Part 7
COLLARDS. This is a name given to a kind of kale, used when young as greens; also to young cabbages used in the same way. The seed of any early cabbage may be sown thickly in rows 18 inches apart, from early spring to late fall. The plants are cut off when 6 or 8 inches high and boiled as are other greens. The kale Collards is grown in the South, where cabbages fail to head. It grows to the height of 2 to 6 feet, furnishing a large quantity of leaves.
COLLINSIA. A hardy annual that should be sown in the fall, where wanted, if early flowers are desired. The flowers of all the varieties are showy, either in masses or planted in a border. Give them a position near the front, as the plants rarely exceed 18 inches in height.
COLUMBINE. See _Aquilegia_.
COMPOST. See _Manure_.
CONVOLVULUS. See _Morning-Glory_.
COREOPSIS, or CALLIOPSIS. Very showy hardy annuals, growing from 1 to 3 feet high, and covered throughout the season with a profusion of bloom. The colors range from lemon-yellow to dark velvety brown. Excellent for cutting, and very effective in mixed borders. They thrive in any garden soil if they have full sunlight. Sow where they are to grow, letting the plants stand 6-12 in. apart for mass effects.
CORN SALAD. This is one of the earliest spring salad vegetables, coming into condition to use with spinach, and needing the same culture. Sown in the fall, and covered with straw or hay when cold weather sets in, it will start into rapid growth when the covering is removed in March or April. Or the seed may be sown in early spring, and plants will be fit to use in six or eight weeks. One packet of seed will suffice for a small family.
CORN, SWEET, is not so generally used as it should be. Usually when planted at all, only one planting of one kind is made. The ears come to edible maturity almost simultaneously, and a short season of Sweet Corn is the result. The first planting should be made from May 1 to 10, planting early, intermediate and late varieties at the same time, then at intervals of two weeks until the middle of July, when the late varieties should be planted, thus having a succession from the first crop until October. The soil for Corn should be rich in plant-food, and the coarser manure left from the preparation of the ground for small crops may be used to good advantage. Corn for the garden is better planted in drills, the drills 3 feet apart, dropping the seed from 10 to 12 inches apart in the drills. One quart of seed will plant 200 hills.
For extra early, Marblehead, Adams, Vermont, Minnesota and Early Cory are favorites. For later crop, Crosby, Hickox, Shoe Peg and Stowell Evergreen are now popular.
COSMOS. The Cosmos grown in a locality free from early fall frosts is certainly a beautiful thing, but there are probably few flowers that have caused so much disappointment to the flower lover in the North. The seed germinates very freely. The plants grow with great vigor, and if the season permits, an abundance of bloom may be had in September. An early-flowering strain of dwarf Cosmos has been offered by the trade for several years; and each year there seems to be an improvement in the size and colors, so the time may shortly come when this will equal the late-flowering varieties, making the culture of Cosmos more satisfactory. Cosmos flowers are borne on long stems, and the colors are in white and fine shades of red. The foliage is also fine. Seed should be sown in gentle heat, in the greenhouse, hotbed or window in early April, and the young plants transplanted when 2 inches high, setting the plants well down in the soil and giving at least 3 inches between the plants, as they are very likely to spindle up, with weak stems, if crowded. When danger of frost is over, set them out in a warm, well sheltered position, 3 feet apart. After the plants start into growth, pinch out the top to induce a bushy growth. If situated where the wind can whip them, they should have a stake driven close to the stem, and be tied to it for support. Flowers of Cosmos are on the order of single Dahlias.
CRANBERRY. The growing of Cranberries in artificial bogs is an American industry. The common large Cranberry of markets is also a peculiarly American fruit, since it is unknown in other countries except as the fruit is shipped there. Cranberries are grown in bogs, which may be flooded. The whole area is kept under water during the winter time, largely to prevent the plants from winter injury by the heaving and freezing and thawing of the bogs. Flooding is also employed at intervals for the purpose of drowning out insects, mitigating drought, and protecting against frost and fires. Every good Cranberry bog should have facilities for flooding. The ordinary practice is to choose a bog which has a creek running through it, or through which some creek or ditch may be diverted. At the lower side of the bog flood gates are provided, so that when the gates are shut the water backs up and floods the area. It is best that the bog be comparatively flat, so that the water will be of approximately equal depth over the whole area. At the shallowest places the water should stand about a foot above the plants. The water is usually let on the bog early in December and kept on until April or early May. No flooding is done during the rest of the year unless there is some particular occasion therefor.
All the wild and turfy growth should be taken off the bog before the vines are set. This is done either by digging it off and removing it bodily, or by drowning it out by means of a year's flooding. The former method is generally considered to be the better. After the turfy growth is removed, the bog is smoothed and covered 2 or 3 in. deep with clean sand. The vines are now set, the lower ends of them being shoved through the sand into the richer earth. In order to prevent a too rapid and tangled growth of vine, it is customary to resand the bog every three or four years to a depth of one-fourth or one-half inch. When sanding is not practicable, the vines may be mown off when they become too luxuriant.
