Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

Page 14 text:

The trees have personalities. Where can one, tired in mind and body, find a more restful place to lie than under a hemlock tree? How expressive of hospitality and sympathy is the widespreading elm, with its arching branches! But who would go for consolation to the shade of a Lombardy poplar? We may not own one rod of ground, yet the trees and shrubs offer us a wealth of ever-changing beauty and interest, that may be ours, if we hut see and understand it. 1QHN LINDLEY DOAN. i STARS Last year, his service flag with star of blue Hung from my window, gay and brave. Proclaiming proudly to the world that he (and I?) had gone to war Through bitter cold, the blinding snow and biting sleet It beat against the pane, reminding me of him, And looking out I saw—no, not the flag with star of blue— But my boy, “standing his watch” high on the swaying main mast, Trying to pierce the night with brave young eyes, Calling from time to time to those who watched below: “All’s well—All’s well.” Tonight—a golden star shines high in Heaven’s deep sea blue—his star. My boy rests safe within the harbor’s calm. No storm-tossed ship—no lurking shark-like foe, No bitter cold nor cutting winds, nor bugle calls to watch or fight, Can wake him from a sleep so unlike that of youth— I stifle my sobs and still the beating of my heart, To listen, listen, listen. Was it his voice or just the teasing wind that calls: “All’s well, Mother.” MARY GOODWIN HUBBELL. 12

Page 13 text:

The mountain laurel, rhododendron and most of our conifers are evergreen ; the buckeye unfolds its leaves in April; and the. catalpa and coffee nut do not show much foliage until late in May. The leaves of the sumach and horse chestnut fall early in autumn; while those of the pin oak are abundant until December, and those of the California privet hang on until nearly spring. The texture of the trees and shrubs is an indefinable something, contributed in some cases by the leaves; in others by the branches, but more frequently by both, that gives them much of their personalities. The huge bipinnate leaves of the Hereul,es Club, and the pinnate ones of the sumach, standing out at right angles to their upright branches, give a bold, sub-tropical effect. The drooping branches of the weeping willow and Tea's mulberry give them their characteristic weeping effect. The spreading branches and fine sprays of the tamarask, with its tiny green or grayish leaves, give it an airy character, that may be brought out attractively by a back ground of denser, darker foliage. One of the interesting sights along the streams of the Eastern States is that of the red birches growing on the brink and leaning over the water with great masses of brownish shredding bark, hanging loosely from their trunks. Equally picturesque are the native buttonwoods, with their whit.e trunks and branches, mottled with olive green and marked with occasional patches of dull brown flaking bark, reflected in the water beneath. The bright branches of the red twigged dogwoods and golden willows and the green of the kerrias are familiar to many of you. But the moosewood, or striped maple, is unexcelled in the coloring of its bark. The trunks and older branches are deep green, daintily streaked with white, while the branchlets are red on the runny side, merging into green on the shady side. The purplish staminatc catkins of the hazels and alders, the huge glossy buds of the horse chestnut and the large fuzzy buds of many of the magnolias add attractiveness during the winter. The little yellow flowers of the Japanese witchhazel unfold in the cold month of February and are followed by the grayish catkins of the pussywillow and quaking aspen at the break of spring. Then come the golden bells, magnolias, lilacs, mock oranges, spiraeas and dentzias, sour wood and varnish trees, althaeas, hydrangeas and the interesting Gordoia, so nearly extinct. And November ends the pageant of bloom with our native witch-hazel. But often the fruit is more ornamental than the flowers themselves. The pale, sulphur-colored blossoms of Thunberg's barberry are not showy; but the bright scarlet berries, hanging on the branchlets until the following spring, do much to liven the winter landscape. The same is true of the corymbs of bright red berries of the high bush cranberry and the dens.e, dark red panicles of the sumach. The shiny black fruits of the white kerria persist for a year: and a haw tree, when load.ed with its brilliant? fruit, is as beautiful as it is in blossom. If you would have humming birds, plant honeysuckles and weigelas; if you would have cat-birds plant shad bushes; if you would have robins, plant cherries and the Russian mulberry; if you would have the birds that winter in the north to make their home near you, plant evergreens and trees and bushes that carry, their fruit through the winter. 11

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A Promising New Spray Material Since the publication of the formula for what is known as nicotine oleate in th,e “Journal of Economic Entomology,” several preliminary trials have seemed to give both good and indifferent results, but no definite conclusions regarding its usefulness can yet be arrived at. The writer has made tests with this insecticide on several greenhouse plants and can report very satisfactory results as far as his own few experiments are concerned. It seems to be especially effective when emulsified with kerosene, and, unlike ordinary kerosene emulsion, leaves no oily r.esidue on the plant and is less likely to injure the foliage. There is also an advantage in the ease with which it can be prepared. One ounce of oleic acid, commonly known as “red oil ' is mixed with eight ounces of kerosene. In another vessel two ounces of nico fume is mixed with eight ounces of wat.er. The two mixtures are then combined and stirred vigorously, with the result that a creamy white emulsion is formed, which is to be used as the stock solution. This stock solution has been used at the rate of one ounce to two gallons of water on K.entia palms highly infested with Spanish Red scale, with the result that 95 per cent, of the scales were killed and no injury occurred to even the most tender growth after an interval of a month. Palms, orchids and Boston ferns did not show foliage injury. 'This promis.es to be a very promising spray for such pests as the Rhododendron lace bug. wooly aphis and young larvae of the oyster shell scale, elm scale and other soft-bodied insects. It is expected that one of the larger nurseri.es will test its usefulness in control of these pests during the present SUmmer JAS. K. PRIMM, Assistant State Nursery Inspector. 13