E. B. COX & Co., Seedsmen, Ete., corner Rundle Street and East Terrace. 
May Number of 
1908 
The Australian Gardener 
(A Monthly Journal of Floriculture, Horticulture, Agriculture, 
The Vegetable Garden— 
Operations for the Month 
Flower Garden— 
The Aster. 
Notes for the Month. 
Plant Notes. 
Treatment of Ferns. 
Homo-made Concrete Benches. 
Eprtoriat. 
EDITORIAL. 
Tue May number of “Tue AUSTRALIAN 
GARDENER”’ has blossomed out into a 
record issue with 25 pages of matter, every 
line of which should be read carefully for 
those who seriously seek information of 
use and interest. In addition to the 
literary test of the issue there are coluinns 
of advertising about practical and enter- 
taining subjects which make a house 
bright and cheerful. ‘Tae AUSTRALIAN 
GARDENER” has for years made a persis 
tent effort to give instruction to amateur 
gardeners, and to record interesting facts 
to professional men in the garden, the 
dairy, and on the farm. [t is therefore 
gratifying to the proprietary to see the 
gradual success attending its production. 
This success is alike cheering to those 
immediately concerned in the literary and 
business aspects of the concern as well as 
to its readers, who equally: reap the reward, 
The interests of the proprietary and the 
readers are mutual. All the efforts put 
forward by one when seconded by tho 
other result in mutual benefit to both, and 
we trust tiat this large increase in the 
issue will only be a forerunner of greater 
enterprise on the part of advertisers, 
readers, and the proprietary. 
The articlesas usual are replete with 
the best information obtainable from the 
most reliable sources, and what more can 
a reader want. For the garden the notes 
are seasonable, and nobody who reads 
and applies the necessary common sense 
with a little industry need have a garden — 
‘empty of bloom. A special article is 
‘devoted to the Aster, which the season 
CONTAINS— 
The Dairy— 
Keep the Cows Clean. 
The Making of Dutch Cheese. 
Dairy Notes. 
The Farm - 
The Over-heated Horse. 
Lime and its Application to the Soil. 
Stable Manare. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
has shown is becoming a favourite flower. 
Anybody can grow asters, and there is not 
a soul existing that does not admire the 
beauty of its cheerful bloom and variety 
of colouring. A number of paragraphs are 
given to the rarer kinds of flowers which 
require special care. And why should not 
everybody have a few specialities in their 
gardens, or make a little effort to put up 
a little shade house, or a frame to carry 
glass. It may be a little trouble, but a 
little trouble brings great satisfaction 
when one has something to show for it, 
To get out of the ordinary ruck of flower 
growing is like taking a drive through the 
bracing air of the hills when one spends 
all his routine life on the plains. ‘Chere 
is a brisk enjoyment in it, it is invigorat- 
ing to the system and pleasant to look 
upon. 
For the farmer, who should by the 
way always do a little gardening for the 
recreation of his mind if not his body, 
and cheer for his often disappointed dis- 
position, there 1s some excellent advice 
about the care of his horses, There are 
few thinys so helpless and discoacerting 
as a sick horse. If he could talk it would 
not be so distressing in his sickness, but 
mute suffering is painful to witness and 
induces a hopeless sort of fear of loss. 
The application of lime to soil is an article 
well worth careful consideration, if for no 
other reason than that it is too often neg- 
lected. In regard to manuring it may be 
supposed that everybody knows all about 
it, but the advice of our contributor this 
month is well worth reading even by those 
who know so much about it by experience. 
A new feature in this month’s issue is. ~ 
an article specially selected for the young 
folk. Every boy and girl should have a 
and Poultry), 
The Orchard— 
Preservation of Fresh Fruit. 
Apricots Dried and Salted. 
The Pou'try Yard— 
Diseases of Fowls : Chicken-pox, 
Table Poultry Crossez. 
The Young Folks— 
A Little Garden Calender. 
&e, &., &e. 
little garden plot of their own, no matter 
how small, lt should be part of their 
earliest training at home to help father 
and mother, “and equally responsible 
should parents feel that the good whole- 
some pleasure of making a little garden 
for their children is fully recognised. 
The meaning of terms in gardening is 
one of the first essentials to interest. The 
child should know why it does things. 
It is not enough to understandh tat if it 
puts a slip or seed in the ground it might 
grow intoa plant. ‘The more you can 
make it understand the greater the in- 
terest it will take in the product. 
The poultry yard still claims a good 
deal of space, and rightly so. The diseases 
which not only worry and kill the fowls 
but also worries and kills the interest in 
the poultry-keeper are continued and 
their treatment explained and deult with. 
A famous poultry raiser onc gave -a 
remedy for diseases in poultry which is 
sure but hardly a remedy after all. He 
said the best way to cure a sick fowl was 
to cut its herd off. Truly effective, but 
hardly satisfactory either to the fowl or 
the owner. A most instrutive article 
deals ,with poultry crossing for table 
birds and we know of no better advice 
than is given there. 
We are always writing about keeping 
the dairy clean. We cannot help it and 
if we could we would not. Itis the begin- 
ing and the end of success in the dairy, 
without it nothing much matters. Cheese 
making is but little practised, but that is 
no reason why people should not make 
Cheese for themselves and good cheese too. | 
The vegatable gardeners have their full 
share of advice, and so have the workers 
in the orchard. 
