— 7 
December 15 1909 
the former you either overwork the butter 
- to get the salt in or if you don’t you can- 
not work the salt sufficiently in. 
9, Try not to wash the butter more 
than is absolutely necessary. The more 
you wash the butter the more possibility 
there is of washing out its taste and 
flavour. 
10. It is far better to stand butter and 
cream outside during the night, properly 
protected from dust, etc, : 
41. Neat and tasty make up of the 
_ putter and neat packing will help a lotin 
the sale of the article on the market. 
‘12. It is not desirable to use any “ pre- 
-servative ’ for fresh butter, if the cream 
is well and properly ripened; the butter 
should keep long enough for the fresh 
butter trade without it. 
13. It will be better always to churn 
the cream a little on the under ripe side 
than over ripe. Over ripe cream is the 
forerunner of rancidity. 
Ornamental Berry Plants. 
When the Floral display of the garden 
_is getting over, the plants which produce 
ornamental fruits and berries begin to 
attract our notice, and it is then that we 
realise how effective they are for provid- 
ing a bright contrast to the foliage around 
them. Many of the rose tribe, including 
the sweet-driar, will fruit abundantly on 
some soils, while the hips of the hardy 
Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa) are very 
large and grand for autumn decoration: 
~ The blooms should be left on for this 
purpose. The common barberry ( Ber- 
- boris vulgaris) is exceedingly ornamental 
and there are other species with crange, 
- purple, and white fruits. The evergreen 
thorn (Crateegus pyracantha) bears. large — 
clusters of scarlet berries, and others of 
the same family. ©. lelandii, with. large 
orange-red fruits, Oxyacantha paracox 
(the Glastonbury thorn), and numerous 
others, all bearing handsome fruits. 
Cotoneasters are very ornamental during 
winter; they are often used for covering 
~ bare walls and fronts of houses, where the 
glossy foliage gives a good effect. even 
when the berries are not present. ©. 
microphylla is the best of the genus for 
gardens near great towns, as it grows 
freely and bears fruit abundantly. even in 
smoky districts. CO. simmondsii compen- 
sates for the partial loss of its leaves in 
_ Winter by the profusion of brilliant orange 
red berries it exhibits. Sambucus race- 
‘mosus, the scarlet-fruited elder, and the 
stawberry tree Arbutus unedo, with its 
_ strawberry-like fruit, are good hardy 
_ border shrubs. 
The butcher’s ‘broom 
- Solamnn capsicastrum. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. n:) 
(Rnseus aculeatus) as pretty red berries 
and dark green foliage. The viburnums 
of various kinds provide handsom clusters 
of scarlet, ‘blue, and black berries. V. 
opulus is the wild guelder rose; Aucuba 
japonica, a popular hardy shrub, is very 
ornamental when well berried: but A. 
longifolia and some other forms often 
produces finer berries and in larger bunche 
Hymenanthera crasaifolia, a New Zealand 
shrub, bears white berries in the autumn 
Other white-berried plants are Cornus 
paniculata and Symphorisarpus racemosus 
the shrubby snowberry. Benthamia fragi- 
fera is a fine evergreen shrub, with large 
strawberry-like fruit, which lists forsome | 
months, Shepherdia argentea and cana- 
densis are very ornamental with silver- 
looking leaves and a quantity of edible 
scarlet fruit. Among the peat-loving 
plants the many forms of Pernettya 
mucronata are quite hardy and highly 
ornamental during the winter and spring 
months, when they are thickly covered 
with berries of various colors, and are 
particularly worthy of the attention of 
those who collect and cultivate interesting 
shrubs; the colors of the berries vary 
from white to almost black. Other Ameri-— 
can plants which thrive in similar soil are 
the gaultherias. G. procumbens is an 
ornamental dwarf plant with scarlet edible 
fruits following its white pendulous 
flowers. Then there is the spindle tree. 
Euonymus europwus, and Berberidopsis 
corallina or coral berry, with its minature 
scarlet cherry-like fruit very graceful in a 
border. 
