1882. 



AND HORIICULTURIST. 



147 



alkaline wash made from a soft soap containing 

 at least nine per cent, of potash, forty-five per 

 cent, of oil or fat, and about forty-six of water. 

 This soap, when made, mixed with twenty-five 

 per cent, of its weiglit with tlower of sulphur. 

 One pound of this mixture to each gallon of 

 water used for washing trees. Instead of this 

 wash, the whale oil soap and sulphur known as 

 codling moth wash may be used." 



Fritit and Vegetables ox the Sacramento. — 

 It is worth putting on record that the first vege- 

 tables planted at Yuba Dam, or as it is now 

 called, Marysville, in California, Briggs, the 

 famous orchardist, set out. in 1841 a ton of po- 

 tatoes, which cost him $800. The frost inter- 

 fered, but he had a fair crop. The next year he 

 bought a lot of watermelon seed for $20, and 

 planted five acres, for the product of which he 

 received $5,000 clear profit ; twenty-six acres the 

 next year, made a profit of $20,00<.'>. He brought 

 fifty peach trees froin New York and planted 

 them in 1852, bearing the first fruit in that part 

 of the world in 1853. 



Soil for Peas. — Rich soil is not essential to a 

 good pea crop, though little can be made of 

 them in what would be called poor ground. 

 Nor does the pea like wet ground. But 

 it likes ground that is moderately rich, and in 

 situations where the sun does not pour. 



Growing Radishes.— It requires rich ground 

 to grow vegetables well, but the radish beyond 

 all must have it. It is hot work to eat a radish 

 that has not been grown in very rich ground. 



How TO Ripen Persimmons. — A correspon- 

 dent of the Pacific Rural Press says: " I learned 

 from a Chinaman, who has had much experi- 

 ence in fruit growing, that the best method of 

 treating the persimmon is to take it from the 

 tree when fully matured and put it aAvay in 

 some place (a box or otherwise) where it will 

 be excluded from the air and light until it has 

 become perfectly soft and pulpy, and then steep 

 it for a few hours in clear water." 



Peach Yellows. — Dr. Sturtevant also is a be- 

 liever that the seat of the Peach Yellows is some- 

 where about the root. He would apply Muriate 

 of Potash to the soil about peach trees as a pre- 

 ventative of the yellows. 



Yeast as an Insecticide.— Yeast sometimes 

 destroys insects, and sometimes not. In the lat- 

 ter case it does not contain Isaria, which is the 

 particular fungus denoxious to insects. 



The Leechee Fruit. — This Chinese tree, now 

 becoming popular for planting in California, is 



the Nephelium Litchi of botanists. It is said 

 that an admirable wine may be made by using 

 for fermentation the dried fruit. Care must be 

 taken not to crush the seeds, which are acrid. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Winter Nelis Pear. — "A. H.," Meadville, Pa., 

 writes: ''When I wrote to you about the keep- 

 ing of the Winter Nelis Pear, having kept it 

 some three months longer than usual under 

 conditions stated, I hoped to have had a private 

 opportunity to send you some samples of my 

 best specimens, but the opportunity failed to 

 come, and the best fruit was among the earliest 

 to mature. I, however, venture to send you by 

 mail a fair medium sized specimen to show that 

 part of the crop has kept even longer than I 

 anticipated. A day or two in a warm room will 

 bring it into eating condition, when I hope you 

 will find it as represented in my former note. 

 With kind regards and best wishes for a satis- 

 factory season with you." 



[This pear proved to be delicious, excelling 

 even the superior fruit of Rochester. It is very 

 useful to know in what localities the varieties of 

 fruit do especially well. — Ed. G. M.] 



Bentley's Sweet Apple. — Mr. Kalb says: 

 " My article in the Gardener's Monthly on the 

 Bentley's sweet apple has a slight typographical 

 error. ' My nurseryman's catalogue' should 

 read any nurseryman's catalogue. The error is 

 a very small one, but it makes the sense very 

 different from what I intended." 



Highland Beauty Apple. — Mr. E. P. Roe 

 writes : " I send you herewith per express, pre- 

 paid, a few of my new seedling apples, 'High- 

 land Beauty,' which is a seedling from the Lady 

 apple. Last year was not the bearing year and 

 we had only a few ; but with no special care in 

 keeping they have kept in excellent order and 

 in a cellar where other varieties have rotted. It 

 is my wish to test this new variety fully before 

 sending it out to the public." 



[This came to hand on the 18th of March, 

 which shows it to be a good keeper. As before 

 noted in relation to this and other apples, the 

 value of a good fruit of this class depends on so 

 many things of which a specimen on an editor's 

 table cannot tell. There are already over two 

 thousand named apples, and he who uridertakes 

 to add to their number assumes a great respon- 

 sibility. All we can say is that so far as we can 



