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THE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

BY J. C. BLAIR,
Professor of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.
One ent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
| . M. PARKER, Taylorville, I11.

7
whAALs {

NEw SERIES, No. 13. WHOLE No. 25.
AYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, SEPTEMBER, 1902.

Domine Apple Tree.

“There was practically only one general horticultural
commodity a hundred years ago and that was the apple.”
— Cyclopedia S American Horticulture.

INTRODUCTION.

The city with its noisy streets and many storied

buildings has always seemed to the country boy or girl a_

fascinating place in which to live, while city children flock
to the parks and try to picture what it must be to live in
such a beautiful place all the time, for to the city child
the country is just a great park. Almost ali of us have

ane) a

this unfortunate habit of being dissatisfied with our sur-
roundings, and it is one of the best signs of our times that
the children of the farm homes are learning to see the
things that make farm life what it should always be—the
ideal life, because it is the very nearest to Nature herself.
In the country one has but to step out of doors to watch ~
mother Nature rearing her children. Here in the hedge
is the thrush’s nest, and there a chipmunk slips out from
a fallen tree and pops up on his hind féet to watch us.
All about are the little vines and plants and bushes which
Nature looks after through the entire year—never forget-
ting to send them the sunshine and rain in summer, or
the warm blankets of snow or leaves for their wintry beds.
In Nature’s garden are all these growing things and’none
can learn their secrets more easily than the country chil-
dren. Here in these natural gardens of meadow and for-
est, roadside and river bank, are learned the mysteries and
the beauty of outdoor life. An immense storehouse of
unexplored treasures lies in the very farm which we have
sometimes wished might be changed into busy city streets
with ‘‘something going on’’ aside from the eternal quiet-
ness of growing vegetation, _

Turning from the wild places where Nature gardens
for herself, to the farms all about us, we find that not all
those who live on farms engage in the same pursuits for
eafning a living. They may all be farmers in the broad
sense of the term—but one is a stockgrower, another
raises corn and other grains, while still another devotes
his energy to growing fruit or vegetables—or both. Of
the latter you will hear it said that he is a horticulturist.
Now this series of lessons is to treat of horticulture, and
you will probably wonder if anything with so long a name
can possibly be made interesting.

=

ip aft a
WHAT HORTICULTURE IS.

Let us first learn exactly what is meant by the word
‘horticulture’, and we can then decide whether or not it
is likely to prove an interesting study. Nowif you will
take your dictionary and look up the word “horticulture’’,
you will find that it is derived from the two Latin words
‘“hortus”’ and “cultura”. The dictionary will also tell you
that the meaning of these two Latin words is—‘‘hortus”
—a garden, and ‘‘cultwra’’—culture. Here we have it
exactly—and easily—‘‘garden culture”. But just here we
must be careful, for in these days we have narrowed down
the word garden to mean a little place where we may
grow a few vegetables or flowers—and after that—lots of
weeds. Now where the old Romans used the word “‘hor-
tus” they meant an enclosed place, and so with the Ger-
man word “‘garten’”’, and this enclosure might be of any
size up to the limit of the farmer’s possessions, Within
this enclosure were grown fruits, flowers, vegetables, and
trees for useful or ornamental purposes. So the growing
of all these things is what is meant by the term horticul-
ture. Ifa man undertakes to grow grapes as the means
of earning a living he has taken up that branch of horti-
culture called viticulture or vine culture; if he grows ap-
ples, pears, quinces, plums, cherries, nut fruits, oranges,
or lemons—or the small fruits—such as strawberries—he
has followed that branch of horticulture called pomology. -
The culture of vegetables is a division of horticulture
known as olericulture, and is of increasing importance in
the United States. In many sections of Illinois hundreds
of acres are yearly planted to rhubarb, melons, asparagus,
and tomatoes; these are shipped in many hundreds of car-
loads to the people of the cities. So you see the tables
of city homes far away are provided with vegetables per-

cede
haps: grown quite near your home. The most beautiful,
if not the most interesting divisions of this great field of
horticulture are floriculture and landscape horticulture.
By floriculture is meant flower growing, either for the
home or for the purpose of supplying city markets with
potted plants and cut flowers, which are in great demand
in all large cities, especially during the winter. Land-
scape horticulture is the growing of ornamental trees,
shrubs, and other plants for the purpose of adding beauty
to city and country home grounds and to public parks,
etc. Landscape gardening, which is often considered a
part of horticulture, is really one of those arts which we

term fine arts, such as painting, sculpturing, etc. It is
the arranging of plants and other objects of beauty in
any outdoor space in such a way that the result may be a
pleasing picture. |

Now in all this growing of fruit, flowers, and vege-

tables, do you not think we can find something to inter-
est and instruct us? There ought to be a great deal.
We have studied physiology in order to understand
the development of the human body—our physical make-
up. We have studied botany and know quite a little
about plants and their parts and habits. We need to
know something of zoology too, if we are to adjust our-
selves properly to the world about us. But between plant
life and human life there is a connecting link which we
miss if we study only botany and physiology. In study-
ing botany we learn the various parts of the wild flowers
and where they may be found and who their relatives are.
Why not add to this something still more important, a
knowledge of the proper growth and care of those fruits
and vegetables upon which we are largely dependent for
our healthy development?

cal et

We are not taking up this work with the hope that it
will make horticulturists of us. You do not expect to be
a physician or a nurse because you prepare your physi-
ology lesson daily. Our studies, if wisely selected, teach
us how to live. In order to know how to live so that we
can do the most good to the greatest number we must be
in touch with the animal and plant life about us. So
whether or not we ever expect to live on a farm or grow
fruits and vegetables, it will be well to know something
of that industry which is furnishing a means of livelihood
to an increasing number of our fellowmen each year.
Then, too, there is something of still greater importance
than food-supplying and money-making in horticultural
work, and this is too often forgotten. Who can measure
the good we receive from an interest in the things of na-
ture, from outdoor exercise, and companionship with trees
and flowers? Do you remember that Longfellow said in
one of his beautiful poems :—

“Go out under the open sky
And list to Nature’s teaching!”

We will greatly increase our happiness and our store
of health and wisdom if we follow this advice.

If you have read the quotation on the first page of
this leaflet, you may rightly guess that horticulture a
hundred years ago, had not become the great life work of -
thousands of busy people. - People in those days grew
what fruit they. wanted or went without it. Apples were
practically the only fruit that could be found in the mar-
ket, and these probably only found their way there be-
cause the farmer's trees had produced more than he cared
to make into cider. How interesting it would be to trace
the history ot the growth of horticulture considered merely

oF ee
as a business; then how much more so to find what has
been written about it during the past hundred years, and
how the new varieties of fruit have come into existence,
and then pushed their way into market. But to follow
all this would take more time than your other studies will
allow. For example in 1817 one hundred varieties of
apples were grown in this country. In 1892 the number
of varieties had swelled to more than two thousand.

Strawberry Picking in Southern Lilinois.

So you see we cannot hope to do more than go by
leaps and bounds over the field which horticulture covers
in all its divisions. |
Fifty years ago there were no large fields of straw-
berries to be found in the United States. To-day there
are hundreds of acres of this fruit in Illinois alone. The

——
above photograph was taken in the fields of George W.
Endicott at Villa Ridge, Illinois. |
( : — fruits.

Pano 4 Small fruits.
eee Herb-like fruits.
{ Grapes.
( Kitchen or home gardening.
| Market or commercial garden-
| _ | Olericulture ........ . ing.
Horticulture..... 4 | Gardening under glass or vege-
l table forcing.
: Amateur flower growing.
Floriculture ........ | Commercial flower growing.
| oe Cee ee The growing of ornamental
| ees 4 trees, shrubs, and other plants
met

for the purpose of adorning
| public or private grounds.

THINGS TO DO.

1. Count the seeds in each grape of a cluster. Does
the number vary?

2. Find out how many varieties of grapes are grown
in your neighborhood, or shown in your local market.

3. Compare a grape and apple leaf and write a de-
scription of each.

4. Make a drawing of each, showing the veining.

o). Tell how many trees a fruit grower can plant in
an acre if the trees are set thirty-five feet apart ?

“The district school cannot teach agriculture any
more than it can teach law or engineering or any other
profession or trade, but it can interest the child in nature
and in rural problems and thereby fasten its sympathies
to the country.” —L. H. Bailey.

“The soil, cultivated plants, domestic animals, are
not ape and elementary things, easy to be apprehended

OCT 29 1902
Meee

and comprehended. If we are to know them in any accu-
rate sense, we must see straight and clear and long.’’—

Dr A. Co T rite.

“Horticulture is the growing of flowers, fruits, and
vegetables, and of plants for ornament and fancy.—Cyclo-
pedia of American Horticulture.

Some books worth buying for the school or home
library. Each month one or more books will be sug-
gested: |

Garden Making, L. H. Bailey, $1.00, Macmillan Co., N. Y.
The Amateur’s Practical Garden Book, C. E. Hunn and L. H.
Bailey, $1.00.

Lessons With Plants, L. H. Bailey, $1.10.
First Lessons With Plants, L. H. Bailey, $.40.

Davenport’s Study of Farm Animals.

This series consists of 12 eight-page leaflets which treat of the
origin, nature and habits of the common farm animals. They are
intensely interesting and of great practical value.

These leaflets were prepared especially for school reading, and
may be used in all grades above the third. Their use will bring
pupils into close touch and sympathy with our domestic animals,
and at the same time give them a high regard for the blessings of
mankind.

Price, only one cent a copy in quantities of ten or more, alike

or assorted as desired. Sample set of the 12 numbers only 10
cents ee

Shamel’s Siude of Farm Crops.

These leaflets were written especially for school reading and
study to meet the growing demand for instruction in the essentials
of agriculture.

The boy who reads fhese leaflets will use his mind as well as
his body when doing the work on the farm. He will have a keen
interest in the germinating seed and the growing plant. The sim-
ple experiments and suggestive questions will set him to investiga-
ting in a manner that will be both pleasant and profitable.

There are 12 eight-page leaflets in the series. Price, only one
cent a copy in quantities of ten or more, alike or assorted as de-
sired: Sample set of the 12 numbers only 10 cents postpaid.

C. M. PARKER, Publisher,

Taylorville, Iliinois.

~ > -
opies MNeceivec

: $6 1903

on

ADD. |
SFHE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

aey o | BY J. C. BLAIR,
—ae ‘Professor of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.
One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, Til.
THIRD SERIES, No. 2. WHOLE No. 26.
TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER, 1902.

WHERE AND HOW PLANTS FEED.

The waves at work grinding up the rocks into sand.

_ This picture was taken on the shore of Lake Michigan and it
shows how the waves are constantly rolling the stones about and
grinding them up. This same thing is done by all rivers and
bodies of moving water.

WHERE PLANTS FEED.
_ In the first lesson we said that the effect of good food
is readily seen and the stock farmer never forgets this.
When he has stock to fatten he does not turn the animals

98
into a bare. pasture. They must have food. containing
fattening properties; they must have plenty of water and
must suffer neither from cold nor heat. a ae

These same things must be done for the plants of the ©
field and the trees of the orchards if they are to produce
good crops for the harvest. Every farmer knows what
grains will fatten his stock and day by day_he can judge
of the quality and measure the quantity at feeding time;
but the food that plants like and thrive upon he cannot
see and so he often forgets that they need anything more
than just a place to send their roots into—that is to say—
a place to hold onto. Then no matter what the weather
has been he blames it when the crops are poor and forgets
that while these same crops were getting ready for the
harvest he gave them nothing to eat. Yet plants are just
as hungry as growing boys and can eat almost as much.
The food that the farmer feeds his cattle is taken from
the corn-crib, granary, or haymow, but plant food is hid-
den away in that wonderful store-house of plant food—
the soil. But this food is not always stored away in a
form which the plants can use and sometimes there is
none at all where it is most needed. This is the reason
why thinking farmers are studying the soil to find out all
its hiding places for plant food and learning how to get
at this food as the plants need it. The study of the soil
goes so deep into the mysteries of the formation of this”
earth that men who have studied it all their lives still feel
that they know little about it after all.

WHAT THE SOIL IS.

Can you believe that it is really rock dust? Take up
a handful of the soil and examine it. It scarcely seems
possible that this powdery material was ever a rock. Yet
it was, although now it is something more for it is mixed

\
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se

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with decaying plant life—everything from the tiny moss
that lives its life and dies, to the giant tree that lies fallen
in the forest. This decaying vegetation, together with
manures and various fish and animal materials, often ap-
plied to the soil, makes up what is called the organic
matter of the soil. Then there is the soil moisture and
soil atmosphere. This latter differs in several particulars
from the air we breathe; soil atmosphere containing more
water vapor and less oxygen; and considerably more nitro-
gen and carbon dioxid.
THE CHARACTER OF THE SOIL.

If the soil is made up of large rock fragments, we
say itis stony. Stony hillsides in many states make the
farmer’s life miserable. Let the rocks be several degrees
finer and we say the soil is gravelly. If finer still then
sandy and so on until we have the sticky clay that in rainy
weather will fill the wagon wheels almost to the hubs if
the road bed has not been covered with gravel. There
are many other ways of classifying the different kinds of
soil but these lessons are only meant to serve as little
guide posts pointing out a few paths that it is hoped will
prove interesting enough to lead you farther.

SOMETHING MORE ABOUT SOIL COMPOSITION.

The foods that plants get from the soil are thirteen
in number—among which are phosphorus, nitrogen, iron,
sulphur, potassium, calcium and several others. There
are few soils which do not contain the most of these, but.
this does not necessarily mean that the plants grown in
these soils will therefore have enough to eat. This is de-
pendent on the condition of the soil and the composition
of the food elements,

_ We could not eat dry flour—yet we live largely on
articles of food made from flour. We combine it with

poy ee
milk or water and yeast and make bread. Upon bread
our digestive organs can easily act. Now when we say
that plants use phosphorus and nitrogen, etc., as food, we
do not mean that they absorb these separately, but that
when compounded with other food elements and dissolved
in the soil moisture, these food elements are taken up by
the plant.

