2IO 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



differences and resemblances between the 

 various trees and shrubs is made a feature 

 of school training, can the fullest possible 

 benefit be derived from the day. 



The progress which the public schools of 

 many states have made of late years, gives 

 good ground for the hope that this advance 

 for which we plead will be made soon all 

 along the Hue. This progress Is not, as some 

 contend, imaginary. A lady who, a dozen 

 years ago, was a teacher in some district 

 school in New York state, and who, after 

 this interval, has gone back 

 to the same work, tells me 

 that she realizes, as no one 

 who has grown in and with 

 it can, the healthful change 

 which is an accomplished 

 fact. Political economy, 

 physiology. Arbor Day, al- 

 most compusory attend- 

 ance upon institutes, ex- 

 amination of teachers in 

 the topics of the day, all 

 these were unknown in her 

 earlier experience; now the 

 commissioners require that 

 teachers be well up in 

 these live features. 



Botany has many good 

 points to recommend it to 

 both teacher and pupils. 

 It may be made very 

 simple; it may be taught, 

 if necessary, without 

 books,up to a certain point; 

 It is sure to create enthu- 

 siasm, and a little of it 

 goes a great ways. The 

 writer remembers only six 

 or eight weeks of instruc- 

 tion (and this under a 

 teacher who was really in- 

 competent) when just 

 rounding the first " teen," 

 and possibly ten days tab- 

 ular work later in one of 

 New York's leading norm al 

 schools, the faculty of 

 which considered even this 

 short time sufficient to give 

 a live pupil a taste which 

 would lead to further 

 study. This meagre in- 

 struction laid a foundation 

 upon which regular work 

 has been built in succeed- 

 ing years, with the slight- 

 est possible difficulty and 

 unflagging zeal. 



Perhaps the child does not exist, to whom, 

 after the habit of observation is formed, it 

 will not be of interest to find, for instance, 

 that the curious Indian Pipe, the Huckle- 

 berry and Wintergreen of his eager search 

 in swamp and wood, and the beautiful can- 

 didate for national honors, the American 

 Laurel, belong to the same order, or we may 

 better say to him at first, to the same family. 



By no means least is the further consid- 

 eration that the teaching of this beautiful 

 science in our common schools is likely to 

 prove a powerful factor in the question that 

 wiU not down— the question of how to keep 

 the children on the farm after they cease to 

 be children. The mass of country dwellers 

 have little eye for the beauties which delight 

 the occasional city visitor; they are filled 

 with thoughts of the daily grind, and they 

 ignore the joys and beauties of country life 

 because they have never been taught to dis- 

 cover these. 



When our boys and girls know the pleas- 

 ure and beauty as intimately as they now 

 know the monotonous "Does farming pay?" 

 they will not be so anxious to leave farm at 

 the earliest possible moment. The boy who 

 asks: "What profit is it to be born in the 

 country and have only its disadvantages?" 

 has a level head, and the farm has no right 

 to him unles it shows him a more favorable 



and enjoyable side of farm life. Give the 

 children of the country their birthright. 



Fruit Notes from the Lake Erie 

 Region. 



L. O. YOUNGS, ERIE CO., PA. 



Our specialty is Grapes. They look fine 

 at this writing. Probably 300 car loads will 

 be shipped from North East alone. My own 

 vineyard is a small one of twelve acres em- 

 bracing 33 varieties, mostly Concords. For 

 black Grapes Concord, Moore's Early and 



Red Raspberries,! haveone acre of Currants, 

 of which, however, only a part is now In 

 bearing. Fay, Cherry, Eutah and Crandall 

 constitute the bulk of my bushes. Fay this 

 year was immense in size and quantity. 







a^i-. 



Canadian poplar 

 Trees and Shrubs 26 Months from Planting. 



Dotted Stfliaresi Represent 4 hyi feet. 



Worden have done the best In the order 

 named, for white Grapes, Empire State, 

 Niagara and Pookington; for red, Brighton, 

 Delaware, and Rogers' No. 9. Must defer 

 expressing an opinion about Eaton, Moore's 

 Diamond, Colerain, Moyer, etc., at present, 

 or until further trial. 



