26o 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



"^tSOClFriES 



TO BrwarnvtmawtL 



Barr'B Mammoth Aipara- 



^U8. I like it twice as well 

 as Conover's.— Wm. Jackson, 

 Altiin.Soiilh.nin. Hin-t. Soc. 



New Jersey State Horti- 

 cultural Society. The Fif- 

 teenth Anniversary Meeting 

 will be held in the College 

 Building at New Brunswick, Monday, Sept. 22d, 

 1S90. E. Williams, Secretary, Montclair, N. J. 



Western New York Horticultural Society. 

 The report of the last meeting has been pub- 

 lished more promptly than ever before, and 

 shows considerable improvement over earlier 

 volumes. The society is still gaining in strength 

 and influence. 



Profitable Orape Culture. I commenced grow- 

 ing Ci rapes on land where some said I would not 

 succeed. Obtained first bearing year two tons 

 per acre; second bearing year, four tons per 

 acre; third tearing year (season of 1888), nine 

 tons per acre. In fertilizers I use mainly horse 

 manure, applying it in the fall. As an experi- 

 ment I put on hen manure on a part of my vines, 

 which nearly doubled the yield.— J. K. Jlforrteoji, 

 Cliitiitanijua Hort. Socktti. 



Bhododendrons on Exhibit. The recent dis- 

 play at the Horticultural Hall, Boston, suggests 

 the following selection as giving the largest and 

 best-formed trusses, with a good range of variety: 

 James Mcintosh, Michael Wat«rer, Princess 

 Mary of Cambridge, Lady Grey Edgerton, Henry 

 W. Sargent, Sherwoodii, Purpureum grandi- 

 florum, Delicatissimum, Sir William Sebright, 

 Charles Dickens, Sappho, The Queen, Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth and Helen Waterer. 



Preparing Onions for Market. At the Grand 

 River Horticultural Society a bunch of spring 

 Onions with the roots on were shown by the sec- 

 retary as a a sample of proper preparing. James 

 J. H. Gregory says that of all tender, early veg- 

 etables mutilated, to appear well on the market, 

 nothing suffers so much asthe Onion. TheOnion 

 root should not be severed until it is needed im- 

 mediately for the table, otherwise the volatile 

 oil escapes and the most essential part is lost. 



The Culinary Grape. The Culinary, of Ohio, 

 for which so much was claimed in the way of 

 retaining it shape when cooked, is the most foxy 

 Grape I ever tested; in fact it seems to be simply 

 a form of the native Vitui (abntsca, and in every 

 respect is very poor, if not entirely worthless. 

 It greatly resembles Dracut Amber and North- 

 ern Muscadine having the same color with a 

 very tough skin. It showed no superiority, even 

 when boiled.— H. E. Tandeman, Association of 

 Am. iVurserj/men. 



Chrysanthemams for Flowers. Southwesterly 

 winds during the end of August and the early 

 part of September, often do much damage to the 

 buds and leaves where the plants are much ex- 

 posed. The tiower-buds and their peduncles are 

 at that time so t<;nder, that they are apt to be 

 whipped about and so cause a check to the devel- 

 opment of the blooms. Some growers set too 

 much store on plants with extra thick stems and 

 gross green leaves. These are perhaps pleasant to 

 look upon during the summer by the uninitiated, 

 but blooms possessing the desirable character- 

 istics are often missing. Very vigorous plants, 

 as a rule, produce blooms devoid of solidity and 

 other essentials.— B. Molyneux, Chrysanthemum 

 Conference, Shefflcld. 



Fruits as Medicine. Fruit is more than a 

 lu.xury, it is a necessity, in some cases. We can 

 not give too much emphasis to this. I am almost 

 a crank on this subject For several years I have 

 had fruit, in some shape, constantly on the table. 

 A few years ago 1 was thought to be subject to 

 a heriditary disease which seemed sometimes to 

 almost deprive me of my senses, and at times 

 could not do mental work on account of severe 

 headache. It was suggested to me that I adopt 

 a fruit diet, and I have eaten fruit every meal 

 since and the result is good. Since putting this 

 in practice neither myself nor family have been 

 sick, anil have paid no doctor's bills. I am not 

 a vegetarian, but am in the habit of eating meat. 

 I believe we should use plenty of fruit, as I am 

 of tjie opinion that it is conducive of good health. 

 —Pri^f. Stockhrirlfir, Indiana Hort. Socitty. 



