I89I. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



191 



as profitable as Maiden's Blush. If there 

 are any valuable Russian Apples, outside 

 o( Oldenburg, which are they? 



Judge Miller's Report on the Newer 

 Strawberries for I 89 I . 



The host of new Strawberries that are 

 brought out of late are enough to bewilder 

 the novice, and will both delight and dis- 

 gust the amateur. 



A Strawberry may make a pretty fair 

 show in the start, yet fail to make a reputa- 

 tion for itself afterwards. I have thirteen 

 seedlings fruiting for the first time this 

 season, of which fully one-half are equal to 

 our popular varieties, a tew of them exceed- 

 ingly fine. Not one of these will be offered 

 for sale for three years, and perhaps not 

 then. They are all from one late berry on a 

 plant of one of Townsend's seedlings. It 

 ripened weeks after all the other Straw- 

 berries were gone, so that it could not possi- 

 bly have any other blood in it. 



Yet no two of these are alike in foliage or 

 fruit, and some rather early, while others 

 quite late. Their appearance at our state 

 horticultural meeting at St. Joseph, June 

 2d to 4th, attracted considerable notice, and 

 the committee awarded me a premium of 

 ten dollars on them. 



I mention this to encourage others to plant 

 seeds of the best varieties, so that we may 

 get that in-all-respects-perfect Strawberry. I 

 fruited this season about ninety varieties, 

 but many of them were only planted late in 

 the fall and this spring, so that these had 

 no fair chance. A berry falling short of 

 such as Bu'oach, Warfield and Haverland 

 need not expect to have much show now. 



Michel's Early. This has come to stay. 

 Medium in size, pretty, firm, handsome in 

 color; has a nice neck to pick or to hull. 

 Carries its fruit well up, ripens eight days 

 before Crescent, lasts nearly a month, and 

 is in quality among the best. Will, I think, 

 do away with the Crescent. 



Enhance. This will hold a place among 

 the valuable ones. Handsome, large and 

 very productive, quality good. 



Thompsons No. 4 is very promising. 



Thompsons No .57. A most wonderful 

 berry. Enormously large, of peculiar form , 

 handsome color, firm and of excellent 

 quality, quite productive and lasts a long 

 time. It reminds me of Triumph de Gand 

 in color and flavor. 



General Putnam. This was from plants 

 set out last September, and in all my Straw- 

 berry growing I never saw its equal for size, 

 productiveness and vigor of plant. The 

 color is also good and it is moderately firm. 

 This is from J. H. Hale, of Connecticut. 



Riehl's No. 1 AND 3. Seedlings of Cap- 

 tain Jack are very promising. 



Sadie, also of Thompson's, is one of the 

 most productive yet on my grounds, medium 

 in size and of good quality. 



P.WNE. A seedling of the Cumberland 

 and much like it, but much more productive 

 and firmer. This will make its mark. 



Regina. This is from the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and is one of the best late ones. 



Oregon Everbearing. This did not bear 

 last season, as the fruit buds were all cut 

 off in spring, a very dry season following. 

 This year it bore a full crop of excellent 

 berries, and will be worth growing even if 

 it beai-s but one crop. It, however, promises 

 to continue this season, as there are now 

 blossoms on the plants, while the crop is 

 about gone. It should be planted on poor 

 soil to get best results. My ground is all 

 too rich. J. B. Miller, of Anna, 111., sent 

 Heath, Rough and Ready, Colossal, Bril- 

 liant and Prolific, a set that will vie with 

 the best we have and may one day rank 

 among the foremost. 



Miller's No. 5 (from Amos Miller, the 

 originator of Cumberland), is the nearest to 



Ladies Pineinquality, and isalarger berry. 



Ladies Pine. A seedling of Burr's New 

 Pine, raised by N. H. Reuile, Canada, West, 

 is perhaps the best-flavored Strawberry 

 ever raised. Is medium in size, of a pink 

 color, moderately productive, too soft for 

 market, but the berry for home use where 

 one wishes a superb fruit for eating. 



I had lost it some years ago, and inquired 

 through the press all over the country, but 

 no one could be found who had it. At last 

 1 was fortunate enough to get it again from 

 the originator, with the remark in his letter, 

 that in his thirty years of raising seedling 

 Strawberries he never got one equal to it in 

 quality, and retained it on that account. 

 We have now seed planted of this crossed 

 with Jessie and Cumberland, with a view 

 of getting as good a one of large size. 



Until these new ones establish a reputa- 

 tion for size and productiveness, I predict 

 that Wartteld, Bubach and Haverland will 

 hold the field for big market berries. If 

 Bubach was as good in quality as Ladies 

 Pine, it would fill the bill as a luxury. 

 Please don't write to me for plants. I have 

 none of them to sell or give away. Only 

 Ladies Pine and Payne are in my hands to 

 propagate. 



The wet weather has spoiled many bushels 

 of our berries here. We have them three 

 times a day on the table, and every one eats 

 throughout the day when so inclined. One 

 party at our meeting stated that he left at 

 least two hundred crates of ripe Strawber- 

 ries at home that would go to waste for 

 want of pickers, although near a large 

 town, where enough of boys and girls lived 

 who needed work, but labor of any kind in 

 the country is not considered respectable. 

 This state of affairs needs improving. School 

 mam's, type-writers, secretaries and clerks 

 are over-plenty, and many idle who would 

 greatly need the wages that might be earned 

 in the Strawberry patches. 



