1 888. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



265 



important as sowing st'cd. I would tread in, and 

 then luivi' the surface raked over lightly, just 

 enough to loosen it on the top. 



WoUMS Eating Pansies (page 242). One day 

 I found my plants badly eaten, and looked them 

 over but found no cause; still the plants grew 

 more eaten every day; and I Hnally made another 

 and more thorough e.xamination, and found the 

 plants just alive near the roots with worms that 

 resembled those that infest the Currants. I held 

 the plants up and sprinkled them with white 

 hellebore mixed in water (one t^aspoonful to a 

 pail of water). Two ap]>lieations cleared out 

 every worm.— J. B. Waite, Mase. 



The Louise Bonne Pear. The value of this 

 Pear is enhanced by its keeping quality. It is 

 also better not to pick it too early. t)f course 

 the heat during ripening season makes a vast 

 difference. The Louise is an enormous bearer as 

 a dwarf; but the quality is not any better than 

 on standard. The standards take a fine shape, 

 and is a rich, fine looking tree. It is a Pear that 

 will bear high culture. 



S.i.MUEr. Miller'.* notes are always valuable, 

 because he is always experimenting. On the whole 

 what pleasure is there in horticulture if we do 

 not undertake to create? As to wild Goose Plum, 

 mine also never bore for fifteen years and I cut 

 them out. Either Mr. Miller has another sort, 

 or his are fertilized from a distance. This latter 

 supposition is not impossible as cases have been 

 known of fertilization from a distance of a mile 

 or more.— JB. P. Powell, Oneida Co., N. Y. 



Moving Plants. In directions for this work 

 it is directed to give soaking waterings for three 

 or four days. It is possible to overdo this by 

 keeping the soil so wet that it is nearly imper- 

 vious to air, thus suffocating the plants; also in 

 very hot weather steam may arise and do injury. 

 Pistillate Strawberries. There is a great 

 difference in the blossoms of Strawberries in 

 different yeare and under different circum- 

 stances, and such varieties as Crescent will some- 

 times develop small stamens with pollen enough 

 to effect fertilization, and produce a good crop 

 when no other variety is near; and this offers a 

 much more rational and satisfactory explanation 

 of Samuel Miller's case of the Mary Stuai-ts than 

 to suppose that one fertilization lasts for several 

 years and extends to the runners even, as 

 he suggests. As for the latter hypothesis, it 

 would <mly be necessary to have the first 

 field of any pistillate variety fertilized, and 

 it should take care of itself afterwards. 



The Red-Headed Woodpecker. We have 

 the white, the speckled and the partridge 

 woodpecker or wickiper all having red heads, 

 and I am not certain but there are others. 

 I have never seen enough of the llrst two to 

 make much impression upon a fruit crop, 

 and, so far as I have observed their habit.«. 

 neither of the three can be called a fruit-eat- 

 ing bird, and I consider them very useful as 

 insect ilcstroyers. 



Seeds Good and Otherwise. Your corrc- 

 spondant's rule to bu.v seeds of those who raise 

 them is perhaps a good one, but the clifliculty is 

 that no one firm raises all its seed, and they are 

 liable to imposition from those who raise them. 