Dewberry Disciusions. Mr. Wright.— I have 

 never been able to get any fruit from the 



Lucretia in Florida. I have never seen even any 

 blossoms on it here. Mr. Bacon.— I think if you 

 will pile up some timter that you want to decay 

 and plant the Dewberries around it, you will get 

 all the fruit you want. I have about an acre of 

 them Hxed this way, and I never before saw such 

 a mass of berries. The ground was so black you 

 could hardly see any green. There were proba- 

 bly ashes on the ground; for when the timter 

 was cut everything was burned that would burn. 

 I have also seen them grow on high ground where 

 there was plenty of rotten wood. Mr. Mott.— 

 The ones I ate in Louisiana were twice as large 

 as 'any Blackberry I ever saw, and better than 

 any I ever ate. I believe it is worthy of exten- 

 sive culture here.— Florida Hort. Society. 



Marketing Grapes. There is plenty of room 

 to extend the market (1) by getting earlier Grapes 

 of good quality. We ought to have a Grape as 

 early as the Champion and as good as the Worden 

 in every respect. If we had that we could double 

 our plantations. (2) At the end of the season by 

 preserving Grapes. (3) By puttingon the market 

 nothing but Grapes of the very best (juality. 

 (4) By teaching the consuming population the 

 good uses of Grapes, both as food and medicine. 

 Very little is known about that at present. The 

 Champion is a strong grower, prolific in yield, 

 good hardy vine, good leaf, and comes earlier 

 than anything we have. There is a fortune for 

 some man who will bring the right early Grape 

 before the public and handle it well. The first 

 good Grape we have is the Worden, which is at 

 least ten days later than Champion. The best 

 ten days in the season for selling G rapes is far 

 more than lost, because it is occupied by a Grape 

 which destroys the sale of other Grapes teing so 

 poor. The season is partly occupied by Moore's 

 Early, but it does not jield in sufficient quantity 

 to compete with the Champion. We must have 

 a Grape good enough in all its points to drive the 

 Champion out. Moyers Seedling is not known 

 well enough yet to pronounce positively as to all 

 its good points. It is sweet, good flavor and early. 

 I think about as early as the Champion. But 

 that is a red Grape, and even if successful and as 

 good, it may not drive the Champion out. With 

 better systems of preserving. Grapes could be 

 sold till May, and the time when Strawberries 

 come in. The best keeper I find is the Salem: 

 but it has other qualities that do not recommend 

 it to the commercial grower, though it is of an 

 exceedingly good quality, fairly good yield and 

 handsome to look at. The great objection is the 

 weakness of the leaf. I have seen some Salem 

 Grapes packed in cork dust that are to-day as 

 sound as when they were packed.— B. D. Smith, 

 Ontario Fniit Groicfr.v' Association. 



Growing Cherry Trees in California. Cherry 

 trees are now generally propagated on Mazzard 

 seedlings grown in France. They drill the seeds 

 in rows, and at the end of the first season's 

 growth take them up and assort into three or 

 four sizes, viz; Extras, No. I, No. 2 and No. a. 

 They vary all the way in size from that of a small 

 straw to one-half inch at collar. They use the 

 extras at home and export the other grades. If 

 we take the No. 1 grade (about one-fourth inch 

 in diameter at the collar) and plant in a good, 

 loamy soil, in the coast and bay counties, grow 

 without forcing by irrigation, and bud the first 

 summer or graft the first winter, at the end of 

 the second year we have what we call a one-year 

 old tree; and we should have at least two-thirds 

 of a planting running from three to five feet in 

 height. We call such a production first-class 

 trees, and not being stimulated by irrigation, 

 they form the terminal bud in the latter part of 

 the summer and early fall and have the balance 

 of the growing season to ripen and harden the 

 wood. This class of trees I consider suitable to 

 start with in planting a Cherry orchard. On the 

 other hand, it we take the third-class stock, plant 

 it in the interior of the state, where the spring 

 growth commences early and the summers are 

 clear and warm, irrigate it thoroughly— by Sep- 

 temter we will have the stock large enough to 

 bud; in all probability larger than the first-class 

 stock grown without irrigation, and if we follow 

 with a plentiful supply of water the second 

 season, we can produce trees, two-thirds of them 

 or over, ranging from four to six feet in height, 

 straight stalks and smooth bark, and to the inex- 

 perienced eye better looking trees than the No. 

