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POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



Every plant was loaded down with fruit. Then 

 came some frosty nights, but while they de- 

 stroyed the earliest-set fruit, probably did not 

 reduce the aggregate quantity to au appreciable 

 degree. The destruction of a few early blossoms 

 b.v frost is hardly ever so serious a matter as the 

 first wails of the grower over his loss might 

 make us believe. 



Then came a drought of six weeks' duration. 

 This to us appeared In the light of a much more 

 serious matter, and it would probably have 

 turned out to be thus, had not a rain set in at the 

 eleventh hour that it possibly could have helped 

 us. It came just as the berries were ripening, 

 and worked like a charm, showing once more 

 the fallacy of earlier predictions of disaster, and 

 of premature wailing. 



Altogether the crop was a large one, and this 

 so uniformly with all varieties, that it would 

 have been a diflficult matter to determine what 

 varieties are the most prolicfic. 



In regard to earliness we noted very little 

 difference among a large number of varieties. 

 The first on our list. Alpha, gave us the first 

 fruit, perhaps a few days in advance of Wilson. 

 The bulk of the varieties begin to ripen about 

 with the Wilson, and last for about the same 

 period. On the whole the beds bore longer and 

 later this year than Strawberry plants do in or- 

 dinary seasons. 



Alpha. Decidedly earliest here. Fruit medium 

 sized, firm, abundant. 



Bidwell. Not much fruit, and not promising 

 here. 



Bubach, although giving a good crop of very 

 large fruit, seems to us somewhat overpraised. 

 We like the immense healthy foliage, but the 

 fruit is neither firm nor of high quality enough 

 to suit us. 



Cloud came out better this year being not only 

 a cloud of plants as last season, but a cloud of 

 berries also. Fruit held well up to foliage; 

 otherwise has some of the Wilson characteristics. 



Chas. Dcnoning came out finer than any Down- 

 ings we have recently seen; almost as large as 

 Cumberland, and quite as prolific. 



Haverland upholds its established reputation. 

 It begins to ripen with the Wilson, and holds 

 out much longer. We found fine berries on the 

 plants as late as we find any on Gaudy. Fruit 

 above medium size, and produced in great 

 quantities, although not so abundantly as on the 

 bed while younger. Lack of firmness, and light 

 color are its weak points; still we would risk it 

 for near market. 



Jessie with us is always Irregular, if not abso- 

 lutely ugly, although the quality is good. We 

 have no further use for it on our grounds. 



Wilson is a pretty fair berry yet. 



Warfleld was overloaded with fruit, conse- 

 quently the berries were small, but of fair 

 quality, and firm enough for shipment. 



Vick bears too good a name for so worthless a 

 thing. 



PrtJice of Berries is a prince of quality and 

 dark glossy color. 



Pine Apple. Very large in fruit and foliage. 

 Berry light-colored, of good quality, irregular, 

 and not enough of them. 



Parry made an excellent showing. Fruit of 

 good size, borne well up from the ground. 

 Quality flrst-rate. 



Phelps or Old Ironclad. Not early enough here 

 to justify its reputation on that point. Not pro- 

 lific, and not wanted here anymore. 



May King. Berries standing well up; rather 

 smallish; not promising. 



Manchester does fairly well; berry large, fairly 

 productive. 



Monmouth. Small plants, fairly productive. 

 Quality not lilgh. Season with Wilson. Will be 

 discarded, here, 



^Y^ld Strawberry was increased in size by culti- 

 vation, and retained its flavor, but not profitable 

 to grow. 



Atitia Forest gave fine fruit this year. Berries 

 very large and very many of them; somewhat 

 irregular; light colored; fair but not high in 

 quality. 



Bright Idea. A perfect mass of beiTies borne 

 high up above the foliage. Medium to late. 

 .. Bomba not promising here. 



Blaeh Defiance. A nice, bright, clean berry, of 

 medium size and good quality. Reasonably firm. 

