GARDENING. 



April /, 



for a choice lawn tree, they'll repay you 

 in vigorous growth and early and plen- 

 teous fruit. 



In planting trees about our homes why 

 not set out some grafted chestnuts? Thej' 

 don't grow high like wild forest trtes; 

 they are comely and clean and make good 

 shade trees, and they are a perfect joy to 

 the children. Plant ihem in the orchard 

 about as far apart as you would apple 

 trees. We know that a grafted plant is 

 the counterpart of its parent just as much 

 as a Ben Davis apple or Bartlett pear is 

 the same as the tree from which the cion 

 that produced it was taken. But no one 

 can foretell what a seedling may be. 

 They will grow in the fence row, and a 

 group of them in the pasture lot will give 

 shade to the cows and horses, and bear 

 nuts as well. A basket of big home 

 grown chestnuts is avery ni e gilt to send 

 to a friend. The young boys will fill their 

 pockets with the nuts and bring them to 

 school to astonish the other boys, every 

 one of whom who can resist the tempta- 

 tion of eating them will plant them. And 

 the father will do likewise when he goes 

 to business in the morning to astonish 

 the "boys" in town, when they will vie 

 with each other in narrating th' nutting 

 experiences of their youth. Then thej^ 

 will bring home the big nuts and plant 

 them and watch for the trees and the 

 fruit, and there will be good will on every 



SOME FRUIT NOTES. 



Dwarf Pears and Apples.— My experi- 

 ence with dwarf pear trees has been very 

 satisfactory, in fact 1 planted a number 

 of them one spring and the next year one 

 of them, a Bartlett, bore and ripened 

 eleven fine pears. My dwarf apples are 

 doing almost as we 1. 



Fig trees won't ripen frujt.— I can- 

 not get the fig to perfect its fruit here; it 

 bears freely, but as soon as the figs are 

 partiall}' grown they dry up and fall off, 

 although the foliage is healthy. [Quite a 

 common trouble in the norch especially in 

 open places and on sandy land Try it in 

 the shelter of a south or east facing wall 

 or fence, in thoroughly drained loamy or 

 loam and gravel soil. We have here just 

 such a case as this, the figs on sandy land 

 grow well but drop all their fruit, those 

 on a loamj' hillside in a warm sheltered 

 place bear two crops of fine fruit a year. 

 In both cases tHe bushes are bent down 

 and buried in winter —Ed.] 



The Parker Earle is the finest straw- 

 berry I have ever gro ^n; it is firm, sub- 

 acid^ ripens all over, and it is a good 

 bearer , devoting its growth to bearing 

 rather than running. H. B C. 



Woburn, Mass. 



FERTILIZER FOR FRUIT TREES. 



J. T. M., Rahway, N. J , asks: "What 

 is the best fertilizer for fruit trees, app-es, 

 cherries, and pears, and for grape vines, 

 all several years old." 



I have never foimd any other fertilizer 

 for fruit trees and vines of all kinds, (piite 

 c<|ual to ])ure well rotted stable manure. 

 Apply this on the surface and fork it into 

 the ground. If the manure is not old then 

 l)lacc it on the surface around the trees, 

 and let it decaj'there whiletherains wash 

 the juices down to the roots. Of course 

 where stable manure cannot readily be 

 obtained «e mu-t resort to commjrcial 

 fertilizers. I think [)urc grounl bone is 

 one of the very lest fertilizers for grape 



stirred in around the roots of a vine with 

 excellent results. But here in New Jersey 

 we need moisture more than anything 

 else for fiuit trees planted on our dry soils, 

 and I depend more upon mulching than 

 any kind of fertilizer, and if I could get 

 nothing better I would use pine shavings 

 or sawdust, but we can usually obtain 

 better kinds, such as old leaves, straw, 

 hav, or coarse straw v manure. 

 Ridgewood,N. J. ' A. S. Fii.i.i:k. 



SOME GOOD FEARS FOR NEW JERSEY. 



The same varieties of fruit do not 

 always succeed ccjually well in all soils, 

 and sometimes our own individual taste 

 is quite variable. But the following are 

 really good sorts for an amateurtogrow, 

 and succeed well over a large area of 

 country. 



For Sta.ndards.— Bartlett, Giftard. 

 Sheldon, Howell, Anjou.Seckel, Boussock 

 and Lawrence. 



For Dwarfs. -Clapp's Favorite, Tyson, 

 Angouleme and Clairgcau. 



Ridgewood, N. J. A. S. Fuller. 



fl FEW GOOD FEARS FOR ONTARIO. 



Ontario has peculiar climatic conditions, 

 being mostly surrounded by three great 

 inland lakes; on the south Lake Ontario 

 and Lake Erie wash its shores, and Lake 

 Huron and Georgian Bay on the north 

 and west. Fruit trees sui' able for one 

 section may be unsuit dfor another part, 

 for instance a pear grown along the lake 

 shore may be a summer variety while a 

 few miles back upon the mountain it 

 would be classed as an autumn pear. 

 But altogether, the following varieties do 

 well here and are Al in every particular. 



