270 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



Septemrer, 



T-vr SOCIETIES 



.^ESNQ MATTER."nUT DB SERVES 

 TO BEVnOELYKHOWM. 



The Peach Tomato is 



interesting as a novelty 

 with a sinsfniarly sweet 

 flavor, liiit it is too small 

 to have \aluo except for 

 pickles, or possibly as a 

 parent to new varieties. 

 ~K. S. Gnff. 

 The Shaffer Raspberry. It was reported to the 

 Ohio Horticultural Society by various yrowera, 

 that this sort was of special value for evaporatinff, 

 losing but little more than Blackcaps and bring- 

 ing a better price. 



Cauliflower Shading. Dr. .T. B. Ward, of New 

 Jei-sey, recommends the use of a rather thick 

 quality of tissue paper for the purjjose, the edge 

 being tucked down between the fruit and leaves; 

 not only keeping it white but also protecting 

 from the worms. 



Keeping Pears for Winter Use President 

 Townsend, of the Muskingum (O.) Society, said 

 that he put them in a i«>ol room and iu liarrels 

 and bo.\es— the barrels only about a third full— 

 and picked them over every week or so to get 

 out the ripe fruit. If e.vposed to the air too 

 much, or getting frosted before picking. Pears 

 would wilt. But with care he believed Pears 

 could be kept as well as Apples. 



Apple Trees and Manures. Secretary Wood- 

 ward, of the New York Agricultural Society, 

 recently stated that an Apjile orchard draws 

 more heavily upon the soil than grain growing. 

 One hundred barrels of Apples, in his estimate 

 removed from the land about as much phosphoric 

 acid as 100 bushels of wheat, and about as much 

 potash as fifty bushels. He concludes that potash 

 and phosphoric acid arc the principal elements to 

 apiily to orchards. 



Kaspberry Blight. Aiound Columbus, a large 

 Iiroportion of the Raspberry canes begin dying 

 at the top. On some the tops are dead, on others 

 halt the cane from the top downward, and fre- 

 quently all the fruiting canes of a hill are dead. 

 Very little is known of the disease, but it is some- 

 times designated as the " Raspberry Blight." 

 Some plantations have been entirely destroyed 

 by it. Slight traces of it in other parts have 

 appeared and disappeared, occasioning alarm.— 

 0. TT. Jldrich, tn im: Colitmlms, Co., (0.) Sncietu- 



Radishes in Japan. No vegetable affords more 

 variety, or more extensively used in Japan than 

 the Radish. They vary from those in this coun- 

 try both in color and shape.being mostly cylindri- 

 cal fusiform or club-shaped, of a Ught color, and 

 from one-fourth of an inch to over a foot in 

 diameter, and from six inches to over a foot long. 

 So numerous are the varieties that they are to be 

 had the year through; spring sorts being small 

 and solid, those for the fall large and tender.— 

 £■(21) Tamari, Japaii,li> the Am.Horllcultural Sue. 



Strawberries in Pennsylvania. G. R. Res- 

 siguie, in the report of the Pennsylvania Board 

 of Agriculture, says that Susquehanna county 

 produced ten thousand bushels, not a full crop; 

 and the average price above express and com- 

 mission was about two dollars and twenty-five 

 cents a bushel. The average yield from new 

 beds was a little over 1.W bushels to the acre, but 

 some went beyond 200. The trouble is that too 

 many cling to the old bed, the small varieties, 

 the wide matted row, careless picking and pack- 

 ing, so the supply was much below the demand. 



A Narcissus for Water Culture. The Puly- 

 anthm Nan-isttw. unlike the other species may 

 be bloomed in water, the same as the Hyacinth. 

 The Chinese in California, import a great many 

 of these bulbs and plant them in bowls and dishes. 

 They take a lot of nice, white quartz pebbles, 

 and fill their dish or bowl heaping full and build 

 their bulbs in, so that the bulbs will be firm, and 

 the bottom of them about an inch from the bot- 

 tom of the dish, and they ha\e them in all their 

 glory at the Chinese New Year, which occurs 

 generally in February.— Jlfcv. Bradford, before 

 tin: C'ldnnbii-s, 0/iiii, Society. 



Treatment of Baisies. Eitlier the White or Red 

 varieties grow from seed sown tliinly in August 

 orearly Seiitemljcr, and trans)>lantcd into frames 

 protj'ctiug with evergreen boughs, straw, etc. 

 In the .spriuK 1 use them to bonier almost every- 

 thing, as they bloom early and for a long time. 

