54 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



December, 



\ 



^SHT'^S^iCIETIES 



'-l^EiNQMATiERThAT Deserves 



TO BEVrlDBVrKHOWfU 



The Missouri State Hor- 

 ticaltoral Society. This 

 enterprising^ society will 

 hold its thirty-third annual 

 meeting at Clinton, Decem- 

 ber 3d and 4th, 1890. Prizes 

 will be given on fruits and 

 flowers. 

 Grapes vs. Wheat. At 

 the meeting of the Allegan County Pomologl- 

 cal Society, Mich., it was stated that Grapes at 

 two cents a pound were more profitable than 

 Wheat at a dollar a bushel. 



Too Many Window Plants. Do not crowd 

 your window plants. One handsome plant is 

 worth a dozen crowded into the space one should 

 occupy. Never turn your plants, if you want 

 them to be strong and nice looking, and never 

 move from one window to another. Do not wash 

 them to death. Do not make the mistake so 

 many amateurs make, of putting in too large 

 pots. Give them, as near as you can, their 

 natural condition, and let them alone.— Report 

 of Illinois Horticultural Society. 



Era of Agricnltaral Prosperity. I believe we 

 are entering upon an era of ^Sgricultural pros- 

 perity the like of which, as a people, we have 

 never known; and which prosperity is to be per- 

 manent Never, in the history of the world, 

 has there been such an intellectual awakening in 

 agricultural ranks as at the present time. Agri- 

 cultural papers abound, Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experimental Stations, Farmers' Institutes 

 and Clubs, the Grangeand Alliance testify to this 

 great uprising.— jDr. Collier, N. Y. t'xp. Station. 

 American Forestry. At the recent meeting of 

 the American Forestry Congress resolutions 

 were adopted recommending the sending of 

 young men to Europe to study forestry ; also the 

 modification of the rules regulating the manage- 

 ment of public timber lands in order to secure 

 the rewooding of forests. Protests were adopted 

 against the threatened suppression of the Board 

 of Forestry of California and against the alien- 

 ation of the last group of trees in Tulare county. 

 Recommendations were also made in regard to 

 the preservation of forests against fire. 



A Snccessfnl Amatenr Society. An amateur 

 horticultural society at Springfield, Mass., 

 although organized only a short time has 400 

 members. The life membership fees are 50 cents 

 for men and 25 cents for women, with no annual 

 dues, and expenses have to be looked for from 

 new members, and money from exhibitions. 

 The society has now $400 in the treasury, and 

 payin^all expenses, with a nice little hall, in 

 which meetings are held twice a month for dis- 

 cussion of flowers, fruits, etc. Nearly every- 

 body in the city who grows flowers belongs to it 

 or attend its shows. 



Flowers at Ohio State Fair. The grounds were 

 well decorated by a liberal diffusion of newly 

 transplanted ornamental trees and flowering 

 shrubs. They also contained several artificial 

 lakes. Several large conical-shaped mounds were 

 thickly set in scarlet-flowered Geraniums. In 

 Horticultural Hall there was a fine display of 

 Palms, Geraniums, Lilies, Plumbagoesand Roses; 

 among the latter I recognized a solitary speci- 

 men of that universally popular favorite La 

 France. There was a Crape Myrtle in full bloom. 

 In the whole collection nothing excelled the 

 Fuchsia. One plant in particular of about two 

 feet in height was literally loaded down with its 

 huge blossoms of a deep crimson hue. 



Grape Discussion. W. K. Munson named 

 Brighton as one of our best Grapes in quality. 

 J. Dean called attention to the weakness of the 

 Brighton roots, and advised growing it on Clin- 

 ton or Concord roots. Mr. Pearce stated that he 

 had all his Worden Grapes on the market, when 

 Concords were just coming in. The odor is also 

 entirely diB'erent. Altogether Worden is one of 

 the best varieties for common planting. Grapes 

 keep best in cold storage withovit ice, in houses 

 built above the level of the ground, stuffed with 

 sawdust and free from moisture. Sawdust is 

 good to pack in provided it is thoroughly dry. 

 Mr. Munson's ideal slope and soil is a high heavy 

 soil, and plenty of manure and ashes. Mr. Sailor 

 considered Worden, Concord, llrighton and Dela- 

 ware the big four iu Grapes. 



