SHRUBBERY PLANTS AND FLOWERS.

I am sorry to report that there is no marked increase in the planting of ornamental plants and flowers about the farmers' houses.

There is more interest manifested in ornamental horticulture, but it seems to be confined principally to villages and towns. However, a few correspondents report a healthy growth even at the rural homes.

"NATURE STUDY."

According to the reports of county correspondents, what is known as "Nature Study," is sadly neglected in the rural schools.

The answers to the question "Is this subject receiving increased attention in your schools?" are in most cases "no." Some say "don't know" or "hardly” and a few say "to some extent." Frobably not a few asked themselves the question, "What has Nature Study to do with a fruit crop report?" It may be said that immediately and directly, not much--not more than to call attention to the subject and to show how sadly we fail to train the rising generation to see and to know the common things about us, and put them in sympathy with their environments. Discontent is apparent among country people, and thousands of our brightest boys and girls leave the farms and swell the ranks of overcrowded cities and towns. This is largely so because these young people have never been assisted to see and to know the country. The beauties of the book of Nature have never been disclosed to them. Rural life has no interest and no charm for them. Nature Study does not mean the addition of another branch of study in the country school. It does not aim to teach botany, ornithology, entomology or any other "ology" from text-books, and as an exact science, but its aim is to teach the young to see, and to hear, and to know the things about them and to make use of the knowledge thus acquired.

If this subject received the merited attention now, the next gencration of fruit growers would report fewer failures. Therefore this question is of vast importance as it has a bearing on the future.

Before leaving this question, I shall quote from an article, entitled "Nature Study on the Cornell Plan," by Prof. L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University. The article appeared in the April number of the Review of Reviews. To those interested in this important subject I would say, read the entire article. He says "The greater part of what is called Nature Study is merely easy or diluted science. Another part of it is sentimental affection. Between the two should lie the real and true Nature Study-that which opens the eyes of the child to see nature as it is, without thought of making

the child a scientist, and without the desire to teach science for the sake of science.

"The true nature-teaching seeks rather to inspire and to enlarge one's sympathies; mere facts are secondary. Every person lives always in an environment, if he does not have a spontaneous interest in that environment his life is empty. We live in the midst of common things. The Cornell Nature Study movement seeks to improve the agricultural condition. It wants to interest the coming man in his natural environment, and thereby to make him content to be a countryman. This is the only fundamental solution of the so-called agricultural question. All things hinge on the intellectual effort and the point of view of the individual.

"In New York State, 26,000 teachers are on the mailing list and receive the Nature Study leaflets. Already 1,100 Junior Naturalists' Clubs are organized among the school children. In these clubs are enrolled over 30,000 children. The idea is to get the children to do something for themselves." If time permitted I would quote more from Prof. Bailey, but suffice it to say that one can easily see what an enormous advantage the young New-Yorker will have over his Pennsylvania neighbor less equipped for life's work.

SPRAYING.

Judging from the reports of the different county correspondents, the matter of spraying to combat insects and fungi has witnessed no material progress. Nearly all say it is a good thing and the result is better fruit and more of it. All the same, neglect is the rule, and poor fruit or no fruit the consequence. Fungi and insects that infest our fruit bearing trees are here to stay, and whoever wants good fruit has to wage war on the orchard foes whether fungoid or insect. Scientists inform us that all injurious insects have their parasites and foes, and apparently any number of people are waiting for the parasites. The up-to-date man waits too, but while he waits and hopes he also invests in spraying outfits and applies fungicides and insecticides, harvests fruit that commands a ready market at remunerative prices. The other fellow hopes and waits and must be content with a poor crop of wormy, knotty and scabby fruit, only fit to be turned into vinegar and subject to the analysis of the State chemist before it can be put on the market. The question is not whether spraying is beneficial or necessary. We have passed that stage, and the question now is whether you want good marketable fruit or not. There may be seasons when fungi is less damaging or when insects are less numerous and fair

results are attained without spraying, but since one can never tell much of any thing of the future the live man "takes time by the forelock" and sprays.

Dr. Chamberlain read a paper before the Ohio Horticultural Society on "Apple Culture in Northeastern Ohio." Where he sprayed he had no imperfect fruit and where not sprayed he found no perfect fruit. He had five acres in bearing last year which netted him $320 per acre. He sprayed two or three times thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture, adding about eight ounces of Paris green and three pounds of Disparene to 50 gallons of the mixture. The Disparene causes the mixture to "stick" like paint. This dose he says does not injure the foliage, but makes sure work of the codling moth.

SAN JOSE SCALE.

The eastern and southern portions of the State appear to be pretty badly infested with this insect. According to reports of correspondents the western and northern parts of the State have no scale. In only a few instances as reported has the damage been serious.

Various remedies are used to contr 1 the scale, the most effective is the destruction of the tree with fire. Reports at hand affirm that spraying with pure kerosene has settled the scale. Some use whale oil soap and others spray with lime wash. Several correspondents say it can not be exterminated.

