94 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



February, 



^EINQMATTERTHAT DBiERVES 

 TO BEWIDE'LYKNOWSl. 



The Old Agricaltnral 

 ' motto, " Dig atid Oioan " 

 (fives way to the new, 

 " Organize, Educate and 

 Act."— niinoi.s Ch'anger'a 

 Heyioi-t. 



The Orange Crop. The 

 Florida Agricultural De- 

 partment estimates that 

 the Orange crop of the state will be 1.337,.500 

 boxes, or ra per cent of the crop of last year. 



To the Garden for Health and Joy. The cul- 

 ture of beauty in the vegetable kingdom secures 

 a crop of joy to the thoughtful culturist, and 

 not that alone— it is a great promoter of health. 

 There is with it no dyspepsia, no insomnia, when 

 one has been thus busied in the open air. Think 

 of the wholesome effect on discontented mechan- 

 ics if they could go home and work an hour in the 

 garden, instead of passing their leisure hours in 

 fretting and grumbling.— irm. Vlapp, before 

 Massachusetts norticultnral Society. 



The Cranberry Scald. The present harvest is 

 the smallest in New Jersey since 1884, and the 

 Cranberry crop is 22 per cent less than that of 

 last year. The primary cause of this falling off 

 iu the yield is the trouble well known as the 

 "scald." I have made some study of this serious 

 disease during the past two years, and hope that 

 some light can be thrown upon this sub,iect which 

 may lead to improved bog management, and at 

 least to a partial mitigation of the trouble.— Sfc- 

 retari) American Vranberry Assuciation. 



Frnning Peaches in the Sonth. A t the A labaraa 

 experiment station Peach orchards are pruned 

 by keeping the following object in view: Train 

 each tree to shade its own body as to prevent sun 

 scald; to distribute the growth of limbs uni- 

 formly, securing symmetry, and have the weight 

 of fruit evenly distrbuted; to strengthen the 

 limbs by shortening them back so as to enable 

 them to sustain a crop; to reduce the quantity 

 of fruic by judicious shortening of the shoots 

 bearing the fruit buds, and so direct the growth 

 that the crop can be gathered by a man standing 

 on the ground. 



Heavy Manuring for Apples. Wm. Somerville 

 reported to the Minnesota Horticultural Society, 

 that he was in the practice of hauling out forty 

 wagon loads of manure to the acre on his bearing 

 orchards every year, and spreading it broadcast. 

 Under this treatment he has trees ix years old 

 that are as thrifty as they were 20 years ago. He 

 had last year four tons of .\pples from an Old- 

 enburg orchard, seven by nine rods in size, a 

 result ascribed to heavy manurin},' and mulching. 

 He does not manure young trees heavily, but as 

 they come into bearing they are exhausted unless 

 additional fertilizing is given, and this necessity 

 increases as they grow older. 



Peaches in Illinois. Do not plant a large 

 Peach orchard without ample means and skill 

 requsite to their best condition. The tree at best 

 is but short lived, the crops uncertain, yet 

 with good fruit decently handled, ready sale will 

 be found at fair prices. Were I planting another 

 Peach orchard, I would plant close, say 1.5 feet, 

 push the young trees two years after, and then 

 let them grow slow without further cultivation 

 till after the first crop, in the meantime keep the 

 growth down and make the trees dwarf in their 

 habits. If by the means of Plum stocks a more 

 dwarf habit can be secured the better.— ('ap(. E. 

 HiillMer, before Alton Soutliern lUs.Hort. Society. 



Profit from Commercial Fertilization. D. W. 



Deane, of Fairhavcn, told the South Rristol 

 Farmers' Club that he had experimented with 

 commercial fertilizers.and founditadvantageous 

 to use these fertilizers freely. On an acre of 

 Potatoes he used half a ton of fertilizer in April. 

 Twenty-seven days later he used 700 pounds 

 more. The crop was hoed twice, and later 700 

 pounds more were used Turnips were planted 

 between the rows, and the crop netted XM bushels 

 of Potatoes and u'On bushels of Turnips. The 

 cost of the fertilizer was $15, and the crop netted 

 a profit of Si;!.'). The fertilizer was used toad- 

 vantage in oats and other crops. The acre was 

 not in good condition. 



Have Flowers in School Yards. Wm. E. Endi- 



oott stated at a Boston horticultural meeting 



that he had found it practicable to have flowers 



' in school yards, without their being injured. 



