220 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



^^ xr-.-.^IWiMATTER'niAfDHSEHVES 

 ' .> TO BEVnDET.YItHOWSL 



Qaality in Qrapes. It is 

 true we can get better 

 Grapes by thinning out the 

 clusters, and by not hav- 

 ing the land too rich.— Geo. 

 T. Powell. 



Best Age of Grape Vine 

 for Setting. A yearling 

 is the best, as a rule, as the 

 shock is not so great. I like to have a vine 

 start promptly and grow.— G. C. Snoiv. 



Hartford Connty Horticulturists. The fall 

 flower and fruit exhibit of the Hartford county 

 horticultural society will be held at Hartford, 

 Ct., Sept. 8-10. The same society will hold a 

 Chrysanthemum exhibit, Nov. 3-5. Henry A. 

 Taylor of Hartford is the secretary. 



The Caper of Commerce. W. S. Lyon, Chief 

 State Forester of CaUfornia, stated before the 

 Horticultural Society of that State he had seen 

 the Caper (CapparU spinosa) doing well in Santa 

 Barbara County, and that it would grow in dry 

 places throughout Southern California. 



Soil for Currants, Plant Currants on heavy 

 soil, weU fertihzed, as the plant is a gross feeder, 

 and will take all the food you will give it. Sys- 

 tematic pruning is also essential to the produc- 

 tion of perfect fruit. Mulch the bushes heavily 

 with coal ashes, as they prevent, to a large ex- 

 tent, the ravages of the Currant worm.— P. T. 

 Powell. 



Bummer Pruning Orapes. When I was 

 younger than I am now, I thought to hurry up 

 the ripening of my Grapes by letting in the sun 

 upon the clusters, as the sun is a great friend to 

 Grapes; so I cut the leaves off all about the 

 clusteri, and the Grapes were poorer, and the 

 next year the vines were weak and some of them 

 dead. I am sure we must be very careful about 

 summer trimming.— Coi. Curtis, before the iV. I'. 

 Farmers" Institute. 



Extent of Apple Evaporating Business. It 



amounts to millions of dollars in the United 

 States, and the other evaporated fruit to several 

 million more; this, too in a busmess that was un- 

 known twenty years ago. In Canada the pro- 

 duct is not large in ordinary years. When the 

 Apple crop is small in New York State, many 

 take their evaporator to Canada. Most of the 

 evaporators in this state are in Western New 

 York. Within a radius of forty miles of Boches- 

 ter there are more than 1500 with varying capa- 

 city of from twenty-flve bushels per day to the 

 large establishment drying 1000 bushels in 

 twenty-four hours.— Geo. L. Davis before the N. 

 Y. Farmers' histitttte. 



Various Flower Notes. Many plants such as 

 the Palm, Yucca, Serew-plne and Rubber tree 

 are slow of growth, but thrive under conditions 

 that would be certain death to many. The Rub- 

 ber tree has large, thick, glossy leaves that can 

 be washed as easily as you can wash a plate. 

 Many amateur flower growers have an impres- 

 sion that plants must have large pots to grow in 

 if their cultivation is to be success. 1 frequently 

 see bits of Geraniums and Fuchsias plant- 

 ed in pots six or eight inches in diameter. It is 

 only when roots of plants have completely filled 

 the pots that a larger pot is required. A pretty 

 home is no less a picture than a work of art, or a 

 painting on canvas. Nothing imparts a more re- 

 fining influence to the home than the cultivatioa 

 of flowers. They are God's select emblems of 

 purity and beauty, and are to us at all times 

 messengers of joy. Their presence adds to every 

 occasion. In times of sadness they lessen the 

 gloom, and in time of joy their bright presence 

 adds to the occasion. Nothing so appropriate 

 to deck the casket. No home can be too exalted, 

 none too humble for their eultivation.— M?'8. 

 Florence B. Moore, before the Miami O. Bort. Soc. 



Bagging Orapes for Insect Depredations. 



Aside from the question of mildew, bagging will 

 have to be resorted to in the future to protect 

 our vineyards from the ravages of a pest that 

 threatens to become nearly, if not (luite, as de- 

 structive as both mildew and black rot together. 

