i8g6. 



GARDENING. 



361 



heavy crop of flowers during the past 

 month, before pulling them out, though 

 the flowers were small. 



G. B. WiNSI.ADK. 



New York. 



A PLEASrNO C0MHINATION OF KosES. — 

 The editor ol the Rural New Yorker has 

 Crimson Rambler, Michigan prairie rose, 

 and the Japanese Wichuniiana rose all 

 growing together in one place over a lit- 

 tle rock work, and he says: ".\ll bloom 

 at the same time and a prettier and more 

 satisfactory combination of vines we have 

 never seen." Also that the Wichiiraiana 

 rose "seems as hardy as cither the Michi- 

 gan or Crimson Rambler." The beauty 

 and appropriate companionship of the 

 three are gospel truth, but unpleasant 

 although it is we must admit that 

 R'/cAora/ana isn't as hardy as we thought 

 it was. Mr. Warren H. Manning of 

 Boston was here the other day and rather 

 shocked our hopes by telling us that all 

 of the Wichuraiana roses in Franklin 

 Park, except a few straggling pieces got 

 killed last winter. It was very exten- 

 sively used in the Boston new parks 

 (Franklin) especially in covering banks, 

 and was greatly esteemed. 



The Fruit Garden. 



T«E FRUIT GARDEN. 



Strawbekries — Set out new planta- 

 tions of young runners as soon as the 

 ground is ready; if planted anytimebcfore 

 the end of September the}' will take good 

 hold of the ground before cold weather 

 sets in, and with a little mulching in win- 

 ter there will be no fear of heaving by frost. 

 Mark off the rows two feet apart length- 

 wise and crosswise, and at the crossings 

 set out three plants in a hilj instead of 

 one. The earlier this is done the bigger 

 and stronger the crowns will be and the 

 finer the crop of fruit you will get next 

 summer. As soon as you get runners 

 enough from the old plantations, unless 

 they are wanted for another year's crop, 

 root them out and use the ground for cel- 

 ery, snap beans or beets. 



Raspherry Bushes— As soon as the 

 old canes have .ielded their fruit they 

 should be cut out to give a better chance 

 to the young ones to mature theirgrowth 

 and make good buds low down on the 

 stems. Also thin out the weakest of the 

 current year's shoots, for a fCA' stout, 

 hard, well finished shoots are much bet- 

 ter than twice as man}* spindled stems. 

 Don't disturb them at the roots anymore 

 than can be helped, but be sure to keep 

 the ground about them clean, and be un- 

 sparing in chopping down wandering 

 suckers. 



Blackhhrrv ihshes may be treated a 

 good deal like raspberry ones. As they 

 are apt to get very vigorous and wide- 

 spreading w can hardly refrain from cut- 

 ting them in to within bounds so far as 

 those that encroach or walks or neigh- 

 boring bushes are concerned; if this starts 

 a late gro a th make provisions for bury- 

 ing them in winter In this way we can 

 save them no matter how lender they are. 



Currant Bushes. — So much wet 

 weather has given the.se an unusually 

 heavy branch and leaf growth and we 

 have thinned them a good deal, enough 

 to let the air freely in among them. This 

 gives us good nests of fruit buds. A few 

 ■weeks from now the red curra ts will 

 drop many of their leaves, but this is only 

 natural, the wood and buds are all right. 



Orchard Trees.— Look out for tent 



caterpillars among the apple trees and 

 get rid of them as soon as seen. The mo- 

 ment pear fire blight appears on the pear 

 trees, cut it out, being sure to cut farther 

 down than the blight shows it.self All 

 pears not ripe or near ripe will be bene- 

 fited by thinning; remove small, gnarled 

 and wormy fruit, also when two or more 

 pears grow in clusters remove the least 

 desirable ones, retaining the plumpest 

 and best ones, and leave them so that no 

 two touch each other. Don't let fallen 

 fruit of any kind staj' long upon the 

 ground, but rake it up and cart it to the 

 rot, dump or burn pile, or to the hogpens. 

 A large part of fallen fruit is infested with 

 insects and as soon as the larva? or 

 worms in the fruit are mature enough 

 they leave the fruit and enter the ground 

 to puoate, to emerge later on as a perfect 

 insect and go ahead with its business of 

 propagation and destruction. The fruit 

 that contains the worms by a wise law 

 of nature (in favor of the insect pests) 

 drops from the trees to the ground, so as 

 to allow the pests to enter the earth, but 

 if we rake up the fallen fruit and feed it to 

 the hogs or sheep, that is the end of the 

 larvae. 



THE FRUIT GflRDEN-BERRIES. 



We have had and are having an excel- 

 lent crop of all outdoor berries. The 

 weather has been very favorable to good 

 growth and wherever the fruit set well it 

 has perfected well. 



Strawberries.— We commenced pick- 

 ing berries the first of June and had fruit 

 all of the month, and they were big and 

 good and we had a great many of them. 

