THE EDITOR'S OUTLOOK. 



747 



of the codlin moth, curculio, canker worm and even 

 rose chafer are of minor importance to the destruc- 

 tion wrought by the fungi. The work of insects is 

 tangible and for the most part it is more easily con- 

 trolled than that of the fungi. The fungous injuries 

 are obscure, and at times they are spread with al- 

 most incredible rapidity over great areas. Once 

 established, many of the fungi are invulnerable, and 

 in all of them timehness is the most important fac- 

 tor in their control. In fact, many of them can be con- 

 trolled only by quarantine. This is particularly true 

 of peach yellows, which, for practical purposes, may 

 be rated a fungous disease. One who has observed 

 the almost wonderful results of this system of quar- 

 antine and rooting-out in the Michigan peach re- 

 gions, and who has seen the thousands of acres of 

 wrecked orchards in Delaware and Maryland where 

 the disease has been neglected or fought by argu- 

 ments, cannot for an instant doubt the efficiency of 

 vigorous and concerted effort in the control of plant 

 diseases. 



Two provisions need attention 'jn laws to control 

 plant diseases. It should be a misdemeanor for 

 anyone to allow diseases which can be controlled 

 only by quarantine to exist upon his premises. Such 

 diseases are pear blight, peach yellows and black 

 knot of the plum and cherry. Then a contingent 

 fund should be provided to be used in the investi- 

 gation or eradication of any new disease which may 

 appear, and in disseminating information as to the 

 proper methods of combating specific diseases. 



Michigan led this movement by enactment of a 

 yellows law, and New Jersey has made a general 

 law against fungous diseases. European states have 

 undertaken to control them. Every state in the 

 Union should now consider the matter. 



* * 



SHALL we keep therold-fashioned 

 gardens where all the 'good and 



FASHIONED ^ - *^ 



GARDENS. simple flowers which we loved in 



childhood grew in unstinted profusion? 

 Or shall we lead against them a crusade of modern 

 gardening and eliminate them from the land ? 

 Some still live upon the memory of them and think 

 that they are the most satisfying types of gardening ; 

 others see in them only crudity and conventionalism 

 and would sacrifice them all to present ideals. And 

 there are some who think there are room and occa- 

 sion for both. We cannot escape the conviction that 

 some of these old gardens are often better adapted 

 to small and country places than our modern cre- 

 ations. Modern gardening — if by that term we mean 

 the application of the principles of landscape garden- 



ing — demands a considerable extent of ground for 

 its full expression, or when we apply a few of its 

 principles to a small area, as a farmer's yard, we 

 assume some love of it or appreciation of it in the 

 owner, or some harmony of surroundings which ap- 

 pear to demand it. But the primitive and tangled 

 garden demands no excuse for its existence, and it 

 harmonizes with the time-worn cottage or farm- 

 house, the genius of sheds, fences and lanes, and 

 more than all, the owners are satisfied with it. 

 Sometime, when the country is older, softer and less 

 picturesque, men may want the greater precision 

 of our truer ideals, but in this generation let us keep- 

 some of the tangled door-yards. 



There is another type of old gardens which is 

 known by the most exact geometric designs and 

 the closest attention to many details of balancing 

 and condensation. About these there is little to ad- 

 mire, perhaps, for they appear to be too conscious 

 of their own existence. One of our readers thinks 

 the time is come for their extinction, although he 

 lingers upon them with a tender memory : — 



"I see it now — a piocrustean acre surrounded by a 

 picket fence, a straight walk down the center ; on one 

 side vegetables, on the other side flowers and ornamen- 

 tal shrubs ; circular flower beds on the right, square beds 

 of beets and lettuce on the left. One might go forth with 

 his eyes shut, year after year, and find the parsnips, the 

 cucumbers, and the onions, the zinnias, the tulips, and 

 bachelor buttons, just where they always grew — a half 

 acre of sentiment, balanced by a half acre of skill. The 

 sweet corn, the melons, and the Lima beans were consid- 

 ered too delicate and extracting in their nature to be ex- 

 posed to the vicissitudes to which their more robust re- 

 latives of the farm were subjected. They must be shel- 

 tered within a special enclosure and receive all the re- 

 sources of the barnyard. No clumsy horse might be ad- 

 mitted within the sacred grounds, save possibly to turn 

 a few furrows in the spring, and even this was looked 

 upon as an invasion of the rights belonging to the spade. 



" In like manner the little plot of art across the path 

 was considered too good to associate with the rest of the 

 landscape, planned and planted by nature. Here alone, 

 behind the picket fence, and beneath the exotic lilac 

 bush, might one come if he wished to enjoy to the full 

 his love for the beautiful. There are signs that the old- 

 fashioned garden, with all its memories and pleasant as- 

 sociations, its narrowness and limitations, is passing 

 away. The new conditions of our western life are com- 

 pelling people to think, even on en;otions like this, and 

 it is coming to be understood more and more that natural 

 conditions are more important to be understood than 

 artificial methods in the cultivation of vegetables, and 

 that in the planting of ornamental grounds, adaptation 

 to circumstances and an effort to preserve and supple- 

 ment whatever is attractive in the natural surroundings 

 will bring most satisfactory results." 



