1894. 



• GARDENING. 



us as being a very pleasant operation for 

 amateurs in gank-niiii; lo uiiiUitake. 

 Hut our nciy;libor, Mi 1' II SiiMir, a 

 ])retty sharp, prof^i' 1 I iiim 



grower, at once s: I \\ <:i im m li' u 

 ni.-irked "tlie great 111. iji ii ii \ .'lili. |nci]ilc 

 will never do that (spr:iy tlK-ir crops), 

 liut I'll buy a machine and do it for 

 them." In'every village and town there 

 should be another man who will get a 

 machine and do the sprayingfor everyone 

 who wants him to. 



The Fruit Garden. 



WflRDY AND 0REEN«OUSE GRAPES. 



Although we have passed a very dry 

 season with us it has been very fruitful 

 especially with grapes. We have a col- 

 lection of sixty-five varieties hardy grapes 

 in open ground all of which have ripened 

 perfectly. This in my experience of some 

 twenty-five years never happened before. 

 Among the collection were Lady Wash- 

 ington and Jefferson which produced very 

 large clusters of perfectly ripened fruit. 

 We made use of none of the liquid poison- 

 ous preparations. Indeed there was no 

 use for them for we were neither troubled 

 with mildew or rot. The only applica- 

 tions were a light distribution of pulver- 

 ized sulphur twice during the season. 

 Although all our grapes in open ground 

 are supposed to be hardy I am quite 

 satisfied after a practice of several years 

 there is advantage to be derived from my 

 practice after pruning early in November 

 to lay down the vines and cover them 

 with earth for winter protection and then 

 there are two other factors whicii I think 

 have contributed to our success: First, 

 good drainage, I find it absolutely neces- 

 sary in cultivating grapes either in open 

 or under glass to have the drainage as 

 perfect as possible. Grapes retiuire dry 

 feet. We have been equally successful with 

 our grapes under glass (cool house), they 

 have ripened perfectly. They include Black 

 Hamburg, Muscat Hamburg, Golden 

 Hamburg, Muscat of Alexandria, Wil- 

 mot's Black Hamburg, Duchess of 

 Bucclcugh and Lady Dowr e's seedling. 

 It has been maintained that Muscat of 

 Alexandria can't be successfully grown in 

 a cool house, but this is a fallacy; » ehave 

 done it for several consecutive years. 



Second, we have as perhaps you will 

 remember on the north side of our estate 

 a treble belt of coniferous trees; they were 

 transplant d when our homestead was 

 established in 1S48 and are now from 45 

 to 60 feet in height , and in a ddition we have 

 on the north and west and south sides of 

 our entire estate a six feet high board fence. 

 .\11 this protection is invaluable to my 

 garden. Frosts in low grounds 1,500 

 feet north of us from year to year appear 

 from ten to fourteen days earlier than in 

 our grounds. Benjamin G. Smith. 



Cambridge, Mass. 



PRUNING GRftPE VINES. 

 Tliisyear'sgrowthof the grape vine are 

 the stems on which fruit is produced next 

 year Hence, in pruning, preserve a sup- 

 ply of strong j'oung wood and cut away 

 the old and weaker growth. A one or 

 two year old plant when s nt from the 

 nursery may have only one shoot, or it 

 may have several. In any event cut all 

 off except the strongest, and cut that back 

 to within two eyes of the base. These 

 two eyes will produce shoots, and when 

 they have made a growth of a few inches, 

 rub off the weak one and let the strong 



one grow until September, when the end 



of the shoot should be innehed of! to help 



llladllr ,1,1.1 n,™ ,1 llir \.,,<h1, I.atr in tile 



as bef( ) 



ith. 





has been luiincd the shoot hlunild be 

 pinched off bej'ond this eye with thumb 

 and finger. In a short time the leaf will 

 become full size, and mature a bud at its 

 base and send out a new shoot which 

 should be stopped. 



The third year two or more canes may 

 be permitted. to grow, with branches to 

 compare with the vigor of the vine, and 

 trained in barious ways. A few bunches 

 of fine fruit may also be expected. Trim 

 all old vines in the fall leaving spurs or 

 canes of new wood containing two or 

 three eyes each for next season's fruit. 

 With strong growth at least three-quar- 

 ters of the vine should becutaway. With 

 good care the vine will give abundance of 

 fruit under almost all methods of treat- 

 ment and should find a friendh- trellis in 

 every village home. 



The essentials of grape growing are 

 good varieties suited to your locality, a 

 warm, rich, well drained soil, clean culti- 

 vation, severe pruning and in north rn 

 states especially, winter protection 



Sparta, Wis." M.A.Thayer. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



TflE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



By this time everything should be up 

 out of the ground and stored away for 

 the winter, for hard freezing does no vege- 

 table any good and at anytime now we 

 may expect frost severe enough to lock 

 the ground and put a stop to working in 

 it with comfort. Full directions were 

 given in last issue for lifting and storing 

 the crops, and we would ask our readers 

 to refer to them. 