Exhibit at New Jersey State Fair. In spite of 

 the unfavorable year, the display of horticul- 



tural products, especiall.v of Apples and Pears, 

 was unexpectedly fine, says Garden and Forest, 

 although not as large as usual, while the Grapes 

 were fully up to previous exhibits, and Potatoes 

 were abundant and superior in size and smooth- 

 ness The most tempting of the Pears were 

 from cold storage : the Bartlett, Boussock and 

 other early varieties being especially attractive. 

 The greater part of the Grape display came from 

 Montclair, and finer clusters of Brighton, Cot- 

 tage, Concord, Wordon and Niagara were never 

 seen anywhere. Samples of the new white 

 Grape, Colerain. where on exhibition. The 

 clusters and berries were of medium size, but 

 the quality was pronounced excellent by all. 



Points for Fruit Growers At a recent meet- 

 ing of the Lenawee Co., Mich., Horticultural 

 Society, the following practical points were 

 brought out: The Quince can be raised from 

 cuttings, cut either in fall oi- spring. If cut in 

 the autumn they should be laid on the grass and 

 covered withleavesor boards. Runners on Grape 

 vines should be cut off during the growing season 

 if the vine is a strong grower; otherwise not. In 

 the last case simply rub off a portion of the buds 

 as they begin to start. Plant Grape vines eight 

 feet apart, and twelve feet apart in the rows, 

 unless land is very high in price. The Clinton 

 Grape is not worth much except for jelly. Mulch 

 Raspberries, Currants and Strawberries with 

 straw. For a fine summer drink use canned 

 Grape juice. When Grapes sell at two cents a 

 pound raise better varieties, such as Delawares, 

 which always bring a good price. Salem, Niagara 

 and Agawam have fair keeping qualities. Con- 

 cord is not a good keeper. 



Manuring Bearing Orchards. On my orchard 

 of bearing trees I spread 40 wagonloads of ma- 

 nure to the acre every year. I mulch my trees 

 thoroughly. It is impossible for a tree to bear 

 fruit and live any length of time, making thrifty 

 growth, unless the ground is properly manured. 

 If we keep the ground rich enough to make trees 

 have considerable growth, besides maturing its 

 fruit, then there is a proper prospect of its living 

 a number of years. I have trees iu my orchard 

 that have now stood there 2.S years, and to-day 

 they are as healthy as 20 years ago. I sold 

 more than four tons of Apples from an orchard 

 of Duchess of Oldenburgh, seven by nine rods in 

 size, this season. The trees bear every year; but 

 this result is only accomplished by means of 

 heavy manuring and mulching. I find as they 

 grow older that they require more mulching. 

 We must feed a tree, because it is very exhaust- 

 ing for it to produce its fruit each and every 

 year. The results with me from mulching have 

 been very satisfactory. It keeps the ground in 

 good condition and does not let the grass grow. 

 Manuring may be overdone with young trees, 

 but when a tree comes into bearing it needs 

 much food.— IFilUom Somerritte, before Minne- 

 sota Society. 



Shipplnir Fruit to Foreign Markets. Generally 

 speaking, it is a mistake to ship on consignment 

 to any but the three great distributing centres, 

 London, Liverpool and Glasgow. Experience 

 has shown that fruit shipped to London direct by 

 water has received much more damage in transit 

 than when shipped via Liverpool and thence by 

 rail to London. It is a very common thing to 

 find in cargoes shipped direct to London bv water, 

 barrels with only a few pecks in them, and as 

 the few left are clean, fine samples, it is natural 

 to conclude that they have been tampered with, 

 either when passing up the Thames or when in 

 charge of the dock comjjanies. I have often 

 visited the docks to see cargoes discharged, and 

 almost always remarked an amount of careless 

 handling that was startling— barrels of Apples 

 standing in the storage shetls open, and passers- 

 by having every chance to pilfer. I would, there- 

 fore, advise shippers to ship direct to London 

 always via Liverpool. This has a further advan- 

 tage of an extra market, for if the consignee in 

 London finds he can sell to advantage, consider- 

 ing the ditference in freight, by stopping the 

 cargo and disposing of it in Liverpool, he will do 

 so— A. M. Allen, Preset Ontario Fruit Ororccrs' 

 Association. 



Poison in Food Plants, some of the most val- 

 uable productions, like the White Potato, the 

 Tomato and the Egg-plant, are the results of 

 development in a family which produces the 

 Tobacco, the Jamestown Weed and the deadly 

 Nightshade; and still more singular is it that 

 edible itmocence in a product may be intimately 

 associated with a poisonous element in the plant. 

