134 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



March, 



FRoH 

 THE 



SOCIETIES 



awMArtERT>iAT dbimves 



TO BETWI DEI.Y KN WIU 



Early Potatoes. The Early 

 1 )hio is now the leading var- 

 iety in my neighborhood; 

 none better where you want 

 , to grow two crops in one 

 season.— Jo/in BwiHg, O. 



Profitable Apples in Iowa, 

 Wealthy is the most profit- 

 able, with Duchess second. At 25 cents a bushel 

 Duchess will in ten years pay $100 an acre.— 

 Uarvey Fidkr, Minn. 



The Home Garden . The garden must be near 

 the house, and at least a part of it enclosed, be 

 well manured every year, should face the south, 

 have no trees near it, and for the ordinary farmer 

 should contain about 14, acre.— J. M. Pearson, lU. 



Advance in Strawberries. Wherever civiliza- 

 tion and Christianity exists, there Strawberry 

 culture is advancing and increasing, and as long 

 as there is a seed time and harvest, and as man 

 can sow seed and set Strawberry plants, just that 

 long will there be advancement in new and better 

 Strawberries.— C. D. Matthews, Ky. 



Ornamental Planting. For streets there is 

 nothing better than Elm, Ash, Linden and 

 Catalpa. Where soil is dry. Hard Maple is among 

 the best; but on wet black soil is the poorest 

 For lawn or grounds, increase the list in propor- 

 tion to the size of the grounds; it there is room 

 plant some which are not generally classed as 

 hardy, protecting them for a few years iix winter. 

 —A. Dunniny before Illinois State Hort. Society. 



Buffalo Berry, At a recent meeting of the 

 Dakota Horticultural Society the Kutfalo Berry 

 was well spoken of, not for its fruit, but for orna- 

 mental hedges or lawn planting. Trees planted 

 two years ago last spring, from small sprouts dug 

 up on the bluffs, were reported as being now 

 seven feet high, having made an average growth 

 of 18 inches of the principal branches in the dry 

 season, and last year's growth now loaded with 

 fruit buds. 



Southeastern Illinois Fruit Growers Associa- 

 tion. This was organized December ISlst, 18Hfl, 

 and the following oflicei's were elected: Prsident, 

 1. Mills, of Clay; Vice-Presidents, R. Mills, of 

 Clay; Vice-Presidents, B. T. Key, Richland; E. C. 

 Kramer, Wayne; Allen Cope, J arion; Wiley 

 Honey, Jasper; Thos. Lowry, Clay. Secretery, 

 N. M. Burns, Clay; Assistant Secretary, J. It. 

 Benney, Hoosier Prairie; Treasurer, R Smith, 

 Clay. The membership was placed at $1 per 

 annum, or $10 for a lite membership. 



Early Snmmer Apples. Of these we have Car- 

 olina Red .Tune, Yellow .Tune and Early Harvest. 

 The first named ripens its fruit consecutively, a 

 few at a time, for a month or so, and is therefore 

 very desirable as a family Apple. When highly 

 cultivated, as it always should be, and grown in 

 large quantities, it is also a desirable market 

 fruit, being of a beautiful color and of medium 

 size. All three sorts first named are fit for use 

 even before the seeds are Ijrown, yet they are 

 wholesome and of best flavor when fully ripe.— 

 Kansos State Hort. Society. 



Birds and Forests. The laws we can make for 

 tlie protection of the birds will, in a measure, be 

 barren of results if we destroy all our native 

 fruit trees and neglect to plant more trees. Birds 

 and forests are intimately connected, and the 

 destruction of the relation between them means 

 the destruction of both. The forests give the 

 birds shelter and food, and the birds disseminate 

 the seeds of the trees and keep in proper check 

 their enemies. In other words the birds cannot 

 live without the forests and the forests cannot 

 exist without the birds.— Fro»i P}-e»ident^s Ad- 

 dress Keutueliy Horticultural Society. 



Greenhouse Exposure. I have greenhouses 

 facing west and southwest; at twelve the sun 

 shines on the ridge pole of my house They are 

 built with one-cjuarter span and get the afternoon 

 sun. 1 have seen good success in greenhouses 

 facing in all directions. It don't make much 

 ditTerence. The greenhouse may as well face 

 southeast as any way. The morning sun is im- 

 portant; if they run southeast with one-quarter 

 span you can get the afternoon sun, and it I were 

 building 1 should' buld the new houses where 

 they would have the afternoon sun and the 

 morning sun both.— 1'. Frost, before Farmers'' 

 Meeting at Boston. 



