i888. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



241 



into October. Most of shrubbery lawns 

 suffer sadly during summer. Watering is 

 of little value as a prevention except in small 

 yards. Yet a system- of irrigation may be 

 and should be also adopted. Of that I will 

 write hereafter. I vrrite now to suggest the 

 method of chief importance to save you from 

 bitter disgust and loss of pleasure in your 

 gardens and lawns during the dry season. 

 Whatever may be urgent for the Eastern 

 States is doubly important for the Western. 

 My own experience is that in Michigan the 

 sun burns and dries far more than in New 

 York. The loss of shrubs and trees planted 

 is therefore far greater. 



WALKS AND JOTTINGS. 



BY A. M. PURDV, PALSn-RA. N. Y. 



For Grabs on Strawberries. Dissolve cop- 

 peras and saltpetre in water, say 4 or .5 

 pounds to a barrel, and sprinkle vines when 

 ground is dry. 



Improved Whitewash for Peach Trees. Add 

 a gill of carbolic acid to a gallon of white- 

 wash. Also throw in a piece of soap as 

 large as a Butternut and stir up well. 



" White Blackberries" have been known 

 and tried for years— in fact, we have tried 

 scores of them from different sections, and 

 have yet to find one of them that is worth 

 the time and trouble. 



Summer Manuring. Stable manure may 

 be scattered among Strawberries that have 

 borne this year and, throw a good fork full 

 around the Raspberry bushes in bearing this 

 year. If land is rich and plantation y(jung, 

 we do not advise manuring much for first 

 year or two, as it runs plants too much to 

 vine and wood and too little fruit. 



Not True Economy. We would not recom- 

 mend any one to start an evergreen hedge 

 with plants from the woods and pasture. 

 First get some small plants and set them 

 out thickly in nursery rows, and after 

 growing a year or two set all the best and 

 thriftiest in the hedge row where needed, 

 and after setting, cut all back to same 

 height and you will soon have a fine hedge. 



Clover Land for Fruit. There never is 

 danger in plowing vinder Clover and using 

 such land for Raspberries and Strawberries 

 as you propose— planting the Raspberries 

 this fall and Strawl)erries next spring. But 

 such land should be watched closely that it 

 be not infected with grubs, and if so scatter a 

 bushel or even two bushels of salt to the 

 acre l)road cast over the land before plowing, 

 and same amount after plowing. 



Hints for August. 



LAYERrNO Grapes. It there are new canes 

 ffrowiii^ next to the crown of your plants, lay 

 them in and out of the ground, so that canes of 

 six feet in length will pass under the soil at least 

 three times. They can be held in bottom of 

 trench with little forked pegs and covered over 

 with earth. Many shrubs can be layered and 

 increased this month. Currant cuttings should 

 now be taken off, cut up into cuttings six to 

 eight inches long, and set firmly into the soil up 

 to the topmost bud. 



Tips of the Black Raspberry can be layered 

 through this month. .Simply open holes with a 

 trowel, and place tips of new growth in at an 

 angle of Vj degrees and cover with earth. 



Have all the old wood trimmed out of your 

 Blackberry and Raspberry plantations. 



If your Strawberry rows are uneven, having 

 vacant spaces, take up plants from well-flUed 

 spaces and transplant. 



Go through the Strawberries often, and train 

 the runners along in rows. 



This is a good time to scatter a little well-pre- 

 pared compost along the Strawberries rows. 

 Also put a small shovelful around each Rasp- 

 berry bush, but none around Blackberries, for 

 the latter do not need any stimulant until the 

 plant shows exhaustion, when manure may be 

 thrown around them late in the fall. 



This is the time to give the bodies of all your 

 trees a coat of white-wash. It destroys insects 



and eggs that the bodies are apt to be covered 

 with at this time of the year. 



Be sure to get your Grapes into market us 

 soon us they color, as it is the first fruit on the 

 stand that sells the best. 



Sow grass seeil for lawns now, an equal mixture 

 of Rod Top, Timothy, Orchard Gniss.and White 

 Dutch Clover, make a Ijcautiful carpet. 



Keep the Celery well hoed, and as it grows 

 taller keep the stalks snug together and earth 

 nil around it. 



