1 888. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



187 



Hill as against drill cultivation, special methods 

 in all departments. 



Manures. The closest possible attention to 

 saving and utilizing all home products. Special 

 home-made fertilizers. E.xperiments with Min- 

 eral, Vegetable and Animal manures. Green 

 Manuring, also Irrigation. 



Appuances. Trial of Tools and Implements. 

 Experiments in constructing Greenhouses and 

 Graijeries in cheap popular styles, Un- 

 heated Greenhouses, Fruit, Vegetable and 

 Flower Forcing Pits, Cold Pits, Cellar Pits, 

 Frames, Hot-beds, Hand-glasses, Various 

 methods of artificial heating. Experiments 

 in Preparing, Preserving, Marlseting and 

 keeping Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers, etc. 



Experiments in Propagation by Seeds, 

 Cuttings, Layers, Grafting, Budding, Diris- 

 ion, etc., with a view to the best methods 

 and seasons for different processes. 



Improvement op HoRTictn/TURAL Pro- 

 ducts by Selection, Crossing, Hybridizing. 



Forestry. The providing of Timber 

 Screens and Plats, Windbrealis, Highway 

 planting, etc., as applicable to farms and 

 small places. 



Finally, let it be specially impressed, 

 that these grounds, like the journal 

 with which they are to be jointly 

 managed, shall be devoted solely and 

 impartially to the cause of an improved 

 American horticulture. In general 

 the constant object shall be to pro- 

 mote the culture of fruits, vegetables 

 and flowers in ways that shall lead to 

 more remunerative results when en- 

 gaged in as a business, and more gratify- 

 ing and successful ends when pleasure, re- 

 creation, or the good of the family is the 

 object. Every reader of this journal Is 

 therefore most cordially urged to take a 

 special interest in the work and to feel that 

 he is to be a sharer in the outcome, while 

 we can assure them that the suggestions of 

 all for increasing the usefulness of the 

 work are earnestly invited and will be most 

 carefully considered. 



Moreover, the gates of the place shall 

 always be open to their visits, and all are 

 Invited to come and see and study as they 

 have opportunity. A consideration in decid- 

 ing on the present location was its superior 

 accessibility to the traveling public, and 

 . with being located midway between Buffalo, 

 one of the great railroad centers of America, 

 and of Niagara Falls, that Mecca of travelers 

 from the world over, we hope, as our work 

 gets fairly under way, to have the pleasure 

 of greeting multitudes of our readers annu- 

 ally on these grounds. With this introduc- 

 tion to the Popular Gakdening Experi- 

 mental Grounds we close, but simply adding 

 that hereafter references to this new branch 

 of our journal's enterprise shall be a com- 

 mon feature in the journal's columns. 



pose, and if planted properly and the soil 

 suits it, a dense impenetrable growth results 

 in a few seasons. It grows freely in the 

 poorest of soils, which is a great recom- 

 mendation to it, and if the young plants are 

 managed properly by cutting them hard in 

 when first planted and subsequently looking 

 well to priming, a hedge that would prevent 



The Myrobalan, or Cherry Plum. Its 

 Use for Hedges. 



Reference has several times of late been 

 made in these columns to the Myrobalan 

 Plum as a stock for the edible sorts of Plums. 

 We are not aware that this species has been 

 put to other uses than that of a stock for 

 Plums in this country. In England, how- 

 ever, it has come into use as a hedge plant, 

 and also for ornamental planting somewhat, 

 according to the Garden, from which jour- 

 nal we quote the following interesting re- 

 marks concerning the species: 



Of late yeurs the Cherry Plum has become 

 well known among planters, not so much as 

 an ornamental tree as for its use as a hedge 

 plant and for covert planting. A few years 

 ago it was a good deal written about. Some 

 even said it made the finest of all hedges, 

 the result being that some nurserymen 

 began to gi'ow it on a large scale for hedges 

 and coverts. 



Though it will perhaps never surpass the 

 Hawthorn or Quick as a hedge plant, it is 

 unquestionably well adapted for this pur- 



ee of The Myrnhalan Plum (Prumus Murnbalana.) 



a hare or rabbit from going through it will 

 be formed in about three years. 



It must be planted in a double row, with 

 the plants about a foot apart and alternating 

 in the rows. In hungry soils some good 

 rotten manure should be dug in deeply. It 

 is a good plan to cut the plants down almost 

 to the ground after having been placed in 

 position, and if well rooted they will the first 

 year send up strong shoots, which if pruned 

 back the following winter will, during the , 

 second season, make bushy specimens. 



