i66 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



May. 



Talks By An Illinois Cultivator. 



T(iMATi) Training. Mr. Chenoworth, of 

 Davenport, Iowa, succeeded the past season 

 in raising three Tomato vines on trellises to 

 the height of seventeen feet. One was a red 

 Trophy, the others Golden Plum. They 

 made an immense crop. Mr. C. Is sure he 

 can raise vines next year to a height of 

 twenty-tive feet. This is not unlike seeing 

 how much milk material may be crammed 

 through a Hoist ein or a .Jersey in a year. Of 

 themselves, both have little practical value 

 beyond showing in the one case the capabil- 

 ities of animals, and stimulating the mass 

 of dairymen to better feeding, better breed- 

 ing and better care. In the other what may 

 be done with Tomatoes and all vegetables. 



A Tomato vine trained on a trellis makes 

 "an immense crop," as Mr. C.'s did; and 

 the trellis shows how we may double the 

 yield and improve the quality of the Toma- 

 toes without using more land or manure. 

 The trellise stimulates the vine to greater 

 growth and fruitfulness; and as the frixit is 

 kept off the ground and better exposed to 

 sun and air, it ripens more nicely and is kept 

 clean and bright. 



When I went away from home to school 

 I had never heard of trellising Tomato vines. 

 The boarding house keeper into whose power 

 I put my digestive organs, raised all the veg- 

 etables used by a dozen people on a spot 40 

 by .50 feet. Notwithstanding the usual 

 slurs on boarding house tables, we had 

 good board— plenty of vegetables. That 

 man succeeded, not because he starved us, 

 but because he was the best gardener on a 

 small scale I have ever seen. He manured 

 liberally and got four crops per season off 

 some of the land. His Tomato vines clam- 

 bered to the top of trellises ten and twelve 

 feet high, and made such yields as I had 

 never dreamed possible. That man showed 

 me the capabilities of gardening, and to him 

 I owe my subsequent interest in vegetables 

 and small fruits. 



Tools. There are two classes of garden- 

 ers — those who expend too much for tools 

 and those who do not expend enough. Of 

 course the rule is to buy all that will save in 

 labor the amount of their cost, or make that 

 amount through better crops; and to buy no 

 more. But the application of the rule must 

 be left to each individual, and therein lies 

 all the trouble. I know three gardeners 

 that do a respectable business that have not 

 a wheel hoe! Now, I have always found a 

 wheel hoe economical. I know of other gar- 

 deners that have not a horse hoe. And then 

 how many gardeners there are whose tools 

 are always in bad condition, dull and rusty, 

 broken, or on the point of breaking. Let 

 me say that the margin of profits, except to 

 a favored few, is so small that we cannot 

 afford to buy less or more than the number 

 of garden tools it is economical to have; or 

 to begin the season with dull, rusty, rotten 

 or broken tools. 



Straight Rows. If, after firming, there 

 is one text that is worthy of being preached 

 on again, it is to make straight, long rows. 

 Short rows may be a necessity sometimes, 

 but crooked rows never. One of the very 

 best ways to widen the margin between in- 

 come and outgo is to economize labor; and 

 one of the best ways to economize labor is 

 to make straight, long rows. The straighter 

 the rows the more and better work can be 

 done by horse power. If the rows are 

 crooked it is impossible to get as near to 

 each plant with the cultivator or hoe as 

 when the rows are straight; and while the 

 work is inferior, the eyes and muscles of the 

 laborer are taxed much more. Of course the 

 longer the rows, less time is lost by the horse 

 in turning, and long rows economize ground. 



Strawberry Blo.ssoms. One of the things 

 not highly important to know in itself, but 

 which ignorance of leads into many grave 



errors, is that the blossoms of every variety 

 of Strawberry have both stamens and pistils. 

 Many, however, are not perfect. In some 

 the stamens, in others the pistils are little 

 more than rudimentary. Some suppose that 

 either one set or the other of organs is miss- 

 ing, or both are present well developed; that 

 a variety is utterly incapable of fertilizing 

 its own blossoms or the blossoms of another 

 variety, or else is as capable as any other 

 variety. The fact is that there are as many 

 grades of capacity or incapacity as there are 

 varieties. Of two varieties, each capable of 

 fertilizing its own blossoms, one may have 

 twice the pollen of the other; it will fertilize 

 more perfectly its own blossoms, hence will 

 produce fewer imperfect berries; and it will 

 have more value as a sort to fertilize other 

 varieties. I believe that the quality of the 

 pollen has some influence, and I am fully 

 convinced that the quantity of the pollen is 

 of enough importance to be taken account 

 of. In the animal world a vigorous sexual 

 development is of much the more value in 

 breeding; why not in the horticultural world ? 

 Aside from this, the more pollen, it is cer- 

 tain, the better the chances of full fertiliza- 

 tion, the less the danger from mishaps. We 

 get better results, usually, by using the 

 Sucker State for fertilizing than by using 

 any other variety. The Sucker State plant 

 is virile, its blossoms are numerous and well 

 developed, and furnish pollen abundantly. 

 On the other hand. Crescent and Hovey's 

 seedling are usually incapable of fertilizing 

 their own blossoms, though very high cul- 

 ture in both has developed normal vigorous 

 stamens, — N, Y, L. 



Siberian Crab for Stock. 



