destroyed by a spring wind that hits the earth at such an angle. It
picked up the earth and cut the flax off, by reason of the clay hitting
the little plant, except about a hundred foot strip along the west
side, and that was protected by a growth of grass and weeds not to
exceed a foot in height. So it depends on the kind of wind a great deal
and the angle at which the wind strikes the grounds.
Now, the distance that a windbreak will protect a field has been studied
out and measured and demonstrated by a great number of men. Mr. McGee,
at Indian Head, gave a great deal of thought and study to the windbreak
proposition and measured the distances that the shelter-belt would
shelter the crops, and he came to the conclusion that for every foot in
height there would be an absolute protection for a rod in distance, and
outside of that actual protection there would be a long distance that
would be partially protected. The same study was made by a gentleman in
Iowa--I can't call his name just now--and he came to practically the
same conclusion as to the distance that the protection reached in
proportion to the height of shelter-belt.
[Illustration: Mountain Ash windbreak at Devil's Lake, N.D.]
A Member: I want a shelter mostly for apple trees. Would it be five or
six years before I receive any benefit, or seven or eight years?
Mr. Maher: Plant your protection when you plant your apple trees, and
you will have your protection sooner than you have your apples. If you
are going to do that, don't put the shelter too close to the apple
trees, which is a very common fault.
A Member: How much distance would you allow for the roots?
[Illustration: White Willow windbreak at Devil's Lake, N.D.]
Mr. Maher: I should say not less than 100 feet, anyway.
Mr. Moyer: I live in southwestern Minnesota, about thirty miles from the
South Dakota line, and I think it is a mistake to recommend the white
spruce for planting out there. The white spruce naturally grows towards
the North Pole, it extends even up to the Arctic Circle. Twenty-four
years ago I purchased a dozen white spruce from Robert Douglas, who was
then alive, and planted them northwest of my house. About five years ago
they began to fail, and now only two or three are alive, and they are
covered with dead branches. I feel sure that the white spruce have been
injured by the hot winds that come across the prairies from the
southwest. I don't think they can stand it. There is a variety of white
spruce that grows in the Black Hills, which I think will be decided to
be a different species when botanists come to study it, that will stand
our prairies. Another tree that we like is the Colorado blue spruce; it
is hardy and grows excellently. About twenty-three years ago, when
Professor Verner was at the head of the Forestry Department at
Washington he sent me 8,000 evergreens, and I set them out. They were
bull pine and the Scotch pine and Austrian pine. I was over to look at
them the other day. The Scotch pine, which have been set now
twenty-three years, are over thirty feet high, the Austrian pine about
two-thirds as high, and the bull pine, Ponderosa, is about as high as
the Austrian pine. He told me to set these trees about two feet apart
each way. I thought that too thick, so I set them in rows six feet apart
and about two or three feet apart in the rows. He wished me to alternate
the planting with deciduous trees. He recommended that I add a few
deciduous trees, green ash and box elder and a few elm, and I set them
as far as they would go, but they didn't go very far in setting the
8,000 evergreens. Then I thought it would be a good idea to use the
wolfberry that grows wild on the prairies. I set them alternately with
some of the evergreens, but as they have a very liberal root system it
was hard to get them out. The finest tree in the plantation is the
Austrian pine, and if it continues to do as well as it has the last
three or four years I think the Austrian pine is going to be a very
valuable pine for shelter-belt.
Mr. Kellogg: Have you tested the Douglas spruce?
Mr. Moyer: Not to a great extent. It does well in some localities.
[Illustration: Soft, or Silver, Maple windbreak--to be succeeded by
permanent windbreak of Bur Oak--shown growing between man and boy.]
Mr. Maher: I think the real test is to get them as near native to your
place as you can. The area over which the white spruce grows is greater
than that of any other spruce, possibly greater than any other
evergreen, especially through the northern latitudes. I don't think
there is any question about the Black Hills spruce being the white
spruce that was left there growing when the other timber was destroyed,
if we can adopt that theory. The white spruce from seed from the
Northwest, from the British Columbia countries especially, is perfectly
hardy with you. It is perfectly hardy with us at Devils Lake, which is a
very much more severe test, whereas the white spruce from its southern
limits may not be hardy even here. I think the Black Hills spruce is
perfectly hardy. The distance north and south relatively is not so
important with reference to growing trees as to get them from too far in
the humid district. The white spruce that I would be afraid of would be
the seed from New England and from the farther east limits of its
growth, where the conditions are so much more humid.
