1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



191 



plants with excessively lonjj roots should 

 have the tips cut olT with n sharp knife. 

 Plants treated in this way, after being plan- 

 ted out. appear as here illustrated. 



SriMM.iNo l"i..\NTs.— Kven the most ill- 

 looking, spindling, almost rootless plants 

 of Tomatoes, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, etc., 

 can be transplanted with entire success 

 under average conditions of soil and season. 

 All that is needed is to insert the plants 

 into the ground up to their very hearts. 

 Overgrown Tomato plants may be laid down 

 in a slanting position, care being taken to 

 bring the moist earth in contact with the 

 soil where underground. From "How to 

 make the Garden pay. " 



I am not a particular friend of transplant- 

 ing, and avoid it wherever I can. In thcuri/, 

 transplanting, which is a sort of root prun- 

 ing, induces early fruit production in Toma- 

 toes, Egg plants, etc., early heading in 

 I.,ettuce, Cauliflower, Cabbage, and root 

 development, such as is indispensable in 

 good plants for setting outdoors. For this 

 reason, gardeners practice, and writers 

 advocate, repeated shifting, repotting or 

 transplanting of all sorts of vegetable 

 plants, in particular, also, of Tomato, Egg 

 plant, Peppers, Cabbage, Celery, etc. In 

 pnwtice, transplanting, with its unavoid- 

 able root mutilation, is a stab at the plant's 

 vitality, and acts as a more or less serious 

 check to its growth, thus invariably dwarf- 

 ing it in some measure. Sometimes, if the 

 operation was done under favorable circum- 

 stances—in moist atmosphere, and absence 

 of direct sunlight— it is certainly followed 

 by earlier fruit production or earlier heading. 

 At the same time it also and invariably re- 

 sults in reduced size of plant or head, and 

 reduced aggregate yield of fruit. Should 

 less favorable conditions be ruling at the 

 time of the transplanting operation, how- 

 ever, the atmosphere \>e dry and the sun 

 bright, the plant will receive a set-back 

 which cripples and retards it for a long 

 time, so that the nntransplanted plant will 

 come even sooner to maturity. 



The great advantage that transplanted 

 plants have over nntransplanted ones, is 

 the greater amount of space which people 

 generally allow to the former. Seedlings 

 are grown thickly in the row, and left 

 thickly. In transplanting, the space is 

 given to each plant that properly belongs to 

 it. Let this be done with the seedlings, by 

 early thinning to the proper distance ; or, 

 let the seed be planted in a pot or can large 

 enough, leaving only a single plant to grow; 

 and we can thus produce plants with a well 

 developed root system, and fully the equal 

 to transplanted plants in every respect. 

 This comparison, of course, refers to plants 

 started from seed at the same time. Much 

 higher rates are always asked for ■' trans- 

 planted" Cabbage and Celery plants, than 

 for common seedlings. The former, it is 

 true, are usually fine plants, with large 

 roots and stocky tops, and well worth their 

 price. I obtain just as good plants by 

 growing seedlings thinly in drills. All 

 seems to depend chiefly on the amount of 

 space given to each plant. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



A department to which all are im'ited to send notes 

 of experience and observation concerning topics that 

 recently have been treated on in this Journal. Slany 

 such contributions monthly are loelcojne. 



Cat-ilogue Promises. Your correspondent 

 J. B. D.,Pa. in May issue, takes exception to the 

 catalogues in general, and insinuates that they 

 alone are responsible for what must be a series 

 of failures in his gardening experience, judging 

 from the tenor of his communication. It there 

 is anything in the whole list of plants, offered by 

 the various dealers, which would tax their 

 powers of description in an attempt to do them 

 justice, it is the very plants he mentions. Who, 

 that has seen a well-grown specimen of Clematis, 



Rhododendron or Liliuni Auratun], can tr\il}' 

 say that they are described in colors too glowing 

 l»y an.v catalogue man ? It Is unfortunately the 

 fashion now to deride the catalogue men and 

 lay the blame of all failures in plants and .seeds 

 on their shoulders, yet they larely receive due 

 credit for the numberless good things they are 

 the means of bringing before the public. It is no 

 exaggeration to say that the Moon Flower which 

 he makes a target for his sarcasm was an object 

 of admiration in over one hundred thousand 

 gardens last years, and that perhaps double that 

 number will see its glories this season. If ,1. B. D. 

 would see to it that his ^ 

 plants received the proper ( 

 care as recommended by the "■■.., 

 catalogue men, and by Pop- 

 irLAR Gardening, I can 

 promise him that he will 

 have little cause for com- 

 plaint. Too many amateurs 

 conclude that when they dig 

 a hole and set a plant in it, 

 or sow the seeds, that they 

 have done all that is neces- 

 sary and expect that suc- 

 cessful refiults will follow, 

 forgetting that plants, like 

 animals, require constant 

 care and attention, and that 

 they are .subject to ills which 

 must be intelligently met 

 and combated. Get a proper 

 knowledge of the wants of 

 your plants, and be unre- 

 mitting in your care, read 

 good gardening literature 

 and you will see success, 

 where there is failure now.— Pat. O'Mma, Jersey 

 City. 



Kaspbebry CuLTtTRE. On page l.')8 H. K. 

