HORTICULTURE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3533, 10 June 1905, Page 4

HORTICULTURE

F!QH i ING It'JSuCTS. Some Valuable Forr.inlas FaruUhed hy Vcott. Maynard. Every fruit and plant has its peculiar insect enemies and lungous diseases. Progressive farmers, gardeners ami fruit growers are provided with spraying machinery for overcoming these pests, and spraying is as much routine work as is cultivation or fertilizing. For fungous pests, because of cheapness, effectiveness nnd lasting qualities, the bordenux mixture has superseded all other mixtures. To make it, four pounds of copper sulphate or blue vitriol are dissolved in two gallons of hot water; or, suspended in a coarse rack in a cask of cold water it will dissolve in a few hours. Caustic or quicklime, four pounds, is then slaked slowly by adding small quantities of water until thoroughly dissolved. When

DOUBLE CYLINDER SPRAY PUMP. cooled, the lime wash is poured through a fine mesh sieve into the dissolved copper .sulphate. To the mixture is then added 25 to 50 gallons of water. Destruction ' > fungous is probably caused by 'the copper, which is held in place by the 1 imc. Should the bordeaux mixture disfigure the fruit, the am* moniacal c:ivbo:..-i .• of copper should be used and applied often, as it washes easily. Formula: Copper carbonate three ounces, ammonia enough to dissolve the copper, water 40 gallons. Paris green and kerosene emulsion are the insect icicles in most common use. Paris green effectually destroys chewing or leaf-eating insects, and is less Hal o to injure foliage than london ptr ie. Use in water, one pound to 200 ga.-.-ns. If lime is auded,* or the paris green added to the bordeaux mixture, use one pound to 50 gallons. For sucking insects, the kerosene emulsion is unequaled: Dissolve u half-pound of bar soap in two gallons of hot water, and while hot add two gallons of kerosene oil and stir until a lard-like substance is formed. When used, dilute with water to 15 or 25 gallons. Insects ; and fungous growths appear together, hence, many combine paris green with the bordeaux mixture, saving half the cost of application. For applying, the pump selected should throw a heavy stream, with considerable force, and yet work with ease. The illustration 1 ’ herewith shows a powerful pump and \ suitable sprayer for all ordinary crops. 1 The barrel is readily mounted on any -- form of wagon.—Prof. S. 1. Maynard, Mass. Agr. College, lit Farm and Home. HORTICULTURAL HINTS. Give the orchard all the potash thatit needs. Coarse, raw manure is not fit for the garden. Toads, frogs and lizards are useful in the garden. The cent melon is the best seller tn the market. Prune the quince tree and train it to a single stem. Missouri sold $19,500,000 worth of fruit last year. Extra work in getting ft good seed bed pays in garden work. Cut, off all the bruised roots when planting ft tree, but do not mutilate the top. A neglected orchard incumbers land that nfight be used profitably for other purposes. A late crop of cabbage is easily grown, for the seed can be planted in the open ground. Five acres in cucumbers for pickles will ordinarily pay as much as all the rest of the farm.—‘Western Plowman. Feeding Fills to X’lanls. The following note by Mr. Paul, of Gheshunt, on the method employed by M. Georges Tnutfent of administering artificial food to plants is of considerable interest to horticulturists. After an analysis of the ash of the living plant, the necessary salts for a given time, such as six months, are weighed out and enclosed in a metal cover to form what is called.a “pill," which is presumably inserted in the pot, diffusion of the salts taking place through the folds of the metal, and the thicker the metal the slower the diffusion. As the salts dissolve and disappear'they are replaced by a core which expands until it completely fills the “pill.” The salts have no action on the metal cover winch remains firm and hard. It is stated that the solubility of the salts can be so regulated that a “pill” may be made to last three or six months, as may be desired. By ibis method of feeding large well-colored plants are grown in pots of less than half the usual size.—Gardeners’ Chronicle. Charcoal for Lawn*. The dark color of charcoal makes it absorb heat, and thus warm the land to which it is r ”' v " 1 ns a dressing. It may also h.... . . de mnnurial value, as the charcoal easily absorbs ammonia, and if soaked in strong manure witter from a compost it w ill carry tke ammonia to the lawn iR less offensive form than in the manure, which is often used for that purpose.

"■ "f BITS OF SCISWCE.