For instance, the two gases, nitrogen and hydrogen,
combined form ammonia. This is absorbed by the plant
and the nitrogen helps it to make a strong stalk. Nitro-
gen is the most important food of plants, while the next
is phosphoric acid which makes hardy and fruitful plants.
Decaying vegetation aids the plants in getting phosphoric
acid, or it may be added to the soil in manures, bones and
phosphoric rocks which have been treated with acid.
Potash is another important plant food, making woody
tissue and starch. Wood ash contains all the potash
which the burned wood had absorbed while it was a grow-
ing tree, so it is a very valuable application to the soil.

All of these plant foods, or fertilizers as they are
called in commerce, may be bought and put into thesoil,
but your mother will tell you that it is cheaper to bake
than to buy bread. In all probability, mother nature has
stored away more food than all the growing crops in his
fields could use, if the farmer does his part by thorough
cultivation of the soil, or tillage as it is called, and by
adding such fertilizers as are produced right on his own
farm. Nothing should be allowed to go to waste on the
farm.

HOW SOIL IS MADE.

Nature has more than one means at her command for
fining the hardest of granite. All of the bodies of run-
ning water are helping her by grinding the pebbles over

ene

and under and around each other, taking offa corner here
and there until they are like little bullets and still each
day they lose a little more until they are ground to
dust. Then when this powder has been made it is washed
hither and thither until some time when there is high
water it will be cast up on the fields. Water-carried soil
is called alluvial soil. Frost breaks up the rocks and the
winds blow particles from place to place and in some
countries even earthworms play an important part in help-
ing Nature inher soilfactory. The air too wears the rocks
away; the surface of them becoming soft and scaling off.
This is repeated until after long years perhaps there is
nothing left of the original stone. But perhaps the most
wonderful way of making rock dust is that by which most
of the soil of eastern North America and northern Europe
is made. Ages ago these regions were covered with gla-
ciers or sheets of ice, as Greenland is. Prof. Tarr, of
Cornell University, tells the story of glacial soils in Na-
ture Study Leaflet No. 15. He says:

_ ““The bottom of the ice is like*a huge sand paper
being dragged over the bed rock with tremendous force.
It carries a load of rock fragments, and as it moves ob-
tains more by grinding or prying them from the rocks
beneath. These all travel in towards the edge of the ice,
being constantly ground finer and finer as wheat is ground
when it goes through the mill. Indeed the resemblance

is so close that the clay coming from this grinding action
is often called rock flour.”’

This soil which we have been considering, and from
which plants obtain their food supply is usually very
shallow, sometimes not more than a few inches deep, but
_ beneath it is what is known as the sub (or under) soil.
Into this sub-soil the roots of most horticultural plants go
for moisture and some little food, but mainly for the pur-
pose of support. Plants, such as apple trees must hold

pues
themselves firmly to the soil in order to support their ex-
panse of branches laden with fruit, and to endure the
attacks of wind which would blow them over if they had
not a sure and solid foothold.

This old monarch of the forest fell “many years ago
and now. has so nearly crumbled to dust that only a por-
tion of its length is visible. This is one way which Na-

Decaying Vegetation.

ture has of adding organic matter to the soil. The decay-
ing of leaves and all other vegetation contribute to the
same purpose. Already the seeds that dropped on this
fallen trunk have sprung up into sturdy young trees.
HOW PLANTS FEED.

We have learned a little about the place eS shiek
plants derive their chief food supply and of what that food
consists, so now a word to explain the manner in which

they take up this food obtained from the soil. It is im-
possible to go into details in this regard, but it is one of
the most- difficult of plant operations for us to understand.
The roots of plants have more than one duty to perform—
they hold the plant steady in the soil; if fleshy roots, they
are a kind of storehouse for feeding the growing plant,
as little bean plants are fed; but their main duty after all
is to absorb moisture—this water being laden with the
mineral salts which are the main food of the plant. In
order to absorb this moisture the roots send out tiny root
hairs which act as mouths to drink it in. There are so.
mary of these root hairs and they are so small that they
can take up moisture from every little particle of soil
which they are able to get at, until the soil is as dry as
dust. These little root hairs never grow into roots them-
selves, but die off when no longer needed on the old and
woody roots. |

Now the moisture taken up by the root hairs would
do the plant no good if it could get no farther, so the
food burdened water is carried up through the woody tis-
sue of the plant to the leaves. It travels up through the
youngest woody ring in a tree; in corn it is carried up
through the thread-like fibers which can. be seen in the
pith; in plants having netted veined leaves and herb-like
growth, it ascends in the tissue between the pith and the ©
bark. Having reached the leaves that portion of the wa-
ter no longer of use to the plant is evaporated and the
mineral salts are left behind to be used as food. But you
must not understand that the soil is the only source from
which plants derive food. Some plants. (a family of them
called Leguminosae) get their nitrogen by means of their
roots from the air and not as others do from the soluble
salts in the soil. All plants get the carbon which they so

eae
much need from the air and have little breathing pores in
their leaves which are called stomata. These stomata are
the doors which allow the carbon dioxid of the air to come
into contact with the living cells of the plant. Here the
sunlight and the green of the leaves work together in a
way which is not easily explained and make a starch of
the carbon and the hydrogen and oxygen of the water which
has been absorbed. Since plants can only use very
much diluted food just think how many pounds of water
must pass through the leaves as vapor before a pound of
actual food has been received by the plant. If you wish
to see for yourselves this water vapor which the plant
gives off, cut off a leafy stem from a geranium say, and
put the stem down through a cork into a bottle of water.
(The hole may be bored through the cork so that it will
fit closely about the stem.) Then tip a glass jar over the
whole thing and before long you will see the water mist
all over the inside of the jar. a i

QUESTIONS.

1. What work does the soil do for plant lifer

2. How many different soils can you find in your own Abcatity?

3. In order to see what effect it will have on the seed, put a
potful of black soil in a shallow pan and bake it thoroughly. Plant
two or three beans in this soil after it is replaced in the pot. Plant
two or three beans in black soil unbaked. Watch germination of
each.

4. Write 150 words telling how the soil is made.

5. What is sandy soil? Clay? Loam?

6. What is meant by ‘‘fertilizers’’?

7. What machinery does the farmer use when he tills his field?

SOME BOOKS FOR READING AND REFERENCE:
The Soil—Prof. King, University of Wisconsin. -
How Crops Feed, How Crops Grow—Johnson. |
The Soil—Nature Study Leaflet 15—Cornell University, Prof.
Tarr.

Be ioe | A
WtStHE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

a AM BY J. C. BLAIR,
py Rrofess of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.:

ISSUED MONTHLY. | | af 25 CENTS A YEAR.
One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
. M. PARKER, Taylorville, I11.

THIRD SERIES, No. 3. 3 i | - WHOLE No. Lt.
TAYLORVILLE, Intinors, NovEMBER, 1902.

THE ORCHARD.

University of Lllinots Orchard in Clean Cultivation.

If nothing but neatness were the result of such a
method of caring for the orchard it would still be worth
the trouble and expense. But when the well-being and
productiveness of the trees are so much increased by
cultivation, then surely the fruit grower cannot afford not
to cultivate his fruitland. © | eee

INTRODUCTION.
If your father grows corn or any other field crop, or
oat 3 have been out j in the eeprlry during seed time, Leis

: —2—

know that the farmer prepares his fields very carefully
before sowing the seed and then continues to cultivate
long after the plants are growing bravely. Fruit trees
are just as sensitive and respond just as quickly to good
care and intelligent treatment as does corn, oats or wheat,
but how seldom are they so well treated! It is within
the last ten years as an outside limit that any fruit grow-
ers in this State thought it worth while to till their or-
chard lands. They hadn’t time and it wouldn’t pay
anyway. These were some of the reasons given and it
has taken a long time to convince even a part of them
that it doesn’t pay to do any other way. There are still
many who refuse to believe the evidence of their neigh-
bors’ flourishing orchards and continue to let the weeds
almost hide their fruit trees. When these poor trees
once in several years make a great effort and give them a
fair crop of apples they laugh at the neighbor who goes
to the trouble of cultivating—and in the years when the
trees are too discouraged and weak to set fruit some flaw
in the weather is hunted up to account for it. But one
by one the little army of earnest growers who treat their
orchards well and expect to be repaid for it by a good
harvest is growing larger and the time is not far distant
when the man who does not believe in cultivating and
caring otherwise for orchards will do it BS: just be-
cause his neighbors all do.

It is not possible in this little leaflet to go into all
the details connected with the successful growing of fruit
trees. We can only try to make it clear why certain
things must be done or not done, for there are a few
principles in the matter of orcharding that cannot be
overlooked if we are to get first-class results. ‘These
principles can be best explained if we confine them to the

=

growing of one kind of fruit—the apple for instance.
Not all orchard fruits require the same treatment, but if
one has learned just what an apple tree needs from its
baby days to old age, it will not be difficult to understand
the care of other trees. So for this lesson we will talk
only of the apple tree’s needs. |

WHERE TO PUT THE TREES.

In planting an orchard,.or even a single tree, it is
very necessary that a good place be selected for it. By
this we mean one which is higher than the surrounding
land if possible, and naturally well drained—or tile-
drained. It too often happens that the poorest place on
the farm is given to the fruit trees. Select a rich soil or
one that can be made reasonably so, and if the orchard
slopes to the north or northeast much will be gained.
Indeed in many sections such a slope is almost a neces-
sity in apple growing. This is because the trees on such
a slope will not bloom as early as they would if on.a warm
and sunny southern slope. Sometimes a late spring frost
catches these early-blooming orchards and nips off an
entire crop. So a delay of even a day or two may mean
all the difference between no fruit and an abundant
harvest.

WORKING THE SOIL.

When the farmer sows his corn in the spring time
he is careful to prepare a good seed bed—for the seed
would not germinate well nor would the young plants
thrive unless the soil were lightened up and warmed by
thorough stirring. Now the young apple or other fruit
tree must have as carefully prepared soil in which to be
set out after being received from the nursery, for while
there may be plenty of food in the soil the plants may

aS
starve because the food is not in a form which they can
use. For some reason many fruit growers do not think
of this fact, and so thousands of young trees die each
year because they have been made sickly by their effort
to find a congenial feeding place in the sod or hard, un-
broken soil where they were planted. The life of any
orchard tree and its ability to grow paying crops in later
years is in proportion quite largely to the care with
which the soil was prepared before it was set out. It
may help us to better understand this matter if we recall
the fact that no plants on the farm require more food and
moisture than do the orchard trees. Just what tillage does
for the plant has been better stated in ‘“‘The Principles of
Fruit-growing’’, by L. H. Bailey, than anywhere else and
it is quoted here to show you that plowing is not the mean
thing that some boys believe it to be, but a wonderful
service which may be done for plant life.
“1. Tillage improves the physical condition of the land,—

(a) By fining the soil, and thereby presenting great-
er feeding surface to the roots;

(4) By increasing the depth of the soil, and thereby
giving a greater foraging and roothold area to
the plant;

(c) By warming and drying the soil in spring;

(7d) By reducing the extremes of temperature and
moisture.

“2. Tillage may save moisture,—
(e) By increasing the water holding capacity of the
soil; |
(4) By checking evaporation.
“3. Tillage may augment chemical activities,—
(¢g) By aiding in setting free plant food;
(kh) By promoting nitrification;
(7) By hastening the decomposition of organic mat-
ter;
(j) By extending these agencies (g, h, i) to greater
depths of the soil.”’

aa
The best preparation for the apple orchard therefore
is deep plowing followed by careful cultivation with disc
and smoothing harrow. In the case of only a few trees
spade up the ground deeply and fine it with fork and
rake.

It is usually preferable to set the trees in the spring
time, and this being true, the plowing should be done
the fall before. It would be much better to plan for the
orchard four or five years or even longer before the trees
are to be set, but this is seldom done. If this method
were followed, crops which require the best of cultivating
could then be grown on the soil, thus putting it into good
condition for its future use. If the soil is poor, crops
which require the addition of manures should be grown.
Such soils can often be put into excellent condition for
apple trees by growing clover, cow peas, or some other
plant belonging to that family which, as we learned in
the last lesson, have the ability to gather nitrogen from
the air. This crop should not be harvested, but when
mature should be plowed under, thus adding considerable
vegetable matter which, when decayed in the soil, enables
the soil to retain a greater amount of moisture. With
the soil in good condition, the next thing to be done is
the setting of the trees.

THE PLANTING.

Before the trees are actually put into the ground it
is important that the best trees obtainable be chosen for
the planting. The life of the tree is so great and its
ability to pay handsome returns to the owner are so sure
that it is not economy for any one to place in the soil a
tree not already well started and in good condition. This
simply means that in buying the tree one must first be-

2=§=s
come acquainted with a reliable nursery firm—anxious to
produce and to furnish to his customers nothing but
strong, healthy and well grown nursery stock. It is
very important that the plant be carefully dug, and if the
nurseryman is a good one, he will see that the plants
have been so removed from the nursery as not to destroy
too many of the roots and rootlets. These roots must not
be allowed to dry out before they are set in their place
in the orchard. The trees as they leave the nursery
should be carefully packed and boxed so as to keep
them from drying in air and sun. Im placing the
trees in the ground set them about as deep as they
were in the nursery—that is to the crown of the plant.
The distance which apple trees are set apart in the or-
chard is governed somewhat by the varieties planted, but
it seldom pays to set them closer than thirty feet apart
each way and the best commercial orchardists in this
State, those who grow winter fruit quite largely, such as —
the Ben Davis, set the trees forty feet apart. The trees
should be set straight in the row—not only because when
so set they are more pleasing to look at but because it
indicates a degree of carelessness or -untidiness if they
are not soset. There are various methods by which the
rows of trees can be planted straight, but there is not
space in this lesson to explain these, nor is it necessary.
If you have trees to plant and a sincere desire to have
them planted in straight rows, you will hit upon some
plan of your own for doing this. In placing the tree it
is usually best to dig the hole considerably deeper than
is needed for the tree and fill it in again until the right
depth is reached. This enables the young tree to get
its first food easily and encourages it to send its roots
deep down into the soil instead of out laterally. Fill

aa

ae
in the soil around the roots slowly, having some one
straighten out the little rootlets, and pack the dirt firmly
around them. Be sure that no air spaces are left among
the mass of roots—that is, each and every root throughout
its whole length should touch the soil at every point. All
injured roots should be removed with a sharp knife or
saw before the tree is set, for injured roots are often the
starting points and causes of decay.
LATER OULTIVATION.