 Sometimes from ignorance and sometimes from 

 cupidity , proper care is not taken to prevent 

 mixture. A few years ago I visited a flower seed 

 fai-m, the owner of which raised seeds for one 

 of the most reliable houses in the trade, and 

 among other things I saw a lot of Balsams 

 intended to be offered as flrst-class double, yet 

 all the single flowers had been allowed to grow 

 with the others; and to my suggestion that these 

 should have been removed as soon as their 

 character was developed, the owner replied that 

 they would be taken out before seed was col- 

 lected. In another instance a grower of Water- 

 melon seed applied manure which contained 

 Citron seed, and all were allowed to grow up 

 together with the same idea as in case of the 

 Balsams, that all that was necessary was to save 

 seed only from the ones wanted. These were 

 not cases of Intentional wrong, but resulted from 

 gross ignorance. Another case, however, cer- 

 tainly verged a little upon dishonesty. A seeds- 

 man who had four seed farms some distance out, 

 rented them with the agreement that the tenant 

 should raise tor him four varieties each of Beans 

 and Turnip seed, each variety to be grown on a 

 different farm. The seedsman %'isited these farms 

 one season and saw that everything was appar- 

 ently all right; but the ne.xt year finding it to 

 suit his arrangements of other crops better, the 



tenant planted all the seed crop on unv farm in 

 close contingenee to each other; an<l the aec^ds- 

 man, having httic time to spaie and thinking the 

 business was arranged so it would be all right, 

 did not visit these farms, and the result, of course, 

 was that his customers got mixed seeds. And 

 these are only fair samples of what is going on 

 somewhere every year. My practice in buying 

 is to select a house where appearances indicate 

 the best knowledge of the business, and where 

 proprietors appear nuwt like honest men; and 

 when one finds good seeds it is poor policy to 

 change sim|)ly for the purpose of buying cheaper. 

 Pea(^h Yellows. A Delaware nurseryman 

 who publishes a horticultural periodical, claims 

 that there is no such contjigious disease as yel- 

 lows, and that a large portion of what is called 

 yellows is due to starvation, from which I infer 

 that the genuine disease has not come under his 

 observation, for where it really shows itself, its 

 character is so marked that it is hardly possible 

 to mistake it. Aud from the appearances of the 

 Peaches on sale in Philadelphia in the early part 

 of August I am inclined to the opinion that our 

 great Peach growing district in the Middle States 

 will not long contain many unbelievers. A large 

 portion of this fruit showed the dark color ex- 

 tending largely through the flesh; which is charac- 

 teristic of this disease and a Peach grower whose 

 business takes him to Philadelphia cverj- day, 

 estimated that fully nine-tenths of the fruit 

 then offered was prematurely ripened an<i it is 

 likely to very soon become the important ques- 

 tion whether the real yellows is curable. 



Mulching Trees. This is undoubtedly a great 

 advantage if properly managed, but a heavy 

 mulch tends to bring the roots to the surface, 

 and I think it better to keep clean and well culti- 

 vated through the cool and wet portion of the 

 year, and put the mulch on just in time to save 

 from hot and dry weather; this to be removed 

 when cool weather comes. 



Black knot on Plums. The advice to cut in 

 spring is hardly safe. New ones are formed dur- 

 ing summer and winter, crack and emit the 

 spores which are in effect seeds; the knots 

 sh(mld be cut off and burned in fall or early 

 winter or better still before they become black 

 during summer or early fall. 



SIMPLE MUSHROOM GROWING. (See Opposite page.) 



Pansy Culture. This is quite a different 

 affair in southern New Jersey from what it is in j 

 Massachusetts. Here two inches of moss is none ■ 

 too much for a mulch and if we wish to grow 

 them in summer, shade is indispensable and it 

 can hardly be too dense. 



Bean and Pea Weevils. In our northern 

 States the Pea weevil is easily avoided by plant- 

 ing Peas intended for seed, in June, but here we 

 can rarely succeed in late planting and seed 

 should be brought from the north. The habits 

 of the Pea weevil are somewhat different, and 

 late planting does not give immunity, and I do 

 not think that a combined effort would starve 

 them out, for there is a wee^^l that attacks 

 several wild plants, as the wild Bean (Tephnma 

 Virginica) of our swamps and brook-sides, and 

 also the wild Lupin, which I think is the same 

 as the one found in our cultivated Beans. Some- 

 thing may be done, however, in keeping the 

 Beans— if kept in a warm place the weevil eats 

 its way out before planting time in spring, but 

 if they are exposed to the winter temperature 

 in an out building, they will He in a dormant con- 

 dition or rather not hatch out till later, and if 

 kept in cold storage they would not likely injure 

 the Bean at all. I have also kept seed Beans in 

 glass cans with a little benzine among them, and 1 

 a piece of oiled paper tied over. 



Varieties Running Out. Of course there 

 can be no question that trees and plants like 

 animals have a limit to their term of life, and 



I 



although in the case of some trees this is a very 

 long one, they must eventually grow old and die. 

