————— 
Ws raining.” Then, to the rejoinder, 
September 1, 1909 
siderably less, and in addition a little 
lime is beneficial to the soil. For the 
flower garden lime an! soot should be 
used. 
* * * * * * 
NITRATE OF SODA FOR ONIONS. 
*N.H.. Wallaroo Mines, writes .— 
Please say how much nitrate of soda to 
the square yard for Onions, and how best 
applied. 
You may use from one to two hundred- 
Weight of nitrate of soda to the acre, 
according to circumstances. If you work 
this out you will find that the larger 
quantity will work ont to about half a 
pound for every eleven square yards. 
ae TERN NON 
EDITORIAL. 
eH ogee 
E felt bound last month to open 
our editorial article with the 
Words wet, wet, wet 
feel obliged to go one better and say 
Wetter, wetter, wettest. If tillers of the 
soil for flowers, fruit, and vegetables 
found it difficult to get on to the ground 
because it was too wet, surely during the 
Month of August it became so saturated 
With water that the workers eyes would 
€ven brin over with moisture at the 
Sight of the ground. This is not as it _ 
Shonld be, and adds yet another argument 
to the persistency with which we have 
been advocating the necessity of system- 
Atic drainage of garden and orchard land. 
We know of several gardeners who do 
adopt a system of drainage, but there are 
Many more who think the time and 
labor not worth it, if. indeed, they think ’ 
-Anyth'ng at all about it, which is very 
doubtful. The majority seem to think 
that if they can prevent floods and 
Washaways that is quite good enough, but 
are sadly disappointed when after heavy 
Tains they find the land so sodden that it 
is impossible to get on the ground to 
Work it, They remind us of the old- 
time joke about the nigger who was found 
‘Sitting ina disconsolate condition inside 
his hut while the rain was driving through 
his roof, When remonstrated with by a- 
Caller who asked -him why he did not 
Tend his roof, laconically replied, ‘Can’t; 
> 
This month we — 
‘carefully, but it pays. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
‘why don’t you mend it when it is not 
? 
raining? said, in the same laconic 
fashion, ‘Don’t want it then.” That is 
about the position held hy many tillers 
The fact that during the 
busy month of August many workers 
of the soil 
have lost both time and money through 
their ground being saturated gives 
opportunity for again impressing upon 
cultivators of the soil the necessity of 
putting in drains. Earthenware pipes 
are the most effective, but failing the 
cost of that system, stones are a very 
Cnt the ditch out 
about two feet deep, make a small groove 
good substitute. 
at the bottom to take the pipes asstraight — 
as possible, cover the pipes with stones, 
or leave them out if they are not easily 
obtainable, and then fill in, care being 
takex all the time to see that the pipes 
have a sufficient fall to carry off the water 
easily and rapidly. Under this system 
there should be but little Iuss of time and 
labor under the most unfavorable con- 
ditions, and the drainage will soon pay 
for itself. 
+ se dagls 
New additions to orchards should have 
been completed a month ago to give the 
young trees a fair start with their reot 
growth, but trees plant:d even this 
month will live and get along fairly well 
for an early start to grow next year. If 
it is too late for slanting it is also well 
~ beyond the time for pruning, which 
should now be completed, the cuttings 
being gathered up for burning, to give 
plough a chance to get in as soon as the 
ground is anything like fit for turning in 
the green stuff. Sufficient attention: is * 
not paid to cleaning the trunks of trees. 
It is too much bother to scrape them all 
Anyway the 
trunks and limbs should be roughed over 
to shed off some of the worst of the insect 
hiding bark and rough surfaces. Then 
spray with a reliable spraying oil, The_ 
spray pump is just as much a part of the 
equipment for orchard cultivation as the 
plough, or the cultivator, although we 
‘regret to say that many orchardists do 
‘not seem to think so. If they did we 
‘should not hear so much pessimism about 
codlin moth and the hundred other 
enemies which take away the profit of 
hard work. The warmer weather will 
come quickly now, and the pump must be 
‘kept in thorough going order, Not left 
anywhere, anyhow, uutil the time comes 
to use it and find eyerything wrong, and 
no means of putting it right without a 
lot of hard words, money, and loss of 
time. There is too much hand to mouth 
business about many cultivators. Their 
short noses are stuck up in the air 
of indifference, and they will not look 
further than the end of it. 
oe ate 
While on the subject of diseases the 
potato blight that is now the talk of most 
people whether growers or consumers, is 
brought to mind’and it may as well be 
mentioned that if growers would be more 
particular about their plants there would 
be less disease. D/sease is generally the 
result of neglect or careless cultivation: 
Producers are not sufficiently obser- 
vant. They are all after money, Their 
eyesight is diseased with silver blight, 
’ which blinds them to the necessity’ of a 
little extra labour in keeping the plants 
well cared for and their seed clean, any- 
thing will do, shore it into the ground 
somehow, anyhow. Quantity is what is 
looked for, 
acre, never mind what the quality may 
So many tons to the 
come out like. The soil, too, is very often 
neglected. It seems to be forgotten that 
diseases are harboured as much in weeds 
and dirty ground as they are in the plants 
How few culti- 
vators regard the use of salt and lime as 
purifiers to the ground. Lime is advo- 
that are grown there. 
cated and generally acknowledged by 
eyerybody as a good destroying agent for 
germs of diseases in animals (including 
* mankind), then why not for vegetable life 
where dirty and neglected conditions 
prevail. Scientifically it is recognised 
that what can be done in the animal 
world can also be applied to the vegetable 
Kingdom, and so the argument goes on 
that if fungus diseases find a congenial 
habitat amongst neglected trees, and in 
neglected land lime is the agent to use to 
purify the conditions. It is only when 
such a calamity as potato occurs to make 
consumers pay heavily for it that they 
begin to look around for remedies, instead 
of making prevention a principle, The 
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