POPULAR GARDENING 



AND FRUIT GROWIMG. 



"ACCUSE NOT NATURE, SHE RATH DONE HER PART: DO THOU BUT THINE." -Miuios. 



>^ol. V. 



jyc-A-ir, 189 o. 



No. 8. 



Spring. 



When birds are singing 



On bvish and tree. 

 And opening Roses 



Allure the bee,— 

 When grass is growing 



In glade and glen. 

 And young leaves gladden 



The lonely fen.— 

 When brooks are flowing 



In music free. 

 And warm winds travel 



Across the sea. 

 When earth beguiles us 



With smile or tear. 

 We know with gladness 



That spring Is here! 



— WiUiam B, Hayne, 



An English paper criticises the frequent use 

 made of the unfortunate term " landscape arch- 

 itect "' by American landscape gardeners, and 

 thinks the work very descriptive of the formal 

 hateful work frequently done by them. Perhaps 

 the criticism is not quite undeserved. 



Sound Law is that administered a few weeks 

 ago by the Loughborough County Court, Eng- 

 land, in the Thistle seed case Giles vs. Walker. 

 The latter had allowed a mass of Thistles to grow 

 and seed on his ground, and thus flooded his 

 neighbor's (Walkers) garden with seed. Giles 

 recovered £3 (S15I. It is sound lawto refuse a 

 man the right to create a nuisance to others, 

 ■especially such serious nuisance, as a field or 

 garden foul with Thistles must be considered to 

 be to the whole neighborhood 



The Introduction of novelties is one of the 

 legitimate features of the seed trade. But we 

 must express our opposition to the attempt to 

 build up a business merely by working the curi- 

 osity, credulity, and sensational proclivities of 

 people. When a wife and mother, (a refined lady 

 •of the Popui^K Gabdeninq family) sends 3.5 

 <;ents to an advertising "seedsman" for a package 

 of seeds, and receives in addition to it a lot of 

 circulars advertising " The Life of Jesse James", 

 " The Life of Ansom Bunker alias the Bloody 

 Hand," and other trash of the same character, 

 also the curious patent medicine "pain paint" 

 — she objects, and so do we. 



Dr. George Thurber. 



An able horticulturist, an eminent botan- 

 ist and explorer, a skillful editor, and the 

 most acompllshed all-around horticultural 

 writer America has produced,— such was 

 Dr. George Thurber whose death we are 

 called upon to chronicle. As editor of the 

 American Agriculturist over a long period, 

 his erudite, yet charmingly clear and prac- 

 tical articles, on many subjects, drew to 

 him tens of thousands of readers who sadly 

 will miss him. Xo more will appear the 

 "Talks "so learned and yet so lucid, on 

 familiar scientilic subjects, by "The Doctor" 

 which have formed so interesting a feature 

 of the Young People's department of that 

 journal; no more the "Notes from the 

 Pines," those delightful chats about flowers, 

 plants and fruits from his home and experi- 

 ment grounds at Passaic, New Jersey. The 

 nearness of his generous and sympathetic 

 heart to his readers, was shown in these 

 famUiar talks in which he wrote as an in- 

 dividual instead of as an editor. 



Dr. Thurber was born in Providence R. I., 

 in ISil, where he spent his earlier years. A 

 passionate love of plants and plant-life trans- 

 formed the apothecary that he was in youth 

 into a botanist, and in 18.50 so hignly were 

 his attainments in this field, appreciated 



that he was offered and accepted the position 

 as naturalist, quarter-master and commis- 

 sary of the United States and Mexican 

 Boundary Survey, which gave him an op- 

 portunity to explore for a number of years 

 the then little-known natural products of 

 the regions between the Gulf and the Pacific 

 Ocean, and to discover many new plants, a 

 work which he engaged in with a zeal that 

 was not lessoned by the trials and hardships 

 thereby endured. 



Later on he occupied the position of lec- 

 turer on chemistry and botany before the 

 New York College of Pharmacy, and at the 

 Cooper Union, until in 18.59 he accepted the 

 professorship of Botany and Horticulture 

 in the Agricultural College of Michigan. 

 In 186.3 he returned! to New York as editor 

 of the American Agriculturist, which posi- 

 tion he filled for 23 years with great success, 

 until failing health compelled him to resign, 

 and restrict his work to occasional contri- 

 butions. Dr. Thurber's garden was in many 

 respects the most interesting of its kind in 

 the country. His collection of native plants 

 and flowers was perhaps second to none. 



