78 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



l^IGHT'VHf SOCIETIES 



3E1NQ MATTER THAT DSiERVES 

 TO 8EW]DEl.YKN0Wll» 



AnAbutilon of pendu- 

 lous habit was shown at 

 the last meeting of the 

 Society of American 

 Florists. Were it not for 

 the fact that this plea«- 

 ::f /^ yi inj? qualit}' appears to 



//V ^/A have been secured at the 



^ ■ ^^*" expense of fine flowei-s it 



might be considered a desirable acquisition. The 

 flowers are said to have been very inferior. 



The Pennsylvania State Society. The 29th 

 Annual meeting of this t<<icict.\' will be held at 

 Lebanon, Pa., on Wedneisday and Thursday, 

 January ISth and 19th. 18.SS. Arrangements will 

 be made for special rates at the hotels, and ex- 

 cursion tickets will be issued over a number of 

 roads. Full particulars of E. B. Engle, Secretary, 

 Waynesboro, Pa. 



Mice in Orchards. A mode of protection is de- 

 scribed in the proceedings of the Maine Pomo- 

 logical Society. The writer has found that mice 

 will not touch the bark when they can get enough 

 oats to eat. He carries oats into his orchard late 

 in autumn, and drops handfuls, especially where 

 the snow drifts. Since he has adopted this course 

 he has had very few trees injured, where pre- 

 \'lousl.v he lost them by the hundred. He thinks 

 he can winter mice more cheaply ou any kind of 

 seed or grain than on Apple tree bark. 



Native Maiden-Hair Fern for the Hoase. Be- 

 fore the Michigan Horticultural Society, Mr. 

 Garfield spoke of this plant (AtUantum pcdatum) 

 as being one of the most handsome for the dec- 

 oration of rooms and a.s not sensitive to a 

 change of air. It needs but a short period of 

 rest, being beautiful nearly the whole .vear 

 round. Mr. Watkins said that plants can be ob- 

 tained from the woods at any time when the 

 ground is bare, and that they will start growth 

 in a few days. It will do well with but little light. 



Small Fruit Obstacles. Mr. C. L. Smith, of 

 Minnesota, puts down the obstacles in the way of 

 success with small fruits in the following order: 

 1. New and untried sorts, at high prices, which 

 the farmer is induced to buy, not because they 

 are the best for him to plant, but because the 

 dealer can make the most jirofit out of them. 3. 

 Careless packing and handling. 3. Poor prepar- 

 ation of the sou and careless planting. 4. Weeds, 

 grass and stock. .5. Neglect to give winter pro- 

 tection. *I. Drought. 7. And least of all, cold. 



Destroying Mealy Bug ou Plants. I am ^ ery 



glad to say that we have found a very simple 

 remedy in the use of one pint of fir-tree oil to ten 

 gallons of water syringed on once a week, and 

 the syringing to be continued. The value of an 

 insecticide, in my opinion, consists not in one, 

 two or three applications, but in a continuation 

 of the application. I had a house of Crotons f uUy 

 covered with mealy bug and scale. We began 

 about nine mouths ago with this fir-tree oil. It 

 cleaned the house completely and left not a \'es- 

 tige of mealy bug.— P. Henderson, before Ihe 

 Society of American Floriatn. 



Western New York Horticultural Society. The 

 thirty-third annual meeting of this famous old 

 societ.v will be held in the f'ommon Council 

 chamber in the City of Kochester, commencing 

 on Wednesday, January 25, 1888, at 11 o'clock. A 

 general invitation is given to all who are inter- 

 ested in fruit culture, horticulture and rural 

 improvement, to attend this meeting, whether 

 members of the society or not, and participate in 

 the proceedings. Kindred societies in this and 

 other States are requested to send delegates to 

 represent them at this meeting, and all such 

 delegates will be kindly received and invited to 

 join in the discussions. Programme with partic- 

 ulars may V^e had of P. C. Reynolds, Kochester. 



The Question of Varieties. A. A. Crozier in 

 commenting on the American Pomological Meet- 

 ing, makes the following remarks: Time and 

 again, in the midst of other business, a discussion 

 would start ou the merits of certain varieties, 

 nor was this by any means confined to the newer 

 sorts. Tlie fiercest debate of the session was over 

 the long mooted question, " Is the fVilsim the he^t 

 Straw1)erri// ^^ But when there was a discus.sion 

 on varieties all were interested. That was chiefly 

 what members came together for; they had 

 plants to sell, or wanted to know what .sorts to 

 grow. The broader, more scientific questions 

 they chose to leave to others. 



