1 890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



177 



sivc heat of the pipelnit were not much injureil. 

 Instead of Carrots, Parsley was sown with tlie 

 Radishes, which eanie to market in May and sold 

 remarkably well. The use of these warm frames 

 has t)oen eontiniied every year since, with uni- 

 formly successful results as refrards f^rowinj? the 

 crops, though of course the market is not always 

 equally jjood for the products. 



Beat Mode of Heatine- For the best and most 

 easily managed frame Mr. Philbrick prefers one 

 only six feet wide, with a fence to lean the mats 

 aurainst when not on the frame, with an inch-and- 

 a-quarter pipe eariied around the frame on both 

 sides, fo\ir inches below the grlass, and heated by 

 a small hot-water-boiler under pressure of about 

 ten pounds to the inch. 



The reason for preferring hot water circulation 

 to steam is that in moderate weather the temper- 

 ature can be more easily regulated by regulating 

 the fire than with sieam pipes. The same results 

 could probably be attained by having two or 

 three steam pipes of smaller calibre and shutting 

 oil the steam from part of them in mild weather- 



These frames are very convenient in growing 

 the crops mentioned, which used to be grown in 

 the open air in spring and fall without glass, and 

 Jlr. Philbrick thought they would answer equal- 

 ly as well for many flowering plants of low 

 growth which need but little artiticial heat, such 

 as Violets, Pansies, Primulas and many of the 

 Dutch bulbs. 



Advantages, It is astonishing how little coal 

 is necessary to keep out frost, which is about all 

 that is required with such hardy plants as have 

 been mentioned. When mats are used on the 

 bed, it will require for a bed two hundred feet 

 long and six feet wide only about three or four 

 tons of coal for the winter to keep the plants in 

 gro\vlng condition, and make the frame produce 

 fully double what it would without the heat. 

 Every one who has attempted to run a cold 

 frame in a severe winter knows how hard it is to 

 keep out frost, even with double mats and shut- 

 ters. With the aid of hot water and steam no 

 shutters at all are required and much of the time 

 not even mats. 



Such an arrangement, however, will not grow 

 good Lettuce without a little bottom heat in 

 cold weather. 



The arrangement recommended is easily man- 

 aged. When only a few frames are run, they 

 may be heated with a small boiler and lamp. 



Exotic Grapes, In regard to growing Hlack 

 Hamburg Grapes under glass that is used for 

 other purposes in winter, Mr. Philbrick said that 

 every market gardener knows that there is usu- 

 ally a considerable number of hot-bed sashes in 

 market gardens which are not used, unless for 

 growing Cucumbers and Melons, after the mid- 

 dle of April until the next winter. 



The early Cucumber crop has of late been far 

 less profitable than formerly, and it occurred to 

 the essayist a tew years ago that possibly this 

 glass might be put to better use for Grapes. 



To do this he started some cuttings of Black 

 Hamburg Grapes, and grew the vines for the 

 first year in pots in his Cucumber house. The 

 next year they were set out in the border where 

 they were to stand, and were grown in a frame 

 raised three feet high and covered by a single 

 string of hot-bed glass, the vines being trained 

 inside the frame. The vines were cut back in 

 the fall to two eyes and covered. The next 

 spring the ratters of the house were built, and 

 the glass was put on about the last of April. 



The \'lnes made a fair growth last year and were 

 allowed to ripen only a few bunches of Grapes. 

 But next summer he hopes to grow a fair crop. 



The glass with which this house is covered Is 

 ordinary hot-bed sashes, which are fastened to 

 the rafters by means of ordinary screw eyes in 

 the rafters, through which common wood screws 

 pass into the wood of the sashes underneath to 

 hold tbem in place. 



The glass is taken off in the fall after the vines 

 have been pruned and laid down and covered 

 with earth. The glass is used on hot-beds or 

 cold frames until the 20th of April, when it is 

 replaced on the Graper,v just as the vines are 

 breaking into growth. 



