12 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



October, 



Nasturtiums. 



Oh tire flowers! how I worship you. 



Tour beauty charms anew, 

 I love to see your bright-flame leaves, 



Your rich, dari£ garnet hue. 

 O fire flowers! bloom for me, oh bloom! 



I love you well and true: 

 I'd gather you at night and mom, 



Aiid then rejoice anew. 



—Iinogene Eaton. 



It Is not winter yet. but that sweet time 



In autumn when the first cold days are past; 

 A weelc ago. the leaves were hoar with rime. 

 And some have dropped before the north wind's 

 blast; 

 But the mild hours are bacis, and at midnoon. 

 The day hath all the genial warmth of Juue. 



Henry Timrod. 



A blushing Rose, as Summer days withdrew. 

 Drooped, by degrees, its gentle, queenly head. 



And, when its beauty vanished, life went too, 

 The Rose was dead. 



—Anon. 



Number One, Volume IV. 



ChryBantliemuni season approaches. 



The time to renew your subscription. 



Nopolitios for ExperimentStationwork. 



We prefer fall planting always for Beech, 

 Birch, and Larch. 



Lettuce now promptly set in the frames should 

 be right for Christmas. 



A cold pit is an unequaled place for uplifted 

 plants for a month yet to come. 



Fresh October air in liberal volume Is every- 

 thing now to a stock of pot plants. 



Next month we will describe our superior, new 

 unpatented cistern Alter giving illustrations. 



Fanay plants should now be on the make for 

 spring bloom; no danger of having soil too rich. 



Move the tender plants towards shelter; one 

 severe frost pinch may cause irreparable injury. 



A combination hard to surpass, for table 

 decoration, is furnished by Golden Rod, Bar- 

 berry, Sumac and Virginia Creeper. 



The cool season in western New York has 

 suited Jaciiueminot Roses well, leading to much 

 bloom on vigorous plants all summer. 



A question to put to your nurseryman, " Do 

 you have Quack Grass V " If he has the weed, 

 change to a nurseryman who has it not. 



A Floral Elephant. At the Buffalo Interna- 

 tional Exposition, Mr. Wm. Scott, showed a well 

 formed elephant two feet in height made of flow- 

 ers. 



Timely Bulb Questions, Are the bulbs in the 

 earth y We mean Hyacinths, Tulips, and other 

 hardy Dutch ones. Are the bulbs out of the 

 earth V We mean Gladiolus, Tuberose, Tigridia 

 Begonia, Oxalis, etc. 



Chestnuts. Of the score or more of Sweet 

 Chestnut trees which contribute towards mak- 

 ing the name "Woodbanks" appropriate to the 

 editor's experiment farm at La Salle,N.Y., nearly 

 all are now heavily loaded with fruit. 



The cooler weather now exactly suits the 

 Celery crop, October bemg indeed its best month. 

 The earthing up must therefore not be neglected, 

 such as is well advanced may go to trenches by 

 the end of the month for winter use. 



Neighbor John Burdette residing near "Wood- 

 banks," from six young Bartlett Pear trees of 

 four seasons strong growth, recently gathered 

 three and two-thirds barrels of f ruit,which sold at 

 upwards of twelve dollars, or an average of $2.10 

 per tree. 



Painting Flower Fots. While for the green- 

 house I would strongly advise against this, yet 

 for the window, as the air is so dry in most rooms 

 as to cause a great degree of evaporation, the 

 plantain painted pots will uotdry out as quickly, 

 and the pots look better.— i;. K. Hcxfard. 



Bemember this now: those who fail with all 

 other window plants in the winter, may succeed 

 with potted Hyacinths; no other flowers are 

 sweeter or more satisfactory. Any seedsman 

 will be glad to furnish the bulbs at a small price. 

 As tor management, directions have recently 

 been given in these columns. 



If one would know something of the prevalent 

 lack of information concerning native American 

 trees let him exhibit at any fair, some of the 

 ripened "Cucumbers" with their bright red fruit 

 protruding through the slitted sides, of the pods 

 of the Cucumber Tree, Magnolia acuminata and 

 note the question, "What are they" numerously 

 asked by the visitors. 



The White Jackman's Clematis. Comment is 

 made in a foreign journal on the peculiar char- 

 acteristics of this hybrid. The ordinary C. 

 Jackmanii, as is well known, produces its flowers 

 in the summer and later, on the young wood, 

 while the white ofCspring blooms early in the 

 season on wood of the preceding year, being 

 more or less irregular in character, and again in 

 late summer on young wood. 



