THE GARDEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 205, 28 July 1928, Page 11

THE GARDEN

Notes are published weekly undor this heading, and readers interested in gardening are invited to send in questions rein ting to matters upon which they wish expert advice; answers will be published with Iho weekly notes.

GARDEN MANURING. As a result of various experiments it lias been shown that the shortage of farmyard or organic manure can he overcome hy using lesser quantities of it and hy making up the balance with artificial fertilisers. It must he understood that vegetable gardens ill particular are treated to a system of intensive culture, and to get the best crops from them they must also ho treated to an intensive system of manuring. If certain parte can be spelled long enough to grow a good heavy, green crop for digging in, even if the ground has to be manured to grow this crop, it. will lielj) to put plenty of heart into the soil in the way of humus. If one works out the amount of manure worked into garden soil during the year it will often he found' to amount to twenty or, thn*y tons to the acre. If green manuring is practised, and artificials are used on the same ground, it would not he necessary to use all this stuff and the rest of the garden would he able to benefit at the same time. W ith our gardening there is far too much waste of good material going on all the time. Everything capable of being made into manure should be stacked /up and the animal manure that is bought can bo stacked uj> with it. We have tried out tile plan of sprinkling such heaps with artificial manures, but have found that they can be more economically applied to the soil where they are wanted. The application of half the usual quantity of manure should be enough when chemical manures are going to be used with it. The organic manure will improve the mechanical condition of the soil and the artificials will provide the plant iood that is essential to growth. It may be thought that we lay too much stress on the manuring of soils, but the question arises that if we wish to make the best use possible of the land at our command we must also give it the attention that it deserves and give it back what we take out of it. Deferent soils certainly require diiterent ways of treatment, but it will lie found that even the best land responds to a system of manuring equally with the poorest. There are some gardeners who claim that vegetables giown on ricli land are not to bo compared with those grown on poor, and yet they will buy from the Chinaman who are’notorious users of manure of every kind. If a Chinaman gets too tar away from the source of the manure supply he does not last long, and tins goes ’to show that manuring is not only necessary, hut that it must be done to make cropping profitable.

QUESTION. A correspondent says: “I have always been much interested in apple culture and have sown many seeds which I liavo cross-fertilised with the object of getting a new variety:’ So far I must say that I have had nothing but disappointment, but 1 have raised a few peaches from stones which are passably good and seem to fruit well. I wish you would give some of the history of commercial apples as 1 am sure it would be of interest to a large number of your readers.” —Most of the apples known as commercial apples have no known family history, having been found in cottage gardens, in hedges, or in out of the way places. Those varieties about which something is known are not the best commercial kinds. In fact, we cannot give you the name of one which can be considered good. On several occasions Cox’s Orange Pippin crossed with some other variety lias given quite decent varieties which have been named, but we do not think you will find them in any list to-day. There are two catalogued in some English catalogues, Chas. Ross and Rival, and they were the result of crossing Peasgood’s Nonsuch on Cox’s Orange. The raiser of these two lists about twentytwo varieties, hut we never have heard of any of them as being grown in New Zealand. Those that have come by chance have superseded or cut them out. Rivers, writing about apples, said, “The aim has been to produce a variety with the flavour of Cox’s Orange, which would be late enough to bo in season from Christmas (English seasons) until March or later, and the method has been to use pollen of some fancy variety. So far these crosses have been in vain, but to my mind the wrong course has been followed. If other methods were used, evolutionary, so to speak, I believe the goal would be attained. The pollen of the Crab apple might ho used with good effect on some of the fancy kinds, and then it would he possible to get keeping qualities combined with flavour.” The following are a few instances of the chance seedlings that have come to the front at different times: Cox’s Orange was raised by Mr Cox, a retired brewer, of Slough, and was given to the world by Mr Turner, a nursery man. about the year 1850. There was (another apple from the same source And it was called Cox’s Pomona, but it has disappeared. Blenheim Orango was found by a tailor about the year 1750, growing in a hedge. Bramley’s seedling was a tree fifty years old before its merits were noticed in IS7G. It is still a good variety to-day. Newton Wonder was found in a hedge in Nottinghamshire and was introduced into cultivation in 1887. Gloria Mundi was found by a soldier growing in an old Indian camping ground in America, and was worked up hy him. It is recorded that fruits of it were sold in the open market weighing two pounds and over and the price was as high as £l2 per fruit. Of Warner’s King nothing is known except that an old tree appeared in ia cottage gar-