The Grapes thus treated will ripen in Septem- 

 ber. The essayist saw no difBculty in the way of 

 successfully growing Grapes in this way very 

 cheaply. When he made his plans for this opera- 

 tion, the price of Black Hamburg Grapes was 

 from seventy-flve cents to a dollar and a quarter 

 per pound, but the recent large importations of 

 California Grapes in the fall, together with the 

 improved excellence of our outdoor Grapes have 

 reduced the price so that Black Hamburg Grapes 



sold last fall at about thirty cents per pound. 

 This low price was, howe\cr, partly due to the 

 wet season, which made it impossible to hold 

 Grapes for the market. 



Any one who wishes to grow these delicious 

 Grapes cheaply, can do so by using his spare 

 glass, and will be rewarded for the care they 

 require with choice fruit for his table or his 

 friends. There is. howe\-er, little inducement to 

 grow them for market, unless they are forced 

 early or held until cold weather, which involves 

 the use of heat and different arrangements. 



Water Melor^s and Their Varieties. 



[E^-travt of paper read by Robi'i-t B. Harris, M. £>., be- 

 fore the Pennsylvania Horticultural Soeiety.) 



This fruit grows in hot countries; general- 

 ly, but has not so great a range of climate 

 as the Cantaloupe. It appears to be divided 

 into tvro distinct classes — one adapted to 

 very hot localities,and the other able to bear 

 well a limited degree of heat. 



some countries, especially southern Russia, Ar- 

 menia and Sicily. In Pei-sia the favorite Is called 

 a "black Watermelon," from its very dark green 

 color, as we have the "black Italian"; it is very 

 thin-rinded, and is easily broken in transporta- 

 tion. The Japanese produce a Melon of a long 

 apple-shape, having very tiny seeds and a thin 

 rind, that grows well in our climate, and has 

 been considered an excellent variety by private 

 growers, but Its small size has prevented Its ac- 

 ceptance by the trade. Such fruits make good 

 hybrids mth larger varieties. 



Large, tough-rlnded, symmetrical Melons of 

 fine quality, which keep and carry well, are now 

 produced in enormous quantities in our southern 

 States, and some may be carried in good condi- 

 tion to Europe or kept from the last of Septem- 

 ber to Christmas. As an article of diet the 

 Watermelon requires a better digestive power 

 in the eater than is required for the Cantaloupe, 

 and some dyspeptics who consume the latter 

 with entire comfort, do not dare to more than 

 taste the former. 



This country now produces a greater variety 

 of large Watermelons than ever before, and they 

 can be grown to a heavier weight. In 1800 there 

 were Melons in the Philadelphia market that 

 measured forty-five inches in girth; but they did 

 not grow them in our country of 108, 111, and 12.5 

 pounds until within a few years, when new 

 varieties reached these weights in favorable 

 seasons and localities. 



Inthe olden time, our Watermelons were 

 chiefly long, oval, dark green or striped, and had 

 large black or brown seeds. Spanish seeds pro- 

 duced our first thin-rinded Melons; but these 

 soon changed in character under the work of the 

 bees. Spanish Melons are still grown, but are 

 altered in form over those from imported seeds. 





Tlte Pennsylvania Anemone. See opposite pa<ie. 



Those from the tropics grow larger and finer 

 in tljis latitude,and the Melons of Spain and Italy 

 do as well here as in those countries, although 

 but few of them are worth introducing. Water- 

 melons from milder climates than ours will grow 

 in New Jersey soil, but are never inviting in 

 flavor. When cut open they crack before the 

 knife with a sort of explosive sound; are often 

 white-fleshed, and seldom of a rich red; they are 

 deficient in sweetness, and the flesh is sometimes 

 tough. I have found one desirable Russian 

 Melon, one Spanish, three Italian, one Cappado- 

 cian, one Japanese and one African, in a large 

 number of varieties tested from many countries. 

