POPULAR GARDENING 



AND FRUIT GROWING, 



''ACCUSE NOT NATURE, SHE HATH DONE HER PART: DO THOU BUT THINE." -mhTON. 



Vol. VI. 



FEBiatr.A.E.'V", 1891. 



No. 5. 



February. 



Oh! churlish month! whose wild vagaries 



Fret and perplex each passing day, 

 Tin bleak December's harshness varies 



With the soft wooing of the May. 

 Thy morns may come with radiant promise— 



Thy skies be bright with golden glow, 

 But ere the day be gone half from us. 



The world is drowned in drifts of snow. 

 And yet we hall thy rude oncoming. 



Because thou closest winter's state- 

 Glad that thy days (in honest summing) 



Can only number twenty-eight! 



—Margaret J, Preston. 



Groups of Thorns are unequalled for fine 

 effect on the lawn. 



LccKY Missouri. Secretary Goodman, of 

 Missouri, reports 20,000 farms devoted to fruit; 

 100,000 people engaged in fruit culture; $10,000,000 

 as the value of the fruit crop of his state for 1890 



Another Weapon. A solution of kainit, or 

 muriate of potash, at the rate of one ounce to 

 the pint of water, has been found to be sure 

 death to many insects, such as green- fly. Cab- 

 bage maggot, etc., by contact. This simple and 

 safe remedy is worthy of extended trial. 



The Ivy is Hardy. A wrong impression pre- 

 vails as to the hardiness of the English or Ever- 

 green Ivy. It is perfectly hardy as far north as 

 Niagara Falls, if it be but protected /rom the sun 

 in winter. Those other evergreens, Mahonia 

 and Bo.\, require about the same treatment. 



Fan Ventilators An esteemed subscriber in 

 Ohio wonders why a rotary power fan for chang- 

 ing the air in a hot-house would not be a good 

 thing. To get up a movement of air through a 

 glass house, is the least of a fiorist's troubles; we 

 fear the craft would be slow to adopt the idea. 



The Knapsack Sprayer. This, though 

 greatly demanded and needed, could heretofore 

 not be had except at excessive cost, is now put 

 on the market by nearly a half-dozen manu- 

 facturers and firms at a moderate price. We 

 predict a great sale for them, for there is really 

 no cheaper and more convenient way to apply in- 

 secticides and fungicides than in spray form. 

 For spraying vineyards. Potatoes, etc., the 

 Knapsack Pump is the handiest tool yet found. 



" English " Sparrows. Sometime ago the 

 Department of Agriculture recommended a 

 means of getting rid of these birds, by poisoning 

 with Wheat soaked in arseniate of soda solution 

 in the proportion of an ounce of the drug to a 

 pint of water. The wheat is to be soaked for 

 24 hours then dried and scattered. Is there after 

 all much occasion for the hue and cry heard 

 against, these birds and the resort to such un- 

 seemly warfare? We ask the question in the Ugiit 

 of nearly a three-year residence at " Wood- 

 banks "La Salle, near Niagara Falls, and in 

 which time we have never found the sparrows 

 in the slightest degree obnoxious. A residence 

 in Buffalo previously, where the sparrows pass 

 as being very abundant, never revealed to us 

 the slightest injury done by them in our town 

 garden. Neither can we, so far as our observa- 

 tion goes, take stock in the prevalent notion 

 that they drive away other birds— the fringe 

 of natural wood along one side of our grounds 

 and the neighboring windbreaks,orchards etc are 

 thronged with feathery songsters but nowhere 

 is the sparrow met in large or threatening num- 

 bers. It might be supposed that our northern 

 winters had the effect of keeping their numbers 

 \ down but this view will hardly pass, for it hap- 

 pens that in the villages and towns named as 

 well as in Buffalo and other places, along the 

 Niagara river, (which never freezes) the temper- 

 ature rarely reaches ten degrees below the zero 



point. Until we find other reasons for proceed- 

 ing against the " English " sparrow than any 

 now known by us we must be ranked among 

 their friends. No poisoning of the busy little 

 cliirpers shall be attempted on our premises 



Various Horticultural Matters by 

 Wm. Falconer. 



New Gladioli. During the past sum- 

 mer I saw a lot o£ the California new strain 

 — named varieties— grown by a neighbor of 

 mine, a specialist in tins line, ancJ Mr. W. 

 E. Endicott's remarkes are about as applic- 

 able to them as they were to tho.5e at Boston. 

 The Nanceanus Gladioli are good, but 

 .iudging from several varities of them that 

 I have seen in this country, they are con- 

 siderably behind Hallock's, varieties of a 

 similar strain. Hallocks' have not yet been 

 put upon the market, but as they grow them 

 in their nursery in summer in thousands, 

 they are open to anyone who wishes to look 

 at them. In the way of large flosvers they 

 surpass everything else from any quarter, 

 that I have seen; and among them are some 

 splendid, vivid colors. 