The plants for setting are merely cuttings or branches of the vines. These cuttings may be from 5 to 10 in. long. They are inserted into the ground in a hole made by a crowbar or stick. They are usually planted at distances of 12 to 18 in. each way, and the vines are allowed to cover the entire ground as with a mat. In three years a good crop should be secured, if the weeds and wild growth are kept down. A crop ranges between 50 to 100 barrels per acre.
CRESS. The Upland Cress, or the true PEPPER GRASS, may be grown on any garden soil. Sow early in the spring. It makes a rapid growth and can be cut from four to five weeks. Succession of sowings must be made, as it runs quickly to seed. The curled variety is the one usually grown, as the leaves may be used for garnishing as well as for salads. One packet of seed will be sufficient for each sowing. Any good soil will do. Sow thickly in drills 12-18 in. apart. In summer it runs to seed quickly, so that it is usually grown in spring and fall.
The Water Cress is more exacting in its culture, and can only be successfully grown in moist places, such as edges of shallow, slow-running creeks, open drains, or beds excavated near such streams. A few plants for private use may be grown in a frame, provided a retentive soil is used and attention given to watering the bed often. Water Cress may be propagated from pieces of the stem, used as cuttings. If one is fond of Water Cress, it is well to colonize it in some clean creek or pool. It will take care of itself year by year. Seeds may also be used for propagating it.
CROCUS. A hardy bulb, easily grown and giving good satisfaction either in the border or scattered through the lawn. They are also forced for winter (see _Bulbs_). They are so cheap and lasting that they may be used in quantity. A border of them along the edges of walks, little clumps of them in the lawn, or masses in a bed, give the first touch of color as the spring opens. They may be forced with ease planted in pots or shallow boxes, put away in a cool place and brought into the house at any time through the winter. A low temperature will bring them into bloom in perfection in about four weeks from the time they are brought in. They can be had in the window-garden in this way.
A sandy soil suits the Crocus admirably. Plant in the fall, in the open, setting them 3 to 4 inches deep. When they show signs of failing, take up the bulbs and reset them. They tend to rise out of the ground, because the new bulb or corm forms on the top of the old one. If best results are desired, it is well to renew the bed occasionally by buying new bulbs. Crocus beds may be filled later in the season with quick-growing annuals.
CROTON. Under this name many varieties and so-called species of Codiaeum are grown for conservatory decoration, and latterly for foliage bedding in the open. The colors and shapes of the leaves are very various and attractive. The Crotons make good window-garden subjects, although they are very liable to the attack of the mealy bug. They are propagated readily by cuttings of half-ripened wood any time during winter or spring. The plants should be given an abundance of light in order to bring out their fine colors; but it is usually advisable to screen them from the direct rays of the sun when they are grown under glass. If the red spider or the mealy bug attack them, they may be syringed with tobacco water. Plants which are propagated indoors during the winter may be massed in beds out of doors during the summer, where they make very striking effects. Give them rich, deep soil, and be sure that they are syringed frequently enough on the under side of the leaves to keep down the red spider. If the plants have been gradually subjected to strong light before they are taken out of doors, they will stand the full sunlight and will develop their rich colors to perfection. In the fall they may be taken up, cut back and used for window-garden or conservatory subjects. Crotons are shrubs or small trees, and they may be transferred into large pots or tubs and grown on into large tree-like specimens.
CUCUMBER. For early use, the Cucumber is usually started in a hotbed or coldframe by sowing the seed on pieces of sod 4 to 6 inches square, turned grass side down. Three or four seeds are placed on or pushed into each piece of sod and covered with 1 to 2 inches of fine soil. The soil should be well watered and the glass or cloth placed over the frame. The roots will run through the sod. When the plants are large enough to set out, a flat trowel or a shingle may be slipped under the sod and the plants moved to the hill without check. In place of sod, old quart berry boxes are good; after setting in the hill the roots may force their way through the cracks in the baskets. The baskets also decay rapidly. Flower pots may be used. These plants from the frames may be set out when danger of frost is over, usually by the 10th of May, and should make a very rapid growth, yielding good-sized fruits in two months. The hills should be made rich by forking in a quantity of well rotted manure, and given a slight elevation above the garden--not high enough to allow the wind to dry the soil, but slightly raised so that water will not stand around the roots. One ounce of seed will plant fifty hills. The hills may be 4-5 ft. apart each way.
The White Spine is the leading general-purpose variety. For very early or pickling sorts, the Chicago, Russian, and other picklings are good.
