i886. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



55 



tliem then comes graduall}' ami prepares for 

 larger operations in the same line. 



So we limit this article to calling attention 

 to one of the finest and most easily managed 

 of the winter blooming Orchids, fivhigyne 

 riistiita. It is a kind well suited for begin- 

 ners to invest in for a first trial. Ko special 

 apartment will need to be fitted up for it. as 

 it succeeds well in an ordinary greenhouse. 

 Neither is its price exorbitant; Mr. Bracken- 

 bridge, of Govanstown, Md., offering liealthy 

 plants of it at 

 from $1 to .f3 

 each. The fine 

 engraving of this 

 Orchid wliich 

 we lay before 

 our readers, we 

 are sure will lie 

 much admired. 



As to manage- 

 ment. the follow- 

 ing outline is 

 offered: It 

 should be grown 

 in shallow pans 

 suspended from 

 the roof. A 

 common green- 

 house, where the 

 temperature 

 rarely rises to 60° 

 except during 

 the months when 

 sun heat sends it 

 up, will answer 

 for it, in the 

 main. During 

 the summer 

 m o nt h s the 

 plants should be 

 kept compara- 

 tively dry and 

 exposed to air 

 freely. In No- 

 \' e m b e r t h e j" 

 may come to a 

 heat of from .50" 

 to 55°, in which 

 t hey, at C'hrist- 

 mas, commence 

 to expand their 

 lovely dove-like 

 blossoms. After 

 flowering thej' 

 are to be re- 

 potted, or the 

 roots to be exam- 

 ined and sup- 

 plied with suit- 

 able soil. This, we must mention, should 

 consist of an admixture of fibrous peat, leaf 

 mould and Sphagnum (packing moss) chop- 

 ped very fine, and clean sand. 



Specimens of this Orchid are in cultivation, 

 which annually bear from two to three hun- 

 dred robust spikes of flowers. To succeed in 

 raising one of such iDroportions, is an aspira- 

 tion worthy of the mind of an}' amateur florist. 



Is America the Worst Fruit-grow- 

 ing Country on Earth ? 



(.)f Apples it is enough to sa}' for the quality 

 and perfection of our products, that so high 

 an authority as Wm. Robinson, of London, 

 pronounces the American Apple the grandest 

 fruit that ripens imder the sun. He, with 

 other Englishmen, have for many years now 

 had ample opportunity to test the qualit}' of 

 the fruit we raise, in the large surpluses an- 



nually shipped by us to the English markets. 

 As bearing upon the extent of our crop and 

 especiallj' as to our foreign shipments, it 

 may be said that in one week recently, there 

 was exported from four American ports the 

 grand aggregate of 440,875 liarrels of prime 

 apples, and even this quantity was less than 

 the quantity exported in the corresponding 

 week of the year previous. And the.se heavy 

 shipments have been kept up for many weeks 

 in each fall and winter of late years; yet they 



A FINE ORCHID FOR THE GREENHOUSE.— CCELOGYNE CRISTATA. 



have, in the aggregate, amounted to but a 

 fraction of all the prime apples grown and 

 marketed by our orchardists. 



In Pear culture, to be sure we have suffered 

 some from fire blight — in some places alarm- 

 ingly so, but what effect has this had upon 

 the yield of this fruit year by year. The 

 fact is that our markets were never so abun- 

 dantly supplied with fine pears as in the 

 year just past. So large has been the yield, 

 that for once itmaj-be.said, that nearly every 

 American has had a chance of tasting a good 

 Pear at a moderate price. Along with the 

 rapid increa.se in our population, however, it 

 would seem as if the increa.se in the yield of 

 this fruit, and of others, has, on the whole, 

 no more than kept pace. This certainly does 

 not look as if those engaged in Pear culture 

 were abandoning the pursuit very fa.st, 

 either on account of blight or other cause. 



The outlook for Grape culture in America 

 is a very hopeful one, at the present time. 

 When fruit culture first received attention 

 from our forefathers, it was early seen that 

 the delicious European Grape, Viti/! linifcm, 

 was not adapted to our climate. (Later it 

 was found to succeed on the Pacific slope.) 

 Native grapes were met growing everywhere 

 but they were immeasurably inferior to those 

 of Europe. They possessed, however, what 

 the others did not, namely: full adaptability 

 to our climate. 

 With this char- 

 acteristic as a 

 foundation, cul- 

 tivators and 

 hybridizers soon 

 went to work to 

 evolve improved 

 sorts from the 

 sour natives. 

 The results up 

 to the present 

 day have been 

 most remarkable 

 and the end in 

 improvement is 

 no doubt yet far 

 away. When 

 the year 1858 was 

 reached the then 

 new Isabella was 

 looked upon as a 

 wonderful at- 

 tainment in the 

 wa}' of American 

 Grapes. It poss- 

 essed a certain 

 q u a 1 i t y that 

 could be called 

 very good, and 

 was found to be 

 a reliable grower 

 over a large 

 range of countrj-. 

 From that time 

 pro.gress h as 

 been steady and 

 rapid in the rais- 

 ing of better 

 .sorts, until to-day 

 t h e proud Isa- 

 bella even, is 

 r.arely kept iij) 

 in culture, except 

 as a curiosity, 

 The Concord, 

 now so justly 

 regarded as the 

 .greatest of 



American grapes, all things considered, too 

 seems in danger of soon being consigned to 

 a back place with the Isabella. Among the 

 many new claimants for a high place, there 

 are some of such undoubtedly great merits 

 as to lead to the belief, that we shall yet pro- 

 duce a grape which shall be pronoimced 

 very excellent by o\ir famous grape-growing 

 cousins across the Atlantic. 



In the meantime let no one who has a 

 garden, hesitate to plant an abvmdance of 

 fruit, at least for their own use, not overlook- 

 ing the easily grown and very productive 

 Small Fruits besides Cherries, Plums, and 

 others, to which no reference has here been 

 made. If the matter be taken a hold of judi- 

 ciously all may feel assured of fair rewards 

 for the outlay made. As for managing, 

 shoidd you who desire to plant be un.skilled, 

 PopuL.^^B G.\RDENiN(i offers vou aid. 