 All the vines I have examined were of tbe same 

 peculiar, well-known^character of leaf , except one 

 from Liberian seeds, which had a large, solid, 

 ovate-pointed leaf, set close to the stem, and 

 growing right and left alternately, and parallel 

 with the ground. 



Watermelons are long, semi-long, oval and 

 round; their seeds are black, brown, white, red, 

 buff, gray and mottled. All of these colors may 

 be found in very large, medium, and very small 

 seeds. As a general rule, a large Melon bears 

 large seeds, and vice versa, but there are excep- 

 tions. White-rinded Melons may have very 

 small black seeds, as in the Russian, or may be 

 large and white, or buff with a brown edge. The 

 most delicious Melons, as a rule, are thin-rinded, 

 and pink or dark red in flesh. Such Water- 

 melons do not bear transportation well, the 

 breakage in some being up to fifteen per cent. 

 In interior colors we also find white, yellow and 

 amber-colored. 



Many foreign Melons have very tiny seeds, and 

 some of the fruits may be readily eaten by one 

 person. Orange Melons,or those having an easily 

 separated rind, are said to be produced of very 

 small size in Bulgaria and the extreme south of 

 Italy, but have not yet been grown here. 



Watermelons with very small seeds, down to 

 half an inch in length, are quite abundant in 



The Fruits and Flowers of Northern 

 Japan. 



iPaper reail by Prof. Broohs before the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society.) 



(Coiitinuedfrom page 1.59.) 

 The "Kokuwa" MffiHird'a argnta) is peculiar 

 to Japan, and finds its most perfect and abund- 

 ant development in the primeval forests of Yesso. 

 Much has been written and said about it within 

 the last few years, though strangel.v enough, it 

 has been urged upon public attention as an orna- 

 mental climber. It is a vigorous, not to say a 

 rampant grower, and its luxuriant dark green 

 leaves and waving stems have a beauty of their 

 own. For the purpose of covering arbors or 

 ** forming wild entanglements" from tree to tree, 

 it is certainly suited, but its coils will be found to 

 hug " closer than a hrother." Still, it is a beauti- 

 ful climber, though Yesso can furnish several 

 more beautiful and far more manageable; but 

 the lecturer cautioned not to plant it against 

 verandas or buildings. Unless looked after far 

 more closely than most will find time to do, it 

 will overgrow all desired bounds, displace eave 

 sprouts and make itself a nuisance generally by 

 its omnipresence. It is for its fruit that the plant 

 is mostly prized in Yesso, where in many locali- 

 ties, it is abundant and very largely collected. 

 The fruit is a berry a little larger than the Green 

 Gage Plum; the skin is green, the pulp, when 

 ripe soft, and the seed numerous and very fine. 

 The flavor cannot be likened to thatof an.v other 

 fruit; it is very agreeable to most, but it is sui 

 generis There is an astringent principle in the 

 skin, which must not be sucked too much or it 

 will make the mouth sore. It is not difficult, 

 ho%\e\'er, to suck out the pulp without encount- 

 ering this trouble. The effect of the fruit is de- 

 cidedly, but pleasantly, laxative to most^much 

 more so than in any other of our fruits, not 

 excepting the Fig. It must prove a valuable 

 acquisition e^'en for this single quality, were it 

 not moreover sufEcientl.y delicious to repay eat- 

 ing. Only one attempt had been made in Yesso 

 to cultivate it, but the plants for this experi- 

 ment, collected before sufficient acquaintance 

 with the botanical peculiarities of the species 

 had been acquired, all proved barren. It is poly- 

 gamo-dioecious, and for fruit it must be propa- 

 gated by cuttings from fertile plants. A second 

 obstacle to its culture is the fact that a number 

 of years must elapse before the plants begin to 

 be productive. Should the fruit under cultivation 

 prove as good as when wild, it would be well 

 worth a place in our gardens; and of course there 

 is a possibility that it may be improved. It 

 flourishes best in rich, moist soils. 



The fruit (hip) of Rosa ntgosa is very large and 

 handsome. It is chiefly eaten.by children,'though 



