76 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Asparagus Plumosus. — Mrs. " R. B. E." says : 

 " In the December Monthly inquiry is made 

 about Asparagus plumosus, and whether it is in 

 this country. John Saul, of Washington, and 

 Hovey & Co., of Boston, advertised it in their 

 catalogues for the spring of 1881. I have never 

 seen it in growth, however, but if the illustration 

 is correct, and its habit of growth satisfactory, 

 it must be a verj'^ great acquisition." 



[This illustrates a point we often make, when 

 people write to niagazines to l?now where they 

 can get rare or interesting plants or fruits. The 



editors of these magazines cannot always know 

 these things ; indeed such question^ come rather 

 under the head of business matters, and are 

 more adapted to the advertising than the read- 

 ing columns. But to the point referred to, 

 which is, that the best way to get at these ques- 

 tions is io write to or send for the catalogues of 

 the firms who may have eminence in these 

 branches. If they hav^not the kinds ready, on 

 application, they soon get them. — Ed. G. M.] 



Begonia Schmidtii.— Messrs. Nanz & Neuner 

 find Begonia Schmidtii a desirable acquisition. 

 Besides good habits and foliage, it is a profuse 

 bloomer. 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The pruning knife often injures as much as it 

 benefits, and hence arises two schools in garden- 

 ing, namely, those who prune on all occasions, 

 and those who prune not at all. As an instance of 

 very bad pruning, we may go to many dwarf-pear 

 gi'ounds, and fir.d them continually shortened 

 in till the tjnd is like that of the injudiciously 

 pruned maple trees, along city streets, they die 

 altogether, or present so poor an aspect that the 

 owner concludes, not that he is a failure, but 

 that dwarf pears are not worth growing. Much 

 of the failure with the dwarf pear comes from 

 bad pruning, though with the best of care there 

 are few places where they succeed to such an 

 extent as to warrant the extravagant encomiums 

 showered on dwarf pear culture a quarter of a 

 century ago. The dwarf pear delights more, 

 perhaps, in the pruning knife than any* other 

 fruit tree, except the grape; but instead of short- 

 ening in the vigorous shoots, which are the life 

 of the tree, and leaving the weak and half dead 

 wood, it is this small trash that should be cut 

 away. Then, again, we have to look at the 

 questions of growth or fruitfulness. If a tree is 

 already growing with great vigor pruning will 

 only induce a more vigorous foliaceous growth, 

 which is antagonistic to fruitfulness. And again, 

 if not growing as vigorously as we desire, one 



good pruning may remedy this. Pruning is a 

 great art, and yet one which is soon understood, 

 if we reflect on a few fundamental truths. 



Grape-vines in the open air, on arbors and 

 trellises, should have their pruning finished be- 

 fore warm Spring days set in, or they will bleed. 

 It does not injure them much, but it looks bad. 

 The pruning must be regulated by the condition 

 of the vine. If thts vines are young and the 

 shoots weak, cut them all back, to make a new 

 and vigorous growth. If already a fair quantity 

 of strong shoots of last season's growth exists, 

 cut out the weaker ones, so as to leave enough 

 of stronger ones. The cane sj'^stem, slightly 

 modified, is best for arbors and trellises in the 

 hands of amateurs generally. This implies a 

 new set of canes every year or two. If, as fre- 

 quently happens from bad management, all the 

 young and strong-bearing wood exists only at 

 the end of the vines. — and these latter have be- 

 come nothing but long, ropy-looking apologies 

 for what a vine should be — the whole cane may 

 be buried down in the soil to where the strong 

 shoots spring from, and the young wood of last 

 season trained up from this. The plant will 

 then recover its good appearance quite as well 

 as by cutting down, with the advantage of not 

 sacrificing a year's crop of fruit. 



Pruning of most kinds of fruits has been ac- 

 complished through the winter. It is customary, 



