i8g6. 



• GARDENING. 



107 



VIEW IN ONE OF THE LARGER GARDENS IN JAPAN. 



varieties of irises, peonies and chrysan- 

 themums, for which Japan is famous, are 

 grown by Japanese florists or by rich 

 amateurs who can devote a special place 

 to their culture." 



The Fruit Garden. 



CHERRIES AND FEflCnES. 



Cherries are divided into three classes, 

 Hearts, Bigarreaus and Tarts. The two 

 first named are hard to tell apart nowa- 

 days. Both are sweet cherries. The dif- 

 ference consists in the Heart section being 

 considered of slightly less firmness of 

 flesh than Bigarreaus possess, 



A few of the best of the Heart class 

 would be Black Tartarian, Early Purple. 

 Guigne, Gov. Wood, Coe's Transparent 

 and Elton. Of these the Early Purple is 

 very early. I have gathered the finest 

 early in June. 



Of the Bigarreaus, Napoleon, Windsor 

 and Red Jacket are three of the best. The 

 last named is a very late one. 



Tart cherries, which take in Dukes and 

 Morellos are very useful ones as they are 

 good either for eating fresh or for pre- 

 serving. Some of the best of these are 

 May Duke, Late Duke, Early Richmond 

 and English and Kentish Morello. 



The Dukes occupy a place between the 

 Morellos and the sweet cherries. While 

 possessing some of the tartness of the 

 Morello they are tempered with enough 

 sweetness to make the fruit very" good 



eating from the tree. May Duke does 

 not ripen here until June. Late Duke can 

 sometimes be had in the middle of July 

 and later. 



The Early Richmond is what is known 

 hereabouts as a pie cherrv. It is an early 

 and abundant bearer, and robins do not 

 exact such tribute from it as they do from 

 the sweet kinds. Kentish Morello is 

 thought to be hardly as good in the way 

 of prolific bearing, though it is a good 

 deal planted. English Morello would be 

 more plentiful were it better known. It 

 bears fine, large black fruit, ripens late 

 and keeps good on the trees a long time. 

 It is very tart indeed, though not at all 

 bad eating when fully ripe, and all other 

 cherries are over. I think cherries do 

 best when planted the first thing in spring, 

 before the buds begin to swell. 



The gardens of amateurs are usually in 

 such good condition and are so well 

 looked after that peach trees do remark- 

 ably well in them. We all like early 

 fruits, peaches not excepted, but the fact 

 is that the very early peaches are not sat- 

 isfactory to the extent later ones are. 

 The fruit is smaller than those which 

 come later. Starting from the earliest to 

 ripen, say from July to October, one might 

 almost make ten divisions of the ripening 

 period. 



Naming two sorts for each period, I 

 will give the following list of worthy 

 sorts, starting from the earliest: Wilder, 

 Waterloo, Alexander, Amsden, Early 

 Rivers, Mountain Rose, Crawford's Early, 

 Troth's Early, Oldmixon, Stump the 

 World. Susquehanna, Reeve's Favorite, 

 Elberta, Crawford's late, Heath Cling, 



Globe, Chair's Choice, Salway, Bilven's 

 Comet and Mrs. Brett. This is about as 

 they ripen here and a little to the south 

 of us. It might be thats r nneof our Octo- 

 ber peaches, which would embrace say 

 the six named last, might not ripen well 

 north of this. 



The planters here mtich prefer to set their 

 peach trees in the spring. The trees 

 should have close pruning at the time, 

 and a little annual pruning afterwards as 

 they grow, to keep them in good shape. 



Philadelphia. Joseph Meehan. 



BERRIES. 



The berry garden should be decided 

 upon now. Mature plans for the season, 

 select your plants, order them early; and 

 let this be your first work in the spring. 



One quarter acre of good land, set with 

 proper varieties and well cultivated, 

 should produce from twenty to forty 

 bushels of nice berries every season. This 

 would give an ordinary family fresh 

 berries every day in season and a liberal 

 supply, canned, preserved or dried during 

 the entire year. 



Plants for such a garden may be pur- 

 chased direct from a reliable grower, for 

 ten or fifteen dollars, and should include 

 the following varieties: 300 strawberry 

 plants, early, medium and late; 100 black- 

 berry plants, early and late; 50 black 

 raspberry, early and late; 50 red rasp- 

 berry plants, early and late; 75 currants, 

 red and white, early and late; 25 goose- 

 berry, early and late; 18 grapes, three 

 varieties, early. 