The wasp and the fly are irreconcilable enemies. The presence of a ws-p’s neat is a guarantee to tic whole neighborhood of the absem of flies. A product of the heretofore unr>” due. ive deserts of Utah is a k...-. ■■ ■ watermelon which is picked in 0" c.,b; r. The melon ripens after it picked. An air-cooling system on a v scale is to be tried at the St. Lou. exposition. Great fans will bring down a current of cold air from a height of 800 feet above the earth and pour it over the grounds on hot days. Prof. Wilbur C. Knight, of the statuniversity of Wyoming, is rngu in putting together pieces of a sea serpent which he discovered in 1805. The animal was 60 feet long and is one of the most valuable specimens ever captured. To see objects at a distance of 100 miles the observer must be standing at a height of 6,607 feet above the level of the sea. The rule is that the distance in miles at which an obj;ct on the earth’s surface may be seen is equal to the square root of one and a half times the height of the observer in feet above sea level, allowance being made for the effect of atmospheric refraction. Prof. McKendrick, in his presidential address to the physiology section of the British association, in September, remarked that the smallest particle of matter that can k --a with our present microscopes is between one-fonr-hnnd rr d - tbonsan d. t h and one-fi vc-hum! red-thousand th of an inch in diameter. The diffraction of light, in the microscope forbids the possibility of seeing still smaller objects. Yet the living spores studied by physiologists are sometimes, probably, oven smaller in size than the most minute particle that the most perfect microscope can show. The stars which are called “fixed stars” arc pro- ’y so d.scribed. They do not change their relative places appreciably even in the longest periods of time with which history has to deal. Take, for instance, the twin stars winch form the belt o f~ O:. . that C'Vit'-llc tion which is especially the glory oi winter skies. There is no doubt that the relative positions of these tw n stars, and their positions relot v >o other stars in the vicinity, were ,:ust the same I.PO-t years ago as they are today. so far at hast as the general appearance of the constellation is concerned.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS.

Mayor Low, of New York, refuses to perform the marriage ceremony, say* ing that to do so would take up time which -night be spent to much greater aavanirjre. Chines.. Minister Wu Ting Fang gave S3OO toward the ransom of Miss Ellen Stone. Another Chinaman gave $12,000 toward a professorship at Columbia university. Col. Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, will quit the road after next season’s round and then he intends to cut off the long hair that has grown white and straggly in recent years. “Leslie M. Shaw,’’ says a friend of the new cabinet official, “will be the David Harum of Roosevelt’s administration. What I mean is that Mr. Shaw is a natural born man of affairs and the personification of shrewdness. ’Ex-Empress Eugenie is busy preparing her -m-muirs. A comp’; “cr-d of her re : ':. ‘s to be left ah ; : death to the public library rf b'rls. The empress has carefully filed t'erj pcisonal letter since the day of her marriage.

OBSERVATIONS FROM LIFE. Statistics some time* prove that liars can figure. A budding genius is all right untilhe begins to blow. Her nulur's boot f rtqv.;-rtly makes an unfavorable impression. Too much of the rmseon rmsworld tries to pass Use. i < r. ; ■•u”:;'. It is better time than right ■■ -a ; e. The more a won... . more she is unable to com! ", ' -if. Some dancing, insttaa of being the poetry of motion, is mere doggerel. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, but the cost of repairs is extra.. Young men think themselves wise and drunken men think themselves sober. The man who knows it all is a fit companion for the woman who knows nothing. Any man can think as he like*, but it isn’t always policy to put his thoughts into words. —Chicago Daily News.

HEALTH AND COMFORT.

Never use heavy bedclothing. Weight and warmth are not synonymous'. A child’s appetite is a pretty fair in* •Hcalor of health; so, if it fails, and the failure is not due to indiscretion in diet, see whether it is worried over lessons and has enough sleep. To promote children’s appetites, take care that they have plenty of outd* ■ exercise and that they have only stub -imple. homely food us they can digest. ]f this be dune there will seldom, n ever, be any cause for anxiety on the score of .ack of appetite, ; Q nt . may prevent chilblains by wrapping the'chilled part very thickly in cotton, wool or flannel and taking brisk exercise in a room having a temperature of about 00 degrees Fahren* ' hell. Should a chilblain pre-cr.; itself i let it be ••pointed” at once with a mixf tur® qS glyewia wMadonaft iiaiI