The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
627 
Various Horticultural Notes 
A New England Garden 
Having been on my father’s 200 j acre 
farm for 70 years, much of the time tak¬ 
ing the brunt end of the battle and finding 
the labor situation becoming more and 
more discouraging, I disposed of it. in 
1910. and set out to get along with a 
backyard garden so small and angular 
that it can only be plowed with a spade. 
In the Spring of 1915. looking for bet¬ 
ter health and more pleasure. I secured 
the half-acre lot seen in the picture—not 
an ideal spot by any means, being in a 
frosty location, but one that could be had. 
Walled in on three sides, fringed with 
brush of various sorts, from ivy and hard¬ 
back to willows and elms, encumbered 
with many largo rocks, with water lying 
on the surface days after rain, and with 
witch-grass, chickweed, parsley, docks, 
etc., all over it. it was, in fact, completely 
seeded by about all weeds that exist in our 
climate, through a persistent system of 
planting and harvesting with little inter¬ 
mediate attention, followed by total aban¬ 
donment the previous season. 
Being schooled in the work, it didn’t 
take long to sink 20 of the worst boulders, 
right up the tumbled-down walls, grub 
out the brush, and drain the low ground. 
In this was revealed an unexpected situ¬ 
ation : an average of one tree root of 
greater or less proportions to every inch 
of length of ditch, though trees were 40 
ft. away—clearly insidious thieves! Hold¬ 
er rascals, but perhaps no worse, came the 
woodchucks. protected and harbored 
anywhere in those old walls, helping 
themselves to the choicest of growths, re¬ 
gardless of .one's feeling or of the most 
strenuous of food conservators. 
Plowing and team work was hired. 
Then plant food became the problem. Le¬ 
gumes seemed too slow, fertilizers too 
uncertain, and stable manure not to be 
had or too dear if you could get it. These 
various handicaps have been partially 
overcome by thoroughly preparing the 
seed bed. using such manure as could be 
had. and by the dust mulch; by a most 
constant attention to keeping the top inch 
of soil free from weeds, and by never 
permitting two plants to grow where 
there is room for only one; also by pro¬ 
curing the very best strains of seeds and 
bon. Immediately cover the whole thing 
over with a blanket or anything else that 
will exclude the air and keep this on for 
several hours. The bisulphide of carbon 
will evaporate and form a thick, heavy 
gas, poisonous to all breathing creatures. 
It will work in through the ant hill, de¬ 
stroying all the ants with which it comes 
iu contact. It may be necessary to re¬ 
pent this treatment later in order to de¬ 
stroy the ants which were out of the hill 
at the time the bisulphide was applied. 
This remedy is the best we know of for 
the purpose. You must remember that 
this chemical is both very inflammable 
and very poisonous. It should not be 
handled near a flame of any kind, and 
should not be placed where any child or 
animal can breathe it. 
New Plant Immigrants 
Bulletin 175 of the Office of Foreign 
►Seed and Plant Introduction lists an ap¬ 
ple received from Avondale. Auckland, 
New Zealand. It is described by Mr. II. 
It. Wright as follows : “Alpha, aphis re¬ 
sistant seedling from Iris Peach. The 
fruit is twice as large as the parent and 
much earlier. I consider it the earliest 
apple in existence. It is a gold mine to 
the fruit grower on account of its size, 
flavor, and extreme earliness; it is aphis- 
proof and very productive. I predict a 
great demand for this apple as soon as 1 
put it on the market, and when largely 
planted here, I think it will give the con¬ 
signments of Canadian apples which ar¬ 
rive here in early Summer a good bump.” 
The parent, Irish Peach. i« described as 
a medium-sized oblong fruit with clear, 
yellow skin handsomely striped with 
bright red. The yellowish-white flesh is 
tender and very juicy; the tree is a reg¬ 
ular cropper and aphis proof. 
