POPULAR GARDENING. 



October, 



ural Society, and as it cannot but prove of 

 timely interest to onr readers we reprint 

 this portion here: 



"After many years of experience, both 

 with and without ice, I have adopted a 

 house built in a cool, shady aspect, with 

 the door on the north, and with a thorough- 

 ly drained and cemented cellar, having 

 small double windows which may be opened 

 or closed at pleasure. In this way I am en- 

 abled to keep my late fall and vi-inter Pears 

 until February or March in good condition. 

 Mr. John J. Thomas writes me that in a 

 fruit room of this kind, by admitting air on 

 cold nights, and closing the entrances when 

 warm, he had sound Lawrence Peai-s in 

 March, and Josephine of Malines in April, 

 and Baldwin Apples in June. 



" My late tall and winter fruits, intended 

 for long keeping, are allowed to remain on 

 the trees until frost is apprehended. They 

 are then gathered with great care 

 into bushel boxes, and placed in tiers 

 of boxes six or seven feet high, and 

 covered with boards, on the north 

 side of my fruit house, where they are 

 kept until the ground begins to freeze. 

 They are then removed to the cellar, 

 and there piled up in the same man- 

 ner, with thin strips of boards or 

 shingles between the boxes, until 

 wanted for use, when the boxes are 

 looked over and the more matxire are 

 from time to time taken out. In this 

 way I keep Pears until March or 

 April in perfect condition. 



" In regard to use of ice, I would 

 say that where fruits are kept for some 

 months under its influence at a very 

 low temperature they seem to lose 

 much of their flavor; the cellular 

 tissue also seems to have become 

 dry and to have lost its vitality or 

 power to resume the ripening pro- 

 cess. Experience proves that, for the 

 common varieties of the Pear, about 

 forty degrees of Fahrenheit is the tem- 

 perature best suited to hold this pro- 

 cess in equilibrium. The proper 

 maturing of fruit thus preserved 

 demands skill and science. Different 

 varieties require different degrees of 

 moisture and heat, according to the 

 firmness of the skin and the texture 

 of the flesh. Thus, some varieties of 

 the Pear will ripen at a low tempera- 

 ture and in a comparatively dry at- 

 mosphere, while others are improved 

 by a warm and humid air. 



"Mr. S. W. Dorr, of Michigan, con- 

 structed a fruit house on the cold air system 

 without the use of ice. He lays down the 

 principle that in order to keep fruit for any 

 length of time the store-room must be frost- 

 proof and kept at a low, even temperature — 

 three or four degrees above freezing — with 

 sufficient ventilation to carry oft' all moisture 

 and impurities. He was able to keep his 

 house within three degrees above freezing 

 for Ave months; and when the temperature 

 outside changed sixty degrees in twenty -four 

 hours, the change in the fruit room was im- 

 perceptible. Again, when the thermometer 

 fell to points varying from six to twenty 

 degrees below zero, Ave days in succession, 

 the temperature scarcely changed one de- 

 gree in the fruit house. 



" This result was effected by building a 

 house with triple walls, fifteen inches in 

 thickness, ten inches of which was filled 

 with sawdust. 



"One chief condition of success consists in 

 the state in which the fruit goes to the cool- 

 er. It should be taken before any sound 

 specimen begins to show ripeness, and no 

 single fruit should be stored that has fallen 

 to the ground; for, however perfect it may 

 seem, sooner or later that dropped fruit will 

 make its presence known, and will often I 



cause the decay of the whole package unless 

 noticed in time, which rarely happens when 

 hundreds of bushels are piled one above 

 another for a month or two. The fruits in- 

 tended for cold storage houses should go 

 directly from the orchard. 



"The cause of so many failures— in storing 

 Pears, for instance, — is that the fruit is often 

 liought of different parties, much of it im- 

 perfectly packed, and coming to hand in no 

 condition to go to the cooler; perhaps it has 

 been gathered weeks previously, or carried 

 long distances and become more or less 

 bruised, and rendered in all respects unfit 

 for keeping in this way. 



"The after conditions of success may be 

 briefly stated as follows: Tlic perfect control 

 of temperature, Ihflxt mid moisture; all ex- 

 perience shows that without such control 

 success cannot be attained. Storage apart- 

 ments must be dark, dry, uniformly and 



ure no better manner of disposing of the 

 plant can be suggested than to set it in a 

 clump on the lawn. Those who employ it 

 here, making the ground deep and rich, will 

 not be disappointed. Like all larged leaved 

 plants it loves shelter from the wind. 