After the trees are in their places the soil for a space
of five or six feet on either side of the rows should be
carefully pulverized the first year. The remaining space
between the rows may be used as a place in which to
grow annual or yearly crops. For such a crop it is best
to select a plant requiring much cultivation, such as corn,
potatoes, etc. 7

Kach year, for seven or eight years, the space culti-
vated on either side of the rows must be widened as the
feeding rootlets of the growing trees reach out farther
and farther. At this age the trees will probably begin
to bear their first crops of fruit and then no other crops
must be grown on the soil and the ground must be most
carefully cultivated. You see if other crops are taken
from the orchard lands the trees have been robbed of all
the food and moisture used by this annual crop.

The cultivation giving best results starts as early in
the spring as the soil will allow and is kept up until the
trees have about matured their growth for the year. The
plow is the cheapest and most satisfactory pulverizer and
is the tool which should be used for the first breaking of
the soileach spring. This compels the roots to go deeper
into the soil and they will thus escape injury from the
plow. ee | a | |

iG

After plowing, the ground should be thoroughly
disced and then finished off with a smoothing harrow.
All later cultivation for the season may be with this latter
implement. Once each week and after each rain, when
the ground has become dry enough for working, the sur-
face should be gone over with the smoothing harrow.

It should be borne in mind that soil so treated is in
-bad condition for winter for the rains and melting snows
will wash the fertility from the soil and the roots of the
trees will be more surely injured by exposure to changes
of temperature. In July, or early August, a crop of rye,
oats or vetch should be sown in the orchard—something
that will make a ‘blanket of vegetation. This protection
is well named a cover crop, and when plowed under in
the spring time adds organic matter to the soil. |

The most serious mistake an orchardist can Geko 3 is.
to allow a grain or hay crop to be grown in his. orchard
to steal moisture and plant food from the trees’ store-
house. During. the entire life of the tree after it has
commenced bearing this plan of clean cultivation should
never be given up.

Pruning, spraying, and other important matters con-
nected with the orchard, will be treated in some of the
lessons next pees = |

REFERENCE READINGS.
Bulletin No. 52— Orchard Cultivation, Illinois pee te Ex-
periment Station.
Bulletin No. 59—Orchard Management, Illinois Agricultural
Experiment Station. nog =f

In connection with this lesson it would be well to memorize the
‘‘Planting of the Apple Tree’’, by Bryans a poem familiar to the
most of the older generation. ea

Ee A TEN

“THE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

BY J. C. BLAIR,
Priésfessbr of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.

Ne

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.

af
10 5
ef

\ One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
OPY 8B. é C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, Iil.
THIRD SERIES, No. 4. WHOLE Ma. 28,

TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, DECEMBER, 1902.

WINDOW GARDENING.

‘“We would have flowers in every home, for their sunny light,
for their cheerful teachings, for their insensibly ennobling influ-
uence.”’

In this month of keen winds and biting air let us
take up a division of Horticulture that may be carried on
indoors and now that autumn frosts have killed all out-
door plants, it will not be amiss to substitute the growing
of those plants which have come to be called house plants
because they are willing to live indoors with us and
brighten our windows with beautiful foliage and flowers.

You know, of course that many plants will sicken
and die if an attempt is made to grow them in the house,
so it is necessary to make a careful selection of plants for
indoor growing, and since we cannot all be experienced
florists, it is well to ask some one who has had training
in the business to help us in selecting material for our
window garden. There is one great charm about window
gardening and it is this—every one may have such a gar-
den if he will, for every one has a window, while not all -
of us have lawns where we may do our bit of gardening.
The poor child of the tenement often has a sturdy geran-
ium which is not ashamed to hide its roots in a tomato can.
Piants respond eagerly to loving care, no matter whether
they are in the tenement or in the beautiful home of some
more fortunate child. If you care little for plants
and mean to neglect them when you feel like it, don’t

—

bring them into the house at all, for nothing is quite
so pathetic or so disagreeable as the sight of long-
stemmed, few-leaved, starved and forsaken plants. Bet-
ter a bare window from fall to spring, than such a win-
dow garden. But there is something so interesting as to
_ be almost exciting in watching over and feeling responsi-
ble for the beautiful development of some choice specimen
of the plant world. If you have never ventured to grow
a house plant and feel very helpless, yet anxious to learn, —
do not start with too many. Take perhaps only one or
two, say a vine and some easily grown plant, and study
them and you will soon learn to read their wants in the
appearance of their leaves and stalk. Then when you
think you know how to care for these add another to your
collection and you will be fairly well started along a most
pleasant path. Window gardening has charms that no
other manner of gardening can rival. _

SELECTING THE WINDOW.

The first thing necessary in starting a window gar-
den is a suitable window. Any window is better than no
window at all, but if you have several windows from
which to select the best one for a general collection of
plants during the winter, select one at the south side of
the house. Next in choice after the southern exposure is
an east window which will answer very well for all those
plants which care little for much direct sunlight. West
windows are not likely to suit your plants well as they
generally prove too hota place for ordinary plants. Ferns,
pansies, umbrella plants, etc., will thank you for a north
window if you see to it that they do not suffer from the
cold, while geraniums, the beautiful foliaged coleus and
other heat-loving plants will flourish in the south window
which you made first choice. Begonias, marguerites and

ee
fuchsias with their gracefully drooping flowers, et do
best in the east window. «

Sti WHAT TO.GROW.

As you have probably not had much experience in
growing plants indoors, it will be wisest not to attempt
too much the first season. Crowded plants do not thrive
so well as if they have plenty of room in which to develop
and you may become weary of caring for too large a fam-
ily of plant children, since it will be an unfamiliar task
at first.

I would suggest that you start your collection with
one or more geraniums. “These are old fashioned flowers,
it is true, but they are liked by all and bloom freely with
ordinary care. Geraniums that are to bloom during the
winter should be taken from the garden early in Septem-
ber, if you wish to use old stalks. Shake the earth all —
away from the roots, prune the plant into good shape and
then pot with fresh soil and keep your plant shaded for a
week or so. Then let it have sun and water, and in two
or three months it will be ready to reward you for your
care. If you prefer to start a new plant from the garden
geranium stalks, cut a firm young shoot or stem so as to
leave one or more buds on the cutting, set it deep in sand.
and in a few weeks it will be ready to pot.

I think you will enjoy making the acquaintance of
the bright faced Chinese primrose. This cheery plant.
with its spring-like fragrance will probably give you flow-
ers larger than any other one in your window. It requires
constant moisture, but not muddiness. If the drainage
in your pots is poor so that the water stands in the soil,
the primrose will die off. It will probably be best for
you to buy the seed if you wish to attempt to grow prim-
roses. For choice plants in next winter’s window garden

=f gee
sow the seed this coming April, according to the general
directions under ‘“‘Seeds.”’

There are few plants which will give you greater
pleasure for your indoor garden than pansies which you
may raise from seeds. Secure a package of the very best
seeds and plant them according to directions given else-
where. When the little plants have formed two leaves they
may be transplanted into small pots filled with very rich
soil, that is, soil containing a great deal of well rotted ma-
nure. These plants do not like too much bright sun and
will do well in a north window if there is a chance for the
afternoon sun to reach them from a west window. If you
plant them in a month or two, you will have splendid plants
to bed out in the spring and when these are through blos-
soming if cut back a little and the flower buds nipped off
whenever they appear all through the summer they will
blossom again next winter. Pansies are very easily grown
if you only give them enough to eat; that is, a good rich
soil from which they can take up what they need in the
way of plant food. The following list offers a pleasing
‘yariety: Vaughan’s Giant, of the following colors: pink,
purple, coal black, violet blue, Aurora, Parisian Striped,
Golden Queen and Masterpiece.

If your mother has a fuchsia ask her to allow you to
take a cutting; then try your skill in raising one of these
plants yourself. They are easily grown and ever since
they came from South America, their native home, they
have been a favorite for the window garden. Put your
cutting in damp sand, according to directions under “‘Cut-
tings’ in the next lesson. As soon as rooted transplant
into rich soil in what is called a three inch pot. As soon
as the main branch has started up well, tie it to a small
stick and see if you can train your plant to a good shape.

a
When the branches are two or three inches long nip out
the tip of each one and two or three branches will start
from each.
Carnations are so beautiful and possess so refreshing
a fragrance that you will feel well repaid for what care
they require. J remember seeing one in a farm house
window a few years ago, the flowers a beautiful dark red.
There were so many blossoms on the stalks that I asked
permission to count them. Buds and flowers taken to-
gether numbered more than one hundred. So you see
they are worth while. Perhaps no other plant demands so
Tich a soil in order to produce fine flowers. There are so
many varieties that you might have a fine display with no
other plants than carnations. |

You must not think your winter garden complete
unless you have a few at least of the beautiful flowering
bulbs. For more than three hundred years hyacinths
have been cherished by plant lovers and they are today
the most frequently sought for winter window decorations.
But freesias, tulips, crocuses, narcissuses, lillies and best
of all the beautiful cyclamen, all deserve a place in our
affections even if we haven’t room for them all in our
windows. Any of these bulbs may easily be grown in
pots, although nearly all of them are hardy even in the
northern states. The same method of treatment will do
for them all and the catalogs from which you select your
bulbs will usually tell you all that is necessary about the
care of them. However it will not be amiss to say a word
about their planting. A pot six inches across and the
same in depth will be best for your bulbs. Place only
one hyacinth bulb in each pot, while three or four nar—
cissus or tulip bulbs, or even a dozen crocus bulbs may
be put into a pot of the same size. There is nothiug

=§=
special to be said about the soil, almost anything will do,
even pure sand or moss will be found all right if kept
damp enough. After the bulb is placed so that about
one fourth of it appears above the soil, press the ground
firmly into place, water it well and put the pots down cel-
lar for about two months. Then bring them up to the
light to brighten your Christmas holidays.

SEEDS.

You have planted seeds of corn and beans, and know
something of the process of germination, so no more space
will be given to the method of growing plants from seed
than to give a general principle or two which governs the
growing of all plants in this manner. A shallow box not
more than two inches deep is best for this purpose, one
with cracks or holes in the bottom through which the
water will readily drain. Fill within one half inch of the
top with leaf mold from the woods if you can get it. If
not take equal parts of sandy soil and well rotted stable
manure, or if in the city, street sweepings may take the
place of the latter. Whatever the soil is made up of it
must not be firm and heavy enough to discourage the little
plant from seeking the light. Press this soil level then
scatter the seed evenly on top and cover witha thin blank-
et of earth and press smooth again. Then water the
earth well and keep the box comfortably warm, about 60
degrees or considerably cooler than the proper tempera-
ture of your school room. Water the box only when the
ground seems dry—you see there is not so much need of
water as long as there are no thirsty tiny roots to drink
it. Unless the small plants become sickly or too closely
crowded they may be left in this sociable home for sever-
al weeks and then transplanted as gently as possible eith-
er into: pots or the open garden as the case may be.

—J—

Growing plants from seed is a more satisfactory way than
to purchase plants from some one else. If this latter is
done you have missed the first of their life story and will
not feel on such friendly terms with the plants. It is a
cheaper method too, for you see the florist charges for
doing that which you might have done but didn’t. How-
ever, not all plants will grow from seed and from many it
is best to take cuttings.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.

While some plants need more water than others, do
not make the mistake of keeping them all in pots of mud.
As long as the soil seems moist to the touch it is a safe
rule to give no water. When the water has been ab-
sorbed the soil will dry; then it should be watered liber-
ally.

Plants need fresh air. Open the windows on mild
days but do not allow the wind to blow across the plants.
It is better to open the windows every day, if the plants
are somewhat protected on very cold days, than to open
them wide once in a while and chill the plants because
they are not used to the out door air.

Keep your plants clean. They cannot be healthy if
they are covered with dust. If you wish to wash the plants
without removing them from the window a sponge is the
best for the purpose. If you remove the plants from the
window then a sprinkling or shower bath is best. Ona
mild day when the rain is falling gently set all the pots
out of doors.

Too great heat during the day will make your plants
look sickly. Most plants prefer a cooler air at night even.
if it drops as low as 45 or 50 degrees, but there are some,
begonias, the coleus, etc., the hot house plants, which
-prefer an even warmth. There are others, such as the

_ oe

geraniums which are very easily pleased and accommo-
date themselves to almost any circumstances. Such of
course are easiest to grow in our ordinary living rooms.

Give your plants a little extra food about once a week.
This fertilizer is made by putting one or two shovelfuls
of manure with one pint of charcoal to kill the odor, in a
bucket half full of boiling water. This amount of fertil-
izer will last for a couple of months if you keep adding
water as you remove the fertilizer for your plants. Use
it not too strong. The color should be like weak tea,
when the proper strength. Simply use itin place of pure
water once a week and the plants will grow more vigor-
ously. |

Pick off all dead leaves, being careful not to injure
the stems.

If green flies come to feast on your plants, water in
which tobacco stems have been soaked until it is tea col-
ored, may be sprinkled on the leaves. This method is
better in window gardening than to burn damp tobacco
stems for the odor is very disagreeable.

Watch the under sides of the leaves for red spiders,
and if you discover any, sponge the plant thoroughly
with very weak soapsuds.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is Floriculture?

2. Write a history of some plant which you have grown. If
you have never grown one, now is a good time to begin and you
can keep a diary of its progress.

3. What are some of the difficulties in growing oes in the
house?

4. If some one in your neighborhood grows plants success-
fully in her windows ask permission to observe them now-and then
and to ask questions as to how it is done.

~OPY 8B. BY J. C. BLAIR,
Professor of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS &A YEAR.