 The kinds we grow are Sharpless, which 

 is large and prolific but does not ripen its 

 fruits to the tip so evenly as soire of the 

 others. Jessie does well with me, the 

 fruit is large, of good quality, and it 

 ripens well, and the varietvisan excellent 

 cropper. Jucunda Improved did very well 

 with me too, and is of fine flavor, but I 

 like Jessie better. Charles Downing is 

 good all round, especially for preserving. 

 Then Gandy comes in when most of the 

 others are about done. We plant a new 

 bed every year, and this ensures a fine 

 crop of big berries. As soon as we have 

 secured good runners enough fromtheold 

 bed, we dig it under and crop the ground 

 with vegetables. Oar new plantations 

 will be planted in the first half of August. 



Red and Wjute Currants come in 

 after the strawberries, we grow Fay's 

 Prolific as a red and White Grape for a 

 white, using them for dessert as well as 

 for jelly. Many may hesitate to use 

 white currants for preserves because of 

 their pale color, but they needn't, for the 

 white currants make an excellent and 

 beautifully colored jelly. 



Raspberries come in before the currants 

 are past. I grow a good many of the 

 Turner but wouldn't recommend it to 

 anyone else. The Cuthbert as a red, and 

 the Caroline as a yellow give me the best 

 satisfaction, and really are an excellent 

 well tried couple. 



Blackberries come next. We grow 

 the Erie largely, it is now commencing to 

 be fit for picking. I find it a very hardy 

 and prolific variety. 



Outdoor Grapes follow the berries. 

 There is to be an immense crop of grapes 

 this year. 



Greenhouse Grapes.— I have been cut- 

 ting grapes from our early house since the 

 last of June. This house was started the 

 first of February. The grapes in our late 

 house are just beginning to color, and we 

 expect to have grapes till late in fall. The 

 early grapes we are cutting are Black 

 Hamburgh, Muscat of Alexandria and 



Sweetwater; the last named isn't worth 

 growing, but we like a vine or two of it 

 for early fruit. George Donald. 



Fairfield, Conn. 



TWO BAD "BUGS." 



I send you by i)ost a small box contain- 

 ing two bugs. Last year they ruined my 

 pears, but this year the cyclone blew all 

 the pears off the trees. On one of my 

 peach trees the wind and hail left me 

 about a dozen fruit, but these bugs and 

 their partners got the bestof the peaches. 

 Please tell me what they are and what to 

 do to get rid of them, so that I can be 

 ready for them next year. H. A. B. 



St. Louis. 



The largeroneof the two is the "South- 

 em June bug," Allorhina nitida, which is 

 a great fruit pest. But it doesn't last 

 long in summer, its season is brief Its 

 larva? is a white grub not unlike that of 

 the May bug so common in the north, 

 but not nearly so destructive; the grub 

 when dug up and exposed to light is very 

 active in running away or burrowing 

 into the ground again, and all of this it 

 does on its back with its feet in the air. 

 During the summers of '94 and '95 we 

 had a colony of tens of thousands of these 

 grubs at Dosoris that we were studying, 

 and we hope entomologists of the Long 

 Island Experiment Station are keeping it 

 up this year, for it is the only authentic 

 record we have of these grubs being sys- 

 tematically studied during a period of 

 years There is no known means of com- 

 bating or eliminating this pest except by 

 collecting and destroying it, and that's a 

 pretty hopeless job. The bug you sent 

 has given us a new wrinkle as regards its 

 habits. When it came here it was alive 

 and pretty lively, and when we unfastened 

 the pen box in which it was imprisoned 

 it pushed off' the lid and walked out; we 

 returned it to its box time and time again 

 to see it perform the same act, for there 

 was something peculiar about it. Instead 

 of pushing up the lid with its head as an 

 ordinary bug would do, it turned over on 

 its back and kicked it off with i's feet! 



The other or smaller bug is the Indian 

 cetonia (Euphoria Inda) a very destruc- 

 tive pest toripeningfruit. Unfortunately, 

 aside from gathering and destroying it, 

 there is no known means of ridding our 

 orchards of this evil. 



TRflNSFLflNTING OLD GRAPE VINES. 

 W. K. C, Illinois, writes: "1 desire to 

 change the location of my grape vines, if 

 such a thing is possible. They have been 

 in their present location some 15 or 20 

 years. Relative to their removal, can it 

 be done, and if so what method should I 

 follow and what effect will it have on the 

 bearing, etc.? 



.4ns. Yes, they may be dug up and re- 

 moved with perfect safety, but you must 

 expect to sacrifice a year's crop. Much 

 depends upon the vines, whether they are 

 long, naked stemmed ones on arbors, or 

 short ones on vineyard poles, how much 

 growth they carry, and so on. Let the 

 plants alonetill after the crop is gathered, 

 and there is no further fear of a fresh 

 growth, say Oct. 15 to Nov. 1, then cut 

 the vine down pretty hard, and cut in the 

 roots somewhat too, and afterward burj- 

 the vines over winter in the usual way. 

 .\t unearthin : time in spring, dig up the 

 vines and transplant them. In the case 

 of long, sprawly old vines we would 

 rather get stout young stock and plant 

 it, at any rate alternate it with the old 

 plants. 