The Plant Introduction Field Station 
at Brooksville, Fla., is now growing the 
edible Canna. Although attempts to 
grow the Bermuda arrowroot (Maranta 
arundinacea) were made many years ago 
in Florida, with more or less success, tin 
edible Canna or Queensland arrowroot 
appears not to have been tried there. In 
Queensland this species, related to the 
ordinary flowering canna. which has es¬ 
caped from cultivation and grows wild in 
the Everglades, is preferred because of 
.the large yields—15 to BO hundredweight 
of starch per acre. The stems and leaves 
are used for forage. 
Grapes Fail to Ripen 
What is the trouble with my grapes? 
I have about 50 grapevines; but some of 
the fruit always drops oil', or else part of 
the bunch will stay hard after the bal¬ 
ance of the bunch has ripened. The soil 
is under cultivation and is a good me¬ 
dium loam, and has been fairly well fer¬ 
tilized. There is nothing else growing 
near the grapes. They are the usual kind 
of Concord, Niagara, etc., and are about 
five to 10 years old. They are trained 
upon two wires strung on posts. 
Hartford, Conn. s. n. d. 
It is suggested that the cause of the 
dropping and fact that some of the ber¬ 
ries remaining on the stem stay hard may 
be due to the grape downy mildew. If 
such be the cause, the trouble may be 
handled by spraying with a 4-4-50 Bor¬ 
deaux mixture. The first application 
should be given a week before blooming, 
followed by a second shortly after this 
period. In seasons that are particularly 
favorable for the disease a third applica¬ 
tion may be necessary about two weeks 
following the second. F. E. c,. 
What Counts in a Car? 
A Veteran New England Gardener and Jfis Worlc 
plants. I have grown for years for my 
own use several sorts of seeds, and I am 
sure one can. by proper selections, im¬ 
prove almost any vegetable he may choose. 
I aim to grow any and all garden 
products the family care to use. I first 
planted 100 two-year roots of Bedding 
Giant asparagus along the wall—not that, 
this is the best place for asparagus, but 
that asparagus is best for such a place— 
a plant good for 50 years, ami as good 
large as small. It is here out of the way 
and safe from haryi. Continuing on 
where the wild brush grew is a successful 
plot of the trailing arbutus, with other 
flowering plants, and also several varieties 
of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, 
checkerberries. and now and then an ex¬ 
perimental tree, with rhubarb guarding 
from foul encroachments along the wall¬ 
less border. 
The success of this garden is best 
measured by the fact that I feel better 
and enjoy myself more, spending hours 
here than anywhere else. Yet for more 
tangible evidence, perhaps the 54 first 
prizes on a list, including onions, cauli¬ 
flower. eggplant, lama beans, etc., and 
the 10B other prizes received in this time 
from near-by fairs should be mentioned. 
C4 
CAR ought to 
ment, and to be 
means that you must 
than you put into it. 
be a good invest- 
a good investment 
get more out of it 
The Overland is that kind of a car, 
. for the service and satisfaction that it 
gives is out of all proportion to the little 
that it costs. 
To the economy of light weight it 
adds a riding comfort hitherto found 
only in expensive cars. 
Overland Prices Have Been Reduced 
The Time Payment Plan Is Very Easy 
DAVID I.. FISKE. 
Ants in Lawn 
W ould you advise me how we can rid 
ourselves of ants on the lawn? \Ye have 
fried over and over again i > make a nice 
lawn, but find heaps and heaps of ants 
working very successfully against us. 
Can you give me au.v remedy for this 
trouble? A. H. 
Belmar. N. J. 
With the opening of Spring we have 
dozens of such questions, ami though we 
have described the methods many times 
we will give it once more. Probably the 
best way to destroy the ant hill is to 
punch a hole into it with a crowbar about 
2 in. deep. If the hill is a large one. 
two or three of these holes can be made. 
Then carefully pour into these holes 
about half a pint of bisulphide of car 
Willys-Overland, Inc. 
Toledo, Ohio 
