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POPULAR GARDENING. 



July, 



Second— The be^st possible shipping pacicajres. 



Third— Honest packing of fruit from top to 

 bottom, yet maliing as fine an appearance as 

 possible. 



Net Profits — With culture such as I recom- 

 mend, Strawberries should yield four thousand 

 fiuart« per acre, should sell in your markets at 

 about eight cents per quart— a net profit of one 

 hundi-ed and fifty dollars per acre. 



Baspberries should yield about three thousand 

 quarts per acre, which, at ten cents per quart, 

 will net about same profit as Strawberries. 



Blackberries should give rather more quarts 

 than Raspberries, but selling for less price, the 

 profit is not quite as great 



A good product ot Currants is from fifteen 

 hundred to two thousand quarts per acre, and 

 the price I suppose here is about six or eight 

 cents ; but as a field of Currants may be kept in 

 fruiting for an indefinite number of years, it is 

 one of the most profitable of all the small fruits, 

 as the cost of culture is so much less than any of 

 the othei-s. Strawljerries have to be renewed 

 every two or three years. Raspberries and Black- 

 berries every five or six, for the best results. 



The Family Small Fruit Garden.— To get at 

 bottom facts as to " money in small fruits,'' the 

 family garden is the place to begin and end, if we 

 are looking for greatest results. Every farmer 

 should, and will have, when he awakens to a full 

 sense of the duty he owes to his wife and loved 

 ones, a family small fruit garden of a half acre 

 or more, in proportion to the size of his family, 

 and his real interest in their welfare, for right 

 here he has a home market that will take at high 

 prices every day in the week, quarts upon quarts 

 of the choicest product of his plants. 



How to Grow Dahlias. 



(Extract of pajter read b\i 3Ir. Wm. E. Endicott be- 

 fore the Mafisachusetis Sorticuttural Society.) 



In spring the tubers which are hanging to 

 the crown by only a few dead fibres, should 

 be cut off and the sound parts so divided 

 that each portion shall have not more than 

 one or two buds. These buds will be readi- 

 ly discernible in May. If the roots are 

 planted year after year without division, 

 not only will they form unwieldy masses, 

 but there will be a multitude of feeble 

 shoots, whose flowers will be few and poor. 



Soil and Manure, The soil should be neither 

 light nor heavy, and a plentiful supply of ma- 

 nure should be used. Chemical fertilizers will 

 induce a low growth, not high enough to hide a 

 child, while barn-yard manures cause a tall 

 growth. Dahlias raised with the latter need 

 staking to keep the wind from breaking them, 

 the flowers are much finer both in shape and 

 color, and the foliage has a freshness and perfec- 

 tion which adds much to the beauty of the plant. 

 With chemical fertilizers there are too many ill- 

 shaped and ill-colored flowers, and the foliage is 

 more apt to be infected with a fungus growth, 

 which causes it to turn yellow at the edges, and 

 to shrivel toward the end of the season. 



Planting. The roots should be planted about 

 the end of May. and covered about three 

 inches deep, and there should be at least four 

 feet of clear space allowed on each side; other- 

 wise full development cannot be expected. 

 Sometimes they are planted singly on lawns, and 

 so treated, a tall bushy and well-flowered plant 

 of a large-blossomed variety makes a fine appear- 

 ance. As with the majority ot jilants, the after- 

 cultivation consists simply in keeping the ground 

 loose and clean, and in applying water occasion- 

 ally if the season be dry, tor the Dahlia needs a 

 good supply of water. In one dry season the 

 essayist had hut one tlower from many hundred 

 plants, while a field of Oladioli blossomed as well 

 as ever. The first frost will destroy the plants, 

 but it is by no means necessary that they then be 

 taken up. On the contrary, they will keep better 

 in the ground than out of it, until the end of Octo- 

 ber; all that is necessary is to lift them before 

 the ground freezes up. A root accidentally left 

 in the ground over winter has been known to 

 come up in the spring and flourish as vigorously 

 as if it had been wintered in the cellar. 



In taking up Dahlia roots it is necessary to 

 observe two precautions— not to shake them too 

 violently in removing the earth; otherwise the 

 necks of many tubers will be so injui'ed as to rot 

 during the winter; and to invert the root for a 

 while after cutting off the stems so that the 

 moisture which drains olT shall not run down 

 upon the crown, thereby ca\ising the buds for 

 next year's growth to rot. Neglect of these pre- 



cautions have been the destruction of many a 

 good collection. 



