1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



301 



very hard to get a good " take," and I imagine 

 few are now grown. However, should any one 

 desire to bud plums of the wild or Canadian 

 kind, I would say that they can be worked as 

 successfully as any variety, by budding Just as the 

 growth is ceasing, or as late as the bark will slip 

 freely. The uuion is then as quick and sure as 

 with any plum. I have often grown as solid 

 blocks on wild plum stocks as on horse plum, by 

 taking care to bud at a time when the plant was 

 just entering a " rest," and hence was forming 

 wood fast. 



FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 



BY JOHN PAGET, LOCHIEL GARDENS, HARRIS- 

 BURG, PA. 



Since the issue of the July number of the 

 Monthly, I have received many letters from 

 parties asking me to give my method of forcing 

 strawberries. One gentleman in Connecticut 

 complains, if I understand him aright, that from 

 two hundred pots he has never picked more 

 than two quarts of fruit at once. There is no 

 mystery about my plan ; it is quite an easy one ; 

 and I will give it here : 



I procure and pot my young plants in three- 

 inch pots as early in the summer as possible. 

 As soon as they have fairly filled the pots with 

 roots they are re-potted into six-inch pots. For 

 soil I use well-rotted sod, with one-eighth thor- 

 oughly decayed horse-dung. They are then set 

 out, in a good, open place, on a bed of ashes. 

 The ashes prevent worms getting into the pots. 

 I give them plenty of room, so that every plant 

 may develop itself perfectly, and plenty of 

 water — once a week giving them manure water. 

 As soon as the plants show, by the changing 

 color of their leaves, that growth is ceasing, they 

 are watered less often. The plants remain out 

 of doors until the end of I^Tovember, covering 

 them lightly with leaves if cold weather comes, 

 to prevent the pots bursting. The plants are 

 then taken to a cold greenhouse, where the tem- 

 perature will not be above 35° to 40' at 

 night. About the first of January they are 

 placed on shelves close to the glass, say twelve 

 inches only from it, where they remain for the 

 rest of the time. They are here given a tem- 

 perature of from 65° to 70° at noon, fall- 

 ing to 40° or 45° at night. This is kept up for 

 from three to four weeks, when the heat is grad- 

 ually advanced until ten degrees more are given. 



Although others say they cannot get the Tri- 

 omphe de Gand lo set its fruit, I am using tliis 



kind altogether for forcing. It is true, they do 

 not of themselves set well, and when it is im- 

 practicable to open the ventilators to let the 

 bees in to fertilize the tlowers, this tedious work 

 I have to perform by hand when the crop is large. 

 My peach forcing has been very successful this 

 year. I gathered 112 dozen first-class peaches, 

 and nectarines from thirty-two small trees in 

 fifteen-inch boxes. 



SLADKAJA APPLE. 



BY JAMES A. NELSON, INDIAN RUN, MERCER 

 CO., PA. 



To-day I mail you two Russian apples, called 

 Grusscheppka sladkaja. Some few years ago I 

 put in a lot of Russian apple grafts. This is the 

 second year of bearing. They are all summer 

 or autumn fruit. I don't think them very valu- 

 able or profitable fruit, except this one. It is a. 

 very handsome-looking fruit, and of fair quality \ 

 tree a medium grower ; leaves of a yellow green ; 

 very productive; diflerent from any variety 1 

 have ever seen; the limbs covered with short 

 spurs, and on each spur an apple, so that the 

 whole length of the limb is covered with fruit 

 as close as they can stick on. Apple crop light 

 here this season. 



[The apple measured eleven inches round, of 

 a clear, waxy white — much whiter than Primate, 

 Cooper's Early, or others of tiiat class. The 

 flesh is almost snow white, very tender, and, 

 though rather dry, is a pleasant sub-acid. It 

 ought to make a good August cooking apple.— 

 Ed. G. M.] 



IMPROVED ASPARAGUS. 



BY E. L., GERM AN TO TV N, PA. 



I agree with Gen. W. H. Noble, in the 

 Monthly for August, that it is possible to im- 

 prove asparagus, even if the sexes are on differ-, 

 ent plants. In the animal kingdom sexes are 

 separate, and improvements have been made 

 and are still carried on. 



Does it happen that a Giant or " Colossal" 

 Asparagus plant is always of one sex? If it is 

 so, the improvement must necessarily be slow. 

 But, most surely, out of the millions of plants 

 animally raised, extra strong plants of opposite 

 sexes must appear, and if these are marked, and 

 at the proper time transplanted to an isolated 

 place where the pollen of the smaller kinds can 

 have no effect upon the progeny, in a few years 

 by careful selection a stalwart race of gi.ant 

 asparagus would be established. In the same 

 way breeds of poultry, cattle, etc., are founded,. 



