I89I. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



237 



when about half grown, in my cloth green- 

 house, which was somewhat illustrated in 

 last February No., page 84. I use it for first 

 crop Lettuce, which seems to do better than 

 in a glass greenhou.se. I follow the Lettuce 

 with other plants, or Sweet Potato slips. 

 Can run these beds with success with tem- 

 perature at .'i above zero. 



I also set Lettuce plants from small cans 

 In beds or 3 lb. cans (I use several thousand) 

 where I let them mature. 



In marketing my Lettuce, I set twelve 

 mature plants, each growing in three-pound 

 can, in a seed flat, and take to my home 

 market. I never lose a head , and get twenty 

 or thirty cents a dozen more than I can get 

 for Lettuce cut from the beds. I believe I 

 am the first person in Illinois to market 

 Lettuce in this way. If not sold, the plants 

 continue to grow, and eventually would go 

 to seed. 



Of course the flats and cans, and even the 

 dirt, are returned to me for use again. I 

 can handle more plants in cans, in same 

 space of greenhouse, than in any other way. 

 Had T.WO plants at one time in the two 

 houses, besides other plants. 



I melt the tin cans, as was described by 

 S. H. Tyler (page 70), but do not cut them, 

 as being too much trouble. I wrap with 

 common twine, twice, and tie with bow 

 knot. I use same cans and same strings six 

 or seven times over in one season. Have 

 now good cans that have been tilled about 

 forty times. 



I also use the large cans for forcing plants 

 to set in open ground. By untying, the dirt 

 can be slipped out entire, and the plants 

 never seem to feel the change. 



I use well-rotted cow manure and good 

 rich earth, each one-half, and for watering, 

 one quart of liquid manure from the horse 

 stable to two gallons of water. Can see no 

 good results from the use of nitrate of soda 

 on Lettuce in the greenhouse. 



I have other odd ways that are profitable, 

 in the garden. When Onion sets are scarce 

 and high-priced, I have for twelve years 

 grown Onions by the transplanting process, 

 and have never made a failure. Am glad it 

 is brought to the front. No one need be 

 afraid to try it. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



A department to whicn tiU at'e ininted to send notes 

 of expe)tence and observation concerning tallies that 

 recently have been treated on in this journat. Many 

 such contributions are welcome monthly. 



Fruit Outlook in Michigan. We are pass- 

 ing through a year of apparent great plenty. 

 The crops that have matured were bountiful 

 and the remaining ones promise equally well. 

 Small fruits, including Cherries, above the aver- 

 age and quality ver.v good. Cherries and Plums 

 nearly free from insects. Early Apples will be a 

 full crop, and to all appearances fair and good; 

 late varieties not full: Baldwins, which consti- 

 tute the main winter fruit, bloomed lightly and 

 will be a light crop, but the fruit looks fair and 

 promising. Peaches are a very full crop, and 

 quite tree from insect stings. Too many of the 

 early semi-cling varieties are grown. They are 

 being discriminated against more and more every 

 year in our markets. The Early IJivers is the 

 only early, good free-stone Peach we now have, 

 and that is as yet but little grown. Growers still 

 cling to the Hale and that class of fruit. Grapes 

 promise a full crop. The Concord among dark 

 Grapes holds its vantage ground, but the Wordeu 

 is gradually coming to the front. The Niagara 

 is not gaining in popularity. The Em])irc State 

 is a failure, it mildews and rots. The Delaware 

 holds its own. Brighton is galniug in favor. 

 Crauberries do well here. We have tbviusauds 

 of acres of natural soil for them, but as yet only 

 a few growers have entered the field. The cul- 

 ture of Currant^s and Gooseberries is on the in- 

 crease, canning ami evaporating to some ex- 

 tent. Two canning factories and two large 

 pickle factories will run here this year —W. A. 

 Smith, Berrien Co., Mich. 



The Steam-Heatei) Hotbed. A New Jersey 

 Tomato grower uses a simple, sash-covered [ 

 frame for hardening off Tomato plants. At the ' 



lower end is a plain brick furnace sunk into the 

 ground, which heats an iron tank full of water. 