Where the making of sub-tropical gardens 

 is carried on there can be no better subject 

 among hardy plants to be employed than 

 this. There is a stateliness in its strong 

 stalks and large glaucous-green arching 

 leaves which gives it a distinct and striking 

 appearance in any collection. It also may 

 be employed with no ill effect as a strong, 

 tall-growing conservatory plant, to be grown 

 in a large pot or box. The plants are propa- 

 gated by seed or division. Most of the 

 larger growers of hardy plants can furnish 

 roots of this Reed at a very moderate price. 



Besides the Great Reed referred to, there 

 is another form of the plant, namely, the 

 Variegated Reed, .A Donaxvcriiicolor. 

 This, although much smaller than 

 the type, has its leaves most distinctly 

 ribboned with white, rendering it 

 very ornamental in fine gardening. 

 It is best suited to warm, free and 

 good soils and abhors clay or au un- 

 drained soil. This variety should 

 never be trusted out through the 

 winter without ample protection over 

 the roots. For isolated tufts or groups 

 in a warm part of the garden it is 

 most an excellent plant. 



The Variegated Reed is propagated 

 by placing a piece of the stem in wa- 

 ter, which induces little plants to 

 start from the joints; these should be 

 cut off, potted up, and kept in a nurs- 

 ing place under gla.ss until well estab- 

 lished. Most nurseries that keep the 

 common fonn for sale also have the 

 Variegated at some advance on the 

 cost of the other. 



THE GREAT REED AS AN ORNAMENTAL PLANT. 



moderately cool, and constructed so as to 

 exclude at pleasure the variable external 

 atmosphere. Apples may be kept at a lower 

 temperature than Pears— say 34 to 40°. 



The Great Reed as an Ornamental 

 Plant. 



Our engraving affords a good represen- 

 tation of the .strongest growing of all the 

 grasses suitable for ornamental purpose. 

 This is the Reed of Southern Europe, 

 Aruiulo Donax, a plant that in rich soil as- 

 sumes a height of 10 or 13 feet in a season, 

 and which produces a picturesque tropical 

 effect under cultivation unequaled by any 

 other growth of which we have knowledge. 

 The plant proves to be quite hardy as far 

 north as Buffalo, although in the writer's 

 garden, in common with many other plants, 

 it receives the benefit of a coat of litter over 

 the roots at the approach of winter. We 

 have a notion that all fine plants are deserv- 

 ing of such treatment. 



This Arundo is a plant of very easy cult- 

 ure in ordinary soil, i)rovided the soil is well 

 enriched and the plant is supplied with free 

 moisture at the root, for it naturally prefers 

 damp situations. A flue situation for it is 

 at the edge of a lake. But in common cult- 



Hardy Roses as Window Plants. 



One of the easiest and yet most 

 satisfactory accomplishments in win- 

 dow gardening is the blooming of 

 some hardy Roses in pots or boxes in 

 March and April, by preparing for 

 the matter now. What is wanted for 

 the purpose is some one or two-year 

 '•* old plants that have been growing 



outside under cultivation during the 

 past season. These should be care- 

 fully lifted during October and placed 

 in pots preparattiry to giving them 

 suitable winter care. 

 In potting the Roses referred to care should 

 be taken to always have the soil well firmed; 

 the soil should be a good loam, and if there 

 is some decayed turf along with it, all the 

 better; avoid sand. The plants should be 

 pruned of about one-third of the length of 

 the branches. Let them stand in a shady 

 place, that is not exposed to the wind, for 

 several weeks after potting, having no fear, 

 however, of frost that is not severe enough 

 to freeze the soil. 



After this the plants should be brought to 

 a cool part of the cellar where air can oc- 

 casionally be admitted to them, or be given 

 a place in a cold pit, until January, after 

 which time the window is the place for them. 

 In forcing, hardy Roses like moderate heat, 

 light and water. 



A Good Method of Grafting. 



JAMES WORCESTER, MIDDLESE.X CO., MASS. 



A way of grafting was shown me last 

 winter by an old gentleman, with which I 

 have had great success. It was new to me: 

 it may not be to you, but some reader may 

 like to know of it, hence I send three fig- 

 ures representing sometliing of the process : 



One great advantage over splitting the 

 stock is, that the wax can be put on very 



