HORTICULTUEE. 857 



strawberry bed, methods of cultivation, manuring, mulching, and gathering tlu' fruit. 

 Reliable sorts for culture in Mississippi are Hoffman, Cloud, Lady Thompson, Bubach, 

 Gandy, Excelsior, and Klondyke. These varieties are briefly described. Of the 

 newer varieties Hunn, Clarence, Noble, and Gardner, in the order named, are men- 

 tioned as very promising sorts. Cotton-seed hulls is stated to be the best of all the 

 materials used at the station as a nuilch for strawberries. 



Growing- strawberries under cloth, (). W. Blacknall {Arner. Gard., 2S {1902), 

 Xo, 392, pp. 416-418). — The author has successfully used thin muslin, known as tobacco- 

 plant bed cloth, as a protection for strawberries. In his experience the berries grow 

 larger, the blossoms are better pollenized, and the plants more productive under cloth 

 than when grown in the open. The author considers also that the slight increase of 

 warmth obtained by lessening the radiation at night was very l^eneficial to the growth 

 of the strawberries. Taking one year with another, he estimates that this kind of 

 protection adds from 50 to 100 per cent to the yield of berries, makes them larger 

 and more reliable, and ripens them earlier. Care should be taken not to use a cloth 

 too thick and impervious to sunlight. The tar-treated kind, such as is used in large 

 quantities for tobacco-plant beds, is considered just right. The cloth is fastened 

 down over the bed by driving 18 in. stakes into the ground about 1 ft. deep. A wire 

 hook is attached to the top of the stakes, by which the plant cloth is held in place. 

 The stakes are set the width of the cloth apart, in straight rows, and 54 in. apart in 

 the row. The original cost of a protection of this kind is estimated at $150 per acre. 

 The cloth lasts about 3 years, and the stakes, if carefully protected, from 5 to 10 

 years. 



Houses for strawberry forcing {Garden, 61 {1902), No. 1592, p. 343). — Low 

 span-roofed houses are considered most suitable and economical when houses are 

 built especially for forcing strawberries. Such houses are usually 100 to 200 ft. 

 long, 10 ft. wide inside and 6 ft. high to the apex of the roof. A sunken path, 20 

 to 2-4 in. wide, runs down the center with 6 rows of pots on each side. 



Cranberry culture in southeastern Massachusetts, J. Buksley {Massachusetts 

 State Bd. Agr. Rpt. 1901, pp. 389-397). — Some statistics are given on the cranberry 

 production of New England and suggestions made regarding the establishment of 

 cranberry bogs and the culture of cranberries in southeastern Massachusetts. 



Grapes, A. Dickens and G. 0. Greexe {Kansas Sta. Bui. 110, pp. 223-250, ph. 2, 

 figs. a). — This Indietin includes a discussion of the varieties of grapes best suited for 

 culture at the Kansas Experiment Station, the results of a test of 6 different kinds of 

 trellises for grapes, a test of the value of bagging grape fruit bunches, a classification 

 of grapes with reference to the suitability of different varieties for culture in Kansas, 

 brief descriptions of 145 varieties of grapes, and a chart showing when they were 

 first in bloom, in full bloom, and out of bloom. 



With such varieties as Green Mountain, Campbell Early, Brighton, Eldorado, 

 Worden, Concord, Agawam, and Catawba, a succession may be secured from early 

 in August until well into October. Among the perfectly hardy white varieties are 

 Elvira, Martha, Faith, and Pearl. For table use and the family trade Brighton, 

 Brilliant, Massasoit, Catawba, Woodruff, Wyoming, Berkman, Agawam, and Dela- 

 ware, among the red grapes, are considered very satisfactory. Varieties and hyljrids 

 of the common wild grape ( Vitts riparia) have stood severe droughts well and are 

 recommended for testing in especially trying situations. Elvira, Grein Golden, 

 Faith, and Pearl are perfectly hardy, regular and prolific in bearing. Marion has 

 been the best of the pure Riparias. 



Relative to pruning grapes in Kansas it is the judgment, of the authors that the 

 annual renewing of the entire arm is preferable to spur pruning. 



But little difference has been noted in the productiveness of grapes on the different 

 forms of trellises used. The bunches have been more easily cut from the high- 

 renewal trellis than from the low trellis, and the period of ripening has been 

 uniformly a few days earlier. The difference in time, however, has in no case 



