271 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
to attend to the crops as he should have. I always use 
an automatic sprayer for spraying and find it both eco- 
nomical and labor saving. For all leaf eating bugs 
arsenate of lead is the most effective spray to use and 
should be applied to the plant on bright sunny days, 
so that it will dry on the foliage and not wash off with 
the first shower of rain. It should only be put on such 
plants as squash, cucumbers and pumpkins before the 
fruit is set, but should never be applied to such plants 
as lettuce, beets, spinach or parsley. For the onion 
and carrot fly, dust the young plants as soon as they 
appear through the ground with a mixture of six parts 
lime and one part flowers of sulphur and repeat the dose 
once a week until the end of May. The above mixture 
I find also very effective against cutworms. For Aphis 
on lettuce, carrots, and celery, spray with a non-pois- 
onous insecticide. For rust on celery a mixture of 
Scotch soot and lime applied to the plants before 
blanching is beneficial ; also Fungine is very effective. 
For the tomato worm a mixture of the following in- 
gredients should be made up, viz.: Ilran. molasses. 
Paris green, and the juice of two oranges. A little of 
the above mixture laid on cabbage leaves, should be 
placed among the tomatoes in the evening and re- 
moved again the first thing in the morning before any 
domestic animals or fowls get around. 
A succession of sowings is necessary to keep up the 
supply of fresh vegetables throughout the season ; also 
for a winter supply. Lettuce should be sown every ten 
days until the end of August ; peas from April until 
July every two weeks ; dwarf beans from May until 
the end of August every two weeks ; beetroot from 
May until the middle of July every two weeks ; early- 
cabbage and cauliflower second sowing in April, and in 
May for late and winter varieties. 
The hotbed, after all the plants have been moved out- 
doors, is a very useful place for raising radishes, cress 
and pepper grass throughout the summer, and in Sep- 
tember it can be partly rilled with lettuce so as to keep 
up a supply until the middle of December. 
September is a good month to begin harvesting the 
crops. Squash and pumpkins are the first two crops 
that should be lifted and stored. Next come onions, 
beets, carrots, cauliflower, endive and celery, also po- 
tatoes and rutabagas. Endive, cauliflower and leeks 
are best transplanted in the frame, a part of which has 
been emptied of the manure, admitting air on all favor- 
able weather conditions. Celery should be transplanted 
in the root-cellar with boards separating each row of 
plants, watering carefully and only when the plants 
require it. Onions, after they have been well ripened, 
should be tied up in bunches and suspended from the 
roof of the root-cellar ; cabbage should also be sus- 
pended singly from the roof, head down. Potatoes, 
squash and pumpkins keep well when spread out on 
shelves in the root-cellar, covering the potatoes with 
a layer of marsh hay or other similar material. Beets, 
carrots, salsafy, rutabagas and parsnips should be 
buried in sand in the root-cellar, as sand keeps the 
roots in a fresh plump condition and prevents shrivel- 
ing. Only part of the parsnip crop should be har- 
vested in the fall, leaving the rest in the ground until 
spring, as a good freeizng improves the flavor greatlv. 
During the winter months look over the vegetables 
at least once every two weeks and remove any that 
show signs of decaying, but if the cellar is well ven- 
tilated and the frost kept out there should be very 
little loss through decay. 
*Essay lhat won ex-President Everitt's (National Association of Garden- 
ers') gold prize in Class 4, under nom de plume Ivan. 
PRUNING FRUIT TREES 
HPHE chief objects of pruning are (1) to let light and 
air into the trees and bushes; (2) to induce the 
formation of well-shaped trees and to furnish them 
with fruitful wood. 
The remark is often heard that an amateur cannot 
prune his own trees, and there is a great deal of truth 
in it. for, generally speaking, he is much too tender- 
hearted to cut his trees to anything like a sufficient 
extent. Neglect in this direction invariably' leads to 
a thicket of growth and very poor fruit; and when 
once a tree has reached this stage it may take years 
to bring it back to a fruitful condition. With standard 
and bush trees it is imperative that the centers of the 
trees should be kept open. It so often happens that 
a tree may be vastly improved by the removal of a 
large branch in the center. 
It would be impossible to emphasize too strongly 
the importance of using a really sharp, strong pruning 
knife. Apart from the inconvenience of a poor knife, 
it should always be remembered that a clean cut will 
heal much quicker than a jagged one, and this is a 
matter of vital importance, since the worst disease to 
which fruit trees are heir, viz., canker, can only enter 
the tree by way of a wound when the inner tissue of 
the tree is left exposed to the air. For this reason it is 
advisable after removing- large branches to cover the 
newly cut surfaces with tar or white lead. There are 
a few hard and fast rules in pruning that should al- 
ways be borne in mind. For instance, one should 
always prune to a bud pointing outwards, since the 
growth made by the branch will be in the direction of 
the leading bud. Again, one branch should never be 
allowed to cross another. 
For the first few years of its life the young tree 
receives very severe pruning at the hands of the nur- 
seryman. This treatment is essential for the founda- 
tion of a sturdy, fruitful tree, and it is afterwards left 
to the fruit grower to continue the good work of the 
nurseryman. In the early stages the pruning is done 
primarily with the object of forming a bush or tree of 
the desired shape, the knife is used freely, many 
branches being shortened to one half their length, 
otherwise straggling, unshapely trees will result. 
Those trees that were planted last autumn require 
severer pruning than established trees. 
It must be borne in mind that both the Apple and 
Pear in most cases bear their fruit on short spurs or 
side growths of stunted appearance. One object in 
pruning is to convert the ordinary side branches into 
fruit-spurs, and this is accomplished by cutting back 
tlie side shoots to within two or three buds of the 
main branch. This is well and clearly seen in the case 
of cordon trees, which should be furnished throughout 
their entire length with fruiting spurs, and the object 
in pruning a bush, pyramid or trained tree is to make 
every branch resemble a cordon. There is an axiom 
in fruit growing which runs "once a spur always a 
spur." and it is generally understood that fruit-spurs 
should never be pruned. But it sometimes happens — 
more especially with trained Pear trees — that even the 
fruit-spurs are overcrowded, and in such unusual in- 
stances they should, of course, be thinned. Pruning 
should be completed within the next few weeks. 
Unlike Apples and Pears, Plum trees resent severe 
pruning 1 , and they are often best left alone. Except in 
very young trees, which require hard pruning, a sim- 
ple thinning of overcrowded wood is all that is neces- 
sary ; and there is a wide difference of opinion as to 
whether pruning is best done in the summer or winter. 