One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, Il.

THIRD SERIES, No. 5. WHOLE No. 29.
TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, JANUARY, 1903.

THE MULTIPLICATION OF PLANTS.

If we had no way of compelling plants to reproduce
their kind, that is to multiply, there would be no nurseries
from which to buy young plants of any desired varieties.
Nature would manage things in her own way and if the
wind and the weather and other agencies happened to
scatter her seeds, where they could grow, that would be
so much the better, but it would be a very uncertain way
of getting one’s plants. We could never be sure just
where the seeds had found a lodging place and started to
grow. ‘So you see there may be ways of improving on
Nature’s methods, that is, there may be methods more
suited to our ideas of push and enterprise. Man, there-
fore, collects the seeds which have been produced and
makes his seed bed just where he wants it. He puts the
seeds in it, and knows, that if he has obeyed the princi-
ples that govern seedage, he can go right to that bed
later on and find the young plants in a definite place and
not scattered about in Nature’s unfenced gardens. If he
prefers he may perhaps take a portion of the parent plant
and produce a new plant without seed.

These then are the two general methods which we
may employ when we wish to increase the number of our
plants. One method is called propagation by seeds, the
other propagation by division of the plant. The word
propagation is taken from the Latin language and in hor-

ae :

ticulture is defined as the artificial multiplication or re-
production of plants as contrasted with their natural mul-
tiplication which Nature looks after.

You may wonder why it would not be easiest and
best to propagate all varieties from the seed. It some-
times happens that after plants have been cultivated for
some time, and are much improved in appearance by this
culture, their seeds are weakened and cannot be relied
upon to germinate; or by growing near each other two
varieties may have become mixed so that their seeds
would not come true. You know that the pistil ofa
flower must be fertilized by pollen dust in order to pro-
duce seed. If this pollen dust is from the same plant,
probably the seed will produce plants like the parent; but _
suppose another variety be growing beside this one and
that the wind or insects or some other agency should
carry pollen from one plant to the other, then the seeds
of these two plants might be like either one of the par-
ents or be so mixed as not to be like either. So where it
is desired to create new varieties this exchanging of pol-
len is done by hand, instead of trusting to the natural
methods of pollination. One cannot be sure of the result
unless he attends to the pollination of the flowers himself.
With plants which are called annuals, because they live
their whole life in one year and die, or with biennials
which have a two year life, it is the custom to use seeds
instead of any of the other methods of cultivation. This
is also the case with field grains, forest trees or seedlings
to be used for grafting, and, as we learned before, when-
ever man wishes to produce new varieties.

If the gardener desires to grow a new plant just like
one which he already has he will be more certain to suc-
_ ceed if he takes some portion of the root, stem or leaf and

‘ =

=a
plants it. Just what part he shall take depends on the
plant which he is dealing witb, for different families of
plants are propagated in different ways although some
grow readily no matter what method is employed. Some
plants, as mint, are more easily grown by division than
by seeds. Some plants, the horseradish, sugar cane, etc.,
rarely produce seed, consequently new plants must be °
grown by dividing the parent plants.
PROPAGATION BY SEEDS. |

Something of the method of growing plants from
seed has been suggested in.a previous lesson but there is
so much to be thought of and so many things to be re-
membered in this operation that lies at the bottom of
much of our plant culture that we cannot go over it too
often.

First of all, care must be taken that the seeds select-
ed are the best possible for the purpose. Seed from infe-
rior, sickly parent plants will never produce first class
plants. Again seeds may fail to grow because they are
too old. Some seeds remain in good growing condition
for many years, as for instance cucumber seeds which
after perhaps ten years of waiting to be planted will pro-
duce plants when put into the soil. Starchy seeds, such
as rice or wheat, will continue in germinating condition
longer than oily seeds like those of thesun-flower. Other
seeds may have been gathered too young or before they
had matured. Such seeds do not contain as much of a
food supply for the embryo as is in a fully grown seed.
However seeds not quite mature usually germinate sooner
than ripened ones probably because the seed coat is not

so hard. Or the seeds may have been damp when gath-
ered and put away. In this condition they are in danger
of moulding in warm, or freezing in cold weather. In-
‘sects or disease may have injured them.

—

You must see by this time that it would hardly be
wise to plant a large field with one or many varieties of
seeds without knowing first whether the seeds are in
prime growing condition and likely to produce high
grade plants. A simple little seed tester that you may
like to use for testing your own garden seeds is made as
follows: Take an old table plate that is not cracked or
broken. From thick cloth cut two circular pieces the
size of the plate. Dip them in water and wring out
most of the water. Spread them on the plate and _ be-
tween them put some of the seeds from the lot you wish
to test. Cover the plate with a pane of glass or another
plate and place in a living room comfortably warm. The
glass cover prevents the moisture from evaporating. Ex-
amine the seeds frequently and record the number that
fail to sprout. There is of course great difference in the
length of time it takes different kinds of seed to germi-

nate.
After the seed has been tested and found satisfac-

tory, the soil which shall have been crumbled thoroughly
is to be pressed down firmly over the seeds; only a thin
covering of soil is usually better than a heavy layer. The
soil should be patted or rolled close about the seeds _ be-
cause they cannot absorb moisture so well if they only
touch the soil at a few points. This soil should not be
muddy or the oxygen will not be able to penetrate it and
reach the seeds, for they need air just as we do. Seeds
having very hard coats will germinate sooner if put in ~
warm water and allowed to soak for a day or two. Seeds
should be sown at the time stated by the seedsman of
whom they are bought.
“MULTIPLICATION BY SUCKERS, STOLONS AND LAYERS,

After you have become skillful in growing plants

from seed you will be interested in trying some of the

ie

—5—

other methods of producing new plants. The easiest way
of all is what is known as propagation by suckers, for
nature does nearly all the work herself. Shoots that
grow up into the air from stems or roots that are under-
ground are called suckers. Blackberries and red rasp-
berries are common examples of plants that may be propa-
gated by suckers. Plants produced from suckers have
usually less strength than the parent plant and each new
generation is likely to be weaker than the last. The only
part that man has to do in growing plants by this method
is to cut off the stem or root that joins the sucker to the
parent plant, and transplant the new plant.

A branch curving downward until it touches the
ground and sends out roots is called a stolon. When the
roots have developed sufficiently the new plant may be
separated from the old one by cutting off the stem that
joins them. The black raspberry propagates itself natu-
rally by means of stolons. A layer is really just an artifi-
cial stolon. To try your skill at this method of propaga-
ting, take a stem of a currant which is near the ground
and cover one of the joints or nodes with the soil. A .
node, as you have probably learned elsewhere, is the
place where a leaf joins or has joined the stem. At these
joints growth seems most active and from them roots
usually start first when cuttings or layers are being made.

CUTTINGS.

A cutting is the name for that piece of a plant which
if cut off and planted in proper soil will grow and become
like the parent plant. This cutting may be a portion of
the stem, the root, a leaf or only a part of the leaf. It
’ may be taken from the hard and ripened wood of a tree,

or from the green stem of a geranium; it may be only the
ragged fragment of a begonia leaf standing in the sand,

pe

or simply a bit of root two or three inches long. So,
although it is an easy matter to take a geranium slip and
grow from it a sturdy plant, you must realize that this is
only one of the many methods of propagation by cuttings,
and that you might spend years in experimenting with
plant cuttings and then have much still to learn.

Hardwood cuttings, that is, those made from ripened
wood, are best made in the fall and stored in sand, moss
or sawdust in the cellar until spring. Such cuttings may
vary in length, but it is best to make them not less than
six nor more than ten inches long unless there is a scanty
supply of stock from which to take them. Grape cuttings
should have from two to three buds, while cuttings from
the bush fruits, as currants and gooseberries, which have
shorter joints, will contain anywhere from five to ten buds.

By the making of greenwood cuttings one gets re-
sults more quickly, as roots develop speedily. A shoot.
may, however, be either too old or too young to make a
satisfactory cutting, and this can be very easily discoy-
ered. Bend the shoot, and if it snaps off clean it is in
prime condition to grow, but one that bends or crushes
is probably too old, although it may bend because too
young to have developed any power of resistance. After
these green cuttings have been made (and perhaps you
will be wise to select geranium or coleus cuttings for
your first experiment), they should be set firmly in sand,
and kept moist enough to prevent MS and protected
from the sun for a week or so. _

In making cuttings use a sharp knife. Plant them
as soon as made. Keep their heads cool and their feet
warm; that is to say, the ground ought to be warmer than
the air. The object of this is to coax roots to develop

before tops. Covering cuttings with tumblers or mason
jars retains moisture and protects the cuttings.

“ap

—A_—
GRAFTING.

The usual method of propagating our fruit trees and
even many of those trees which we plant solely for orna-
ment is by grafting. Grafting is the joining of a certain
part of one plant to some portion of another plant in such
a way that their cambium layers unite. For example, if
we are propagating the apple, young plants (seedlings)
are grown, the roots of which are used as the stock or
base. To this stock we unite a part of a twig (here called
cion) which is taken from a tree of that variety which we
wish to multiply. The stock may be one year old, and
is dug in the fall after the leaves have fallen, and packed
away in a very cool cellar and prevented from drying out
by a covering of moss or sand. In January and Febru-
ary, the months in which grafting is usually done, these
young seedlings are cut off at the crown and the roots
divided into pieces three or four inches long. (The crown
of these seedlings is the part where the stem issues from
the surface of the ground.) These pieces of root should
be joined to the cion in the manner described later.

* The cion is a portion of a twig four or five inches
long and containing two or three buds. These twigs are
cut from the trees in the fall or winter months. before
hard freezing weather sets in, and may be stored in a
cool cellar in the same way as the stocks. There are many.
ways of joining the cion to the stock but most nursery- -
men prefer the method called whip ° grafting. A long,
slanting cut is made on the stock and a corresponding
one on the cion. Each of these cut surfaces is split so
that in putting the two together they are a little dove-
tailed. In making this union care should be taken that
_the inner bark of the stock and cion unite on one side at

least and they should be held in this position by a band-

FEB 11 1903
—

age. No. 18 knitting cotton soaked in melted beeswax
is excellent for tying together these two pieces. It is
not necessary that the entire cut surface should be cov-
ered with the wrapping material. After the operation of
grafting is over, these little grafts may be packed
away in sand, kept a trifle moist. When the time
comes for planting out in the spring it will be found
that the stock and cion have grown together or united
slightly. The ground which is to receive these grafts
must be moderately rich and well fined. The entire
stock and the greater portion of the cion should be cov-
ered with soil and this well firmed around the plant. In
a short time there will be a little tree of the same variety
as the tree from which the twig or cion was taken. Ifwe
had planted the seed from this tree instead of grafting its
twigs, the young plants would probably have been unlike
the parent plant. If we had planted the twigs directly
in the ground instead of attaching them to stocks, we
would find that they would not readily grow roots. This
is why we resort to graftage instead of cuttings when
propagating fruit trees. ;

&
NOTES TO THE TEACHER.

1. Assist the pupil in discovering as many specimens of the an-
nual, biennial and perennial types of plants as are to be found in
the neighborhood.

2. Explain to the pupil what is meant by the cambium: layer,
using twigs from fruit trees.

3. Take a shoot from the grape vine and show what is meant
by a node and an internode.

4. See that the terms stock and cion are clearly understood.

5. Assist the pupils in making some whip grafts. When each
pupil has had practice in making a number of these, store away
the grafts according to directions and set them out in the spring.
Have the pupils make careful notes of the condition of the grafts
before storing, at the time of planting and at least once each-
month after growth commences.

eee OT UDY OF HORTICULTURE.

BY J. C. BLAIR,
Professor of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Tlishois:

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.
One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
LIBRARY OF : C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, II1l.

WHOLE No. 30.

synghnt Entry

Nah \o%n: THE SCHOOL GARDEN.

. fee ‘““The garden is Nature’s best school.”’

A\o ip at is a new thing to think about, isn’t it? A
school garden! One might almost believe that we are
going to talk about German schools where school gardens
are no novelty. But here in IJlinois it will be an unusual
sight—this school garden—yet there are going to be
many of them in the course of a year or two;such a num-
ber that we almost dare to hope there may be ‘‘enough
to go round’ so that every schoolhouse shall have its
garden plot just as every homestead does. The best way
to bring this about will be to make the garden you under-
take in your district a success. Its fame will spread to
the next township and next year there will be a garden
over there possibly as good as your own, and so the
gardening interest will spread wider and grow deeper
until Illinois pupils and teachers will wonder why they
didn’t think of gardens long ago. They may be the
means of increasing attendance, studiousness, and many
other school virtues which sometimes are in danger of
being forgotten when daily tasks become lifeless and
uninteresting.

It seems strange to be thinking and writing of gar-
dens when all out doors is covered with a thick blanket
ofsnow. For almost two months yet there will be blustery
weather when one’s teeth would chatter at the mere

_ thought of working in a garden. But gardens to be a

a

success must be planned for and laid out on paper or in
the mind long before the actual work of seed time begins.
One must determine where the garden is to be, what will
grow best in that soil, where and in what amounts the
seeds are to be bought, what treatment the soil must re-
ceive from start to finish. The tools must be selected
and put in working order, and not before all of these
things are more or less thought out, should the ground
be broken for the garden that is to be.

THE GARDEN SPOT.

Many people really believe that almost any place will
do for a garden, and it is a pleasant fact that with care
plants can be coaxed to grow in the most unpromising
spots. Still when preparing to test, for the first time,
one’s skill as a gardener, it is safest to argue that the best

lace on the farm is none too good for the garden. Nor
is it an indication of the wise farmer when we find the
home garden in some out of the way corner where per-
haps nothing else could be planted with success. So
when there are several places from which to select the
ideal garden site, it is well to remember that an eastern
or southern exposure is best; that is with a slope facing
either of these points of the compass. This land should
be well drained; and a rich and somewhat sandy soil
should be selected if the best results are to be expected.
With the school garden, however, one’s choice is neces-
sarily somewhat limited, as the lot surrounding the school-
house is small and no choice of location is left to the
young gardeners. They must take whatever space they
can find unoccupied or shaded by buildings and trees and
make the best of it. Let us suppose then that the teacher
and pupils know just what part of the school premises
is at their disposal for gardening purposes, and in order

to have some definite peg
on which to hang our les-
son suggestions, we will
limit the garden space to
ten by forty feet. A long,
narrow strip is best suited
to most school grounds
and may be placed near
the fence or on the border
of the play ground. The

accompanying garden.

plan may help in laying
out your school garden.
The location being select-
ed, the next thing in or-
der is to decide just what
to plant.