Our market this season is at home. We 

 sell berries cheap; need no boxes or crates, 

 and escape the clutches of the express com- 

 panies as well as commission men. We are 

 also putting up quite a quantity for folks in 

 the cities, who know what they will get, 

 instead of canning and preserving what they 

 must buy at the market. It is possible that 

 a business of this kind can be built up. 

 Rain In excess here. 



Money in Gooseberries. 



The Gooseberry, as a crop for market, 

 notwithstanding its many advantages, has 

 hardly found the consideration that it de- 

 serves. We believe it can be made a profit- 

 able crop. If picked before ripening, when 

 it is at its best for sauce, it can be kept for a 

 long time, and shipped almost any distance 

 with perfect safety. 



The ripe fruit is very palatable, and the 

 only reason we can imagine why it has not 

 become more popular as a dessert fruit, is 

 the difficulty of growing the finer foreign 

 varieties or their seedlings in our country 

 on account of their liability to be attacked 

 by mildew. None of them have been found 

 to be "mildew-proof," as is often claimed 

 by originators or introducers of such varie- 

 ties. Sooner or later they will fall victims 

 to the disease, unless means of prevention 

 are employed. 



Fortunately such means are now at our 

 command. The New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station has for the past three 

 years grown fine crops of Gooseberries en- 

 tirely free from mildew, by the following 

 course of treatment. The fungicide used is 

 potassium sulphide, or liver of sulphur; 

 formula, one-half ounce dissolved in one 

 gallon of water. If hot water is used the 

 sulphide will dissolve more readily. The 

 first spraying is given as soon as the young 

 leaves unfold, and successive sprayings at 



intervals of from eighteen to twenty days. 

 In case of frequent, heavy rains it will be 

 necessary to spray oftener. 



As commercial liver of sulphur costs but 

 little (from 15 to 30 cents per pound) and one 

 gallon will spray 10 or 13 large bushes, if 

 applied with a force pump and a spraying 

 nozzle, it will be seen that the largest cost 

 will be that of labor. If spraying is done 

 with a syringe on a small number of plants 

 the amount of liquid necessary will be in- 

 creased, of course, but however lavish one 

 is with the solution, the beneficial results 

 will more than compensate for the outlay. 



The Station also tested the matter of prices 

 last year. A flve-pound basket of several 

 varieties was picked at fruiting time, and 

 taken to a leading grocer of Geneva, who 

 sold the basket containing the large varie- 

 ties at fifty cents, those containing the 

 medium and small varieties at forty cents. 

 The grocer stated that he could dispose of a 

 large quantity at those prices. On the basis 

 of 3.5 cents per basket, and an average good 

 yield, the Station people figure out the gross 

 returns per acre at no less than tti8.5, and 

 they are convinced that there is money in 

 Gooseberries. 



The Peaches for Fruit and Profit. 



The first early varieties of Peaches, Alex- 

 ander, Early Rivers, Early Beatrice, and 

 the like, in this vicinity, are well set with 

 fruit, and promise an abundant yield. The 

 Early Crawfords, Stumps, and many other 

 later sorts, however, have dropped most of 

 their fruit, and will bear very sparingly. 



This reminds us that the first early sorts, 

 Hynes' Surprise included, which is about 

 the only one among them grown hereabouts 

 that might be called a free stone, are the 

 hardiest and the most reliable croppers of 

 Peach kind. In good locations they seldom 

 fail to bring a crop. In fact, they usually 

 set so full that severe thinning will be 

 necessary to prevent the rotting and dwarf- 

 ing of the fruit. 



Most or all of these varieties are stragg- 

 ling growers, and require considerable 

 pruning, which is to be done in autumn, by 

 clipping back the new growth quite severe- 

 ly. Neglect of this, and of thinning. Is 

 quite likely to result in the breaking down 

 of branches, and probably in the early ruin 

 of the tree. Proper attention to these points, 

 however, with good seeding and clean cul- 

 tivation, will with almost unfailing certain- 

 ty, insure plenty of good marketable 

 Peaches that always sell well. 



Unquestionably, there is money in these 

 early Peaches, especially Hynes' Surprise, 

 if grown in accordance with these sugges- 

 tions. The small, flavorless Peaches of 

 these kinds, however, as usually found in 

 the markets, and which were produced on 

 over-crowded, unpruned trees, without food 

 or cultivation, can not reasonably be espec- 

 ted to give satisfactory results. Here, as in 

 everything else, superior quality counts for 

 a good deal. Manure, cultivation, pruning, 

 thinning— these are the cardinal points in 

 growing good Peaches. 



Things That Don't Pay. 



E. F. POWELL, O.NEIDA CO., N. Y. 



Does it pay to stop hoeing in mid-summer 

 and let all the later growing weeds go to 

 seed? I have adopted the plan of keeping 

 my fields clean until winter, and do not 

 have to put in any more work than I should 

 if the fields were seeded down every autumn 

 with Docks and annual Grasses and Purs- 

 lane and a thousand other weeds to be hoed 

 out another season. In other words, al- 

 though I do more fall hoeing, I have less 

 summer hoeing to do. Nearly all the Pota- 

 to fields that I see about the county are 

 level full of weeds. The Potatoes are hoed 

 twice and then weeds can grow as they like. 



