GARDENING. 



Feb. /, 



iug the fruit so generally into notice. 

 From Col. Baldwin and his family, who 

 introduced it largely into public notice, 

 it took the name of "Baldwin," by which 

 the fruit is now everywhere known. I am 

 informed that Major Samuel Jaques, of 

 Somraerville, eminent as an agriculturist 

 breeder, and horticulturist, as well as a 

 public benefactor of his age now owns 

 that part of the farm on which the origi- 

 nal Baldwin tree grew, and has placed a 

 monument on the site where it o ce flour- 

 ished. It has been thought by some that 

 there were three varieties of the Baldwin, 

 as some fruited annually, some every odd 

 numerical year, and some on the even 

 years which (as this 1846) is the general 

 jVuiting year. But on a careful investiga- 

 tion they are found to be identical. The 

 tree with us for thriftiness, for hardiness, 

 for fine form, and for vigorous strength, 

 for its abundant bearing, and the beauty 

 and long keeping of its fruit is placed at 

 the head of all other NewEngland winter 

 apples. The fruit is always fair above 

 medium sizi of a fine rich red and yellow 

 color. The flesh nearly tender, in color, 

 yellowish, rich, juicy and fine flavored; 

 e.xcellent for the table or cooking and is 

 in use from November till May." 



TflE FRUIT GARDEN. 



Our grape vines are all pruned and tied. 

 Where vines are buried leave them undis- 

 turbed. Apple, pear, peach, plum and 

 other fruit trees are pruned and all 

 wounds painted over. We have some 

 stem-scraping to do yet; this is done by a 

 common iron tree scraper; we scrape off 

 the rough loose bark, and then paint the 

 stems vwith a kerosene wash — one-third 

 kerosene. This kills the scale, if any, and 

 doesn't hurt the bark at this time of year. 

 If bark scale is seen on any of the young 

 trees — dwarfs especially — we spray them 

 all over with this kerosene wash. Dur- 

 ing the last three or four years pear tree 

 blight has played sad havoc among our 

 d warf bearing t rees, taking the healthiest, 

 biggest and best of them, and those grow- 

 ing in the heaviest groimd. We cutaway 

 all aflected parts as soon as noticed and 

 burn them. We also spray withammoni- 

 acal solution, but really the spraying 

 hasn't checked the evil. In some of" our 

 dry sandy land we have dwarf pear trees, 

 say from 15 to 20 years old, but they are 

 gnarly and unhappy, so we are going to 

 root out every one of them this spring 

 and plant low worked standards in their 

 place. Some of these we already have 

 there are very thrifty indeed, and show 

 none ot the stunted appearance of the 

 dwarfs on quince roots. In planting 

 dwarf they are generally set 3 feet in from 

 the walk and 10 feet apart. The 3 feet 

 is far too close. If you have room set 

 them back 5 feet from the walk, and 12 

 feet apart. You can grow flowers or 

 small vegetables between them. The 

 dwarf pear trees we have on good soil do 

 very well indeed. 



ORflFTINO CHESTNUT AND WALNUT TREES. 



T. H. M., Conn , asks: "Can the large 

 Fcnch chestnut and the English walnut 

 be grafted successfully on our native 

 chestnut and hickory trees?" 



.Ins. The "French" chestnuts can be 

 and arc grafted on our common wild 

 I In -I mil iM.- In fact some wide awake 



I, 1 -' liave chestnu groves on 



r.iil I ill v\< have cut down the native 

 In.- .nil 111 ili/til the root sprouts from 

 tlicm l(ir grailiiig the finer varieties, not- 

 al)ly Paragon, on. But we don't think 

 you will have much if any success graft- 

 ing the English walnut on our native 



hickory. Grafting walnuts on walnuts is 

 all right, but it requires an expert to 

 handle a hickory, and even then it is far 

 from a tractable stock. You should get 

 the book "The Propagation of Plants 

 (Fuller)," price $1.50, from our Chicago 

 office. Mr. Fuller, an experienced prac- 

 tical tree man, tells about these things. 

 He is at work on a new book altogether 

 devoted to nut trees, and it will be pub- 

 lished soon. 



Greenhouse grape vines — C. W. R , 

 Whitehall, Mich , writes: "Have been 

 greatly interested in Mr. Gardiner's 

 article, page 139-1-tO, and would ask (1) 

 if vines can be planted in open ground in 

 well prepared beds this coming spring, 

 protected during next winter as instructed 

 in the article, and house built in spring of 

 1897, for their accommodation, also (?) 

 where the vines of these foreign varieties 

 may be purchased?" .4ns. 1. That de- 

 pends on how grape vines do in your 

 place; if the Rogers' hybrids as Salem arc 

 at all inclined to mildew in summer, then 

 these exotic sorts would be worthless 

 because of their susceptibility out of doors 

 to that disease. To a large extent this 

 is why they need a greenhouse over them 

 in summer, and top not side ventilation. 

 2. Try John Gardiner, Jobstown, N. J.; 

 or Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y. 



The Vegetable Garden. 



FORCED VEGETABLES. 