WHAT TO PLANT.

Since these little gar-
dening hints will find
their way to school in both
Northern and Southern
Illinois, probably into
each of the many counties
of the State, it is not to
be expected that the varie-
ties which are mentioned
in this lesson are in every

case the very best that

could be selected for each
particular garden. You
Must use your eyes and
_ your questioning powers

: WEST
| | 2 Rows High Sweet Peas
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a : 2 Rows Balsams =
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ae Shirley Poppies =
‘<i i California Poppies =
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= S 2 Rows Petunias
O .
rz ‘
Sy = 2 Rows Dwarf Nasturtiums 5
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Fiat 2 Rows Phlox Drummondi =
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— | | Potatoes :
: | Radishes =
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She _Tomatoes
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HLYON

a

and find out for yourselves just what varieties are best
suited to your own locality. The list given here is only
intended to suggest some plants which are the commonest
and earliest of culture among our annuals. You have
learned in an earlier lesson what an annual is, but it will
make an interesting chapter in your garden note books if
you will devote a few pages to these friends who come
and stay through the whole summer season with us and
then die. Make up a list of all the annuals you meet
during this coming spring and summer and record some-
thing of the manner of their growth, the appearance of
their foliage, and all you can learn about the way in which
their seed is borne. You will feel on much friendlier
terms with these garden people if you know something
about their home life. Try it and see. When a seed
catalogue is picked up there is such a wealth of pretty
things from which to select that one is a little dazed and
not quite sure whether or not he wants anything at all if
he cannot have all. So for a first garden it is best to
cling to the old friends and to hunt them up in the best
catalogues you can secure. A list of several reliable
seedsmen is given on the last page. There are so many
first-class catalogues issued that the list was restricted
to only five names. Senda postal card to each of these
five at least and ask them to send you their 1903 cata-
logue. This they will gladly do without expense of
postage.

Sweet peas, petunias, phlox, nasturtiums, asters and
balsams are all old friends of your mother and she will
gladly tell you about these annuals and how to grow
them. New varieties of these are put out each year and
each year finds them more beautiful than ever before, so
a word as to some of the new varieties of these old favor-

| —i5—
ites. Of the sweet peas you will want to include the tall,
bush and dwarf varieties. Not so much because of a dif-
ference in the flower itself, but as an illustration of the
different form in which these grow.

LIST OF SWEET PEAS.

NAME. COLOR.
fermene Perry, extra carly. Pink and white.
Rereer Me MeESPNIGE ge Pure white.
Moneny Tennant.-2- 2.2 Haat J ae Rosy heliotrope.
(EE ee ae ee White with scarlet stripes.
a a kee es. Deep indigo blue.
750 | Lois SS ee aa eee Gene ere Scarlet (dwarf).

Blanche Ferry and Blanche Burpee may be secured
in tall, bush or dwarf variety as desired. Sweet pea seeds
should be put to bed in the garden at the earliest possible
moment after the frost is out of the ground.

Nasturtiums, like sweet peas, delight to climb high
or keep close to the ground, according as the tall or dwarf
varieties are chosen for planting. For the border fence
climbers the tall varieties of the desired colors should be
selected. For bedding in rows the dwarf varieties should
be chosen. Almost any of the varieties will prove satis-
factory if selected from a reliable catalogue. They do
well on even a poor soil. If too much plant food is pro-
vided, you will find plenty of nasturtium foliage but your
plants will be too fat and lazy to produce flowers.

Of the other flowering plants for your garden you
will be safe in selecting varieties according to the colors -
you desire, with what help the catalogues give you, for
the seedsman usually gives warning whenever certain
varieties are less satisfactory than others.

The vegetables also may be selected from the cata-
logues with the aid of suggestions from some one in your
own locality who has had experience in gardening.

HGee
PREPARING THE SOIL AND PLANTING THE SEED.

As early in the spring as the soil can be worked
without sticking to the spade, dig up the area laid out for
the garden, taking care to remove all grass roots and
weeds. Around the border of the garden run the spade
down deeply so as to cut off all grass and other roots.
Repeat this operation at intervals of one or two weeks
during the season so as to prevent the grass roots from run-
ning in under the bed and robbing the flowers of moisture. ©
When the spading can be done in the fall, so as to allow
the freezing and thawing to mellow the soil, very much
will be gained. The amount of moisture which the soil
can hold for the crops will depend largely on this first
preparation of it. The finer and more mellow the soil,
the greater the amount of water it can hold. It is import-
ant therefore, before the seeds are planted, that the ground
be deeply worked with a spading fork. If the ground to
be planted is of a sandy nature or of a heavy clay char-
acter, some decayed organic matter such as leaf mold or
well-rotted manure should be worked into the soil.
Rake down the surface until all the lumps are pulverized
and a smooth seed bed secured.

A fence board eight feet long may be used for mark-
ing off the rows, which must be straight. On one edge
of this board you may cut notches eighteen inches apart
for convenience in laying off rows the right distance apart,
as indicated in the garden plan.

Follow the directions given by the seedsman on each
package both as to time and manner of planting the
flower seeds. These directions are usually correct and
are complete enough to meet your needs, since space is
lacking here for complete suggestions. In planting sweet
peas, hollow out the row two or three inches so that plenty

™
en

ee

} eae
of moisture will be kept at close hand. Cover up
the little seeds with an inch thick blanket of earth,
after pressing them down firmly, and let them alone,
merely raking over the surface now and then. The
ground should be shaded if possible. A light sprinkling

_of straw or leaves over the rows may serve this purpose.

This beautiful vine likes a very cool bed and often dis-
appoints the gardener by shriveling up when hot weather
comes if the ground is not protected from extreme heat in
some way. Where the tall sweet pea refuses to grow be-
cause of the heat, the bush sweet pea may take its place,
for it has so many fibrous roots that it can find nourish-
ment long after the tall sweet pea will die of thirst. The
dainty bright little faces of the Cupid sweet peas first
peeped out in the light of California sunshine. These
_ dwarfs are never more than five or six inches high and
have flower stems a trifle too short for the ordinary vase,
but they are very beautiful for borders or window boxes,
with a mat of foliage that keeps the ground moist. Ina
very damp climate this very mat of foliage that is such a
protection in a dry soil, may hold too much moisture and
mildew.

As with most annual plants, care must be taken not
to let seeds develop too early or the blooming of your
sweet peas will soon be at anend. Whena plant begins
its work of maturing seed for another generation of
plants, it gives up the labor of producing new flower buds.

Long before the flower seeds are planted—say about
the middle of March—tomato seeds should be sown in
fine soil in a wooden box which is three or four inches
deep, to be kept on the window sill in the schoolroom. |
The small plants should be thinned out soon after they
_ germinate, otherwise they will crowd each other and
spindling plants will result. After they have made their
second leaves you must again thin them or transplant
some into another box. In May they may be set in their
‘own place in the garden. Care must be taken in trans-
planting. As large a ball of earth as is possible should
_ be taken up with the plant. They should be set out late

MAR 27 19

8) Gee
in the day, say after school, and should be shaded for a
day or two from bright sun, so that they will not wilt.

You probably know that potato vines are multiplied
by planting—not seed (excepting where new varieties are
wanted )—but pieces of the potato tuber itself. cut so that
an eye or bud is left on a piece of the potato. The
planting of the potato should not be made before the
first of June if you wish to study them during the fall
term of school. Late varieties should be selected for this
June planting. It would be well, however, to include a
few hills of early varieties, such as the “early rose”
which should be planted as soon as the ground could be
worked and which would give additional material for
study in the early spring. “At about four inches deep
they will do best as they may creep out on top of the
ground if planted too shallow, and if too deep you will
find it discouraging work to dig up your crop. In actual
garden practice potato rows should be three feet apart,
but in your small garden crowding a little was necessary.
It was an old garden custom to “hill up’ ' potatoes—that
is make a mound around each plant—but this is not
economy of time and labor nor is it necessary if the plant-
ing was made deep enough.

Keep down the weeds and keep in the moisture by
using your hoe and rake lightly all through the growing
season. Do not water your garden. It will not thank
you for this mistaken kindness. You can give it a more
constant supply of moisture by cultivating it well.

The next lesson will contain additional suggestions
regarding the school garden.

Insist on haying Bailey’s “Garden Making” or
“Vegetable Gardening’, by Samuel B. Green. These
will give you much help in arranging the home garden
which you wil] want to have next year.

LIST OF CATALOGUES.

J.M.. Thorburn. & Go. ,, New: York,.N..¥.

Peter Henderson & Co, 36 Cortlandt street, New York, N. Y.
J. C. Vaughan, 84 Randolph street, Chicago, Til.

Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.

W. W. Barnard & Co., 161 E. Kinzie street, Chicago, Ill.

THE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

BY J. C. BLAIR,

= LjpRam@tekesspr of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.
CONGRESS, ess Tee Leese Poe: Ss
Copies ASSWED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.

fe cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
PR 4 1902 C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, I1]. .

opyyight Entr
4° HEARD SERIES, No. 7. WHOLE No. 31.
Y AS\ lL, TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, Marcu, 1903.

cory &——

THE PLANTING OF SCHOOL GROUNDS.

‘“There are two objects to be attained in the planting of school
grounds—the making of a picture and the raising of plants for
study.— Country Life.

I have dared to hope that you have been sufficiently
interested in the work suggested in the past lessons to
make your preparation for this year’s Arbor Day a little
better than ever before. I know, of course, that you have
not neglected planting something or other each year by
way of celebrating this only holiday in which horticul-
ture has a full showing, but it isas necessary to make defi-
nite plans for the planting of trees and other ornamental
plants as it was to plan the school garden. That is why this
lesson follows the one on “The School Garden’. You will
remember that another lesson on the garden was to follow
the last one, but in that way our Arbor Day plans were
going to be too late for use this year, so it was deemed
best to postpone the second garden lesson a month.

MAKING THE PLAN.

I do not know just what plans you have carried out
on other Arbor Days. Perhaps in some schools they
were like that one of which I heard the other day. The
teacher told me about it in order to show me just what
could be accomplished in an emergency. It was fourteen
years ago that she began a spring term of school, just two
days before the first celebration of Arbor Day was to take
place in that district. A letter received from the super-

be Ars
intendent during the first day, informed her that Arbor
Day had been proclaimed and that a planting of some-
thing or other must be made. There were fourteen pu-
pils and to them the letter was read. By way of response

eleven infant trees, ranging from six inches to two feet in

height, were brought the next day and planted in the
small school ground where a woodpile was the only eyvi-
dence that such things as trees existed. The teacher
knew nothing about tree planting, but some holes were
dug in a row along the fence, and as if to encourage the
further observance of Arbor Day, eight of the trees actu-
ally grew. In about such a haphazard fashion as that
many of our school grounds have been planted; neither
teacher nor pupils knowing the laws governing such
plantings.

This is why a plan carefully drawn beforehand seems
to be the surest way of getting just the result one desires.
Now I am not going to give you any sample plan for you
to copy or work from. What I wish you to do after
carefully going over this lesson with your teacher is this:
Take a sheet of paper and make a map of your school
yard. Then by little dots show just where you think a
tree, shrub or vine would look its best and make the
grounds most attractive. On the lower margin of your
paper write a list of those plants which you think youcan
furnish toward carrying out this plan. Your teacher
might then examine all the plans and have several of the
best put upon the blackboard for general discussion.
The plan fully decided upon will probably not be the
work of any one pupil, but will be made up of the good
features of several plans. Then the list of plants needed
should be carefully gone over and assigned to different
pupils to bring in. This assignment of course should be

=e

me

a a |
made from the list which the pupils have offered and in
this way the material can be secured with almost no ex-
pense to any one.

WHERE TO PLANT.

After the plan of the school yard has been drawn
upon the blackboard—the next step is to decide just how
far the plans already made on paper can be carried out in
order that all the best views both in the yard and at a
distance may be kept in sight and all the ugly things
hidden by a mass of foliage.

Your school house’ itself is or should be the best
feature in the yard, so do not plant anything directly in
front of it or scattered about the lawn, for in the school
yard of all places, one law of landscape gardening should
be kept. This is the law: Keep the center of the lawn
free from planting, even of flowers, and place trees and
shrubs along the border of the grounds. You must re-
member that just as a room would look cluttered if too
much filled with furniture, so a lawn will be made untidy
or spotty looking if too much lawn furniture such as
bushes and trees are used.

In a school yard there is still another reason for not
doing too much planting of a scattered sort and it is a
reason I am sure you will appreciate. Who likes to play
ball or blind-man’s buff among a network of tree trunks?

Place some smaller shrubs along the foundation of
the school house, if the soil is of a fair quality, and the
water from the eaves will not drown out the plants,

At the rear of the school house and at that side from
which the severest winds come, place along the fence the
largest growing trees—elms, maples, etc. Remember
not to crowd. Thirty-five feet apart is none too much
for elms when mature and you hope that the ones you

ie ee
plant will live to grow up, so give them plenty of room.
In a small school yard, you will not find it possible to
group the trees; better plant them in a row along the
rear and side fence and along the street at the front.
The beautiful effect obtained by irregular grouping, you
must make with the larger shrubs, and not too many of
them for you will constantly bear in mind that the play-
ground is none too large at best. The lilacs, sumachs,
snowballs, syringas, etc., may be planted about five feet
apart in the group, putting the higher growing ones such
as the lilacs and sumachs at the rear and lower ones in
front.

WHAT WILL YOU PLANT?

