68 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



orchards I have ever planted were four- 

 year-old trees treated in this manner. With 

 this system of planting, I have no hesitation 

 in guaranteeing 95 per cent, to grow, while 

 with the ordinary plan of putting out with 

 all the tops remaining, I would not care to 

 guarantee ten per cent. 



All large trees should be well puddled as 

 they are taken from the ground, and packed 

 and shipped only in bulk in car. They can 

 not be boxed or baled to advantage. 



Horticultural Notes by Judge 

 Samuel Miller. 



Will you kindly correct an error in my 

 article on the Japan Quince, where I say 

 "like a large Apple." It is not so at all, 

 but a long shaped small Apple. How this 

 occurred is a mystery to me. 



Nuts fob Planting. I have succeeded 

 admirably with the Chestnuts by planting 

 them in the rows where they are to grow in 

 the fall, six inches apart, covering one inch. 

 They should not get too dry before planting. 



I am not certain that they would fail , even 

 if dry, if put in in the fall. 



I had some paper-shell Hickory Nuts in a 

 box in a drawer for three years, put them 

 in the ground in the fall and they all grew, 

 and now I have some nice little plants. 

 Had a graft of this famous Nut growing on 

 a young Hickory spuret, but a careless 

 mower cut it ofif. 



Novelties. Your advice on this is good, 

 but some one must try them. Now it is my 

 turn, as on my grounds there are six plants 

 each of one hundred varieties of Strawberry 

 plants, set out within the last three months 

 on equal footing, so far as the ground is 

 concerned, but of course the early planted 

 ones will iiave the advantage next summer. 

 But it will be in the year after when all will 

 have an equal chance. 



Quite a number were set out last spring 

 and will show their colors in lull next June. 

 Many of these are new, and have never been 

 given to the public. They have come from 

 Maine to Florida, some from the Pacific 

 coast, and the Western States. When these 

 are reported upon, we will learn how many 

 of the experiment stations will beat me. 



That Tomato growing on the Potato vine, 

 you should not have told, as there will be 

 agents offering seeds, that will give Potatoes 

 in the ground and Tomatoes on top. It will 

 not be one bit worse than many misrepre- 

 sentations they make. 



It may not be generally known that 

 Dahlias and Salvias can be easily grafted. 



BEST LARGE ENGLISH STRAWBERRY. 



I have seen three varieties of the former 

 growing on one stem. If spared until next 

 summer, will try the Chrysanthemums. 

 Just now our display of them is tmly grand; 

 conspicuous among them are Ed. Audiger, 

 Mrs. Carnagie, Tokio, andGrandiflora, Mrs. 

 Alpheus Hardy is not yet open, and must 

 hurry up, as they are out doors. 



Strawbekries in Hill Culture. I have 

 grown Strawberries for nearly fifty years, 

 and never yet had what I call a big crop, on 

 plants trained exclusively on that system. 



Best Large English Strawberries. 



Some years ago we were bound to give 

 some of the European " prize " Strawberries 

 a trial ; but we soon found our great antici- 

 pation shattered. They did not seem to en- 

 dure our hot summer, and at any rate did 

 not bear even moderately respectable fruit. 



One time I prepared a piece of ground 

 eighteen inches deep, well manured, and set 

 one dozen plants each, of some twenty 

 varieties. They looked grand, some stocks 

 a half bushel would not have covered. 



They blossomed finely, and the expecta- 

 tion of something great was in store. A 

 failure of the worst kind was the 

 result. There was not a peck of fruit 

 on the whole patch, while ad.ioining 

 my matted beds on ordinary soil bore 

 a good crop. What the cause of this 

 miss was, I am unable to tell. 



Since then I have done but little of 

 that kind of training. When for fruit 

 and not plants, to let each plant make 

 about six runners or new plants, 

 trained along so as not to have the 

 rows more than a foot broad, will 

 most likely make the best crop of nice 

 berries. My impression is that the 

 biggest berries are always grown on 

 plants that have set themselves. 



Very dry, hot summers as the past, 

 are severe on these plants. Only those 

 that I watered freely and kept con- 

 stantly cultivated, look all right, 

 while the main bed which could not 

 receive such attention, may not be 

 worth leaving stand next spring. But 

 as a Strawberry grower told me once, 

 that the crab grass took possession of 

 two acres of his berry patch, so that 

 he mowed it and made two tons of hay 

 to the acre, intending to plow the 

 plantation under in the spring, but 

 when spring came he noticed plenty 

 of plants there and concluded to let ~ 



it run. They came out lively, and he " second-crop bartlett pear. 



