Mr. A. M. Smith, Dear Sir:—Your favor at hand, and in reply say that you describe the Yellows very correctly. I know of no positive cure, and the only preventive that I know of is to mark the trees when you discover that they are diseased and remove them the following fall, otherwise those standing near will take it the next season. The first appearance of the disease is that one or two branches will ripen their fruit a week or two before the usual time. When you notice this, mark your trees and remove them. We have had the Yellows here at intervals for over sixty years, sometimes continuing for five or six years and then several years free from it. But much depends upon the care that is taken to keep rid of it, not only yourself but your neighbors.
Very respectfully,
Chas. Downing.
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THE GLADIOLUS.
In our climate there is no part of the garden more gay during the month of August and continuing often into September than the bed devoted to the Sword Lilies, as the Gladiolus is commonly called. Such has been the improvement wrought by skillful hybridization that we have now an almost endless variety of colors and markings, many of which are exceedingly beautiful. They are the offspring of two species, G. floribundus, which is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and was brought to England about the year 1788; and G. psittacinus, a native of Port Natal, from whence it was brought in 1829. The first hybrid was raised on the continent of Europe, and received the name of G. Gandavensis, from the town of Ghent. The hybrid variety has been found to cross freely with all other varieties and with some of the species, and to this we owe the many beautiful and showy varieties which we now possess.
There are many other species of Gladiolus than the two above named, some of which are hardy, while many of them are so tender as to require greenhouse culture. Johnson mentions in his Gardener’s Dictionary more than fifty different species and sub-species. These have been laid under contribution by those who have interested themselves in the improvement of this flower, and so far as has been found practicable, made to contribute to the beauty of our garden hybrids.
These garden varieties thrive best in a rich well drained loam; soils that are cold and wet are not suited to them. If one can command a good loamy soil, with a porous gravelly sub-soil, he may be sure of growing these beautiful flowers in their greatest perfection. However, such a soil is not by any means indispensable, the writer having grown them for many years with very good success where the sub-soil was a very firm sandy hard-pan. In preparing beds for the Gladiolus it is necessary to avoid all fresh, partially fermented or undecomposed manures, for these tend to produce disease in the bulbs, or properly speaking, corms. Thoroughly rotted cow-dung is the best manure for them. An excellent compost is formed by putting up a heap of sods in alternate layers with cow-dung, and when the sods have become rotten, mixing the heap thoroughly together. It is well to spade a good dressing of this into the bed intended for the Gladiolus in the fall, leaving the surface rough during winter, and then spading it again in the spring just before planting them out. In this way the manure becomes thoroughly mingled with the soil.