 Divide the plants as they get so large as to be in 



danger of dying oft, if in the fall; treat during 

 winter as seedlings, except some to be put into 

 pots for house plants. Perhaps one objection to 

 raising from seed is that many are single the 

 first year, though they come mostly double the 

 second season.— fVi«,s. HirmhUiycr, Barahiio, TTi'.s. 



Ve^Ptable Degeneration. Vegetables grown 

 annually from seed cannot degenerate, though 

 the seeds ma.v be mixed and new sorts produced. 

 The Pobito, indigenous to the mountjtin sections 

 of Mexico and South America, affords the best 

 illustration of the imj^ortance of renewal bj' seed. 

 As usually grown from the tuber, it thrives for 

 about twenty-five years, when it manifests a 

 decided tendency to degenerate; then new seed- 

 lings in their turn pi'oduce good crops and for 

 a given time. Out of a dozen or more varieties 

 grown in the pa.st, only the Early Rose and Heb- 

 ron are now cultivated.— 0. IT'. Haclwen, Maan. 

 Hortieultiiral Society. 



Jessie Strawberry. I think the reason that 

 J. M. Smith's trial with the Jessie has been so 

 unsatisfactory, is because he has been too good 

 to it; he has literally killed it with kindness. 

 Any one who has ^^sited his garden knows that 

 it is under the highest state of cultivation, con- 

 sequently the Jessie does not thrive there as does 

 the Wilson or any of those varieties that are 

 great feeders and with which he is successful. 

 The Sharpless, of which the Jessie is a seedling, 

 is not a success in a rich soil. To me those little 

 rows of sturdy Jessies, growing in gravel upon 

 Mr. Loudon's grounds, had a deep significance. 

 They told me more plainly than did the luxuriant 

 ones growing near them in more favorable soil, 

 that here was a Strawberry for all, the careless 

 as well as the careful cultivator.— T". S. Camitbell, 

 before WUcnn.'<iii Hortic-ultural Soeicty. 



The Horticulturists of Missouri are thus in- 

 terested in the matter of contributing to the 

 great St. Louis Exposition, beginning Sept. 3d, 

 and closing Oct. 20th, b.v the oflicers of the State 

 Society: Let every county society make an effort 

 to show well, and let counties which have no so- 

 ciety (but ought to have) take hold and send in a 

 collection of Iruit, as fast as they ripen, to the St. 

 Louis Refrigerator Co., who will hold the fruit 

 free of charge, by e.xpress pre-paid, and have 

 your name marked plainly on it for St. Louis 

 Fruit Show. Pick your fruit while firm and 

 hard, pack well in one-third bushel bo.xes put- 

 ting only one or two varieties in a box; wrap 

 each specimen in several thicknesses of paper. 

 Send none but perfect specimens; no bruises, 

 worm holes, scab mai'ks, or broken stems; have 

 every part perfect. — L. A. Goetdman, Secy. 



Budding, Grafting, Cions, Etc. A. F. Cole- 

 man, in an address on this subject at the Iowa 

 State Horticultural Society's meeting, said; 

 Of late, budding seems to interest most of us. 

 The traveling peddler has found a remedy in 

 days past for root-killed trees, blight, and in fact 

 everything that has been a hindrance to an abun- 

 dance of fruit on every table. And just now he's 

 telling the dear people: Buy budded Apple trees 

 of me at 25 to .50 cents, and you will succeed, 

 when he could get a good grafted tree of most 

 any reliable nurseryman for 10 cents, that is 

 worth ten times as much. In my opinion this 

 budding-Apple-tree business is a grand humbug. 

 I think more time and money will be lost to our 

 planters by this than by any other humbug that 

 has ever been practiced on them. We know not 

 more than one seedling in a thousand is hardy 

 enough to stand our Iowa winters. And when 

 you bud ever so hardy a variety on a tender 

 stock, your tree is worthless, whereas, if you 

 graft a section of the root with the said hardy 

 variety, your tree will be a success. 



The Work in Wisconsin. A very interesting 

 summer meeting of the State Horticultural 

 Society was held at Ripon, June 2» and 2i). The 

 little cit.v of Ripon in the midst of a splendid 

 farming country, is noted as a center for small 

 fruits, especially Strawberries and Blackberries. 

