208 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



fJULY, 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Imperfect Eeports. — There is a vast amount of 

 trash going the rounds of the papers professing 

 to represent the opinions of the Editor uf the Gar- 

 dener's Monthly. This is especially true as re- 

 gards what he knows of fruit culture. It is use- 

 less to follow up these misapprehensions. Their 

 correction involves as much risk as the original 

 statement. We may say in brief that when one 

 reads that we advocate either neglected orchards 

 or expensive manuring, he may at once conclude 

 to doubt the information. 



The English Sparrow. — The English sparrow' 

 abundant about our trees, do not eat the buds — 

 but it may be that they find enough of other pre- 

 ferable food. Mr. William Tillery, one of the 

 most prominent and respected of England's 

 many intelligent gardeners, in a recent number 

 of the London Gardener's Chronicle, says " during 

 the late severe weather " they were very destruc- 

 tive to the buds of his currant and gooseberry 

 bushes, and then, quoting the article of General 

 Noble in our columns recently, adds : 



"This correspondent expresses a wish, as 

 Burns did of the ' Deil,' that the sparrow might 

 ^tak* a thocht and mend,' but there is little 

 chance of this from what we know of his habits 

 in this country. Our farmers know to their cost 

 the ravages sparrows make on their ripening corn 

 near the hedges, and to the grain in their stacks in 

 the winter time, and it will be the same in other 

 agricultural countries abroad where they have 

 been introduced. We gardeners, like the farm- 

 ers, likewise get blamed if we take means to keep 

 their numbers within bounds, and the number 

 of their scalps taken must not be counted for 

 * Mr. Punch ' to get hold of. The evil of acclima- 

 tising sparrows and rabbits in America as well as 

 in our Australian colonies was pointed out at 

 the time when these exportations were being 

 made, and the results now show the soundness 

 of the advice." 



Our own impression is that in our country the 

 sparrow will not wander off to the country until 

 it becomes more thickly settled than it is now. 

 There is nothing for it to eat in winter; but this 

 bud-eating habit has a bad look for the fruit 

 growers near towns. 



Fighting the Codling Moth. — That hay 

 bands wrapped around the stems of apple trees 

 afford an enticement to the codling moth to 



" stay and be killed " when in its larval condi- 

 tion is well known. Whether the plan will stand 

 the test of the profit and loss, account is now a 

 point raised by Ohio fruit growers. An Ohio 

 paper tells us that several of our extensive or- 

 chardists, at the Toledo meeting, objected to the 

 hay-band remedy proposed by Prof. Cook, as in- 

 volving too much labor. One, who had three thou- 

 sand apple trees, and was quick in the use of 

 figures, said the plan proposed would require of 

 him three thousand bands to be put on and 

 taken off and the worms crushed, eight or nine 

 times during the season. It was a bigger job 

 than he was willing to undertake. He thought 

 hogs and sheep could do the work about as well 

 and much cheaper. Another member referred 

 to the extensive apple orchard of Mr. Wilson, 

 near Toledo, which was inspected by the com- 

 mittee of the State Horticultural Society two 

 years ago, and which had been observed by him 

 for a number of years past, and is noted for the 

 excellence of its fruit, being almost entirely ex- 

 empt from injury by worms, the owner attribu- 

 ting this exemption solely to his keeping a large 

 drove of hogs in the orchard during summer, 

 and supplementing this with a drove of sheep 

 turned in for a day or so at a time, once or twice 

 a week, when there is more wormy fruit falling 

 than the hogs can quickly consume. 



Snyder Raspberry. — An Illinois friend tells 

 us that this variety proves very hardy and well 

 adapted to that region. The fruit is not so large 

 as some well-known kinds, but it is of first-class 

 quality and yields in immense profusion. 



The Wealthy Apple. — Among the interest- 

 ing fruits in the Iowa collection was the Wealthy 

 apple, a seedling of Minnesota, from seed brought 

 from Maine by Peter E. Gideon of Bangor. It 

 stands the severe climate of Minnesota when so 

 many others succumb. It is very large, red, 

 somewhat inclined to be striped, of a pleasant 

 tart flavor. In a climate that will give little else 

 than Siberian crabs, it must be not only an 

 " acquisition " but a positive luxury among the 

 apple kind. Its parentage is uncertain, but from 

 its hardiness and appearance we should suspect 

 a relationship to Alexander. 



The Art of Making Wine. — A system pre- 

 vails, more or less, in ail wine-producing covui- 

 tries, but especially in Spain, of what is known 

 as " Plastering " the Wines. In some notes on 

 the chemistry of tartaric and citric acid, in a 

 recent number of the Journal of the Chemix:al 



