October, 1S89. 



POPULAR GARDENING 



AND FRUIT GROWING. 



^OLTJn^^E 'V. 



Autumn Time. 



The MUfc-weed pods are tossing 



Their flosses lu the air. 

 And busy spiders spinning 



Their cobwebs everjTvhere. 



The Pear-tree leaves are turning 



To burnished bronze and gold ; 

 And on their b*)ughs the black-birds 



Are growing overbold. 



Thy sby. lilce any Violet 



In balmy sweetness blows, 

 And veiled in haze, the sun shines 



As rosy as a Rose. 



Evaie^n Stein. 



W HEN THE ground is too wet for other work the 

 Plantains, at least, can be pulled from the lawn. 



Something besides Money. Mr. Fish of Eng- 

 land recently said that if he had not accumulated 

 wealth in gardening, he at least had received 

 his pay in beauty. 



Death of Henry M. Long. .\t Williamsville, 

 near Buffalo, X. Y., on September 10th in his tor- 

 ty-eisrhth year. The deceased was the oldest 

 brother of the conductor of this journal. 



The Potato crop seems to have more than its 

 usual number of enemies to contend with this 

 year. In some localities the millipeds or thou- 

 sand-legged worms are said to helji blight, rot, 

 flea beetles, and potato bugs in the destruction 

 of the crop. 



I'NCLE Sam's seed shop sHH flourishes, but 

 Secretary Rusk has put himself on record favor- 

 ing the transfer of the business from the Depart- 

 ment to the various Hatch Experiment Stations. 

 What excuse is there for its existence, anyhow? 

 This disgrace and absurdity should be wiped out. 



Visions of Deliciocs Apricots are before us 

 when we hear of the Shense introduced by Prof- 

 Budd from the pro\ince of Shense in China. It 

 has long been the height of ambition of many 

 fruit growers to be able to produce fine Apricots. 

 Our own attempts, heretofore, have always re- 

 sulted in dead failure. Perhaps the newer " Rus- 

 sians," and still more the Chinese ' Shense" will 

 at last lead us to success. 



The Editors are at LaSalle. All the editor- 

 ial work on Putmlar Gardening and Pruit Grou- 

 ing is done on the Experiment Farm of this jour- 

 nal and which is located at La Salle, Niagara Co., 

 N. v., 17 miles from Buffalo. We desire to im- 

 press this fact so that our friends who send sam- 

 ples of fruits or anything else for editorial in- 

 spection will forward them directly to La Salle, 

 and not to the Buffalo office. By so doing such 

 things win usually reach the right persons from 

 one to two days earlier than otherwise, to say 

 nothing of the trouble to the editors of carrying 

 or shipping them 17 miles extra, on such days as 

 they go to Buffalo. 



Mr. Wm. Falconer Talks About the 



Florists' Convention and the 



City of Buffalo. 



Some years ago John Thorpe took it into 

 his head that a Society of American Florists 

 would be a mighty nice thing to get up, and 

 he got it up. I don't think any other man 

 in America could have gotten it up. This 

 was five years ago. 



^^'hiIe it is a society of commercial florists, 

 any one interested in horticulture is wel- 

 come to .ioin it. From the very first it was 

 an immense success. Florists from every 

 State in the Unionbelong toit, and weknow 

 no difference between Canada and the 

 United States. 



Once a year, in August, we meet in con- 

 vention in some important city: first it was 

 In Cincinnati, then Philadelphia, and 

 Chicago and Xew York, and this year in 

 Buffalo. These conventions are very profit- 

 able to the florists. Papers on vital topics 

 are read and discussed, business matters in- 

 vestigated, and every thing likely to be of 

 interest to the florist is considered. We 

 meet old acquaintances and form new ones; 

 everybody gets to know everybody, and we 

 become a brotherly gathering. We get new 

 ideas from one another and learn and form 

 the fashions, for there are fashions among 

 flowers as among frocks and bonnets. We 

 tell all we know ourselves and pump our 

 neighbors like a newspaper reporter. Kverj' 

 new wrinkle in greenhouse building or 

 heating is laid before us, every new method 

 of cultivation is explained, and we are told 

 of every new Rose, Carnation or Palm that 

 is worth growing, and of every plant that is 

 a humbug, and among men frauds and 

 unprincipled characters receive unstinted 

 e.xecration. This society is a power in the 

 land, its countenance is courted by every 

 well meaning florist, and its light is the 

 terror of every unprincipled one. It is the 

 national guardian of the people who buy 

 plants or flowers. If you buy a few plants 

 of a florist in your town and he cheats you, 

 you may get some satisfaction, but if you 

 send to a fiorlst a thousand miles away for 

 some plants and he cheats you, how can 

 you get satisfaction? By submitting the 

 facts to this society. If it finds the florist 

 guilty of fraudulent dealings, they'll warn 

 him, were he strong as Samson or rich as 

 Cr(Bsus, but it the wrong is on the other side 

 and the customer is guilty of tricking or 

 unfair dealing then this society won't spare 

 him. Readers of Popi^'lar Gardening you 

 should be proud of such a society. 



As Popular Gardening is published in 

 Buffalo, perhaps some of your distant read- 

 ers would like to know what kind of a place 

 it is horticulturally, and how it strikes a 

 stranger; 



Buffalo is an immense city, on the edge 

 of Lake Erie, with wide streets and substan- 

 tial buildings, and an air of wealth and 

 solidity everywhere apparent. It has 2.50,(X)0 

 inhabitants. 



The people are as nice folk as one can 

 meet, homey and hospitable, and evidently 

 only happy when making other folks happy. 



Their parks are their great pride, and 

 truly they have good cause to be proud of 

 them, for they are extensive, well kept and 

 well planted, and good examples of broad 

 landscape gardening. The sheep grazing 

 on the expansive lawns impose a peaceful, 

 rural pastoral effect. A large sheet of water 

 is mademuchof and with studied excellence. 

 Extensive plantations of shrubbery occur in 

 the neighborhood of the water, and the 

 variety is in proportion to the quantity. 



Wm. McMillan is the Superintendent of 

 Parks. He is a Scotchman from Hairn, an 

 enthusiast and a man of honor, and there is 

 no man in Buffalo to-day, not even the 

 Mayor, more respected than Jlr. McMillan. 



The absence of any display of .summer 

 flowers in the parks was strikingly apparent. 

 No provision has been madeforthem. There 

 are no greenhouses in which to raise them. 

 This is in accordance with Mr. McMillan's 

 taste and the ideas of our most aesthetic and 

 cultured landscape architects. But I have 

 an intense love for flowers, I missed my pets 

 and I yearned for them. 



Well, couldn't they be tised advantage- 

 ously? I think so. I know of no good reason 

 why we shouldn't have an abundant display 

 of flowers, and that too without interfering 

 in the least with the grandeur of the park. 

 I would not ask for mosaic patterns, but 1 

 think a smaU portion of the park, in the 

 vicinity of the most frequented part, should 

 be laid out' as a flower garden. Give us 

 Roses and Hollyhocks. Cannas and Caladi- 

 ums, noble grasses in variety, Palms and 

 Ferns in shady places, Heliotropes and 

 Tuberoses to scent the air, and hundreds 

 more; and in spring never forget the Snow- 

 drops and Crocuses, Daffodils, Hyacinths 

 and Tulips, and the Pansies and Polyan- 

 thuses and Forget-me-nots, likewise the 

 Bloodroot, .Spring Adonis, Rock Cress, Col- 

 umbines, Oriental Poppies, Psonias and 

 others. Be what they may, give us flowers, 

 and oceans of them. 