Besides his close editorial labors he pub- 

 lished in 18.59 ".\merican Weeds and Useful 

 Plants," which is still the standard work on 

 this .subject It fell to him also to edit and 

 review many of the works on agriculture 

 and horticulture issued from the office of 

 the --Vgriculturist, a work for which he was 

 without an equal. 



Standing alike high as scientist, botanist, 

 horticulturist, editor, and as man and friend 

 ( for of him.it truly may be said that he was 

 generous to a fault ), he was respected and 

 honored by all who knew him, and all who 

 knew him wiU^miss him, 'and deeply mourn 

 his loss. 



Ben Davis and Wagener Apples 

 in Ontario, Canada. 



The great markefApple for large sections 

 of the Province Ontario is the Ben Davis. 

 Many growers assert that it takes .the same 

 place among Apples that is generally con- 

 ceded to the Concord among Grapes, and to 

 Lombard among Plums. It is the Apple 

 for fruit, and the fruit for money. The bulk 

 of the crop, grown in Canada, probably 

 goes to English markets, and has heretotore 

 found ready buyers and good prices. 



Yet even its most^enthusiastic friends con- 

 cede that as a fruit both for dessert and 

 cooking purposes, it is poor, except perhaps 

 when at its best, in early spring, and when 

 it finds no competitor in the market. Some 

 of the more far-seeing fruitmen even fear 

 that its poor quality will tend to discredit 

 Canadian Apples in English markets, and 

 eventually lead to lowering the prices for 

 red fruit. On the other hand, the Ben Davis 

 is a sure, although not an early bearer, and 

 a hardy tree. When most other varieties 

 fail, the Ben Davis will give a bountiful crop. 



In some respects the Wagener is the com- 

 plete counterpart of the Ben Davis, especi- 

 ally in point of quality, which in the 

 Wagener is the very best, and in early 

 bearing, the Wagener being noted as an 

 early as well as profuse cropper. In fact, 

 its extravagance in these direction.-i is often 

 fatal to the tree. While attending the meet- 

 ing of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Associ- 



ation in Windsor, last winter, we were told 

 by some fruit men, that they planted the 

 Wagener quite largely with the avowed in- 

 tention to let the trees kill themselves by 

 overbearing. For this purpose the orchard 

 is planted as shown in annexed diagram, 

 the large trees representing Ben Davis 

 Apples which come In bearing only at a 

 more advanced age, while the small trees 

 are the Wageners, that are allowed to bear 

 as early and as freely as they may. By the 

 time the Ben Davis are coming into bearing, 

 and need the space, the Wageners have 

 finished their mission, and ruined them- 

 selves by giving several heavy crops, and 

 are then taken out. 



This or a similar plan might be adopted 

 in many other places with advantage to the 



S^ 9 f 9 f ^^ f 



? 



^ 



Tr 



*» 



TWO VARIETIES TO THE SAME LAND. 



grower: but we would suggest that the 

 highest success is only attainable (1) by 

 looking sharply after the borer, which 

 seems to be especially fond of the Wagener; 

 (2) by giving the trees plenty of good sub- 

 stantial food, such as wood ashes or other 

 forms of potash and phosphorus, and (3) to 

 thin the fruit very thoroughly. With such 

 treatment the Wagener will be not only one 

 of the most reliable Apples, but also become 

 the most popular Apple, because of its 

 superior quality and handsome appearance. 

 Give to the English people Wageners thus 

 grown, and they will soon find out that a 

 " Canadian Red " -\pple is not always a 

 poor Ben Davis, and market prices will 

 have an upward tendency rather than one in 

 the other direction. 



Notes from the Popular Gardeningr 



Grounds at La Sal!e-on-the- 



Nlagara. 



The Fruit Prospects. Our hopeful view of 

 the situation to which we have given expression 

 on former occasions, is now confirmed by solid 

 tacts. All our young fruit trees— Peaches, Plums 

 ( Kelsey's Japan included). Apricots, etc., are 

 covered with fruit buds, and in a thorough ex- 

 amination we have thus far failed to find a single 

 injured bud, every one being "sound as a dollar." 

 If the season will not go back on its own record 

 after this date, in other words, if the next six 

 weeks will deal as kindly with us and our fruits, 

 as the past six months have done, we shall this 

 year see every tree and bush loaded down with 

 luscious fruits. Never have the prospects been 

 fairer, and at present we do not propose to worry 

 about what bad things may yet happen, or begin 

 to croak that there is " many a slip 'twixt cup 

 and lip." 