Propagation, The Dahlia is propagated by 

 cutting or division. The latter method may be 

 carried out at any time from lifting to planting: 

 it consists simply in cutting the old root into 

 pieces leading one or more eyes on each. 



If it is intended to propagate by cuttings, the 

 roots from which the slips are to be taken should 

 be potted and put into a warm greenhouse in the 

 first part of February. When the shoots are 

 about two inches long they should Ije cut off just 

 below a pair of leaves, the buds in the axils of 

 which will form the eyes of the tuber which the 

 cutting is to develop. If the cuttings be taken 

 with a long stem below the leaves, they will root 

 and form tuljers: but these will never grow after 

 the first year, having no buds at their crowns. 



The cuttings are rooted in sand in the ordinary 

 way, and may be planted out when the weather 

 becomes warm enough. It sometimes happens 

 that a cutting has a hollow stem;'without special 

 treatment this will never root, but if it be split 

 up to the leaves and one of the halves cut away, 

 the cutting will root without much trouble. 



New varieties must be raised from seed, for the 

 Dahlia rarely sports, though sometimes it does 

 so. The essayist had never seen more than one 

 instance; in which several tubers of Emma 

 Cheney, a very large rosy-colored sort, produced 

 mahogany brown flowers and have continued to 

 do so. It is said that the plump seed is of little 

 value, but that the thin ones are more apt to 

 produce fine flowers; the essayist, however, had 

 not found any such difference. Whatever seed is 

 used will not produce more than one flower 

 worth saving out of a thousand seedlings. Seed 

 is readily obtained; if you pull off one of the 

 dead dry heads left where a blossom withered, 

 you will find the thin black seeds among the 

 chaffy bracts; these should be planted oufloors, 

 where the plants are to remain, as soon as the 

 ground is warm enough; they wUI probably 

 blossom in September. 



We are commonly advised to sow the seed 

 under glass in March, but those who do so will 

 be sorry before the end of May, for the seed 

 starts so readily and the young plants grow so 

 freely that the hasty garflener soon has to choose 

 whether he will throw away some of his Dahlias 

 or some of his other plants. 



Improving the Dahlia. In the Dahlia as we 

 now have it. the tendency to variation is pretty 

 thoroughly fixed. Out of two hundred seedlings 

 raised from seed of the fine white Pompon vari- 

 ety called White Aster, the essayist had flowers 

 of every sort and kind, of every shade of color, 

 single. Pompon, and large doubles— some of the 

 last pretty good and some poor enough to be 

 offered as first-rate Cactus Dahlias. 



We seem to be advancing from the single 

 flower over precisely the same ground formerly 

 traversed, for most of the " Cactus "' varieties of 

 the present day are in no respect different from 

 varieties figured fifty years ago in the Floricul- 

 tural Cabinet and other publications. 



Will these loose, flat-petalled varieties liecome 

 the round perfect Show-Dahlia as they did be- 

 fore or will they take a different turn and pro- 

 duce some new form? The same materials— the 

 species varialiiiis, cueciiiia, and graciliis— must 

 produce the same results. 



In so large a family as the Compositte to which 

 the Dahlia belongs it seems probable that some 

 genus exists with which hybrids may be formed, 

 and it is from such a source that new sorts are 

 to be had, if at all. 



There is still one point in which the present 

 race of Dahlias may be improved— hardiness. 

 We frequentl.v have a frost in the first part of 

 September which kills all our Dahlias: then 

 succeed several weeks of bright mild weather, in 

 which our blackened plants present but a sorry 

 figure. If we could infuse enough hardiness into 

 them to enable them to withstand this firet frost 

 it would be a great point gained. Two years ago 

 among some hundreds of seedlings which the 

 frost had destroyed, one stood up as fresh and 

 green as ever. Unfortunatel.v it was lost by 

 neglect. This incident shows that a moderate 

 degree of hardiness may be obtained by the 

 simple process of selection among seedlings; per- 

 haps by hybridization perfect hardiness ma.v also 

 be reached. 



The double and single varieties are so very 

 unlike that a comparison between them is hardly 

 possible. Both are desirable, both are beautiful 

 —each in its own way. The large double Dahlia 

 is certainly heavy in apiJearance, but it has a 

 richness of color, a delicacy of shading and a 



perfection of construction that the singles can- 

 not approach. The single Dahlias are free in 

 flowering, cheerful and graceful as they stand 

 in the garden. 



