178 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[June, 



The English Sparrow. — The English fruit 

 growers are loud in their denunciation of this pest. 

 Miss Ormerod, a well-known entomologist, has 

 sent gio to a society established for their de- 

 struction. 



Early Fruits and Vegetables. — February 

 2ist was the earliest period at which strawberries, 

 tomatoes and cucumbers from the South, made 

 their appearance in the New York markets. 

 Those who would force these articles in the North 

 for market, will do well to remember the date. 



Paper Bags for Grapes. —The useof paperbags 

 in grape culture is one of the great advances in the 

 modern art of gardening. It was among the earliest 

 teachings of the Gardeners' Monthly, that the 

 practice at that time popular, of taking off the 

 leaves of the grape in order to let in the sun and 

 air, in order to color and ripen them, was done 

 under a mistaken idea that the coloring and ripening 

 of fruit was a purely chemical process, whereas 

 ripening is a purely vital process, and to get the 

 best results we need all the help we can get from 

 the living plant, and not so much from the sun 

 and air, except in so much as these may help the 

 vital powers of the plant itself Good healthy 

 leaves are the first essential to vital powers. The 

 more healthy leaves the better. Pulling off vine 

 leaves to let in the sun and air is an injury to vital 

 power. With injury to vital power grapes will 

 not color well. The more healthy leaves a plant 

 has the better the fruit will color, and it makes 

 no difference whatever whether the fruit is in the 

 sun or shade, provided there are plenty of good 

 healthy leaves to feed the vital forces on which 

 the coloring power depends. That shading will 

 not act against high coloring has long been known 

 to every hot-house grower. Shading the house in 

 very warm and sunny weather, has been found 

 favorable to high coloring, because the e.xcessive 

 light and heat was unfavorable to the vital power. 



From this to shading the bunches by means of 

 paper bags is an easy step. We have not heard 

 that the practice has come into general favor in 

 the North or East of our country, because the 

 summer heat or light is not unfavorable to vital 

 power; but further South, where the fruits natural 

 to the more temperate climes have a hard struggle 

 with that sun which enervates human beings as 

 well as plant life, bagging has been found of great 

 value and in some instances is practiced on a 

 large scale. Mr. Coenen, a famous German 

 vineyardist in Hopkins County, Ky., had last year 

 no less than 80.000 pounds of grapes under paper 



bags, employing six girls, and using 34,000 bags 

 in the work. It pays him well, as his product is 

 considered a first-class article. Then there is the 

 great advantage of full protection in those localities 

 where bees are destructive to the fruit. It is 

 possible that some form of fungus diseases may be 

 prevented also. 



Tewkesbury Winter Blush Apple. — One of 

 the features of the Horticultural meeting at Lan- 

 caster was the universal praise given to this 

 variety. It was regarded as one of the most profit- 

 able grown, as it is certainly one of the best, if not 

 the very best desert apple. The most remarkable 

 fact in its history is, that it has no star for Pennsyl- 

 vania in the American Pomological Society's cata- 

 logue, though its native State, New Jersey, has 

 taken care of it. It seems to be grown everywhere 

 'n the Southeastern part of the State, and its ab- 

 sence from Pennsylvania honors in the catalogue 

 can only be from no Pennsylvanian being on hand 

 to ask for a star when it has been under discussion. 



The Cut-leaved English Blackberry. — This 

 — as the Evergreen blackberry and the Sandwich 

 Island blackberry — had just about started on a 

 " booming " career, when another names it " Ne- 

 vada" blackberry, and will no doubt get a share 

 of the enormous prices which the ignorant always 

 pay for a new name to an old thing. It is fair to 

 say that the old cut-leaved blackberry here intro- 

 duced as something new is by no means a worth- 

 less thing, and we have often wondered that it was 

 not more popular. 



The Wonderful Strawberry. — Some years 

 ago we gave an illustration of " The Wonderful " 

 strawberry. As it is more than probable that this 

 wonderful strawberry has gone the way of so 

 many wonderful seedlings, no one will probably 

 be confused by having another one introduced to 

 them under the same name. This variety is an 

 Ohio production, and like its former namesake, is 

 regarded as wonderfully productive. It does not 

 ripen all at once, but in succession from early till 

 late. It is a pistillate, and those who think there 

 is no character in a pistillate, except such as may 

 be given for the occasion by the pollen, may be in- 

 terested in knowing that it is a seedling of Wilson 

 by Kentucky pollen. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Forcing Strawberries. — Mr. Thos. Foulds, 

 Hoyt, Montgomery Co., Pa., writes: "Will any 