The striped beetle is an inveterate pest on Cucumbers and squashes. Following is the latest advice (Hall and Sirrine, New York State Experiment Station): "Poisons can be used with success against these beetles for only a short time in the spring, when they begin to feed; and again, in the fall, against beetles of the new brood. This fall poisoning will succeed only where there is not an abundance of wild fall flowers; for the beetles will desert any poisoned crop for the unpoisoned flowers and will feed upon the flowers to a considerable extent, anyhow, if they are to be found. Green arsenite, dry, gave best results. It was found a waste of the poisons to apply them in Bordeaux mixture, as the mixture so repelled the insects that they would not eat the sprayed vines to secure the poison. These poisons, applied in water, are liable to burn or stunt the plants. It is necessary, then, if we wish to poison the beetles, to use a trap crop to attract the insects and to apply the poison to this crop instead of to the plants we design to protect. On small areas it may be advisable to shut in the small plants of the growing crop by the well known cloth-topped boxes; by the tent-like cloth covers spread over arched hoops or wires; by boxes made from a rectangular piece of cloth and two short 6-inch boards with cleats attached to insert in the soil and hold the boards upright; or even 6-inch wire plate-covers. Covers, however, are too expensive on large areas, and they have the disadvantage of frequently making the plants weak, so that winds will snap them off or twist and ruin them when the covers have to be removed. If covers are used alone, their removal leaves the unprotected vines not only for feeding places but for breeding places for the beetles.
"Bordeaux mixture, if thoroughly and frequently applied, makes as efficient a protection as the covers, is much cheaper, and at the same time protects the plants from diseases. This mixture (1-to-11 formula) should be sprayed upon the Cucumbers when they are just well up, again when they show the third leaf, and the third time just before the plants commence to form runners. The early application can probably best be made with a knapsack sprayer, and later ones by any good pump sprayer. The three applications should not cost over $2 per acre. The Bordeaux mixture is a much better repellant, according to station tests, than kerosene, turpentine, tobacco dust, cow manure, burdock infusion, slug shot, bug death, or any other known compound. Indeed, all materials of this class, supposed to drive away the beetles by their distasteful odor, proved failures when used alone. Air-slaked lime, dusted over the vines, will make them unpalatable to the beetles, but the lime is liable to stunt the plants. It may be used, with care, by those whose crop is not large enough to warrant purchase of a spraying outfit.
"All of these appliances or applications, covers, Bordeaux mixture or lime, merely protect the young plants until they are strong enough to stand the injury from the beetles; they do not kill the insects. To do this, trap crops are needed. As the squash is the beetle's favorite food plant, this vegetable should be planted--in single rows along the margins of small patches, in several rows around large fields--about four days before the Cucumbers or melon seeds are sown. When these trap plants are up and the beetles appear about them, dust about half the plants with green arsenite, reserving the other half for use if rain or heavy dew makes the poison soluble and kills the vines first treated. The beetles, attracted by their favorite tidbit, will feed upon the squash vines and be poisoned by the arsenite. When the Cucumbers or melons are up, unless they are protected by covers, spray with Bordeaux, and poison more of the squash vines. When the beetles commence to pair, the squashes may be cultivated up, leaving only a few vines for the beetles to feed upon at flowering time, as the insects prefer the squash flowers and will not molest the others. Beans may be used with some success as a fall catch crop, where wild flowers are not too plentiful. They should be planted on the Cucumber or melon fields; and when the beetles leave the old vines to feed upon the fresh bean plants, they should be treated to liberal doses of poison as well."
The mildew on the vines can be prevented by Bordeaux mixture spray.
CURRANTS. The Currant, being one of the hardiest and most productive of fruits, is often neglected, the patch allowed to become foul with grass, never thinned or trimmed, the worms eating the leaves until, in the course of time, the plants weaken and die. Along the fence is no place to plant Currants, or, indeed, any other fruit; plant out in the open, at least 5 feet from anything that will interfere with cultivation. No fruit crop will respond more readily to good care than the Currant. Clean cultivation and a liberal use of manure or fertilizers will certainly be followed by well paying crops. One- or two-year-old plants may be set 4 by 6 feet. Trim the bush by cutting off most of the suckers below the surface of the ground. If the season is dry, a mulch of straw or leaves will assist the plants to establish themselves.
The red and white Currants bear mostly on two-year-old or older wood. A succession of young shoots should be allowed to grow to take the place of the old bearing wood. Cut out the canes as they grow older. The partial shade afforded by a young orchard suits the Currant well, and if the ground is in good condition no bad results will follow to the orchard, provided the Currants are removed before the trees need the entire feeding space.
A Currant patch should continue in good bearing for 10 to 20 years, if properly handled. One very important point is to keep the old, weak canes cut out, and a succession of two to four new ones coming from the root each year. For home use, White Imperial and Moore's Ruby are excellent. Prince of Wales is a heavy bearer and excellent for cooking. Wilder, Victoria, Cherry and White Grape are meritorious varieties.
