May 23, 1908. 
355 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Your plants are probably too crowded to 
low of sufficient growth. The rootstock 
■ permanent part, which stands in the 
•ound during winter, is a small bulb, and 
they are crowded too thickly together the 
aves and the whole plant will be slender, 
our best plan now will be to wait until the 
aves die away in June or July, and then 
ft (the clumps. Separate the bulbs and 
ant them thinly in lines. Next year they 
ill produce much stronger growth. They 
ake numerous offsets and would soon get 
owded again, but this can easily be reoti- 
=d by lifting the bulbs after the leaves 
e down. When digging the ground you 
.n use some well decayed manure, and if 
>t allowed to come in contact with the bulbs 
> harm will accrue. This will help them 
making their growth during the succeed- 
,g year. 
874. Shallots from Seed. 
Will you kindly tell me how to grow 
ballots from seed in your correspondence 
>lumn? (J- C. Baynton-Taylor ; Soms.) 
You will have no difficulty m raising 
ballots from seed if you can get any seed, 
sedsmen more often offer bulbs than seed, 
erv few; of the Shallots produce seeds as 
rule. The Jersey Shallot has large, 
>undish bulbs, and is more liable to run to 
:ed than the varieties which are usually 
rown. The plan is to sow seeds much in 
le same way as you would Onions, in lines 
■ drills 12 in. apart. After the seedlings 
:e well up you can thin them out to any 
squired distance. To encourage the pro- 
uction of well-formed bulbs you should 
ead the ground equally and firmly .all over 
fter levelling it. Then rake it and draw 
le lines as above mentioned. The ground 
ay be improved by having plenty of well- 
scayed manure dug into it in the autumn 
revious to sowing. 
FRUIT. 
875. Pear Trees Unfruitful. 
I would be obliged if you could explain 
hy the enclosed specimen of Pear tree 
lould have no blossom for three years, 
hen it was transplanted to see if that would 
ave the effect of making it bloom. The 
ear tree was carefully planted against a 
ellis, the roots were looked to and pruned 
rd it has been -well fed. The tree seems 
erfectlv healthy, without any break in the 
ark, and at all points at is in full leaf this 
ear, the same as the last three or four 
ears, without the slightest appearance of 
lossom and consequently no fruit. (M. B., 
lumfriesshire.) 
Pear trees require a higher temperature 
lan Apple trees to bring their fruit to per- 
jction, and the same conditions which mili- 
ite against the fruits also prevent rthe trees 
:om maturing their wood, plumping up the 
lossom buds and fruiting. Where the soil 
heavy and the rainfall considerable the 
'ees grow late in the season and fail to at- 
tin the fruiting condition. Some varieties 
ave more difficulty in ripening their wood 
lan others, but in this particular case, as 
e do not know the variety T w'e cannot cont¬ 
ent upon it, beyond the fact that the spur 
du sent seemed too soft" for producing 
iossom. A good plan would he to visit 
ardens in your neighbourhood and take 
| own the names of those varieties which 
:uit best, and to get some young ones of the 
|ime sorts for planting in your garden. In 
' le matter of manures, dt would be well_ to 
| unember that those which excite vegetation 
uerely, instead of encouraging the produc- 
I on of fruit, would also tend to prevent 
j our trees from fruiting. Farmyard manure, 
itrate of soda, and sulphate of ammonia 
rould encourage the trees to produce wood 
! nd leaves instead of fruit. Instead of this 
I e should use a dressing of kainit and super¬ 
phosphate of lime. Wood ashes would also 
answer the same purpose as kainit. Both 
these manures are beneficial to fruit trees, 
and although they thus conduce to healthy 
growth that would be of a more restrained 
kind and would act in producing more fruit¬ 
ful wood. Seeing that your tree has been 
planted for three years, it may again be 
growing too vigorously, and root pruning 
without lifting the tree would prove bene¬ 
ficial. This could be done by taking out a 
trench at some distance from the trunk and 
cutting back all the rampant roots which 
you find. This, in conjunction with the two 
manures we mention or any artificial manure 
containing the same, would be conducive to 
fruitfulness. Do not forget, however, that 
some varieties of Pears would fruit better in 
your neighbourhood than others. 
2876. Vines Warted. 
Can you tell me what is the matter with 
the enclosed Viine leaves, which are rough 
with warts on- the under surface and seem to 
be attacked by some disease? What would 
you advise me to do to cure it ? I syringe 
them (twice a day, and they look healthy 
otherwise, and the berries have set -well and 
are now swelling. (Enquirer, Gloucester.) 
There is no disease about the leaves such 
as would be caused by a fungus. You must 
have been keeping the house too close and 
moist, with the object of bringing the Vines 
on as quickly as possible with the smallest 
expenditure of fuel. Whatever the reason, 
the atmosphere of the house has been kept 
too damp more or less throughout the day. 
