366 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[December, 



gation, I hold the idea that the common house-fly 

 is the source of trouble, and in the same manner 

 that meat gets fly-blown. I could write more re- 

 garding this, but it would be theories of my own, 

 while the above are facts. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



A Profitable Peach in New York. — A 

 correspondent of Am. Rural Home says that the 

 early Crawford has been found the most profitable 

 peach at Ridgway, in that State. 



Kieffer Pears. — We found what some Boston 

 friends are calling " a miserable, worthless, old 

 variety, under the new name of Kieffer, " selling 

 readily in the Philadelphia markets, recently, at 

 ^4 per basket. If the variety should even be 

 found " old, " surely the prices are new, and our 

 simple-minded forefathers must have been very 

 slow to lose so good a chance of giving the 

 market-goers something which they seem to want, 

 at very profitable prices. 



SouHEGAN Raspberry. — This is earlier than 

 the Doolittle, and is a very good Black Cap. It 

 has no gray bloom, as some have, and looks well 

 to the eye. 



Salads. — It has been suggested that early let- 

 tuce should be very carefully washed before eat- 

 ing. It is often forced in frames and watered with 

 liquid manure, which is liable to get in among the 

 leaves and remain there, unless carefully looked 

 after. Some curious physicians pretend that some 

 cases of typhoid fever have been traced to this 

 cause ; but just how it was traced it would be well 

 to know. By what we read of the opinions of 

 physicians, it is a mystery that any member of the 

 human race lives over a single day. 



The Currant Borer. — This pest of the culti- 

 vator of the Atlantic slope, the /Egeria tipuli- 

 formis, we found, on our recent trip to the Pacific, 

 to be worrying the gi-owers in that district also. 



Hale's Early Peach.— This is regarded as the 

 best of all the well-known early kinds (or peach 

 house culture in England. Besides its extra earli- 

 ness, it is pronounced delicious. 



Best Apples in Eastern Penna. — No experi- 

 ence from any one cultivator will tell the best ap- 

 ples for any one locahty. Each one tells only of 

 that which he knows. Others may know more. 

 Still, these individual opinions are often a fair 

 guide. At a recent meeting of fruit growers, at 



Reading, the proceedings of which we have been 

 favored with by Mr. Cyrus D. Fox, the following 

 were named as their choice by different cultiva- 

 tors : Baldwin, York Imperial, Ben Davis, Wag- 

 ner, Smith's Cider, Krauser, Fallawater, Rhode 

 Island Greening, Keim, Smokehouse. Early Har- 

 vest and Red Astrachan were named as the best 

 early sorts. 



Carolina Raspberry. — This is the only white 

 raspberry, of the American race, that seems worthy 

 of culture. It is, of course, not so good as Brin- 

 kle's Orange, or other light-colored kinds, of the 

 foreign breed; but it is a very good, hardy kind 

 for an amateur's garden. 



Value of Fruit Farms in Western N. Y. — 

 According to a correspondent of American Rural 

 Home, a farm of loo acres, in Orleans County, New 

 York, was bought, by Mr. Packard, for $20,000. 

 It had 50 acres of apple, 8 of peaches, 5 of quinces, 

 and about 200 standard Bartlett pears. 



The New Tuberous-Rooted Grape. — This 

 singular species has fruited in Italy, and the Bul- 

 letino dello, R. S. Di Orticitltura, gives a wood cut 

 of the bunch and berry. The berries are nearly 

 as large as the Clinton, and the bunch is formed 

 as if made up of a large number of small clusters 

 on shoulders. This is a native of Central Africa, 

 and, therefore, we may expect it to thrive only in 

 those parts of our country free from severe frosts. 

 It was brought from New Caledonia to France by 

 M. Lecard in 1881. The production is described 

 as abundant, and the fruit as of good quality. It 

 is herbaceous, that is, dies down to the ground an- 

 nually, and has tubers like potatoes. In this case 

 the roots ought to be preserved like potatoes, and 

 its culture may be a success as far North as a 

 sweet potato would grow. It is said to be similar 

 to, but not quite like the Cochin China grape. 

 Great hopes are entertained that in this grape the 

 Europeans will find a way out of their fright under 

 the visitation of phylloxera. 



It may be well to remark that such a grape as is 

 described here is not unknown in the United 

 States, as there is a tuberous, herbaceous species, 

 native to Texas and the Indian Territory, intro- 

 duced into the Northern gardens by the writer of 

 this in 1873. This is the Vitis incisa of botanists. 

 The fruit is, however, small, and not even as large 

 and grape-like as the common Ampelopsis, or Vir- 

 ginia creeper, which is closely allied to the true 

 grape. 



Alexander Peach. — We notice that this Amer- 

 ican variety is attracting attention in Italy. 



