90 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
The Globe .Vrtichoke is a choice vegetable and good 
specimens are very telling in a collection of vegetables. 
January sown seed will frequently produce good heads 
the first year. There are so many inferior strains of 
this vegetable that it is well to save the old roots if you 
have a good strain and start from suckers each spring. 
Globe Artichokes should be planted at least 4 feet apart 
and seem to enjoy good dressings of wood ashes occa- 
sionally. 
Producing extra fine specimens of carrots, parsnips 
and long beets is one of the most difficult problems which 
confronts the exhibitor of vegetables. If your soil is 
naturally deeji and sandy, then you have a com].)aratively 
easy task. But usually we nuist bore holes three or four 
feet deep with a post hole auger and fill these holes with 
light sifted soil, sowing seeds on top of these holes. 
Parsnips, middle of May ; carrots, middle of June, and 
beets (long), about July 1, will produce the best roots tor 
fall shows. The New Intermediate Carrot, Student 
Parsnip and Blood Red Beet are about the best sorts. 
These roots must all be harvested with e.xtreme care by 
digging down alongside the root and should not be ex- 
posed to strong sunshine at all, but must be kept in moist 
sand until needed for the show. Beans, mushrooms, 
cucumbers, tomatoes, asparagus, peas, cauliflower, lettuce 
and celery -will all require a little extra care in selection 
of specimens, of varieties, and will need to be timed so 
as to secure the specimens fresh and at their very best. 
Needless to say, care in handling and artistic merit in 
setting up an exhibit are great factors of importance in 
the exhibition of vegetables. 
I advise all who can to sow each year some asparagus 
seed, so as to have your own young plants growing along 
for forcing or to replace those lifted for forcing. Do 
not cut from those you intend to force this fall, and if 
you want the largest crowns give a little extra feed 
through the growing season. 
Sow a little rhubarb seed annuallv for the same reason 
as above. 
In conclusion, have respect for the vegetable garden. 
Do not speak of it disparagingly as the "truck patch," but 
give it equal, if not greater, thought and care in planning 
and attention than you do the flower garden. Bear in 
mind : 
"Good selected seed stocks." 
"Thorough tillage and heavy manuring." 
"Crop rotation with a clover plot." 
"Succession sowings." 
• "Value of cold frames for summer crops of lettuce, 
radishes, small beets and carrots." 
Insect Enemies of Trees 
THE elm leaf beetle, native of southern Europe, 
became established in Baltimore about 1834. 
Now it is found along the coast from Charlotte, 
N. C, to Magnolia, Mass. It is destructive throughout 
southern New England and in the Hudson Valley. It 
has become established in several localities in the central 
part of New York State, and has been reported from 
Ohio and Kentucky. The dull yellowish and black beetle, 
only about >4 inch long, winters in attics, outhouses, and 
similar shelters, appears with the unfolding leaves, and 
commences eating irregularly oval holes between the leaf 
veins. 
The laying of eggs begins about June 1st and the great 
majority of them are dejiosited prior to the 20th. They 
are yellowish, occur on the under side of the leaves in 
clusters of three to eighteen, and hatch in about five days. 
The young grubs confine their feeding to the lower sur- 
faces of the foliage, thus producing the familiar skeleton- 
ized leaves, which soon die and turn brown. In fifteen 
or twenty days the grubs complete their growth, at which 
time they crawl to the base of the trees in large numbers 
and change to oval, golden-yellow pu])3e from which adult 
beetles may emerge in as short a period as five days. 
Nothing has proved effective against these destructive 
leaf-eating grubs except poison applied by thorough 
spraying that reaches the under sides of the leaves. This 
is not guess work or theory ; it is demonstrated fact. Even 
for a tree that stands in a badly infested neighborhood, 
such spraying is jiracticable and effectual. 
The poison to use is arsenate of lead (15 per cent. 
arsenic oxide) at the rate of at least 4 pounds to 50 gal- 
lons of water. This solution is best applied with a power 
sprayer, especially if it is built for shade tree work. A 
moderately fine spray, ladders, and plenty of hose are 
necessary, since with the low power outfits it is impos- 
sible to throw the poison any great distance unless the 
trees are climbed. 
A number of communities are using a high pressure 
outfit adapted to maintain a ])ressure of 200 pounds at 
the nozzle, and with a si>ecially designed nozzle it is feasi- 
ble to spray even the tallest trees from the ground. This 
a])paratus gives surprisingly good distribution, and owing 
to the great rapidity with which the work may be done it 
is one of the most economical outfits which can be em- 
ployed in localities where a large number of trees are 
to be sprayed. 
The spraying season for this insect is extremely lim- 
ited, extending approximately from the middle of May 
or when the leaves are about half grown, to the first of 
July, a date when most of the grubs are nearly full grown 
and consequently stop eating. 
TJic broiun-tail moth, another undesirable immigrant, 
brought to this country in 1889, flies readily, and as a 
consequence is widely distributed, especially northeast of 
Boston. The caterpillars feed mostly on pear, ap])le and 
oak, and are not so destructive as those of the dreaded 
gypsy moth, though their hairs produce the annoying 
and at times extremely jiainful aft"ection known as the 
brown-tail itch. 
Unlike the gypsy moth, this insect winters as a small 
caterpillar in a closely webbed shelter including a few 
leaves at the tips of twigs. These retreats are several 
inches long, easily seen, and upon examination may be 
found to contain caterpillars about a quarter inch long 
in little pockets lined with snow-white silk. 
The caterpillars complete their growth in June, the 
snow-white moths with conspicuous brown tails usually 
appearing early in July. They deposit brown egg-masses 
upon the leaves, the eggs soon hatch, the caterpillars feed 
for a time, and then construct the winter nests described 
above. 
There is danger of the winter nests of this insect being 
distributed on nursery stock. Many seedlings thus in- 
fested have been imported during the last few years from 
France, and some shipments from the infested region 
in this country have also borne these nests. The detec- 
tion of this insect on nursery stock is usually compara- 
tively easy, and every suspicious web or nest should be 
cut off and burned. 
Cutting and burning the winter nests, and early spring 
applications of poisons are the best method of controlling 
this pest. 
TIic whife-iiiarkcd tussock moth, a native species, ap- 
{Contiiiucd on page 96.) 
