February 3, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



141 



Killarney Plants 1 906 Richmond Plants 



WE will propagate on orders any number of above varieties for ensuing season. Have 

 the largest stock of Killarney in America. The price will be $15 per 100, $120 per ioco, 

 from 2 1-4 inch pots, and guarantee fine plants, but must have the orders early, as we are 

 not in the plant trade, to ensure permanancy of order we want a deposit of 20 per cent, of value 

 wilh order, same will be credited on bill at delivery of plants. Correspondence solicited 



BENJAMIN DORRANCE 



Rose Growers 



No. 3 DORRANCE FARM. 



DORRANCETON, PENNA. 



QUEEN BEATRICE 



sheets to dry and when all have been 

 harvested, the thresher goes from 

 block to block, followed by the 

 cleaners and the sacks of seeds are 

 stacked in the open air until they are 

 hauled to the warehouse in the fall. 

 There is no anxious watching for 

 forcing showers or heavy downpour 

 as with us and no need for any shelters 

 in which to dry and thresh the seed. 



Next to the seed ranches the most 

 interesting feature of the Santa Clara 

 valley is the miles and miles of prune 

 orchards, and in handling this crop 

 the prunes are allowed to ripen fully 

 and drop to the cultivated soil be- 

 neath; they are then gathered from 

 the ground, clipped in lye to remove 

 the bloom and are spread out on 

 slated crates such as we use for onion 

 sets to dry. The past year the prune 

 crop, like nearly all other crops, was 

 cut short by the intensely hot weather 

 in July, but the price was good and 

 growers were having better returns 

 than from the very large crop of the 

 preceding seasons. 



Below Santa Clara I visited the 

 "slews" of Watsonville where the soil 

 is a black fibrous peat, similar to that 

 of the Jersey swamps and here were 

 crops of cauliflower in all stages from 

 the freshly set young plants to those 

 in head and seeding. In these valleys 

 there were clear streams of water run- 

 ning in the drains and it seamed 

 entirely practicable to grow all 

 moisture-loving crops at any season 

 of the year, but it is not suited for 

 general seed raising on account of the 

 heavy fogs which come in from the 

 sea. The hills surrounding these 

 valleys are devoted to dairy farming 

 and apple orchards and the country 

 had more of a home-like appearance 

 than any part of California I visited. 

 Going still further South. I stopped 

 at Lompoc where the chief crops are 

 mustard seed and commercial or soup 

 beans, and still further south to Ven- 

 tura was a lima bean country. Try 

 to imagine from fifty to seventy-five 

 miles of travel through narrow but 

 level coast lands where the principal 

 crop was lima beans, interspersed with 

 orchards of English or more properly 



called Persian walnuts. This portion 

 of California was to me the most in- 

 teresting for here were the evidences 

 of the early Spanish settlers, fan 

 palms sixty feet or more high, arau- 

 carias forty to fifty feet high and a 

 grape vine with a trunk over a foot 

 in diameter and the branches covering 

 a trellis which extended over half an 

 acre of ground. This vine is at Car- 

 penteria and coming on it unexpect- 

 edly, I at once recognized it from the 

 illustration in our gardening publica- 

 tions. The vine is in perfect health 

 and vigor and could easily be made to 

 cover a much larger area. On the 

 under side of the trellis hang immense 

 clusters of fruit, a single cluster of 

 bunches being large enough to fill a 

 good sized wash-tub, but owing to a 

 lack of water the grapes were poorly 

 developed and only fitted for the wine 

 press. Here we also visited a small 

 ranch in a little valley where three 

 generations of a Scotch family had a 

 small fruit ranch which was a feast to 

 delight a gardener. Here in adjoin- 

 ing rows and blocks were strawberries, 



raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, 

 purple guanas, figs, an extensive as- 

 sortment of our finer hot-house grapes, 

 lemons, oranges and grapes, some in 

 full bearing and others with occasional 

 clusters of ripe fruits according to 

 their season. Here were trained 

 gardeners of the old school raising in 

 the open ground all the fruits which 

 they had been accustomed to grow un- 

 der glass in their old homes. An in- 

 cident of Carpenteria was a large 

 Magnolia grandiflora with camelia- 

 like blossoms a foot in diameter and 

 on my commenting on its flowering 

 at that season of the year, I was told 

 that it was "a continuous perform- 

 ance" and that it flowered throughout 

 the whole year. From the windows of 

 my room in the Hotel Rose, Ventura, 

 I could look down into the flower 

 garden of Mrs. Theodosia B. Shepp- 

 herd which occupies an entire square 

 in the center of the town, and here 

 was a most interesting and varied col- 

 lection of flowering plants, many of 

 them old acquaintances of my appren- 



(Continued on Page 143.) 



ROOTED CUTTINGS Get the Best 



Per 100 Per 1000 



White Law^on $4.00 $30.00 



Whitney 4.00 30.00 



White Perfection, new 12.00 100.00 



Enchantress 3-00 25.00 



Fair Maid 2x0 15.00 



Lawson 2.00 15.00 



Haines' New Red... 12.00 100 00 

 Cardinal, bes' scarlet 



of all 6.00 50. co 



Ilarlowarden, best 

 crimson 



Crusader, fine com- 

 mercial red 



Per ico Per 1000 

 2.00 I5.OO 



2.00 15 00 



Mrs. M. A. Patten, 



striped 2 50 20.00 



G 1 e n d a 1 e , new im- 

 proved variegated . . 12. co 100.00 



Quality guaranteed. Send for prices on large lots; 

 also complete list of Carnations, Hums and Roses 



CHICAGO CARNATION CO. joliet, ill. 