If j'ou have no Strawberrj' bed set a few this 

 month, and if your soil is too heavy and stitT 

 draw on a few loads of sand and mix 

 thorf)Ughly through it. If sand is not to be had, 

 haul leaf mold from the woods, and also put on 

 coal ashes and work in well. 



Pears are ripening up this month. Most 

 varieties aie better to gather Just before they 

 are ripe, and place them on shelves or the floor 

 in a dark, close room. 



Don't allow weeds in the garden to go to seed. 

 If you can't do better to prevent it, cut them 

 down with a scythe or sickle. 



(id through the Sweet Potatoes, and whenever 

 vines outside of hills arc taking root pull them up. 



We are now ai'ranging our flower Ijeds for 

 planting bulbs — Hyacinths, Tulips, Cr<»cus, 

 Paeonies; also hardy Perennials— Pinks, Phloxes, 

 Spireas, &c., &c. A large space in front of our 

 olRee— made soil, we are now laying off intf) 

 flower beds, both for above sorts and bedding 

 out next spring. We find a good substantial 

 edging to be stones four to six inches through, 

 brick set up edgewise are also good; also narrow 

 grass sods. Box edging is splendid for beds a 

 distance from the house, but when the foliage is 

 wet, too strong to the olfactory organs to have 

 too near the house. 



The subsoil of our ground is gravel. This we 

 pick up loose and over it scatter well-rotted barn 

 yard manure, and over this sandy loam soil, 

 taken from just below the sod of a distant sand 

 knoll. On this we will put black mold from the 

 woods, and then mix all up together, scattering 

 in a little wood ashes. After planting out and 

 just before winter sets in, we shall cover the bed 

 with coarse barn yard manure, hauling the 

 coarsest of this off in early spring. 



This is a good time to shorten in the Ever- 

 gi-eensto make them grow compact and stocky. 

 Simply nip off the ends of limbs and leaders that 

 are growing too spindling. 



Vacancies in Strawberry rows can be fiUed up 

 now by taking up young plants with the runners 

 attached, and setting them in these vacancies, 

 and training the runners along the rows. 



Vacancies in Black Raspberry rows can also be 

 flUed up by laying the tips of the new growth in 

 the row, and this fall cutting oil the branch just 

 above the ground. 



If you ha\e not done so before, be sure to pot 

 some Strawberries, to be kept in the cold frame 

 for spring fruiting. 



Watch the flower seeds and gather as fast as 

 ripe, as they waste very easy. 



Look out for manure and make up compost 

 heaps as fast as you collect suitable materials. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



A department to which all are invited to send notes of 

 experience and observation conceminif topics that re- 

 cently hnve been treated on in this Journal. Many 

 such contributions nuinthly would be welcome. 



Virginia Creeper. While, for the purposes 

 illustrated last month this climber is very 

 suitable, yet in many respects it is but httle 

 better than a nuisance; one is where planted 

 against a house or other buildingswhere the temp- 

 tation to use it is strong, because of the ease and 

 rapidity of its growth. For three or four years 

 after planting it does well with no care, but after 

 that it must be trimmed each year. Then it 

 affords a harboring place for birds, especially the 

 Knglish Sparrow, and soon the house and vine 

 will almost certainly present an unkept and 

 aithy appearance. To such an extent, indeed, 

 is this true that some persons in our locality who 

 had fine vines have cut them down. The above 

 objections apply more to the common variety 

 (Ampelopsis i[Ui>U[uefolia) than to the newer 

 sorts, known as Boston or Japan Ivy (A. Roylli. 

 or Veitchii), either of which can be recom- 

 mended, as their growth is not so rank, and they 

 cling more closely to the walls, while in color, they 

 surpass this sort.-iJemk, Newport Cmuity.R.I. 



Propagating Clematis. I have found the 

 growing of them from seed a fairly satisfactory 

 way of increasing my stock. Nearly all varieties 



seed freely. When ripe, I separate the downy 

 sul)Stance from the seed, and sow in a shallow 

 l)OX, covering with sandy soil, about a quarter 

 of an inch, giving i)lenty of water, and set in a 

 moderately warm place, where it need not be 

 disturbed, as it will take five or six months for 

 the seedlings to appear. When this occurs, they 

 are shortly afterwunis potttd in rich, sandy soil. 