November 10. At Dosoris all our root 

 crops except Jerusalem artichokes and 

 horse radish are up and in heaps out of 

 doors with a good covering of their own 

 tops over them to keep them dry. The 

 weather all this month has been wet and 

 unsettled; as soon as we get a few dry 

 days we will uncover the heaps and carry 

 the roots into their respective bins in the 

 root house. We have lifted about a 

 bushel of lerusal m artichokes and taken 

 them under cover, and we won't lift more 

 till the last of the month, when we shall 

 dig up enough to last into January or 

 Februarj'. We leave part undug and 

 mulched so that we can get at them at 

 any time we wish. They keep well in the 

 ground, and not very well out of it. 

 Horse radish too we will leave till 

 towards the end of the month. This is 

 not because it is well to do so much as for 

 convenience sake. If it isdry on Monday 

 (November 12) we will start lifting and 

 storing our celery as describtd in last 

 issue, page 59. Don't handle it in wet 

 weather or while it is wet. Before storing 

 it pick off the decaj-ing outer leaves for if 

 left they are apt fo rot pretty soon and 

 spoil the good part of the celery. 



After storing the celery and bringing 

 the roots into the root house, we «ill 

 start with the cabbage and its allies as 

 described in last issue. Cabbage is good 

 and plentiful and cheap aroimd here this 

 fall, and the farmers are selling it about 

 the village for 4- cents a head, and at a 

 little less rate a hundred; in the New 



York market they do not get as much for 

 it. Curled kale is pretty hardy, and can 

 lie left (lilt the longest. Brussels sprouts 

 .111 iHxt, liui \\ I- would rather not sub- 

 mit iluni to more than 4 to 5 degrees of 

 Irost. \\\' c.innot store them as we do 

 cabbage by burying them in the garden. 

 I'ull them up, and strio off the coarse 

 leaves without disturbing the sprouts, 

 then heel them in close together and 

 straight up on the floor of an outhouse 

 cellar, or shed, or pit, in this way keep 

 them green and plump all the time and 

 pick them for use as you want them. 

 Don't store them in your dwelling house 

 cellar, because they exhale a strong and 

 disagreeable cabbage smell in winter. 



Having got the vegetable garden 

 ground cleared of its crops, don't leave it 

 in a rough and littery condition over 

 winter. Level down the celery ridges, 

 fill over the cabbage stump holes with a 

 chop from a hoe, and so on. Rake orfork 

 up and remove to the rot heap all old 

 carrot, beet, and other tops, bean vines, 

 and the like. Now cart out the manure 

 on to the land, spr, ad it, and plow or 

 fork it in. But never plow or dig ground 

 while it is in a wet pasty condition. 



Frames. — In the cold frames we have 

 lettuces, spinach, and parslej'. Ourobjeet 

 isn't so- much to rush these into fast 

 growth as to keep them plump and 

 healthy, growing a little and in a condi- 

 tion to get at any time we wish to in 

 winter. A little frost won't injure any 

 of them, but a sharp frost will hurt the 

 lettuces, therefore we must see to protect- 

 ing the frames enough to exclude frost. 

 How can this be done? By banking around 

 th ni with tree leaves, or loam or ashes, 

 and covering over the sashes with straw- 

 mats and light wooden shutters, or 

 straw or sedge. In drj- weather straw, 

 hay, or sedge is good enough, but in wet 

 or snowy weather they alone are poor 

 covering. If you keep the covering (juite 

 dry it is a much more effectual protection 

 than wet material. The nicest kind of 

 covering over the sashes is straw mats, 

 and tongued and grooved %inch pine 

 shutters, if the sashes are 6 feet long, the 

 shutters should be 6V2 or 7 feet. 



Uncover the frames in mild weather, 

 tilt the sashes up on one side to ventilate 

 the frames in sunnj' forenoons of frostj' 

 weather. In cold wet or sleety weather, 

 keep the sashes on but tilted up a little. 

 Be most particular about the lettuces, 

 and keep all decaying leaves cleared out, 

 also keep the surface of the ground well 

 stirred and dryish for the health of the 

 plants. 



Wl GARDEN IN NEBRASKA. 

 Five hail storms in ISLC! destroyed 

 nearly all our fruit trees, and the most 

 severe drouth this season has finished 

 about all but our Progress raspb rry, 

 sometimes called Pione r. It withstood 

 the severe cold of last winter, 28° below 

 zero several times with no prot ction. 

 The plants blossom d and were quite full 

 of fruit, which dried on the bushes; still 

 the foliage retains its greenness, while 

 the leaves on box elder and ash trees 

 crumble to powder in one's hand, burned 

 by terrible hot winds, thermometer 110° 

 in the shade. New shoots have put out, 

 some of which I have just measured two 

 and one-half to three fectlong. For hardi- 

 ness, length of tini in fruit (there are still 

 green berries at this writing, July 31), 

 wi h good yield of finely flavored fruit; 

 this variety stands number one for this 

 portion of the west. Our pears wc-e 

 Shelrionsand Bartletts and they have had 

 fair crops for a tew years, butthey donot 

 possess the high flavor or rich coloring of 



