1895. 



GARDENING. 



ni 



on the top of the tobacco stems, is the 

 remedy. 



Pbaixnopsis require all the heat and 

 moisture they can get at present. Odont- 

 otflossums must be kept as cool as possi- 

 ble; givctlKin ])lenty of water and a sweet, 

 moist, buoyant atmosphere. 



Orchids in bloom on this place (August 

 20) are Caltkya crispa, C. aiircn chryso- 

 toxa, a splendid species resembling C. 

 Dowiana; Peristen'a axpersa, Livlia Day- 

 ana, Cypripcdiutn Pitcherianum and C. 

 Scileni. Wm. FiTzwn.i.i.\M. 



Orange, \. J. 



BOOK ON ORCHIDS. 



A. D. M. asks: "Can one find outside 

 of the costly manuals plain and complete 

 cultural directions for the common or- 

 chids?" 



There is no American book up to date 

 on the subject. But there is a capital 

 little book, so far as it goes, called the 

 "Orchid Cultivators' Guide Book," by 

 Mr. H. A. Burberry, gardener to the Rt. 

 Hon. Joseph Chamberlain of England. 

 The author has charge of one of the finest 

 collections of orchids in England. It 

 costs $1. Get it from the publisher of 

 Gardening. The costly manuals our 

 correspondent refers to are probably Wil- 

 liams' "Orchid Growers' Manual," last 

 edition, $10; Watson's "Orchids: Their 

 Culture and Management," $G; and 

 Veitch's "Manual of Orchidaceous 

 Plants," $33.50. 



Orchids that have pretty well finished 

 their growth need more air and more 

 light, but never subject them to cold 

 draughts or have them soggy in damp or 

 dull weather. In the event of a cold wet 

 storm start some fireheat in the green- 

 house to sweeten the atmosphere and 

 keep it moving, having a little ventilation 

 on at the same time. In fine weather use 

 water freely about the benclies, walls and 

 floors to moisten the atmosphere, but be 

 careful about slopping the plants. Most 

 orchids on blocks and in baskets and sus- 

 pended pots may be hosed freely, but use 

 great discretion and see that water 

 doesn't lodge in the sheaths of the young 

 growths over night and rot them. In 

 watering orchids it is a good plan to go 

 over them once a week and dip their pots 

 or baskets bodily into a tub of water so 

 as to completely soak them, and let the 

 water run out; this is not so much to 

 soak the roots and potting material but 

 to wash out any stagnant souring moist- 

 ure lodging about the roots. The same 

 purpose is attained by pouring water on 

 to the pots till it nms out freelv from the 

 bottom, it washes the stagnant water 

 out of the peat or moss, and keeps the 

 potting material sweet and healthy. 

 Look after insects. In a dry atmosphere 

 thrips arc apt to sear the inner parts ot 

 the ) oung growths. Washing, fumigat- 

 ing, or a free use of fresh tobacco stems in 

 the house will destroy them. Scale of two 

 or three kinds are apt to be troublesome, 

 brush and then wash them off, laying the 

 plant on its side while being cleaned so 

 that the vermin may fall on to theground 

 rather than in among the potting mate- 

 rial, there to rest and recuperate and 

 again advance to the attack. Wherever 

 you find ants busy at work about an 

 orchid look out for soft scale, for the ants 

 are farming them. They take the scales 

 and set them into the heart of the young 

 shoots, then carry some fine pieces of 

 moss to the same spot to build a wall 

 across the mouth of the opening to keep 

 the scales at home. This you will very 

 often find among cypripediunis. 



The Fruit Garden. 



AN ORCflflRD OF FEARS AND FLUM5. 

 J. E. v., Moosup, Conn., writes: "I 

 am intending setting one-half acre ot land 

 with fruit trees, dwarf pears and stand- 

 jir.l ])lunis or dwarf and standard pears. 

 My plans for setting out are to put the 

 standards 20 feet apart each way and to 

 put rows of dwarf trees both ways be- 

 tween the rows of standards, making 435 

 trees to the acre, 108 standards, 327 

 dwarf 1 believe. Is the setting too thick? 

 Which would you set for the standard 

 trees, pear or" plum and what variety? 

 What variety of dwarf pear, all for profit? 

 I have two markets, each 30 miles away. 

 Providence, R. I., the largest. No exam- 

 ple to follow in the place, as not enotigh 

 fruit is raised here to more than supply 

 the home market. Pears do well here 

 and fruit heavily; plums grow well and 

 fruit lightly. I have plum and pear trees 

 set in '94- that have grown over four feet 

 this year. Land is elevated, verj' rocky, 

 but good, and inclined to be dry." 



We would name the following pears to 

 be grown as standards: Bartlett. Shel- 

 don, Anjou, Clairgeau, Winter Nelis and 

 Boussock. For dwarfs; Angouleme, 

 Louise Bonne de Jersey and Anjou. As 

 to distance, if you want to plant alternate 

 standard and dwarf, as you suggest, 

 plant the standards thirty feet apart; 

 twenty feet would be altogether too 

 close. " We should prefer to plant the 

 standards by themselves at twenty feet 

 apart, and the dwarfs by themselves at 

 fifteen or sixteen feet apart. For plums 

 would name: Bradshaw, Yellow Egg, 

 (juackenboss, Bavay's Green Gage, Fel- 

 lemberg and Grand Duke, to be planted 

 about twenty feet apart. All the above 

 are good market fruits. 