The Early Harvest Blackberry. There is no 



other berry that can be planted in our section 

 of the country that I think will bring as much 

 money to the giower as the Early Harvest Black- 

 berry. I was astonished last year to see how well 

 my plants did. The berries were larger and 

 handsomer than I had any idea they could be, 

 and for picking they are the prettiest Blackberry 

 I ever saw. I would like to know if there is any- 

 one else that has had so favorable experience as 

 I have. You cannot raise this berry where the 

 mercury falls lower than IS degrees below zero 

 and have them do anything. Mine are all laid 

 down and covered with earth, and I expect to 

 get some money from them next year.— E. H. 

 Cushman to the Ohiti Horticultural Society. 



Association in Factory Towns. There is a 

 decided interest among the employees in some of 

 the larger factories on the subject of fruit rais- 

 ing. The larger number of these amateur fruit 

 enthusiasts work in Wheeler & Wilson's, and they 

 are in the habit in the fruit season of holding 

 little private fruit exhibitions among themselves. 

 Some excellent specimens have been on view at 

 these shows. A Stratford man has raised and 

 shown some fine specimens of Pears. In fact. 

 Pears are a favorite exhibit among them all. In 

 connection vnth this subject it may be interesting 

 to know that an East Bridgeport man went to 

 New Jersey with some specimens of Gooseberries 

 of his own raising. He went down into the very 

 center of the best Gooseberry raising section in 

 the country perhaps, and entered his Gooseberries 

 at a fair in competition with the best that could 

 be grown, and won a first prize. His Gooseberries 

 were about an inch long and large in proportion. 

 Know the Insects. Dr. J. A. Lintner summed 

 up the points of his remarks concerning the fruit 

 grower's knowledge of insects, at the last meet- 

 ing of the American Pomological Society, as fol- 

 lows: 1. He should be acquainted with the more 

 common insects that occur in his vicinity, their 

 names (not necessarily the scientific ones), their 

 injuries and their habits. 2. He should be able 

 to detect new insect pests, so that he could 

 promptly submit them for scientific study. 3. 

 He should be able to distinguish between insect 

 foes and insect friends, so that in fighting the 

 former he will not destroy the latter. 4. He 

 should be able t« refer them to each one of the 

 several orders to which they may belong, so that 

 he can speak or write of them understandingly, 

 without grouping them all under the name of 

 "bugs." 5. He should know the manner of in- 

 sect feeding, whether by means of biting jaws or 

 with a proboscis, so as to be able to employ the 

 proper class of insecticides. 6. He should ex- 

 periment with such remedies and preventives 

 as his own observations and experiences may 

 suggest. 7. He should avail himself of the pub- 

 lications in economic entomology relating to fruit 

 pests, which are numerous, and of great serWce. 

 Go to the California Meeting. The next meet- 

 ing of the American Horticultural Society, as 

 has been pre\"iou8ly announced, is to take place 

 in CaUfornia, commencing on Tuesday, January 

 24th. It will be held in two sections, viz.: the 

 first on the above date at San Jose, and continu- 

 ing for two or three days, and reassembling at 

 Riverside, February 7, for a similar length of 

 time, to be devoted to topics of greatest interest 

 in Southern California. This arrangement, with- 

 out additional railroad expense, will enable those 

 in attendance to visit almost the whole of the 

 exceedingly interesting State of California. To 

 secure a reduction of twenty dollai-s ($20.00) on 

 the round trip rate the society will start from 

 Kansas City at 9:30 A. M., on Thursday, January 

 12, 1888, by special train, on the Missouri Pacific 

 Railway. Hound trip tickets to San Francisco 

 $60 from Kansas City, Atchison, Leavenworth, 

 Nebraska City and Omaha; $72 from St. Louis, 

 Cairo, Little Kock and Memphis; $69.8.5 from 

 Hannibal; $66..50 from Moberly; $80 from Chicago 

 and Indianapolis; §85.60 from Cincinnati; $89 

 from Toledo; $75 from Bloomington, 111., and 

 corresponding rates from all principal points. 

 Full particulars will be given by Secretary W. H. 

 Ragan, Greencastle, Ind., on receipt of stamp. 



Hybrid Perpetual Boses at Christmas. Mr. 

 Chas. Anderson, before the last meeting of the 

 American Florists, said that in order to bring 

 Hybrid Perpetual Eoses into bloom successfully 

 in December they must have been prepared six 

 or eight months previously; first, by securing for 

 them the .strongest possible growth that could 

 be got; and, next, by causing the plants to be 

 doi-mant earlier than the.v naturally would be. 

