114 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



being one of the number. The fruit is beautifully 

 streaked and colored and of rich and excellent 

 flavor, with tender and crisp white flesh. 



Pyle's Red Winter Apple. — Mr. Achelis 

 sends us in the end of February, some specimens 

 of this large, showy variety, which proves to be 

 one very easily kept over winter. It strikes us as 

 being as profitable an apple as one can grow. 

 The flavor, too, is fully equal to that of the great 

 majority of popular apples. 



Fruiting the Kieffer Pear. — The Rural 

 New Yorker hdiS taken pains to get the views of a 

 large number of prominent men who have tested 

 the Kiefifer Pear during the past season. It is 

 worthy of note that none of them consider the 

 flavor above good. As we have stated we have 

 had some very poor fruit, but also have had some 

 which have been at least the equal of any pear we 

 have ever tasted. The quantity exhibited during 

 the Centennial were all of this very superior 

 quality. There must be some reason for this 

 variation. When we know how much the over- 

 crowding of fruit on a tree has to do with its 

 quality, and when we know how enormously a 

 Kieffer will bear if permitted to, we do not think it 

 is far out of the way to attribute much of the in- 

 ferior quality reported to over-production. In our 

 office one of the friends who were unable to speak 

 well of it, stated that his fruit was from a "two- 

 year-old graft on a large pear tree, and which 

 bore very freely." This is surely not a fair test. 



The Sand Pear for Stocks. — It has been 

 supposed that as this grows so very strong and 

 healthy it makes exceptionally good stocks for 

 the ordinary pear. Mr. J. B. Garber says they 

 grow amazingly for a year or two, and then sud- 

 denly stop and become stunted. He regards the 

 Sand pear as of no value therefore for stocks. 



Cherry Trees in Japan. — Among the flowers 

 of spring it is to the cherry bloom that the Japanese 

 pay most attention. Among the sombre old Cryp- 

 tomerias and pines of Uyeno, its delicate white, 

 or white gently tipped with pink, appears surpass- 

 ing beautiful, especially on the drooping boughs. 

 Mukojima, however, has the chief attractions. 

 Here, along the east bank of the river Sumida, 

 is an avenue, two miles in length, bordered with 

 cherry trees. Early in April fleets of pleasure 

 boats glide up the stream, filled with gaily dressed 

 people of all classes. In the avenue it is difficult 

 to make one's way, so dense is the throng. But 

 at the side are little gardens, with tea houses where 



breathing space may be had, as well as refresh- 

 ments, a specialty of the place and season being 

 a drink flavored with cherry blossom. It is a 

 merry sight, the endless vista of overarching 

 boughs as white as if laden with snowflakes, each 

 breath of wind scattering a shower of delicate 

 petals; the cheerful crowd of holiday-makers mov- 

 ing quietly, or sitting in rest houses, with their 

 tasteful attire and winning manners ; the peals of 

 laughter and fugitive strains of music; the tidy 

 pavilioned pleasure boats moored to stakes which 

 support the sedgy river bank ; one or two sails of 

 barges making* their way down or up stream; a 

 glimpse of the upper reaches of the river. City- 

 ward the pagoda and great roofs of Asakusa, and 

 above the great city, with its grey roofs, sprinkling 

 of white walls, and wooded bluff's. Have we 

 reached the "land of perennial life" of which the 

 poets of Japan have so often sung? It would 

 seem almost so ; the whole scene is so perfectly 

 delightful, so suggestive of undisturbed peace and 

 prosperity.-^ T/ie Garden. 



Strong Asparagus Plants. — Since the writer of 

 this first called attention to the fact, now many years 

 ago, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, that asparagus was 

 bi-sexual, much attention has been given to it 

 from a cultural point of view. Among other things 

 a correspondent of a contemporary suggests that the 

 female plants, readily told by their bearing berries 

 in the fall, produce weaker plants than the barren 

 or male plants, and that they should be weeded 

 out. We fancy that this is rather the result of 

 hypothetical thought than of practical observa- 

 tion. So far as we remember at this writing, there is 

 no rule of this kind. But it is worthy of further 

 investigation. 



Good Vegetables. — At a recent meeting of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Hon. 

 James J. H. Gregory was called on to say some- 

 thing about vegetables. He said that market gar- 

 deners could afi"ord to plant only such vegetables 

 as are well tested, and it is the business of seeds- 

 men to experiment with new varieties and intro. 

 duce such as prove valuable. Some foreign veg- 

 etables, like the Soja bean (which is the most 

 nutritious food in the world), are of little value 

 here, though very important elsewhere. Mr. 

 Gregory gave an interesting account of the history 

 of several vegetables introduced by him. His 

 account of the Marblehead squash was that it was 

 brought into the country from the West Indies. 

 He advised to grow the best varieties for market, 