I dabble a little in berries. Strawberries 

 were nearly a failure; cause drought. A 

 neighbor of mine, however, sold >^27o worth 

 from five-eighth acre of ground, the patch 

 being on quite moist land. Rain came In 

 time for Raspberries, Palmer doing especi- 

 ally well. Doolittle is my main crop, how- 

 ever, but so far Palmer proml.'ies better. 

 Johnston's Sweet and Gregg done poorly, 

 Ohio medium. 



In Blackberries 1 have Taylor, Ancient 

 Briton, Snyder, Dorchester, etc., but the 

 best is Taylor, all things considered, stand- 

 ing the droughts of this lake shore better 

 than any other I have tested. 



Ancient Briton is a good berry, but the 

 tendency Is to set more fruit than it can 

 mature. In the west under favorable cli.- 

 matic conditions I have seen it mature 

 immense crops. In red Raspberries Cuth- 

 bert, Marlboro' and Reliance constitute the 

 bulk of the crop. Besides two acres of 

 Blackcaps, one of Strawberries, three-quart- 

 ers of Blackberries and three-quarters of 



Notes from the Popular Gardening 



Grounds at La Salle-on-the- 



Nlag-ara. 



Lessons on Quick Effects in Plantinq. In 

 this brief life time we work for results. While 

 there may be satisfaction in the thought that 

 others after us will derive 

 benefits from the planting we 

 do, still the motive at the 

 bottom of all such work is 

 that we may derive these 

 benefits in our own time. 



Now it happens that In 

 more than twenty years ex- 

 perience as a tree planter and 

 horticultural adviser, while 

 the writer has been glad to 

 note the innate love of tree 

 and shrub beauty possessed 

 by every refined person, he 

 has also had thrust upon his 

 attention, the presence of a 

 notion that in planting one 

 has a large fraction of a life- 

 time to wait for marked re- 

 sults. More than once he has 

 heard people, somewhat along 

 in years, refuse to plant at 

 all, or to begin a new place, 

 because "life is short, and 

 trees grow slowly." This 

 view he has always combated 

 on the grounds, that by a 

 judicious course very mature 

 effects could be secured from 

 planting, in not to exceed two 

 or three years from the date 

 of patronizing the nursery. 



In conducting the present 

 Popular Gakdenino Exper- 

 iment Grounds, one of the 

 things in which particular 

 pleasure has been taken has 

 been to demostrate for the 

 benefit of the tens of thou- 

 sands of amateurs who read 

 these columns, the truth of 

 the position above stated. We 

 entered upon the work of 

 experimental planting to this 

 end about 27 months ago, and 

 now are able to present an 

 object lesson on the extreme- 

 ly satisfactory results at- 

 tained to date, and which we 

 think must prove of great 

 interest to every one interest- 

 ed in home embellishment. 

 To the editor whose home is 

 surrounded with the results 

 of these labors, it is, tor personal reasons, a 

 source of the utmost satisfaction, to contem- 

 plate such improvments. He entered upon this 

 planting not alone for the lessons It might con- 

 vey to others, but for the purpose of securing 

 tor h^piself and family, complete garden sur- 

 roundings in the shortest time practicable. 



The Charts. To make the subject under 

 consideration clear, the accompanying small 

 charts are employed. They show sketches from 

 life of a score or two of our young trees and 

 shrubs, made June 33d last, less than M months 

 from planting. The dotted lines on the charts 

 show squares of four feet each, being designed 

 to give an idea of the correct dimensions of the 

 various subjects. In every instance the draw- 

 ing was made by the aid of a guage eight feet 

 high and with a four foot arm, held alongside of 

 each shrub, tree or group. Thus it is seen that 

 the young Linden dasystyla at the lower 

 left hand corner is about ten feet in height; the 

 Canadian Poplar next to it is over 1.5 feet high; 

 one of the Weigelas at the bottom of the right 

 hand chart is five feet high and of slightly great- 

 1 er width, the other fully six feet high and very 

 nearly as wide, and so on. As regards the size of 

 I stock as it came from the nursery It did not run 

 above the average and lacked the uniformity 

 that nursery stock in large orders always will 

 lack. When we have mentioned size at all to 

 i the nurseries of which we ordered, it has been to 

 , say that oxir choice was for medium rather than 

 • large sized plants. 



With this much introductory we proceed to de- 

 I duce several important lessons from our plant- 