In passing, it may be said that there are probably more trees infected with scale than are reported. I know of instances where the scale was at work and the owners of trees were ignorant of its presence.

The pest was no doubt scattered over the State on nursery stock and it is well that the law enacted last year be stri tly enforced. But what protection have we against infested fruit shipped into the State or if your neighbor has an infested orchard, how are you to be protected? I know of trees covered with the scale and the owners neither remove or spray. This is as menacing as infested nursery stock, for wind and birds will surely infest neighboring trees.

FEEDING.

This is a rock-bottom question in all kinds of crop production; but a wider knowledge of the relation of plant food to a desired product is required, it seems to me, in horticulture than in the ordinary farm crops. We have what is known as a "balanced ration” for the dairy cow, another ration for hogs, and still another for horses and steers, and so on. Those who feed animals feed a ration for desired results. Successful dairymen don't feed at random;

they adjust the different ingredients in such proportions that they will derive the largest return from the outlay.

In feeding fruit bearing trees, orchardists can well afford to imitate those who feed cattle. Trees are too often looked upon as things capable of taking care of themselves and produce a crop of fruit. Feeding not only adds to the productiveness of a tree, but it prolongs its life; it makes it less subject to all kinds of diseases to which trees and fruit are sub ect. It can better ward off the attacks of insects without injury to its productive power.

The food of a growing tree should be different from that of a bearing tree. Nitrogenous food makes wood, it builds the tree quickly, but when the period or age of fruiting comes, the food should consist largely of phosphoric acid and potash. These develop the reproductive powers of the tree.

To attain best results in any case the soil must abound with humus. Plant food can not do its work in a soil deficient in organic matter. Trees take the food in a soluble form, in fact, they drink their food, impregnated with the salts of the different food ingredients. Therefore, a moisture-holding soil is of the greatest importance, and such is a soil abounding with humus.

One should not look for good results on soil deficient in humus, even though ammonia, phosphoric acid and potash are applied with a lavish hand. To get humus in the orchard at the least expense, grow it; the legumes, if possible, for they will add to the store of nitrogen. Any green crop will answer, even weeds are better than a soil deficient in organic matter.

Don't grow a grass crop and remove it; the orchard needs it all to supply humus and to mulch or cover the surface as a precaution against drought. When we come to understand plant feeding more fully we will be rewarded with more regular and finer crops of fruit.

According to the reports of correspondents, feeding the orchards is very much neglected, and it can be fairly questioned whether failures or short crops are not as much the result of starvation as of adverse natural conditions. For bearing orchards, especially the peach, commercial fertilizers are preferred to stable or yard manure.

TILLAGE.

Excepting peach culture, the lack of orchard tillage obtains in most instances. A few cultivate orchards, but nearly all say that cultivation increases the size and quality of the fruit. Cultivation may not be desirable on steep hillsides where much of the good soil would be washed down. On these hillsides mulching is prefer

able. Nearly all are agreed that the peach orchards should be regularly and constantly cultivated close up to the time of ripening the fruit. Cultivation late in the season should be avoided as it will stimulate growth of wood that will not ripen sufficiently to withstand the cold.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

While apples were a failure or a short crop over the larger part of the State, a few growers had phenominal crops for which they realized large prices. The apple is to be considered as the staple fruit for it lasts throughout the entire year, and when a shortage occurs, the lovers of fruit have only the products of the tropics to fall back on. A failure of the apple crop is more keenly felt than a failure of any other fruit grown in our State.

There were drawbacks in some of the other fruits. Peaches, plums and grapes rotted badly as a result of wet weather.

Pears did not come up to the average over the State. Small fruit culture seems to be on the increase. Quinces seem to offer a particular attraction for insects and fungi, and reports on this fruit are more discouraging from year to year.

Cherries are evidently planted in too limited a way, for the complaint is that the birds take the cream. The remedy is to plant more trees and the birds will deal more generously with you. In ornamental planting, progress is noticeable. If those in charge of our schools would realize the importance of "Nature Study," a transformation of the country home would be brought about in the next generation. Flowers and fruits would adorn the garden and the home. Men and women would become keener observers. The world would mean more to them.

Various causes are assigned for failures, among the notes of correspondents. Theories are advanced and suggestions made and I shall quote from them.

Mr. Frederick Jaekel, Blair county, makes mention of a pear in his experimental orchard planted about 12 years ago containing in all about 72 varieties. It is an unnamed pear and described as "about the shape and size of a well-grown Bartlett, but beautifully mottled with red on the sunny side, melting, juicy and of superior flavor, ripening about September 20th, and keeps well for nearly a month in a room in an open basket." He reports on another pear, the Madame Siebold, "has been bearing for 5 years, annually, a very fine crop of large russetty pears, superior to Kieffer and larger. The pears sell well, and I think are worth while to be planted by