When he was a boy, there was a strip of ground 

 three feet wide around the school yard, planted 

 with flowers which bloomed through the season, 

 beginning with the Snowdrop, Narcissus and 

 Tulips in the spring, and afterwards with Asters 

 and Marigolds till frost destroyed them. This 

 was near a manufacturing village. They were 

 left in the care of the janitor during vacation. 

 Mr. Endicott said the cases of injury were tew 

 and exceptional, although children had some- 

 times stolen flowers -so had women— and even a 

 man had been found guilty of it. 



A Wild Flower Association. Wilmington, 

 Delaware, can boast of a wild flower club. Its 

 aim is to preserve the native wild Howers from 

 the total destruction that seems to threaten 

 them. The amount of wild and beautiful flowers 

 that are gradually becoming extinct in this 

 country is deplorable. The following we take 

 from a handsome report that they recently issued: 

 " In a crusade of this sort— war against the 

 blighting spirit of ugliness— the A. W. F. C. as an 

 organization is capable of being utilized to the 

 utmost. Floriculture and horticulture blend in 

 the task to which each club is primarily pledged, 

 and through these it can link itself with every 

 member of the community; and such a tie must 

 be formed if thoroughly effective work is to be 

 done in this direction. The responsibility for 

 this national reproach— for it is nothing less- 

 rests largely at the door of the better class of 

 American village women, the class which, in trite 

 phi'ase, ' makes public opinion.' " 



Plants as Living Beings. Dr. Taylor said in a 

 recent lecture delivered at Ipswich, that the old- 

 fashioned notion was that the plants were some- 

 thing to be eaten, and that was what they lived 

 for only. He did not intend to take any side in 

 this matter except that of the plants, which, as 

 living beings, had to fight for existence, to die, to 

 be infected, and practically to undergo diseases 

 and deaths correspondent to those which the ani- 

 mal kingdom had to experience. This being so, 

 he asked whether the same laws of natural selec- 

 tion and the survival of the fittest must not 

 necessarily be applied to the vegetable as well as 

 the animal kingdom. Dealing with living ob- 

 jects, he must claim the same laws and rules of 

 life for the vegetable kingdom as those which 

 Darwin and othei's had confined themselves to in 

 the animal kingdom. There could be no doubt in 

 every geologist's mind that the earliest forms of 

 vegetable life, like those of animal life, were of 

 humble structure, and he intended to show them 

 how the highest form of existing vegetable life 

 began from a simple, humble, cell-like structure. 



Tinted Glass. In a paper read before the 

 Linna?an Society, the Professor stated the results 

 of experimenting on the growth of plants under 

 glass tinted red, yellow, blue and green, as well 

 as imder clear glass and in the open. The green 

 proved not only worse than the clear, but worse 

 even than the red, the yellow or the blue! The 

 best results were obtained from plants grown in 

 the open, which is precisely what every practical 

 man knows must be the case. If the temperature 

 will admit of it, then all plants are better outside 

 than under glass. The second best results were 

 shown by plants grown under clear glass, and 

 here again practice is at one with the Professor. 

 Blue proved worst after green, then red and 

 then yellow. I have never seen red or blue glass 

 used in horticulture, but what is considered bad 

 glass has a yellowish tint. It all comes to this 

 then: pure light is best of all for plants, and the 

 next best is thati which passes through the me- 

 dium that least obstructs it— namely, pure clear 

 glass. Of course the intensity of the light is 

 another matter. Horticulturists who use green 

 stipple as a summer root shade for greenhouses 

 must substitute blinds or a white stipple if they 

 desire to have the best results. 



The Pleasures from Flowers. We derive the 

 highest pleasures from loving them for them- 

 selves, by being surrounded by them each day, 

 by giving them away with a free hand, and heart 

 to our less fortunate fellow creatures. Plant 

 flower gardens, for nature has provideil us with 

 senses from which the keenest pleasure can lie 

 derived and which cannot be cultivated in any 

 other way. The garden furnishes a source of 

 ever-increasing and never-ending enjoyment. 