 This tank connects by two small gas pipes, one 

 on each side of the frame, inside, with a wooden 

 water tank at uiqier end. The Tomato plants, 

 contaiiaeci in Hats, are placed between the two 

 pipes, lea\ing a few inches of space iietween side 

 and flats. Whenever the weather turns cold, or 

 a late frost is expected, Mr. Jerseyman starts the 

 Are in the furnace, and furnishes heat enough 

 to the hotbed by meaus of the small pipes to in- 

 sure the safety of the plants. But it is certainly 

 true that much waste steam of factories and 

 mills might be used in beating greenhouses and 

 hotbeds with very little extra expense. Mr. A. 

 I. Root, in a recent number of Gleanings, saj's 

 that for years he has been feeling uneasy when- 

 ever he sees steam i>utRug out into the ojien air 

 from any kind of steam mills, factories, etc. He 

 has felt uneasy that this vast quantity of heat 

 should not be utilized for warming buildings, or 

 in the spring and winter for heating the ground 

 and raising plants. " The engine that runs our 



THE WISTARIA IN A POT. See page 238. 



printing press and carries the dynamo for our 

 electric lights is only about 150 feet from my 

 new hotbed. When the bed was made, I laid a 

 four-inch tile about a foot under ground, 

 through its whole length, right in the center of 

 the bed. Then with a two-inch iron pipe the ex- 

 haust steam from the aforesaid engine was sent 

 into this four-inch tile. I soon found the steam 

 was healing the whole bed, with a large surplus. 

 so I have given it another line of tile about 200 

 feet long. It has not yet come to the end of this 

 latter line, but during this spring it has produced 

 the most beautiful and luxuriant growth of 

 Rhubarb and Strawberry plants that I ever saw 

 in my life." Altogether it seems that more ex_ 

 periments should be made with some such meth- 

 ods of heating hotbeds I have never been quite 

 satisfied with manure as fuel. It is too uncertain 

 and refuses to come fully under our control.— 

 Warmhiiuner. 



Makianna as Stock fok Peaches. We believe 

 that W. F. Bassett's and Judge Miller's con- 

 clusions in March issue may be drawn from ex- 

 periments, but they were not continued long 

 enough to arrive at the real fa<:ts. While we 

 know that the Marianua is the most perfect stock 

 in use for the Plum, Prune and Apricot, and 

 have used and advocated its use for the past six 

 years, our experiments show conclusively that 

 it is not suited for the Peach unless double- 

 worked— tirst budding on the Mariannaa variety 

 of Plum which has proven afiinit.v for the Peach 

 and then budding the Peach cm this sort, .iust as 

 is done with Sheldon and other Peare which lack 

 alBnity for the Quince. Peach buds take admir- 

 ably directly on the Marianna, but many of the 

 trees will perish during the first summer, and 

 others soon follow; the yellow-Ileshed Peaches 

 sooner than the white-fleshed, but none li\ingto 

 produce fruit. Therefore this caution against 

 planting Peach trees budded directly on Marianna 



stock. The Marianna on rich soil, or if pruned 

 much, makes a heavy wood growth, of course 

 at the expense of the fruit crop; but on thin sol) 

 it has given good crops. It bears mostly on old 

 spurs, hence these should not be cut out. Our 

 Marianna trees are very full again this year; alto- 

 gether we have found it more satisfactory than 

 the Wild Goose. Thinking we might have drawn 

 incorrect conclusions, we wrote to Mr. G. Onder- 

 donk, of Texas, who .just replies: "Marianna will 

 not do as as a stock for Peaches; I have tested 

 different types with same result. For Plums and 

 Apricots, Marianna is undoubtedly the best stock 

 existing. My Marianna orchard is loaded with 

 fruit.— Smith Bros., Pike Co., Mo. 