 Starch-yielding tubers ma,v even be in themselves 



an association of simplicity and venom, and we 

 find in the Cassava, from which tapioca is ob- 

 tained, the soluble elements of the tuber being 

 poisonous, and the insoluble starch edible. In 

 the White Potato we have a Solanum which has 

 poisonous sprouts and fruit, with a valuable and 

 innocent tuber or subterranean root-stock. The 

 poison, solania, is found in the white sprouts of 

 the tuber and in the green seed ball or fruit, but 

 not in the tuber as prepared by boiling or roast- 

 ing. Solania is not a powerful poison, and one 

 of very uncertain strength. The Tomato plant 

 contains solania, while the fruit, which has the 

 same unpleasant odor, is free from it. Three 

 deadly poisons, among the most potent of all 

 active vegetable principles, are obtained from 

 some of the Solanacea— namely, nicotia, from 

 Tobacco; dataria, from Stamonium, and atropia 

 from Belladonna. One drop of pure nicotia will 

 kill a large dog in a few minutes, and the other 

 two are fatal in minute quantities.— Z>r. HarrU, 

 before Penn . Bm-t. Society. 



Making a Wisconsin Fruit Farm Pay_ 



A. L. HATCH, WISCONSIN STATE HORTICUT.TUBAL SOClETli". 



The kinds of fruit that may be profitably 

 grown are Strawberries, Raspberries, Cur- 

 rants, Gooseberries, Blackberries, Grapes, 

 Apples, Plums and Cherries. If the quan- 

 tity grown is small the expense of market- 

 ing will be t<io great a portion of its whole 

 value to make it pay. Birds destroy so 

 much that the profits may be entirely lost 

 unless the amount grown is large enough 

 to feed them all they want and still leave 

 an abundance for market 



Soil and Culture. You cannot make it pay on 

 land that has but a shallow coat of fertile soil 

 over gi-avel, sand or other subsoil that has no 

 element in it to sustain the growth or tree or 

 vine. 



Apples and Grapes do not require very rich 

 soil, nor will it pay to manure young trees with 

 animal fertUizei'S ; still they require a sutKoil 

 open, porous, well drained and of such a char- 

 acter as to be available for the growth of the 

 tree or vine. When the trees are in full fruit 

 and not till then they may be judiciously ma- 

 nured and fertilized. Any limestone, clay soil 

 is fertile enough when the soil has been depleted 

 by grain raising, and is safer for the first five or 

 six years" growth than richer soil. Trees and 

 vines are more faithful on such soil than they 

 are on rich soils. 



One of the most important things in managing 

 a fruit farm, especially for small fruits, is in pre- 

 paring the soil. Use common red clover as a 

 crop on the land, and apply in the spring 100 

 pounds of land plaster per acre. When you 

 have a good second growth plow it under. The 

 next spring plow again and then cut it up thor- 

 oughtly with a disc harrow. You will then have 

 a magnificent place upon which to grow Straw- 

 berries, especially it the soil was warm and 

 sandy before. Clover so managed will give the 

 best tilth and fertility for fruit-growing that is 

 within reach of common farmers. 



Other Points. If fi-uit is grown for home 

 market it will require good management to sell 

 it to advantage. The principles upon which 

 successful sales may be continuously made in 

 any market are uniform supply, good quality, 

 fair condition ot fruit and honest measure. The 

 person who undertakes fruit farming should 

 have an aptness and liking for the business. 



We expect to renew our plantations ot Straw- 

 berries every year or two, and our Raspberries 

 every few years, but we eipect our Blackberries 

 and Apple trees to endure for a generation. The 

 management should lie such as is required by 

 the fruit in this climate. As a result of a great 

 amount of study we are told to plant our trees 

 close together, to grow with low tops, to shield 

 their trunks in winter and spring and put wind- 

 breaks about them. 



In the treatment of fruit trees cultivation is 

 very important, especially for the first five or 

 six years after planting. When the trees are 

 large enough to bear, seed the ground to clear 

 ('lover. Apply land plaster each spring at the 

 rate of 100 pounds jjer acre, cut and make hay 

 of the first crop and pasture the second crop 

 with sheep after the apples are off. We prefer 

 Merino sheep for this purpose, because they are 

 not so apt to hurt the trees as the mutton breeds 

 are. If the trees are high topijed the sheep 

 could be turned in the first part of the season 



