ligo. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



179 



trcH\s are planteil up and down the laues and 

 along the pulilio roads; and sncli trees! and such 

 Cherries ! and sueli tioeks of birds ! These Cher- 

 ries are marketed at 2."> or tliirty eents for a 

 woodi'n bvu-ketfnll. holdinfj a quarter of a 

 bushel, and people whogothereto piekthemcan 

 have theai at a less price, very often for nothing. 



I eall to mnid also a village on the National 

 road, in Wayne County, Indiana, where Cherry 

 trees attoiind on the sidewalks. In the blossom- 

 ing time, the whole town is dressed in white, and 

 in the time of fruiting it is brilliant with red, 

 and the birds hold high carnival. 



There is a quaint old town on the Ohio river, 

 some distance from Pittsburg, named Economy, 

 settled by a religious sect from Germany. In 

 this quaint, sweet, old-fashioned tillage the fruit 

 is as free to all as the water. Grape vines are 

 trained over the dwellings, and fruit trees shade 

 the gniss-grown streets. The fruit is held in 

 common and is free to the inhabitants, and if a 

 visitor ^vishes a basket of Cherries or Mulberries, 

 it is gathered and given, but never sold. 



We are often told that if fruit trees were 

 planted on the street, the boys would get the 

 fruit. That would be one great object in thus 

 planting, so that the boys and girls could get the 

 fruit. The fact is that children are starving tor 

 fruit; and what with the scarcity of the article, 

 and the enclosures surrounding what there is, 

 the average boy is forced into being a thief. If 

 the boy has an innate conscience, the conscience 

 and stomach strive for the mastery, and the 

 stomach is ipiite sure to gain the victory. 



Just to think of a man, who has lived long 

 enough in the world to have planted a hundred 

 orchards, going to the expense and trouble of 

 building a high, solid fence around a miserable, 

 pinched, mean little patch of ground which he 

 calls an orchard, and then goes to the expense 

 of keeping a ravenous beast, a vile dog, to pro- 

 tect that patch. And yet, professing do-as-you- 

 would-be-done-by people laugh at such things. 



I would have them learn of trees and forests; 

 I would have Arbor day observed, and have the 

 boys and girls plant trees and impress the lessons 

 of the school room by the object lessons learned 

 from nature. 



Nut Culture and its Future. 



( Extract of paper read by H. M. Engle before the 

 American Pomological Society.) 



Nuts are rich in certain food elements, 

 adapted to the human system. Thousands 

 of acres might be made profitable in this 

 branch of horticulture that now pay neither 

 interest nor taxes, and large supplies of food 

 for man obtained with more certainty than 

 by an equal amount of money spent and 

 labor applied in the production of some 

 other crops. 



An inducement to Nut culture is that so little 

 care is required in keeping them, while fruits 

 and vegetables reijutre special care during 

 winter, when the former are most required and 

 the latter least. If more of the natural products 

 of the earth, and less of artificially prepared and 



A Berrij Picking Device. 



adulterated articles, were eat^n, mankind would 

 be much better for it. 



The Chestnut. Wherever these will flourish, 

 it may safely be placed at the head of all Nuts, 

 since for quality it is unsurpassed. 



Some of the Spanish, or seedlings of the same, 

 are nearly if not altogether equal to our natives 

 in quality. Much has been claimed for the 

 Japan Chestnuts, but those we have fruited are 

 not equal to some of the Spanish, either in size 

 or quality. We may reasonably conclude that 

 speaking of Spanish, French, Italian, or Japan 

 Chestnuts, is as indetinite as speaking of Apples, 

 Pears, or any other fruits from these countries 

 as all Chestnuts vary when grown from seed. 



New varieties will no doubt be produced by 

 cross-fertilization, and these will combine many 

 if not all the best (|ualities of the originals, just 

 as has been done with so many other fruits. 



Hoping for sut-h results, it will be important to 

 have new varieties i>roperly named and classified 

 the same as other fruits, so to avoid synonyms, 

 improper names, and the dissemination of in- 

 ferior varieties. 