First of all, do not ask the nurseryman for anything
this year. See what you can do with familiar material at
hand and later on when your success is apparent send for
a few choice trees or shrubs. |

I do not know in what section of the state yourschool
house may stand, and so I cannot tell you to take this or
that particular tree, shrub or vine, but I can say this:
On your father’s farm or in the woodlands you may per-
haps find as much material and fully as beautiful as that
often secured from the nursery. Perhaps you haven't
had your eyes opened to the beauty of the simple things
about you. If so begin at once to hunt forthem. There
are wild vines whose flowers would be counted beautiful
if they grew in your mother’s garden, and not in your
father’s corn field. The wild morning glory is a good
example of this. There are trees and shrubs in the wood-
lot and along the creek that would grace the most beau-
tiful lawn if rightly placed. This then is the idea, touse
what lies next your hand, and by skillful arrangement
bring out its particularly beautiful features. You may

PR

= ;

not succeed at this with the first trial. Few do, but you
will be growing familiar with the plants in your neigh-
borhood, learning their best points and how to make the
most of them. There is another thing in favor of using
your native plants and that is that they are accustomed
to your locality and will usually do better than strangers
brought in from other and different soils and climate.
But it must be remembered that there is often one serious
obstacle to the use of native grown trees and shrubs.
They usually grow in the forest or thicket and conse-
quently are long and spindling, unused to sun and wind
and difficult to transplant since they have few fibrous
roots. Nursery grown trees usually have an abundance
of fibrous roots, have stems used to sun and exposure and
have clean straight bodies and so are more likely to give
satisfaction. | |

Perhaps the first thing you should decide upon when
making up your list of things to plant is this—Are you
planting for your own pleasure only, or as well for that
of the classes who will come after you? If you are
planting for the present only, you would better confine
all your work to the school garden, or at the most, put in
a border of annuals or some quick-growing shrubs here
and there. However, if you wish the school grounds to
be pleasing year after year you will do best to plant no
annuals except in the garden proper, and elsewhere put —
trees and shrubs that will be a delight as long as they
continue in their places (provided they are well treated
and remain in a healthy condition). At this point it is
well to remember that only the sturdiest and best formed
trees and shrubs should be selected for transplanting into
your school yard. A weakly, bent young tree will never
make a desirable, mature specimen. It is well, too, to

ai
select young trees as large as you have means to move,
for these seem to suffer less from the change and will re-
ward you sooner for your labor. One tree from ten to
fifteen feet high with good root system, will be more
satisfactory than two or three not more than five or six
feet high. As to the varieties of trees you should plant,
you must be governed, as was noted before, by what
available material the neighboring fields or home nursery
affords. It is safe to assume that you can find some
splendid young plants that will make most desirable
members of your tree groups. There are many varieties
to select from, but you will be governed by what appears
sturdiest in your locality.

Your neighboring woods will probably offer walnut,
hickory, elm, oaks. maples and locust—any or all of which
are worthy of a place on the school grounds, if there is
room for so many large growing varieties.

Next for us to consider after the trees, are the shrubs,
without which our lawns would seem very barren. They
fill up empty places along the foundation wall, the fence
and before unsightly outbuildings. It may at first
thought occur to you that they are too small for a school
yard, and this may be true of some of the smaller grow-
ing or dwarf shrubs, but there are many which will prove
most useful and beautiful additions to your list of plant
friends.

I feel sure that you will be surprised when I tell you
that the elderberry bushes, as many people call them,
really the American elder, will be among the finest of
shrubs for your school yard, while purple and white
lilacs, sumachs, snowballs, black currants, and even the
smaller growing currant bushes are not to be scorned.
You will see that I have not mentioned one unfamiliar

) oo 3
name in the little company of shrubs, and yet I doubt
whether some of them would have been remembered by
you as desirable for the school yard lawn.

If you really wish something a little less familiar—
although old friends are the best—then get that one of
the spireas known as Bridal Wreath. It is able to endure
the cold, it will cover itself with bloom and be always
graceful and beautiful whether in flower or leaf only.
The Japan Quince is another pleasant acquaintance to
make, whose branches in early spring are brilliant with
scarlet flowers. Along the fence what could be more
beautiful than several wild rose bushes? There are some
hardy roses, such as the old-fashioned yellow rose and the
June roses of our grandmothers’ days, all of which would
make the border planting a delight to the eye in early
springtime.

If there is a dead tree on the school premises—don’t
grumble at it or have it taken away before Arbor Day
unless it is far enough gone to decay to be in danger of
falling. If sound enough to stand high winds, plant at
its base a wild honeysuckle, bittersweet or trumpet-creeper
or even the five-leaved ivy, if the others are not to be
secured in time for this year’s planting. These vines are
all hardy and once planted will soon cover the old trunk
with a foliage more beautiful than its own was.

HOW TO PLANT.

In transplanting a tree or shrub as much of the root
system as possible should be left with the plant. It is
just as important to spare the fibrous roots as the larger
ones. ‘T’hese gather plant food for the tree while the
chief purpose of the other roots is to hold the plant firmly
in place. It has been proven by examination of many
_ young trees that there is a sort of balance between root

=

and branch growth; that is that the size of the root sys-
tem is about equal to that of the tree top. Now it would
be impossible in most cases to take up as large a growth
of roots as the top, so the right thing to do is to prune
the young tree carefully until it is of a size easily
manageable and then dig far enough away from the base
of the trunk to insure saving an equal amount of root
growth. In this way the roots will not be overworked in
an attempt to nourish too large an upper growth. The
same is true of shrubs and vines. Be careful while tak-
ing up the plants that the roots are not allowed to dry
out or be much exposed to sun and wind.

Dig a hole deep enough to allow the plant to stand
as deep as it formerly grew and broad enough so that the
roots may be spread out naturally just as they were when
taken up. If any roots have been badly broken during
the process of digging they should be cut back to a smooth
surface with a sharp knife. Once in its place, each root
should be carefully surrounded by earth so that no hol-
low spaces are left. Scatter the fine soil over the roots
and press it down little by little until you are perfectly
sure that every root has its own covering of earth and is
firmly in place. After the roots are covered, tramp the
soil down firmly with the feet and continue this until the
hole is filled up. In nature you will notice that even
very young trees are held with such firmness by the soil
that it is almost impossible to pull them up. Do not al-
low weeds to spring up about the newly set trees. These
trees should have no rivals to deprive them of any por-
tion of their food and water supply. It is well, too, to
rake the soil frequently in order to keep in the moisture
with a dust mulch. This principle was explained in an
early lesson.

THE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

BY J. C. BLAIR,
Professor of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.
One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to

Bran or : C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, I11.

= “THIRD Seriss, No. 8. WHOLE No. 32.
aes Receive TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, APRIL, 1903.

ym. - THE SCHOOL GARDEN.

XXe, at (Continuation of Lesson 6.)

OPy aM |After the seeds have been planted and school gar-
deners are waiting for the young plants to push their way
up to the light, teacher and pupils will still find much to
interest them in the soil. The suggestions given in the
November lesson were only to point out the paths which
might be followed if you cared to find out some of the
secrets of the soil. Once started soil experiments and
investigations prove so fascinating that you will be con-
stantly on the alert for something to add to your note-
book story of the soil. Take soil in hand instead of a
text-book and discuss its uses, texture, treatment; get at
the meaning of such terms as soil atmosphere, soil mois-
ture, etc. Study one by one Bailey’s reasons for tillage
as quoted in the December lesson. Ask yourselves how
tillage can increase the ability of the soil to retain mois-
ture, how it can check evaporation. Read carefully Pro-
fessor KH. G. Howe’s article in the May ScHoout NEws en- »
titled ‘Watering the Garden With a Rake”. This sur-
face working of the soil for the purpose of keeping the
moisture from escaping is one of the most important les-
sons to be learned in connection with our garden. How-
ever do not take any writer’s say so but try for yourself
and see how your plants will behave if the ground is left
hard and. unworked, as compared with others growing in
well worked soil.

a

Since Professor Howe’s article on cultivating the
garden is to be found elsewhere in this issue of THE
ScHooL News, you will refer to that when in doubt as to
the treatment your school garden soil requires. Remem-
ber that the great part of plant substance is water which
carries all other plant food in solution up through the
plant system. Think how helpless the plants would be
in obtaining food if the soil should be thoroughly dried
out. In order to avoid this drying out do not use a water-
ing can but take a rake and follow the new plan for
watering gardens.

If you wish to test the value of sunlight to your gar-
den, take a cigar box and cover a small portion of your
lettuce row after the seeds have germinated. Hxamine
the young plants underneath from day to day and com-
pare them with the ones having the benefit of the sun-
shine.

LIFE STRUGGLE OF PLANTS.

If you have sown your lettuce seed very close you
will have a crowded colony of lettuce plants each one
struggling for its share of sunlight, food, moisture and
room. Look elsewhere than in your garden rows for evi-
dences of this same struggle for a chance to live. Hxam-
ine a spruce or pine tree and find out what happens to the
small inner branches. When walking through dense
woods stop for a littie while and examine some of the
seedlings which are crowded very close together. Notice
their shape. Are the branches widespreading? Explain
their direction of growth and notice where their leaves
are borne. Do not cease to think about this life struggle
which plants carry on until you have found for yourselves
illustrations of this and have recorded them in your note
book, nor until you have come to realize that this strug-

es
gle for a chance to live among the things of nature is only
a type of the same struggle which goes on among animal
life and mankind as well. Professor Bailey says of this
condition of life that ‘‘Those variations or kinds live which
are best fitted to live under the particular conditions”.
Herbert Spencer, the great scientist called this struggle
for existence ‘“‘survival of the fittest’. You will hear this
phrase quoted very often and if it has heretofore not
meant much to you, it will be very clear after you have
watched your little garden plants in their efforts to get
room enough and sufficient food, or after you have seen
how the branches and even the leaves of the same tree
have the same hard fight for a good foothold and plenty
of breathing space. The strong will survive and the weak
will be pushed aside and will finally give up thestruggle.

RECORDING CHANGES.

When the young plants send up their first leaves,
make a drawing in your garden note book of one plant of
each variety. Record the number of seed leaves. You
will have a drawing as a record of the leaf form of these
first leaves and later on when other leaves develop make
a second drawing and compare the shape of these later
leaves with the first ones that appeared. Also compare
frequently the first or seed leaves of the various varieties _
you have planted so that you can recognize at first glance
a lettuce, radish, or other tiny plant. |

It will be interesting to keep a record of various
changes which your growing plants make, as for example,
_ the increase in foliage, height of the plant taken at weekly
intervals; texture of leaves as compared with the first
leaves. Keep a careful watch for any insects that seem
to be taking too much interest in your garden. The
plants selected for this year’s work, with the exception of

i

the potato, are not particularly troubled _by insects. With
the gay little stripes of the potato bug you are probably
already familiar and since you have so few plants for the
bug to attack, it will be the simplest way out of the bat-
tle with them if you catch and kill them as fast as they
appear. Were you gardening ona larger scale, the quick-
est cure for potato bugs is to apply Paris green solution
about one-half pound to 50 gallons of water.

SWEET PEAS.

When your high sweet peas stretch up six inches
more it will be time to put in fine, but strong, brush be-
hind each row so that the vines may have some support as
they lengthen. The best way is to plant in a double row,
say eight or ten inches apart, and put the brush between.
If you prefer, drive in a five-foot stake at each end of the
row and another in the middle, as the row is rather long.
Nail a slat on the upper end of these stakes and another
down near the surface of the ground. Then put shingle
nails in each slat and weave strong twine up and down for
the vines to cling to. The bush peas will need no sup-
port. Be sure to keep all flowers picked before they be-
gin to ripen seed, for, as was told you in the first garden
lesson, when a plant begins to mature seed it soon ceases
to bloom. I wonder if you care to know in what country
the sweet pea was first found? Italy is its own native
country, but some seeds were brought to England about
two hundred years ago, and ever since that time it has
been a favorite in the home flower garden.

THE STUDY OF CLIMBERS.

A most interesting series of observations are sug-
gested by that row of climbing sweet peas. Suppose
we watch these vines as they mount higher and higher

—
and see how they do it. Compare their way of getting
where they want to go with that of climbing nastur-
tiums, the moon vines, morning glories and balloon
vines, or whatever vines you can find in your neighbor-
hood. Do you suppose they all have the same way
of climbing? There are, as you know, several ways
by which plants climb. Some vines throw out roots
which hold on firmly to walls or the bark of trees.
Poison ivy, English ivy and the trumpet creeper send
out such clinging roots. Others, as the grape vine,
are held up to their support by tendrils. What other
vines have tendrils? Are the tendrils of different vines
alike in the manner of growth? Does the tendril coil in
one way through its whole length? Do leaflets ever serve
as tendrils? Examine some of your vines and see. One
or two of your vines will wind round and round whatever
they climb upon. Such vines are known as twiners. A
plant or vine which simply spreads upon another plant
without having any means of clinging fast is known com-
monly asascrambler. You will probably not have any
such vines near your school house unless you chance to
have a bittersweet in the wood near by. A few blackber-
ries climb in this way.
BLOSSOM AND SEED.

As your plants bloom study the shape and parts of
the flower and make drawings of them. Try to find other
flowers of the same or similar shape. When your China
asters bloom compare the flowers with dandelion blos-
soms. See if there is any similarity. Examine what is
commonly called a dandelion flower and see if it is really
a single flower or a bunch of them.

In the fall when you allow some of the flowers to
ripen seed, in order that you may collect them for the -

Be nas
winter study of seeds, the different forms of seed recep-
tacles will be an interesting study. Perhaps the one that
will seem the most curious to you is the balsam or “touch-
me-not.’’ When the balsam seed pods ripen, gather some
and see if you can find out why they have been given the
name ‘“touch-me-not.”” The action of the balsam seed
pods may start many a talk on the manner in which dif-
ferent seeds are expelled from their covering. The seeds
of some kinds of plants are thrown two or three feet from
the plant. The word dehiscence is used to describe the
opening of the pod for the escape of the seed. Examine
the fully ripened pods of many different plants to see the
manner in which their seed is freed from its receptacle.

