I30 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



March, 



Cnltnre of Other Flante, 

 on Peaches. I've planted seed, set trees, budded 

 new varieties and bougrht old ones, plowed, 

 hoed, pruned and wormed: and succeeded one 

 year in five in raising- round-headed borers and 

 peach-coblers sufficient fur a small family. 



Peal's, except for blight, would be my delight. 

 Out of about 400 trees, perhaps ten sound and 

 healthy ones remain. They are a surer and 

 more remunerative crop than Apples, with 

 neither borei-s nor backache to contend with. 



Cherries I studied ornithology with a double- 

 barrel shot-gun for ten years in a Cherry or- 

 chard, and can't tell a jaybird from a wood- 

 pecker. Then I applied a little painless den- 

 tistry—extracted about 100 trees by the roots, 

 and planted the ground to horseweed and fox- 

 tail, for i)roflt. 



tripple-force kickers for the benefit of all advo- 

 cates of "low heads." Tt is a riolation of the 

 law of natural growth. An Apple tree, like a 

 Saratoga belle, will not live without a trunk. 

 No tree should be headed under five and a half 

 feet and spreading grower six to seven feet, to 

 admit of cultivation beneath. The finest Apple 

 trees I have ever seen were ten to fifteen feet to 

 the first branch, pointing fifty feet heavenwards 

 and capable of bearing 100 to 150 bushels of fruit. 

 The first to give up the ghost with me were the 

 lowest; the best now have the longest trunks. 



Borers, Eternal vigilance and a sharp knife is 

 the price of Borci-s. I've washed, cut and 

 probed for them until my pants knees wei-e hard 

 worn. I've tried soft soap and find it succeeds 

 better with some people than ^Yith worms. I've 

 tried many mixed washes— the knife is the only 

 cure. Once lodged under the 

 bark, nothing will remove them 

 but a supple back, and iron will 

 and a sharp knife. Texas Onions 

 set close around the trees act as 

 a preventive. 



Babbits. Everybody has heard 

 of Rabbits. Blood-wash is quite 

 good. Corn stalks make a good 

 protection against rabbits and 

 a warm house for field mice mth 

 winter supplies ready at hand. 



Thoroughly clean culture with 

 hills thrown around the trees is 

 quite safe except in deep, hai-d 

 crusted snows. Strong manilla 

 paper cut in three-inch strips, 

 wrapped upwaids and tied at the 

 top is the best anti-rabbit I've 

 found. Cut the tie in the spring 

 — the paper strips gradually drop 

 to the gi'ound, affording inci- 

 dental protection against borers. 

 A.Yle grease does well but must 

 be washed off in the spring. 



At last I got an orchard, and 

 those low headed trees just make 

 an old sow laugh. She will learn 

 to jump up, grab the lower limbs 

 and shake like a truant school- 

 boy, untU her shirt bosom is full. son, and Plant RooTs.-Corii Roots one !<• 



Selling Fruit. The first few 'oics; l Potting SoU, U inches long ; 2 Clay, 4 inches long 

 <7aa», T ,..,„ „ ™ „i ..+ mcheslong; 5 Coat Ashes, 2 inches long ; 6jr ■ ' •^ ■ " 



years I ran a market wagon, ,ong: s Sphagnum Moss, 7 inches tong; 9 Mi. 



secured a good set of customera 

 and realized good prices, attaching a silver bat- 

 tery to the pocket nerve. 



The market wagon became too small; 800 to 

 1000 barrels must have a faster way to market. 

 Western Kansas, Colorado and Northern Illinois 

 offered ample room, and four years ago I was 

 building up a good trade, shipping direct from 

 the orchard, with an increasing demand I had 

 not facilities to supply. 



Evaporating has been found a profitable way 

 to dispose of the unmarketable. An evaporator 

 that will use thirty to forty bushels a day, re- 



quiring a man and boy, will take care of all trail of that grand old pioneer of the vineyard. 



scraps in a 3.5-acre orchard. Using a small one, I 

 made some fine fruit fibtaining 11)^ to 133^ cts. per 

 lb., with a demand for ten times what I could 

 make. This was packed with a screw press, 

 forty to sixty pounds, in cracker boxes, having a 

 glass face to show fruit without opening. 