The warts on the under surface of the leaves 
are merely outgrowths from the surface 
cells, due to some disarrangement of the 
functions of the plant. These warts will 
remain upon the leaves throughout the sea¬ 
son, but they need not be on the leaves still 
to be formed if you take care to give ventila¬ 
tion every day when the conditions are suit¬ 
able. For instance, if you desire to syringe 
in the morning that could be done and ven¬ 
tilation given sufficiently early to let the 
superfluous vapour escape from the vinery 
before the sun raises the temperature too 
high. That will have the effect of drying 
the atmosphere and making the leaves more 
leathery. If you continue keeping the house 
■too close the leaves would get more exten¬ 
sively warted and then it would he more or 
less injurious to the Vines by preventing 
the healthy functions of the leaves. You 
can avoid it another year hy taking care to 
ventilate the houses, so that the leaves will 
be dry on the surface for at least a couple 
of hours during the middle of the day. 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
2877. Spraying 1 with Paris Green. 
I wish to spray my Apple trees with Paris 
green to kill winter moth, etc. In one re¬ 
cipe it states that 5 ozs. to the gallon of 
water should be used. In another 1 oz. with 
2 ozs. of soft soap to 12 gallons of water. 
Which is correct, and should it be applied 
before the blossom appears or after? 
(Delta, Beds.) 
W T e do not know where you could have got 
the information about Paris green, but we 
do not think it a very reliable one. Five 
ounces to the gallon of water would almost 
certainly destroy the voung leaves of your 
Apple trees if if is the real article. You 
could obtain it in the form of finely-ground 
• powder lin a slightly damp state, because it 
does not then fly about in the same way as 
the dry powder, and theie is no danger of 
inhaling it when using it if obtained in thiSs. 
moist condition. It is a very poisonous_ in¬ 
secticide and has to he used with caution. 
You say that your trees are not yet in bloom, 
at which we are surprised, because the Apple 
trees in our district have mostly been in 
bloom for some days. If your trees are in 
bloom now you should wait until after the 
petals drop, otherwise the blossoms might 
get injured. Use the moist Paris green at 
the rate of £ oz. to ^ oz. in four gallons, of 
water. Apply it by means of a fine spray 
till the water just begins to drop from the 
leaves. Do not drench the foliage. Keep 
the liquid in a state of disturbance the whole 
time you are spraying, so that the Paris 
green will be equally distributed through 
the water. This proportion of the insecticide 
is for the young looper caterpillars of the 
winter moth, whale the leaves of your trees 
are still in a tender state. It would have 
been well if you had been able to spray be¬ 
fore the blossoms opened, because then you 
could repeat the operation .after the fall of 
the .petals, and this would be sure to catch 
the caterpillars at a tender stage, when they 
would be most easily destroyed. 
2878. Grubs Rolling the Leaves. 
I should be obliged if you would advise 
me as to the enclosed leaves from Apple and 
Plum trees. There appear to be two kinds 
of grub, and some of the leaves are covered 
with a white powdery blight. Any informa¬ 
tion you can give me will be appreciated, 
as quite a number of my trees appear to be 
affected. (E. J. E., Essex.) 
Your trees are badly affected with more 
than one ailment, and possibly they are 
grown in. a very sheltered situation, which 
has the effect of encouraging enemies, both 
fungoid and insect. Possibly, also, your 
trees are planted too closely together, or the 
branches may be crowded. In this latter 
case you could remedy the matter by thin¬ 
ning out the branches some time before the 
end of September, while the leaves are still 
upon them. You can. then see where most of 
the crowding takes place. In the meanitnme 
you should make a bold attempt to clear the 
trees of the enemies with which they are 
affeoted. The mildew may be destroyed by 
flowers of sulphur. By means of a sulphur 
distributor it would not take a long time to 
go over the trees if they are not too high. 
The foliage had better be wet, as that will 
enable the sulphur to cling to them. The 
sulphur may, however, be applied after 
spraying the trees for the grubs upon them. 
We only found one kind of grub, which ap¬ 
pears to be the young stage of the small 
ermine moth (Hyponomeuta padella). Very 
possiblv. however, the winter moth or some 
of its allies may be amongst them, and if 
you can find any that form a loop in walk¬ 
ing, it is almost certain to be one or other 
of those last kinds we mentioned. The best 
plan would be to get some Paris green in 
the form of a paste, as this is less dan¬ 
gerous to use than the dry powder in which 
it is also obtainable. Use this paste at the 
rate of g oz. to 5 oz. to four gallons, or at 
the rate of 1 oz. to 12 gallons of water. 
This is a safe proportion Tor leaves that are 
still in the young state, and i.t will be suffi¬ 
cient to kill the grubs. The plan is to use 
a tine spray, just making the leaves moist all 
over the surface. There wall then he -a 
little of the deposit of the Paris green, and 
the young grubs will be poisoned in eating 
the leaves." A second application may be 
given ten days hence, so as to moisten the 
leaves that develop in the meantime. The 
sulphur may be applied after spraying for 
the grubs 
G ✓ 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
2879. Paving with Pebbles. 
Having a fine lot of pebbles I wish to 
pave a portion of the garden path, which is 
always muddv in wet weather. Will you 
be good enough to say what is the best wav 
of doing it, so that it will be firm .and drv? 
How are the pebbles kept from moving about 
when vou are walking upon, them? (R. 
Castleton, Lines.) 
