1 68 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



June, 



Field Notes of a Horticulturist. 



L. B. riERCE, SUMMIT CO.. OHIO. 



I am not as much of a hand tor " garden 

 sass " as a good many, and as I formerly 

 raised a number of leading vegetables in 

 quantity for marliet, I did not have a spot 

 especially devoted to a kitchen garden. Last 

 year, however, I got a piece of ground in 

 shape to use partly for a kitchen garden 

 and partly for an experiment plat. There 

 are many odds and ends which a florist and 

 fruit grower must plant somewhere, and I 

 have for several years felt the want of a 

 catch-all for such uses. The piece of ground 

 is four rods wide and twenty two long, lying 

 east and west with a gentle slope to the 

 south, is a rich sandy loam and naturally 

 drained, therefore warm and early. 



The Center for Permaxext Growths. 

 On the south side are two rows of Rasp- 

 berries seven feet apart, aod then two rows 

 of Currants, the rows the same distance 

 apart. The Raspberries are of several vari- 

 eties, and among the Currants are eighteen 

 varieties of Strawberries, a number of them 

 unintrodnced varieties sent me for trial by 

 the originators. 



This part of the plantation was quite a 

 bother to me last year, as I had to hoe it 

 myself at a time when I had all I could do 

 at other work, but there was no help (or it 

 as it could not be safely trusted to hired 

 help. Perhaps I shall be repaid in watching 

 the fruiting of the new kinds, which already 

 begin to be interesting as the warm spring 

 sunshine develops the foliage. 



North of the Currants I am going to plant 

 a row of Rhubarb, which I am sure will be 

 earlier than most of that grown in the 

 country on account of the genial location. 



As the Raspberries are only temporary 

 sojourners, I shall have about a rod and a 

 half wide on either side the permanent rows 

 of Currants and Pie plant for growing such 

 things as I choose. This outside strip I can 

 plow around one year throwing it away and 

 the next turning the furrows toward the 

 central plantation. If it is necessary to use 

 some of this outer strip in experimental 

 planting the rows can lie on either side, and 

 the outer edge can still be plowed if it is 

 only six or eight feet wide. 



In plowing, the open furrow left will one 

 year be next the fence, and the next along 

 side the central planting and easily avoided 

 in planting, as it will in one case be outside 

 the garden, and in the other between two 

 rows. If I choose to fall plow, as many 

 good gardeners do, then I can turn the fur- 

 rows from the center in the fall and back 

 again In the spring, thus having the dead 

 furrows constantly during the growing part 

 of the year on the outside, and out of way. 



I have described this arrangement some 

 what at length because it embodies two 

 important points of value to all gardeners, 

 be they amateur or professional. One is 

 the advantage in form, giving .long rows 

 with very little percentage of waste ground 

 for turning at the ends, the other, the 

 placingof the permanent stuff /)) t)ip iiikldlc. 

 Generally Currants, Gooseberries, Pie plant. 

 Asparagus, etc. are set around the edges, and 

 there is no way of keeping grass and weeds 

 down on the space next the fence, and such 

 spaces become a nursery for much that is 

 foul and untidy. When it is in the middle 

 in long rows, there is no excuse or desire for 

 letting it become grass-bound and unculti- 

 vated. It is tolerably certain to get a certain 

 amount of manure; and fitting the garden 

 cultivates a portion of the rows. If as in 

 many gardens but one row of permanent 

 stuff is needed, then it gets cultivated as 

 the darkey said, " wher or no." I have a 

 third advantage and that is warm land and 

 fine location, but this, of course, does not 

 exist in all cases. 



If any of my readers are locating a new 

 garden, or planting permanent stuff in an 

 old one, I hope they will carefully consider 

 my plan and see if it is not the best. 



About Currants. My Currants are of 

 three varieties. Cherry, Versailles and Fay. 

 For one row I bought two year plants of the 

 two former varieties, which proved to be, 

 when I received them, long slim plants with 

 more top than roots. The other row, the 

 Fay, were cuttings. An amateur neighbor 

 in the spring of 1889, bought six two-years 

 Fay Current bushes. Set in a rich soil they 

 made a remarkable growth, growing so fast 

 as to break down in the rain and wind. In 

 September he took from these plants 89 7- 

 inch cuttings, and still left an abundance 

 of wood on the plants. Tliese he buried and 

 in the next spring (90) gave them to my wife, 

 and I planted them in a permanent row 

 thinking possibly I might get half a stand. 



The very wet cold spring helped them, 

 however, and only two failed to grow, and 

 now they promise to far outstrip the other 

 row in two years' time. 



Close Cropping. Last fall I plowed 

 ridges six feet apart through a two year old 

 Strawberry bed, intending to plant Toma- 

 toes in May this year and Raspberries next, 

 but being short of ground for Raspberries, 

 I am planting the Raspberries now, three 

 feet apart, and will set Tomatoes between 

 them in the row, picking the Strawberries 

 and then plowing under just as was pro- 

 posed. In this way I shall get what Straw- 

 berries grow, and a full crop of Tomatoes 

 (barring accidents) this year, and a young 

 Raspberry plantation for next. 



This comes about as near eating my cake 

 and keeping it as is possible in the berry 

 business. 



A Substitute for Potted Plants. 



