1878. 



AND HORTICULTURIST, 



337 



CRAPE CULTURE IN TEXAS. 



BY PROF. S. B. BUCKLEY, AUSTIN, TEXAS. 



All article with the above heading in the Sep- 

 tember number of the Monthly, by Mr. Bustrin, 

 of Dallas, Texas, is entirely wrong in its state- 

 ments about what I have published on the cul- 

 ture of Apples, Grapes and Raspberries in 

 Texas. I never said or wrote that Northern 

 Apple trees would not grow in Texas, but I did 

 say that to succeed well with the Apple in the 

 warmer portions of Texas, it is of the greatest im- 

 portance to get Southern varieties from reliable 

 Southern nurseries. This much and no more, 

 and I repeat it. By the warmer portions of the 

 State I mean the latitude of Austin and south- 

 ward to the Gulf. 



I know just as well as Mr. Bustrin that 

 INTorthern Apples often do very well in northern 

 Texas,where there are many fine Apple orchards, 

 and I have alluded to some of them in my re- 

 ports on the geological and agricultural survey 

 of the State. Kor did I publish, that Grapes 

 will not succeed well in Texas. Far from it. I 

 think there is no part of the United States which 

 has greater advantages for Grape culture than 

 Texas. With regard to Raspberries, I stated 

 that the black caps did well in this vicinity and 

 that other kinds did not. This is all. I know 

 this to be true from repeated trials. I presume 

 other kinds do well in the northern portion of 

 the State. 



HOOSACTHORNLESS BLACKBERRY. 



BY MR. GEO. WRIGHT, ROCK FALLS, ILLS. 



I think a large number of the readers of the 

 Gardener's Monthly are looking for some 

 report of this Blackberry, which was advertised 

 with so much promise three years ago. I paid 

 a large price for a few plants, and during the 

 first Summer found them running on the ground 

 six or eight feet long. They stood the hard 

 "Winter of 1876-7 without injury, and bore no 

 fruit to speak of last Summer, but grew stout 

 canes six feet high, which I clipped back to two 

 feet, and this Summer they have been loaded 

 with a small-sized perfect berry, which is quite 

 Siour and bitter — more so than Kittatinny or the 

 wild berry. To those who can raise the Kitta- 

 tinny, I would say, let the Thornless alone. To 

 those who want a hardy berry I would advise 

 tbe Snyder. 



I do not wish to discard the Thornless on my 

 grounds, for of the three varieties named, this is 



the only one which has furnished sufficient berries 

 for a pie. The Kittatinny has proved too tender, 

 and this season the birds took the Snyder as fast 

 as they ripened. Of course the remedy is to 

 plant more than the birds can eat, and then I 

 shall try to get along without the Thornless. 



A COOD WAY TO WORK OVER LARGE 

 FRUIT TREES. 



BY JAS. M. HAYES, DOVER, N. H. 



It might be of interest of some to the readers 

 of the Monthly for me to describe a method 

 of working over some Flemish Beauty Pear 

 trees, upon which the fruit cracked so badly as to 

 render them worthless. Last Summer, in the 

 budding season, I budded all over the trees into 

 all the limbs which I thought would form a per- 

 fect head. The buds all "took," and the present 

 season have grown remarkably. To be sure this 

 is no new discovery, but many fruit growers 

 think that there is no way to work over a large 

 tree except by the old-fashioned mode of cleft- 

 grafting, and which often produces unseemly 

 gashes upon the tree, and which it often takes a 

 number of years for the tree to overcome. Hence 

 I speak of this method of budding into the 

 limb, and I think it may be of service to some, 

 who like me are troubled with several worth- 

 less varieties of the Pear that are rendered so 

 by cracking. 



VACARIES OF THE PEACH. 



BY MR. O. A. ALEXANDER, MT. PULASKI, ILLS. 



The communications from Mr. Downing and 

 others in the August and September numbers 

 have moved me to add my mite to the — confu- 

 sion, shall I say? that dominates the Peach 

 question. But out of chaos comes order, and 

 possibly I can facilitate that result a little in 

 the present instance. If the illustration is al- 

 lowable, I would suggest that this has proved to 

 be an eclipse year of the Peach, giving us very 

 unusual facilities for stuyding its coronal pheno- 

 mena. I mean by this that its growth and gene- 

 ral behavior have been so far abnormal as to 

 give us views of some of its characteristics much 

 clearer than the oldest of us, perhaps, ever liad 

 before. 



In the August number you say : " It is evident 

 that comparative ripening is, in some respects, 

 an unknown quantity." I quote this to add that 

 not only is it the literal truth, but more modestly 

 put than the facts in my own knowledge, as well 



