always 

 freshly picked, so good a popular reputation was made 

 for this old sort (not known to customers by name) that 

 they could not be induced to buy of others. The pods 

 were almost invariably well-filled, and the crop was as- 

 suredly profitable whenever we were in the market early. 

 This was on what we have been in the habit of calling 

 ■' ordinary " soil, — though it was a clay loam — and with 

 no great advance over ordinary treatment. Peas were 

 sown in thick rows, and manured, though not heavily, 

 with barnyard manure. Our experience tallies exactly 

 ■with that of the Editor at La Salle, as to the difficulty of 

 distinguishing one "first early " from another, by reason 

 of any decided advance in any one of the three great 

 market qualities: earliness, heavy cropping, or fullness of 

 pods. Not a year passed that other varieties were not 

 tested on equal terms with the Carter's, yet we never 

 reached the point where we dared give it up in favor of 

 any other, no matter how highly lauded. One year we 

 grew a long row each, of four high class "firsts," in 

 rich garden soil, with equal chances, hoping to estab- 

 lish a claim for Cleveland's Rural New-Yorker above 

 the others ; but a stranger could not have told that they 

 were not all of the same variety ; the only advance our 

 sharpened discernment could make out, in spite of the 

 leaning toward the Cleveland, was that its pods were a 

 trifle broader and better filled than those of the others. 



Yorkshire Hero, and the mammoth podded Stratagem 

 and Telephone have been given a black mark because 

 of insuflicient productiveness, although they are all 

 good otherwise. Nothing yet suits us as well as Laxton's 

 Alpha and the old Champion of England for delicious 

 sweetness and productiveness combined. Both have 

 a faulty vine in that they are too tall, and this is our 

 chief reason for trying so faithfully to find something 

 better to replace them. Alpha is often a slender grower, 

 with pods not always well filled. The present year 

 it outdid itself, and the difference was surely due to the 

 field ; for the first month after sowing was so very dry 

 that we feared the crop would be a failure. The ground 

 was a heavy clay loam, devoted to peas both in 1889 and 

 1890, when it had received good dressings of commer- 

 cial potato manure only. This year a dressing of hen 

 manure was applied, perhaps three weeks after sowing, 

 and a second when they were in bud The vines were 

 so rank and vigorous that we hardly recognized the va- 

 riety, and the pods were filled almost to bursting. The 

 cut of Heroine is very taking, and it has been placed on 

 our list for next year 



Kerosene Emulsions. — Much experience in a small 

 way with both formulas leads the writer to express 

 the belief that those who desire to mix small 

 quantities of the emulsion, and have not a force pump, 

 will find the emulsion as made with milk easier to se- 

 cure and safer to use than is the case where soap is used. 

 The oil mixes quite readily with milk, and — possibly be- 

 cause of this — a strong dilution, which would prove 

 fatal to foliage with the soap emulsion, does no harm to 

 anything but insects if the milk formula is used. Red 

 spider has, with us, been kept at bay by the perhaps 

 cowardly — at least discreet — method of growing only 

 those plants that it does not especially favor. Carna- 

 tions have been the noticeable exception, but only twice 

 has the enemy appeared, and then on plants brought 

 from the commercial growers' houses. Last winter the 

 plants were neglected in favor of things more important, 

 and December found the carnations alive with the 

 dreaded pests. "Is sulpho- tobacco soap effective?" 

 we asked a prominent floral writer. He replied that its 

 odor, at least, would be effective in driving us out of 

 the house, and advised water, which had already been 

 tried without the least apparent effect. He thought the 

 kerosene emulsion of no value, but its use was the des- 

 perate, almost hopeless last resort before destroying the 

 infested plants. Two thorough applications, at intervals 

 of perhaps ten days, freed the plants. Since this 

 treatment of them, not a red spider has been seen on 

 the plants, and this remedy is thus proved successful. 

 — C. S. Valentine. 



