i895' 



GARDENING. 



of lumber in New York is much higher 

 than in Michigan. His Detroit houses 

 are built of pine, but his Loiiu l>l hhIcjiks 

 are of hemlock. Mr. Barley i-- tin in|ilu w 

 of the late Mr. I'ocock (\vIh.>-i y.inliii 

 was between Kew and Mordnkti, dik- (.1' 

 the largest and most successful of the 

 market gardeners of London, and mar- 

 ket gardening runs in the family, it hav- 

 ing been their avocation for many goner- 

 lions back. 



Gardening a.s a business for ladies.— 

 But who runs the Detroit establishment 

 while Mr. Barley is biiil.lin:; .iiid starting 



Island? some may ask. i hir ..I li,s sisters! 

 And he has aiuitlicr sisKr with him now 

 and she knows more about growing 

 mushrooms than any other woman we 

 have evermet. They are educated, refined 

 young ladies, and it is a real pleasure to 

 see how interested and active they are in 

 the business, and how systematically they 

 conduct it. 



The Fruit Garden. 



GRflPES, ETC. 



During the past ten or more years I 

 have given, in an anmteur way, consider- 

 able attention to the cultivation of 

 grapes in the open air and under glass. 

 Our collection, hardy in the open, covers 

 more than sixty varieties, and we have 

 eight foreign kinds under glass in a cool 

 house. Have been fairly successful with 

 them. Last year all our hardy grapes in 

 the open air ripened, this is something 

 unusual as our collection covers so large 

 a variety. Commonly not more than 

 two-thirds of them would ripen. 



The season wac particularh' favorable 

 for grapes, dry and warm. You will 

 recollect our location on the highest point 

 of land in the University City, neverthe- 

 l.ss only 70 or 80 feet above tide water. 



I have been taught by obseruation that 

 it is absolutely necessary to have com- 

 plete drainage for grape vines both in the 

 open and under glass. 



I have never used any poisonous liquid 

 preparations 



We distribute occasionally on the 

 foliage with pulverized sulphur only. 

 With us it has been satisfactory, and up 

 to date the foliage is in a healthful con- 

 dition with the exception of two or three 

 varieties of Roger's Hybrids which 

 present slight mildew, but not enough 

 I believe to prevent the fruit from ripen- 

 ing, as the wood is well ripened. Another 

 iniuortant factor for our hardy grapes is 

 to take the canes from the trellis early in 

 .November after the foliage has fallen and 

 prune and cover them with earth for 

 winter protection. Notwithstanding the 

 fact that they are suppo.^ed to be hardy, 

 1 find from past experience for several 

 j^ears an advantage in doing so. 



The wire trellis they are grown to is 6 

 feet high with four horizontal wires 

 attached to posts and runs north and 

 south. I prune the canes before covering 

 them, cut out old wood, leaving 4- to 6 

 canes 2 to 3 leet in length for next year's 

 fruiting on each vine. 



With regard to foreign grapes, I have 

 never failed in the past twenty years in 

 ripening a crop in a cool house. No 

 artificial heat except the glass. The varie- 

 ties grown are Black Hamburgh, 

 Victoria Hamburgh, Muscat Hamburgh, 

 (5olden Hamburgh, Wilmot's New 

 Black Hamburgh, Muscat of Alcx- 

 .[iidria. Lady Downe's Seedling and 

 White Chasselas. 1 was told it woidd be 

 in vain to attempt to ripen Muscat Ham- 

 burgh without beat, but this is a fallacy. 



for I have ripened it perfectly for several 

 consecutive years and it has been pro- 

 nounced by experts of excellent flavor. 



Have been carcftil to have drainage as 

 perfect as possible under both hardy and 

 foreign grapes, and will add that the 

 borders both inside and outside of the 

 grape houses are two feet above the grade 

 of the ground immediately surrounding 

 the outside grape border and house. 



Our fruit in general never appeared 

 more promising than now with the ex- 

 cfption of apples— it is not the bearing 

 year consequently we have very few. The 

 trees are abundantly furnished with 

 bloom buds, however, and next year we 

 may as heretoforcexpect an abundance. 

 Benjamin G. S.mith. 



Cambridge, Mass., Sept. +, '95. 



FRUIT NOTES. 



Wr have had a fairly good fruit year, 

 pears are especially a heavy crop, but as 

 usual a good deal of fruit is falling now. 



Of apples I like Red Astrachan, Wil- 

 liams' Favorite and Early Harvest as 

 early varieties; Maiden's Blush and 

 Gravenstcin to succeed them; a"d Bald- 

 win, Spitzenberg, Northern Spy and 

 Rhode Island Greening for winter. What 

 falls on the ground now we rake up and 

 throw to the hogs, or gather and press 

 for cider vinegar. There is no use trying 

 to keep them, for fallen summer or early 

 fall apples, or hand-picked ones for that 

 matter, won't keep well. I let the late 

 fall and winter apples stay on the trees 

 as long as possible, even a little frost 

 won't hurt theni. When we pick them 

 we lay them on the barn floor or else- 

 where where they will be dry, every kind 

 by itself. In storing them away over 

 winier the usual method is to barrel them 

 up, head the barrels and lay them on their 

 sides in a cool, airy frost proof cellar, but 

 I prefer storing them loose in bins or 

 shelves in the cellar. Before storing them 

 we sort them over, picking out and dis- 

 carding every specked, bruised and in- 

 ferior apple, then set them on shelves, 

 tiered one above the other inside along 

 the cellar wall, and if need be also in the 

 middle of the cellar. The apples need to 

 be looked over every now and again in 

 winter to remove any that are showing 

 signs of dccav. There is one winter apple 

 I forgot to mention, namely, Jonathan; 

 it is splendid for baking. 



