RURALISMS 
Ornamental  Plants  for  Moist  Location 
I  have  an  artificial  lake  in  which  there 
are  two  small  islands  of  a  combined  area 
of  about  50x100  feet.  The  water  comes 
up  to  within  about  eight  or  nine  inches 
of  the  surface.  I  want  to  plant  these 
islands.  Can  you  suggest  to  me  what 
will  best  grow  so  near  the  water?  I 
prefer  a  diversified  lot  of  hardy  flowering 
plants.  I  would  also  like  to  plant  one 
tree  in  the  center  of  each.  If  you  can 
suggest  how-  I  can  best  improve  these  I 
will  be  greatly  obliged.  Would  the 
weeping  willow  grow  well  under  these 
conditions?  r,  m. 
Rosario,  Wash. 
Practically  all  the  willows  succeed  in 
moist  places,  and  there  is  no  doubt  the 
weeping  willow  will  succeed  on  these 
islands.  There  are  many  species  of  hardy 
herbaceous  plants  that  will  succeed  there 
also,  among  which  are  the  following  de¬ 
sirable  sorts :  The  various  Irises,  Pyre- 
thrum  viliginosum,  Golden  Glow,  Lilium 
superbum.  Phlox  parnieulata,  and  Phlox 
divarieata ;  the  various  species  and  va¬ 
rieties  of  hardy  Asters  or  Michaelmas 
daisy,  Boltonia  latisquama  and  B.  aster- 
oides,  Aralia  cashmeriaua,  Asclopias  in- 
RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
season  one  stalk  may  send  out  as  many 
as  six  suckers — three  on  each  side — so 
that  with  two  main  stalks  in  a  hill  you 
have  Id  stalks  where  two  would  be 
plenty.  Result  would  be  fodder  and  nub¬ 
bins.  puckering  is  a  propensity  that  is 
chiefly  confined  to  sweet  corn.  Field  corn 
seldom  suckers  enough  to  require  special 
attention,  though  in  thinning  it  I  would 
remove  suckers  aloug  with  other  super¬ 
fluous  stalks.  j.  x,.  h. 
Kohl-rabi  by  Parcel  Post 
I  would  like  to  know  the  best  way  to 
pack  kohl-rabi  for  shipment  by  parcel 
post  where  it  will  be  about  14  hours  be¬ 
tween  picking  and  delivery.  I  have  only 
a  small  quantity  to  send,  say  a  dozen 
"heads”  or  so.  hut  as  I  want  it  to  ar¬ 
rive  iu  the  best  condition  shall  1  ship  in 
a  tight  or  freely  ventilated  package  and 
pack  hi  damp  material  or  not?  G.  n. 
Schenectady,  N.  Y. 
When  ’  shipping  kohl-rabi  by  parcel 
post  to  a  friend  or  customer  I  would  re¬ 
move  the  roots  and  cut  off  the  tops  about 
au  inch  above  the  bulb  and  pack  dry  iu 
a  non-collnpsible  box  to  prevent  bruising. 
If  the  kohl-rabi  are  to  be  sold  by  the 
bunch,  the  tops  may  be  cut  off  about  an 
inch  above  the  strings.  This,  however,  is 
only  to  save  postage.  The  usual  way  to 
ship  kohl-rabi  or  turnips  from  South  Jer¬ 
sey  to  the  New  York  markets  is  simply 
to  bunch  them  and  pack  them  in  hamp¬ 
ers.  Prompt  shipment  and  veutilation 
insures  good  delivery.  For  parcel  post 
shipment  any  kind  of  a  desirable  con¬ 
tainer  which  affords  ventilation  would  be 
satisfactory  especially  during  the  hot 
weather.  Undue  exposure  is  also  to  he 
avoided  and  the  tops  themselves  should 
he  dry  so  that  they  will  be  less  apt  to 
become  yellow  or  “slippery”  in  transit 
E.  W.  D. 
Soil  Fertility  for  Dewberries 
Have  you  any  information  available, 
as  to  whether  it  pays  to  fertilize  dew¬ 
berries  grown  on  a  commercial  scale? 
Soil  is  very  sandy.  Vines  have  made  a 
good  growth,  and  are  well  filled  with 
berries.  It.  is  the  idea  among  some  of 
the  local  berry  growers  that  it  does  not 
pay.  Can  we  have  some  ideas? 
