1877. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



365 



Rose Chasselas. — Though a foreign variety, this 

 will ripen out of doors, and have a higher color 

 than when grown under glass ; but it has not 

 much flavor grown in a vinery, and has still less 

 if fruited outof doors. Under glass it is a very 

 beautiful rose-colored fruit, refreshing to be eaten 

 on a journey; and if supplemented by a bunch 

 of real black Hamburgs with a blue bloom, and a 

 bunch of amber-tinted Buckland Sweetwater 

 grapes, artistically gotten up with green fol'age, 

 serves to make a nice fruit bouquet to offer to a 

 young lady on the occasion of her wedding. 



The September number of the Gardener's 

 Monthly contains a very sensible article on grape 

 culture under glass. Severe thinning (a very 

 good fault), being perhaps carried to its ultima- 

 tum. 



With regard to your inquiry about the Gros 

 Colman grape, I think Mr. Saunders who has it 

 in his collection can answer better than I. 

 Something (not now recollected) that I heard 

 about it prevented my getting it. 



The results with it in England, reported at page 

 242 of your August number have been surpassed 

 in this State, probably. — See Gardener's Monthly 

 for 1866, p. 122, for specimens presented to editor 

 by Mr. Zug, of Pittsburg. With its extra size to 

 command it, it must have some drawback, or it 

 would be more commonly grown. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Twig Blight on the Apple Tree. — It is sin- 

 gular how regularly this disease has spread from 

 the West to the East. About twelve years ago 

 we first saw it in Missouri and Illinois, and 

 though we looked carefully through orchards 

 east of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, could 

 see no trace of it. Some six years later we noted 

 it, but not common in Ohio; more recently very 

 badly in Michigan ; two years ago badly in 

 Maryland ; and now it is not uncommon in Penn- 

 sylvania. We should be glad to know if it is 

 much further north than this yet. The whole 

 appearance is similar to that of the fire blight in 

 Pear, and we have no doubt "a closely allied fun- 

 gus is at the bottom of the disease. The differ- 

 ence is that so far as we know, it seldom destroys 

 more than two year old branches, generally only 

 one year old, while the Pear fungus destroys 

 branches of several years old. Besides the twig 

 blight, the Apple has a spur blight, in which the 

 spurs are destroyed, but this we believe to be the 



work of a minute insect, which deposits its eggs 

 in the angles. We are not sure either, but some- 

 times the death of annual twigs in the Apple 

 tree is caused by the boring of an insect. The 

 branches die, and the appearances of course are 

 just the same as in the fungus -killed cases, for a 

 branch suddenly killed when growing looks the 

 same, no matter what may be the destroying 

 cause. 



The matter is exciting some attention among 

 Eastern apple orchardists, and needs more than 

 mere cursory discussion. 



American Blackberries in England.— Though 

 " only Blackberries," our native improvements 

 are slowly gaining ground in English favor. The 

 Gardener's Chronicle says of Mr. Parker's Tooting 

 Nurserj' : — " We also remarked here several va- 

 rieties of the American Blackberries, which de- 

 serve much more attention than they get at pres- 

 ent. One of the best of all is the Lawton, a most 

 prolific bearer of large, jet black and finely-fla- 

 vored berries. The black fruits of the Kittatinny 

 are also of fine quality, and as large as Mulber- 

 ries. The Dorchester variety may also be men- 

 tioned as being amongst the best." 



Peaches in Texas. — A Southern paper tells us 

 that a peach grower in Washington Co., Texas, 

 " realized " $6,000 from twenty acres of Peaches. 



The Catawissa Raspberry. — Mr. J. H. Pierce, 

 of Dayton, Ohio, has a good word for the Cata- 

 wissa Raspberry. He gathers them all Fall up 

 to November. He thinks they will yield 1,700 

 quarts to the acre, and would all sell in their 

 market, and at twenty-five cents per quart. 



Rot in Grapes. — Mr. Ohmer thinks this trou- 

 blesome disease is rather on the increase in 

 Montgomery Co., Ohio. 



Eating the Best. — The Rural New Yorker tells 

 of a friend who " only planted one kind of Pear," 

 because, said he, " when you have got the best, 

 what more do you want? " He is the same old 

 gentleman who studied a week over Thorburn's 

 Seed Catalogue, and, making up his mind that 

 onions were the best of all vegetables, had his 

 garden wholly planted therewith, and had them 

 to eat three times a day,three hundred and sixty- 

 five days, and three hundred and sixty-six in 

 leap year. Only for the fact that he gave this 

 lucid reason for planting one kind, we should 

 suppose he was the same man who claimed so 

 much more ^visdom than his fellows, because he 

 " always went through the world with his mouth 

 shut." 