 Cotta says:" set the crowns of the roots of Rasp- 

 berry plants three inches below the surface." 

 In our experience with Kaspberries, especially 

 the Gregg, we have found this to be about right. 

 In planting we furrow out the piece to be plant- 

 ed, with a small diamond plow and set the plants 

 in the furrow with the crowns two or three 

 inches below the general surface of the ground. 

 As the plants grow these furrows are gradually 

 filled as the plants are plowed and hoed. Some 

 claim that there is great danger of the plants 

 drowning when set so low, if the season should 

 be wet, but if the ground has been well prepared 

 the danger from this source is slight. Last year 

 in a piece of nearly two acres of Greggs set in 

 this way we did not lose more than one per cent, 

 although it was one of the wettest seasons known 

 here for many years. He also speaks of the 

 Schafler as being one of the most profitable 

 Raspberries for a local market. With the best 

 of treatment it has proved anj-thing but profit- 

 able with us. It winter-kills every winter, even 

 the past one during which the thermometer 

 never went ten degrees below zero, it winter- 

 killed almost to the ground. It is too soft, if 

 left on the bushes until ripe to stand handling. 



till' e.\ es cut out except the ujiiM-rinost one with 

 an idea that theywould callous and bemore likely 

 to 4'niit roots. These were kept in sand and 

 sawdust until well started ; were set out a few 

 weeks ago and seem to be going ahead. If they 

 glow, they ai-e not intended to be sold as such, 

 but used for stock to bud others upon. A south- 

 ern gentleman asked me not long ago whether 1 

 thought it would pay for them to grow Le 

 Contes for stocks. My answer was that if it 

 proved to answer the purpose as well as Pear 

 seedlings of our own, or the best French ones, 

 and they could grow them for ten dollars per 



^^^ 



PLANTING SPINDLING CABBAGE PLANTS, 

 and It is unattractive in appearance.- E. L. Pot- 

 lard, Clinton Co., Mo. 



Le Conte Pear. That this Pear so far as the 

 fruit is concerned, will not become popular in 

 the north is pretty well settled, I suppose, and 

 it seems the trees are liable to blight, even when 

 grown from cuttings. The next question is 

 whether it will make a good foundation for 

 other varieties. That it is difficult to grow from 

 cuttings here in the north we know, so this 

 spring I inserted small pieces of Pear roots, 

 such as were not fit to make permanent trees, 

 so as to give them a start. Some grafts had all 



PLANTS PROPERLY TRIMMED FOR TRANSPLANTING. 



thousand, it will do. That it may do under and 

 near the ground is possible, but it is not safe to 

 work it even at three feet from the ground ; as I 

 have trees of it grafted with Idaho that are 

 black and dying, while the graft of the Idaho is 

 still fresh. Of course the graft must die. This 

 is I think a pretty good sign that Idaho will be 

 blight proof. I have been gi'owing Pear trees 

 for fifty years, and battled with blight nearly all 

 that time carrying out the plan, that when one 

 tree dies, plant two more. Last season, however, 

 knocked all that out of my head. This spring 

 the axe has been laid to near a score of trees 

 and but two trees were planted ; and these very 

 small ones of which I will hardly ever see fruit. 

 — <S. Miller, Montgiimery Co., Mo. 



Figs at the North. I have grown Figs suc- 

 cessfully for the last four years, and my expe- 

 rience may help others. You say cover with 

 litter and soil. I think covering with litter is 

 what causes most of the failures in attempts at 

 Fig culture at the north. Two years ago I cover- 

 ed part of my trees with leaves and soil with the 

 result that all so covered became moldy and 

 rotten, while othere covered with clean earth 

 came out in perfect condition. I bend my trees 

 down as described in Popular GARnENLNG, 

 then cover three to six inches of clean earth and 

 over this two inches of mulch to prevent alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing. Thus protected they 

 have'come out all right after the temperature baa 

 been down to 16 and 20° below zero. The trees 

 are not injured by the earth freezing solid about 

 them if they are left to thaw gradually. I have 

 also been successful in protecting Peach trees 

 the last four years, by bending down and cover- 

 ing with straw, have had fine crops of Peaches 

 when unprotected trees did not show a single 

 bloom. The covering of trees and plants in cold 

 latitudes is a subject entitled to increased atten- 

 tion.— C.iT. Meyer, I/ls. 



Root Grafts and Whole Roots. There is 

 a great deal of humbug about this cry of whole 

 roots, and some of the travelling tree peddlers 

 have been using it as a means to rope in many 

 well-read and intelligent people. This 1 state on 

 Prof. Budd's authority. A Duchess or any other 

 absolutely hardy variety, he says, "will make a 

 good treee if grown from a cutting, and when 

 grafted on a short piece of root it practically is a 

 cutting, as the piece of root only starts it, and 

 roots are thrown out always from the cion. 

 Fully ninety per cent, of our thi-ee-year-old 

 Apple, Pear, Cherry and Plum trees are on their 

 own roots if they have been grafted with a long 

 cion on a short root and set deeply. ITet the 

 crown graft is the best, and nurserymen could 

 afford to make only one tree from one seedling. 

 But the whole root idea is nonsense, as it would 

 have to be set with a crowbar if put down deep 

 enough to cause it to emit roots from the cion, 

 as all our trees should do." 



