The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Garden and Farm Notes 
Garden Notes from New England 
Part III. 
Keeping Corn Fresh. —I have been in¬ 
terested in a plan for keeping sweet corn 
in good condition until it reaches the mar¬ 
ket, which has been developed in a Bos¬ 
ton market garden suburb. The corn 
when brought from the fields is spread on 
a sloping platform, the boards of which 
have a narrow space between them. Skin¬ 
ner system pipes are extended over this 
platform, and when the corn in the ears 
lias been spread out in a thin layer the 
water is turned on, producing a mist-like 
shower. The corn is taken to market 
early the next morning, and is in almost 
Corn Stripped by Blackbird'•$ 
as good condition as though freshly picked 
w hen delivered. 
The Corn Borer. —Unfortunately, the 
rapid spread of the European corn borer 
has proved a heavy blow to the growers of 
sweet corn. I understand that one large 
producer has been ordered to clean up his 
entire field at once because of the pre¬ 
valence of the borers. I am living at a 
considerable distance from the point 
where the outbreak first began, but regret 
to say that the borer has already reached 
my garden, and that I am continually 
pulling up stalks which show evidence of 
its presence by the breaking over of the 
growth being made above ground the first 
season. If planting is deferred until the 
time given in most of the books for set¬ 
ting out lily bulbs, the results are not 
likely to be satisfactory. It is probable 
that lily bulbs in general, like all bulbs, 
will be scarce and high this year. Many 
of the varieties of tulips and hyacinths 
will doubtless be missing, but they will be 
of the higher-priced kinds. The compe¬ 
tition for Holland bulbs is so great this 
year that shipments to America will be 
greatly reduced. Not only are England 
and other European countries looking for 
bulbs, but many of the small growers in 
Holland who had to go out of the business 
when the war came on are now seeking to 
re-establish themselves and are in, the 
market for the best stock. 
Dividing Ibis. —This is a very good 
time to divide clumps of the so-called 
German iris, a large class, the roots of 
which grow near the surface and which 
delights in a dry, sunny location. If the 
clumps are dug up now it will be found 
that they can be easily pulled apart with 
the fingers so that separation is not at all 
difficult. This Iris needs to be divided 
every three or four years. 
Oaring for Peonies. —One other point 
which perhaps might well be emphasized 
is that peonies need an abundance of 
water after the flowering season is past. 
It is then that they start their new 
growth for the next year. If you should 
dig down into the roots you would find 
large numbers of little white fingers point¬ 
ing upward. It is from them that the 
flower stalks will develop. Gardeners 
often complain about the bare appearance 
in the border after the tops of the peonies 
have begun to die down. This can be 
overcome by the use of bulbs like Gladioli 
or shallow rooted annuals. In my own 
garden I use the common Lythrum or 
loosestrife, which flowers for a long sea¬ 
son in late July and August, and makes a 
most satisfactory successor to the peony. 
E. I. FARRINGTON. 
Celery Going to Seed 
Can you tell me the cause and preven¬ 
tion for celery going to seed? Is it more 
frequent in plants that have been trans¬ 
planted one or more times than in field- 
grov ;z ilants that are moved but once? 
V. ycriing. Pa. E. M. 
Tas isual cause of celery running to 
seed ;c 1 first season is too early sowing 
for :tz latitude. You should not sow in 
I’eras vania as early as they do in Mich¬ 
igan Then a sudden check to growth, 
like transplanting, tends to encourage 
blooming rather than uninterrupted 
growth. You have a longer warm season 
than the growers in Michigan, and up on 
the Lake Shore region in Illinois and 
Ohio, and you should not attempt to grow 
celery as early as they do. Even the 
Platform for Spraying Sweet Corn After Picking 
tassels. The Department of Agriculture 
has just sent out a fresh bulletin, em¬ 
phasizing the fact that corn cannot be 
shipped from any of the many towns now 
under quarantine. For some reason the 
growing of sweet corn seems to be becom¬ 
ing increasingly difficult. There are crows 
when the corn is planted, borers when it 
is partly grown, and blackbirds when the 
ears are almost full. This pest of black¬ 
birds was pretty serious at times last 
season, the birds stripping down the ears 
and ruining them for the market. In an 
acre patch of my own many ears were 
almost entirely denuded iu the manner 
shown in the illustration on this page 
above. One neighbor had a particularly 
heavy visitation of blackbirds, but while 
he was trying iu desperation to find some 
method of combating them, they suddenly 
left in a body. Just why it is hard to 
say. 
The Madonna Lily. —The beautiful 
Madonna lily, Lilium caudidum, has 
bloomed so splendidly this season that 
considerable interest iu it has been 
aroused. It is a fact commonly over¬ 
looked that the bulbs of this lily should be 
planted in August or at least iu early 
September. Its habit is different from 
that of most of the lilies, considerable 
check of a prolonged drought will tend to 
cause the running to seed. Rapid growth 
in any plant is not conducive to blossom¬ 
ing and fruiting. Even in trees we see 
this. A tree of great vigor and rapid 
growth like the Northern Spy apple will 
not come into fruit near as soon as a 
variety of naturally slow growth. Hence 
in the garden vegetables a very rich soil 
or a soil with a decided surplus of nitro¬ 
gen will make a rank growth and less 
fruiting than a better balanced soil. In 
short, anything that tends to stunt vigor¬ 
ous growth tends to bloom and seeding. 
w. F. MASSEY. 
Tomatoes Failing to Set 
Someone inquired a number of weeks 
ago why the first blooms of tomatoes 
did not bear fruit. I always found it so 
until my sou suggested that there were 
not insects enough to fertilize the blooms, 
and he took a camelshair brush and 
thrust it into the blooms a few times. 
Every early blossom produced a tomato 
that year, so I feel sure that is the secret. 
Where only a few plants are raised in 
pots in the house this can be done with 
not much waste of time. 
C olorndo. c. race working. 
Thoroughly 
P u 1 verize 
Every Inch 
Of Ground 
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Harrows 
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over” does the trick. Same as going 
over your ground twice. In the 
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H1GGANUM, CONNECTICUT 
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