A. G. TUTTLE, BARABOO, WIS, 



The grafting of the common Apple either 

 oil the root of the Siberian Crab or the top, 

 has for at least 2,5 years been experimented 

 with in different parts of the country and 

 proved a complete failure, 



Dr, Hoskins in the Maine report says that 

 for 20 years trees have been sold in his 

 neighborhood grafted on Crab roots, and he 

 did not know of one successful orchard, and 

 the man who now talks Crab stocks there 

 does it at the risk of his neck. The Russian 

 Scions from the Department sent to Minne- 

 sota were mostly top worked on Crab, and 

 proved a failure, I top worked 10,000 trees, 

 mostly Transcendant, with Tetofski, I do 

 not believe there is one of the. Tetofski 

 grafts alive to-day, while the Tetofski top- 

 worked on Duchess and grafted on the root 

 of the common Apple are all in good condi- 

 tion. The Tetofski top-worked on the 

 Crabs was done about 20 years ago and the 

 grafts grew from four to six or seven feet, 

 and died ab(jut the same time, I worked 

 many kinds of the common Apple on Crabs; 

 most of them grew a few years and died. 

 The Walbridge made the best union and a 

 few of the orchard trees are still alive. 



Those tops worked in the Fanieuse at the 

 same time are good, healthy trees. The 

 Walbridge is getting some stir in its favor. 

 It has borne good crops and has come 

 through the severe winters better than any 

 of the American sorts. 



In saving seeds from the cider mill for 

 planting we are careful not to save any 

 from pomace when there is any mixture iif 

 Crabs, The seeds saved from the cider mill 

 last season were from the Duchess and other 

 Russian Apples, Hereafter we expect to 

 use only stocks from seeds of Russians, 

 Not that I think it necessary in order to 

 grow good trees to use stocks from Russian 

 seeds, tor I believe very little of the orchard 

 killing is because of the tenderness of the 

 common Apple stock. Give us trees that 

 won't top-kill and we will protect the roots. 

 Grafted on Crab roots or top worked on 

 Crabs, the hardiest Russians top-kill. 



Fruit Bleaching Again. 



,J, W. SMITH, M, D,, FLOYD CO., IOWA, 



In answer to the article favorable to bleach- 

 ing evaporated fruit in the February issue 

 I would ask, 1st, Is it a positive advantage 

 e-xcept that the fruit is white — as white as 

 sulphur or other decolorizing agent will 

 make it, if you please, 2d, Do you say ,siii- 

 phur prevents vermin attacking it or as soon 

 and as readily? Perhaps you do not claim 

 this but it has that tendency, as we know. 



The Chicago commission dealer referred 

 to was looking to business, as I know they 

 are famous for more than health, I am 

 well acquainted with the class, and will say 

 that what some commission dealers do not 

 know in regard to adulteration and sophis- 

 tication especially of food products is hardly 

 worth knowing. 



As a practicing physician in New York 

 and Iowa since 1S50 I trust that I am some 

 wiser than I once was in regard to health 

 matters. Neither have I in writing on this 

 subject an axe of any nature to grind, I 

 wrote the former article because I felt that 

 the evaporating fruit people were being mis- 

 lead by selfish, ignorant and perhaps un- 

 scrupulous dealers. 



Within a few years past my family dis- 

 covered such a change in dried fruits, Apples 

 in particular, that we lost our former relish 

 for the better qualities. We did not get at 

 the cause for some time after the white 

 evaporated sliced fruit appeared which the 

 dealers described as "so nice," Finally in 

 some specimens we plainly tasted the sul- 

 phur, and with it observed a serious loss of 

 the God given or created natural fruit flavor, 



I will not talk about sulphur as a medicine 

 or blood pm-ifler, etc, as the writer of that 

 article expresses it, preferring fruit as food 

 and sulphur as a medicine or insect or 

 life destroyer where needed as such, and 

 preferring to make my omi selection as to 

 manner of using sulphur or other bleaching 

 agent that fruit evaporating men are now- 

 unwise enough to use to please wholesale 

 commission men. 



Better call a halt as soon as possible. If 

 one man bleaches his fruit and it "takes" 

 with the dealers and with cooks who know 

 no better, the evil is bound to spread until 

 something is done to check it. 



The Ben Davis Apple. 



Z. C, FAIRBANKS. GRAND TRAVERSE CO,, MICH, 



This Apple has been both as highly ex- 

 tolled as an Apple well could be, and most 

 severely condemned. In one section it has 

 been credited with one class of qualities, iu 

 other sections with the most perfect char- 

 acteristic in some other respect, and as bit- 

 terly condemned for total absence of quality 

 for which in others it has been extolled. 



In this, the Grand Traverse fruit region of 

 Michigan, it has been condemned as minus 

 nearly every characteristic of a good Apple, 

 except that of keeping. Very many claim 

 that they had just as leave chew a piece of 

 sole leather as a Ben Davis Apple, so far as 

 the appetizing pleasure received, yet the 

 Apple possessed excellent keeping quality. 

 That this Apple can be barreled when picked 

 and laid aside until the following June or 

 .July with scarcely a probability of a single 

 decayed or specked Apple has often lieen 

 claimed, but this year its characteristics in 

 this respect have materially changed with 

 us, Jjast week, finding a barrel of them in 

 our cellar showing evidence of decay, in 

 overhauling it we found at least >-»' either 

 wholly decayed or commencing to decay. 

 But there seemed to be an improvement in 

 quality over former years. As a merchant 

 said: It is not a bad Apple; it has not much 

 character as an eating Apple, It is a fair 

 cooking apple. It matured here last year. 

 Its previous condemnation has been caused 