 The times and conditions at and under which this 

 ti'eatment should be pi-acticed are to be deter- 



mined by each grower indi^iduallj'. The great 

 secret is to prepare the plant by a strong growth. 

 It is by the growth in April, May and June that 

 you get the flowering wood from which to pro- 

 duce flowers on these Roses. Even if we assume 

 that they have been properly prepared, experi- 

 ence is needed for selecting them. Possiblj- out 

 of one thousand plants not more than five 

 hundred would be fit to be turned to rest. 

 The time in one locality might be the ,5th of 

 August, and it might be the 15th or 20th of Au- 

 gust in another. If rain.v weather should prevail 

 at the time at wlilch the plants are turned on, of 

 course the object vriW be defeated, as they will not 

 dry out. The whole point consists in producing 

 by drought the usual results of frost. 



Thorough Culture In an essay on this subject 

 before the Montgomery (Ohio) Horticultural 

 Society Mr. A. Shirer closed as follows: Thorough 

 cultivation does pay. The yield of new varieties 

 is the strongest evidence ft)r thorough culture. 

 The owner of these pets bestows all possible care 

 on them, and the old, weU-tried varieties he 

 merely keeps alive; then he di-aws his com- 

 parison. Six hundred bushels of Strawberries 

 per acre, 500 bushels of Blackberries per acre, 300 

 bushels of Raspberries per acre are obtained by 

 "eternal vigilance." A little farm well tilled 

 seems to have been a song of the oriental horti- 

 culturist, but the epoch is at hand when the 

 question is, not how many acres we can gobble 

 in, but on how few we can make a comfortable 

 living. The acreage muft be reduced to a mini- 

 mum and the yield increased to a maximum. 

 The exhaustion of the soil, the more rapid evap- 

 oration,the frequent droughts,the severity of our 

 winters, higher taxation, are all arguments for a 

 little farm well tilled. The unprecedented drought 

 of the present year, though dear to many, is a 

 lesson that we all should heed. Thousands of 

 dollars might have been realized had we taken 

 time by the forelock and prepared for the worst, 

 as we always should. Only those who, like in 

 every other profession, bestow thoroughness will 

 reach the summit of financial success. 



Women in Horticulture. 



lExtraet from a paper by Jonathan Periam before the 

 Illinois State Horticultural Society.^ 



I return to the true sphere of womau in 

 horticulture, and that is the adornnient of 

 home. If woman must labor outside of this 

 sphere iu well-to-<lo life, the department of 

 horticulture throughout offers superior and 

 pleasanter labor and healthier employment 

 than any other of which 1 know. 



In all my own many years of experience as 

 farmer, stock-raiser, and then as vegetable and 

 fruit gardener, my recreation was ever that of 

 floriculture. One year it might be Dahlias; 

 another Gladiolus. I remember I never was hap- 

 pier than when as a young man I had succeeded 

 in getting together sixty varieties, combining 

 varied forms and colors, out of many hundred 

 tried. Later it was bedding plants and curious 

 forms of foliage plants. I have taken many pre- 

 miums on live stock. 1 have taken premium 

 after premium for displays of garden products, 

 both for quality and arrangement. But they 

 were as nothing to the triumphs of my flowers 

 that had been my i-ecreatitm rather than my care. 



The crowning success was that of receiving the 

 first premium at the first great Chicago fair some 

 years ago for the best amateur collection of 

 house plants, besides a number of premiums for 

 special plants and hanging baskets. A lady from 

 Iowa received the second premium, and in special 

 plants held me fully even. This lady had found 

 the second Eden; had found that the flowers of 

 Eden might be trained to the sun in this paradise 

 of 'America, the sunny and glorious West. 



The increasing taste for flowers in cities, vil- 

 lages and about many rural homesteads is due 

 largely to the influence of woman in horticulture. 

 The cultivation of flowers is not possible among 

 the masses until ad\ancing civlUzation, and the 

 wealth it brings, enables the owner of the home- 

 stead to gratify the taste of the family largely 

 in this direction; but a beginning may be made 

 at every homestead, however humble. 



To do this, however, certain plants must be 

 kept over winter. Tender Roses and other ten- 

 der hai-d-wooded shrubs, tubers and bulbs may 

 be kept in a dry cellar that does not freeze. Suc- 

 culent plants must be kept over as window plants, 

 and to ensure success here that part of the room 

 must never freeze, though a high temperature is 

 not necessary night or day. This continual tern- 