Pemberton,  N.  J.  r.  w.  c. 
It  is  a  very  common  practice  to  neg¬ 
lect  the  fertilization  of  dewberries,  but  I 
know  from  my  own  experience  in  gar¬ 
den  culture  of  this  class  of  blackberries 
that  good  manuring  pays  as  well  with 
dewberries  as  with  any  other  of  the  small 
S097 
fruits.  The  common  practice  here  is  to 
grow  them  without  stakes,  piuching  them 
that  they  may  grow  bushy.  But  iu 
North  Carolina,  where  the  dewberry  in¬ 
dustry  is  extensive,  the  canes  are  always 
tied  up  in  Spring  to  stakes,  and  the  land 
kept  well  fertilized.  The  size  and  qual¬ 
ity  of  the  fruit  is  greatly  improved  by 
keeping  the  soil  fertile,  and  while  in  or¬ 
dinary  thin  soil  they  may  make  consid¬ 
erable  growth  of  canes  they  will  suffer 
more  from  Spring  drought  and  the  fruit 
will  he  inferior  to  that  grown  in  fertile 
and  moisture-retaining  soil.  In  my  gar¬ 
den.  which  is  heavily  covered  all  over 
with  manure  in  the  Fall  and  with  bone  dust 
in  Spring,  the  growth  of  small  fruits  of 
all  sorts  is  far  ahead  of  the  fields  grown 
for  commercial  purposes.  Stable  manure, 
reinforced  with  bone  meal  or  acid  phos¬ 
phate  will  pay  as  well  on  dewberries  as 
on  strawberries.  w.  f.  massey. 
“Basebaix  is  a  remarkable  game.  ’ 
“How  now?”  “A  man  who  has  spent  his 
last  50  cents  for  a  seat  on  the  bleacher 
feels  perfectly  at  liberty  to  advise  a 
player  who  is  getting  .$10,000  a  year.” 
— Kansas  City  Journal. 
carn'ata,  astrantia  major,  C’altha  or  marsh 
marigolds,  hardy  Bamboos  in  variety,  Eu¬ 
lalia  grasses  in  variety,  Hibiscus  or 
marsh  mallows,  Monftrda,  in  variety,  Sa* 
panaria,  Salvia  uliginosa,  Thalictrum 
adiautifolium  and  A.  aquilegitulLun.  k. 
Standard  Wholesale  Phosphate  &  Potash  Co.,  Baltimore,  Maryland 
Peppers  Losing  Foliage 
I  have  a  field  of  peppers  of  about  three 
acres.  A  week  ago  I  noticed  that  the 
leaves  were  becoming  curled,  and  now 
they  have  turned  yellow  and  fall  off. 
Around  this  neighborhood  the  people  say 
it  is  on  account  of  the  wet  weather. 
What  is  your  opinion?  D.  B. 
Millville,  N.  J. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  your  peppers 
have  scalded.  When  a  soil  becomes  thor¬ 
oughly  saturated  with  water  and  remains 
so  for  some  days  in  warm  weather,  as 
has  been  the  case  on  many  fields  the  past 
two  weeks,  it  will  cause  almost  any  crop 
to  scald.  A  bright,  hot  sun  will  hasten 
the  trouble.  We  seldom  have  such  a 
number  of  heavy  rains  in  succession  here 
in  South  Jersey  as  we  have  had  the  past 
mouth.  A  great  many  fields  of  truck 
crops  have  been  badly  damaged  or  lost 
entirely.  The  remedy  is  drainage.  If 
ditches  or  drains  are  put  in  so  the  free 
water  can  move  off  the  soil  quickly  there 
will  be  little  loss.  trucker.  jr. 
My  Crop 
15  Bushels 
per  acre 
My  Crop 
33  Bushels 
per  acrej 
The  United  States  Agricultural  Department  Statistics  tell  us  that  the  average  wheat  yield  per  acre  for  the  United 
States  during  1912  was  15.9  bushels— for  Germany  it  was  more  than  double,  or  33.6  bushels. 
Striking  figures,  these  ! 
Their  meaning  spells  one  word — FERTILIZATION. 
Better  fertilizers  and  more  per  acre  explain  the  double  wheat  yield  of  not  only  Germany,  but  England,  France 
and  nearly  every  other  European  country. 