Strawberries Fruiting in Fall.— In the fall 

 of I8H0 I had less than one-eighth of an acre of 

 ( iimbeiiands. from which 1 sold over one hun- 

 dred quarts of fine berries. They began bearing 

 the latter part of August and continued through 

 September, and untjl the frost killed them in 

 October. Would have borne fully two weeks 

 longer if we had had no frost. The same vines 

 bore a crop in the spring of 1889 and full crop in 

 the spring of 1890. Who can beat it ? Berries 

 were only about half a crop with us this year on 

 account of the severe frost early in May. Cher- 

 ries were a full crop and prices ruled low. Apple 

 and Peach outlook good at present. Codling 

 moth causes a great many Apples to drop pre- 

 maturely. -Sii;. Rogerii, Greene Co., Ind. 



Forcing Tomatoes. To obtain ripe fruit dur- 

 ing the season of high prices, i. e. from Novem- 

 ber 1.5 to January 1.5, cuttings should be struck 

 no later than August 10. I prefer cuttings to 

 seedlings. Place the cuttings in shaded situa- 

 tion in three-inch pots until well rooted, but not 

 pot^bound; then shift to five-inch pots, plunged 

 in open border, using sandy loam well enriched 

 with short manure. Leave plants out-doors un- 

 til there is danger of frost, then shift into ten- 

 inch pots, mixing a three-inch potful of bone 

 meal to the soil to be used in each ten-inch pot. 

 I have found that Tomato plants do not like To- 

 bacco smoke, and where it is used the fruit is 

 liable to drop off. Fortunately Tomatoes have 

 few insect enemies, the worst being red spider. 

 The temperature should be not less than 60 de- 

 grees at night; in a light house 65 degrees is 

 better. During the day time, 80 to 85 degrees on 

 sunny days is not too warm. Rather a dry tem- 

 perature is beneficial to the setting of the fruit, 

 a damp or moist temperature being liable to 

 produce mildew. As to the varieties, Lorillard 

 is the best, but Mayflower or Volunteer will be 

 found to give good results. Amateurs should 

 not attempt to force any varieties of straggling 

 growth, neither such varieties as have very 

 heavy and thick foliage. Dwarf Champion is 

 sometimes mentioned as a variety for forcing. 

 I would advise to discard forever the Dwarf 

 Champion, both for forcing and for field culture, 

 tender glass it is the most liable to mildew of any 

 smooth variety I have ever seen, and if mildew 

 once attacks its heavy foliage, eradication is im- 

 possible. Moreover, it is a poor yielder. As to 

 earlines it has no just claim. I have at this 

 writing a patch of .500 Livingston Perfection 

 plants interspersed with about one dozen Dwarf 

 Champion, treated exactly alike, planted same 

 date, and the Perfection will be earlier by ten 

 days at least. I would also caution all readers 

 to avoid the use of nitrate of soda in green- 

 houses, as it will prove disastrous nine times out 

 of ten, unless used very cautiously in liquid 

 form by experienced bands only.— IF. C, Bergen 

 County, N. J. 



Some Fine Geraniums. In April numljer, L. 

 H. Gale calls attention to the varietj' "New Life." 

 I endorse what he says as to its being remarkable, 

 and have more to add. My plant produces a 

 liloom which is white, shaded with vermilion 

 towards the center. What is most remarkable is 

 that some of the florets are also striped or 

 splashed their entire length with vermiUon, and 

 on the same plant there are always clusters of 

 the variegated white and vermilion, and also 

 clusters of solid vermilion, with no white what- 

 ever. It is very jirofuse flowering, although the 

 leaf is small, ami the plant does not attain any 

 great size, but the fact of the distinctly different 

 blooms on the same plant, has rendered it of 

 much interest to my neighbors as a floral freak. 



Plumbago Capensis. Why do not more flor- 

 ists advertise ItV It is certainly one of the love- 

 liest of small climbers or creepers, with its Ver- 

 bena or Phlox-like clusters of exquisite lavender. 

 It is quick growing, not particular as to soil, and 

 is not troubled with insects.— X. C. L. Jordan, 

 Cooper Institute, New York. 



