POPULAK GARDENING 



AND FRUIT GROWING. 



"ACaUaX NOT nature, SBB HATB done BEB PART; DO THOU BUT THINE.' 



Vol. III. 



J^XrO- TJST, 1888. 



AnguBt^month when summer lies 

 Sleeping under sapphire skies; 

 Open all the windows wide, 

 Drinlc the orchard's fragrant tide,— 

 Breath of grass at morning mown 

 Through the leafy vistas blown,— 

 Hear the clinking of the scythe 

 Sound mellifluent and blithe. 

 August, month when everywhere 

 Music floats upon the air. 

 From the harps of minstrel gales 

 Playing down the hills and dales. 

 August days are guards who keep 

 Watch while summer lies asleep 



—Frank Dempster Sherman. 



At Last. All friends of horticulture may 

 well rejoice that under the provisions of the post 

 olHcc apjiropriation bill recently passed by Con- 

 gress, the postage on seed.s, cutting's, bulbs, roots, 

 cions and plants has been reduced one-half, 

 namely, to one cent for each two ounces or 

 fraction thereof. To take effect immediately. 



Louise Bonne of Jersey. An undue regard 

 for novelties, inferior at that, very often, may be 

 the cause for the apparent neglect of this excel- 

 lent old Pear. In the catalogue of the American 

 Pomological Society, the Louise receives com- 

 mendations from thirty-one States, a record 

 excelled by only .six varieties among all the sorts 

 cultivated showing a wide-spread value. The 

 other sorts are Bartlett, Angouleme, Seckel, 

 Summer Doyenne, Anjou and Lawrence 



A Royalty Swindle. A reader of Dearborn 

 County, Indiana, reports the case of an agent, 

 representing a Arm in Michigan, who is attempt- 

 ing to collect a royalty of eight cents on all the 

 Kiefter Pear trees planted in that section. As 

 there is no such thing as a royalty on the Kieflfer 

 or any other Pear, or new product, we can only 

 caution our new readers (for older ones must 

 know this) to be on the lookout against any 

 imposition of this or a similar character. Better 

 do US does this correspondent, get your trees, etc., 

 of a reliable firm, disregarding the extraordinary 

 statements made by agents who are entire 

 strangers. 



Hiram Sibley. The death of this man at 

 Rochester, N. Y., which occurred July 11, re- 

 moves from the business of this life one of its 

 most active and efficient forces. By rare business 

 sagacity he accumulated some millions of dollars, 

 and this ho used intelligently and successfully. 

 He was a liberal patron of the university of 

 Rochester, and endowed the Sibley School of 

 Mechanic Arts connected with Cornell Univer- 

 sity. In the agricultural world, aside from being 

 an extensive seedsman, Mr. Sibley was known as 

 the most extensive farmer in this or any other 

 country. He bought one farm of 50,000 acres in 

 Illinois, besides a tract of 4,200 acres in Cayuga 

 County, N. Y., and smaller farms in many places. 

 Mr. Sibley was eighty-one years old at the time 

 of his death, but active almost to the last day. 



Interesting Results from Crossing. 



M. H. BECKWrtH, ONTARIO CO., N. Y. 



For the purpose of studying the immedi- 

 ate effects of the pollen upon the fruit, I 

 pollcni/.ed a number of blossoms of very 

 dissimilar varieties, among which were the 

 Gregg and the Yellow Antwerp Raspberries; 

 also, the Gregg and the Caroline. 



The seed from the fruits were planted and 

 the seedlings are producing their first 

 crop of berries this season. These plants 

 are very interesting. One from seed of the 

 Gregg, crossed with Yellow Antwerp, is a 

 very vigorous growing plant, very different 

 from either parent in appearance, resemb- 

 ling the habit of growth of the Caroline; 



the canes are covered with numerous weak, 

 purplish spines. The berries are very 

 large, and similar in shape to the Antwerps; 

 color, a dark, reddish-purple, and are pro- 

 duced In great abundance. 



One plant having the same habit of growth 

 has a bright scarlet berry, very similar in 

 shape to the fruit of the Gregg. 



There is one plant from the seed of the 

 Gregg, crossed with the Caroline, that re- 

 sembles the latter in every way except the 

 color of the fruit which is a purplish-red. 



Conditions for the Germination of 

 Seeds. 



PETER HENDER.S0N, JERSEY CITY' HEIGHTS. N. J. 



A contemporary firm, one of the oldest 

 and best known in the United States, lays 

 down the rule in their seed catalogue, on 

 this subject by saying the conditions neces- 

 ary for the best germination are "proper 

 temperature, sufficient moisture, and free 

 access of air." To the first two of these 

 rules, every gardener and farmer will heart- 

 ily assent, but the last is misleading and 

 dangerous: "Free access of air" is ever 

 destructive to the germination of seeds, 

 particularly in our hot, dry atmosphere, and 

 is not necessary to accomplish that end. 