Many ornamental berried plants are 
useful for pot culture; and deserve to be 
extensively grown, as they last a long 
time, and can be used for decorative pur- 
poses when flowering plants would be 
very quicky spoiled. One of the most 
popular of these for general purposes is 
The plants can 
be raised from seed or propagated from 
cuttings early in the spring: the latter 
make more compact plants than the seed- 
lings and generally set their berries better ~ 
_ Skimmia japonica. though quite hardy, is 
a good plant for pot culture. If nice 
plants are obtained they will do real 
service for several years. as the plant is of 
very slow growth. The pots can be 
plunged in the open ground in the spring 
and allowed to remain until the berries 
are ripe in the autumn: the only atten- 
tion they will require is occasional] water- 
ing in very dry weathsr, 
Spraying Fruit Trees in 
Blossom. 
The practice of spraying fruit trees in 
bloom, as begun a few years ago, has led 
to considerable controversy as to the effect 
of such treatment upon the yield of fruit, 
as well as the injury to bees. As a result 
of the agitation a Jaw was passed by the 
‘legislature of the Stite of New York pro- 
hibiting the application of poisons to fruit 
trees while {n blossom. ‘The effect o 
such treatments upon the production of 
fruit has been investigated at both the 
New York State Station and the New 
York Cornell Station, During the year 
1900 extensive field experiments were 
conducted by the Cornell Station or 
spraying fruit trees in bloom, which 
showed no decisive results. The season 
was one of heavy crop and little disease, 
and a good or fair crop followed all treat- 
ments. There was no apparent injury to 
blossoms on trees sprayed when in full 
bloom. rb 
The effect of spray mixtures on pollen 
and blossoms was studied by the State 
station both in the laboratory and in the 
orchard. In the laboratory. pollen grains 
were put into clusters which contained 
insecticides or fungicide, and the ger- 
mination and growth compared with 
others placed in culture media without 
any fungicide or insecticide. From these © 
investigations it appears that if before — 
pollination occurs the stigmatic surface of 
the pistil should be covered either with 
Bordeaux mixture alone or with arsenical 
poison alone, of the strength commonly 
used in spraying orchard, there ‘would be 
no germination of any pollen which might 
afterwards reach the stigmatic surface. 
and so fertilization would be prevented 
no fruit would be formed. Even the. 
presence of lime alone, of the strength 
commonly used in spraying’ mixtures, 
prevented the germination of pollen. 
Bordeaux mixture was diluted in aqueous 
sugar solution to 500 parts. 200 parts 100 
parts, 50 parts, 2 parts, and 1 part in 
10,000 culture media into which various — 
kinds of pollen were introduced. Even 
when diluted to 50 parts in 10,000 it 
prevented germination to a large extent, 
and where germination did occure: the 
growth which followed was decidedly slow 
and the pollen tubes were dwarfed. When 
diluted to 100 parts, 200 parts, or 500 — 
either no germination or practically none — 
was found. : nana 
The effect of spraying mixtures on the 
apple blossom was examined, trees being 
sprayed in bloo;n and observations, made 
at different times until the fruit had be- 
come as ‘large as cherries. In the test 
where the trees where sprayed repeatedly, 
so as to hit as many as possible of the new 
blooms ues opened from day to day, 
but few blooms survived the treatment 
and but little fruit was set, showing that 
spray mixtures prevent the setting of fruit 
when applied to blossoms soon after they 
are open. If the tree should have a scant 
amount of blossoms, serious loss might 
follow from such treatments. In some 
cases pistils which showed the presenze of 
spray mixture on the stigmatic surfaces. 
awaited fertilization for severai days, (ut 
eventually withered and died. It appears 
that iu these cases the spray mixture in- 
habited the process of fertilization 
Blossoms vhich had been opsned several 
days before being sprayed seeined to hive 
reached a staye where the treatment did 
not check fertilization. 
