OPEN LETTERS. 



quiry. It seems conclusively proved 

 that spraying and thinning pay. We 

 must use every means to produce high 

 grade fruit and to cease growing poor 

 stock. 



The best Spray Pump makers adver- 

 tise with us and we cannot undertake 

 to say which is the best. Each maker 

 is constantly making improvements, and 

 each have special advantages to oflFer. 



% ®pcf? I^eneps. % 



Appreciated in Africa. 



Sir, — I am very well pleased with your 

 publication and quite look forward to ita 

 arrival and enjoy the reading, which is at 

 times very instructive, for although our cli- 

 mato is very different from yours, we have 

 the same pests to contend with. 1 bad a 

 very good fruit garden where I lived last, 

 but am now quite a statist regarding fruit, 

 etc. Am grafting most of my apples on to 

 pear stocks instead of quince, or apple, as I 

 am of opinion they will be less liable to blight. 

 I find dressing for destruction of apple bug, 

 with Calvert's Carbolic Soft Soap, about as 

 efficacious as any other wjwh. Wishing you 

 the compliments of the season, I am, yours 

 faithfully, 



A. ViNNICOMBK, 



Kokstad, Cape Colony, Africa. 



Apples for Gleng^appy. 



Sir, — In the last HoRTiccLTrRiST you 



give, in reply to L. Wiegand, a partial list 

 of hardy fruits. We have a cold climate 

 here, but seldom down to 40°, but still it 

 sometimes is, and we have it below 30° every 

 winter, on some occasions ; so we need hardy 

 fruits. I do not know anything about plums 

 or pears, but du about apples, as I have taken 

 quite an interest in them and small fruits for 

 thirty years. You can add the Peach apple 

 to your list of early ones, as it is nearly if 

 not quite as hardy as the Duchess and ripens 

 about the same time, and for home use is a 

 better apple. Then, for a fall apple, the St. 

 Lawrence has no peer and is really a native 

 seedling ; for early winter, the Fameuse, 

 Mclntosli Red— also a seedling and a little 

 better keeper than the Fameuse. These two 

 are about the best apples you can get and are 

 perfectly hardy. I have kuown thePewaukee 

 for about fifteen years and so far it seems 

 perfectly hardy, is a good bearer of good ap- 



gles that keep till June ; and the Golden 

 •usset does very well here, and so does the 

 Winter St. Lawrence. I am not writing this 

 for publication, but you can do as you please 

 about adding any of the names to your list. 



A. H.-vRKNES-s, Lancaster. 



Planning Herbaceous Gardens. — 

 While most herbaceous plants can be 

 safely transplanted at any season, the 

 best immediate results are obtained from 

 early spring planting. It is therefore 

 quite appropriate to lay plans at once, 

 that orders may be sent in good time, 

 and the stock received for early plant- 

 ing. 



There are constantly improvements 

 in garden flowers, as instance the 

 double rudbeckia, Allegheny Hollyhock, 



Napoleon III pink, Japanese, Irish, 

 ecc, and these properly claim every 

 one's attention ; yet there are also many 

 old-fashion, well-known flowers that 

 must not be forgotten. ' What garden is 

 complete without the fox-glove, ane- 

 mone, columbine, aster, chrysanthemum 

 larkspur, bleeding-heart, day-lily, flag, 

 lavender, lily, forget-me not, paeony, 

 poppy, phlox, pyrethrum, golden-rod, 

 spider-wort, veronica, periwinkle, and 

 scores of others ? — Meehans' Monthly. 



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