The Walnnt and Filbert. The Black Walnut 

 (Juiilaiia nigra), Hutteruut (J. cinerea), English 

 Walnut. iJ.rcuia). Pecan (Carya ulivfrfurmis), 

 Shellbark (Callia), and Filbert {Cwyiws ArellanaK 

 are no doubt susceptible of improvement in the 

 direction of less shell and more kernel. 



Nut culture opens a wide field for the delicate 

 process of hybridization and cross-fertilization, 

 and the obstacle should be no greater than to 

 hybridize Wheat and Kye, which has been suc- 

 cessfully accomplished. 



After all, the raising of seedlings is like a lot- 

 tery; manj' blanks are drawn, but the outlay is 

 not expensive, and should one superior variety 

 be produced, the producer may consider himself 

 a benefactor to his race. 



Beqairements. The different Nuts require 

 various soils and locations; Walnuts nourish 

 best in rich loam ; Butternuts thrive in similar 

 soils; both bear transplanting well. Pecans and 

 Shellbarks have long and heavy tap-roots, and 

 must be carefully managed ; they should be 

 transplanted once or twice in the nursery, and 

 by cutting off part of the tap-root, they will 

 throw out side roots, after which there is little 

 risk in their removal. Wherever the Peach and 

 Mazzard Cherry flourish, the Chestnut will suc- 

 ceed, i. e., in light soils, either sand, slate or 

 gravel. Pennsylvania has large areas of Chestnut 

 forest which are cleared once in twenty or 

 twenty-flve years for the timber, but the Nuts 

 on such trees do not amount to much, as the 

 woods grow too dense, and the Nuts are small. 

 But a new departure has been made which, we 

 trust, will spread extensively. After clearing 

 the land, when the sprouts are of one season's 

 growth, they are grafted with some improved 

 variety, at such distances as trees should stand 

 were they planted for fruiting, and all the rest 

 are destroyed and kept down. The oldest of these 

 trees are now but two seasons' growth since they 

 were grafted, but some have ah-eady borne fruit, 

 and indications are that in a comparatively short 

 time there will be Nut orchards in full bearing, 

 instead of timber forests. 



I predict that in less than a decade there will be 

 a boom in this direction, in our state at least. 



CONDENSED GLEANINGS. 



Eew Tree Seedling. So far as is known the 

 Kew tree (Qinkno adiantifolUt) is the sole sur- 

 viver of an otherwise extinct race. It is a native 

 of China and Japan, and the type one of unfath- 

 omable antiquity, and the wonder is how the one 

 living represe.sentative could have held its own 

 and survived through so many changes of climate 

 and other conditions. With few or no exceptions 

 the tree is best suited to withstand the pernicious 

 atmosphere of crowded towns, its thick leathery 

 leaves and their thick epiderm enabling it to 

 resist the smoke and other atmospheric impuri- 

 ties. The fan-like leaves are borne in tufts on 

 the ends of short spurs, like those of an Apple 

 tree, and in autumn before they fall they turn a 

 beautiful golden-yellow. The male catkins are 

 produced at the end of similar spurs. The female 

 flowers are on different trees to the male, and 

 ripen into an ovoid berry-like fruit; placed at the 

 end of a long stalk. Pollen from a male tree, 

 therefore, is required for purposes of fertiliza- 

 tion, or a cion from the female tree may be 

 grafted on the male, or ince versa. The tree is 

 usually propagated by layers, but also by seed. 

 The mode of germination, as shown in sketch is 

 almost exactly like that of an Oak, but primary 

 leaf -scales are 3-seriate.— Gardeners Chronicle. 



Aqnarinm Tank. A very elaborate and 

 beautiful affair, which is reaUy a joy forever, if 

 one cares to stand the expense, can be made by 

 a cooper. This should Ije constructed of heavy 

 Ash or Oak staves with a false bottom, the upper 

 one not too hea^'y. well perforated with two inch 

 holes, and should be about six inches from the 

 true bottom, leavnng about eighteen inches clear 

 space at the top. Plant the roots in the bottom 

 space, fill with dirt as in the other instances, 

 mount on large strong castors and you have a 

 very cheap and large aquarium in which many 



beautiful lish and water animals may be kept 

 which could not be made to thrive in an ordinay 

 a(]uariuni, e\'en with a fountain and a constant 

 supply of fresh water. In ours we have many 

 kind such as spoon-bill cat, gars, shovel-noses, 

 and the like, the plants keeping the water natur- 

 al for them. Orange Judd Farmer. 