 A cl uster is illustrated on page 311. 



Crystal City seems to be merely an improved 

 form of the wild berry. 



Cinderella has not much leaf. Fruit of Haver- 

 land shape, but not enough of It. 

 Livingston is somewhat on the Haverland order. 



ITie Alpines. People who appreciate the spicy 

 flavor of the Alpine Strawberry, and are willing 

 to pay for a good thing, can do no better than 

 plant a patch of Alpines. We believe that if 

 given a halt-shady position, and perhaps wood's 

 earth, will make fruit large enough, so a boy 

 would be willing to pick a quart for less than ten 

 cents. At any rate, we have not had a more de- 

 licious mess of Strawberries this season, than a 

 few handfuls of these Alpines, picked by oui-- 

 selves in July, and eaten with cream and sugar. 



The Tomato Patch. Tomatoes at this writ- 

 ing are doing finely. Some specimens on Early 

 Ruby have already been picked, although the 

 season seems to be very backward. We believe we 

 have in this the earliest good market variety of 

 the present time. Experiments with nitrate of 

 soda on Tomatoes gave entirely negative results. 

 There Is no noticeable difference between plants 

 to which nitrate was applied and the others. On 

 the other hand, we notice some decided effects 

 of watering in a dry time. In the latter part of 

 the six weeks' drouth we had a bucketful of 

 creek water applied to each plant in three rows 

 of the patch, about 20O plants in all, requiring 

 the work of two persons for about two hours. 

 The effect was not very apparent soon after the 

 application was made, and hardly noticeable at 

 any time when two individual plants, one in the 

 treated row and another in the one adjoining 

 were compared. But when looking over the 

 whole length of the rows, the difference between 

 the three that were watered and the others is 

 very striking, and seems to indicate that it will 

 pay to apply water in a dry time. But if made 

 at at all, the application should be copious, a 

 bucketful to the plant not being extravagant. 

 The water was poured into a ring-like depression 

 made with the foot in the mellow soil around 

 each plant, allowed to soak into the ground, 

 after which some dry soil was drawn over the 

 moistened spot around the plant, with hoe or foot. 



Points on Summer Plant Propaga- 

 tion. 



Budding is really a simple operation, and 

 with a little practice any careful person 

 should soon learn to perform it expeditiously 

 and successfully. The veteran nurseryman 

 and author Josiah Hoopes, gives a few 

 points concerning this and other ways of 

 propagating plants, in the Weekly Tribune 

 that will prove useful not only to the novice, 

 but to the expert as well. 



In budding, he says, clear sunny weather 

 is more favorable to "solid take" than 

 cloudy, rainy seasons, and when the work 

 has been performed previous to a rain the 

 operation will be more sure than immed- 

 iately after. Few plants require a portion 

 of wood to remain in the bud when cut for 

 insertion, and the old system of cutting the 

 bud flat and removing the wood with the 

 point of the knife is obselete. By cutting 

 half way through the cion and then merely 

 through the bark at the lower end, the bud 

 and bark will wring off easily it full of sap. 

 If not in this condition, a thin section must 

 be used; but success is not so fully assured 

 as when the sap runs freely. Old time 

 workmen were particular to cover every 

 portion of the cut in wrapping; but this, 

 too, is now considered unnecessary, as a few 

 tight turns of the string will preserve the 

 bud firm until it unites with the stock. The 

 novice will find that the string needs close 

 attention for a week or two after the opera- 

 tion, especially on rapid-growing plants, 

 and whenever the bark forms little ridges 

 around the wrap, the latter should be at once 

 removed or loosened. 



Inarching, which consists in binding two 

 twigs tightly together, after having smooth- 

 ly cut away the bark of each, may be im- 

 proved upon by inserting the end of the cion 

 in a bottle of water, or even wrapping it in 

 wet moss. 