 X refer to the small black worm which we find 

 taking up its quarters in the Grape some five or 

 six weeks before ripening. This insect is hatch- 

 ed from an egg deposited on the side of the 

 berry by a fly resembling somewhat the common 



housefly. As soon as it is hatched it goes to the 

 seeds, and after permanently injuring the berry 

 it will go to the next, and so on until it has spoil- 

 ed several. I have seen bunches in my vineyard 

 containing scarcely one good Grape. This pest 

 has attacked our vineyards for a number of 

 years, and is doubtless known to a large num- 

 ber of Grape-growers. Its depredations have 

 usually been so limited as to call for no special 

 notice, but during the past two seasons it has in- 

 creased to such an extent as to seriously alarm 

 the Grape-growers in our section. The best, 

 and, in fact, only preventive I have yet dis- 

 covered is the paper bag, as the fly will not enter 

 it to deposit its eggs. Grapes that have passed 

 the summer in bags come out in the fall lookmg 

 better than those exposed to the weather. The 

 berries being free from weather-marks, pre- 

 sent a fresh green look.— W.B. Qoldsmith, before 

 N. J. Bort. Soc. 



TTnfermented Grape Juice. The Grapes are 

 picked when they are fully ripened and the juice 

 extracted and bottled as soon as possible after- 

 wards. The bottles are filled brimful and placed 

 up to their necks in vats of hot water within ten 

 degrees of the boiling point. When the must is 

 as hot as the water, the cork is forced into the 

 bottle, expelling a portion of the liquid. No fer- 

 mentation will ensue. As the liquid cools,it con- 

 tracts, leaving a vacancy between the cork and 

 the liquid; but the vacancy must not be an at- 

 mospheric chamber. The cork must, of course, 

 be thoroughly ait -tight. If fermentation does 

 set in, it may be driven off by reheating the 

 wine. The bottles are then laid on their sides in 

 a cool place and the organic foreign substances 

 must be allowed to settle, so that the liquid 

 may become clear. The wine can lie six months 

 or a year without damage. At the end of the 

 settling period, it should again be filled into 

 bottles, the sediment being left behind. These 

 bottles must be brimful, and should again be 

 set in vats of hot water, heated up to the same 

 degree and coi-ked in precisely the same manner 

 as at first, using sealing wax to exclude the air. 

 The wine is then left t« cool in the ordinary way 

 and must be put away where the temperature 

 is even and cool. It is now ready for use and 

 will keep just as long as it is kept free from con- 

 tact with the atmosphere. This makes a very 

 delightful beverage entirely free from alcohol.— 

 E.Bwlse,before theVictoria Vegetable Commission, 

 Au^t7-alia. 



Fall Web- Worm and Tent Caterpillar. The 

 web-worm {Hyphayitna. cunea, Drury) occurs 

 throughout the country and feeds on the foliage 

 of a great variety of trees. It is often called the 

 ■'tent caterpillar," but it differs widely from 

 either of the true tent caterpillars. The cater- 

 pillar of the web-worm is much lighter colored, 

 and when full grown only about half the size of 

 the others, and it hibernates in the pupa state, 

 they in the egg state; it occurs mostly in the 

 fall, they in the spring; its eggs are deposited on 

 a leaf and hatch before the leaf falls, theirs are 

 deposited around a twig, because they have to 

 pass the winter and would get lost with the 

 leaves if deposited upon them; it feeds solel.v on 

 the parenchyma of the leaf under its web, they 

 devour the whole leaf outside of their tent. In 

 the New England States the web-worm is only 

 single-brooded, its webs not being seen on the 

 trees until August or September, hence its name 

 of fall web-worm. In the latitude of Missouri 

 and southward it is invariably two- brooded— the 

 webs appearing on the trees in June and again 

 during late summer and early autumn. This in- 

 sect has a large number of natural enemies. So 

 long as it remained under its web it was, until 

 recently, comparatively safe from molestation. 

 During the past summer, however, an enemy 

 was found "within its borders'' that threatens 

 to wage upon it a war of extermination. This 

 is the larva of a small earabid beetle living under 

 the same tent with the web- worm and destroy- 

 ing the worms. This little creature, not more 

 than half an inch in length and one-tenth inch 

 in diameter, would not hesitate to attack a 

 nearly full-grown caterpillar, biting into its side 

 or back, sometimes almost severing it in the 

 course of its meal, the violent contortions of its 

 victim being unavailing to loosen its fierce and 

 relentless hold. The perfect insect (P(oc(iiom»-s 

 (imid««) is a small, flattened, shining, dark-brown 

 beetle. The larva, that is undoubtedly destined 

 to prove such a benefactor to the arboricultur- 

 ist, is in form much like that of a miniature alli- 

 gator. The surface is smooth, the ground color 

 a dingy white, but with almost the entire upper 

 surface of each joint dull black, and a row of 



smaller black spots along each side. The head, 

 and two horny plates covering the tops of the 

 flrst and second joints, are reddish brown, the 

 small, strong jaws being armed with needle-like 

 teeth. The pupa is of a transparent white color, 

 and is sometimes found in the folds of withered 

 leaves, in the web, and sometimes concealed 

 under rubbish on the surface of the ground. 



