Propagating the Canna 
W ONDERFUL progress has been made in the 
propagation of cannas. Not only have the 
flowers been greatly improved in both shape and 
color but the generally untidy, straggling character 
of the plant has been controlled. 
Of course new varieties cost considerably more 
than old ones, but they are all easily propagated. 
If I wanted a lot of plants of any particular variety 
I would buy a large sized clump. It might cost 
four or five dollars but before planting I could 
make at least two dozen divfsions. The following 
year one could get almost as many from each of 
these plants, and so on every year. 
In dividing, remember to leave an eye to each 
division. Of course, if you have plenty of stock, 
too small dividing is not recommended; but in 
starting off with something good you need all that 
can be had. Pot the divisions or, better still, put 
them in loam in shallow boxes and either force or 
bring along slowly. 
If you don’t care to propagate yourself you could 
buy the less expensive varieties all one foot high 
ready started, packed in little crates and delivered 
at your door for a very low price. This is your 
opportunity to get canna bargains; get busy at 
once! 
Massachusetts. L. J. D. 
A Lime and Strawberry Experience 
I N THE spring of 1910, I set out one hundred 
strawberry plants in my garden, twenty-five 
each of Senator Dunlap, Bederwood, Warfield, and 
Bubach. The soil was good and the plants grew 
to be large and thrifty. But there were few blos- 
soms and still fewer berries, for many of the blos- 
soms blighted before berries formed. They were 
well cared for, however, the runners pinched off 
and the plants thinned out. The second year they 
bore just half a pint of berries, while my neighbors 
had good crops. No one seemed to know what was 
the matter with mine. Someone suggested that 
the plants were no good, but the varieties were all 
right for this section (Iowa), and they had been 
bought from a reliable nursery. 
At last 'I determined to try again. So I took 
runners from the plants and set out a new bed be- 
The dahlia cion is inserted as in cleft grafting. No wax is 
used: the tops of the tuber is bound fairly tight with ramie 
side the old one. They grew as vigorously as the 
first ones had done, but still they did not bloom. At 
length a little experience of the year before occurred 
to me. In the garden was a large, healthy peony, 
six years old, that had never bloomed. I read 
somewhere that such plants needed lime, so I stirred 
some in around the roots. I had fifteen handsome 
blossoms as a result. I reasoned that if straw- 
berries didn’t blossom they couldn’t bear fruit, 
and if lime made a peony bloom, why not a straw- 
berry? So I straightway got a barrel of slaked 
lime, and raked it in among the plants. 
No one ever watched strawberry plants as closely 
as I did those when they began to come up in the 
spring. I nearly dug the hearts out of them to see 
if there were blossom buds in them. At last they 
came — loads of blossoms, and later quantities of 
berries — all we could eat, and fourteen quarts to 
put up. And it is needless to say that I was not 
backward about showing the skeptical neighbors 
that I could raise strawberries. 
I want to save anyone else, raising strawberries 
for the first time, from wasting three years in learn- 
ing that his soil needs lime. If I had taken a piece 
of blue litmus paper, which can be bought at any 
drug store, and inserted it in the soil the acid would 
have turned it red, thereby showing that the soil 
needed lime, and I would have saved myself a three 
years’ wait for home-grown berries. 
Iowa. E. L. White. 
[Editor’s Note: As we had an idea that lime 
was not generally advocated for strawberries we 
asked Professor Jacob G. Lipman, director of the 
New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station to ex- 
press an opinion, and he writes: 
Conflicting opinions are often expressed as to 
the value of lime for crops like strawberries and 
potatoes. There is no doubt that many straw- 
berry growers regard lime in any form as injurious 
to strawberries. This belief may be traced back 
to the unfavorable action of burned and slaked 
lime, particularly magnesian lime, on strawberries. 
Ground limestone does not seem to be objection- 
able, and, where the soil is badly in need of basic 
lime, it is certain that applications of ground lime- 
stone, or ground oyster shells, should increase the 
strawberry crop. Indeed, one hears now and then of 
very favorable results brought about by applications 
of ground limestone on strawberries. Generally 
speaking, however, strawberries is one of the crops 
which do not as readily respond to applications 
of lime as most other crops. The same is true, 
also, of potatoes, although the prejudice against 
the use of lime on potatoes is due to the more favor- 
able conditions for the development of scab on pota- 
toes which applications of lime provide. One of 
your correspondents (see page 4, February 1915) is 
substantially correct in stating that strawberries and 
potatoes do best on slightly acid soils. When the 
degree of acidity passes beyond a certain point, and 
the limit of safety will vary in different soils, the 
use of lime would bring about better conditions.] 
Grafting Dahlias 
W HILE the grafting of dahlias is usually sup- 
posed to be useful only for preserving rare 
varieties or weak growing plants we may include 
two other desirable uses: — - as potted plants for 
house decoration and for exhibition. 
A graft is easily obtained. Select a medium 
sized, well formed tuber, cut off the end to remove 
the eyes, and split it for about an inch and a 
half. Make a cutting about six inches long from the 
plant in question, clip the growing end, and pare the 
lower end to a double taper. Clip the leaves a bit 
and insert the cion into the split tuber at the edge, 
bark to bark, as in fruit grafting. Now bind the 
tuber fairly tight with raffia — no wax or grafting 
mixture is necessary. Set in 3-inch pots, put them 
on a bench with little bottom heat in the prop- 
165 
agating house, and cover with a small frame. 
Keep the frame closed for two or three weeks, ad- 
mitting air gradually until the plant is well hard- 
ened. Shift the plants as the pots become filled 
with roots until a 10-inch size is reached. 
Grafting may be done from spring until mid- 
summer using either dormant or rooted tubers, the 
latter of course making a quicker graft. The 
plants must be fed well with liquid manure. 
New York. A. G. Eldredge. 
Pole vs. Bush Beans 
I SHOULD like to know how the New Wonder 
Wax pole bean compares with the Kentucky 
Wonder Wax? What advantage have the pole beans 
over bush beans for the home garden? 
Connecticut. C. H. Perry. 
The Double White Poet’s Narcissus 
L OOKING over the article on daffodils, in your 
last September number, I notice the state- 
ment that the double white sorts are shy bloomers, 
and seem to prefer a wet season. My own ex- 
perience with Alba Plena Odorata is that they will 
not bloom at all in Canada, and after one or two 
failures I ceased to plant them. Two years ago, 
in May, I visited a large garden here in Sarnia, and 
was shown fine double whites in full bloom, with 
the information that they grew without any atten- 
tion, and no one else had any or knew much about 
them. There was no difficulty in classing them as 
double white poeticus narcissus, and I was careful 
to make sure that they were listed, for the conditions 
suggested that they might be sports. They were 
growing all alone in boggy soil! 
This locality is sandy, but there are patches of 
clay and bog, and this garden is a wild one with 
rich black muck many feet deep. At one time 
there was natural drainage to the St. Clair River 
close by, but road building has blocked this, and 
there is a small spring in evidence which keeps the 
whole patch — half an acre or so — in a wet condition. 
A few feet from these double daffodils it was too 
wet for walking. Wild plants of all sorts were in 
A strong bushy grafted dahlia plant 
