March 12. 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
229 
not then remove anything that has been planted without the 
landlord's sanction. If you had taken the precaution to remove 
them some time ago while you were still in occupation of the 
place we believe this could have been done. In any case, it 
is done. Tenants in occupation frequently engage in planting, 
transplanting, adding, and taking away from the collections in 
the place, and no one interferes with them, but as soon as the 
tenant gives his landlord notice the landlord steps in and pre¬ 
vents the removal of anything that has been planted in the 
garden. 
Daisies in a Lawn. 
We are very much troubled with Daisies in the lawn during 
summer. They come into bloom before the grass requires mowing 
again. What is the best way to get rid of them? (J. P. W.) 
You should make an endeavour to make the grass grow, which 
will be, to a certain extent, detrimental to the Daisies. This 
may be done by top-dressing with farmyard manure or other well- 
decayed cow dung, such as that from Melon and Mushroom beds. 
Good rich soil might alsoi be used for the same purpose with 
good effect. Some people use lawn sand, which is a manure of 
varying composition, but contains a certain amount of nitro¬ 
genous matter, very frequently nitrate of soda. We think t 
would be worth your while ito employ some hoys to spud out the 
Daisies with an old knife. That could he done at the present 
time, and the Daisies c-oukl easily be removed, owing to the soft 
condition of the soil. After that operation a good top-dressing 
of soil could be given, and after spreading it with a wooden 
rake or a broom grass seeds could be sown, so as to occupy the 
blank places left by the Daisies. A good rolling would then be 
of advantage to the grass when the soil is sufficiently firm to 
bear such heavy traffic without getting puddled. It would also 
be necessary to see that there were no Daisies in the near vicinity 
that could be brought into the .garden readily by the wind or 
by the washing of rain. 
American Blight on Apple Trees. 
Several of our young Apple trees were very much infested with 
American Blight last year, and we applied soft soap and tobacco 
water, but there seem to be some signs of them on the trees 
yet. What would he the best means of dealing with them P 
(A. T.) * 
Your best plan would he to begin by paring the rough bark 
around the wounds, so as to get rid of all the cavities and 
hiding-places for the pest. You should then scrub the wounds 
and all round about them with paraffin emulsion, using a fairly 
hard, lialf-wom brush', no that some force may he applied to 
reach all the crevices. If you can actually bring the brush in 
contact with the living insects they could hardly escape destruc¬ 
tion. Very frequently infestation comes again from the roots 
of the trees, wherei the insects have been hibernating or sheltering 
all the winter. The best plan to counteract this would be to 
carefully uncover the roots all round the trunk, and for a dis¬ 
tance of 3ft. from it. When the roots are thus laid bare you 
would be able to see whether the American Blight was hiber¬ 
nating there, because, if present, the insects would be betrayed 
by particles of white woolly-looking matter adhering to the roots 
in places. The roots could then be deluged with strong soap¬ 
suds and left in that condition till the water soaks away, leaving 
the ground fairly firm. In the case of a very had attack, the 
dose of soapsuds might be repeated before covering up the roots 
again. 
Nitrate of Soda and Peas. 
I hear that some growers recommend the use of nitrates for 
Peas, notwithstanding that many writers say such a means of 
manuring Peas is needless. I would like to improve the crop, 
although we get a fair return. Would nitrate of soda do any 
good? (G. C.) 
In the case of early Peas and a heavy soil it might have some 
effect, as a good crop often depends upon a good growth being 
made before the plants come into- bloom. During the early part 
of the season nitrifying agents are not very active, especially on 
heavy soils, so that an application of nitrate of soda might act 
beneficially by affording a. readily available nitrogenous food. 
V hy not make the experiment on a small scale, leaving one or 
two lines without the manure as a cheek to> see whether you 
get any advantage by the use of the manure? W T e calculate 
that early crops of Peas would derive more advantage from appli¬ 
cations of the nitrogen than late ones; especially in heavy soils. 
Novelties in Carnations. 
Last year I saved a quantity of seed from good varieties of 
Carnations. Is it necessary to grow and flower these under glass 
to get the best results ? They would take more house room than 
I can well afford. (R. B. J.) 