 I descrited above. But this class of trees would 

 te an unsuitable one to select in planting a 

 Cherry orchard. The foundation (the stock) is 

 inferior to commence with, the wood will te 

 coarse and unripe, the trees will not bear the 

 transplanting as well as those we have designated 



as suitable. They will go back on the planter in 

 their future growth compared with the suitable 

 trees.— H'. H. Pepper, Cat. State Hort. Society. 



Selection of Seed Potatoes. 



{Ej-tracI of paiirr read bu Prof. E. S. Goff before a 

 Wi$eoHt<in Fanners^ Irustitute.) 



Starting on the assumption that the run- 

 ning out of Potatoes is due to a lack of proper 

 selection of seed we determined to select 

 from the stronge.st hills on the one hand, 

 in order to increase the vigor of one set of 

 plants and from the weakest hills on the 

 other hand, in order to decrease the vigor of 

 one set of plants. 



In the fall of 18SI we ordered our men, while 

 they were digging our variety tests of Potatoes, 

 to put Potatoes of each hill carefully by them- 

 selves I passed over the rows and examined 

 each hill, one by one. I then selected the hill of 

 each row that contained the largest number of 

 fine, smooth, salable Potatoes, and put this hill 

 into a small sack and latelcd it, '• Best hm of 

 White Star," or " Best of American Giant," ete. 

 After I had gone over ten varieties in this way, 

 I returned and selected the hill from each row 

 that had the smallest numter of merchantable 

 tubers. These smallest hills were put into sacks 

 and carefully labeled, when all were put into the 

 cellar, and left until the next spring. Now a dif- 

 ficult question arose. The Potatoes from the 

 strongest hills were larger on the average 

 than those from the least productive hills. It 

 would be expected, therefore, that they would 

 yield more, because our other experiments 

 generally showed that large tubers are more 

 productive than small ones. To eliminate 

 these difficulties, the following plan was 

 adopted: We took the two sacks of each variety, 

 that is the best and the poorest hills, and picked 

 out the largest from each, and cut these to single 

 eyes. Sometimes these two potatoes were of the 

 same size. But whether they were or not, single 

 eye cutting did not differ much in size, because, 

 as a rule, the larger the tuber of a given variety 

 the larger will be the numter of its eyes. We 

 then planted the single eyes of each of these 

 tubers in a short row by themselves, and labeled 

 the one test tuters from best hill, White Star, 

 and the other test tubers from smallest hill. 

 White Star, etc. Next we picked out the smallest 

 tubers from the same hills, and planted these in 

 the same way. 



In the fall the crop was dug, each hill being 

 put by itself, and the same collections made for 

 another year, and in ISS^ the same experiment 

 was repeated. In the fall of this year Potatoes 

 rotted badly, and we were unable to make the 

 selections. We therefore waited until the fol- 

 lowing year then we made the same kind of sel- 

 ections from all the varieties we were testing, 8.3 

 in number. The results of all these tests show 

 that the tubers from the most productive hill 

 yielded most in every trial. What is still more 

 striking, the .yield of the smallest tuber from the 

 most productive hill was more than that of the 

 largest tuter from the least productive hill. This 

 furnishes the proof of the experiment, tecause 

 all our other experiments go to show, that if the 

 vigor of the two hills had been the same the 

 larger tuter would have yielded more than the 

 smaller, whereas it actually yielded con.siderahly 

 less. The figures show that the tubers from the 

 largest hills yielded on the average, calculated 

 on this single eye method, something more than 

 38 bushels per acre more than those from the 

 least productive hills. 



We may fairly assume that had the yield of 

 the best hills been compared with that of the 

 average hills, the difference would have teen 

 half as great, or about IH bushels per acre. We 

 have this much then to pay for the trouble of 

 selecting the seed, added to the prospect that 

 the Potatoes will increase in productiveness 

 from year to year. 



When Potatoes are not dug by horse power the 

 increased trouble recpiired to gather seed Pot- 

 atoes from the most productive hills is very 

 slight. Simply have a man walk along each row 

 with a bag hung over his shoulder, and gat' er 

 each strikingly productive hill. I would advise 

 to gather only those hills that have produced a 

 large number of tubers of good size, and uniform 

 shape, and very few small ones. The.se seed 

 potatoes had better be stored in a cool cellar, 

 where they will not sprout. But some will say 

 there is no use of taking this trouble, because 

 when one variet.v runs out we can buy new ones. 

 Yes, but can you afford to let a variety run out on 