ONE-HALF SIZE. 



sold six hundred dollars worth of Straw- 

 berries off those two acres that season. 



That was at Memphis, Tenn, and I know 

 that man would not make a misstatement. 

 So I will leave mine at least till next spring. 



The crab grass was mowed off mine re- 

 cently, but it is laid aside to cover them 

 when winter sets in. 



The End of the Season. Soon now all 

 the gardener's crops will be gathered and 

 the outside plants that need protection must 

 be attended to, and as many neglect it.until 

 too late, it will not be amiss to give them a 

 reminder. When mice and rabbits are 

 present, newly set out trees and shrubs will 

 need attention, not only newly planted, 

 but all small trees will need it. Against 

 mice there is no better plan than to clear 

 away all weeds and grass around them (but 

 there should not), then bank up a mound in 

 a conical shape, six inches high. 



For rabbits, wrapping the trunks two 

 or three feet high with paper, will keep them 

 off, but when you have dwarf trees headed 

 low, it will be necessary to make a mixture 

 of blood and water to sprinkle the branches 

 with, or they will eat the fruit buds off even 

 if they don't bark the branches 



Traps and a good shot-gun should also be 

 brought into requisition if the rabbits are 

 too troublesome. 



Strawberry plants should not be covered 

 too early; when the ground is frozen so as 

 to bear a wagon, is time enough for the es- 

 tablished plants; but those set out this fall 

 should be slightly covered at once, as the 

 freezing and the thawing is what does the 

 mischief. Straw an inch thick is safest, 

 for if covered too thick and a mild winter 

 follows, the plants may be smothered. The 

 half hardy grapes such as the Hybrids will 

 need laying down and covering with a thin 

 sod inverted; or with Evergreen branches, 

 after being pegged to the ground. I prefer 

 this to covering with earth in a furrow. 



Since we can soutrol the rot, we may ven- 

 ture on some of the freezings and succeed. 

 But as we have hardy ones so near equal to 

 the e.xotics it is not necessary for us to go to 

 much trouble with uncertainties. 



We want no more English Strawberries. 

 Yet it may be interesting to see what 

 varieties our brethren in Old England con- 

 sider their best. In Gardening Illustrated 

 we find a list of the best large Strawberries, 

 headed "Admiral Dundas," here illustrated, 

 a very large, pale scarlet berry, and next to 

 British Queen perhaps the best-flavored of 

 all the very large kinds. The others are, 

 British Queen, with fruit of very large size ; 

 Briton Pine, large white; Carolina Superba; 

 Dr. Hogg, later than the British Queen ; 

 Due de Malakoff, large— sometimes very 

 large— and handsome ; Eleanor, very large, 

 and rather late ; Elton Pine, large, late ; 

 Empress Eugenie, large but coarse ; Frog- 

 more Ijate Pine ; James Veitch ; Kltley's 

 Goliath ; Myatt's Mammoth ; Marguerite, 

 very large, bright ; Noble, a large, early 

 kind ; President; Sir Charles Napier; Sir 

 Joseph Paxton, a hu-ge excellent early 

 Strawberry that forces well. 



A Fall Crop of Bartletts. 



It is nothing uncommon to see blossoms 

 and fruit on the new growth of Raspberries 

 and Blackberries. This second fruiting is 

 much rarer in fruit trees, although it does 

 happen occasionally. One of our subscribers 

 forwarded in September or October of last 

 year to this office, a branch or twig of the 

 new wood of a Bartlett Pear tree, with a 

 number of half grown specimens of Pearson 

 it. All of the latter, except the one at the 

 terminal part, had dropped off in transit, 

 and were found loose in the box much shriv- 

 elled. The branch appeared as shown in 

 illustration. Evidently this fruit production 

 at that season, and on the new wood, is a 

 case of misdirected energy in the tree. It 

 may be only an exceptional Pear, and not 

 an indication that anything is wrong with 

 the constitution of the tree. Second bloom 

 in Pear and other fruit trees is usually ob- 

 served only in favorable seasons, and espec- 

 ially after a wet and sunless summer, and 

 appearing on soft sappy growths. 



The past season was such an unfavorable 

 one all through, and as the first bloom failed 

 to set, the second effort at flruit production 