Evaporating Apples for Profit. 



(Extract of paper read by J. B. Durand be/ore the 

 Missouri Horticulturai .Society.) 



All fruit growers, and more especially of 

 the Apple, know that much of their fruit is 

 unfit for market, either being wormy, 

 specked, scabby, knotty or small. Now all 

 this fruit can be utilized by the evaporator 

 and placed upon the market at remunerat- 

 ive prices. It is not necessary to have a 

 large establishment to accomplish this re- 

 sult. There are driers with their capacities 

 ranging from one to two bushels of green 

 Apples per day, up to thousands. 



The work can be done just as well and as 

 cheaply on a ten-bushel machine as in any of the 

 large factories, and my experience has been that 

 they are the least expensive. Often it will pay 

 to evaporate the whole crop. I have often rea- 

 lized more for culls than for the shipping fruit. 



One hand can run a ten bushel drier, with 

 twenty-flve cents worth of fuel, and make fifty 

 pounds of white fruit per day, which, at ten 

 cents per pound, about the average price, would 

 net four dollars and seventy cents, making 

 nearly fifty cents a bushel, Ineluding the day's 

 work, and at this year's prices, would be over 

 seventy cents, and if the waste is dried, almost 

 a dollar. 



Again, one important point thus gained is cull- 

 ing out your shipping fruit, making it grade 

 fancy, and thereby obtain the highest market 

 price for it. 



Market only the best, evaporate the rest. Thus 

 you would avoid the breaking down the markets 

 for the green fruit. This is always done by in- 

 ferior stock being run on the market, and never 

 by good choice fruit. We can, at nearly all 

 times, see Apples quoted on the market at 75 cts. 

 to 81.25 per barrel. These represent loss to the 

 grower. All of this kind should never go on the 

 market, but in the evaporator. The world is 

 your market for evaporated fruit; you have 

 nearly four barrels of Apples in a flfty-pound 

 box that can be shipped just as safely to Alaska, 

 China or India, as to St. Louis, and you need be 

 in no hurry to market it. Next spring is as good 

 as this fall, and often better prices are obtained. 



When properly packed, and with proper stor- 

 age, it can be kept for years as fresh and sweet 

 as when first prepared, except a little loss in 

 color, but even this may be overcome by cold 

 storage. 



If prices are as low as they were two years ago, 

 when it was worth only from four to six cents a 

 pound, and the waste and chop less than one 

 cent, it can safely be kept over until there is a 

 shortage like the present, when fifteen cents can 

 be obtained for the white fruit, and four to Hve 

 cents tor chop and waste. The chop is Apples 

 sliced just as they are without any paring or 

 coring, and dried; in this the small and knotty 

 Apples that cannot be pared are used. The work 

 is done quite rapidly with a machine made for 

 the purpose; forty or fifty bushels can be sliced 

 in an hour by two hands. 



One bushel of Apples will make ten pounds of 

 chop, which is now worth four cents a pound. 



The waste is the skins, cores and trimmings 

 from white fruit, which needs no other prepara- 

 tion only to put it in the evaporator, dry it and 

 pack it in sacks or barrels ready for shipment. 

 It is used for making jellies, and usually brings 

 about one-half cent more than .the chop. Most 

 of the chop is, I understand, shipped to Europe 

 and there manufactured into fine wines and sent 

 back to this country and sold at from one to five 

 dollars a bottle. The price is, therefore, greatly 

 influenced and governed by the Grape crop in 

 the old country. Many thousands of tons are 

 manufactured each year. Everything can be 

 used, nothing wasted. 



A delegate said:— I think still more can be done 

 than the gentleman says. 1 evaporated some 

 1,'RX) pounds of fruit which sold for ten cents per 

 pound. I made use of every part of the fruit, 

 except the wormy part. Vinegar was made of 

 the waste. I sold some ten or twelve barrels at 

 twenty cents per gallon, SSl.OO per barrel of forty- 

 eight gallons. 