 Here may be found an entirely natural recupera- 

 tion for body and mind, giving buoyancy of 

 spirit, a development of the finer senses, a calm, 

 beautiful view of life and a relish for living, 

 which no other earthly creature can bestow. A 

 pleasant thoughtfulness and anticipation is 

 awakened by the gracefully deliberate growth of 



a plant and unfolding of a bud. Appreciation, a 

 rare faculty, is cultivated by the exquisiteness of 

 the odors ; but, above all is the sense of sight 

 gratified. Here there is opened a world of 

 appreciative and artistic possibilities, which 

 furnish the mind with an exalted admiration 

 for all things which God has made. Withal, the 

 garden brings to us a restfulness of spirit, a sat- 

 isfaction in living and a broad and charitable 

 view of life, all of which help to make us more 

 perfect creatures. —K. E. Smith before California 

 State Fruit Growers" Association. 



A Flower Show by Children. The children's 

 flower show, held at Mile End during last August, 

 was especially interesting as showing what can 

 be accomplished by well-directed efforts in de- 

 voloping a taste for flowers amongst the children 

 o( artisans in towns. Formed some four years 

 since, the society has from the first given special 

 attention to diffusing a knowledge of plant cul- 

 ture amongst the children in the Mile End dis- 

 trict. Of the success that has been achieved the 

 exhibitions afford the best possible proof. From 

 a small gathering in one of the school-rooms in 

 the district the exhibitions have increased so 

 rapidly in extent as to necessitate the engage- 

 ment of the spacious hall in Beaumont Hall 

 for the accommodation of the plants in compe- 

 tition for the prizes. The society not only offers 

 prizes, but it supplies the plants at cost price to 

 intending competitors, and assists the young 

 cultivators with such advice on their culture as 

 may appear needful, and is thus doing a work 

 of which the importance cannot well be over- 

 estimated. The prizes included classes for Zonale 

 Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Musks, Moneyworts, 

 and plants remarkable for the beauty of their 

 foliage. The most popular were the Pelargo- 

 niums and Fuchsias. Musks are popular in the 

 district. Ferns predominated amongst the plants 

 grown for the beauty of their foliage, and one 

 of the finest of these was a specimen of the com- 

 mon Hart's Tongue. Conspicuous amongst the 

 miscellaneous plants were some excellent speci- 

 men Ivies, and several admirably flowered ex- 

 amples of Lilium auratum. 



On the Culture of Plums. 



i Jacob Faith before Missouri State Horticultural Sod 



No other fruit has received so little at- 

 tention as the Plum, yet few are more 

 attractive In appearance, or more pleasant 

 to taste. No fruit is more tempting than a 

 well ripened, beautifully tinted, .juicy Plum. 

 Many failures have been made by not know- 

 ing what to plant for our latitude and how 

 to fertilize. 



Varieties. Catto-chiet is the first to ripen 

 but the late frosts often kill them. Three weeks 

 later the Wild Goose ripens, the most profitable 

 at that time of ripening. Three weeks later, 

 when Wild Goose is about gone. Crimson Beauty 

 ripens. It produces a wonderful crop, much 

 like the Wild Goose— both tree and fruit. The 

 same may be said of Brown's Late, which ripens 

 about one week after the Wild Goose. The Gol- 

 den Brown's Late ripens about one week later 

 than Brown's Late. In color it is a greenish yel- 

 low. It is less subject to curculio than those 

 mentione.d before, but over-bears and thus the 

 fruit is small. 



Blue-Damson, Marianna, Weaver Miner, etc., 

 failed to yield satisfactory crops. I do not under- 

 stand with all my e.vperience how to plant and 

 fertilize these varieties 



The best way to plant Plums is to alternate 

 varieties in the Plum orchard. A variety that 

 might be a poor bearer when depending on its 

 own pollen may greatly improve when with 

 other sorts. I have Plums planted between 

 standard Apple trees, to be cut out when the 

 Apple trees need the room. Plum trees are 

 profitable to an Apple orchard, both for fruit 

 and an insect catcher. Only few insects reach 

 maturity in the Plum. 



KiiiLiNG THE CuECULio. Spray, commencing 

 after the bloom drops. I prefer jarring earl.v at 

 morning. Hogs will soon learn to follow and 

 eat more than ten times the amount of insects 

 they do in Apples. To saw off a limb will make 

 a place to strike on as it requires a sudden jar to 

 brin^ down the stung Plum in reach of the fowls 

 or pigs which arc indispensable in a Plum or- 

 chard. Where no poultry and pigs can be al- 

 lowed to pasture. Plums should be picked up. 

 The curculio will remain in the Plum about nine 

 days after it falls. 



Twelve years ago we planted sixty Wild 

 Goose Plum trees, forty of them were budded 



