144 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



Some Comments on Current Topics. 



S. S. CRISSEY, FREDONIA, N. T. 



1. It does not look to those best informed 

 among our vineyardists as if the Worden 

 will ever supplant the Concord as a general 

 market and shipping Grape. Further trial 

 may change this opinion, bnt it seems too 

 soft to be safe for long shipments. As a 

 second early market black Grape, coming 

 between the Moore's Early and the Concord, 

 it is a success. The vineyardists having the 

 Worden, can let their Concords get fully 

 ripe and well colored. 



2. Before final judgment is pronounced 

 on the KeilTer Pear, try it for canning. For 

 eating out of 

 hand it is miser- 

 able, but good 

 judges pro- 

 nounced the 

 samples which 

 were grown and 

 canned here the 

 past season'; as 

 of exceeding fine 

 quality, and su- 

 perior to any 

 other variety. 

 Don't condemn 

 the Keifier till 

 you have tried it 

 canned ! 



3. In all es- 

 tablished vine- 

 yards, put up on 

 post and wire 

 trellises, there 

 should always 

 be three wires. 



In the case of both sucker and tip vari- 

 eties the work with a hoe is reduced to a 

 minimum, while nearly the whole of the 

 soil is stirred up to a sufficient depth. I 

 plant and cultivate Gooseberries and Cur- 

 rants in a similar manner. I never use a 

 plow in the berry plantation. It may be ex- 

 cusable upon some hard soils. I use a cul- 

 tivator that can be made to stir up the 

 ground to a considerable depth, while it 

 leaves the surface nearly level. A neglected 

 Raspberry patch soon ceases to pay. 



Previous to planting any of the small 

 fruits I prefer to have the ground deeply 

 plowed and well manured, and the grass 



soon learn, as men in other walks have, to 

 confine themselves to certain specialties 

 that are most suitable to them. 



and probably four would be better 

 you cannot get along with less than three. 

 This may or may not be the " Kniflfen " 

 system; it is the " Common Sense " system, 

 and our best growers are falling into line | 

 and adopting the plan. If anybody wants ' 

 the reasons we can give an abundance of 

 good ones. By the way, always buy No. 9 

 wire of good quality. 



4. Look out for the English Sparrow. He 

 has come to stay and the pirate will eat and 

 destroy Grapes. If you have a few choice 

 vines in the garden you will need to watch 

 them, and we advise bagging if you want to 

 save them. 



.5. Every fruit grower shotild have the 

 year round a compost heap. On it should 

 be poured all house slops, soapsuds, etc. It 

 should have a large proportion of loam, old 

 sods, and an occasional sprinkling of salt. 

 Keep unleached ashes by themselves. 



6. The first bearing year, usually the 

 third year from planting, never put up more 

 than two bearing canes, having not more 

 than six buds each. This is no theory, nor 

 guess work, Init the result of the dearly 

 bought experience of many growers. 



7. The man who pays $.3.5 a ton for com- 

 mercial fertilizers to sow in the vineyard 

 and then lets the weeds grow, may not be a 

 fool, but his symptoms look that way. 



8. For profit and good looks the Pockling- 

 ton is one of the first if not the first white 

 Grape. As to quality it must take second 

 place. If you want to grow a white Grape 

 that is of A. 1. quality try the Lady. 



A Country School House. From a Photograph. 

 But 



Raspberry Growing. 



E. MORDEN, NIAGARA FALLS SOUTH, ONT. 



My plans in some respects are ditTerent 

 from those related in a recent excellent ar- 

 ticle in these columns. Instead of planting 

 'i\i or 3 by B, I plant about 4x6 and cultivate 

 crosswise as well as lengthwise. The ad- 

 vantages of this plan are almost self-evi- 

 dent. The sucker varieties, instead of 

 forming a dense hedge with many unpro- 

 ductive canes, are confined to a small "hill" 

 with a limited number of productive canes. 



Fig. 6. The same as Fig. 4, with the planting done after Fig. 5. 

 ORNAMENTATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOL YARDS. SEE PAGE 138. 



and weeds subjugated. I have always 

 found much trouble from the use of stable 

 manure upon growing plantations. Such 

 manure nearly always contains enough 

 grass seeds to establish a sod. 



The Cuthbert is the only Red Raspberry 

 that I care to grow for market. Although 

 Peaches, Grapes and the tender fruits came 

 safely through the winter and spring of 

 1887, the Cuthbert was severely shortened 

 with me. Previous to this time it came 

 safely through. I have not met anyone who 

 could account for the injury to the Cuth- 

 bert in this instance. Considering their in- 

 trinsic value. Blackcaps have been the 

 cheapest of fruits of late years. As they 

 cannot be produced, picked and marketed 

 at the prices recently realized, their cultiva- 

 tion is likely to be narrowed down to soils 

 that are especially suited to them. 



General farmers ought not to try to grow 

 Raspberries for market. They make noth- 

 ing themselves, and so demoralize the mar- 

 kets that even specialists fail to make the 

 business pay. Cultivators of the soil must 



About Rose Pruning. 



W. F. LAKE, ERIE C'l.. N. Y. 



As to the actual amount of pruning-in of 

 last year's growth on Hybrid Perpetual 

 Roses, but few rosarians claim that any 

 hard and fast rules can be laid down. Per- 

 haps the safest, and on the whole the most 

 useful, is to let everyone be persuaded in 

 his own mind as to the reasonableness of 

 his practice. After removing the weak and 

 exhausted shoots, all over the plant first, 

 the stronger branches that need shortening 

 most will be more obvious, and the degree 

 of such cutting may be readily and more 

 wisely determined. To cut out entirely all 

 such weak branches helps to prolong the 

 life, augment the vigor, and greatly im- 

 prove the beauty of the bushes. 



The proper time for pruning those entire- 

 ly hardy, is late in the fall, but those vari- 

 eties which are liable to be frozen back in 

 winter (and it is to be regretted that with 

 severe northern winters these are not few 

 among the list of Hybrid Perpetuals) should 

 be left until early spring. 



Many advocate the principle of leaving 

 more wood on Teas than on the hardy sorts, 

 but I have noticed that the former are as 

 much benefited by short pruning as the 

 latter. At times, however, it is impracti- 

 cable to prune Teas as close as desirable, 

 owing to long jointed habit of growth, and 

 in this case cut at a plump bud, even if it be 

 at some distance up from the soil. 



Never leave a 

 stalk cut off at a 

 point halfway 

 between two 

 buds; it is the 

 very e\-idenoe of 

 a novice in the 

 gardening art. 

 This not only 

 applies to Rose 

 culture, but to 

 anything that 

 has tobe pruned. 

 It has been said 

 by an exper- 

 ienced Rose 

 grower the 

 weaker the 

 growth the more 

 severe should be 

 the pruning, and 

 the stronger the 

 gro^^^th, the less 

 severe should 

 the cutting be. 

 When the first pruning of the spring is 

 done do not think that the knife is to be 

 laid aside, for if we aim at quantity of 

 bloom from closely pruned plants, it should 

 be in hand the whole season through. 



Go over the bushes as soon as the first 

 buds start, and where several appear at the 

 same joint, rub all away but the one 

 strongest, and on tender Roses go over them 

 again after the shoots are sutficiently long 

 to see if any are coming blind, that is with- 

 out flowering buds or the power to produce 

 shoots. If any such are found, cut back to 

 the main shoot. Never permit a blind 

 shoot to grow on. It is not a very easy 

 thing to write how a blind may be distin- 

 guished from a flowering shoot, Ijut I am 

 confident that an observant person by the 

 aid of some careful comparisons cannot 

 fail to distinguish such. 



The experienced specialist in any class of 

 plants, though learning always, looks back 

 to the same lines that led to success, and 

 repeats his methods. So should we also 

 1/earn in the matter of how we prune. 



