12 



GARDENING. 



Sept. 75, 



gan prairie rose (Rosa setigera), say by 

 laying down and covering with dirt, or 

 manure, or to leave on trellis? Does seti- 

 gera mildew if planted in shade? That it 

 does is my experience. I have it planted on 

 the northwest comer of a summer house, 

 but as soon as shoots are 5 to 6 feet long, 

 the leaves turn vellow and later on the 

 stem dies. Last winter I laid plants 

 down and covered them with strawy 

 manure, and two Crimson Ramblers 

 with dirt, but they all were nearly rotten 

 when uncovered in spring. 



Ans. Mary Washington isn't hardy 

 with you. By burying the vines of the 

 Crimson Rambler and Prairie with earth 

 as we do grapevines and raspberry canes, 

 but a little thicker, and then placing a 

 deep thickness of drv oak leaves over all, 

 if the land is thoroughly well drained, 

 and porous we know of no good reason 

 why they shouldn't live over winter with 

 you. No, we haven't been much bothered 

 with mildew on prairie roses. How about 

 your soil— is it deeply worked and thor- 

 oughly drained? 



Chrysanthemums. 



MULCHING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



There is a point about growing chrys- 

 anthemums which I have not seen men- 

 tioned elsewhere; that is, you must keep 

 the foliage clean by mulching around the 

 plants and close up to the stems to pre- 

 vent the mud made by rain being splashed 

 on the under side of the leaves. This of 

 course for plants in the open ground. 

 This may be trite to most of yourreaders, 

 but I have been three years in getting my 

 plants to retain their lower leaves, and 

 being careful in this respect they are now 

 nice looking specimens right to the pot. 

 Sometimes some little trifling matter like 

 this that goes without saying just dis- 

 courages amateurs like myself who have 

 neither time nor opportunity to ask oth- 

 ers for information. But Gardening is 

 very minute in its direction, and it would 

 be difficult to say ho x much I owe it. 



Ingersoll, On*. E. A 0. 



The Fruit Garden. 



are 4 pounds, and of perfect color, bloom 

 and finish. His Muscat of Alexandria is 

 quite as good in finish, and the largest 

 berries I have ever seen. As for his 

 Madresfield Court I never saw anything 

 to approach them in perfection; I wanted 

 to measure some of the berries, but he is 

 so modest he disliked letting me do it. 

 His Lady Downes and Alicante, not yet 

 quite ripe, are proportionately good. 

 [We have known Mr. McWilliam person- 

 ally for over twenty years as an Al gar- 

 dener, and when at the great exhibition 

 at Boston a year or two ago he obtained 

 the gold medal for the finest collection of 

 greenhouse grapes ever exhibited in the 

 country it w s only what we expected he 

 would get. Better still, he has, in former 

 numbersof Gardening described in detail, 

 from first to last, how he grows his 

 grapes — Ed] James Mitchell. 



Whitinsville, Mass., Sept. 9, '96. 



WATERING GREENHOUSE GRAPE VINES. 



I am an old retired, professional, prac- 

 tical gardener, having f>r more than 

 three score years practiced gardening in 

 Scotland, England, France, Ireland and 

 America, making a specialty of fruit grow- 

 in' 1 ' under glass, and I frankly admit that 

 the best example of grape growing I have 

 ever seen is that by your correspondent, 

 my much respected neighbor and friend, 

 Mr. George McWilliam. He doesn't 

 grow grapes as I, a gardener ot the "old 

 school" used to, but he grows them bet- 

 ter. When I first saw the treatment he 

 gave his grape vines it surprised me, for it 

 was against all orthodox law. I was 

 accustomed to withhold water from the 

 vines as soon as the fruit be^an to color, 

 but he keeps his wet all the time. When 

 he starts his vines he gives his border (it 

 is inside the house, which is 68 feet long 

 by 22 feet wide) a good watering, and 

 from that time on he will use 3,000 gal- 

 lons of water at a watering, until the ber- 

 ries begin to color, then he sprinkles his 

 borders every sunny morning, using 300 

 gallons of water at a time. With this 

 treatment he has the finest show of fruit 

 I ever saw. The Hamburghs he is now 

 cutting average 3-pound bunches; many 



quality is known bring a good price. The 

 Clapp's Favorite and Belle Lucrative are 

 blighting badly, and the Onondaga 

 slightly, while other varieties seem to be 

 free. Bartletts are not as productive as 

 they were last season. The Howell with 

 us bears very poorly, giving only as 

 many specimens as we should have 

 bushels. These frequent repetitions of 

 short crops have caused us to commence 

 grafting it with better varieties. 



Silas L. Albertson. 

 Market Gardener, Long Island, Aug. 22. 



BERRY BUSHES. 



APPLES AND PEARS. 



To those contemplating planting apple 

 trees we would suggest in making your 

 order to include the Jefferis. For the 

 family this is one of the best apples of the 

 season, specimens ripening in succession 

 for several weeks; it is sprightly, rich and 

 of the highest flavor. 



Pears are a poor crop this season on 

 Long Island. The Keifter while not 

 loaded like last season has enough to 

 make a largecrop, and specimens of large 

 average size. 



I am much pleased with the Marshall 

 pear. The trees can not be classed with 

 the vigorous growers, but they are very 

 healthy and bear a good crop evenly dis- 

 tributed on the tree. The pears are well 

 adapted for shipping, and where their 



Plants of the blackberry and red rasp- 

 berry are obtained by cutting strong, 

 vigorous roots in pieces four or five inches 

 long and planting them abo t eight 

 inches apart in drills. Good plants are 

 thus made in one season. Sucker plants 

 coming up around the hill or between the 

 rows are also used and make good plants 

 if carefully dug and a portion of the cross 

 root retained to each of them. New 

 plants of the black raspberry are obtained 

 by covering the tips with two or three 

 inches of moist dirt and leaving them un- 

 disturbed until spring. 



Cuttings of theeurrant, gooseberry and 

 grape m y be made as soon as the leaves 

 drop. The current year's growths should 

 be selected and they should be cut in 

 pieces about eight inches long. 



The cuttings may be set at once eight 

 inches apart in rows out of doors, leaving 

 one bud above ground, or they may be 

 tied in bundles, buried in sand in a pit, 

 cellar, or out of doors, and kept from 

 frost until ready for settingout in spring. 



Good plants are also made by layering, 

 [continued on page 13.] 



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