IS89. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



Cleveland and Ohio Centennial, which were 

 allowed to fruit, produced a very large, 

 handsome berrie.*:. Two yeare ago Mr. 

 Lyons, of Minn., sent nie plants of a seed- 

 ling which 1 fruited this season which prom- 

 ises to be valuable. It is a strong grower, 

 free from blight, above medium size, very 

 productive, firm and of good flavor. 



1 have a seedling Strawberry of my own 

 which tirst fruited two years ago and in de- 

 licious flavor and beauty surpasses any var- 

 iety I have yet seen. 1 have not yet had an 

 opportunity of fairly testing its productive- 

 ness, but hope to do so next year. 



The Fall Web Worm. 

 The second brood of the Fall Web Worm 

 often appears in much larger numbers than 

 the first, and although, o\ving to the greater 

 amount of foliage, and its much more rapid 

 growth at this time, the injury may some- 

 times not be so conspicuous as that result- 

 ing from the first brood, no orchardist should 

 neglect to de^itroy every one of the caterpil- 

 lars he can find, with the view of lessening 

 future attack. Prof. A. J. Cook tells to the 

 Western Rural his method of destroying 

 caterpillars by applying strong soap suds to 

 their nests. He provides himself with one 

 pole long enough to reach the highest nests, 

 and another shorter one. To the small ends 

 of these he has fastened a piece of strong 

 cloth in such a manner as to have six or 

 eight inches of each loose, and forming a 

 kind of switch which can be applied over 

 and around the branches of the tree and 

 drawn through small spaces, such as small 

 forks, in which the nests are general loca- 

 ted. By proper and expert handling these 

 swabs can be applied to the caterpillars in 

 almost any situation. The vessel of strong 

 suds being carried from tree to tree, he finds 

 it not a very difficult job to apply the suds 

 to the nests, and he warrants every one of 

 the caterpillars to die immediately after the 

 first thorough application. Every man that 

 has a farm should see that all nests are de- 

 stroyed, whether on fruit trees, or on wild 

 Cherrv or Plum trees wherever forms. 



Growing Onion Sets. 



One by one, the old notions in gardening 

 and fruit growing are thrown over board. 

 From the several inquiries recently received 

 in regard to the production of Onion sets, it 

 appears however, that the impression so 

 long prevailing that seed for sets should be 

 sown late in Spring, or Summer, and in 

 poor soil, is not yet entirely eradicated In 

 a recent issue of the American Agricultu- 

 rist we find the following good suggestions 

 worth remembering in regard to this subject. 



Onion seed cannot be sown too early in 

 spring or on too rich land. The real point 

 is to sow very thick, say twenty seetls to 

 each inch of row. One practical ditficulty 

 in sowing so thick is to get the seeds to ger- 

 minate. As every one knows, before a seed 

 can germinate it must absorb considerable 

 water, or, as we say, "swell." It absorbs 

 this water from the soil in immediate con- 

 tact with the seed. But when you have a 

 large number of seeds in a small place only 

 those in direct contact with the soil will get 

 moisture. The others will remain dry and 

 hard, and sometimes 'burn." There are 

 two remedies for this difficulty. Either sow 

 very early in the spring when the ground is 

 moist, and when we are likely to have an 

 abundance of rain, or soak the seed two or 

 three days before sowing. We say two or 

 three days, but by this we do not meau that 

 the seed .should remain in the water un- 

 changed for that length of time. Soak the 

 seed for twelve hours, and then throw it on 

 a sieve or cloth and let the water drain off. 

 Keep the seed in a moist state in a warm 

 room four to five hours and then soak it 



again in fresh water another twelve hours. 

 and keep repeating this till you are ready to 

 sow. After such treatment for two or three 

 days, if the weather will not permit sowing, 

 put the seed in a cidd room and no harm 

 will be done. We have kept the seed moist 

 till it commenced to sprout, without harm. 

 In fact, we never had better sets than from 

 this sprouted seed. We repeat that early 

 spring, rich land, thick seeding and clean 

 culture are the great secrets of success. 



.So for our contemporary. We have to 

 add that this crop makes an exception of a 

 general rule. Usually we use more seed on 

 poor soil than on rich soil. When sowing 

 for sets, the greatest amount of seed should 

 be iised an the richest soil, and the rows 

 should be closest together. We are not af- 

 ter large size, but after greatest number, 

 and imiform, small size. The grower of 

 early bunch Onions only prefers a good- 

 sized set, because it makes an earlier and 

 stronger growth. 



In sowing seed with the seed drill, we us- 

 ually do not sow the full quantity at once, 

 but go over each row repeatedly with a 

 smaller amount until enough is sown. 



Thinning Fruit and Melons in Ten- 

 nessee. 



J. A. HAMILTON. RHEA CO., TENN. 



The great trouble here is that, upon every 

 tree and vine and bu.sh a|^l stalk, too much 

 fruit grows to the square inch. The law 

 that " two bodies cannot occupy the same 

 space at the same time" in the formation 

 and growth of fruit, is almost ignored. 

 Peaches quarrel with Peaches for space; 

 Apples with Apples, and berries with ber- 

 ries. When left to nature this warning for 

 space is very injurious, especially to Peach- 

 es. If some horticulturist could formulate 

 a cheap plan to prevent this excessive for- 

 mation of frnit, it would save fruit growers 

 in this section large sums of money annual- 

 ly paid for thinning. 



