d.

In bone meal we find the phosphorus necessary to aid in the development
of fine and many flowers, to expand root growth and to hasten maturity.
It works slowly, so can be applied to the ground about a plant early in
the season, and will be available in the ground the following year if
enough is used. Equal parts of nitrate and bone meal can be used at the
rate of one to two pounds to every one hundred square feet.

Potash is almost off the market, as a result of the war, the main supply
being imported from Germany. It can be obtained from hardwood ashes, and
every bit of these should be saved for the garden and stored in a dry
place where they will not become leached out by the action of water.

_April Spraying._--Snowball bushes and others that have been troubled
with aphides, or plant lice, the previous year should receive a thorough
spraying of Black Leaf No. 40 (an extract of forty per cent. nicotine)
before the leaf buds expand. For this early spraying, two tablespoonsful
of the extract can be used to every gallon of water. It will stick to
the branches better if some soap is dissolved in it. This spray will
kill most of the eggs of these pests, which will be found near the leaf
buds. When the leaves open another spraying should be given to kill all
those that escaped the first treatment. For spraying after the leaves
open use one tablespoonful to each gallon of water.

* * * * *

Meeting of the Minnesota Garden Flower Society, April 27th, St. Paul,
Wilder Auditorium, Fifth and Washington Streets, 2:30 p.m.

Native Plants in the Garden
Shall We Collect or Grow Our Native Plants?
Roadside Planting.

BEE-KEEPER'S COLUMN.

Conducted by FRANCIS JAGER, Professor of Apiculture, University
Farm, St. Paul.

Bees are kept both for profit and for pleasure. The old fashioned
beekeeper with his hybrid bees, kept in immovable hives, logs or boxes,
did not derive much profit from his bees. He kept them mostly for
pastime. During the last fifteen years men with new methods of
management and modern equipment have been rapidly superseding the
picturesque old beekeepers. Modern beekeeping courses are now taught in
connection with our institutions of learning, and young men full of
energy and ambition are beginning to realize that beekeeping is offering
one of the few opportunities to make a comfortable living with a
comparatively small expense. Older beekeepers, both on the farm