236 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



Ontario County. A Short Call at the 

 State Farm. 



Passing through Ontario County, New 

 York, recently we took occasion to drop in 

 at the State Experiment Station at Geneva, 

 even thouglj it was Saturday afternoon and 

 the trains gave us scarcely above an hour 

 on the grounds. A heavy shower in the 

 hour also interfered with nuiking most of 

 tlie time at our dispo.sal, but as rain was so 

 much needed no complaints were heard. We 

 had thought that the e.xtreme western end 

 of the State showed "as dry as could be," 

 but here the parched grass along the road- 

 sides and about the buildings of the State 

 grounds, and vegetation generally, told of 

 suffering to plant life such had not been 

 endured in Niagara County and adjacent 

 counties up to that date. 



Managing horticulturist E. S. Goff and his 

 assistants, Beckwith and Hunn, were atten- 

 tive to our inquiries during our all too-brief 

 call. Here we had pointed out a plat some 

 acres in size, laid out in beds about 20 feet 

 wide, walks between, and devoted to exper- 

 iments in vegetables, grasses and small 

 fruits, besides a new vineyard of nearly 100 

 varieties, old and new orchards, and some 

 of the older Strawberry and small fruit 

 plats that are soon to be turned under. 



Among garden vegetables the Tomato is 

 receiving a fair share of attention in the 

 garden. Special interest is being taken in 

 an upright growing variety of this vegetable, 

 which originated on the grounds two years 

 ago, a cross between the French Upright 

 iind the Alpha. Being both early to ripen 

 its fruit and of compact habit Mr. Goff is 

 after two years trial, of the opinion that it 

 possesses value as an early variety for for- 

 warding under glass. It grows to a perfect 

 tree one foot and a half high, and of the 

 same width, with the ends of the outer 

 branches lapping to the ground. The 

 foliage is of a singularly dark green color. 

 The fruit appears near the axis of the plants. 



Among " novelties " in vegetables we 

 noticed the Gabo from Japan, looming up 

 conspicuously and presenting a wonderfully 

 familiar appearance for having come from 

 the antipodes. This, we hardly needed to be 

 told, was nothing more than the common 

 Burdock, which, although classed as a 

 troublesome weed (of some medicinal value 

 however) by us, takes third place in import- 

 ance among culinary vegetables in .Japan. 

 The root is the part there used occupying a 

 place quite similar to that of the Parsnip 

 in this country. 



Bordering the vegetable plat on two sides 

 is the highway line, and indicated by a Nor- 

 way Spruce hedge. We refer to this hedge 

 because of its tine character, extending as it 

 does to the full length of the north boundery 

 of the farm, and partly along the western 

 one. The hedge is about seven feet iu height 

 and of conical form crosswise. ha\ing rather 

 a broad base. It is sheared every spring, 

 Asked how he esteemed the Norway Spruce 

 for hedges as compared with other hedge 

 plants Mr. Goff replied that he thought it was 

 one of the very best and worthy of wide use. 

 As managed here it certainly makes a first- 

 rate fence, as well as answering an admira- 

 ble end in the way of a low wind break. 



Among forage crops we noticed a fine plat 

 of Alfalfa or Ijucern — the two being identi- 

 cal, which had been once cut and was again 

 starting up firmly. This plant is here ranked 

 highly as a soiling crop because of its strong 

 early growth, followedby heavy later crops. 

 It does not form a sod but is kept in drills. 

 The present vigorous plat was sown in 1883. 



The showing of the Strawberries was any- 

 thing but satisfactory owing to the extreme 

 drouth prevailing. Indeed we have nowhere 

 seen this fruit in a worse plight on this 

 account, than on the old beds located on light 

 soil here. The heavy rain prevented our 

 making any notes on the relative showing 



of |the varieties. Mr. Goff remarked that 

 the Coville's Early had demonstrated its 

 value as an early variety for home use, for 

 it came in fully four days earlier than any 

 other sort. It is too soft for market growing 

 except for a near market. Cornelia Wiis 

 mentioned as a satisfactory late variety for 

 the amateur. A small plot of plants that 

 had the year previous been sprinkled with 

 a solution of sulphide of potash, the residue 

 of a can after treating some Apple trees 

 for scab, showed a fine contrast in liealthful- 

 ness of foliage with most of the surrounding 

 parts. Although made without any special 

 object in view, the appearance of things 

 now a year after the application goes far to 

 Indicate that in this is to be found, a remedy 

 against Strawberry leaf blight. The treat- 

 ment referred too is of so simple a character 

 that growers who are troubled by this ail- 

 ment of the Strawberry would do well to 

 to give it trial. 



Insects in the Development of Flow- 

 ering Plants. 



CLARENCE M. WEED, OHIO EXPERIMENTAL STATION. 



One of the most interesting fields of inves- 

 tigation which modern science has opened 

 up is that of the mutual relations of insects 

 and flowers, the study of that exquisite 

 interdependence by which one organic group 

 is necessary to the other. Eminent botanists 

 believe that many ages ago there were none 

 of the large-petaled parti-colored flowers 

 that now give such touches of grace and 

 beauty to our landscapes. Then flowers 

 consisted only of the essential pistils and 

 stamens— as is the case now with the incon- 

 spicuous blossoms of the Oak, Hickory and 

 similar trees. Doubtless these flowers 

 depended upon the wind to carry the fer- 

 tilizing pollen from blossom to blossom, but 

 with the introduction of insects, especially 

 the bees and wasps, it became desirable for 

 some plants to make the most of these new 

 pollen carriers, and so they were gradually 

 changed to fit themselves for this end. 



