46 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



I Februaiy, 



In his efforts for the nimble penny, he forgets 

 that there is often much more substance in the 

 slower sixpence. In some departments where a 

 slower result is a necessity, really new and good 

 varieties, improvements on the old, are overlooked. 



It must have been for some time apparent to 

 far-seeing orchardists, that our cultivators are not 

 keeping pace with progress, as they should do. It 

 is a notorious fact that a large number of our best 

 orchards do not yield as they once did ; varieties 

 once popular are popular no more ; and the emi- 

 nent place which American apples once held in 

 European markets is becoming filled by the ap- 

 ples of Canada, and especially of Nova Scotia. 

 Apple orchards give out much sooner than they 

 used to do — fruit does not keep as well as it did — 

 and the flavor of even popular kinds is not equal to 

 the past. There are exceptions, but the undoubted 

 tendency is in these directions. Apple growers 

 are, we think, slow to adopt new notions that may 

 advantage them. New varieties are certainly not 

 in their vein. There have been innumerable 

 good kinds introduced during the past quarter of a 

 century, some of which are better, and would cer- 

 tainly be more profitable if some good judgment 

 were to follow up and make good use of them. The 

 old stale kinds are yet the ones we find in our 

 markets, and the good new ones are comparatively 

 unknown. 



Last season while looking at some apple trees 

 on the grounds of an amateur in North-eastern 

 Pennsylvajiia, and noting the wonderful beauty, 

 productiveness, and healthy vigor of some com- 

 paratively unknown kinds, we wondered whether 

 there would ever be any way to make them well- 

 known to the general cultivator ; and whether we 

 were to be forever dependent on the old thread- 

 bare kinds ? There were Huttensteins, York 

 Imperials, Prinz and Water apples, certainly 

 superior in manifold ways to many everybody 

 wants to grow, and yet few know of them. 



We think the modern agency system has much 

 to do with the slow progress in improved knowl- 

 edge. In old times the planter would visit the 

 nursery himself, see the fruit in the specimen 

 orchard, and judge for himself. Not a quarter of 

 those who would once visit a nursery, go there 

 now. Numbers never go at all, and all they 

 know of fruits is what the glibtongued traveling 

 agent tells them. The agency plan has its good 

 features; some — hundreds— have fruit trees, who 

 never would enjoy this pleasure under the old 

 system. ISut it is not favorable to the progress 

 of improvement, and this we must all regret. 



Large numbers of nurserymen now have no 

 specimen orchard at all, and those who have, 

 take far less interest in thsm than in former times, 

 because there are so few friends to enjoy the 

 pleasure with them. We strongly advise our 

 friends, at this planting season, to get a tree or 

 two each wherever they can, of some of the most 

 promising kinds, and try for themselves how they 

 will do. It may be that they will be glad to have 

 the material to top-graft a whole orchard with the 

 better kinds some day. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



KALAMAZOO CELERY. 



BY A CORRESPONDENT. 



Midway between Detroit and Chicago lies the 

 beautiful city of Kalamazoo, sometimes appropri- 

 ately called Celeryville. Fifty tons of the esculent 

 are expressed from Kalamazoo daily now dur- 

 ing the height of the shipping season. Kalamazoo 

 celery is famed from ocean to ocean and is the 

 brand called for everywhere. Shipping begins 

 about July, increasing till the holidays, then 

 gradually decreasing until the crop is disposed of 

 in the spring. More growers are annually hold- 

 ing their crop until the firmer markets of spring. 

 Three thousand tons were shipped from this point 

 alone during 1883, and the shipment for 1884 is 

 estimated at 5,000 tons. From 1,500102,000 acres 

 are devoted to the industry in this vicinity, and 

 the production of a superior article has never ex- 

 ceeded the demand. Twenty thousand stalks are 

 easily raised during the season on an acre, and 

 the wholesale price ranges from fifteen to twenty- 

 five cents per dozen. 



Marsh land has become the home of this luxury 

 and Hollanders are the main producers. Driving 

 north from Kalamazoo through the country, one 

 passes great looacre farms devoted to the sweet- 

 scented celery, reminding one of that Methodist 

 hymn : ■ 



"Sweet fields bcyontl * * * 

 Stand dressed in living green." 



One would never forget a drive through the 

 celery gardens in any direction from Kalamazoo ; 

 the long rows keeping their bright green till No- 

 vember, as crop follows crop ; and the fields being 

 unmarred by fences or anything except the cozy 

 cottages of the thrifty Hollanders. The irrepressi- 

 ble Yankee has, of course, bought large tracts and 

 gone into its culture, but the mass of growers 

 cultivate from three to ten acres, raise the choicest 