At the Fairs when Kansas City opened her 

 fii'st great fair I entered for the " largest and 

 best collection of Apples." I had 120 plates— 

 about seventy taken from the twenty-five vari- 

 eties originally set— I placed one variety under 

 four names and others under two. I didn't know 

 any better and suppose the committe was in the 

 same fix, as the blue strings ornamented the 

 table, and a twenty-five dollar check— anyone 

 knows how useful such things are. 



At another fair in the same place I beat the 

 world, and don't you forget it. Crowned with 

 honor and checks for about one-half dozen 

 other premiums, I retired from the field of em- 

 ulation and rested on my laurels. 



After I had rested until I got tired, at the ear- 

 nest solicitation of " many voters," I announced 

 myself a candidate for the "best display of 

 fruits giown by exhibitor," and for a $25 check 

 of the Secretary. My competitor, without a 

 bearing tree in the world, captured the Secre- 

 tary's invitation to call at the bank, and the 

 mourners went about the streets. He had about 

 100 varieties. T had about 150,-130 of my own 

 growth. The committee may have been correct, 

 but how 100 varieties a man didn't own could 

 beat 120 of one's own raising is " one thing I 

 ne\'er could see into." 



The committee reconciled me with ijremiums 

 on winter Pears, dried Apples and Paw-]>aws. 



My wife just dotes j in his power. The fact is, if we do not move 

 faster than for some yeai's back, other parts of 

 the country will get ahead of us. 



When this Society was organized, thirt.v odd 

 years ago, its main purpose was to call the atten- 

 tion of farmers to fruit culture as a promising 

 branch of farm industry. From that time we 

 may date our real progress. While we might 

 have done better, and should have done better, I 

 believe I can safely say we have the best and 

 most advanced fruit region in the United States. 

 This humble Society, without state endowment 

 or outside aid of any kind, has exercised a wider 

 influence than even its own members appreciate. 

 Our limited means have nan-owed our influence 

 and it is thought by some of our oldest and wisest 

 members that we should ask for some state aid 

 to enable us to prosecute our work more efficient- 

 ly. We could encourage im- 

 provement by offering prizes for 

 the best managed orchards and 

 gardens and for improvements 

 in the grounds of farmers. 



I alluded last year to the agri- 

 cultural experiment stations as 

 likely to do valuable work in 

 experimental fruit culture and 

 horticulture. I am fully con- 

 firmed in this opinion from re- 

 ports of many of them recently 

 received. Some of the agricult- 

 ural colleges and state univer- 

 sities are also taking up the same 

 line of experiment, and some of 

 them have already made exten- 

 sive plantations of fruit and 

 forest and ornamental trees. 

 The station in our own state is 

 the most liberally endowed of 

 any, and we have reason to 

 believe it wiU do good work for 

 fruit culture and horticulture, 

 as well as for agriculture. 



Soil and Plant Boots. From 

 Professor A. N. Prentiss' paper 

 on this subject, we condense the 

 following, the engravings on this 

 page being taken from the dia- 

 k after planting indifferent substances as fol- grams used to iUustrate the 



'^■'•"."■'IS' '?'W '^ ?""?• " '"-''S^ '^""i ,i-^™J' " paper. In Mr. Prentiss' experi- 

 Brwk Dust,li^ inches long; 1 Sawdust, H inches ^ ^ . , ^ ,, ,, tt . 