For summer. Giffard.Claiip's Favorite. 

 Bartlett, Tvson. 



For autumn. Hardy, Flenrsh Beauty, 

 Seckel, Sheldon. 



For winter, .\niou. Glout Morceau, 

 Josephine de M alines, Goodale. 



A. Gilchrist. 



West Toronto Junction. 



Diseased Grapevines.— In answer to 

 J. L., Milford, Pa.: The bit ( f leaf and 

 flower sent in the little match box were 

 too insufficienfand dried upfor us togive 

 it proper examination. But vour vines 

 are badly infested with downy mildew. 

 Bordeaux mixture is preventive rather 

 than curative. Ccjd draughts, sudden 

 and wide ventilation, hosing the vines too 

 early in the morning of a dull day, or late 

 in the afternoon so that they don't get 

 dry before dark, or a dead raw atmos- 

 phere in the vinery, or a cold, sodden, 

 imdrained border, or a good many other 

 causes will encourage mildew; Once 

 started if not checked it spreads rapidly. 

 Check it by favorable cultural conditions, 

 make a paint of sulphur, e ay and w ater 

 and paint it on the heating pipes, or use 

 linseed oil and sulphur, and with a pow- 

 der bellows dust sulphur over all the 

 diseased parts of the vines. Every leaf 

 and flower and young tip now affected 

 are spoiled for life; we can only stop or 

 prevent the spreading of the disease, we 

 can not cure damage already done. 



When to prune an apple orchard.— 

 E. S. C, Mich., writes: "We have usually 

 pruned our apple orchard in May or June 

 but it would be so much more convenieut 

 to do it in April. Would that be right." 

 It would be better. Cuts made in sum- 

 mer heal quicker than those made in win- 

 ter, hut anytime between October and 

 April is good, in fact it is the general 

 time for ])runing orchard trees, and when 



the trees are leafless it is much easier to 

 see what wants to be pruned, than when 

 they are in full leaf. 



Tie up the grape vines —If they have 

 been pruned and left above ground tie 

 them into position and get done with 

 them If on trellises use a stout cord or 

 piece of marlin to tie the main stems, and 

 light cord or matting will do for the vines 

 and vetj' little at that, as soon as the 

 young shoots grow out they emit tendrils 

 "that fasfcn the vines to the trellises quite 



Landscape Gardening. 



A FAIRY WOODS-SflRUBS. 



For floral effects our main dependence 

 must rest on shrubs. Use them in thou- 

 sands. Don't isolate them as specimens 

 as one might in the garden or arrange 

 them with any degree of formality, at 

 the same time let there be meaning in the 

 irregularity. Have no beds of shrubs or 

 anything looking like a bed, but give the 

 wood t"he appearanceof nature in extrav- 

 agance. 



Consider the situation. Before setting 

 out .1 tree or shrub decide upon what 

 effects you wish to get, and strive to attain 

 th m. You want harmony and beauty 

 on every side. Have distinct features, and 

 avoid any approach to monotony. Have 

 a proper selection of shrubs for every pur- 

 pose, and do not attempt to grow any- 

 thing under unfavorable conditions. 

 Shrubs that prefer open places should be 

 planted in the open, and those that love 

 the shade, in the shade, and so on. Have 

 an unbroken succession of shrubs in bloom 

 trom the Japanese witch hazel in March 

 till our native one in October. Have 

 shrubs in showy fruit the year round, 

 from Standish's bushhoneysueklein May 

 and June till Thunberg's barberrj' drops 

 its fruit the following spring. And have 

 pictures of tinted foliage. 



We rave a host of both native and 

 exotic shrubs available for our purpose. 

 But never lose sight of the fact that this 

 is a wood and not a garden, and that 

 single flowers and natural forms and tints 

 alone are admis^ible into it. Double 

 flowering shrubs as altha;as, kerrias and 

 double varieties of prunus, spiraea, etc., 

 have no right to be here, they belong in 

 the garden. Neither should we plant 

 "double" snowball or hydrangea bushes, 

 they have an artificial appearance, but 

 the wild or "single" flowered forms are 

 excellent for our purpose. While we can 

 use to good advantage crimson leaved 

 Japanese maples, purple leaved hazel and 

 barberry and sometimes even the go'den 

 elder for distant tints, we must exclude 

 two colored variegations, as of the 

 Spath's dogwood, variegated elder, or 

 althjea, or weigelia, or Indian currant. 



In planting we know of no good reason 

 why foreign and nativeshrubs should not 

 be interplanted or associated, providing 

 they belong to the same family group, for 

 instance the spirjeas of Japan and America, 

 the wild roses of this country and of 

 Europe, and so on. Secure foliage effects 

 in the same way. While it is wtU to have 

 one or two prevailing kinds of plants in 

 an eff ct. many others may also be intro- 

 duced to good purpose. No rigid border 

 line should mark the group; while 

 heavier in one place than another it 

 should fringe off thinlv towards the out- 

 side. 



SiiKuiis THAT ULOOM before their leaves 

 appear in spring are always interesting, 



