1895. 



• ' GARDENING. 



89 



or less poisonous he mentioned the follow- 

 ing: Aconite, roots sometimes mistaken 

 for horseradish; poisonous mushrooms; 

 lilack coliosli [Cimicifuga); white and red 

 berried lianelierry; birthroot (Trillium 

 crecium); dogbane (Apocynum); man-of- 

 the-earth creeper {Tpornoea pandiiratii); 

 Indian turnip (.Ir/s/tma triptiyllum); 

 bloodroot (Sanguinaria); mandrake or 

 May apple; pokeroot (Pliytolacca); lily 

 of the valley "is powerfully poisonous"; 

 water parsnip or water hemlock (Cicuta 

 maculata},"sL root that has destroyed 

 more lives than all the others mentioned 

 combined"; the common wild parsnip, 

 "through its local irritant properties"; 

 the black elder (Sambucus Canadensis); 

 "is very poisonous"; the seeds of the horse 

 chestnut, and probably the bark; the 

 roots and bark of the common locust, and 

 in a lesser degree its leaves; horse radish 

 and water cresses both when eaten in 

 inordinate quantity; several cases of poi- 

 soning of domestic animals by eating 

 juniper and various species of buttercups 

 are recorded; garden celandine "is a 

 drastic poison"; tansy, injudiciouslyused; 

 henbane; Indian tobacco ( I,o6e/ya inHata) 

 "has an extensive record of fatal poison- 

 ing cases"; unripe fruit or berries of the 

 common potato; the fruit of the May 

 apple; the fruit of the red buckeye; and a 

 good many others. He remarked that 

 "most poisonous roots are most active 

 ■when fresh." And in explaining that 

 while one part of the plant may be good 

 to eat another part may be virulently 

 poisonous, and instanced "The young 

 shoots of pokeroot make a deliciousgreen 

 very similar to asparagus, but the root 

 is poisonous. Very youiit; pi ■tables (ir 

 sun greened ones are poisumius. " 



GEORGE SUCH. 



Many are the lovers of horticulture and 

 the cultivators of fine plants who will 

 regret to learn of the death, a few weeks 

 ago, of Mr. George Such, of Sduth Amboy , 

 N. J. For several years he had been in 

 faihng health, and a few months since in 

 company with Mrs. Such he sailed for 

 Europe, hoping the sea voyage would do 

 him good, but it didn't, and he immedi- 

 ately returned to New York, where he 

 died" in less than a week after his arrival. 



Between fifteen and thirty years ago he 

 had the greatest greenhouse establish- 

 ment on this continent, and there is not 

 now and there never has been another to 

 equal it in progressive inportance. Mr. 

 Such loved flowers and he gathered into 

 his greenhouses from home and abroad, 

 regardless of expense, a vast array of the 

 most beautiful and deserving plants ob- 

 tainable, he knew them thoroughly and 

 grew them all with a loving care and in 

 perfection, and from the knowledge that 

 grew out of it he obtained the purest hap- 

 piness. Mr. Sueh's nature was retiring 

 and a modest one, but he certainly gave 

 a greater impetus to the love for rare 

 plants and orchids than any other one 

 man in this countrj-, either florist or 

 private gentleman, not only by a lavish 

 expenditure of money, but by intelligent 

 and successful cultivation of them, by the 

 publication of catalogues ofextraordinary 

 correctness and which showed forth in 

 every line uncommon culture and knowl- 

 edge, by many and most extensive public 

 exhibits of rare plants, and by an un- 

 bounded hospitality shown to number- 

 less strangers who were attracted to his 

 home by the fame of his collection. 



ErRoPKAN Ivv.— E H. A., New York, 

 sent to a prominent florist firm for some 

 plants o( Hedera Helix. They replied that 



they did not know any plant of that 

 na e, and after making some inquiries, 

 they were unable to tell anything 

 about. It is almost incredible that any 

 intelligent florist in America should not 

 know the botanical name of so common 

 a plant as the European or English ivy. 

 But surely this was a mistake of an 

 ignorant order clerk. 



The Fruit Garden. 



OUR COOL GRAPE HOUSE. 



We have been much interested and 

 gratified with the account of Mr. Smith's 

 cold grape house which we find in Gar- 

 dening, Nov. 1, page 55. Think of 24 

 years of success and not a single failure! 

 Of what outside crop can the same be 

 said? Now we went to school to Mr. 

 Smith, he taught us what we know of 

 grape culture, and as he taught us so 

 have we practiced. But our grapery is 

 only 12 years old, still there has not been 

 a single failure in it during this time, and 

 something from this house has been seen 

 at our annual fairs every year, and we 

 have received for it our quota of prizes 

 and gratuities, something every year, 

 testimonials of the success we have had 

 in carrying out the principles of grape 

 growing as taught us by Mr. Smith. 



Our cold grape house is span roofed, 40 

 xlS feet, and contains 36 vines, mostly 

 Hamburghs. It is almost a copy of Mr. 

 Smith's. But the inside is a hard gravelly 

 core that gets no water, or very little, 

 tlie ve.ar through; the vines must get 

 their liwiii; from the outside bolder alone. 