'i.Ttureofalltheotlierslnlikeproportion,9in.long. ments (made at Cornell Umver- 



sity)kernels of Corn were planted 

 in the eight different substances named in the 

 heading of the annexed engraving, the diagrams 

 of which illustrate the Corn at the end of one 

 week. At that time no top growth was \-lsible, 

 but the roots were well advanced in the soil, this 

 haring been washed away. In No. 1 is shown the 

 normal appearance of healthy roots, the soil 

 containing all elements required in the propor- 

 tions for plant needs. No. 2 is suggestive of the 

 necessity of a porous soil. Clay being compact in 

 texture, the root cannot so well penetrate and 

 gather all the food required, a shorter and some- 

 what thicker root growth results. In No. 3 we 

 see that sand has qualities, due, perhaps, to the 

 quantity of water it will hold, favorable to root 

 growth for a limited period, as is also evident 

 from its extensive use for propagating beds by 

 florists. No. 4, a substance largely used as a fer- 

 tilizer with common soil, shows that alone it is 

 not sufficient for plant support. Besides a small 

 root being formed, it for some reason took an 

 abnormal couree, growing upwards out of the 

 peat, above the seed, then re-entering it. There 

 can be too much stimulant in the soil. No. 5 and 

 No. 6 are materials in which all \ntality has been 

 desti'oyed by fire, no plant food being contained, 

 except such as is in the water given them. No. 5, 

 however, is of considerable value in combination 

 with No. 2. No. 7, when rightly used (as a manur- 

 ial absorbent) is of value, yet when fresh no food 

 element is free or ready for use. No. 8, while 

 favorable to root formation, has not the water- 

 holding quality of sand, hence the difference of 

 roots, this being of fair length, but very slender. 

 No. 0, a mixture of these various substances in 

 equal proportions, shows that with a sufficiency 

 of plant food as contained in No. 1, 3, 4, the root 

 will make a good heavy growth, the presence of 

 the various other ingredients exerting no very 

 marked effect in opposition. 



The lesson that seems to be indicated by this 

 single experiment, is that any soil, if supplied 

 with enough of the right kind of material, will 

 produce crops. Other experiments with other 

 seeds may greatly modify, in details, our present 

 impressions, yet the general rule of knowing and 

 then of suppbdng the perfect conditions of plant 

 growth must be the aim of every tiller of the soil. 



In the way of Plums I raised some remarkably 

 fine crops of gougers and curcullos. Even at 

 the very base of the hen house, which all the 

 while ran wild with chickens, pigs and bugs, 

 they fell. Then I fell down and wept about $100 

 worth of tears over Damsons, Lombards, Im- 

 perial, Blue and Green Gages; and the wild ones 

 continue to " flourish like a Green Bay tree." 



I raised some fine crops of Grapes, made some 

 wine, and saw the tracks old Noah made cen- 

 turies ago. As I had no bad boy to curse for 

 laughing at my folly, I declined to follow the 



abandoned the business, voted local option and 

 marketed my Grapes at 2^ cts. a pound. 



Meeting of the Western New York 

 Horticultural Society in January. 



The thirty-third annual meeting of this 

 pioneer Society took place in Rochester, N. 

 Y., .January 2f>th and 2tith. The attendance 

 was large, being if anything above the 

 average. The only drawback to the entire 

 meeting was that Pres. Barry could not be 

 present on account of the very stormy 

 weather and his somewhat feeble health. 

 He. however, had a tine display of late keep- 

 ing Apples and Pears. A number of other 

 members also exhibited various fruits. The 

 following new otticers were elected: Presi- 

 dent, Patrick Barry, Rochester; Vice-Presi- 

 dents, S. D. Willard, (Geneva; W. Brown 

 Smith, Syracuse; J. S. Woodward, Lockport; 

 W. C. Barry, Rochester; Secretary and 

 Treasurer, P. C. Reynolds, Rochester. We 

 have in the present issue room for but a few 

 brief extracts of the proceedings, as follows: 



From Pres. Barry's Address. I think most of 

 us will be able to say, as regards business, that 

 we have had on the whole a fair average year. 

 Western New York, with her temperate chmate, 

 fertile soil, railway facilities, and proximity to 

 the great markets, should be made the garden of 

 America, and I hope every one present will de- 

 termine to aid in making her so, as far as may he 



