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GARDEN MAGAZINE 
FlEADEIAS' SERVICE 
Help in need! Ask this department to answer your specific 
problem. Replies of general interest only are printed here 
Paper Pots 
When using paper pots, are they to be filled with 
loam, then planted and sunk into the soil of the hotbed; 
or are the seeds to be first planted, the seedlings when a 
certain size transplanted into the pots, and later 
transplanted a second time to the garden? — G. K. R., 
Mass. 
— You can use either plan. In dealing with vegetables 
it may be just as well to sow directly in the pots and 
transplant to the open ground after hardening off in 
the frame by gradually letting in the air. There will 
be no need of sinking the pots in the hotbed as they 
can be packed closely on the top of the bed, making 
practically a new seed surface. If you are handling 
tomatoes, for instance, it will be better to sow seed now 
in a bed, prick off into pots when large enough to handle 
and transplant to the open ground. The advantage of 
paper pots aside from their low cost is that the bottom 
can be torn off and the remainder, with the plant, set 
directly in the ground, thus causing no disturbance to 
the ball of roots. As a rule, we prefer to start seeds 
in a general seed bed and then transplant. 
Proper Glass in Greenhouses 
Is the use of clear glass for greenhouse, hotbed, sash 
and coldframes more desirable than obscure glass? 
Does the direct ray of the sun through the clear glass 
produce a greater growth of the plants than if it were 
diffused through obscure glass similar to skylight 
glass? — W. H. C., Rhode Island. 
— Clear glass is the better for the very simple reason 
that it lets through more light. Of course, during cer- 
tain periods of the year, artificial shade is used with 
certain plants. This is because under greenhouse 
conditions the light rays are partially transformed to 
heat rays and the shading controls the heat. Fancy 
glass which will diffuse the light will probably act as 
a detriment in that it breaks up the ray into the spec- 
trum. Whitewash is used to control the heat. A 
plant will not grow as well under frosted or other kinds 
of glass as it will under clear glass. Shade is put on the 
greenhouse in early summer because the plants have 
been pushed into early growth and are therefore in a 
somewhat sensitive condition. The shading is put 
on the outside of the house and will gradually wash away 
and by midsummer can be cleaned off entirely. Every- 
thing depends on what you are growing in the house. 
You do not shade carnations, but roses require it. 
Amoor River Privet 
What care should be given a hedge of Amoor River 
privet? — W. S. F., Penna. 
— Amoor River privet should be planted in a good rich 
soil and trimmed when necessary. The annual dressing 
of manure or fertilizer should be put around the base 
of each plant before the ground freezes, and all leaves 
and rubbish that will attract mice or other vermin be 
removed before the ground is covered with snow. No 
weeds or seedling trees or shrubs should be allowed to 
get a foothold about the hedge, and in very much 
exposed places a protection of pine boughs during the 
winter will be found very beneficial until the plants 
have become fully established. 
When to Prune Barberry 
What is the best time to prune a hedge of Berberis 
Thunbergii, and what soil is best for it? — W. S. F., 
Penna. 
• — Pruning a hedge is simply an annual necessity. It 
can generally be done more quickly and consequently 
cheapened by shearing when the plants are young and 
tender, say during the month of July. Berberis Thun- 
bergii can be pruned to the best advantage just after the 
blooming period is passed. The preparation of the soil 
for a hedge consists in thoroughly plowing and cultivat- 
ing an area six feet wide and the length the hedge is 
proposed to extend. If this space should be fertilized 
and cropped the year previous to planting, vegetation 
will be greatly accelerated. The plants must be 
shortened, both top and root, and set nine inches apart 
in a single row. A trench or furrow is opened through 
the centre of the cultivated strip of a sufficient depth to 
admit the roots without bending. In setting, the soil 
must be made firm with the aid of a rammer, a practice 
unexcelled for aiding growth, and, indeed, preserving 
plant life after removal. 
To Induce Thick Privet 
I propose to cut my privet hedge to six inches or one 
foot from the ground to insure thicker growth? When 
shall I do this? — O. Z. W., New York. 
— You can cut down the privet hedge to six inches 
from the ground any time that is convenient, except 
in late summer. The lower you cut it back the better 
it will be for the hedge eventually. 
exclusively, the bud being inserted as close to the 
surface of the ground as possible. 
Lime on the Bulb Bed 
When should lime be put on beds of bulbs that are 
covered with manure during winter? — A. P., New 
Jersey. 
— A small amount of lime could safely be sprinkled on 
the surface of the border and raked in early in the 
spring, but it would be much more effective it if were 
possible to take the bulbs out entirely, remove the 
soil, add fertilizer and manure and then mix a good 
application of ground limestone or slaked lime with the 
upper several inches of the soil in replacing it. 
Bone Dust Instead of Lime 
The Hollyhock Disease 
What is the pest that causes hollyhock rust and how 
can it be prevented? — M. E. W., New York. 