One of the best Cherry Plum hedges the 

 writer has seen was planted about eight 

 years ago. It is now as tall as a man, and 

 nobody would attempt to break through it. 

 This hedge is highly ornamental, inasmuch 

 as the owner has at intervals of about 10 , 

 feet or 12 feet allowed strong single stems to 

 rise above the hedge and upon these he has 

 grafted various sorts of Plums, and these 

 spreading standards rising out of the hedge 

 have a fine effect, and are moreover useful. 



The Cherry Phim is seldom planted for 

 ornament, though it possesses considerable 

 merit on account of its being one of the 

 earliest of all trees to flower in spring. It 

 bears a profusfon of small white 

 flowers, which are remarkably beau- 

 tiful if they escape the late frosts. 

 It is but a medium-sized tree even 

 under the most favorable conditions 

 of growth, and, like the common 

 Plum, makes a compact spreading 

 head. It does not fruit freely in this 

 country, though in some seasons, 

 when its blossoms have escaped the 

 frosts, one may see an old tree with 

 a scanty crop of its Cherry-like 

 fruits of the size shown in the illus- 

 tration. They are of a dull, reddish 

 color and astringent. 



The new Prunus Pissardi, now 

 becoming so popular in gardens 

 both large and small, is nothing 

 more than a purple-leaved variety of the 

 Cherry Plum; but as it is so distinct that 

 no one would mistake the one for the 

 other, it is convenient to keep to the name 

 Prunus Pissardi, or Purple-leaved Cherry 

 Plum. We look upon this as the most 

 valuable acquisition of years to our list of 

 blood-leaved shrubs. As this is a beautiful 

 shrub when forced into bloom early there is 

 no reason why the Cherry Plum itself should 

 not be employed for a similar purpose. 



Watering Fruit and Other Trees, Etc. 



W. W. FAHNSWORTH, Ll'CAS CO., OHIO. 



My plan of watering trees, which has 

 always given excellent results, is as follows: 

 I dig away the earth from about the stem 

 of the tree down nearly to the roots, and 

 into this basin pour an ordinary wooden 

 pailful of water. After this has been absorbed 

 I apply another pailful, and when it 

 has disappeared replace the earth, pack- 

 ing it firmly, and draw a few inches 

 of dust over the surface for a mulch. 



A tile in a perpendicular position in 

 the ground near the tree, with its 

 mouth about even with the surface of 

 the ground, and into which water could 

 be poured, has been recently advised. 

 The suggestion has some good points, 

 l)ut I think a cheap wooden tube, three 

 or four inches square, with perforated 

 sides would be better, as it would allow 

 the water to escape into the soil all 

 the way down instead of merely at the 

 bottom of the tile. 



We watered a block of Currant cut- 

 tings last year with very satisfactory 

 results, by drawing a slight furrow on 

 each side of the row (triple rows) and 

 pouring the water onto the cuttings, 

 the furrows at the side serving the 

 double purpose of retaining the water, 

 which might otherwise have escaped, 

 and also of aiding the water in reach- 

 ing the roots. A sufficient quantity was 

 applied to saturate the earth down to and 

 about the roots, with very marked benefit. 

 We prefer hard water from the canal half 

 a mile distant rather than use the colder 

 water in our wells, of which we have an 

 abundance. 



A newly set orchard of two hundred and 

 eighty Pear trees started to grow finely, but 

 in a few weeks began to show the effects of 

 the drought very plainly, when one thorough 

 watering so far restored it that I lost less 

 than five per cent of the trees; whereas I 

 believe I should have lost at least thirty or 

 forty per cent without watering. 



On similar soil to my own a neighbor 

 planted two hundred fine Arbor Vit«s 

 about his lawn in well prepared sandy loam. 

 The trees were dug and planted on the same 

 day, a damp and cloudy day. They were 

 carefully planted by oneof my mo.st success- 

 ful planters, and the groiuid around them 

 immediately mulched. 



These trees all grew nicely for some time 

 but finally began to look thirsty, and my 

 neighbor resolved to water them. Ueing 

 more of a stockman than horticulturist, he 



Branch, Fruit aiid Flowers of the Murobalan Plum. 



watered them on the principle so well suited 

 to horses, viz.: "a little and often," but 

 failed in one important particular, in that 

 he did not get the water as near the " mouth " 

 of the tree as he would to that of his horse. 

 He drew a barrel of cold well water daily 

 and applied it to them all around, giving 

 about enough to each to lay the dust nicely. 

 In so doing he expended during the season 

 much more labor than would have been 

 necessary to have given them two or three 



