1 890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



171 



cold, anil cattle ln-owsing. Hut its growth 

 is slow. If to bo used more largely for 

 hedges, we would have to find a way how to 

 propogateit; perhaps by root cuttings. The 

 hedge is impenetrable. Small l>irds like to 

 nest in it, and the fruitgrower might grow 

 it if for no other purpose than for the pro- 

 tection of birds. 



Apples as Food. "What shall we do 

 with our fruit ? "' asks Sec'y Woolverton in 

 his essay. People should be educated to its 

 use, he says : It is more than a luxury but 

 not appreciated much as food. Some even 

 fear ill results from its free use. Meat is 

 one of the most expensive diets, and the ill 

 results from an excessive meat diet are often 

 laid to the use of fruits. Good physicians 

 say that ten barrels of Apples laid in store 

 in the fall are the most economical invest- 

 ment. Let every farmer plant so he will 

 have a constant supply of fruit the whole 

 year round. 



Apples are also excellent for horses, cows, 

 etc., fully as good as Carrots for horses, and 

 as good as Turnips for cows. 



This points out a way how to relieve our 

 market.s of the poor stuff, and keep only the 

 choicest for market. 



Requisites of Successful Potato 

 Culture. 



A. P. REID, CUMBERLAND CO., SIE. 



These are, early planting and plenty of 

 potash. 



Very little more need be said on the sub- 

 ject. In view of this increased difficulty of 

 getting the Potato crop, consequent upon 

 new enemies and bad seasons, it behooves 

 us to plant early, as experience tells us that 

 early planted Potatoes, and the early varie- 

 ties are the ones that come oflE victorious in 

 these days. 



To secure rapid growth and maturity be- 

 fore blight days in August or September, 

 we need early planting and better culttire 

 than allowed by the older methods. As to 

 food, the Potato should have plenty of 

 pota.sh, which element is best secured in 

 common wood ashes. Try your wood ashes 

 on the Potatoes this year, while following 

 out the injunction to plant early of early 

 varieties, and report results. The Potato 

 crop is an Important one, and should be 

 studied with a view to overcoming the new 

 difficulties thrown in its way. 



Durable Strawberry Beds. 



Jl-DOE SAMl-EL MILLER. MONTGOMERY CO., MO. 



People who plant Downing, Triumph de 

 Gand, Mary Stuart or Downer's Prolific, 

 and count on a big crop the first season, 

 will most likely be disappointed, and feel 

 like discarding them. But the year follow- 

 ing if properly cared for, the plants will 

 show a different condition, and continue to 

 bear well for years, if dressed and fertilized 

 and managed right. 



In an old vineyard of mine there have 

 been Mary Stuarts for ten years, and therr 

 is plenty of fruit every year, none ever 

 transplanted, nor is there a staminate vari- 

 ety within one hundred yards of them. 

 It being a pure pistilate, gives rise to the 

 question whether this fertilizing is of as 

 much consequence as we are led to believe. 



The time is now on hand when new 

 beds will be set out with plants of this 

 delicious and indispensable fruit, the result 

 of which will depend much upon the man- 

 ner in which the work is done, and upon the 

 kind of plants set out. .Some tell us that 

 the top soil should never be turned under, 

 and in trenching soil mo.st people adhere 

 to that doctrine. Now I know in some 

 soils, this is not sound doctrine, for I have 

 seen when the soil was about eight inches 

 deep, that it was put under, and four 

 inches of the subsoil clay brought to the 

 stirface. This was in the fall. The follow- 



ing spring, this subsoil was as fine and 

 mellow as need be, a good coat of manure 

 having been put on the fall before. It was 

 set with Strawberry plants, furnished by 

 me. These plants were not allowed to bear 

 a berry, the blossoms all having been picked 

 off, and all runners were also thus treated. 

 The following season the gardener invited 

 me to see his Strawberries. Such a crop I 

 never saw since, and that was near thirty 

 years ago. I am satisfied that I could have 

 picked a peck of fruit without moving two 

 steps in any direction. The plants were a 

 foot high, fruit stalks nearly the same, and 

 the fruit literally piled up under the leaves. 

 The varieties were Bishops' Orange and 



PRUNING HOOK FOR BUSH FRUITS. 



Early Scarlet. In another instance a friend 

 came to me in September, I think in 184S, 

 and asked me if he might expect some fruit 

 from fall-set plants the following season y 

 Already at that time I advocated fall pl.int- 

 ing under favorable conditions, and told 

 him so. So he got good plants, Hovey Seed- 

 ling and Large Early Scarlet, and was told 

 how to set them. The following summer 

 he asked me to see his berries. I did so; if 

 ever a man felt small I did. In these fall- 

 set plants was a crop of fruit that would 

 set in the shade the best on my half acre. 

 The way he had managed them was as fol- 

 lows : His garden was in good condition 

 with a foot of surface soil. This he threw 

 out two feet wide one side of his little patch, 

 covered the clay subsoil three inches deep 

 with well rotten stable manure, dug this in 

 and then put on the next strip of top soil. 

 This was done across the bed and the soil 

 first thrown out wheeled over to finish. 

 Here he set his plants, and when the 

 weather got cold, he covered the bed with 

 coarse fresh stable manure. 



The largest crop of large berries that I 

 ever grew was upon ground trenched 18 

 inches, weirmixed and a good coat of man- 

 ure dug in at the time. If the ground is 

 worked 18 or 20 inches deep and well 

 manured, and properly mulched, it must be 

 a very dry summer that will effect plants 

 growing thereon. 



