The Garden. (By Hortis in "Auckland Star.")

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 402, 14 September 1889, Page 3

The Garden. (By Hortis in "Auckland Star.")

Small Forcing Frame. Often in these columns I haye pointed out; to amateurs and others the utility of a small candle box tilled with soil and a pane of glass placed on top of it for raising seedlings. Now, I was very much amused at a well-known amateur the other day. He told me that in future he was going to beat all the gardeners in Auckland, since he had adopted tho candle box and glass. He had purchased a packet of seed to try what he could do, and sowed half these seed in the box, covered it with the glass, and placed it in , a sunny place. Every morning he tilted the glass up so as to lot the air in, and in tho evening he placed the glass flat on the box to keep the cold out. The result was that in about tour days the seeds came through the ground and at present are doing well. The other half of the packet of seed he •sowed out in the open, and as yet he has not v see.n a single plant. Now, if others w ho do not possess glass structures were to do the., same with' not onty one box, but with a dozen or two, their success in tho .growing of flower seeds would be more than doubled. Firsb, the seeds would germinate "Ynuch quicker and better; second, they would be retained in a limited space where they could be better looked after from the .a-avages J of' ''the slugs, while in the tender »tages"of their .growth ; thirdly, the young plants could be allowed to grow on in the boxes till they had attained a large enough size .for pricking out singly, or with some of the annuals ; .a little patch could be lifted wifch a trowel and planted out in the border. By the time the above stage is arrived at the plants will be strong and hardy, and if put out immediately before rain will'^get established at once, ami commence to grow with vigour. Not only tliis, but they will be well past the stage that slugs or snails will be able to destroy them altogether. I would strongly advise more of my amateur friends to adopt the box. If they will do so their interest and pleasure in their gardens will be greatly enhanced, and very little extra trouble will greatly repay them by extra success.

Work in the Apple Orchard. The Kansas "Farmer" condenses the following points from a paper read by JN". P. Deming before a county horticultural society :—: — Clover should nob be sown in the orchard for the following reasons : 1. Clover makes growth the same time as the trees, therefore it absorbs the necessary moisture. • 2. The round-headed borer finds a good place to hide and deposit its eggs on account of the shade. 3. The tree hopper, another injurious pest, delights in the clover. It lays its eggs in the limb of the tree, causing them to become rough and retarding their growth, especially when the tree is young. 4: The liandmaid moth, one colony of which will strip the leaves as if by magic, finds a mellow soil to go into winter quarters, to come out the next year. I know whereof 1 speak on the above subject, for my own orchard has suffered from the above leasons. The old borer is transforming into a beetle state", being two weeks earlier than usual. There are two distinct borer hunter.%^ ou&i Works horizontally, the other in a perpendicular form, Both should be protected. lam now ploughing my orchard. I give the trees a good wash of strong lye before putting the soil back. The sooner we come to our fathers' methods the better our oichards will be. This I used under my father's instructions fortyeight years. It was good then, and is good now. • ' ' My mexfc work will be spraying for the codlin mpCh. * Foi'mula — Seventy or eighty* gallons' to one -pound of London purple. This is done with a barrel and force pump in a waggon, two persons being needed to apply. the mixture. It should be done when the apples are about the size of a Concord grape, or before they turn downward. No stock should be allowed to run in the orchard until heavy rains have washed the poison into the ground. Clean cultivation is the best remedy for the root plant louse. First cultivate about the time the tree 3 are making their growth or the fore part of May, keeping this up till about the Ist of August. Then the scythe should be used to keep the weeds down.

Summer Cropping. During thp next two months a large number of vegetables will be planted and sown, with the object of having a succession of vegetables during the summer months. Every season numbers of summer crops partly fail throughout the dry season, which is caused in a large number of instances through the soil not being laboured to a sufficient depth. When the soil is only laboured to a depth of one spade, the roots of vegetables can only penetrate to 'such depth, not having sufficient strength to enter the hard sub-soil. Not only do the roots not penetrate, but the sun's rays soon absorb all the moisture from the shallowwrought soils, leaving the crop, in a very short time, with a withered, dried-up appearance. To get over this difficulty all the ground set apart for the summer crops should be trenched at least two spades deep. Where such is done, it will allow of about double the depth for the roots to get down, and every extra inch deep of loose wrought soil will ensure a much longer period before the sun's rays will extract the moisture. Loose soil will retain moisture for a much longer period than hard or firm soils. Another matter which will greatly assist the summer crop 3 is, while the trenching i 3 proceeding, to bury a quantity of new littet manure, or if there is much gra3s to cut about the place, the fresh cut green grass will make a good substitute for the manure. The trenching should be what is called bastard trenching. That i 3, the bottom or sub-soil should simply be broken up and left underneath. Afterwards, whatever litter is to be put into the ground should be placed on the top of the broken-up sub-soil. Then the present top Bpib, or good soil, should be placed on the top of the litter manure. This should leave the manure about ten inches underneath the surface, where it will soon rot and help to become food for the crops by the time the roots reach it. For late summer crops I always prefer new stable manure, especially if I can place a little green cut grass in 'the trench with it. The reason for this preference is not altogether for the food it will supply to the crops, bub also for the moisture in the ingredients, and for the moisture it will help to retain in the ground. For instance, it only green cut grass is placed well down in the trench, the grass, when pub down, is succulent and full of moisture, and will at once begin to ferment and rot, continuing to do so for months. During this period ,it is giving off much moisture to the surrounding soil, and keeping it in about the same state as it is. As the warm season advances, the roots of the crop will get down to this stratum of moisture, and will be able to find moist food for a much longer period than from soils thatihave not been similarly treated. There is also another

great consideration to be obtained by the ut>e of this green manure, and that is, you place a heavy mulch of damp materials about a foot under the surface, with a considerable depth of , wrought soil underneath. The roots of plants will penetrate through the mulch into the soil undernoath. whore the sun's rays will not have one-bhird of the penetrating power that they have where the soil is left unmanured. Thus, by treating soils as above, it is quito possible to retain the necessary moisture in the ground for a few weeks longer. Before closing, I will point out that tho two most necessary requisites for the production of all crops aro heat and moisture. Great heat without moisturo would make it impossible for any plants to grow, and large quantities of moisture without heat would cause a stagnation of all growth. What is principally required is a moderate summer heat and suflioienl moisture in the ground to dissolvo che different particles that go to make what is called p'anb food. Wheie these two aro combined in due proportion we generally find that crops will always flourish. In our climate we have- during the summer and autumn months a warm, genial heat, but as the season advances we have not sufficient rainfall to keep the soil in a sufficiently moist state to promote vigorous growbh in such crops that depend on the ?oil for moisture. These crops soon show signs of sulferintr. All cultivators should try by all moans in their power to Mipply to tho soil such ingredients as will increase and return the moisturo in tho ground during the summer months.