SMALL FRUITS. -41 



and the row of blackberries next to it bears larg-er and better devel- 

 oped fruit. 



Currants and •^oosberries need scarcely be mentioned, a.s everj' 

 body can raise them with equal success. 



Of the later introduced varieties of currants, the Fay's Prolific 

 does well in some years; the berries are twice the size of Cherry cur- 

 rants, and it is fairly productive. It is, however, not a reliable 

 bearer. 



The Houg-htou and Smith's Improved g-ooseberries are enormous 

 yielders, but they are usually affected with mildew. 



The frost of Maj- ISth injured tlie currant and orooseberry crop to 

 quite an extent in some sections, the berries beinof about half t^-rown 

 at the time. They look as if thej- had been singed bj- fire. 



Si.\ A.XNUALS FOR THE SUMMER Gardex.— "The annuals undoubt- 

 edly produce a stronger effect of color in the garden than their 

 longer lived relatives, the perennials and their biennials," writes 

 F. Schuyler Mathews: "What they do is done quickly, and with 

 astonishingly prolific results. It is also a significant fact that these 

 results are brought about in the most favorable season of the year 

 for llowers— midsummer. 



"When I choose si.x annuals — poppies, marigolds, nasturtiums, 

 phlo.x Drummondii, sweet peas and asters, it must not be inferred 

 that these are e.xceptionally beautiful; the choice really takes into 

 account their prolific bearing qualities. Nearlj' all of the annuals 

 are charmingly beautiful; but these six are not only so, their beautj* 

 is of a kind which seems inexhaustible. With proper treatment they 

 keep on blooming and blooming until the attacks of frost have ac- 

 tually caused their death. Besides all this, the color tones of these 

 half dozen families of flowers are so extraordinarj- and pronounced 

 that the garden cannot be complete without them. Nasturtiums are 

 exponents of all the variety possible in toned yellow and red; pop- 

 pies present to us all the light and airj' delicacy of color which is 

 conceivable, in addition to red and scarlet in powerful hues; mari- 

 golds hold exclusively to yellow and its golden tones; phlox Drum- 

 mondii reveals infinity in tint and hue and stops only at yellow and 

 blue; sweet peas are crimson and pink and blue-purple to absolute 

 perfection of tone, and asters are strong in purple-blues, purple and 

 red tones in which the presence of j'ellow is absent — entirelj* and 

 whollj' so." — Ladies llonie Journal. 



It is well known that winds play a an important role in the distri- 

 bution of seeds. Prof. Bailej' records that in two scjuare feet of a 

 three-weeks-old and three-inch-deep snowdrift upon an ice pond ten 

 yards from any weeds, he found nineteen weed seeds, and in another 

 drift similarly situated thirty-two seeds, representing nine kinds of 

 weeds. While the wind was blowing twenty miles per hour, a peck 

 of mixed seeds was poured upon the snow crust, and ten minutes 

 after one hundred and ninet}--one wheat grains, fifty-three flax seeds, 

 forty three buckwheat and ninety-one ragweed seeds were found in 

 a trench thirty rods from where they had been poured upon the 

 crust. 