California's Flora. Jlr. B. P. Ware tells the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society that at a 

 recent visit in California he saw acres and acres 

 of Squashes, or, as they are called there. Pump- 

 kins, producing at the rate of ao tons per acre; 

 they are valued at two dollars per ton. There is 

 no frost there, and they are piled up in the fields 

 tnitil wanted tor use. A field was said to have 

 produced 80 tons to the acre. Peaches require 

 only four years to make good thrifty bearing 

 trees. Almonds and English Walnuts thrive 

 there; indeed, all the fruits now imported from 

 Europe find a congenial home in California, and 

 our whole country will undoubtedly before long 

 be supplied from thence with all the fruits and 

 nuts now imported. 



Improvements in Vegetables. Beets have im- 

 in-oved in earliness, not in quality. While there 

 may be some improvement in Beans, the seed 

 men make the most noise. The ijuality of Toma- 

 toes has not improved as much as the looks. In 

 Cabbage the early varieties have improved. 

 Celery thirty years ago was used but little; now 

 it is one of the leading vegetables. There has 

 been such a change in the manner of growing, 

 and the new varieties intr()duced, that it is 

 brought within reach of all people. There is no 

 vegetable where the variety has changed so much 

 with advantage to the grower, without losing in 

 quality. There is a steady improvement in veg- 

 etables all along the line, except the Sweet 

 Potato.— Montyomery Co. HoH. Society. 



Apples for Michigan. At a recent meeting of 

 the Aiiple growers of Lenawee Co., Mich., the 

 following Apples were chosen by ballot: For 

 fall family use, the Fall Pippin, Strawberry and 

 Snow Apples. For winter family use, Northein 

 Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Rambo, Canada Red 

 and Talman Sweet, with approval of Belleflower 

 and Belmont as cooking Apples, and Jonathan 

 and Winesap as dessert varieties For market, 

 the five selected were: Baldwin, Ben Davis, 

 Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening; Roxbury 

 Russet. Morris Red and Pennock were favorably 

 mentioned. As best single varieties for all pur- 

 poses these Michigan growers were about evenly 

 divided between the Baldwin and Ben Davis: the 

 Baldwin's only weak point being the liability of 

 the tree to injure in severe cold winters. 



Making a Lawn. With a good friable or rich 

 loamy soil, it will always be a comparatively easy 

 matter to produce a good sward, if we select 

 the right kinds of seed. I should use to the acre 

 at the rate of about five bushels, weight measure, 

 of the following mixture: Hei Toi) (Agrot is rid- 

 gai-is). Crested Dog's Tail iCynosiints crlttattiii), 

 Kentucky Blue Graas (Pouprafeiisis) and Rhode 

 Island Bent Grass lAgrostis canina) of about 

 equal parts If not convenient to obtain all these, 

 either is good alone. My first choice is the Red 

 Top {.igrostis vulgiiiis) and second would be the 

 Rhode Island Bent Grass [.-igrostis canina). 

 After sowing and bushing in my seed, would sow 

 a goodly quantity of some fertilizer th.-tt contains 

 ammonia, and then roll the ground with a good 

 weight roller. When the grass attains the iirojier 

 height to cut, I should cut the first time with a 

 very keen-edged scythe; after the first cutting- 

 use the lawn mower, one with cylinder driving 

 wheel preferred, that the ground may be kept 

 smooth. At the approach of winter cover with 

 good thick coating of straw manure from the 

 horse barn, raking off the straw in the spring 

 and leaving the finer particles of manure on the 

 ground.- A'. V. Wilder before the Association of 

 .Ainericcin Cemetery Superintendents. 



Seeds. The common advice is to raise them 

 We are told that if we will only save a few of the 

 best specimens for seed and then set them out 

 we shall get seed superior to what we can bu.v at 

 any price; but it is yet the question whether we 

 could better afford to buy pedigree seed, unless 

 we are to make seed raising a specialty. It is 

 work of great difficulty to select specimen Beets, 

 Parsnips, Onions and Turnips, and even choice 

 Cabbage and Lettuce; while the raising of Cauli- 

 flower and Celery seed is generally left toexperts 

 entirely. My rule in procuring seeds would be 

 to buy the best seed you can get, and along the 

 line of your specialties seek to originate, or at 

 least improve, on the best strain in cultivation. 

 The soil should be finely pulverized; not moist 

 enough to be sticky nor yet dry enough to be 

 dusty. After covering the seed with earth to the 

 depth of about four times the diameter oC the 

 seed, the land should be firmed or rolled. Where 

 laborers are scarce, hand work can be saved by 

 omitting to sow every third row of root crops. 