den and no one knew where it came from. Itibston Pippins, of which there were two- appeared in two different places, but the one we have came from Knaresborough growing on the village green. Claggate Pearmain and Worcester Pearmain were both found in hedges near Worcester. Jonathan was found growing in the Gatskill Mountains, far from the haunts of man. These few examples are enough to show that they have been found, and there arc dozens of others that could be quoted in the same way. It often happens that a chance seedling peach will give good fruit and there are plenty of examples of both peaches and nectarines being found in a wild state. Both plums and apricots will give bearing trees from stones if one can wait long enough. In the Pohangina Valley some years ago we were shown a peach so laden with fruit that the branches touched the ground. When they reached the ground or near enough to it wild pigs fed on the fruit. Then the branches went back into place and so a few ripe fruits could be gathered and they were excellent eating

WORK. "With the coming of spring there is always a lot of work to be done to get everything in readiness for planting. Every bit of available ground should be worked up in readiness for planting. The chrysanthemum plants that are rooted should be potted up into small pots, and as soon as they have got over the move they should he stood outside where they can get all the sun and air that is to be got. The firmer the potting is done the better, and as long as the plants are strong and sturdy there is no necessity to have them growing fast. They will do this soon enough when they get into their permanent quarters. Sift all the dahlia tubers that you have and put them in a dry shed or under trees where no frost can get at them. There is no necessity to be in a hurry about replanting them. November will be quite soon enough for that and then yqu will be able to see how many shoots each tuber is- going to send up. As long as each tuber has one shoot that will be quite enough, but we will deal with that later on. Old perennial plants can ho taken up now and a small portion of each replanted in good fresh soil. In too many cases these plants are allowed to become too thick and crowded and do not givo the amount of blooms that can be grown from a single specimen.

VEGETABLES. Sealcale is a vegetable that is very little grown and is one that if its cultivation was understood would be in every garden. One of the chief causes of neglect is that it takes a season to make a plant large enough for forcing. It can either be grown from seed or from cuttings made of the roots of an old plant. Plants large enough for forcing can bo got now and planted in a well-drained soil and just deep enough not to cover tire crowns, of which there may be one or two or three. When planted, a benzine box can bo placed over it with the top and bottom taken out, hut one must be kept as a removable cover. Put the cover in position and cover the box, lid and all, with some heating manure and the stalks will come away at once. Being grown in darkness, the stalks are blanched and are tender and make a most excellent vegetable. Those who have grown seakale for years say that it is a vegetable they, cannot do without. Tho weather for the past week lias been splendid for working up the soil of tho vegetable garden and for sowing peas and beans. If when sowing these seeds a four inch pot of slaked lime is scattered along every twenty feet of row it will help the plants and will keep slugs and otliei vermin away. Lime is necessary to all leguminous crops, and it is not worth while trying to grow them without it. Cabbages and cauliflower plants can be set out in well manured soil now. They will require to be dusted with 60ot and lime to keep birds and slugs away. The ground lor onion planting should be got ready as soon as possible now. It requires to be in good heart and well firmed down before the seeds are sown or the young plants are set out, and it should not have grown a similar crop for some years. This is not because the onions exhaust tho soil, but because there is such a thing as onion mildew winch lasts overfrom season to season in the soil and although it may not appear on the first crop will certainly do so if two or three are grown in tho same soil. We believe that the most satisfactory way of growing onions is by transplanting autumn sown plants early in the spring. Tho plants can be properly spaced out and kept in nice straight rows. V hen transplanting have the surface nice and smooth and do not put the small bulb or that part that forms tlrt bulb below the surface. Even if the plants lie over on their sides they, will soon stand erect and there will be no hindrance to the formation .of the bulb. Potatoes should be got ready for planting next month. Select the seed you require and stand it on its end in a shallow box or tray to sprout Und green up. It not only saves time, but also space to do this because as soon as the sprouts are strong enough they can be planted and none of them will miss, but by the old way of taking any seed and putting it in there are sure to be blanks and empty spaces of valuable ground. Another thing is that seed treated in this way is a fortnight or more faster than in the old way.