Mr. Kellogg: Do you find any trouble with too much protection for
orchards?
Mr. Maher: Where the protection is too close to the orchards I think it
is very bad. It destroys the air drainage--
Mr. Kellogg: That is why they are liable to blight.
Mr. Maher: And they blight also. The air drainage is interfered with,
and you get blight, and you also smother the orchard. I don't know but
what the apple and the Americana plum are about as hardy trees as we
have anywhere. I don't make any attempt to protect them specially except
from the south and west. I don't put any northern windbreak around any
orchards I set out. Of course, we may lose a crop with a spring frost
all right when northern protection might save it, but with us up in our
country if we have a good spring frost it is usually heavy enough to
catch them anyway.
[Illustration: Norway Poplar windbreak at Devil's Lake, N.D.]
I have a question here: How long should a shelter-belt be cultivated?
Now, that is a point on which I think too much emphasis is placed. If
you set out your trees as Judge Moyer did his, close together, inside of
a few years they will take care of themselves, they will form forest
conditions very quickly, and cultivation is not necessary any more. Of
course, if you set your trees a great distance apart where there is
nothing to protect them from the burning sun, and the ground bakes and
dries, then you must cultivate or mulch, but I think cultivation much
better than mulching.
Another question: How many rows of trees make a good windbreak? My idea
is that it takes twenty rows to make a good one--of deciduous trees, of
course. Two or three rows of evergreens, planted not further than eight
feet apart and with joints broken, probably makes as good a windbreak as
the twenty rows of deciduous trees and take less ground.
Mr. Horton: Wouldn't you have an open space in those trees? You wouldn't
put them all together?
Mr. Maher: If I had twenty rows of trees I would put them together.
Mr. Horton: Would you have an open space outside of those twenty trees
for the snow to lodge in?
[Illustration: Ponderosa Pine windbreak--at Devil's Lake (N.D.)
Nursery.]
Mr. Maher: I have never known the snow to do any hurt in a twenty row
windbreak. It distributes itself in there, and the more comes the
better.
Mr. Horton: I have seen them broken badly with the snow.
Mr. Maher: That would be probably the poplars and trees that break
easily.
Mr. Horton: On my farm I put out a row of twenty trees. Outside of that
I left a space on the north and west six rods wide, and I put out some
golden willows outside of that, and that made an open space for the snow
to fall in.
Mr. Maher: That is a very good plan, to have a row of willows back of
your shelter-belt, especially around the home and orchard and barn
ground, to hold the snow back.
Mr. Moyer: I found that the snow drifted into my evergreens but didn't
break them. I used lilac bushes; I planted a long row. Lilacs are very
common, and I got enough to plant a long row. They are now ten feet
high, and it is a magnificent sight in summer.
Mr. Maher: I know the lilac is a splendid thing, better than the golden
willow, because they last longer. They are more hardy, and they make a
better protection, and as far as wood goes from the golden willows you
get nothing except branches unless it is the white willow.
I have another question here: What would you plant around the garden?
For a windbreak around the garden orchard, that should have an inside
protection, and the shelter-belt itself should be too far away from the
garden to be sufficient protection. Around the garden I would plant
Juneberry or dogwood or any of those common native berry plants. They
will afford the very best kind of protection, just as good as the lilacs
and just as hardy, and at the same time will produce food for the birds
and bring them about your garden and keep them with you and shelter
them.
Mr. Kellogg: The barberry--
Mr. Mahler: The barberry would be all right, but I prefer the Juneberry
and the mulberry and the dogwood, because they come up a little higher.
The barberry is all right.
Mr. Kellogg: I had barberry, and I dug it all up.
Mr. Maher: It spread too much?
Mr. Richardson: I like the Russian mulberry.
Mr. Maher: Yes, sir.
Mr. Richardson: Is the mulberry hardy with you?
Mr. Maher: No, sir.
Mr. Moyer: The buckthorn makes a very good protection.
Mr. Maher: Yes, sir.
Mr. Huestis: How would the golden elder do as a hedge?
Mr. Maher: It would be a protection, but it is liable to spread too
much.