 In the broad spaces the horse cultivator may be 

 used. If the plants should be left a little thicker 



in the rows then if every row were planted a full 

 crop may be expected.— A. B. Smith before the 

 Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



Farm Forestry. Mr. L. B. Pierce, opening the 

 discussion on this subject at a meeting of the 

 Ohio Horticulturists, said it was useless to urge 

 farmers and horticulturists to plant trees for 

 forest purposes on arable land. A man who 

 could sow Oats in April and sell the product in 

 August, or plant Strawberries in August and 

 market the fruit in the succeeding June, would 

 not be easily induced to plant trees so that his 

 great grandchildren might run a portable saw- 

 mill. Private forestry could only be successfully 

 urged to the extent of growing trees for posts 

 and other farm uses. Probably private forestry 

 would take the form of planting windbreaks of 

 suitable trees . For posts the best trees are Locust 

 and Osage Orange. The latter is one of the most 

 durable, and yearling seedlings planted in a single 

 row two feet apart on rich land would average 

 two posts to the tree in -'0 .years. It makes a com- 

 pact close screen, and is, perhaps, the best decid- 

 uous windbreak that can be planted. For small 

 uses around the farm, such as whiffletrees, 

 handles, binding poles, etc., there are two trees 

 pre-eminently suitable, because of their strength 

 and the fact that they have no useless sap wood, 

 and rapidity of growth does not injure the tex- 

 ture. These are the Shell-lmrk Hickory and the 

 White Ash. Much can be gained in timber 

 growth by allowing stumps to sprout. The roots 

 already existing accelerate the growth wonder- 

 fully and the sprouts rapidly grow into tall, 

 straight trees. A Chestnut stump two feet in 

 diameter has nine sprouts, which now after 25 

 years growth exceed in bulk twice the original 

 tree. The Catalpa was also mentioned. 



Tomatoes as a Money Crop. 



[Ertract of paper read l>y T. (jreiner before the 

 Wetland County Farmers' Institute, Jan. !l, iHOO,] 



Where large crops are grown and brought 

 to maturity, the cash returns from Toma- 

 toes are in favorable contrast with those of 

 most other ordinary farm crops. On the 

 other hand, the average crop obtained by 

 the average farmer can hardly be pro- 

 nounced remunerative. 



Bequisites of Financial Success. To make 

 the crop a decidedly profitable one, we must 

 aim to have e.xtra large yields, and these 

 yields early enough to bring the whole crop to 

 maturity before the arrival of the autumn frosts. 

 With good, well-hardened plants of good varie- 

 ties to begin with, and with proper cultivation, 

 the two objects named can easily be reached in 

 any average season by a judicious method of 

 feeding the plants. But before we can get the 

 best results from applying manures, we must 

 learn all the effects that such applications have 

 on plant life. 



Until very recently it was the general opinion 

 of expert Tomato growers that the free use of 

 nitrogenous fertilizei-s had a tendency to pro- 

 duce vine-growth at the expense of fruit. Con- 

 sequently the crop was usually idanted on thin 

 soil, lightly manured, with the natural result of 

 a light yield. This idea is yet prevailing, and the 

 practice common to this day. 



This whole doctrine is wrong from beginning 

 to end. Large yields are only possible on rich 

 soils, or soils heavily manured. It is true that an 

 excess of available nitrogen in the soil will pro- 

 duce a large growth of vine; but this is iust 

 what we should aim for, since a large crop of 

 fruit is not to be thought of without a previous 

 large growth of vine. The only precaution we 

 have to take, is to supply at the same time an 

 excess of the mineral elements of plant food, i. c, 

 of potash and phosphoric acid, in other words, 

 to supply our plants with all the chances of a 

 well-balanced nutrition. Give to the |>lants an 

 abundant supply of all the elements of plant 

 food in available condition, beginning with the 

 very day they are set out, and a large and early 

 crop of fruit will be assured. 



The Wrong and Eight Methods. It is a very 

 common mistake, to set out idants on thin soil 

 manured with fresh stable manure just previous 

 to jilanting. Soil and atmosphere are yet cool, 

 and but little, if any available nitrogen is present 

 in the soil at the time, since the process of so- 

 called nitrification, which is the natural conver- 

 sion of unavailable nitrogen into the available 

 nitrate form, by a sort of fungus growth, goes 

 on very slow in early spring. The consequence 

 is, the plants, merely for the lack of a little nitro- 