Pears. — As we have such lots of berries 

 when the early pears as Doienne d'Ete, 

 Osband's Summer, Giffard and the like 

 are ripe I begin with Clapp's Favorite, a 

 very large, red cheeked, handsome fruit, 

 which, if gathered two weeks before it is 

 rioe, is really a fine juiev fruit. Bartlett 

 succeeds it and is excellent for dessert or 

 canning. While Flemish Beauty may 

 crack with you it does fine with me and is 

 one of my standard sorts, so is Louise 

 Bonne de Jersey; and I find Seckel, Law- 

 rence and Winter Nelis are capital pears 

 to have, the trees healthy and free bear- 

 ing, and the fruit fine to eat. I prefer 

 standard trees by all means; while the 

 dwarfs are good enough on good land I 

 find that they are more susceptible to 

 blight ihanthe standards. Don't let any 

 of the pears ripen on the trees, always 

 pull them before they are ripe and spread 

 them on the shelves in j'our cellar, keep- 

 ing them dark. Eat them up as quick as 

 possible, for early or second early pears 

 won't keep long. 



I like to manure and cultivate the 

 ground about our fruit trees and keep it 

 clean. We do a little pruning every win- 

 ter, and remove all suckers and diseased 

 branches. Georce Donald. 



Fairfield, Conn. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



THE VEOETflBLE OflRDBN. 



Keep the relorv on the jump, and lots of 

 w.-it,r I- '.di.it will do this. If vourcab- 

 b.-i-t .11 ;,.iilill.iw<r wiltsbadly in the sun- 

 shim- It IS a sit;n tliat they are dubrootcd, 

 when you may as well pull them up and 

 feed them to the pigs or cow. Thin out 

 young beets, turnips, and carrots to give 

 them a good chance to bulb up before 

 cold weather comes. Sow some winter 

 radishes. The roots will be small but 

 tender. Strew some tobacco stems under 

 and about the cucumbers to kill or dispel 

 the aphides that are apt to infest them at 

 this season. Gather lots of half ripe Lima 

 beans for use in winter. They are better 

 than hard ripened ones. If j^our onions 

 are ripe get them out of theground, dried 

 and under cover. Plant out young let- 

 tuces, and make a large sowing of some 

 of the small hard hearting sorts for stor- 

 ing in cold frames. Sow some spinach for 

 use this fall; and in a week or two, a 

 patch for winter use. We let it be near 

 the end of the month before we sow 

 spinach to" come in in spring. About the 

 middle of the month or earlier north of 

 here sow a patch of German kale for 

 greens in spring. Have cold frames handy 

 to set over some snap bea'ns and tomatoes 

 in case of an early frost. Keep the hoe at 

 work both to clean the ground and un- 

 fasten it about the plants if you wish to 

 keep the voung crops in brisk growth. 



Insects. 



fl SCALE INSECT ON OSflGE ORANGE ilEDGE. 



X., South N. J., writes: "I have an 

 osage orange hedge three years old that 

 had grown to a fine size and seemed very 

 thrifty. Last year I noticed a white 

 cottony looking stuff on the branches, in- 

 visible except when you parted the leaves 

 and looked in. This year there is quite a 

 leafless gap in one place and the white 

 growth is thick on the branches. I send 

 you a sample of it. I hope you can tell 

 me what it is and what I can do to pre- 

 vent my whole hedge being ruined." 



The scale, of which examples were sent 

 with above, almost completely cover the 

 piece of twig and leaves sent was des- 

 cribed many years ago as Puhinaria ma- 

 clurw, but is now referred by many 

 writers to Pulvinaria innamerabilis — the 

 common maple tree scale insect. When 

 left to multiply it may become very des- 

 tructive, and therefore effort should be 

 made to destroy it at its first appearance. 



Its presence is readily detected by the 

 cottony mass thrown out from the lower 

 end of the scale at the season for repro- 

 duction, in which are contained hundreds 

 of eggs. This is a favorable time — if not 

 largely distributed— forgoing thoroughly- 

 over the infested plants with a thick soft 

 mitttn so as to crush the eggs. A large 

 proportion may be destroyed by this 

 means. Two or three weeks later those 

 that escaped will have fastened themselves 

 to the plant as small scales. These may 

 bekilled by sprinkling or spraying with a 

 strong kerosene emulsion, or with a solu- 

 tion of a quarter of a pound of whale-oil 

 soap in a gallon of hot water applied at 

 ;i temperature of about 100 degrees 

 Fahr. Later in the season the scale 

 has matured and is more difficult to kill. 

 During the winter a wash as strong as 



