THE RUR-A.lv NEW-YORKER 
657 
The Home Acre 
Making Over Lawn. 
The lawn was full of foul stuff; have 
plowed and harrowed the past season, 
trying to kill out weeds. This Spring I 
wish to seed. It slopes to the west. 
What will make a good thick mat of 
grass, and how much seed to one-half 
acre? Is there anything that will kill 
myrtle and creeper vine? F. o. b. 
Poolville. N. Y. 
There are several grades of lawn grass 
seed mixture on the market, weighing all 
the way from 14 pounds up to 20 pounds 
to the bushel. Only the best should be 
sown and at the rate of not less than four 
bushels to the acre. Such mixtures can 
be procured from any of the New York 
City seedsmen. The myrtle and creeping 
Jenny can generally be kept under con¬ 
trol by close cutting, and if in a sunny 
situation the spots should be heavily 
seeded to grass, first digging them over 
deeply with a hoe or spade. If kept reg¬ 
ularly cut the grass will sooner or later 
take possession and crowd the vines out. 
But if the ground where they grow is 
shaded by trees, there is but poor chance 
of bringing them under control in this 
way; they will have to be dug up and 
thoroughly rooted out to get rid of them, 
lloth the plants referred to are planted 
quite extensively in densely shaded 
places, where grass will not succeed, and 
are well adapted to covering the ground 
with a coat of green in such spots where 
nothing else will grow. But the Creep¬ 
ing Jenny, spreads rapidly, and if not 
watched and kept within bounds it will 
soon take possession of the surrounding 
lawn. K. 
Bagging Grapes. 
Can you tell me whether it is practical 
to bag grapes commercially and the best 
way to fasten the bags? u. n. s. 
Ellerson, Va. 
Generally speaking it is not profitable 
to bag grapes in commercial vineyards. 
When commercial vineyards are referred 
to it implies a considerable acreage. The 
three principal varieties of grapes grown 
in the Eastern United States are the 
Concord, Catawba and Niagara. Unless 
these are grown for a very special market 
and will command a fancy price it is 
unprofitable to bag. The advantages 
claimed for bagging are: 1. Protection 
from rot and mildew. Many experiments 
conducted in order to determine this value 
show that the practice does not thorough¬ 
ly protect, while these diseases can be 
controlled cheaper and better through 
spraying. 2. Protection from frosts 
early in the Fall. Such protection may 
be afforded in some sections, but it is ex¬ 
tremely unwise to try to grow grapes 
commercially, in regions subject to in¬ 
jury from this cause. In fact the com¬ 
mercial grape-growing districts are large¬ 
ly determined by this factor of frost lia¬ 
bility. In some years no doubt bagging 
would protect in some degree. 3. Delay 
i>f maturity is claimed for bagging. Rag¬ 
ging does delay maturity, but whether 
this is an advantage or disadvantage is a 
uestion. The unfermented juice factor¬ 
ies demand that delivery be completed on 
a definite date, and a further require¬ 
ment is that they be fully ripe. As a 
rule late season grapes bring no higher 
price than the mid-season. In fact the 
market is frequently quite decidedly off 
late in the season. These statements do 
not apply to those varieties that are held 
in storage till holiday time or thereafter. 
With these bagging might prove a decid¬ 
ed advantage. 4. Protection from me¬ 
chanical injury is another benefit 
ascribed from bagging. This I believe to 
be the most important of all the others. 
Quite frequently birds, bees, wasps and 
other insects destroy considerable num¬ 
bers of the berries, and no doubt bag- 
bing will prevent a great deal of this 
injury. However, the grower must de¬ 
cide which is the more economical, to pay 
this toll to these pests, or will the amount 
saved through bagging compensate for the 
cost in sacks and labor. Judging from 
our own and the experience of others 
the cheaper way is to pay the toll. In 
harvesting for the unfermented juice 
manufacturers all berries injured through 
the above agencies are cut out, and it is 
rather surprising after picking a row to 
see how few have been removed. In 
packing in four and eight-pound baskets 
this is done in the packing houses, and 
the injured or imperfect clusters and ber¬ 
ries are sold for the manufacture of cheap 
sour wines, so that the injured fruit is 
not a complete loss. If the fruit be for 
exhibition purposes or if for special mar¬ 
kets, bagging in some years might pay 
for the trouble. There can be no ques¬ 
tion that the practice preserves the 
bloom to the best advantage, but whether 
they reach the market better in this re¬ 
spect than the un-bagged is another mat¬ 
ter. 
The bags should be large enough to 
allow for the full development of the 
cluster. Usually the two-pound bag is 
ample for the purpose. The open mouth 
of the sack is slipped over the newly set 
cluster, when the berries are about the 
size of small peas, drawing the top to¬ 
gether, folding it over the stem of the 
cluster and then pinning. Instead of pins 
the sack may be kept tight around the 
stem by light pliable wire, cut in lengths 
of four or five inches. The wire ordin¬ 
arily used in the Chautauqua Grape Belt 
for tying the canes to the wires serves 
the purpose very well. Two or three 
small holes should be made in the lower 
end of the sack to allow any water en¬ 
tering the top to drain out. The sacks 
should be left on till the grapes are 
picked. Many growers store their fruit 
in cellars with the sacks still attached. 
F. E. GLADWIN. 
Criticism of Garden Plan. 
W. J. Patton’s “Plan of a Back Yard 
Garden” has interested me. It has led 
me to wonder, first whether Mr. Patton 
(or any one else for that matter) knows 
what “melons mixed with either cucum¬ 
bers or squash” do actually taste like. 
That they “would not be very palatable” 
—if they could be had—I am ready to 
admit, and I wonder, secondly why in 
Mr. Patton’s plan as well as in another 
previously published the space set apart 
for sweet corn is in long rows. My ex¬ 
perience with corn, sweet and common, 
has been that a single row of it has 
borne scarcely any well-filled ears, and 
that two rows are not at all likely to 
give ears uniformly filled. Others say 
they have observed the same result. The 
chances for adequate pollination of the 
embryo ear growing in a single row, or 
two rows, are not nearly as good as if 
the same space were in the shape of a 
solid block. Even then, it sometimes 
happens that at the corners some ears 
will not get a sufficient amount of pol¬ 
len. h. s. GOFFE. 
First Urchin : “Say, Chimmie, wot’s 
dis strategy t’ing dey talk about?” Sec¬ 
ond Urchin: “Well, it’s like dis: Sup¬ 
posin’ yer run out of ammiuition an’ yer 
don’t want de enemy ter know it, den it’s 
stratergy ter keep on firin’.”—Boston 
Transcript. 
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