— The hollyhock disease is one of the most difficult to 
combat. Some thirty years ago it practically cleared 
out the hollyhock as a popular garden plant. Destroy 
by burning every plant in your neighborhood. Re- 
frain from any attempt to grow hollyhocks for one 
year and after that time make a fresh start with healthy 
stock from an outside source. Thorough spraying with 
bordeaux mixture, which can be obtained from the seed 
houses, from the very moment the young plants appear 
above the ground and persistently keeping the ground 
covered with bordeaux all through the season may do 
some good. Tobacco is absolutely useless. The 
Puccinia, which is the fungus causing the disease, sends 
its minute, threadlike growths throughout the entire 
tissue of the plant, traveling inside. The little pustules 
seen on the leaves are the fruit capsules, every one of 
which contains thousands of spores. 
Mock Orange Hedge 
Is there any way in which to repair an old mock 
orange hedge which has been allowed to run wild for 
many years? — P. S. A., Penna. 
— A mock orange hedge can be brought back into 
condition by cutting out, right down to the ground, 
all the very old growth and also to some extent thinning 
out some of the old roots and filling in around them 
with new soil. 
Shipping Cut Flowers 
In order to safely ship cut flowers during cold 
weather, how thick a paper lining should be put into 
the box? — H. F., New Jersey. 
—In packing flowers, the boxes should first be lined 
with one thickness of heavy, glazed wrapping paper, 
being careful to have the pieces overlap each other 
to exclude air. This should be held in place by a few 
tacks. Then line with from three to six thicknesses of 
newspaper, according to the weather and the distance 
that the flowers have to be transported. 
Budding 
What is the best and strongest growing variety of 
pear tree to plant for later grafting or budding? If I 
set the young trees in spring, how soon can budding be 
done? How far from the ground had the operation 
best be performed? — M. S., Mass. 
■ — Pear stocks, as well as the seed from which they are 
grown, to a limited extent, are both obtained almost 
exclusively from France. According to Bailey this is 
because the leaf blight is so destructive in this country 
as to render raising of such unprofitable. We doubt, 
therefore, whether any nurseryman will have any 
great variety of types of stock to offer you. As you 
probably know, apple stock is sometimes used for 
pears and the quince for growing dwarf trees. When 
one year seedlings are set out in the nursery row in the 
spring they can usually be budded the following sum- 
mer, late July or early August being the common season 
here in the North. Shield budding is practised almost 
Will a liberal dressing of bone dust supply sufficient 
lime to a soil needing it? — S. L., New Jersey. 
— Bone dust will hardly take the place of lime al- 
though it is of value in adding to the supply of phos- 
phorus in the soil and to a less extent adding to its 
calcium content. But why not use lime? 
Evergreen Trees 
What are the fastest growing evergreen trees suit- 
able for windbreaks, and a few similarly fast growing 
which attain a good size; their relative standings as 
regards rapidity of growth and their differences suffi- 
ciently for a novice to identify them; what age and 
height they are generally when sold from nurseries 
and the height they may be expected to reach? — 
R. H. E., New York. 
- — The following evergreens are best suited for wind- 
breaks and the most rapid growers are Norway spruce, 
American white spruce, Black Hill spruce, white pine, 
Scotch pine, Austrian pine, Jack pine, ponderosa pine, 
Douglas fir, balsam fir, and hemlock. The pines are 
the fastest growers of the entire evergreen family and 
make an annual growth, after once established, of 
one and a half to two feet, and cases are on record where 
they have made as much as three feet in a single year. 
Spruces are the next in order in rapidity of growth and 
will make from twelve to eighteen inches in height in a 
single season. Firs are next and usually average about 
one foot. Pines are the longest, heaviest needled 
varieties and the foliage is very heavy and dense. On 
the spruce the needles are short, thin, and stubby, 
while on the firs the needles are soft and graceful. 
Pine needles vary in length from two and one-half to 
four inches, spruce from one to two inches, and fir from 
two to three inches. Transplanted sizes twelve to 
eighteen and eighteen to twenty-four inches in height 
are the best for general planting, averaging three and 
four years of age. These are always well rooted and 
can be set out in permanent places. 
Dynamite Digging 
What are the merits of using dynamite in loosening 
the soil to good depth in digging the holes for young 
trees? What is the average expense for the use of 
dynamite in clearing land, including material and labor? 
— M. S. P., Mass. 
— The use of dynamite before planting trees tends to 
open up any hardpan that exists, giving the roots a 
better chance to expand, an increased feeding area, 
and providing for better drainage and aeration of the 
soil. The idea in digging a hole for a tree with dyna- 
mite is not to throw the earth out by the explosion but 
only to loosen it so that it may be more easily removed 
with the spade. One of the most important principles 
involved is not to attempt blasting when the soil is 
moist as this tends to pack and puddle it, making 
it worse than before. The cost of dynamiting varies, 
of course, with the nature of the soil, the size and type 
of the stump, the acreage covered, etc. On Long 
Island it has been estimated that the removal of one 
hundred medium stumps would cost for dynamite 
(60 pounds), $9; fuses, 75 cents; caps, 75 cents; labor 
of two men for one day, $5.50. Total, $16. 