Some plants are said to sleep. Have you ever seen
one asleep? Does it mean what it does when we say an
animal sleeps? Ask your teacher to accompany the pu-
pils to the school garden some night. You will then see
that some of your flowers doze at night, while others take
that time to open. California poppies always doze at
night, while moon flowers never open until the sunshine
has gone. What do you know about the plant which is
called the four o’olock? Just what it is that causes this
strange action of some of the plants has never been set-
tled by botanists.

While making records of the leaf shapes, textures,
etc., do not fail to handle the leaves of the different plants
in your garden. Some will be velvety smooth, others
rough and disagreeable. One of the old-fashioned flower-
ing plants in your garden has clammy, sticky-feeling
leaves. Which is it? You will probably have to keep
this question in mind until later in the season. But do
not forget to find out which plant it is.

The peculiar shape of the calyx of the nasturtium will

ENS
See

we Aes
lead you to examine other flowers to see if there is great
variation in calyx forms.

OTHER STUDIES.

What can you find out about the evolution of the to-
mato? In our grandmothers’ days they were grown as
garden curiosities and commonly considered poisonous.
Bailey’s ‘‘Lessons With Plants’’ will give you an account
of the changes cultivation has made in tomatoes.

As onions, potatoes, and radishes develop why not
think of them in some other connection than as merely
furnishing food material forus? Take up a study of the
character of their growth first. Would potatoes, radishes
and onions all be called tubers? If an onion isn’t a tuber,
what is it? Radishes are called crown tubers, as are all
tubers which produce leaves and stems at the upper end
and roots below. What crown tubers can you find in the
home garden or in the market? Is there any difference
in the tubers of Irish and sweet potatoes? ,

After you are familiar with the different kinds of
thickened stems and roots, ask yourselves if they serve
the plant in any way. An old potato left in the cellar
will sprout and the potato itself wither away. What did
the sprout feed upon to give it such a start? What do
tiny bean and other plants feed upon before they get
firmly fixed in the soil? May not tubers, bulbs, seeds,
etc., be storehouses for plant food? Talk this over. Also
their use in propagating new plants of the same kind.
How many things that garden has given us to see and
think about, and yet the work suggested is only a begin-
ning of it all. One pair of eager eyes will see more
things to wonder about than many a busy brain could ©
answer. (to out in the garden and learn to see, learn to

APK 24 1903

7 er
question nature about what you have seen, and try to
solve some of the problems she sets you.

QUESTIONS

1. What is meant by the expression “struggle for
existence’?

2. Write a two hundred word story of some such
struggle which you have seen.

3. Who was Herbert Spencer? Study something of
his life and writings and of Charles Darwin.

4. Select some plant and mark it by placing a small
stick or toothpick near it. Make a drawing of this plant,
beginning with the first leaves of the plant. Make a
drawing of the same plant once each week until mature.
Let each pupil select the plant whose picture history he
wishes to keep.

5. Write a brief description of the way in which a
morning glory climbs. Describe the manner in which a
grape vine climbs. ~ |

6. How many kinds of tendrils have you seen?

AGRICULTURE IN SUPPLEMENTARY READING.

Prof. Frank H. Hall, one of the most prominent educators and text-book
writers of Illinois, in an address before the State Farmers’ Institute at
Bloomington, I1l.,, Feb. 25, 1903, made the following statement:

‘The teachers and pupils of the public schools should be provided at
public expense with ‘supplementary reading’ and library volumes that
have a distinctively agricultural bearing.

‘For supplementary reading of this kind I most heartily commend the
little leaflets published by C. M. Parker, of Taylorville. These are—

The Study of Farm Crops, by Prof. Shamel.
The Study of Farm Animals, by Dean Davenport.
The Study of Horticulture, by Prof. Blair.

“There are thirty-six of these leafiets and they are sold at one cent a
copy in quantities of ten or more. They were prepared especially for
school use by the very men upon whom you are calling for work in your
institutes until they are taxed to the full limit of their strength.

‘There can be no mistake in putting these leaflets into the hands of
your children.”’

“Ey

THE STUDY OF/HORTICULTURE.

BY J. C, BLAIR,
Professor of oS and Chief in ee University of Illinois.

ISSUED MONTHLY. | ~ 25 CENTS AYEAR.

rpparyor “f° cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
NGRESS, C. M. PARKER, Taylorville, I11.

opies Reenter b SERIES, No. 9. WHOLE No. 33.
| 22 1903 |

ight Eauy TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, May, 1903.

es <p ' PLANT ENEMIES.

ARG It not infrequently happens that with the best possi-
ble care and attention children get mumps, whooping
cough and other contagious diseases which are waiting
around to catch little folks. So with plants which the
fruit grower thinks he has given the best of care. Rust
comes along and covers his blackberries and strawberries;
bitter rot or scab ruins his apple crop; blight destroys
his pear trees, and bugs of all sorts attack every plant he
possesses.

In the first of this lesson we will talk about a few
plant diseases, how to know them by the injury done,
when we see a plant affected in a certain manner. In the
second part we will become acquainted with a few of the
insects which attack certain portions of the plant, and in
the next lesson we take up plant medicines with manner
and time of giving the doses.

SOME PLANT DISEASES.

Have you ever read anything about the diseases of
fruit trees and other plants? If not, [ am sure you would
be surprised could you see a book large enough to hold a
description of them all. When one reads about the many
things which may happen to prevent the fruit grower
from having a crop of fruit it almost seems strange that
he ever has any. Nearly every variety of vine, bush and |
tree has its diseases and insect enemies and it takes a

Sy ee
careful gardener to keep his fruit plantation free from them.
With suitable location, good soil and the right food,
plants are much better able to withstand disease than
those which are starved and poorly placed. But when
there comes an attack of some fungous disease even the
best of trees are likely to suffer somewhat. I wonder if
you are sure of the meaning of the term “fungus”. A
fungus is a plant having neither leaves nor flowers
and feeding upon some other organic substance either
living or dead. Many people a great deal older and wiser
than you in horticultural affairs know very little about
the various fungi attacking their plants. You will notice
that in speaking of more than one such plant we say
‘fungi’. I wish you would find out for yourselves the
difference in these three words: fungus, fungous and
fungi. A fungus is made up of a mass of little cells and
thread-like tissues. These threads as they develop and
reach out to absorb nourishment from the substance upon
which they feed, are called mycelia. A mycelium does
the same kind of work as the root of a flowering plant.
These thread-like tissues drink up the sap and in time if
sufficiently numerous will kill the plant upon which they
live.

Let us suppose that in the fruit garden are strawberry
plants, currant, raspberry and gooseberry bushes, grape
vines, cherry, plum, apple, peach and pear trees. Yousee
we are confining this part of the lesson to some of the dis-
eases of fruit plants only. It would be impossible to de-
scribe in so short a lesson all of the diseases and insect
pests of even one of the plants mentioned; but this may
help you to recognize some of their more common enemies.

You would think the specialists in plant diseases had
selected some very unpronounceable names should we use

Sa

—3__
the terms by which they describe the various plant dis-
eases. For the greater number there is a common name
which will answer our purpose just as well. There are
~ two or three different names for almost every one of the
different plant diseases. For instance, leaf blight, rust
or sunburn are names for a strawberry complaint that is
very common. Small red or purple spots appear here and
there on the leaves and soon grow larger and browner
until the whole leaf may be discolored. This disease is
worse after the fruit has been picked, and you may wonder
what harm it can do at sucha time. Just as every sick-
ness makes a person weaker, so every time a plant is affect-
ed it becomes less able to produce good fruit the next year.

Sometimes the fruit and leaves of the strawberry plant
are covered with a whitish cobwebby mildew which curls
up the leaves as though they had wilted. This affection
is known as mildew. These two diseases are the ones
which usually do serious injury to the strawberry planta-
tion, and you will have little trouble in recognizing either
one. Right here let me urge you to examine all the or-
chards and small fruit plantations within reach to see if
you can find any of the diseases or insects which are de-
scribed in this lesson. If you happen on anything which
you are not able to name, either ask the fruit grower or
send a little piece of the sick plant to the Botanist or
Horticulturist of the Illinois Experiment Station, Urbana.

Currant and raspberry bushes and grape vines are at-
tacked by diseases very different in character and appear-
ance, but frequently spoken of by the one term—anthrac-
nose. ‘The anthracnose of currants shows itself in small
blackish brown spots between the tissues on the upper
sides of the leaves, which turn yellow and drop in mid-
summer. On raspberries, blackberries and dewberries —

————

anthracnose first attacks the canes just above the ground,
the affected parts becoming sunken, with the center gray
and the rims purple. The disease creeps up rapidly and
the fruit on diseased canes dries up before ripening.
The anthracnose or scab of grape vines causes brown spots
on the leaves and scabby spots on the new growth and the
fruit. This word—anthracnose—is made up of two Greek
words meaning “‘coal” and ‘“‘disease,” the dark color of the
diseased spot suggesting the name.

Plum and cherry trees seem to have their share of ene-
mies among fungous diseases and the insect world. Prob-
ably the most common diseases are black knot and leaf
blight, or shot hole fungus, so called because the diseased
spots on the leaves fall out after a time and leave small
round holes. The black knot of plums and cherries is a
strange looking disease. arly in the spring a yellowish
swelling appears here and there along the branches and
trunk of the tree. This lump continues to darken through-
out the season until it becomes jet black. It often extends
four or five inches along the stem the first year and each
year increases in extent until the branch dies. This dis-
ease makes the tree very disgusting in appearance and is
perhaps the most easily recognized of any of the plant
diseases.

A most serious fungous disease which attacks cherries,
plums and peaches is known as brown rot. The fruit and
very young twigs are attacked by this fungus, and if you
have never seen a peach so diseased, I am sure you will
remember haying seen the disease on cherries. Just when
the fruit is ripening it turns brown and looks as though
rotted; the next stage is a whitish gray coating of spores.
A spore, you will remember, answers the same purpose as
does the seed of a flowering plant, that is, it reproduces

=a eo
its kind. Consequently, a cherry, peach or plum covered
with thousands of these little brown rot spores is able to
spread this disease broadcast among the fruit. Peach
trees have a disease known as leaf curl and its name de-
scribes it so well that little more need be said except that
the leaves turn yellow and fall so early in the season that
a new set appears.

The most serious disease of pear trees, and one which
also attacks quinces, and some varieties of apples, is known
as pear blight. ‘This is a bacterial disease entering the
tree through the blossoms and growing tips and causing
the leaves to turn brown. They do not, however, fall from
the tree.

An entire lesson might well be spent in studying apple
diseases and insect enemies, but if we are to take time to
learn anything of the appearance of some of the insect
pests of the other fruits, we can only describe briefly two
of the most prevalent diseases of the apple. The most
destructive disease of this fruit is the apple scab, attack-
ing both leaves and fruit, and causing dark gray or
blackish scab-like spots, distorting the leaves and cracking
the young fruit. Usually both leaves and fruit drop off
early. It appears when the trees are in bloom and unless
checked will continue its destructive work throughout the
early part of the summer.

Bitter rot is a disease which is most common in the -
southern states, although it does terrible damage in southern
Illinois during some seasons. It confines itself to the
fruit and branches of the tree and does not appear on the
leaves. It may not be noticed on the fruit until just be-
fore harvest time, and then the entire crop may be lost in
a dayortwo. The disease causes light brown patches on
the surface of the fruit, the center of which is specked

ae ae
with black dots in ring-like patches. In Illinois it usually
makes its appearance about the first of July, but sometimes
not until late in August. |

INSECTS,

There are two or three kinds of insects usually spoken
of as leaf rollers which prey upon the leaves of strawberry
plants and cause them to roll up. They are very destruct-
ive some seasons, especially in the commercial strawberry
fields of our state. Thestrawberry crown borer and white
grub, the latter being the larva of the May beetle, are also
quite destructive in strawberry fields which have been
planted more than a year or two. The crown borer works
its way into the crown of the plant in midsummer and the
white grub eats the roots. The wilting and dying of the
plant is an evidence of the work of these insects, and they
may be found by digging up the plant.

While your currant and gooseberry bushes are in
flower you may be surprised some day to see that scarcely
a leaf is left on the bushes. Go out and examine them.
You will probably find hundreds of small green worms.
These are the larve of the currant saw fly, a fly not very
unlike a common housefly, but rather more yellow. The
fly usually appears when the first leaves open and their

tiny white eggs are laid on the under side of the leaves.
In about ten days they hatch and the worms, at first a
whitish color, change to green and later are ornamented
with black spots. Many people allow these worms to eat
up their currant foliage year after year, until the bushes
are too much weakened to produce fruit in any quantity.
Among raspberry insects the cane borer probably causes
the most mischief. It is a small black beetle, very slim,
and about one half inch long. It makes two girdles
around the tip of the cane in June and lays an egg be-
tween the two, just above the lower girdle. The larva,
when fully developed, is about an inch long, bores down

= 2 ee
through the cane. The insect attacks blackberry canes as
well. The presence of this insect may readily be guessed
at if the tip of the cane wilts.

Probably none of our plants are freer from insect en-
emies than is the grape. The mostcommononeis doubtless
the grape slug, or saw fly, as it is sometimes called. This
is a small, shining black fly, which lays her eggs upon
the under side of the grape leaves early in the spring.
These eggs soon hatch and the worms, when fully grown,
are about 2 of an inch long, and of a pale yellow color,
with greenish backs and many spots all over the body.
They feed in company and are so regular in their move-
ments as they devour a leaf that they look very much like
soldiers moving together across a field.

The worst insect enemy of plum and cherry growers
is the curculio or “little Turk’, as it is occasionally called.
It is a grayish brown beetle about one fourth inch long
having a snout curved under the body, by means of which
a hole is bored in the fruit. In this hole the egg is laid
and then a crescent-shaped incision is made in the skin
about it. In afew days the egg hatches and the worm

begins at once to eat its way into the fruit.
| The plum curculio is also very often destructive in
peach orchards, stinging the fruit and causing it to be
wormy and perhaps to drop prematurely. Borers too of
various kinds may destroy peach trees by boring into and
girdling them. The yellowing of the foliage may suggest
the possibility of these little fellows being present.