The way in which these curious changes 

 were brought about is thought to be some- 

 what lus follows: Every gardener is fayjiliar 

 with the fact that plants under certain con- 

 ditions will vary or " sport" as it is called, 

 from the one which produced the seed. 

 This occurs not only in cultivated plants 

 but also in wild flowers. The first petals 

 were probably developed from some primi- 

 tive sportive blossoms in which the outer 

 stamens became flattened, these making the 

 plant more noticeable than its non-sportive 

 neighbors. Being more conspicuous it would 

 be more freely visited by bees and other 

 insects, therefore more certain of fertiliza- 

 tion by pollen from another plant; because 

 of which, as Darwin has so clearly proven, 

 the seeds produced by the flower would be 

 better developed, and produce stronger 

 plants than the others. These plants would 

 in turn produce flowers having similar 

 peculiarly developed stamens, which would 

 again be more freely visited by insects, and 

 consequently develope thriftier seeils, so the 

 process continued until a row of the insect- 

 attracting petals were developed as in the 

 Apple, Cherry, Pear and the great majority 

 of our common flowering plants. 



This evolution of petals is strikingly illus- 

 trated by the white Water Lilies of our 

 ponds. Toward the center of tlie blossom 

 is a large number of the yellow styles of the 

 stamens with the pollen bearing anthers 

 upon their summits. A little farther out 

 some of the styles have become flat with the 

 anthers only partially developed, while still 

 farther towards the edge the styles are whole 

 and have no trace of anthers, only differing 

 from the petals by their smaller size and 

 yellow color. As Grant Allen has well ex- 

 pressed, it "stereotyped, as it were, the 



mode of evolution of petals from stamens." 

 Here another phase of the subject comes 

 in view. " How came the flowers to be of 

 so many colors, and why are some blossoms 

 of one color and others of another? " As 

 stamens are very largely yellow, many sup- 

 pose that primitive flowers were largely 

 yellow: and the question arises " How came 

 these originally yellow petals to assume the 

 many varied hues they now possess? " A 

 quarter of a century ago this question would 

 scarcely have been thought of, to say noth- 

 ing of an attempt to answer it, but thanks 

 to the researches of Darwin, Lubbock, Mul- 

 ler. Gray and others we can now at least 

 point to a plausible solution of the problem. 

 Their investigations prove not only that 

 the colored petals of flowers are parts of 

 the plant especially developed to attract 

 insects, but also that certain colors attract 

 certain insects. For instance. Dandelions, 

 May-weeds, and other white or yellow 

 flowers are most freely visited by two-wing 

 flies, while bees, butterflies and wasps are 

 most freely attracted to more highly colored 

 ones. This color preference has been con- 

 clusively proven by Sir .John Lubbock in 

 the case of bees. But why did the primitive 

 yellow flower commence to vary. Here 

 again we attribute it to that element in plant 

 life which is called sporting. Suppose a 

 yellow blossom, through some change of 

 circumstances or locality becomes slightly 

 pinkish. It would at once be more readily 

 seen by the insect visitors, and hence would 

 be more freely visited. Then the same great 

 laws of natural selection as mentioned above 

 come into play, and continue to act until the 

 progeny of the original sport becomes a well- 

 fixed species. 



This fascinating subject has not received, 

 especially in America, one-tenth of the atten- 

 tion it deserves. I have attempted to indi- 

 cate one or two of the general concUisions 

 which have been reached thus far; but there 

 are many other parts of the subject, that 

 illustrate eqijally well the applications of 

 modern doctrine of descent through varia- 

 tion to the organic world as we find it to-day. 



Methods of Quince Propagation. 



W. W. MEECH, CUMBERLAND CO., N. J. 



Propagation by Skeds. All the recent 

 varieties of merit seem to be chance seed- 

 lings. Seed should be selected from the 

 best specimens. It should never be allowed 

 to get thoroughly dried before it is planted. 

 If not convenient to plant when taken from 

 the fruit, preserve it in moist sand till 

 spring, when, in a well-prepared seed-bed, 

 it should be covered two or three inches 

 deep, and treated as other seedlings. 



PliOl'AllATION BY LAYERS. It is a Very 

 sim])le operation to bend down a limb, and 

 keep it covered with moist earth till it is 

 rooted, and then cut it from the parent tree. 

 If the bent branch is partly cut ott' or slit up 

 under a bud, or twisted like a withe at the 

 lowest point, it will help both the bending 

 and the rooting. A wire twisted around 

 the layer just below the bottom bud in the 

 ground, and holes punched through above 

 and below the wire, may help; or the holes 

 may be made through the layer in the buried 

 portion to stinu^late its rooting from the 

 callus of the wounds. The bark is some- 

 times cut nearly around the layer just below 

 a bud. and bits of wood removed below this 

 cut to induce the formation of a callus, from 

 which roots are emitted. It is sometimes 

 necessary to fasten down stiff branches with 

 a forked peg or a weight. Young shoots of 

 thrifty trees make the best layers. Early 

 spring is the best time to put down layers, 

 that they may be well rooted by autumn. 



Mound Layers or Stool Layers differ 

 from the others, by having the earth heaped 

 up around them instead of being buried in 