Ellwanoer & Bakkv. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



A. D. M., Amherst, Mass, asks: 1. 

 "What strawberries, if any, of first-rate 

 (|uality do well in matted rows? 



2. Do the Marshall and Brandywine 

 varieties thrive in light soil?" 



1. Princess, Shuckless, Greenville. low.i 

 Beauty and Dayton. 



2. Neither the Marshall nor Brandy- 

 wine, so far as tested, do well on light 

 soil. Both belong to a type of plants 

 which must be on a heavy, deep, moist 

 soil to have them in the highest state of 

 perfection. J. H. Ha i.e. 



South Glastonbury, Conn. 



YOUNG FLUM TREES DON'T FRUIT. 



Lake (Jeneva, Wis., S. W. A., "would 

 like to know why his plum trees, years 

 old, do not bear fruit. They are healthy 

 and the bark on the limbs of the trees 

 looks as if it had been varnished." 



We cannot tell, not knowing the cult- 

 ural conditions of the trees and their sur- 

 roundings. But if they are growing 

 vigorously root pruning them now should 

 lessen their growth and start them into 

 bearing. Keep out 4 to 5 feet from the 

 butt of the trees, and head in the branches 

 a little at same time. 



"The Japanese Wineberrv is hardy 

 here," writes F. C. C, Bath, Maine, "but 

 do you consider it worth growing?" The 

 vvineberry is Hke the wine question, it has 

 strong friends and pronounced enemies. 



and the mass are indifferent about it. It 

 is entirely a matter of how it behaves 

 with you and how you like it. One of 

 the finest sights in the way of berries we 

 have ever seen was in the caseof the wine- 

 berry on Long Island, and some of the 

 most complete failures that have come to 

 our notice have been of the wineberry. 



Planting fri'it trees for market is 

 a laudable and profitable purpose, for no 

 matter how plentiful the crop of apples, 

 pears, peaches and plums may be choice 

 fruit will always find a ready market, and 

 usually a home market. What varieti> s 

 we should plant is a local question. First 

 go to the market you wish to supply and 

 find out from the commission agents and 

 fruiterers what varieties they prefer or 

 find readiest sale for at a good, price, 

 what is the drift of the people's taste, and 

 if there are other kinds of fruit they 

 haven't got but would like to get. Then 

 go out among your neighbors— farmers, 

 gardeners, nurserymen and amateurs and 

 find out which of the varieties you have 

 noted grow and fruit well with them, also 

 what other kinds do well and what sorts 

 behave indifferently. Select accordingly. 

 You may consult books and professional 

 outsiders, and get lots of points from 

 both, but their teachings are onlv gen- 

 eral, what you get about yourown home 

 is positive. Limit the number of varieties 

 to a few, and the fruits of these should be 

 large, showy and of real good quality. 

 Don't crowd your trees, give them plentv 

 of room. 



Gather the Fruit.— Good peaches for 

 home use should get soft on the trees be- 

 fore being picked. A suspended netting 

 under the trees will catch the fruit before 

 it falls to the ground and save it from 

 much damage. A mulch of straw, hay, or 

 lawn mowings under the trees answers 

 the same purpose ior pears and apples. 

 Never let pears ripen on the trees if you 

 wish to have them juicy and good 

 flavored, pick them a fortnight or more 

 before their ripening time and lay them, 

 spread thin, on a shelf in a cool, dark 

 room, well ventilated but not too dry. 

 Rake up and remove all fallen fruit before 

 the vermin escape from it into the ground 

 there to remain and develop. Carefully 

 look over all fruit that is gathered and in 

 the house or cellar, for it is apt to rot 

 quickly so early in the season. Pick out 

 and remove every fruit of any kind show- 

 ing the least speck of soft rot. 



The California Burbank Berries.- 

 The hybrid blackberries and raspberries 

 raised by Mr. Burbank of California con- 

 tain perhaps the best advances ever 

 made in this direction, and are a God 

 send to the world. But are they hardy in 

 the latitude of New York? Last winter 

 was an exceptionally severe one, even 

 killing many of our old Kittatinny black- 

 berries to the ground and was hardly a 

 lair test for the Pacific newcomers, but 

 what we had were killed to the ground. 

 Their multiplication however, from root 

 cuttings is so extravagant that under a 

 fair mulching they are not likely to die 

 out nor run short in stock, and with 

 proper burying over winter as we do in 

 the case of ordinary raspberries, fig trees, 

 etc., there is everj' hope of saving their 

 mature canes unhurt. 



The Tlmbrell strawberry pleases 

 me. On my ground it is more fruitful than 

 the Sharpless, is equally healthful and 

 vigorous and the fruit, if eaten at the 

 right time, that is when the berry is still 

 half or two-thirds white is of superior 

 (|uality. .Vnson D. Morse. 



.\nihcrst. Mass. 



