1883. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



141 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



PROGRESS OF NORTHERN SUGAR 



MAKING. 



BY JOHN C. SMOCK, NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J. 



On page 83 of the last number of the Garden- 

 ers' Monthly there is a paragraph from the Ag- 

 riculiiuisf relative to sugar making in the country, 

 which does not include any reference to a large and 

 successful establishment in Cape May county, New 

 Jersey. I take the liberty to call your attention to 

 the last annual report of the New Jersey Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, a copy of which I have 

 mailed to your address. Possibly the account of 

 this success in New Jersey may be of interest to 

 you and your readers. 



Another matter. Would it not be well to have the 

 Japanese persimmon tested in Cape May county ? 

 I write of this, as I think it might be well to have 

 it tried there. And if I can find some one willing 

 to give it a fair trial then shall write you, as I 

 presume. 



INTRODUCING NEW FRUITS. 

 BY W. F. BASSETT, HAMMONTON, N. J. 



New fruits, that excel all others in all important 

 points, are now so frequently offered that it seems 

 to me a matter of great importance to the hor- 

 ticultural world that all claimants should, by the 

 force of public opinion, be compelled to intro- 

 duce themselves in a manner sufficiently formal 

 and guarded, to prevent the imposition of worth- 

 less fruits as old varieties under new names, upon 

 the public. We cannot, of course,- always know 

 that a variety will succeed generally, because we 

 find it doing wonders in some one locality; but 

 when a considerable number of our leading fruit 

 growers are invited to visit the new-comer and de- 

 cide upon its merits, or where notice is duly given 

 to the public generally, and all invited freely to 

 come and see it in fruit, we are not likely to get an 

 old variety under a new name, to say the least, and 

 we are pretty sure to find one that is valuable in 

 some points and in some places. I am glad to be 

 able to say that such methods are being more and 

 more generally adopted. On the other hand, when 



we see the introducer of new (?) fruits following in 

 the wake of the sporting fraternity and practically 

 offering to bet, as stakes, their bantlings against 

 some other one for large sums of money, with no 

 previous formal introduction or acquaintance, I do 

 not generally feel much confidence. Doubtless 

 these offers are intended to convey the idea that 

 the introducer has unlimited faith in the va- 

 riety so pushed forward, but is this the legitimate 

 inference to be drawn ? I think not. In my opin- 

 ion it is much more likely that it is done to gain 

 notoriety, or as a "game of bluff," with the expec- 

 tation that enough "gulls" will be found to pay all 

 expenses and a handsome profit before the time 

 for the actual test arrives. 



THE NEED OF CALIFORNIA. 



BY CHARLES H. SHINN. 



My exchanges and letters from horticultural 

 friends on the Pacific Coast write in warning of 

 "danger ahead." The planting of fruit trees has 

 gone on with an energy never before equaled on 

 the American continent. My own personal knowl- 

 edge of the situation then, and acquaintance with 

 Eastern horticulture, urge me to say that in my 

 humble opinion the natural home of the temper- 

 ate zone fruits, particularly the stone fruits, and 

 the vine, is in California, so far as soil and climate 

 go. If a cordon of law and wise quarantining 

 could fifteen years ago have been placed about the 

 State, it would simply be to-day, as it was once, 

 the horticulturists' paradise, and fruit raising would 

 in ten years more be the chief industry of the 

 .State. One would be able to drive for twenty 

 miles through a continuous orchard — absolutely 

 unbroken, except by fences or gardens, and there 

 would be half a hundred such centers of fruit cul- 

 ture in the State. Vineyards of 1,000, 5,000 and 

 10,000 acres would not be uncommon. The con- 

 trol of the trade in fresh and dried fruits would be 

 in our hands. 



But scale-bugs, woolly aphis, red spider, curcu- 

 lio, and in fact all the parasites known to East and 

 West are naturalized in California, and the dis- 

 couragements of the business steadily increase. 

 Legislation of the most stringent character is ad- 

 vocated and earnestly hoped for. A diseased 



