1882.) 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



303 



raised with success. Thus seventy-five bushels 

 of oats and thirty of wheat have been raised per 

 acre. It is rather too hic,'h and the nights too 

 cool for corn to do well, though forty bushels 

 per acre have been raised of other crops. Onions, 

 400 bushels per acre ; cabbage, 4 000 heads ; 

 Iri&.h potatoes, 400 bushels ; sweet potatoes, 600 

 bushels; melons, 8,000; turnips, 1,000 bushels, 

 and others in like proportion. And this is no 

 more than anj' one can do who will use skill and 

 industry in the business. There is still Govern- 

 ment land near this place (I speak more par- 

 ticularly of Garden City, Sequoyah county), and 

 the railroad company is offering its lands for sale. 

 A large immigration is coming. It is noted here 

 that irrigation is a grand success in Kansas. 



RABBITS IN ORCHARDS. 



BY GEO. W. SLOAN, JUNEAU, WIS. 



Having profited by the valuable information 

 contained in the Gardener's Monthly, I feel 

 it my duty to contribute something for the benefit 

 of fruit growers. A few years ago I was greatly 

 annoyed with rabbits barking my young apple 

 trees. To prevent their depredations I made 

 rop>es out of hay, commonly known as " thumb 

 ropes." These I wound around the trunk of the 

 trees, from the roots to the first limbs, in the fall. 

 I left them on all the following summer, and 

 when I took them ofi" in the fall, I found the 

 bark fresh and healthy and free from blotches. 

 I repeated the operation for some years, leaving 

 the ropes on during the summer, removing them 

 in the fall and replacing them with new ones. 

 I have healthy, vigorous trees, free from fungus 

 and all disease, and yielding an abundance of 

 fruit. I recommend the process, not only to 

 protect the trees from rabbits, &c., but to protect 

 the bark from the cold winds of winter and the 

 hot sun in summer. 



SOME DESULTORY NOTES ABOUT 

 STRAWBERRIES. 



BY T. T. SOUTHWICK, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



About 1845, H. E. Hooker planted an acre with 

 the Virginia Scarlqt. It was considered a very 

 novel venture and an immense strawberry bed. 

 The fruit, the first ever sold in Rochester, was 

 put in round pointed baskets, which were strung 

 on a string and sold by his partner, at retail, 

 from a fruit stand. Others took up the culture 

 soon after, and Rochester has become'quite a 

 strawberry centre. The dealers are reported to 



have paid out for strawberries this season, in 

 this city, eighty-four thousand dollars ($84,000). 

 One canning house absorbed, I understand, ten 

 thousand (10,000) quarts per day. The same 

 house is said to have canned ten tons per day 

 and two hundred tons in all — of cherries. 



Regarding new varieties of strawberries it 

 seems to me we are not making much progress 

 in the direction of quality. We get them larger 

 and larger all the time, but not better. Have we 

 to-day any strawberry, possible to obtain a fair 

 crop of fruit from, under ordinary garden cul- 

 ture, of high quality? Have we anything as 

 good to-day as the almost forgotten Hovey 

 Seedling? If so, what is it? It seems tome 

 we are, with all the almost endless list of varie- 

 ties, greatly lacking a good berry for the home 

 garden. Something is wanted not so sharp as 

 Wilson and not so flavorless as Sharpless, and 

 the balance of the list of big berries. 



The Bidwell, in my garden, is a dismal failure. 

 The plants grew with great vigor; the set of fruit 

 was more than abundant. The fruit grew to 

 fine size, and the few that ripened were very 

 beautiful in appearance; but very much the 

 larger part never ripened. They either withered 

 or rotted before fully ripe. The tips would re- 

 main green and hard, and by the time they 

 were tender the balance of the berry was ruined. 

 The qualitj^ of the perfect specimens was of 

 rather low grade, but as good as ordinary mar- 

 ket sorts may be. 



My soil is a deep, very rich dark loam, and 

 has been in sod for a dozen or more years. The 

 plants were well watered. Other sorts did well. 

 On grounds near my own, but of light colored 

 loam, this sort did no better. It does not seem 

 to be suited to this vicinity. 



I am greatly pleased with the fruit of the 

 Longfellow. It is a long-fellow in shape, and 

 its deep color and regular form please the eye. 

 In quality it is about on par with most of the big 

 berries, but rather better if anything. The vine 

 is very slender, but does not seem feeble. For 

 the home garden I consider it well worth a trial; 

 for field culture I doubt it's being popular here. 

 The Warren is large and handsome and good, 

 and seems to be a promising sort. 



If one can be contented with very mild flavor, 

 I know of no sort for general culture for the 

 home garden, so valuable as the Cumberland. 

 With me its growth is vigorous, the yield fully as 

 great as the Wilson, the fruit very large, tender, 

 handsome and good for a mild flavored berry. 