Capturing English Sparrows. Mr. W. T. Hill, 

 our sparrow catcher, has caught more than ever 

 the past season, about 30,(KX), but it cost him 

 more time and trouble, though his greater skill, 

 acquired by constant practice of three years or 

 more, enables him to catch them much more 

 readily than at first. He 

 captures a great many now 

 at night. Learning of their 

 roosting places, he gets 

 permissson to enter yards 

 after dark, and scoops 

 them in by the hundred. 

 It is no uncommon thing 

 for him to bag 500 between 

 dusk and bed-time. The 

 demand for the birds from 

 sporting clubs is constant- 

 ly increasing, and orders 

 come from all parts of 

 A Damp Inilicat(ir. jjjg country. But with 



all the demand for trap-shooting, and all the de- 

 vices for capturing, the little pest seems to hold 

 his own in this city at least, and we presume the 

 same is true all over the country. There is a 

 chance for some inventor to make a fortune in 

 divising some trap that will catch the birds more 

 rapidly than anything yet invented.— Correspon- 

 Indiana Farmer. 



Thinning Vegetables. No doubt it takes nerve 

 to properly thin rows of vegetables, and throw 

 thousands of thrifty growing plants away. I 

 find that especially so with Cabbage plants when 

 grown by sowing in rows right where the crop is 

 to grow. Every season I have to puU up and 

 throw away, or feed to the hens, thousands of 

 most excellent plants, such as you could not 

 often buy even of skillful growers or dealers- 

 plants of the very choicest varieties, too. But 

 as I do not attempt to sell Cabbage plants, or 

 make any effort to find buyers for them, I have 

 to throw or give the surplus away as soon as my 

 rows need thinning. In order to accomodate a 

 neighbor or an aquaintance with my surplus, I 

 often postpone the job of thinning much too 

 long for the best of my patch. But when the 

 crowding plants are removed, it is astonishing 

 to see how rapidly the remaining ones grow. I 

 always leave a few plants standing between 

 those that are left to form heads. This enables 

 me to fill the vacancies, should they accur by 

 accident or mischief-making insects. -Correspon- 

 Farm and Fireside. 



A Damp Indicator. Mr. F. W. Beck, a florist 

 at East Grinstead is the inventor of the in- 

 strument here illustrated for registering the 

 amount of moisture in the atmosphere of plant 

 houses, dwellings, machine rooms, and other 

 places where injury is done by an excess of damp 

 when the excess is not suspected. We have been 

 informed that a damp bed suggested the produc- 

 tion of something that would indicate whether a 

 " strange bed " was damp or not. The instru- 

 ment has been found useful in that and many 

 other respects, and is largely sold in this country 

 and America. It is so sensitive that when the 

 case is opened the indicator moves by the action 

 of the breath, just as the mercury in a thermo- 

 meter rises under the influence of heat applied 

 in the same manner, the extent of damp being 

 determined by the figures to which the small 

 thread-like detector points.— Journal of Hort. 



Berry Picking Device. The berry picking 

 arrangement shown herewith is used on a fruit 

 farm in Baraboo, Wis. A visitor describes it as 

 follows : A little device that interested me was a 

 picking box or form into which the berry box 

 was placed while being filled with Blackberries 

 or Raspberries by the picker. The box was made 

 of tin of a suitable size to receive the quart box. 

 The box has a hinged cover, with a funnel- 

 shaped hole through which the fruit is dropped 

 into the berry box within. There is a slot on one 

 side for the strap which goes around the picker's 

 waist. This box prevents loss in picking berries, 

 and being held by a strap, both hands are left 

 free to gather the fruit.— Orange Judd Farmer. 



The Seed-Potato Puzzle. Experience of my- 

 self and others in this region has been that whole 

 tubers, with similar cultivation and care, pro- 

 duce more large Potatoes than cut sections. The 