 There are obvious reasons for this which It is 

 not necessiuy to review, but when we attempt to 

 apply the same rule to variclk-^ the ease presents 

 entlrel.v different conditions. Naturtr tut'^ ar- 

 ranged dllferent methods for the multiplication 

 of different trees anil ]>lants. Some increase by 

 s<>eds, some by runnei-s, othere, like some of the 

 Itubus family and the Yellow Locust, by suckers, 

 and others again like the American Yew, slowly 

 spread by layei-s. Some plants combine several 

 of these methods, while others are almost ex- 

 clusively contlned to one. Now I do not antici- 

 I>ate that It will be claimed that those which 

 c(»me from seed will run out so long as the same 

 outward <-lrcurastances continue. It nuiy be 

 said that u new jilant produced by a runner Is 

 essentially a portion of the original and retains 

 its characteristics fully, while plants produced 

 from seed are strictly new existences, and do not 

 retain the characteristics of the parent. In ease 

 of the common Yellow Locust, however, the 

 seedlings do retain the same tyin; as fully as the 

 Suckers, and I tail to see that there is much 

 closer connection between a Strawberry plant, 

 produced at the end of a slender runner, and its 

 parent plant, than between a plant and its serai - 

 lings; the runners from these are still farther 

 removed, and the \igor of all these plants is 

 dependent on the conditions around them. These 

 remarks apply with equal force to plants and 

 trees from cuttings and grafts. Much more of 

 similar im|iort might be said, but this is .sudieient 

 to draw attention to these points. To ref('r 

 again to <mtward circumstances which I think 

 should be exclusively credited with the ruiming 

 out of varieties just tis the running out of species 

 would be, take the Wilson Strawberry as one 

 the most familiar examples: It originated in a 

 climate which is comparatively cool and moist, 

 and at the time berries were not so extensively 

 raised, prices were higher and the lu-e.sent plan 

 of planting immense fields of jmor land, which is 

 often done now, had not been practiced; this 

 transfer Ui hot and dry climates and starveil 

 condition is one cause of running out. Another 

 cause, and I think the prominent one, is the 

 Strawberry rust. I am not (piite certain that this 

 had made its appearance at all, though I think 

 not; however that may be, it had not be- 

 come general. We have plenty of e\'idenee 

 that this variety is still grown in many places 

 with all its primitive vigor, and even here in 

 our sainly soil and luit sinnmer sun I saw a 

 large field of it lookiiigas finely and bearing as 

 full crops as ever, and why might luit the 

 term "run out" be applied with eipial truth 

 to n(rw N'arieties which fail within a year 

 after their intr:)duction. Notwithstanding. I 

 do not consider the Wilson run out. and be- 

 lieve it can be made t^) succeed fully when 

 the surroundings are all right. I heartily 

 assent to the desirability of raising new varie- 

 ties, because T consider it i>o.^sible that we 

 may get all the valuable points of any one 

 we now have with improvements in other re- 

 spects, and perhaps much greater jiowcrto resist 

 rust and other diseases.— IFm. F. Bagxctt, Atlan- 

 ta Co., N. J. 



Several Sorts ok Wild Goose Plum. Soon 

 after the introduction of the Wild Goose, when 

 nurserymen were sending samples to the fiar- 

 deners Monthly, in acknowledging them, the 

 editor remarked that no two samples were alike. 

 My Wild Goose were received from Delaware, 

 and for some years I considered them very poor 

 liearers, but after they acquired a .size of three 

 or four inches in diameter they did better, anil 

 have gradually increased the crop every year 

 since: It Is possible that it is age that is reqiiiretl 

 instead of other varieties. 



Specializing. That is good advice Mr. Purdy 

 gives in the sentence, " Don't spread over too 

 much ground," and its application Is by no means 

 to be restricted ta the soil tiller. I know a num- 

 ber of bright young men who will never make 

 as much of themselves as they might, simply 

 Iwcausc they do " spread over too much groun<l." 

 It pays t^) till deeplj' and thoroughly In science, 

 literature ami art just as it does in the garden. 



Pear Blight. I wish Mr. Miller would give 

 us a little more light on his remarks about Pear 

 blight. I have attempted to follow the liteniture 

 of the subject closely, and have never .seen this 

 wash reported as having been successfully used. 

 How docs it act, and when should it l)e applledv 

 —CUtrencc M. Weed, Ohio AuricuUural Ciillet/e. 



