112 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



Mammoth Cluster by the "Sweet Home," as it 

 is larger and firmer, and the plants have a more 

 stock}' growth. 



The Leading Apples in New York. — 

 After all the endeavors to popularize difterent 

 apples in Western New York, the bulk of those 

 we see in various markets from that region, are 

 Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Spitzenberg, 

 and Northern spy. The two last bring slightly 

 better prices. 



The Bottle Greening and Cooper's Mar- 

 ket Apples. — Though not of the highest quali- 

 ty, Mr. Hooker says these apples find a ready 

 sale in "Western New York. 



The Brighton Grape. — It is not often that 

 new fruits not only stand the test of experience, 

 but grow in popular favor. The Brighton Grape 

 seems one of these few good things. It ripens 

 about the same time as the Hartford Prolific, 

 and may therefore be classed with the early va- 

 rieties. 



Early Grapes. — M. P., writes as follows: 

 " In a catalogue of a responsible Ohio nursery- 

 man received a short time ago I notice, Moore's 

 Early Grape, offered for sale, and it is claimed 

 for this grape that it is ten days earlier than 

 Hartford, and twenty days earlier than Concord. 

 This seems such a remarkable advance, that I 

 cannot help asking if this has been the experi- 

 ence of others besides the nurseryman named? 

 If this grape will universally ripen twenty days 

 ahead of the Concord, many of us may look for 

 ripe fruit in July." 



Beurre Clairgeau. — A correspondent of 

 the Gardener''s Chronicle notes that the same va- 

 riety of Pear does not ripen at the same time in 

 the same place in difterent seasons. He says 

 the Beurre Clairgeau " will not be fit for use 

 this month (January) as usual." In the United 

 States it is voted as not fit for use any month, — 

 though there are many struck by its beauty who 

 try to use it. 



The Grape Rot. — This, the great pest of 

 the Western grape grower, is not believed by 

 Mr. Bateham to result from weakened or dis- 

 eased vines. He has come to this conclusion 

 after a very wide experience. His observations 

 tend to show that the rot follows peculiar hygro- 

 metrical and thermal conditions, which will act 

 unfavorably on normally healthy vegetable tis- 

 sues. We believe Mr. Bateham to be wholly 

 correct. 



Packing Apples for Distant Markets. — 

 Many believe that some packing material should 

 be used in the barrels to keep apples from bruis- 

 ing each other ; but we have never known this 

 to be necessary when the apples were sound, 

 and properly barreled. After the apples are in, 

 they should be subjected to a pressure by the 

 lid, to the extent of even pressing some of the 

 fruit into each other. In good air-tight barrels, 

 they will not move or bruise each other. It is 

 only after the air gets to the bruise by the 

 pressed-in apple, that decay follows; while the 

 two apples are pressed together they will not 

 rot. 



Ricketts' Grapes. — In the Rural World Mr. 

 Husmann gives an account of a visit to this well- 

 known raiser of seedling grapes, and says : 



" We had expected to find Mr. Ricketts' seed- 

 ling grapes highly cultivated and in a favorable 

 location ; we had somehow got the idea into our 

 head that they were very much pampered and 

 petted; we had twice admired his grapes at ex- 

 hibitions, and they seemed to us too fine to be 

 produced by ordinary culture. We found just 

 the reverse of this, they were poorly cultivated, 

 pruned very long, had an excessive crop of 

 grapes, and we do not think the location a favor- 

 able one. We think it but just to Mr. Ricketts 

 to state this; and he has certainly achieved re- 

 markable success." 



Winter Nelis Pear. — Californians say, on 

 healthy Quince stocks they can often get this 

 pear to weigh half-a-pound. We fancy no one 

 in the Atlantic States ever saw one this size. 



"Cultivating" Fruit Trees. — Some of 

 our excellent fruit growers still insist, that jag- 

 ging away at the young feeding roots of orchard 

 trees all summer long is "cultivating" them. 

 We have often shown that this kind of " cultiva- 

 tion has little more than antiquity to recom- 

 mend it, — for it is ancient, as any one can see 

 by referring to j3Esop's Fables. Our excellent 

 practical cotemporary, the Garden seems to be 

 of our opinion. It says : 



" In passing by Kensington Palace the other 

 day I saw men go through the old and sad pro- 

 cess of cutting off" all the points of the bushes 

 and digging among their roots. The surface af- 

 terwards was, as usual, a mass of young fibres. 

 It is curious how much that is wrong may be 

 practised for ages by the very people who are 

 supposed to know the right way. There is no 

 more reason why the young roots should be mu- 



