HORTICULTURAL HINTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3613, 17 February 1906, Page 4

HORTICULTURAL HINTS.

Give the orchard all the potash that it needs. Coarse, raw manure is not fit for the garden. Toads, frogs and lizards are useful in the garden. The gem melon is the best seller in 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 get ting a good seed bed pays in garden work. Cut off ail the bruised roots when planting a tree, but do not mutilate the top. A neglected orchard incumbers land that might 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 Pill* to Plant*. The following note by Mr. Paul, of Chcshunt, on the method employed by M. Georges Truiffent 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 n given time, such as six months, are weighed out and enclosed in a metal cover to form what is called a “pRI,” 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 which remains firm and hard. It ia stated that the solubility of the salts can be so regulated that a “pill" may be made to lost three or six months, aa may be desired. By this method of feeding large well-colored plants are grown in pots of less than half the usual size.—Gardeners’ Chronicle. Charcoal for Lavra*. The dark color of charcoal makes it absorb heat, and thus warm the land to which it is applied as a dressing. It may also have considerable manurial value, as the charcoal easily absorbs ammonia, and if soaked in strong manure water from a compost it will carry tie ammonia to the lawn ift less offensive form than in the manure, which is often used for that purpose.