It will be well for those who intend plant- 

 ing Strawberry beds to take a hint from the 

 foregoing. A half acre will bring in more 

 profit if well managed, than two acres as 

 the work is usually done. There is much 

 less ground to keep in order, the fruit will 

 be more abundant, and larger, which saves 

 cost-.in picking. 



Whoever prepares ground in this way, 

 and plants Bubach No. .5, Gandy, and such 

 varieties, may be astonished at the result if 

 they never tried it before. Last season I 

 had Bubachs, that I could pick a quart in 

 less than three minutes. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



A deparlmfnt to which all are invited to send notes 

 of experience and observation concerning topics that 

 recently have been treated on in this Journal, Many 

 such contributions monthly are welcome. 



Currants in Tree Form. T notice that in 

 answer to all inquiries as to the pruning of Cur- 

 rants the fruit men state that the tree form does 

 well enough in England, but will not gi\'e good 

 results here. I would like to know, why, and 

 from what experience they speak. I have a friend 

 with a small plantation (part of them fourteen 



years old) all trained as trees, j.f., only one or 

 two stalks or trunks being allowed to grow from 

 the ground. The crop is wonderful. I think he 

 hus one-half of an acre, and has to ship to New 

 York because he raises too many for our market 

 here. I have one-quarter of an acre three yeara 

 in bearing trained by my friend in tree form. 

 The crop is e.veellent and very profitable. I ship 

 all I rai.se. Besides this I have one one-quarter 

 acres coming into bearing^ this year, and three 

 acres next year, all trained as trees. Now it 

 there is any real reason why I should not train 

 that way, 1 want to know it now, so I can let the 

 three acres grow up in bush form.— F. S. W., 

 Bath, N. T. 



A Prunino Hook for Biish Fruits The 

 illustration of a bush pruner, in an earlier 

 number of Popular Gardening reminds me 

 of one in use by berry growers here. It ig quite 

 simple, being made of an old rake handle and 

 file. The illustration shows the hooked shape 

 of the sharpened blade. It is bent shghtly after 

 being driven into the handle. On the handle are 

 tacked two straps to make the hold good. The 

 two advantages this hook has over the one shown 

 are, first, the operator can stand back and reach 

 into the bushes ; second, the hook can be run in 

 and draw the cut brush into the row ready for 

 being carried out It also permits the use of 

 both hands and can be used for taking water 

 sprouts and small limbs from low growing fruit 

 trees.— B. H. Ciu<}tmnn, Cuyahoga I'ounty, (j. 



Grapes Under Glass. I notice in your 

 March number in the article on "Grapes under 

 Glass," several statements that I think would be 

 decidedly misleading to one commencing in this 

 branch of horticulture. On the subject of lean- 

 to vineries your correspondent writes that the 

 vines should be planted along the brick wall. 

 This would be a great mistake, and I think that 

 iuiy horticulturist on reflection, even if he has 

 had no practical experience, will admit the great 

 advantage of plauting along the front of the 

 house, and training up the vines under the glass 

 where they can have the full benefit ot the light 

 and heat. Under "Planting and Care" your 

 correspondent recommends the fruiting of eight 

 feet of cane during the third season, and the 

 fruiting of the cane the entire length ot the 

 rafter the fourth season. This I should expect 

 would result in very seriously injuring the cane 

 during the fifth season, and probably in totally 

 ruining it during the sixth season, and that the 

 Grapes during these years would be of poor 

 quality, should the grower be fortunate enough 

 to bring them to an eatable condition. The first 

 great mistake that beginners are sure to make is 

 to overcrop their \nnes, and to follow the above 

 advice would be doing it with a vengeance. Your 

 correspondent advises a much higher tempera- 

 ture for «nes in the heated G rapery than I have 

 found it necessary or desirable to maintain, 

 especially up to the time when the buds begin to 

 develop; and during the blossoming period when 

 \nnes need to be kept quite wann during fertili- 

 zation I have found a temperature of 75 degrees 

 during the day time all sufBcient. .Such high 

 temperature as 85 to SO degrees are to be avoided 

 rather than desired, and only permitted under 

 the bright sunshine, and with a good circulation 

 of air.— D. M. iJuniUng, Cayuga Co., N. T. 



The English Spahhow. Some of the young 

 gentlemen of the town, decided to hold an oyster 

 supper. They chose sides and agreed to kill 

 sparrows to see who would have to furnish the 

 supper, the loosing side ( the side who killed the 

 smallest number) to pay for the supper. The 

 interest of farmers and their sons was awakened 

 and they joined in the sport. Their method was 

 to go at night with lanterns to the sheds and lofts 

 where the sparrow resorts. The birds fluttering 

 around the lights were easil.v dispatched with a 

 sort of small paddle made out of a shingle or 

 other similar light material.— F. TI'. IT , Chatham, 

 Ontario, Can. 



Le Conte Peak as Stock. In recent num- 

 bers of Popular Gardening I notice that one 

 writer condemned as utterly worthless the Le 

 Conte Pear as a stock for other Pears. Here in 

 the south it is the very best stock we can get ; 

 other varieties grafted on it do remarkably well. 

 Have tried the French Pear as a stock, and find 

 it of no value whatever. Le Conte Pear cut- 

 tings grow readily, sometimes growing as much 

 as six or seven feet in one season just from slips 

 put out in the fall or winter.— S. L. Bishop, Ga. 



All reports from the south are pretty well 

 agreed that the Le Conte is good stock for Pears 

 and even Apples.— Ed. 