Mr. Huestis: Do you know whether the mulberry is hardy in Minnesota or
not?
Mr. Maher: I think from here south it is hardy, especially southeast.
Mr. Moyer: It occurs to me that the Tartarian honeysuckle is about as
good as any thing you can plant for birds. It is perfectly hardy on the
prairies and grows up ten or fifteen feet high.
Mr. Maher: The Tartarian honeysuckle and several varieties of the bush
honeysuckles are splendid, and they are hardy and will grow anywhere.
A Member: Did I understand some one to say that the mulberry was not
hardy?
Mr. Maher: It was stated that it wasn't hardy in North Dakota.
A Member: I put mulberry trees in my garden yard that have been bearing
mulberries for years and years.
Mr. Maher: I think the mulberry is hardy from here south and especially
southeast. I don't think it would grow out on the prairie very far.
Mr. Richardson: It grows on the prairies southwest of here.
My Color Scheme.
MRS. R. P. BOYINGTON, NEMADJI.
"Oh, my garden lying whitely in
The moonlight and the dew,
With its soft caressing coloring,
Breathing peace to all who view."
Our garden color scheme this year was a number of red, white and blue
pictures, these pictures being supported, on the different sides, by
brilliant, oriental color effects.
The first picture had for its north side the south side of the cottage,
which was covered with climbing roses (American Pillars and Crimson
Rambler). A bed of petunias, six feet wide and as long as the cottage,
came next, and was separated from about four hundred delphiniums
(belladonna) by a walk which was bordered on both sides by a row of
candytuft and a row of forget-me-nots, blue as a baby's eye. To the
south of the delphiniums was a great bank of bridal wreath
chrysanthemums, white as the driven snow.
A walk on the east had the same--candytuft and forget-me-not border. To
the south and west of this picture were irises and Oriental poppies in
all the gorgeous coloring of the Orient, with a small space on the west
where hundreds of pansies nodded their lovely faces to the stately blue
larkspurs. Are we sure, as has been said, that God forgot to put a soul
in flowers?
To the east, beyond the walk, is another picture--Shasta daisies and
blue cornflowers. On the north side is a brilliant hedge of red sweet
peas. On the east and south of this most exquisite picture are Iceland
poppies, red pyrethrums, and here and there are clumps of dark red sweet
william. In the early morn, just after the "morning stars have sung
together," and the forces of day are slowly coming into action, this is
a wonderous picture.
On the north side of the cottage is a screened-in porch. Here cardinal
climber gives its myriads of cheerful bloom, while blue lobelia and
white anemones, with the porch boxes filled with vinca atmosphere of
beauty and cheer to those who come and take the social cup that truly
cheers. The broad lawn slopes north to the driveway. To the east,
separating the lawn from the walk, which is west of the canna beds, is a
border of dusty miller next the grass and one row each of blue anchusa
and red snapdragon. The silver leaved poplars in the distance give a
soft sheen to the whole picture.
Away to the west is a spruce hedge and inside the hedge red hollyhocks
and phlox with a great row of crimson poppies. A simple garden made of
simple things, and yet as we go through it to our peony bed, that
gorgeous flower, standing alone in its regal, queenly beauty, we do not
wonder that when one of old walked with God it was in the cool of the
evening and in a garden.
"Where in all the dim resplendent spaces,
The mazy stars drift through
To my garden lying whitely in
The moonlight and the dew."
My Experience in Grape Culture.
JOSEPH TUCKER, AUSTIN. SO. MINN. HORT. SOCIETY
During fifteen years I have had in my garden several varieties of
grapes, namely, the Concord, Worden, Moore's Early and a green grape
(not certain of its name). All have done remarkably well whenever the
season was reasonably favorable. I mean by that the absence of the late
spring and the early fall frosts, which are the greatest drawbacks to
grape culture. For that reason I would not advise anyone to undertake it
as a business venture on a large scale. On the other hand, where it is
desired to supply the family table with fresh fruit as long as it will
keep, also to add a variety of jellies and preserves for the winter, a
dozen of vines will supply an ordinary family with grapes whose flavor I
have never seen surpassed.
