144 



GENESEE FARMER. 



June. 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



CONnUCTEI) BY P. CARRY. 



The Season— Fruit Crops, Hints, &c. 



The past winter, in this region, was unusually 

 severe on everything tender. Raspberries and 

 strawberries have suffered seriously, and the 

 crops of both will consequently be comparatively 

 small. The hardy fruits, however, look well, 

 and promise nov/ (May- 20th) a fine crop, tip 

 to the second week in May vegetation could 

 hardly be said to have made any advance. All 

 at once the weather became as warm as midsum- 

 mer, and caused such a rapid developement of 

 foliage and flowers as we do not remember to 

 have witnessed. It seems to have brought every- 

 thing forward at once. Peaches, cherries, plums, 

 apples, pears, and all other fruits, are in full blos- 

 som at the same time. So with ornamental trees 

 and shrubs ; many of them are forced out of their 

 regular order of succession. Apricots are setting 

 finely, and if their mortal foe, the curculio, is 

 guarded off, and no untimely frost comes to blast 

 them, there will be a fine crop. 



We are just now suffering an unprecedented 

 drouth for this season of the year. A continu- 

 ance of it will we fear, injure the setting of fruits 

 now in bloom. Newly transplanted trees will 

 also suffer much where mulching has not been at- 

 tended to — that is, covering the ground around 

 the tree with two or three inches deep of litter 

 or rough manure. In extreme cases watering 

 should be resorted to. This is only properly 

 done by removing a couple of inches of the soil, 

 and giving a plentiful supply to reach the roots, 

 and then replace it. Throwing water on the 

 surface is more detrimental than useful. 



Dahlias may be planted out from the first to 

 the middle, or even last of the month, for a fine 

 autumn show of flowers. They will flourish in 

 any good soil where corn or potatoes will grow. 

 The soil is not unfrequently made too rich for 

 them, so that they produce leaves and stems, but 

 few flowers. Young plants, propagated from 

 cuttings this spring, if strong and well rooted, 

 will produce a much better bloom than old roots. 

 They are sold by the nurserymen in pots, and 



can be turned out without breaking the balls or 

 disturbing the roots ; in six weeks or so they will 

 be in blossom. Neat stakes should be provided 

 to tie them to as they grow, and surplus side 

 shoots should be shortened or cut off. The ground 

 should be kept clean and mellow around them. 



The varieties now cultivated are almost innu- 

 merable. The great point with people generally 

 is not novelty, but to get free bloomers, and good 

 colors and forms. Among those we noted last 

 season, as particularly so, we may mention — self 

 colored varieties : Anna Minerva, Andrew Hofer, 

 Burnam Hero, Blue Bonnet, Conservative, Cleo- 

 patra, Emma Noke, Eximia, Henry Clay, Hor- 

 ace Binney, Lady Harland, Model Marillo, Miss 

 Percival, Matchless, Mary. Marshal Soult, Prince 

 of Wales ( Girling & Dodds', ) Queen ( Widnall's, ) 

 Sphere, Topaz, Washington Irving, Sir E. An- 

 trobus. Fancy or variegated, spotted and tipped 

 varieties : Beauty of Wakefield, Charles XII, 

 England's Defiance, Fairy Queen, Harlequin, 

 Illuminator, Lady Sale, Marchioness of Ormonde, 

 Madam Bavais, Madam Wallner, Madam Villa- 

 bois. Novelty, Sylph, Victor, Viscount Resse- 

 quier, Donna Antoni, Eugenia, Cinderella. All 

 these we know to be superb. The following are 

 very highly praised new ones, rare and rather 

 high priced yet: Indispensible White, La Lione, 

 Spitfire, La Vogue, Butterfly, Beeswing, Alkoe- 

 nig, Oakley's Surprise, Ithuriel, Isis, Keyne's 

 Duke of York, Merveille, &:c. 



The Dahlia is one of the leading favorites of 

 Florists at the present time. Thousands upon 

 thousands of pounds are annually expended in 

 England and the continent of Europe, for new, 

 curious varieties — and not a little is expended 

 for the same purpose here at home. Plain as wa 

 are in our tastes, we are not insensible to the at- 

 tractions of novelty and beauty — hence the Eu- 

 ropean florists find a good market here for their 

 new and curious productions. 



We have seen it stated that the Horticultural 

 Society of Edinburgh (Scotland,) has offered a 

 prize of £1,000 for a blue flowered Dahlia, (this 

 has always been considered an impossibility — we 

 do not see why,) and that the Horticultural Soci- 

 ety of Dublin (Ireland,) has since offered double 

 that sum — £2,000 ! We hope this is not so ; 

 but if it be, it need surprise no one. Although 

 every twentieth human being in the land is on 

 the point of starving, for want of food, they can 

 pay just as well as not £2,000 for a novelty — a 

 blue Dahlia. Ireland has for ages been an anom- 

 aly, and at the present moment is the greatest the 

 world ever saw. How long she is destined to 

 remain so, God knows. Only think that, in a 

 country where Agriculture, Horticulture, and all 

 the industrial arts are in a lower state than in any 

 other civilized country on the earth — where, but 

 for charity, the whole working population would 

 be swept off with hunger, because the potato crop 

 is a failure — in that country, 10,000 dollars are 