Setting Evergreens in Autu.mn. My 

 experience is this : Early autumn, say from 

 September till the first of November is the 

 time to transplant evergreens, and I prac- 

 tice what I preach. Many of the finest 

 specimens and most costly evergreens on 

 this estate I transplanted in the fall. I am 

 now, October, transplanting some very 

 precious evergreens, aud have no solicitude 

 at all about their welfare. The early part of 

 last winter was very mild, but later on the 

 cold weather set in suddenly and severely, 

 almost killing White Birches and injuring 

 a good many other trees and vines. In mid- 

 winter, however, I laid out and planted a 

 new garden of evergreens, planting therein 

 Japanese Hemlocks nine feet high by nine 

 feet through ; ten-year old broad-leaved 

 American Hemlocks, rare Retinosporas, 

 English and .lapanese green and variegated 

 Yews, Podocarpus, and the choicest varie- 

 gated Arbor- Vitaes, and without a failure. 

 True, the most summers following have been 

 greatly in their favor. In fall or early 

 winter planting I am very particular about 

 a few points: Never to let the roots get dry 

 and never to plant in windy frosty weather, 

 in planting to have wide holes, spread out 

 the roots well and work in fine soil among 

 them, and pack the soil very firm when 

 filling in the dirt ; to stake the plants 

 securely if need be, also in very late plant- 

 ings to mulch about them with leaves or 

 litter to keep them from being heaved out 

 of the earth by frost, and to secure them 

 from cold wintry winds by a screen of brush, 

 boards or the like it the place is not already, 

 well sheltered. 



The Sea Holly (Erytifiium inaritiinu><) 

 is a perennial and often barely hardy, but its 

 flowers if cut early keep well as " everlast- 

 ings," as in tact do those of most of the 

 Eryngiums. In this line, however, we 

 have nothing better than K. Leavenworthii, 

 an annual speeies with warm purple flower 

 heads; a few years ago it had quite a boom, 

 but lately we hear less about it. 



Sweet Herbs in the Garden. An aul' 

 Scotch wifie frae doon east cam' here tae 

 see us aboot a' month ago, an' our wee 

 Isissie by way o' givin' the wifle a treat, 



went oot into the garden an' plucked for 

 her a bunch o' floors. Weel the wee thing 

 leent foo tae reach a Heelan' heart; she 

 passed by a' the big an' showy blossoms 

 and settled on the fragant herbs she'd heard 

 her mither tell aboot. She plucked the 

 Broad-leaved Thyme and Lemon Thyme, 

 the Savory and the Marjoram, the Balm an' 

 Mint, the Chamomile an' Southernwood, 

 and the Lavender and Basil, and by way o' 

 variety added a sprig of Heather frae the 

 Braes o' Moray, a bit o' Ivy frae Bobby 

 Bnrns's cottage, a switch o' Breem for aul' 

 acquaintance sake, an' a twig o' Whins tae 

 tickle her nose wi'. It touched the puir aul' 

 body so— she grat. 



By all meaus let us have the gayest and 

 the choicest flowers obtainable but never 

 forget to give a home to the dear old- 

 fashioned flowers and fragrant herbs our 

 grannies loved and grew. 



Notes from the Popular Gardening 

 GrouncJs at La Salle, N. Y. 



The Raspberry Patch. In trying to estab- 

 lish a trial patch we meet with the same obstacles 

 that were encountered in regard to Strawberries, 

 among them especially the bad condition in 

 whicb some of the trial plants are received. 

 Plants as sent out by different growers, and 

 from different parts of the country, are by no 

 means uniform, either in size, or state of pre- 

 servation. Some are large and fine, and they 

 grow as soon as set out and do well, others are 

 small, and dried out, and either die outright, or 

 if they manage to live make very little growth, 

 and never wholly recover from the check re- 

 ceived. Consequently it is not an easy matter 

 to give to each sort its ,iust due and proper 

 standing or a comparison of the results. 

 Another difficulty we meet is the tender charac- 

 ter of many of the varieties. We have not seen 

 fit to resort to the method of laying down and 

 covering with soil for winter protection. Con- 

 sequently we have lost some varieties wholly, 

 and had others seriously injured during the 

 past two winters, so the patch cannot by any 

 means be called a striking success so far as 

 uniformity and beauty are concerned. Were we 

 to plant for practical utility, and for profit only 

 we would follow the example of one of our neigh- 

 bors, who grows Cuthbert and Marlboro, tear up 

 our trial patch, and plant one or two hardy 

 sorts. We have no use for others on our soil 

 and climate. 



Personally we are somewhat partial to the so- 

 called "red " or upright sorts. The seediness of 

 the Blackcaps is to us objectionable. This may 

 be a mere prejudice; but it does not prevent us 

 from conceding that black Raspberries are un- 

 excelled as "shortcake" material, and a profit- 

 able farm crop, in many sections lor evapora- 

 ting. The commercial outlook for this crop Just 

 now is especially bright. The evaporated article 

 can not help but bring a good price, next season, 

 and the crop is one that seldom fails. The past 

 season's outcome in our trial patch, does not 

 justify us to give extended notes on the behavior 

 of the different varieties of Blackcaps. This we 

 can say, however, that the Souliegan is still a re- 

 liable sort for home use, while Gregg ;and Ohio 

 are superior for market and evaporating. 



In regard to the red varieties, we extract the 

 following from our notes made in the patch 

 during the berry season. 



Antwerp. Badly winter killed, and almost en- 

 tirely renewed. 



liamlywinc comes out uninjured. Berries of 

 good color and firm, but not enough of them. 



lirinckle'ii Orange is entirely winter-killed. 

 Whoever wants to grow this yellow sort (or its 

 unsurpassed quality in a climate like ours, must 

 give it good winter protection. 