You who do not always expect money to grow on everything you touch, you
who admire and love a plant or vine and feel well repaid for your labor
to see it grow and bear fruit, you who have a vacant corner in your
garden well adapted to that purpose, I urge you most earnestly to plant
some grape vines, and I assure you that with some knowledge of their
care and a determination not to fail you will succeed, and you will
eventually be able to see a pretty sight--for, to my mind, nothing is
handsomer than a well trimmed grape row with the ripening fruit. The
soil that will grow corn will produce good grapes. My advice is to
select early ripening varieties, for then you will only have the
possible spring frost to contend with, and that is easy to guard
against.
Do not fail to adopt some system of pruning, for that is the most
essential part of the secret to grow good grapes. Other necessary
information will no doubt be furnished by any reliable nurseryman with
whom you are dealing. I wish to say in conclusion that so far I have had
no trouble from any insects attacking the vines or fruit, and I have
always been able to produce fruit that commands the first premium
wherever exhibited.
Protect the Garden against Winter Weather.
U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE.
At this season many inquiries come to the United States Department of
Agriculture regarding the protection of garden plants and shrubs during
the winter. Such flowers as peonies and hollyhocks will come up again
the following year if they are properly protected during the winter,
while others, like cannas and dahlias, which are more accustomed to warm
climes, must have their roots or bulbs dug up and stored in a cellar.
The department's specialists give the following suggestions for "putting
the garden to bed":
_Hardy Perennials._--Cover hardy perennials, such as peonies, larkspur,
hollyhocks, columbines, iris, platycodons and perennial poppies, with a
good coating of manure or other litter to a depth of 3 or 4 inches. In
more southern localities this will hold the frost in the ground and keep
the plant from alternately freezing and thawing; in more northern
regions the manure will protect the plant from freezing to a depth that
will cut off its water supply.
_Cannas and Dahlias._--As soon as the tops of cannas, dahlias,
gladiolus, caladiums and similar plants are killed by frost, dig up the
roots or bulbs and store them in a cellar where the temperature will
remain at 55 degrees, and should never go below 50 or above 60 degrees.
Do not shake any more earth from the clumps of cannas and dahlias than
is necessary in removing them from the ground. Place the plants on racks
or in slat boxes so the air may circulate freely through them. No frost
must reach the roots nor must they become too warm or dry.
_Shrubs._--As a rule shrubs should not be trimmed in the fall. This
process is timely immediately after the blooming period, if this is in
the spring, as in the case of the snowball. If the shrubs bloom in the
fall, as do some hydrangeas, the rose of Sharon, and some lilacs, they
should not be cut directly after blooming but in the spring of the
following year. Lilacs, snowballs and mock orange should be let alone
during the winter, being neither trimmed nor covered with straw and
manure.
_Roses._--Almost all kinds of roses are hardy in the vicinities of
Washington, D.C., and St. Louis and to the south of a line drawn between
these points. From Washington northward local conditions influence the
successful cultivation of certain varieties. Some roses, as the brier
and rugosa, need no protection, but other varieties, such as the hybrid
perpetuals, teas and hybrid-teas, need special care, particularly north
of the fortieth parallel. Teas and hybrid teas hardly succeed in
Chicago, although the hybrid-perpetuals grow as far north as Canada. All
these classes do well on Long Island and in Boston near the sea when
proper care is given them. These varieties in the vicinity of Washington
need merely a little manure on the ground to prevent alternate freezing
and thawing. Farther north, however, they should be treated as follows:
Cut the tops to within 30 inches of the ground. Cover the roots with
coarse manure or leaves or similar litter. Hold this in place by
evergreen boughs which also acts as a protection. Brush from deciduous
trees or shrubs may be substituted for the evergreen boughs except in
the most northern regions.
Mounds of earth about six or eight inches in height should be drawn
about the base of the rose bushes to keep them from mice. As an added
protection against mice, permit the ground to freeze slightly before
winter protection is supplied. In fact, roses should not be protected
until after the first light freeze, which may be expected in Washington,
D.C., about the first of December, but earlier farther north. (Tops must
be protected in Minnesota.--Sec.)
_Climbing Roses._--In the latitude of Philadelphia and farther south
climbing roses usually need no protection during the winter unless they
are a particularly tender variety. Farther north these roses need
protection similar to that given to the tea and hybrid tea roses.
Where it is possible to do so, remove climbing roses from their
supports, and cover the branches with a little dirt. A little fall
trimming might be desirable to lessen the space occupied by the branches
on the ground. Such side branches as are not to be needed for next
season's blooming may be cut off. Such cutting off and shortening of the
ends as would otherwise be done in the spring may be done in the fall
before covering, merely for convenience.