L. J. FARMETt, OSWEGO CO., N. T. 



In potting'Strawberry plants, a pot full of 

 soil is sunk near the old plant, at a conveni- 

 ent distance to allow the runner to be 

 placed, so that the young plant will take 

 root in the pot. A stone is placed on the 

 runner to hold the plant down, so that by 

 contact with the loose soil it will become 

 rooted in a few days. As soon as well 

 rooted, say two weeks, the runner is cut, 

 severing connection with the parent plant. 



At first the plant will wilt; and it should 

 be watered till it will grow on its own re- 

 sources. To facilitate watering, the pots 

 are generally taken up and placed in the 

 shade till ready for transplanting. Treated 

 thus, potted plants will live when set out. 

 A very common practice is to set the potted 

 plant without "hardening it off." Such 

 plants are no better than ordinary layer 

 plants of the same age. 



A potted Strawberry plant, set out at the 

 same time as a well-rooted layer, which has 

 been taken up carefully with much soil ad- 

 hering, does not do nearly as well. The 

 reason is obvious. The layer plant, grow- 

 ing naturally sends down its roots deep 

 and wide, and develops to fine proportions. 

 The potted plant is limited; its roots wind 

 round and round in the pot, and, I am con- 

 vinced, when transplanted continue to wind 

 round and round, instead of reaching out 

 in search of food and moisture. One may 

 order layer plants, which will come cheaply 

 by mail or express; they may be set closely, 

 watered till "hardened off," and later be set 

 out permanently. The only advantage 

 potted plants have is that they do not re- 

 quire the skill in transplanting and hand- 

 ling in transportation. 



To take up layer plants that have been 

 hardened off, with earth adhering, is a sub- 

 stitute for potted plants, that surpasses in 

 value the original. It the soil be dry, it 

 should be thoroughly soaked before plants 

 are taken up. Such plants can be set up- 



right in a shallow box and shipped same as 

 ordinary layers; much better than potted 

 plants, which are a nuisance to put up. In 

 digging ordinary layer plants, in the sum- 

 mer, a large number of undeveloped plants 

 are destroyed, that if left for a few weeks 

 would make nice plants. 



With potted plants there is no waste, and 

 there need not be any with layers, if each 

 plant is carefully layered and the runner 

 picked off before it makes another plant. 



The Plum Rot or Monilla. 



In many sections of the middle and south- 

 ern states the disease known as Plum rot or 

 Monilia often injures the stone fruits, es- 

 pecially Peaches and Plums, very seriously. 

 Warm showers, and hot and sultry weath- 

 er favor the development of the fungus, and 

 then sometimes the entire product of a tree 

 is attacked and practically destroyed before 

 the fruit is ready to gather. In some cases 

 it is difficult to secure for eating a single 

 Peach or plum wholly free from the fungus. 



From Prof. F. Lamson Scribner's new 

 book, "Fungus Diseases of the Grape and 

 other Plants and Their Treatment," (pub- 

 lished by the J. T. Lovett Co., Little Silver, 

 N.J. 1»4 pages; Illustrated. Cloth bind- 

 ing) we extract the following description 

 and treatment. 



The Monilia appears tipon the surface of 

 affected fruits as mealy or grayish white 

 patches of greater or less extend, usually 

 on the side most exposed to the light. 

 Examined closely, these patches are seen to 

 be made up of a number of little tufts, 

 forming an unevenness of surface in the 

 larger patches of fungus growth. This 

 growth consists for the most part of spores 

 which are borne in chains or one above 

 another on comparatively short stalks. The 

 mycelium of the fxiugus grows among and 

 through the cells composing the tissue of the 

 fruit, turning them brown. 



Wherever this mycelium comes to the 

 surface, spores are formed, by a constriction 

 of the mycelial threads, in great abundance. 

 It would seem that the fungus in a single 

 affected Peach or Plum might produce 

 many thousands and perhaps millions of 

 spores. These spores, blown about by the 

 wind or washed by rain from fruit high up 

 on a tree to that lower down, may each one 

 of them infect healthy fruit. If the tem- 

 perature is high and the spores fall in a drop 

 of water on the surface of a healthy Peach 

 or Plum they will quickly germinate and 

 the germ tube will bore its way through 

 the skin of the fruit, thus infecting it, and 

 rot will follow. 



It the skin of the fruit is broken in any 

 way, infection is made more certain and rot 

 follows more quickly. In the case of the 

 Apple it appears to be necessary to infection 

 that the skin be previously broken. 



The fungus lives over the winter season 

 in the fruit which it has destroyed through 

 the summer, and possibly also in the twigs 

 of the trees as these are sometimes infested 

 with it. When the rot appears in the twigs 

 it is commonly called " blight." Trees 

 thus attacked present a very peculiar ap- 

 pearance, quite suggestive of l)light in the 

 Apple and Pear, only in the Peach the de- 

 struction appears to be confined principally 

 to the twigs, the injury seldom extending 

 to branches which have formed more than 

 two annual rings. In summer and autumn 

 the blight of Peach stems is always, or al- 

 most always, traceable to infectious derived 

 from mycelium. This mycelium originates 

 in the rotting Peach; bores through the 

 pedicle into the stem; ramifies in the latter, 

 especially near the place of entrance and 

 quickly destroys all the distal portion of the 

 branch. The earliest varieties blight most, 

 and trees not in fruit never blight at this 

 time of year. In wet season this twig blight 



