THE GARDEN.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 50, 17 May 1884, Page 6

THE GARDEN.

Kitohon Garden. (From the " Auckland Star. ") AsrAKAous.— Cut down the old stems and take oft' some of the surface soil, placing it on the paths between the beds. Dress the bed 3 with a heavy sprinkling of salt, then cover the bed with about six inches ot well-rotted stable manure. Sea-weed, if it can be easily obtained, will be better for the purpose. A V here new beds of the above are required, now is the best time to make them. Trench the ground to a depth of two feet, and put into the trenches plenty of well-rotted manure and decayed rubbish. Let the beds stand till planting time comes on. New rhubarb and seakale beds should also be made now ; make the beds for these in much the same manner as the asparagus beds. In old seakale beds, clear away the debris, fork over the surface, and apply plenty of well-rotted manure. Rhubarb, lift and place in a shade for a month or two boforo planting again. Give the soil where they are to be re-planted a thorough tronching, using plenty of manure. Thin out any seedlings which are too thick in the rows. Earth up all the early autumn-planted crops. Plant out a small bed of shallots in good rich soil. Complete the trenching of all vacant pieces of ground !as soon as possible. The present dry weather cannot last much longer.

Flowor Garden. Hurry on the new alterations, have the lawns levelled and sown down in grass as soon as possible. Where a dressing is to bo wiven to the lawn it should be done at once. See that the soil is properly worked in about the old grass with the rake. Have it properly levelled. Sow fresh grass seed, then apply a heavy roller, going over with the roller two 01 three times. The mixed flower borders will now be fast putting on their winter face. Give the plants an overhaul, cutting back those that may require it, staking away all dead or decaying wood and leaves. Tut plenty of decayed manure all over the surface, and have it forkei into the ground. Recollect the more manure put into the ground the better will be the return in flowers next season. Continue planting out the early spring flowering bulbs, as already directed last week. Lift dahlia roots as they ripen, place them in the sun to dry for a week or so before storing past for the winter. Put a mark or label on all bulbs left in the ground for tho winter, so that their whereabouts may be known. Cut and clip grass edgings. Hoe, rake, and roll walks making the place look as neat and tidy as possible. GiiKENiiousK. — Sometime towards the end of this month tho house should receive an overhaul. Have the glass and woodwork all thoioughly washed with soap and water ; paint woodwork if it requires it ; wash all the pots to clear the moss from them. Remove a little surface soil from each pot ; replace with a little fresh compost ; also look to see that the drainage of each plant is in good order, as a good number ot plants are lost j every winter through insufficient drainage. Pot a few hyacinths and tulips for early I flowering, using a good friable loam, sand, well-rotted manure, with a little wood ashes. Keep up a good circulation of air. It is poor economy to burn straw. There are so many useful purposes for the straw that the wise fanner will scarcely need to have recourse to fire to got rid of it. It makes an excellent mulch for all kinds of fruit trees, and it may befreely used for bedding, and by frequently changing the compost heap may be rapidly augmented. By all means save the straw. KKNOvATiXii Grass Lawns. — This is the best month of the year far renovating grass lawns. There are three ways ot doing this, by turfing, by inoculation, and by seed. Turfing is simply covering the whole surface with a sod of turf, the best method of all when good turf for the purpose can be obtained ; where such is under contemplation the operation will be better deferred till next month. Inoculation : Procure any good pieces of turf suited for the purpose (such can in most places be obtained from an old pasture or from the road-sides) ; get it free of weeds if possible. Cope this tin fup into little three-inch squares ; take and make little holes in the lawn, and insert theso squares of turf in the holes, letting them well into the soil ; place them about a foot apart — the closer the better, and sooner the grass from these squares will spread over the whole lawn. After the whole lawn has been gone over in the above manner, ha\o some good rich well pulverised soil \\ heeled ovei the mji f.ioe, and ,-pread equally all over ; give a »ood do*e, j-ay about fiom a quai ter to half an inch deep will bo a good dressing; have this thoroughly worked into the old grass, then sow fresh rye grass seed, raking and rolling it well. The rye grass will make a fair lawn till the other grasses from the little squares cover the whole lawn. I have assisted to make a good sole of gras3 in two years by the above means as good as if tho whole surface had been | turfed. This is the best month for doing the above. By seed, if it is desirable not to [go to much oxpense, give tho lawn a thorough scarifying with a harrow, then top-dress with some good rich soil and plenty of bones, then sow grass seed. This is also the best season for the above.

Apple Blight. A correspondent in the " Australasian " of March 15 says : — I am asked to make known to the general public, through the widely-circulating medium of the " Australasian, "the correct specific for my cure of apple blight, with which request I readily comply. I am the proprietor of a large orchard, and have in years gone by grown many thousands of bushels of apples. During that period I detei mined by perseverance to find a remedy against the apple j blight. I had known that for years the sheep of Australasia were, so to speak, rotten with what was euphoniously called sneep scab, but for many years till recently the acarus or insect-producing scab was stamped out, aided by very stringent laws and the compulsory dressing the sheep with a mixture the ingredients of which the late Dr. Rowe was instrumental in introducing to public notice. The ingredients consisted principally of sulphur. Now the secret was how to dissolve that mineral. Roche lime was the alkali employed, a large boiler being used for mixing the sulphur and lime, with the addition of water being used and placed on a fire for about 20 minutes. All the badly affected sheep being killed and burnt, and the others frequently dipped in Rowes specific, the scab was eventually eradicated. Studying this question, and knowing that Gishurst's compound or mixture of soft soap was recognised by orchardists as the best apple aphis dressing, it struck me that the principal destructive ingredient in these compositions was caustic potash or soda. By experiment as a solvent of sulphur, being the primary alkali and therefore the strongest solvent, I mixed the two together with water or suds, and applied it thickly round the stem of every apple tree. The resiiltwas the following year and ever since it disappeared ; nor for 12 years since I first applied it have I expended one farthing, or employed a single mement's labour in the matter of the apple aphis. But, sir, there is yet another remedy or scourge for the apple aphis, which I fully believe would prove an effectual exterminator of the phylloxera in

the grape vines, namely, oxide of iron. I have observed that vines growing in ferruginous earth— that is, soil containicg particles of iron — are least affected by phylloxera. Salt, therefore, will assist in dissolving the iron, and thereby render it more efficacious. I have found iron from a blacksmith's shoeing-forge and salt effectively destroy the applo blight ; and had I grown grapes I certainly would have applied it to the vines. I should like some of your numerous vigneron readers to try what I recommend and inform me the results. Another correspondent writing to the same journal says : — Within k the last few years I have witnessed a remedy for apple blight which* was tried accidentally, and which proved successful, in the garden of a gentleman in Geelong. When the garden in question was taken, two Pearmain apple trees were completely white with blight. When digging up some tomato plants after the tomatoes had been gathered the plants were placed temporarily in the lowest fork of one of these apple trees, which happened to be near, anil before the next apple season came round the blight had quite disappeared from this tree. The other trees were tried in the same way in order to have it proved whether the tomato plants were or were not responsible for the cure, and the same effect was caused. I may add that although the trees were so badly attacked by blight at first, the apples were always beautiful eating apples.