 With good care they will be likely to bloom the 

 second year.— 1,'. E. Suminey, Ei-ie Oiunty, N. Y. 



The Fruit Ciuip Report. This rejiort in the 

 July issue deserved some comment, for one 

 thing, because of the enterprise shown in secur- 

 ing returns from sources so wide-spread, and 

 also on account of the simple concise way of 

 spreading it before the reader, gi\ing at a 

 glance the state of the probable supply of fruit 

 in any section. As the summary indicates, the 

 crop throughout the country is slightly l)elow 

 the average, yet it is so evenly distributed that 

 in no section is there any general scarcity, so 

 that, except for the usual e.xiiort trade, there 

 may be no siiecial shipping demand. In view of 

 this outlook, it will be wise to study up means 

 for utilizing the crop in the best manner. This 

 will likely be by means of evaporators, even 

 though evaiiorated fruit should be cheap, yet 

 the cost of production from one's own orchard 

 is so low that a fair average money return may 

 reasonably be counted upon, from the large 

 demand. As to the reliability of the report, I 

 sh(ndd think it unnecessary to go further than 

 to direct attention to the difference between a 

 report like this, from disinterested well-known 

 gi'owers and those .sent out b.v parties, often- 

 times with the sole purpose of influencing the 

 market in different localities.— C. J. Oaiiies, 

 Yates County, N. Y. 



Pearl Sthawbekry. I have read with inter- 

 est the note of Mr. E. Williams in the July 

 number, on the behavior of the Pearl ()n his 

 grounds in New Jersey. We can also report 

 unexpected satisfaction with our trial of it 

 under the most trying circumstances. Our 

 plants, received from the West Jersey Nursery 

 Company in the spring of 1887, were planted on 

 well-prepai'od ground with such leading, new 

 sorts as liubach's No. .5, Jesse, Jewell, Itasca, 

 Great Pacific, and Touusend's 1001. The season 

 proved the dryest and hottest known in the 

 history of the West, yet the foliage on the Pearl 

 remained perfect, and the first of October 

 showed a well-filled matted row, better 

 than anything <jn the plot, except Great Pacific. 

 When the crop ripened this season it was pro- 

 nounced by pickoi-s and visitors the best in 

 yield of the new sorts, and the evenest, smooth- 

 est, firmest-fleshed, and best in quaUty of any 

 berrj'. This is high praise and may not be repeat- 

 ed another year, but as it now stands it has done 

 admirably under the most adverse circumstan- 

 ces.— J. i. Build, Iowa Agricultural College. 



Sweet Flowering Tobacco. In the article 

 on the cultivation of Nicotiana Aflinis, it is 

 spoken of as nearly hardy. It has proven per- 

 fectly hardy with me where the mercury went 

 down to fifteen below zero. Four years ago I 

 saved no seed of it, and in forking over a border 

 early in the spring, I found the roots of it from 

 the previous year. I cut them up same as 

 Bouvardia roots for propagation, and every bit 

 of them grew. I have done so every spring 

 since, as it makes a very good plant to put around 

 a Rhododendrons bed, or in mixed borders. 

 —John Hennex, New Bedford, Mass. 



Fuchsias in Pots. Contrary to the usual cus- 

 tom of bedding out the Fuchsias in the open 

 ground, I have them in pots plunged to the rim, 

 and have a most beautiful showing. I have them 

 in rather large pots, 5 to 8 inches, in very rich 

 light soil, set m a border adjoining the wall on 

 the north side of my house. About 100 plants, 

 large and small in a "2 foot length of border, the 

 larger plants overtopping the smaller: some of 

 the smaller plants about 1.5 inches high, and ijcr- 

 fect pyramids of flowers. They have been In 

 flower continually since put out in May and make 

 a grand display, and now July 14th, are in pro- 

 fuse bloom. I give them water in overhead 

 spray daily, and they seem to like the moist at- 

 mosphere. They are mostly of this year, Janu- 

 ary, February and March started plants, struck 

 at different times to get various sizes and a suc- 

 cession of best blooming, and I occasionally cut 

 back a branch here and there to induce new wood 

 and flowers. I expect continued bloom until 

 frost, and by keeping them in pots with a daily 

 syringing, a still more profuse blossoming.— Ji<h« 

 Lane, Amateur Florist, Chicago, III. 