 One thing is certain, in following Mr. 

 Smith's methods we have had success 

 first to last, and grapes in abundance for 

 ourselves and our friends. 



Fearing Burr. 



Hingham Centre, Mass. 



A cool grape house consists of a green- 

 house without any fire heat in it. Such 

 a house is inexpensive, easily constructed, 

 and easily run, and there is very little 

 labor indeed attached to it. If you want 

 a cheap, light but serviceable structure, 

 make a rough outline of the house you 

 should like to get, and submit it to one 

 of the firms advertising greenhouse- 

 building materials in Gardening for an 

 estimate. 



If you wish to build it yourself or have 

 it built by your village carpenter, they 

 can furnish you with sash bars, plates 

 and all other woodwork and iron parts 

 better and far cheaper than your village 

 man can get them out for you. The price 

 of glass is quite reasonable; you can get 

 it at any dealer's store. Or if you want 

 a real nice job, get the greenhouse-builder 

 to estimate on the whole job. Write to 

 him anyway. 



in clean new boxes, well packed and hon- 

 estly measured, it may be estimated by 

 the quart as follows, (and for anything 

 like good berries you have to pay much 

 more than this): 



Cost of growing ready for picking, . 2 cents. 



Picking 1J4 •• 



Cases, packing and delivery 1 



Freight or exoress charges . . . . 1% " 

 Commission for selling 1 



Actual cost on market 8c per qt. 



Now you can raise four quarts of ber- 

 ries in your own garden or field for that 

 price, and you can raise from six to ten 

 quarts for the price you pay your market 

 man for the finest quality fruit, and every 

 one of j'our own berries is solid, fresh, 

 quite ripe, and delicious. 



You can have your berries at first cost, 

 and picking them provides a pleasure for 

 wife and children. Every amateur in the 

 country and every owner of a house in the 

 the village, should grow big berries and 

 lots of them for family use. You may 

 thus have them fresh from the vines in 

 summer, and canned, dried, or preserved 

 for winter. There is no better food than 

 ripe fruit. There is none more healthful, 

 and at two or three cents per quart there 

 is none cheaper. A berry garden for next 

 season should be decided upon at once. 



Sparta, Wis. M. A. Tiiaykr. 



BERRIES, GROW MORE OP THEM. 



Any intelligent amateur can grow ripe 

 luscious strawberries, ready for picking, at 

 two cents per quart. With good cultiva- 

 tion at the rate of 100 bushels per acre 

 should be grown; in fact, 200 bushels per 

 acre is not an unusual yield, and 300 is 

 often produced. Fruit that can be grown 

 so cheaply and in such quantity, should 

 be considered a necessity in every family. 



Growing them yourselves you can have 

 them fresh from the vines, ripe, delicious 

 and at a cost of only two cents a quart! 

 Let us see what market berries cost the 

 raisers: For good berries, carefully picked 



FAINTING fl GREENHOUSE-ORflPES. 



1. I am building a small greenhouse 

 16x42 three-quarter span. How shall I 

 manage to paint the roof alter it is 

 finished? What contrivance has the 

 painter to stand on to reach the sash 

 bars, ridge, etc? Now this may seem a 

 very simple question, but no one here can 

 tell me anything about a greenhouse. 

 My lumber is best quality Louisiana 

 cypress and given a coat of hot linseed 

 oil before put up. I also want to know 

 about having a 



2. Black Hamburgh grapevine ripen- 

 ing in this house, but planted outside. I 

 have left openings in my front wall (hol- 

 low brick wall) for two vines and one 

 must be a Black Hamburgh; which will 

 be the best white grape for the other 

 vine? I do not wish to force them at all, 

 but simply to ripen under glass. 



Tracy City, Tenn. E. O. N. 



1. By the simplest contrivance possi- 

 ble,— glaziers, step brackets tacked on to 

 the rafters, say 6 feet apart, and a plank 

 laid across them. There are some pro- 

 fessional greenhouse builders at work 

 here just now, and this is how they do 

 it. The brackets are strips of board "s 

 in. thick and nearly 2 inches wide with 

 the ends bevelled to suit the slope of the 

 roof, and tacked to the outside of the 

 sash bar. When the top is all glazed and 

 painted the upper row of brackets is re- 

 moved, nail holes puttied, and the next 

 stretch finished, the lower stretch can be 

 reached from the ground or a pair of 

 steps. Owners of greenhouses generally 

 have two or more glazing ladders, which 

 consists of a common pine board with 

 bracket steps, board wide, and about 2 

 feet apart; two or three, 2 feet long nar- 

 row strips are nailed across on the under 

 side of the board ladder to keep it from 

 breaking through the glass, the strips 

 crossing two or more sash bars. When 

 two of these ladders are laid on a roof a 

 board can be placed across them to act 

 as a scaffold; but in replacing broken 

 glass or painting a careful man needs no 

 scaffolding other than the ladder. Mod- 

 ern greenhouses are, as a rule, sur- 

 mounted by a fancy iron cresting run 