Growing Asparagus.
A DISCUSSION LED BY E. W. RECORD, MARKET GARDENER, BROOKLYN CENTER.
A Member: I want to ask if many put salt on asparagus?
Mr. Record: Salt is very good, but I think only for the reason that it
makes the plant tender and keeps down insects. But if I was to use
anything to keep insects down I should use Paris green. Shorts or bran,
that is the best for cutworms. Everybody knows that with the least
scratch or mar on the side of the asparagus it will grow crooked, and
then it is a pretty hard proposition to get it into the bunch ready for
market in any kind of shape.
A Member: Some have the idea that salt helps the growth of the plant.
Mr. Record: Well, I never found it did.
Mr. Baldwin: I would like to know how to control rust on the stems in
the summer time.
Mr. Record: Well, I can't answer, but I find that the Palmetto has less
rust on it than any other variety. I have never been bothered with
asparagus rust yet.
Mr. Baldwin: After the bed gets to be a few years old the grass and
weeds commence to come up. After you get through cutting, it is pretty
hard work to get in there and clean them out. Do you find it the best
way to hoe them after you get through cutting?
Mr. Record: I will tell you. I cultivate right over the tops of the rows
and keep on cultivating until the asparagus comes up and begins to
sprout. By the time the weeds come up the second time, it is time to
quit cutting.
Mr. Baldwin: How deep do you put the plant below the surface in
transplanting?
Mr. Record: From twelve to fourteen inches. In the east they are growing
asparagus, and they set out their plants, and they fill in and wait
until the asparagus comes up and then they fill with rotted manure and
never fertilize any more, but here there are very few that do that. I
never did, but I find in putting on manure broadcast a year afterwards
the shoots were very crooked. I did that one year only. After I put it
on I thought I would have something good, and I didn't have anything. As
soon as it comes up it starts to get crooked.
Mr. Baldwin: You mean to say that putting manure on top makes the
asparagus crooked?
Mr. Record: That was my experience.
Mr. Baldwin: I have always practiced that. I think what makes it crooked
is cultivating the top and cutting the crowns off.
A Member: When the weeds come in we disk it.
Mr. Record: I never like to disk it. If your bed is very old you are
liable to cut some of your crowns rather than to keep the weeds out.
A Member: Your manure would be all gone then?
Mr. Record: I know there was a man right adjoining me who had an
asparagus bed, and he used a lot of rotten manure the summer before, and
he got very little asparagus that was marketable. I asked him what the
trouble was, and he said he didn't know. This year he had a good crop. I
can't say it was the manure that did that, only it looks that way.
A Member: How would you start a new planting?
Mr. Record: I would plow my ground thoroughly and get it in good shape.
A Member: Wouldn't fertilize the first season?
Mr. Record: I would. I would fertilize my asparagus ground two years.
A Member: I mean in preparing your patch for the new planting?
Mr. Record: I would first plow and harrow and then fertilize. Plow both
ways from fourteen to sixteen inches deep and with a fine cultivator
loosen up the bottom of furrow and put in the plants and cover with a
little earth. Then with the horse keep filling in the furrow. I saw this
summer several men with hoes working. That is all right, but it takes a
long time, especially with the proposition we are up against about hired
help. I can do it just as well with the horse and four times as fast.
The second year you can harrow it any way you want to.
A Member: Common corn land, is that fit for raising asparagus?
Mr. Record: Yes, sir, asparagus will grow on poor ground better than
many other vegetables will.
A Member: Will it improve that land by fertilizing with top dressing?
Mr. Record: I think so.
A Member: The heavy land I suppose wouldn't be good for it?
Mr. Record: They raise good asparagus on clay land, but I don't think it
will grow as good as on sandy soil. It is not quite so warm; it packs
harder and I think more liable to grow crooked.
A Member: I was called out to see a man's asparagus bed. He asked me
what kind of ground I thought it must be, and I said a light soil. This
man had a heavy clay, and it rained on it, and then the sun came out
very hot and the top cooked, and when the little shoots were to come up
they turned back. That ground wasn't good for asparagus.
Mr. Record: It should have been harrowed well after that rain.
A Member: You see he couldn't get in there.