For this reason, I have for the past thirty 

 years never lost an opportunity to emphat- 

 ically advise that all seeds sown, whether 

 indoors or out, should be pressed firmly in 

 the soil, so as to exclude the air, and thus 

 prevent the seed being shriveled and dried 

 to an extent that in four cases out of five 

 would destroy germination, and also in 

 cases where germination does take place, if 

 the soil is left loose, the dry air is often 

 sufficient to shrivel up the young plants 

 even after they have started. 



I have written considerable in my time on 

 horticultural subjects, but I have ever 

 believed that my essay on "The Use of the 

 Feet in Sowing and Planting" read before 

 the National Society of Nurserymen, at 

 Cleveland, Ohio, some eight years ago, has 

 been of more value to farmers and gardeners 

 than all else I have written put together. 

 That essay has been extensively distributed 

 during all these years, and has now been 

 read by hundreds of thousands, and I have 

 had more thanks for it from those who have 

 practised its teachings, than for all else I 

 have ever written, for of all climates, ours 

 is such as to make this practice imperative. 

 Millions are annually lost by our farmers 

 and gardeners through ignorance of the 

 importance of this rule in sowing seed. In 

 England and similar climates, the moist 

 temperature and large proportion of cloudy 

 weather make this less nece.ssary, hence 

 the silence of all English writers on farming 

 and gardening on this subject. 



The present season, the valuable garden 

 Pea crop in Canada and Northern New York 

 (embracing many thousand acres) is almo.st 

 a complete failure, owing to an unprece- 

 dented drought during May and June; had 

 the Peas when sown been firmed in the soil, 

 by the foot or otherwise, germination would 

 have taken place within five days, without 

 it, (and probably it was done in a single 

 case,) germination could not take place in 

 the loose, dry soil under ten or twelve days. 



and in the dry, hot atmosphere, 

 delay enough to destroy the crop. 



Many cases in point, showing its practical 

 value, occur every season. This last May 

 we planted an acre in rows of a new kind of 

 Ijima bean; one row was mi.ssed being 

 firmed with the brogan, — while the other 

 rows were above ground in ten days, this 

 unfirmed row took twenty, and would, 

 maybe, have failed altogether, had we not 

 had rain. The consequence of this ten day's 

 delay will probably be enough to completely 

 destroy the crop from being too late to ma- 

 ture. If "Firm the Seed in the Soil" wasc<m- 

 spicuously printe<l at every cross-road and 

 railroad station throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land, and the advice acted 

 upon, the mourners for loss or failure of 

 crops by germination would be very few. 



Improving Flowers. 



JOHN LANE, COOK CO.. ILL. 



Of the many little things to be observed 

 and done in improving flowers, are first, 

 become familiar with them so that you will 

 know when yon see something extra choice, 

 — visit the florists, parks, and gardens, and 

 read the florists papers, study the flowers 

 and habits of the plant, procure and plant 

 the best seed, and test the novelties, watch 

 them as they grow and come into bloom, 

 and when you discover an extra choice 

 flower or a better habit, either mark it for 

 seed or prepare it for removal. 



Do not hesitate to remove such a plant at 

 any time, — I am often finding such and at 

 once prepare them for removal, by giving a 

 full soaking of water, and the next day 

 insert the digger, a concaved spade, about 

 the plant and carefully lifting a ball of soil 

 sufficiently large to contain about all the 

 roots, then either potting in a large pot or 

 replanting in a new place, keep shaded, and 

 with soaking waterings for three or four 

 days, the plant will seem to thank you for 

 your attention. 



Then in saving seed, select those about 

 the center of the plant with large full pods. 

 Some very full double flowers seed sparingly 

 or none at all, in others the seed may look 

 perfect but be wanting in vitality,— these 

 things may be more or less controlled and 

 the seed improved, of which more anon. 



A Fine Rose Garden ; Tree Rose 

 Culture. 



Examples of the most successful kind of 

 Rose culture by amateurs are not very nu- 

 merous. When therefore the word recently 

 reached us that Mr. D. M. Dunning's su- 

 perb collection of Roses, at Auburn, N. Y., 

 was at the height of bloom, and a cordial 

 invitation was extended to us by the own- 

 er to see them, we gladly took a run to 

 his place, for we well knew the gentleman 

 to be an intelligent grower of this flower. 



Here we found on the ample lawn which 

 surrounds Mr. Dunning's city home a mo.st 

 charming collection of Hybrid Perpetual 

 and other Roses, growing in beds of various 

 pleasing shapes, and all in that perfect con- 

 dition of health and development which in- 

 dicates the presence of a master cultivator. 

 By the kindness of the owner we were per- 

 mitted also to have photographs taken of 