The commonest of all fruit insects is the ‘‘apple
worm” or codlin moth as it is properly called. Every
boy or girl has experienced keen disappointment some-
time during their life by being obliged to throw away a
big rosy apple after biting into it and finding it to con-
tain a pinkish worm three fourths of an inch long. The
adult insect which lays the egg from which this worm
hatches is a very innocent looking moth of a grayish
brown color and about half an inch long. This moth,
which passes the long winter months in a cocoon, makes
its first appearance in the spring just about the time the

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apple blossoms are falling from the trees. The eggs are
laid on the young apple usually at the blossom end.
These hatch in a very short time and the young worm at
once begins to eat its way into the fruit. As the apple
grows the worm develops and seems thoroughly to enjoy
its home. The presence of the worm in the fruit is easily
determined by the casting from the burrows and by the
early ripening of the fruit. This premature ripening
may cause the fruit to drop before it fully develops. In
any case the apples which are so affected may safely be
considered worthless. It would be an interesting little
lesson in nature study if you should pick some young
apples so infested and study the character and mark-
ings of the insect and the nature of its work. Tie a
muslin bag over an infested apple hanging on a limb
and watch for the appearance of the moth which will
soon develop from the worm in the apple. As you exam-
ine the pretty wings of this gay little creature try to
estimate the amount of damage which an old mother
moth can do by laying her eggs upon the young apples
and thus giving life to many destructive worms. Our
next lesson will tell you of a very effective way of protect-
ing the fruit from this pest.

One of the most destructive of leaf-eating insects is
the canker worm, which is very common in neglected
apple orchards at this season of the year. It is a dark
brown measuring worm and when mature is about an inch
long. Jar the limbs of an apple tree and you will soon
discover several worms for study. Whenever they are
disturbed they lower themselves from the limb by a silken
thread and dangle at some distance from it until they
consider the danger past.

I hope that the acquaintances you form in the insect
world this summer may arouse your interest sufficiently
to insure your starting a school collection of insects
injurious to fruits. Your teacher will gladly help you
with this collection and if you are at a loss for the name
of some of your friends send them to the State Entomolo-
gist, Urbana, for identification.

1
i |
) THE STUDY OF HORTICULTURE.

BY J.C. BLAIR,
Professor of Pomology and Chief in Horticulture, University of Illinois.

ISSUED MONTHLY. 25 CENTS A YEAR.
j One cent a copy in quantities of ten or more. Send all orders to
YY of CONGRESS C.:M. PARKER, Taylorville, I11.

veples Reve) SERIES, No. 10. WHOLE No. 34.
86 1904 __ TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, JUNE, 1903.

a7 Tto> PLANT MEDICINES.
Ey. , / [fa farmer’s cow or his horse becomes ill, someone
| wild has made a study of the diseases of animals and the |
cures for the same is called in to prescribe or the farmer
himself gives to it some tried mixture of drugs which he
knows from experience will fit the case. Now if farmers
and fruit growers would be as careful to study the dis-
eases of their horticultural plants, there would be fewer
complaints of “bad luck and no crop” when fruit gather-
ing time comes. T'o many people, who think it perfectly
natural to doctor diseased animals, the idea of buying ©
medicine for sick plants never seems to occur. Yet just
as certain medicines have been discovered which cure or
render less severe our own diseases and those of domestic
animals, so earnest horticultural investigators have found
combinations of chemicals which applied to plants rid
them of both disease and insects. Unfortunately there
are too many skeptical people, who cannot be made to
believe that it is worth while to do more than feel dis-
couraged and blame providence for a lost fruit harvest.
It is more often to the lack of a spray pump and plant
medicines than to the unkindness of providence that such
failures must be laid. It is true that with the increase in
the number of cultivated plants there has seemed also to
be a like increase in the number of bugs and diseases to
attack them, so that horticulturists of to-day really have
a harder fight with these pests than did their ancestors.

=== 3
However, so much has been learned by careful experi-
menting, about the cure and prevention of these ills that
almost anyone may make a success of his garden or fruit
plantation if he will give the matter of plant medicines
or spraying a little attention and trial.

THE FIRST STEP.

In attempting to prescribe a remedy for a sick plant,
it is necessary to follow the method of any physician and
first be sure just what the disease or insect is that has
made its appearance or which it is expected will come
along to feed upon its fruit or leaves. Now the descrip-
tions in Lesson 9 of a few plant ailments were not intend-
ed to be complete but were probably clear enough to
enable you to recognize a large number of them if you
were to make the attempt. Jam sure that you will find
a study of plant diseases and remedies very interesting if
you go out into the orchard and garden and try to make
friends with the plants there. J hope it may be possible
for you to add to your library Mr. E. G. Lodeman’s
book, “The Spraying of Plants’. This book should be
in the home of every grower of horticultural plants if he
wishes to successfully rout the enemies which will surely —
attack them some season or other.

SELECTING THE REMEDY.

After carefully examining his patient, the physician
goes over mentally those drugs which his medical train-
ing leads him to select as best suited to check the prog-
ress of the disease or make its effect less severe. The
fruit grower needs to follow this same plan, but he will
find few difficulties in the path if he keeps in touch with
the work of the various experiment stations which are
constantly testing materials to determine the most eifect-
ive check upon certain diseases. Again, experience

“rm

aa
teaches us that the wise horticulturist should apply vari-
ous solutions to his plants at definite times each year.

This is because the development of insects and fungi is

governed as is also plant life by climatic conditions and
other circumstances of a definite or a periodical nature.
After a few years of careful observation it is an easy
matter to make the applications at just the right time.

A list of the spray solutions which have been tried
by different experimenters would not prove very interest-
ing or even instructive material for this lesson even if the
mere list could be crowded into this little leaflet, but
fortunately long experience has proven that for the

_ troubles which beset our western plants, there are a few

tried and trusty remedies and these alone can be consid-
ered at this time. However, if you secure the book above
referred to, I hope you will not fail to read the chapter
on the “Early History of Liquid Applications’. You
will find it very interesting to trace the work of those ~
people who spent many years in testing the value of
different chemicals for spraying. If each fruit grower
had to be his own experimenter, it would not seem
strange to see neglected fruit plantations eaten up by
disease and bugs, but the business of experimenting has
become the work of the experiment stations of our states
and every year many pages are printed giving accurate
suggestions for the treatment of plants affected with
different diseases. These bulletins or circulars are not
sent out haphazard but go to each person who is suffi-
ciently interested in them to see that his name is put on
the mailing list of his own state experiment station.

CHECKING SOME PLANT DISEASES.

Suppose we go out now into the garden and see if

we can find a bush or vine affected with that disease of —

ee es

which we learned in the last lesson, called anthracnose
because of its black color. Copper sulphate, one pound,
dissolved in fifteen gallons of water and sprayed on
the canes before the leaves come out would probably be
effective, but even this will not always check the disease,

~and then the only thing left to be done is to root up the

bushes and plant varieties not so easily affected by this
disease on some other part of the fruit plantation. For
the anthracnose of grape vines a sulphate of iron solution
is used. It can be put on with a white-wash or other
brush.

For the black knot of plums, there is no satisfactory
remedy. The best way is to cut out and burn the dis-
eased branches. In late winter or early spring heavy
applications of bluestone (copper sulphate) solution may
be used, followed later in the season by Bordeaux mix-
ture. For the leaf blight apply Bordeaux mixture just
after the blossoms fall and once again in about two weeks.

Brown rot of plums and cherries is a difficult thing
to fight as there is little use to spray after the disease has —

made its appearance. When the disease is known to
exist, the trees should be sprayed with the copper sul-
phate solution before the buds open. After the blossoms
fall the Bordeaux mixture should be applied every two
weeks until the fruit is nearly mature.

For the pear blight, which may also attack apples
and quinces, there is no remedy but to cut out and burn
the diseased limbs. This may do something to check the
disease. Some people also recommend spraying with
Bordeaux mixture. 7

ae

For apple scab fungus, make three applications of

Bordeaux mixture at intervals of a week or ten days, the

first application to be made just before the blossoms open.

: =

For bitter rot of apples make three applications of

Bordeaux mixture at intervals of six or seven days, com-
mencing about the middle of June.

DESTROYING SOME INSECTS.

You will remember that in an earlier lesson we talked
about “‘the survival of the fittest’. In dealing with the
insect world this struggle is repeated, for when it becomes
a question as to whether insects or fruit grower shall
profit by the fruit harvest, the fittest always wins. Ifthe
fruit grower is an energetic worker, he attacks the ene-
mies of his orchards so thoroughly that the crop is his,
but if on the other hand he would rather lose the battle
than fight, then the insects show their enterprise and
carry off the fruit. Don’t you think that under the
circumstances they have a right to it? If the fruit grower
finds that his strawberry plants are attacked by the leaf-
roller insect, he cuts off and burns the foliage as soon as
the fruit is picked. The worms, as soon as through feed-
ing, pupate in a rolled up leaf and if these are cut and de-
stroyed there will be but few insects left over. If undis-
turbed, another generation of worms will appear later in
the season, probably during August, in which case the
second brood may be destroyed by using paris green.

If another insect, the crown borer, appears, burning
off the patch may do good. The most satisfactory way
to deal with this insect, and also the white grub or May.
beetle, is to plow up and destroy the patch, starting a new
plantation in land which has not been in sod for some
time.

The larvae of the saw-fly attacking currant, goose-
berry, blackberry and grape vines is a very easy enemy
to conquer. As soon as it appears, a spray of Paris green

ay as
solution routs the entire tribe and leaves the vines free
from this pest.

The little beetle which stings the fruit of the plum,
peach, cherry and apple, and which is known by the name
curculio, is destroyed in Jarge numbers by spraying the
plants and their fruit with paris green solution; but the
most satisfactory way of getting rid of them on small
trees, such as plums, is to jar the tree in the early morn-
ing. The beetles evidently regard this shaking up as
very unpleasant for they at once curl up and fall off the
tree. A sheet spread under the tree catches them and
they may then be put to death speedily.

For the codling moth of apples, an application of
Paris green just after the blossoms fall and again in a
week or ten days may be made. A second brood may
appear in July. and if so another dose of Paris green
should be given them. You will notice that in the case
of the apple scab fungus referred to earlier in the lesson,
applications of Bordeaux mixture were advised for
the same time as this Paris green solution for codling
moth; and experience has proven that in this case we may
kill two birds with one stone, and to do twuis the paris
green is mixed with the Bordeaux, thus saving the time
and expense of making all of the applications.

Canker worms are casily gotten rid of by spraying
the plants on which they feed with Paris green as soon as
the insects arrive.

MAKING THE SOLUTION.

The chemicals and solutions to which we have so
often referred in this lesson are not difficult_to put
together, although this is the excuse often made for neg-
lect which looks considerably like laziness.

The Paris green powder, if pure, will not dissolve in

4
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—J—

water. The water simply holds the tiny particles sus-
pended and carries these to the tree, where they are left
by the evaporation of the water. It is very necessary
therefore that every bit of the dry powder comes in con-
tact with the water and does not float in lumps on its sur-
face. This may be done most easily by putting the dry
powder in a bottle or jug and partly filling it with
water, then corking and shaking the vessel vigorously for
afew minutes. This solution may then be mixed with a
larger quantity of water with no difficulty. The princi-
ple is the same as that which your mother follows when
she mixes the flour for gravies with a very little water or
milk before putting it in the pan. One pound of Paris
green and two hundred gallons cf water is the usual
strength for the insects mentioned in this lesson.

Hellebore and London Purple are two other insecti-
cides which may be mixed with water and used in place
of paris green, but they are usually not so effective.

When copper sulphate is to be applied to plants, one
pound of the crystals is dissolved in fifteen gallons of
water. This solution can only be used on plants before
the leaves come in the eariy spring because it would burn
the foliage.

The Bordeaux mixture is simply the copper sulphate
solution mixed with a lime solution, and this is neither a
complicated nor difficult mixture to prepare. Four
pounds copper sulphate are dissolved in a small quantity
of water and when this is done add enough water to make
a total of twenty-five gallons. Do the same with the
lime. Of course the lime solution is not satisfactory
unless the rock lime is properly slaked. This means that

-asmall quantity of water must be used until the slaking

is completed and then the balance of the twenty-five

reB, ¢ 1904
Seite ;
gallons of water added. By ‘‘slaking of lime” is meant
the changing of the rock lime to a lime and water solu-
tion. As soon as a little water is added to the lime, it
commences to heat: and break up. Add just enough
water to keep the mixture boiling; enough so that the lime
will not burn. It is an easy thing to add too little water
but it is just as important to avoid adding too much, until
after the whole mass has become thoroughly heated and
dissolved. The two mixtures of lime and copper sul-

phate, twenty-five gallons each, are now ready to be put
together. This should be done gradually if possible by
allowing the two to flow in a slow stream into a third re-
ceptacle, where it can be well shaken, giving a bluish
solution called the ‘Bordeaux Mixture”.

APPLYING THE SOLUTIONS.
Proper chemicals and solutions are of little account

unless they are properly applied to the plant. A good
hand pump mounted on a barrel usually answers the pur-
pose, but the commercial orchardist usually likes to have
a more powerful machine, and for this reason several
power spraying outfits have been devised. All of the
working parts of the pump as well as all the parts which
come in contact with the liquid should be of. brass, since
most spray solutions will in a short time destroy iho or
other metals of that kind. The barrel or other receptacle
to which the pump is attached may be carried in an ordi-
nary farm wagon. For spraying apple trees and other
orchard fruits the pump should be provided with two
leads of one-half inch hose, each twenty-five feet long, and
to the end of which is attached a bamboo extension rod.
The end of. this rod should be provided with a double
Vermorel nozzle from which is discharged a fine misty
spray if the required pressure is given by the operator
of the pump. Allow the fine spray to fall on the leaves
and fruit in the form of a mist or dew. Heavy spraying
would cause the solution to1 run off, carrying with it the
chemicals,

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