The  American  farmer  raising  10  to  20  bushels  per  acre  will  find  ample  “food  for  thought”  in  this  tremendous  dis¬ 
parity  in  yield.  He  must  be  "up  and  doing”  if  he  is  to  equal  his  European  competitor. 
The  fact  is  plain  and  undeniable — The  European  farmer  fertilizes  more  liberally  than  the  American. 
Germany  produced  the  eminent  agricultural  scientist.  Dr.  von  Liebig,  who  discovered  that  all  crops  need  Nitro¬ 
gen,  Phosphoric  Acid  and  Potash  in  order  to  grow.  Germany  also  produces  the  world’s  supply  of  Potash.  To  these 
two  important  historic  facts  can  be  attributed  the  German  farmer’s  firm  belief  in  fertilizers — especially  Potash.  He 
TrfrxrrSV3!?  r*ght  at  }*1S  door  and  uses  it  in  large  quantities  on  wheat.  Can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  MORE  THAN 
DOUBLE  wheat  yield  of  Germany  is  due  to  the  liberal  use  of  this  valuable  Plant  Food? 
Potash  is  the  most  important  plant  food.  Potash  is  essential  for  the  formation  of  starch — and  starch  makes  up 
one-half  ot  the  weight  of  the  wheat  grain.  Potash  develops  the  woody  fibre  in  plants — makes  the  stalk  strong.  Wheat 
Unthrifty  Dogwood  Tree 
I  have  in  my  yard  a  large  dogwood  tree 
about  20  years  old.  When  grading,  it 
was  necessary  to  fill  in  around  it  about 
two  feet.  This  was  done  three  years  ago. 
The  tree  does  not  look  very  prosperous 
now.  The  foliage  is  not  as  full  as  it 
should  be,  aud  some  of  the  small  limbs 
are  dead.  Is  there  anything  like  borers 
that  attack  the  roots,  or  could  it  be  that 
the  filling  in  is  affecting  the  tree? 
Tenafly,  N.  J.  w.  T.  n. 
I  have  never  known  borers  to  work  in 
the  live  wood  of  the  Cornus,  though  they 
may  possibly  do  so  in  some  rave  cases. 
My  opinion  is  the  filling  iu  of  soil  around 
the  tree  is  the  cause  of  its  unhealthy 
condition.  The  remedy  lies  in  removiug 
the  soil  from  around  the  body  of  the  tree 
the  full  depth  of  the  filling,  and  wall  up 
the  holt;  around  the  tree  with  brick  or 
stone  to  a  little  above  the  height  of  the 
present  ground  level,  leaving  a  space  all 
around  between  tree  trunk  and  wall  of 
at  least  10  inches.  This  will  admit  of 
light  and  air  to  circulate  around  the  body, 
and  to  got  to  the  feeding  roots.  If  this 
tree  is  not  suffering  from  general  de¬ 
bility  it  will  probably  recover  its  normal 
condition  in  a  year  or  two.  K. 
pOTASH  7/ 
PANS  | 
Suckering  Sweet  Corn 
Your  correspondent,  E.  K.  L.,  who 
asks  for  information  on  this  subject  on 
page  1005,  seems  to  have  some  confu¬ 
sion  iu  his  mind  as  to  shoots  and  suck¬ 
ers.  The  former  come  out  from  the  main 
stalk  at  various  distances  from  the 
ground,  each  one  being  at  a  joint.  These 
are  the  embryo  ears,  and  should  not  be 
disturbed.  The  true  suckers  come  out 
from  the  main  stalk  at  the  root,  and  suck 
their  sustenance  therefrom.  These  should 
all  be  removed  as  promptly  .as  possible. 
The  sucker  seldom  bears  au  ear,  hut 
usually  contents  itself  with  making  a  few 
grains  on  the  tassel,  often  accompanied 
by  smut.  In  rich  ground  iu  a  favorable 
POTASH  PAYS! 
Standard  Wholesale  Phosphate  &  Potash  Co 
Continental  Trust  Building,  Baltimore,  Maryland 
STAR  WHEAT  GROWER  2-8-2 
GREAT  WESTERN  WHEAT  GROWER  2-8-3 
delivered  your  station,  freight  prepaid,  $26.50 
delivered  your  station,  freight  prepaid,  $30.50 
