1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



177 



raspberry, but being a more robust grower it is 

 better to be on poorer soil and to be severely 

 pruned, which keeps it from running too much to 

 wood. I have no doubt that if fruit of good varie- 

 ties of this could be produced in quantity enough 

 to make it a recognized market fruit it would soon 

 come to command good prices." 



We have under culture in America the cut 

 leaved variety of the common English blackberry. ; 

 and which fruits regularly every year ; but we fear 

 the chance of ever improving it to the standard of 

 the American would be small. Better at once 

 introduce the American varieties, unless, which 

 indeed may be likely, the English summer is not 

 warm enough to make the American species grow 

 well. 



Barbed Wire Fences. — These are known in 

 England as "steel wire hedges." 



Vegetable Growing in the South. — It is 

 said that there are upwards of 2,000 acres devoted 

 to vegetable culture around Mobile, and this 

 does not embrace any melon grounds. This space 

 is equal to 4,000 acres North, as two or three crops 

 can easily be grown on the same grounds near 

 Mobile within a year. They begin with cabbage, 

 next Irish potatoes, following with cabbage, sweet 

 potatoes, etc. 



Such a cropping, however, would require an 

 enormous outlay for manure. As a general rule 

 the want of manure has been one ol the chief diffi- 

 culties in extensive vegetable gardening in this 

 region. Where the climate is so mild that the cat- 

 tle run at large all winter, manure will of necessity 

 be scarcer than when fed in the stable yard for 

 half the year. 



Fruits and Vegetables at Charleston. — 

 Charleston has engaged profitably in truck farm- 

 ing, a pursuit which was virtually unknown in this 

 district before the war. The value of the Charles- 

 ton fruits and vegetables, shipped last year to | 

 Northern markets, was over a million dollars. | 

 Charleston, moreover, has created a vast business | 

 in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers. j 



Market Gardening Near New Orleans. — 

 Market gardening is conducted in many parts of| 

 the South in the same systematic and profitable ! 

 manner in which it is often conducted at the 

 North. Near New Orleans, Major Rountree 

 bought a place in 1870, at that time in bad condi- , 

 tion, commenced operations on it the following 

 year, and in 1873 set out the first orange trees, 

 which at present are 7,200 in number, 6,000 of' 

 which will be in bearing this year. Besides the 



ordinary varieties, he has 2,500 mandarin trees. 

 And yet, notwithstanding the extent of the place, 

 and the variety of the products, so admirably is 

 everything arranged and conducted that the entire 

 work is effectually done by a force of not more 

 than twenty or twenty-five colored hands. 



Major Rountree generally makes 800 to 900 bar- 

 rels of cucumbers and 6,000 to 8,000 boxes toma- 

 toes annually. He will make about 170,000 heads 

 of cabbage this year, grown in a plot covering 

 forty acres. Besides these staple products, a con- 

 siderable portion of ground is devoted to the cul- 

 tivation of strawberries, cauliflowers, peaches, 

 grapes, etc., for family use. There is also an 

 apiary, with an annual production of eight to ten 

 barrels of honey. 



Everything is conducted in the most methodical 

 and economical manner, and yet, withal, imbued 

 by the enterprising and liberal spirit of the pro- 

 prietor. All of the plants are brought forward 

 ! under glass, the place having nearly two acres of 

 hot beds. The plants are set in the open ground 

 I as soon as the weather will permit, and in that way 

 j these large crops are handled like clock-work, and 

 go forward in round lots by the car load, all under 

 the brand which has become a standard one in the 

 markets of the North and West, viz : the letter R, 

 j surrounded by a circle. So celebrated has this 

 ] brand become that the Major's regular consignees, 

 I in Chicago and other large markets, accept it as a 

 sufficient guarantee of the good quality of the 

 goods shipped. 



! SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Quality of the Kieffer Pear. — A corres- 

 pondent writes that he bought one of the Kieffer 

 pears offered by Mr. Satterthwaite for sale at his 

 stand in the Philadelphia market, paying him 

 twenty-five cents for the specimen. That it had a 

 remarkably taking appearance ; but that when he 

 took it home he found to his sorrow that it was not 

 worth taking, except as medicine. 



This is quite likely, and yet does not prove that 

 the fruit is not of superior quality when properly 

 grown. Mr. Satterthwaite stated before the recent 

 meeting of the Pennsylvania State Horticultural 

 Association, he had more than a hundred bushels 

 from trees two and three years grafted, each giving 

 over a bushel. If Mr. Satterthwaite had thinned 

 these to half a bushel, the eating qualities would 

 have been improved. But he grows for profit, and 

 has to study how to realize the most from his trees. 