You would undoubtedly get. the finest blooms under glass; that 
is, they would develop better than in the open air. It would 
be a mistake, however, to attempt to grow very large numbers 
of Carnations under glass from seeds of the ordinary border 
varieties. They would occupy a deal of space, and require as 
much attention as if all of them were good, whereas the proba¬ 
bilities are that more than half of them will be worthless, except 
as cut flowens in the ordinary way. A better plan would be to 
plant them out in the beginning of next month in a bed of 
well-prepared soil, treading this firm before planting them. This 
year they will only make green tufts of leaves, but next year 
probably every one of them wiil flower. You can then readily 
determine which are the best flowers. All those that are abso¬ 
lutely worthless may he discarded immediately. The very best 
may be marked, so that you oan use them only if space is limited, 
but some which appear second-rate may have another trial, as 
they are almost certain to give different results the second year, 
either for better or for worse. You will thus see that we should 
always grow seedling Carnations out of doors, in order to see 
what their value really is, and thereby prevent valuable space 
from being occupied with seedlings that may turn out valueless. 
Double-spathed Arum. 
In one of the pots of a batch of Arums here is a stem with 
two spathes. Is that of common occurrence? Can I do any¬ 
thing to make it come like this next, year? (J. W.) 
Such double-spathed Arums are of fairly frequent occurrence— 
that is, one or two may come like it in a collection every winter, 
or they may come occasionally. There is no accounting for them, 
except on the score of over-luxuriances of growth and feeding. 
You should mark the plant and treat it liberally next year, with 
the object of keeping up its vigour, and possibly it may come 
similar next year. A better way of fixing the peculiarity would 
be to fertilise the bloom with its own pollen, and thereby raise 
seeds from the plant which behaved in this fashion. It some¬ 
times happens that when the constitution of the plant has been 
disturbed in some way you can perpetuate and even develop the 
peculiarity by raising seedlings from the plant. In any case, it 
might be worth yo-ur while to try wihat could he done in this 
way. We know that many people have failed to get the same 
plant to produce a double spa the the following year. 
B3st Time to Plant Hollies. 
We intend planting some Hollies of good size. What do you 
consider the best time to-do it, in spring or autumn? (W. S.) 
Spring, in our opinion, is the best time for transplanting 
Hollies of large size, but it should be late in spring rather than 
early. April or May would be a suitable time, because then 
the trees should be about to make fresh growth. When Hollies 
are about to do this it is only necessary to. keep them well 
watered for a short time until the- plants are moving, when new 
roots will be developed, and in a short time lay hold of the fresh 
soil. We presume, also; that you will lift the trees with a good 
ball of soil, that being a necessity with very large Hollies. 
Fruit Trees with Excrescences. 
I send you herewith a small piece of a Pear tree in the garden 
of a house which I am just taking. The tree is a fairly large- 
one, and it is all covered with excrescences as per the sample sent 
you. Will you kindly tell me what this is, and whether it is any 
good keeping the tree in such a condition, and, if possible, what 
the cause of it is ? I may s-ay that there seems to be another 
tree very near it which has been affected in a. similar way, but 
which is not quite so bad. (B. F. Breach.) 
The specimen you sent was that of an Apple tree, and was 
very bad indeed. It has been badly affected by the American 
blight, one of the woolly aphides known as Schizoneura lanigera. 
It is, at the same time, affected with the Oyster Shell Bark 
Louse or Apple Mussel Scale (Mytilaspis pomorum). A corre¬ 
spondent has been answered above concerning the American 
Blight, and the .same would apply in your case, but it is more 
complicated, owing to the presence of the scale just named. The 
excrescences have all been caused by the American Blight, which 
piercers the tissue while soft, and sets up an irritation that causes 
the abnormal outgrowths. It would seem that the blight has 
settled chiefly on the spurs, and often where they have been cut. 
If the tree is otherwise in good health—that is, capable of 
making growth—we should try and clean it by cutting off a. large 
number of the spurs bearing those excrescences, but particu¬ 
larly those on which there are no leaf or flower buds. You must 
not destroy all the buds on the short spurs, otherwise vou will 