F. S., Des Moines, Iowa, is a market 

 gardener and grows various kinds of veg- 

 etables in greenhouses in winter, but some 

 of them are not doing well with him. The 

 soil used is old hotbed compost. Unfor- 

 tunately he gives us no cultural details; 

 however, we shall do the best we can. 



1. Cucumbers look ba'l; the leaves arc 

 drying up, in lact won't grow. 



Ans. Root them out altogether; out 

 with the soil too, and thoroughly clean 

 the house they are in. It may be downy 

 mildew or spot (anthracnose), either bad 

 enough. If you sow or plant cucumbers 

 there again use fresh soil, and be very 

 guarded against cold draughts. 



2. R.VDISHES not doing well. 



Ans. If not too much shaded, toothick 

 or too stuffy and hot and ill- ventilated, 

 sowings put in now will probably come 

 all right. You can grow radishes, let- 

 tuces, spinach, parsley or cauliflower all 

 in the same house or temperature well 

 enough, but you cannot grow cucumbers 

 in the same house with them successfully; 

 the amount of ventilation they will take 

 would mildew your cucumbers to death. 



3. Lettuce doing fairly well. 



Ans. And it should do better from 

 this on. 



4. Parsley growing very slow and 

 showing white specks on leaves. 



.4ns. A little more warmth and sun- 

 shine, with water enough, and moderate 

 ventilation will probably start it up 

 afresh. Send us some of the white-speck 

 leaves, so that we may try to find out 

 what's the trouble with them. 



T«B VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



Look over the root crops stored in the 

 bins, cellars or pits to see that because of 

 overdryness they don't shrivel, because of 

 too much warmth they do not grow, or 

 too much moisture they do notrot. Kub 

 off any sprouts that may appear on car- 

 rots, parsnips, salsify or horseradish, or 

 potatoes. Have all secure from frost 

 especially potatoes, beets and carrots 



and keep the potatoes dark, that is cov- 

 ered over so as to exclude light from them, 

 and in this way keep them from getting 

 green, and hence tjnfit for use. 



Prepare for spring. Gather together 

 some fresh stable manure for hotbeds, 

 and as soon as hard winter weather is 

 past make up a bed in a warm, sheltered, 

 sunny place. Sow some lettuce seed in 

 boxes in the house or greenhouse, and 

 prick off or pot off the seedlings when they 

 c mie up, so as to have them ready to 

 plant into the hotbed a little later on. 

 Car ots sown in February or March in a 

 hotbed are fit lor use in May. Spinach 

 do s well in hotbeds in spring. And we 

 can get up some nice early cabbage and 

 cauliflower from early sowings and have 

 them half grown before planting outtime, 

 or the spring maggots get at them. Sow 

 a box of Prizeteker onions in the house or 

 greenhoufe to plant out when the 

 weather opens; this will give you very 

 large bulbs. 



If you have more rhubarb plants out of 

 doors than you want dig up the surplus 

 and bring them into a warm cellar and 

 cover them over with common earth and 

 give them plenty water, and they'll soon 

 throw up nice tender leaf-stalks, and lots 

 of them. Under the bench in a greenhouse 

 is also a nice place for them. They will 

 grow anywhere where they can have 

 room, moisture at the root and warmth. 

 The same with asparagus. 



FORCING RHUBARB. 



The differeice in taste is much more 

 appreciated in rhubarb that has been 

 forced than that which is allowed to 

 grow in the open air, the color also being 

 much more enticing, and the little trouble 

 required to grow it, should recommend it 

 ittoanyoneevenifthey have but little con- 

 venience; select two or three good strong 

 rootsthat have been growingoutdoors all 

 thesummer and lift them about November, 

 let them lay out of the ground in a shady 

 place about two weeks and if they get fro- 

 zen a few timesit will not hurt them. About 

 December plant them in a box or large 

 pot or anything that you can get the 

 roots in without breaking them and after 

 giving them a good soaking of water, 

 I)lace them in a cellar or under a bench or 

 any dark place where the temperature 

 will remain about 50° or 55°. In about 

 three or four weeks it will be ready for 

 picking. Fresh roots can be put in at 

 intervals of a few weeks to prolong the 

 season Of course the roots are useless 

 after being forced. Thomas Grh-fin 



FORCING TOMATOES IN WINTER. 



It is very easy for the amateur to pro- 

 vide his table with some nice ripe 

 tomatoes in winter providing he has a 

 greenhouse situated where it will get a 

 fair amount of sunshine and he can main- 

 tain the temperature from 55° to 60°. 

 Sow the seed about the middle of July and 

 when the plants are up transplant them 

 into small pots, and as they are filled 

 with roots transplant them into larger 

 pots till you finally have them into 10 or 

 12 inch pots, which is large enough to 

 fruit them in. 



Use a good rich soil and pot them very 

 firm or they will make too soft a growth. 

 Train them to one stem and keep all the 

 laterals or side growths pinched off. Pot 

 them in the greenhouse about the last days 

 of September before there is danger from 

 frost and tie the plants to a good stout 

 stake or wire to keep them in an upright 

 position When they are carrying a crop 

 of fruit water them with liquid manure 