This superfluity of bloom and fruit occurs 

 also in Melons and Cucumbers. One illus- 

 trction will suffice. I planted 14 hills of 

 Watermelons in one row, 8 feet apart. They 

 were hoed once and plowed three times. 

 Two plants were allowed to grow in each 

 hill. Well rotted hen manure was used as a 

 fertilizer. The plants grew rapidly and 

 looked vigorous. The Melons were set thick- 

 ly on the vines and made a monstrous 

 growth. Many of the \-ines measured thirty 

 feet in length, with numerous lateral branch- 

 es. We had an abundance of Melons for 

 ourselves, for our neighbors and for the vis- 

 itors who came to see the patch, and sold 

 some besides. The largest one produced 

 weighed 60 lbs.; several weighed 50 lbs. 



[Few growers who have never experiment- 

 ed in this direction, have any idea what ju- 

 dicious liberal feeding and favorable cir- 

 cumstances can do for Melons, even much 

 further north than Tennessee. In some 

 years it has seemed to us that the Melons in 

 our patch almost touched one another on 

 the ground, and the proceeds from a few 

 dozen hills have often been really wonder- 

 ful. Our method consisted in manuring 

 very liberally in the hill with composted 

 hen manure, with ashes, and any other rich, 

 fine material that may be available, and to 

 top dress the whole ground with .500 or (500 

 lbs. of some high-grade complete commer- 

 cial fertilizer. Ed.] 



Old Favorites Among Flowers Now 

 Seldom Found. 



M. B. FAXON, MASS. 



Nasturtiums. — Nearly every one who has 

 a garden, or even a few feet of land so situ- 

 ated as to allow of any plant growth, has at 

 one time or another grown our common 

 Nasturtiums, such as Tropseolum major, 

 T. Lobbianum and T. peregrinum, yet few 



home gardeners are aware that there are 

 .several tuberous-rooted species of this 

 beautiful class of free blooming plants. 

 The species referred to are, however, much 

 less hardy than our well-known favorites, 

 and are generally greenhouse plants of 

 delicate growth and fit subjects for careful 

 culture. Perhaps the most beautiful of 

 these little flowers is T. azureum, the 

 blooms of which are of the finest and most 

 delicate blue in the floral kingdom. The 

 tubers, or bulbs, as they would be com- 

 monly called, should be planted as soon as 

 they show signs of growth, in good rich 

 loam containing a portion of sharp sand, in 

 medium-sized pots. Growth usually com- 

 mences in early autumn, and the plants 

 flower in spring. After the blooms fade the 

 foliage dies down, and the root should be 

 allowed to rest through the summer. 



The plants need plenty of sun and air, 

 and to be twined around a trellis or some 

 kind of a support each day. A singular 

 feature in their growth is that the stem at 

 the crown of the bulb is often no larger 

 than a hair, while higher up it will be three 

 or four times as large. There are several 

 other species of this class or division, but 

 the one mentioned is perhaps the most 

 striking. T. tricolorum has flowers of 

 orange, red and purple, and T. Jarattii, 

 yellow and .scarlet. 



With proper care I am sure that thjese 

 little plants might be made to succeed in a 

 sunny window, at least it would do no harm 

 to experiment a little, and success would 

 amply repay the trouble. 



Peruvian D.iffodil.— Peru is the home 

 of some of our choicest floral treasures. 

 Near Lima, the capital, a summer-flowering 

 bulb, somewhat resembling a Daffodil, is 

 very common. This is Hymerocallis 

 amanceas, sometimes called Ismene aman- 

 ceas. This genus embraces about a score of 

 species, but the one named is, so far as I can 

 learn, the only one common in the locality 

 mentioned. They should be planted in the 

 border in sandy loam, or still better almost 

 clear sand. If the soil is not sandy they 

 will not bloom well. 



Trilliums. — I was pleased to notice, in 

 glancing through the spring catalogue of 

 one of our enterprising young dealers and 

 collectors of native plants, a cut and de- 

 scription of the beautiful Trillium grandi- 

 florum, the "Wake Robin" of our boyhood 

 days iu the country. No doubt many other 

 dealers catalogue this plant or bulb, but no 

 one to my knowledge has taken particular 

 pains to bring it to notice. This plant is a 

 native of rich woods, but will grow well in 

 deep garden soil, which is naturally some- 

 what moist. It is perfectly hardy, needing 

 no protection of any kind. The bulbs may 

 be planted either in early spring, or still 

 better late in the fall after the leaves die 

 down. I have seen acres almost solidly 

 covered with blooms of this flower, in a 

 partially-cleared second-growth wood land 

 where soil and location were especially 

 favorable, and could hardly realize that I 

 was viewing such natural floral splendor 

 here in cold New England, which some of 

 our Southern friends say is only fit for 

 sheep pasture. 



Lupines.— Many species of Lupines are 

 common, especially in western North 

 America, but none prettier than the com- 

 com dwarf Lupinus nanus. This native 

 annual of California is very common, and 

 few gardens grow it. A few days since I 

 saw some growing on the grounds of a 

 friend, and though familiar with it, I had to 

 think twice before the name came to mind. 



I like to run across some of these old and 

 less common plants now and then, for even 

 though they may not be particularly attrac- 

 tive,' they are former garden acquaintances 

 and ought not to be forgotten. 



