1895. 



GARDENING. 



25 



MADRESFIELD COURT GRAPES. 



for it rcallv is too soon to gather such 

 sorts as Winter Nelis, Easter ISeurre, Jos- 

 ephine des Malines, and the like A dry 

 airy room is a bad place for gathered 

 fruit, which in such quarters is sure to 

 get shrivelled in the skin. While the fruit 

 itself should be kept rigidly dry the at- 

 raosohere should be moderately moist. 



Winter apples should be left on the trees 

 till well into October; but at the rate 

 they are dropping with us if we are to 

 save any at all we shall have to pick 

 them early in the month. In localities 

 where they are sticking to the trees fairly 

 well, however, let them remain unpicked 

 as Ion » as it is safe from sharp frost, they 

 will keep all the better for it. 



This is a good time to set out new 

 plantations of raspberry and blackberry 

 bushes. Shorten the canes considerably, 

 lift with good roots and plant firmly, in- 

 clining the tops a little to one side, length- 

 wise in the row, to make it easy to bend 

 them down and cover them over winter. 

 In blackberry bushes be sure to retain the 

 crosswise root at bottom. 



If the weather continues very dry don't 

 forget to give your young strawberry 

 plants a good soaking of water now and 

 again; get them into good condition both 

 as regards crowns and roots before win- 

 ter sets in. Now is the time to lay the 

 foundation for a good croj) of berries 

 next summer. 



MADRESFIELD COURT ORflFE. 



The accompanviag illustration, en- 

 graved from a photograph of some first 

 prize bunches of this splendid grape that 

 I exhibited at Boston, gives one a better 

 idea of what kind of a berry it is than I 

 could do in words. 



The variety is a cross between Muscat 

 of Alexandria, white, and Black Morocco, 

 and it is an early grape. The berries are 

 very large, oval, dark purple, with a 

 dense blue bloom, and of the very best 

 quality. The vine is thrifty, and the 

 canes ripen up well, and the bunches set 

 their berries fine, in fact it can always be 

 depended on for a crop. I regard it as 



oneofthe best black greenhouse grapes in 

 cultivation. 



We have four vines of it here. Three of 

 these I raised by inarching them on to 

 Black Hamburgh stocks in the Hamburgh 

 vinery; and the other one on to a Muscat 

 of Alexandria vine in the Muscat house, 

 the variety doing well on either stock, 

 and admirably in either house. 



As the leaves are thin and a little sus- 

 ceptible to burning, if your glass is not 

 of Al quality, that is if it has any flaws 

 in it, shade it very thinly to prevent the 

 possibility of the foliage getting scalded. 

 When the berries begin to color be careful 

 in ventilating the house, for if the atmos- 

 phere inside is kept close, particularly in 

 sun heat, the berries are sure to crack. 

 And have the border kept well watered 

 too. It isn't a well watered, well drained 

 border that causes cracking; it is stag- 

 nant atmospheric moisture on the berries 

 that does the mischief. 



George McWillum. 



Whitinsville, Mass , Sept. IC, '95. 



grapes, but they are not so easily propa- 

 gated. The better way is to bend branches 

 of them to the ground in fall or early 

 spring and cover them with moist dirt. 

 I-"ine roots will start along the branch in 

 one season, then make them into cuttings 

 and set them out in the same wa3' as cur- 

 rants and erapes. 



Cuttings require deep rich soil and clean 

 cultivation. They may be made after the 

 liist frosts and set at once, or tied in 

 liundles, buried in cellar away from frost, 

 .iiid set out early in spring. Label each 

 liundle as it is made and mark e.ach row 

 as it is set. By growing your own plants 

 a love for them is created'that would not 

 otherwise exist. M. A. Thayer. 



Sparta, Wis. 



FROPflOflTlNG BERRY BUSHES. 



Every grower of small fruit should un- 

 derstand the best method <^f propagating 

 plants New plants from black rasp- 

 berries are secured by covering the tips of 

 new canes lightly with moist dirt and 

 leaving them until spring. They are then 

 ready to set out. 



The best plants from the blackberry are 

 grown by digging up large thrifty roots 

 and cutting them in pieces four or five 

 inches in length, and planting these in a 

 well prepared seed bed. They make good 

 plants in one season. New canes or 

 suckers are also used, and make good 

 plants if carefully dug with a portion of 

 the cross root attached. 



For currants and grapes select thrifty 

 new growth; cut them in pieces six to 

 twelve inches in length and set them six 

 or eight inches apart in rows, leaving 

 only one or two buds above ground. 

 Press the dirt firmly about all cuttings. 



Gooseberries are sometimes grown from 

 cuttings in the same way as currants and 



HftLE'S FflFER S«ELL fllCKORy. 



Mr. Henry Hale of Englcwood, N. J., 

 lound on his farm near Saddle River a 

 shell bark hickory tree whose nuts were 

 so thin shelled that a person with ordina- 

 rily strong hands can take two of these 

 nuts and pre.ss them together, breaking 

 them in the hand, something almost im- 

 ])Ossible in the case <if a c mnion shell- 

 bark nut. \nd besides being thin-shelled 

 these Hale's nuts are large, meaty, of fine 

 eating quality and they keep in good con- 

 dition longer than do those of the English 

 walnuts (/o^/ans re^/a ). 



Soon after it was discovered we secured 

 some wood forgrafting, and I propagated 

 a good many trees of it in this way, using 

 seedlings of the common shell-bark for 

 stocks. Of the first lot we raised— just 

 sixteen years ago — we sent a memorial 

 tree to Mr. C. A. Dana, at Dosoris. It is 

 bearing fruit this \ear for the first time. 

 A plant of the same propagation that we 

 set 1 ut as a specimen in the nui series 

 here, bore fruit for the first time last 

 year. 



As grafting hickories is no easy matter 

 let me detail my method of doing it. 

 Have found the last hall of April to be the 

 best time. Have the cions cut during the 

 winter and put away in a shady corner 

 to prevent their early moving into 

 growth. Before grafting let the stock 

 show moving in its buds. Crown, whip, 

 also half-clelt grafting, I have found to 

 answer. In grafting, wax well and tie 

 wax paper around the unions to exclude 

 air and ward off rains. Thecions arenot 

 likely to start before three or four weeks. 

 Look at the top of the paper, and as soon 

 as the buds begin to push, open the top. 

 It is well to tie a little stick to the graft 

 the first year for fear of breakage by 

 wind. The rest is easy, untie gradually 

 so that there shall be no strangling of the 

 grafts. J. R. Trumpv. 



Kissena Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y. 



I WISH TO SAV that I am a subscriber 

 to several horticultural journals but have 

 found more satisfaction in Gardening 

 than all the others put together; so well 

 do I like the paper that I immediately 

 bought volume one and the back numbers 

 of volume two when I entered my sub- 

 scription. It is my directory in all such 

 matters. H C. Burrows. 



New York, September 16, 1895. 



I realize the different character ot con- 

 tributions to Gardening and editorial 

 comments from those contained in most 

 of the floricultural papers. It seems a 

 pity that amatenrs have nothing but 

 your paper, as far as I know, to tell them 

 all the faults of a plant as well as its 

 merits. We set things out, not knowing 

 their failings, wasting a whole year, and 

 iflateinthe season, leaving bare spaces 

 in the garden. L. C. L. J. 



New York, September 1895. 