The layering process is not nearly so pop- 

 ular as it deserves to be. It enables us to 

 increase stock of almost any plant, both de- 

 ciduous and evergreen. No special time is 

 necessary for the operation, although the 

 earlier layers usually form more roots than 

 toward the close of the season. A slight 



cut part way through the shoot is advan- 

 tageous, although some plants form roots 

 so readily that this seems unnecessary. The 

 soil should be packed firm over the layer, 

 and during a dry time needs a little mulch, 

 to preserve moisture. Such shrubs as Vi- 

 burnum plicatum, Purple Berberry, Down- 

 ing Gooseberries, etc., must be layered to 

 obtain young plants, as they root so badly 

 from cuttings as to make this process a 

 waste of time. 



Most kinds of shrubbery can now be In- 

 creased by cuttings of the partially ripened 

 wood, if placed in boxes of moist sand and 

 subjected to moist heat. There is no diffi- 

 culty in getting them to form roots, but 

 more or less in preventing "damping off," 

 caused by a destructive fungus. The house 

 or frame must be perfectly tight, and all 

 drafts of air avoided, and yet this is just the 

 atmospheric condition for development of 

 destructive parasitic growths. 



Therefore, as soon as roots form, grad- 

 ually admit air, when the wood will quickly 

 ripen, and all danger be past. Winter in 

 cold frames to avoid heaving by frost. Most 

 vines, such as Honeysuckles, Akebias, etc., 

 may be propagated the same way. In 

 making cuttings of unripened wood, it is 

 unnecessary to cut directly below a bud; 

 any part of the wood will form roots as 

 successfully. Cuttings with a "heel"— 

 that is, having a little of the old wood at- 

 tached to the base — is another useless pre- 

 caution. Perhaps the terminal part of a 

 shoot will make the best cutting, if suf- 

 ficiently mature, but any other part will 

 root as well and answer the purpose, if not 

 too hard. Newspapers spread over the cut- 

 tings and kept constantly wet are incentive 

 to root-formation, but they must be removed 

 as soon as the fibres obtain hold in the sand. 



Bees and Fruit Growing. 



It is simply an aggravated case of base in- 

 gratitude on the part of the fruit-grower if 

 he finds fault with his beekeeping neighbor 

 on account of the injury done to fruit by 

 bees. The fruit-grower, in fact, has no 

 warmer friend, no more useful agent, than 

 the pollen-carrying, honey-seeking little in- 

 sect. The interests of fruit-grower and bee- 

 keeper, far from being antagonistic, lie in- 

 deed so nearly in the same direction, that 

 we urgently advocate the combine of the 

 two avocations in the same person. 



The leading cause of barrenness In fruit 

 trees and bush fruits is lack of proper pol- 

 lenation, due again, in many cases, to the 

 absence of the right kind of pollen, and in 

 others to its non-transfer from the stamens to 

 the needy pistOs. Many trees are not self- 

 fertilizing, either because their own pollen 

 upon their own pistils has no potency; or 

 because the pollen is not discharged at the 

 time when the pistils are receptive. A 

 notable example of the one case is the 

 Chestnut, and one of the other case, the 

 Wild Goose Plum at the north. The remedy 

 to be suggested is planting a number of 

 trees or varieties near enough together, so 

 they can furnish what pollen they need, to 

 each other. 



On the whole, however, we believe that 

 more trees, shrubs, and garden plants, have 

 to depend on the agency of Insects, especially 

 bees and bumblebees, for the transfer of 

 suitable pollen to the pistils, and thus to be- 

 come fruitful, than is usually supposed by 

 the average soil worker. We have recently 

 heard of a number of instances, where 

 Cherry trees were almost fruitless for a 

 number of years, during which no bees were 

 kept in the vicinity; and all at once began 

 to bear heavy regular crops so soon as an 

 apiary was established near by. 



We believe bees are a good thing, and a 

 number of colonies should be kept in or 

 near every orchard. 