The Wild Species, Impcrialis is a very beauti- 

 ful species, which, however, will never be much 

 grown, because it does not flower until Novem- 

 ber, and then only on stalks twelve or fifteen 

 feet tall. Nothing can much exceed the beauty 

 of its clusters, however, consisting as they do, of 

 flowers gracefully drooping, white, faintly 

 flushed with pink, and with petals so disposed 

 that the flowers look more like Lilies than 

 Dahlias This species is well worth growing for 

 the beauty of its foliage, which is much di%'ided 

 and arches out from the stem, like some kinds 

 of .\zalea. Excelsa is another trio-like plant, 

 coarser in foliage than imperialis, and also late 

 flowering; the blossoms are pink. MerMi, called 

 also iilahrata, is a very dwarf species not over a 

 foot and a half high. In no respects does it re- 

 semble the other species in appearance. The 

 foliage is shiny and very finely cut, and the 

 blossoms much resemble the Coreopsis in size, 

 shape, and length of stalk. The colors are white, 

 pink and purple, with a dark brown center. 



The other species are very much like the ordi- 

 nary crimson and scarlet single varieties. 



Varieties. The possessor of the following 

 kinds has a goo<l collection: Anne Boleyn, light 

 flesh: British Triumph, dark crimson; Dutchess of 

 Cambridge, rose with crimson-tipped florets; 

 Earl of .Shaftesbury, rich purple: Flamingo, 

 vermilion; Julia Davis, rich yellow; Louisa Neath, 

 pink; Prospero, plum coU>r tipped white; Lord 

 Hawke, yellow and buff; Miss Huth. lemon 

 yellow with white tips; Mrs, Gladstons, delicate 

 soft pink. 



Some very good Pompon or small-flowered 

 double kinds are Snowflake, creamy white; 

 White .\ster, pure white with fringed petals; 

 Cochineal Rose, deep crimson and of perfect 

 form; Figaro, buff with crimson edge; Liebchen- 

 mein, white bordered violet; Pure Love, lilac; 

 Little Coldlight, golden-yellow tipped scarlet; 

 Sparkler, scarlet; George French, crimson if seen 

 from the front, bluish rose if looked at from the 

 side: Mercafor, pink-tipped crimson; Lurline 

 and Catherine, yellow; Isabel, briliant scarlet 

 and of finest form. 



Of the " Cactus " varieties there are by far too 

 many, unless their quality improves. Juarezi, 

 named for Juarez, the former president of Mex- 

 ico, was the first, and is so far the best that the 

 essayist was almost inclined to say that no other 

 sort is worth growing. Its color is intense and 

 pure, and its shape and arrangement of petals 

 are peculiar. Lord Lyndhurst is very good; it 

 is a reproduction of Juarezi on a smaller scale 

 and in a lighter shade ot color. It is probabl.v a 

 sport from Juarezi. Mondamin is a fine pink 

 variety raised from seed of Juarezi, and has the 

 same peculiar shape. 



Plunging Plants. 



[A paper read bu Mr, Wm, Bardney, Norris Green 

 Gardeti,s^ before the members of the Liverpool Horti- 

 cultural Association.) 



It should be practiced for the economical 

 advantages it offers. If gardening is to 

 prosper in the future, the cost of production 

 must be duly considered, so that the rettirns 

 will justify the outlay. Labor can be saved 

 by plunging. Appearance will always have 

 to be considered. The work of keeping the 

 pots clean is considerable, which by pliing- 

 ing would be entirely dispensed with. There 

 would be no stage washing. When the pots 

 are constantly exposed they soon present an 

 unsightly appearance, and they are no 

 sooner washed than they are green again. 

 Use ordinary pots, follow a system of plung- 

 ing them, and this laborious system of pot- 

 washing will be dispensed with. 



But the great labor saved, is that saved in 

 watering. Watering is a most expensive item in 

 the production of plants when grown with their 

 pots exposed. By plunging the pots evapora- 

 tion is arrested, and very little moisture is drawn 

 from the soil in which the plants are growing. 

 When the surface of the soil and pot is covered, 

 very little moisture escapes, only what is 

 naturally evaporated from the leaves and stems 

 ot the plant. Evaporation will go from the sur- 

 face of the plunging material, but if a judicious 

 system of syringing is followed ilaily as the state 

 of the atmosphere and the requirements of 