To combat the Currant worm, spray thoroughly with Paris green to kill the first brood, just as soon as holes can be seen in the lower leaves--usually before the plants are in bloom. For the second brood, if it appear, spray with white hellebore. For borers, cut out and burn the affected canes.
CUTTINGS. Cuttings are parts of plants which are inserted in soil or water with the intention that they shall grow and make new plants. They are of various kinds. They may be classified, with reference to the age of the wood or tissue, into two classes; viz., those made from perfectly hard or dormant wood (taken from the winter twigs of trees and bushes), and those made from more or less immature or growing wood. They may be classified again in respect to the part of the plants from which they are taken, as root Cuttings, tuber Cuttings (as the ordinary "seed" planted for potatoes), stem Cuttings and leaf Cuttings.
Dormant wood Cuttings are used for grapes, currants, gooseberries, willows, poplars and many other kinds of soft-wooded trees and shrubs. Cuttings are ordinarily taken in fall or winter, but cut into the proper lengths and then buried in sand or moss where they do not freeze, in order that the lower end may heal over or callus. In the spring these Cuttings are set in the ground, preferably in a rather sandy and well drained place. Usually, hardwood Cuttings are made with two to four joints or buds, and when they are planted, only the upper bud projects above the ground. They may be planted erect, as the picture shows, or somewhat slanting. In order that the Cutting may reach down to moist earth, it is desirable that it should not be less than 6 inches long; and it is sometimes better if it is 8 to 12 inches. If the wood is short-jointed, there may be several buds on a Cutting of this length; and, in order to prevent too many shoots from arising from these buds, the lowermost buds are often cut out. Roots will start as readily if the lower buds are removed, since the buds grow into shoots and not into roots. Cuttings of currants, grapes, gooseberries, and the like may be set in rows which are far enough apart to admit of easy tillage either with horse or hand tools, and the Cuttings may be placed from 3 to 8 inches apart in the row. After the Cuttings have grown for one season, the plants are usually transplanted and given more room for the second year's growth, after which time they are ready to be set in permanent plantations. In some cases, the plants are set at the end of the first year; but two-year plants are stronger and usually preferable.
Root Cuttings are used for blackberries, raspberries, and a few other things. They are ordinarily made of roots from the size of a lead pencil to one's little finger, and are cut in lengths from 3 to 5 inches long. The Cuttings are stored the same as stem Cuttings and allowed to callus. In the spring they are planted in a horizontal or nearly horizontal position in moist, sandy soil, being entirely covered to a depth of 1 or 2 inches.
Softwood or greenwood Cuttings are always rooted under cover; that is, in a greenhouse, coldframe or dwelling house. They are usually made of wood which is mature enough to break when it is bent sharply. When the wood is so soft that it will bend and not break, it is too immature, in the majority of plants, for the making of good Cuttings. One to two joints is the proper length of a greenwood Cutting. If of two joints, the lower leaf should be cut off and the upper leaves cut in two, so that they do not present their entire surface to the air and thereby evaporate the plant juices too rapidly. If the Cutting is of only one joint, the lower end is usually cut just above a joint. In either case, the Cuttings are usually inserted in sand or well washed gravel, nearly or quite up to the leaves. Keep the bed uniformly moist throughout its depth, but avoid any soil which holds so much moisture that it becomes muddy and sour. These Cuttings should be shaded until they begin to emit their roots. Coleus, geraniums, fuchsias, and nearly all the common greenhouse and house plants, are propagated by these Cuttings or slips.
Leaf Cuttings are often used, for the fancy-leaved begonias, gloxinias, and a few other plants. The young plant usually arises most readily from the leaf-stalk or petiole. The leaf, therefore, is inserted into the ground much as a green Cutting is. Begonia leaves, however, will throw out young plants from the main veins when these veins or ribs are cut. Therefore, well-grown and firm begonia leaves are sometimes laid flat on the sand and the main veins cut; then the leaf is weighted down with pebbles or pegs so that these cut surfaces come into intimate contact with the soil beneath. The begonia leaf may be treated in various other ways and still give good results. See _Begonia_.
In the growing of all greenwood Cuttings, it is well to remember that they should have a gentle bottom heat; the soil should be such that it will hold moisture and yet not remain wet; the air about the tops should not become close and stagnant, else the plants will damp off; and the tops should be shaded for a time.
An excellent method of starting Cuttings in the living room is to make a double pot, as shown in the picture. Inside a 6-inch pot, set a 4-inch pot. Fill the bottom, _a_, with gravel or bits of brick, for drainage. Plug the hole in the inside pot. Fill the spaces between, _c_, with earth, and in this set the Cuttings. Water may be poured into the inner pot, _b_, to supply the moisture.