 Of these kinds there are several hundred acres 

 in the immediatti vicinity. The display of Straw- 

 berries at this meeting was wonderful, and the 

 Jessie bore off most of the prizes, as well as win- 

 ning increased jiopular fa\or. Mr. Loudon, the 

 originator of this variety sent for exhibition a 

 nimiber of new seedlings, designated bj- num- 

 bers. Mr. Loudon is an enthusijist and will test 

 new \'arieties while he lives, for it was bred in 

 him. The papers read were of a high order of 

 excellence; butthe one which professionals were 

 most interested in was by J. C. Plumb, of Milton, 

 on "Top working the Siberian as a means of 



followed up the discussion with specimens of 

 trees two, three and four years old. worked with 

 different varieties. This subject will be further 

 discussed at a future meeting. A committee 

 was appointed to draft a bill to be introduced at 

 our next legislature authorizing the Governor to 

 appoint an Arbor Day. Horticulture in our 

 State is assimiing an important position.— B. S. 

 Hoxie, Secretary. 



Improviu? The Highways. Mr. F. E. Skeels, 

 of the Grand Rapids, Mich., Horticultural Society 

 recently said: Do not limit the trees you set (mt 

 in the highway to the prescribed 60 feet .apart, 

 but arrange them in clumps, putting, if you 

 please, a continuous row for continuous shade, 

 but break the monotony in some way by arrang- 

 ing them as nearly as possible after nature's plan, 

 remembering that she knows nothing about 

 straight rows. Of course they take from the 

 fertility of the field along which they grow. So 

 does the Apple tree or the Corn stalk; we grow 

 the latter for the stomach's sake, and the former 

 should be grown and protected for the sake of 

 our finer qualities, say more for the benefit of 

 the neighborhood and the traveling imblic. I 

 wish to impress the fact that the highway was 

 not made for teams alone. The law recognized 

 this fact. Instead of turn-piking up all the dirt 

 from the roadside, leaving a ditch filled with 

 stagnant, death-breeding water or slime, let us 

 go a little farther and haul dirt from where it 

 can be better spared, and put some along the 

 grading and rolling it nicely, putting in a tile 

 culvert where necessary to cany of water, thus 

 adding a sidewalk to our roads, a benefltto the 

 public, and a considerable value to our adjoining 

 lands. We have laid some plank in our district.and 

 although the overseer was censured for spend- 

 ing money that way the public appreciates it. 



Worm on Honeysuckle. The sweet Dutch 

 Honeysuckle has, with us, a particular enemy. 

 This species, which is one of the climbing cut- 

 worms, first came under my notice two years 

 ago, and has not previously been catalogued 

 among injurious insects. The young worms 

 hatch just as the blossom buds appear in the 

 spring, and in their pale pinkish and green 

 colors simulate so perfectly the color of the buds 

 along which the.v extend themselves, that it is 

 very difficult to distinguish them. After the 

 second month, they become darker, gradually 

 assuming a mottled brown and gray color with 

 lighter stripes. They feed only at night, 

 and almost exclusively on the flower buds, cut- 

 ting them off in large numbers. They desert the 

 vine earl.v in the morning and conceal them- 

 selves on the ground under fallen leaves or the 

 Uke. HaWng once discovered their habit, we last 

 year trapped great numbers by means of chips, 

 bits of bark and the like, placed under and around 

 the plants. These traps were examined and the 

 worms removed every day while their season 

 lasted, and comparatively few have appeared 

 the present season. When grown they form for 

 themselves substantial, oblong cocoons of silk, 

 intermingled with particles of wood and leaves, 

 from which the moths emerge in ten or twelve 

 days, late in May and early in June. The moth 

 expands somewhat more than an inch, and is in- 

 conspicuously colored in grayish brown, with the 

 fore wings longitudinally streaked with black, 

 and crossed by two curved and wavy stripes of 

 black and white lines. The hind wings are 

 paler, shading to dull white near the base.— ilfiss 

 Murtfehit, before the yViscuimin State Society. 



increased hardiness." Mr. J. V. Cotla, of Illinois, 



Cider and Cider Vinegar Making. 



[H. M. Diinlap, before the Central Illinois Horticul- 

 tural Sofiety.'] 



The dem;in(l now is for a sweet beverage 

 retaining the flavor of the fruit and bene- 

 ficial to health. It is necessar.v then to keep 

 cider sweet, and lo do this sound ripe frnit 

 is a necessity, for it is impossible to make 

 flrst-class cider out of poor fruit. 



The Apples must be reduced to a fine pulp and 

 pressed through cloths which retain all the 

 pomace. The product then, after filtering, is 

 ready to be stored in the cellar in barrels scru- 

 puhmsly clean; to sum up, good cider depends 

 upon sound, ripe fruit, clean handling, clean 

 Iiackages and the l>est machinery. 



Fermentation. Before taking up the process 

 f)f preserving cider in its sweet state, let us con- 

 sider the cause of fermentation. According to 

 the germ theory of fermentation, certain micro- 

 scopic spores that e.vist in the air, come into con- 

 tact with the cider at the very first step of its 