A Use for Old Hose, Last spring having some 

 young street trees to stake, I pressed inU^ service 

 some old discarded garden hose, to prevent their 

 chating against the stakes used. This I did by 

 cutting the hose in short lengths, and stringing 

 these upon the wire used for tying them as shown 

 in the pencil sketches enclosed. It worked very 

 well and I offer the idea to such other readers as 

 might care to adopt it. — C. W. Gainea., Merri^ 

 mack Co., New Hamijshire. 



Pruning Cherry Trees, If Mr. Caywood's 

 (Ulster Co., N. Y.) planting of Cherry trees is 

 rightly reported, he put out 140 trees at six feet 

 apart each way, and as they grew, or when the 

 branches interfered with each other, or with 

 cultivation, they have been and are being cut 

 back according to their needs. While this course 

 does not accord with general practice yet he is 

 reported as saying that an average income of two 

 dollars per tree a season has been given. 



Window boxes for early spring, can at this 

 time be prepared for presenting a pleasing ap- 

 pearance, by filling with good soil and planting 

 bulbs of Scilla (blue) and Snowdrops (white) to- 

 gether in each box. These are among the earli- 

 est spring flowers, and with a few Tulips or Hy- 

 acinths, also, in the boxes, one may have flowers 

 long before it would do to put out ordinary 

 flowering plants. The cost is not so great as to 

 put this arrangement beyond the means of 

 nearly everyone. 



At this writing (Sept. 11,) we are not greatly 

 encouraged at the appearance of over iOO potted 

 Strawberry plants set out a month ago in exper- 

 iment beds. The weather was rather dry at 

 planting time and has been so ever since. While a 

 good watering had the effect of saving all the 

 plants set, still they have not started into the 

 strong growth, which we deem essential to be 

 made at this season for securing a fair show of 

 fruit next season; however two months of grow- 

 ing weather is yet before them. 



Our correspondent, Frank Aikin, Macon Co., 

 III., sends these notes: I have this season fruited 

 Concord, Moore's Early, Worden and Pocklington 

 Grapes. Moore's Early ripened one week before 

 the Concord, with fully as large a yield, The 

 Worden fruited for the first time, this year, and 

 also ripened before the Concord, and is better in 

 quaUty than either the latter or Moore's Early. 

 The Pocklington ripened later than Concord, and 

 is some better. Concords are selling here this 

 season at from 3!^ to 1 cts per pound. 



The Flowering Ash or Manna. Of this orna- 

 mental tree Mr. A. D. Webster has the following 

 in the Garden : The Manna Ash resembles the 

 common Ash (Fraximts urims), but is smaller, 

 more compact; even when young it blooms 

 freely, bearing large plume-like panicles of frag- 

 rant almost white flowers during May and June, 

 this being its most beautiful period. A good 

 somewhat damp soil seems to give the best 

 growth. Propagation is usually done by graft- 

 ing. Manna for medical use is obtained from this 

 tree, chiefly in Italy. 



Bubach Strawberry. Mr. Theodore Wilson, 

 Marion Co., Ind., writes of the above strawberry 

 as follows: After growing and marketing more 

 than 3,000 bushels of Strawberries of the lead- 

 ing varieties in the last ten years, I consider the 

 Bubach the best berry to grow for market. It 

 is all a grower could desire, and I predict for it 

 a bright future. At the Ind. State Horticultur- 

 lU meeting, in Richmond, many of the most pro- 

 minent fruit growers there, placed it at the bead 



of the list of good varieties. One of the largest 

 growers in Ohio, N. Ohmer, says it has no rival. 



The Kieffer Fear. Growers continue to be 

 divided as to the value of this Pear. One writer 

 makes out that it is worthy of general cultiva- 

 tion, another that it has a most insipid flavor, 

 one grower claiming non-productiveness and 

 some one else will say that in point of yield it ex- 

 ceeds aU others. Not anyone of these views is 

 aU right or all wrong. The fact is that in some 

 parts of the country, the central fruit belt for 

 instance, the Kieffer possesses value, finding its 

 chief use for canning, also selling well in markets 

 where appearance rather than quality is sought. 

 The tree is not absolutely blight proof. 



Could weU be Patterned After. The rail- 

 roads of England offer prizes to their station 

 agents for the best and most economically kept 

 depot yard, adorned with ornamental and flow- 

 ering plants. Among these in our own country, 

 the Erie road is noted for the attention given the 

 subject of station yard ornaments in this respect; 

 on some of the divisions the company have 

 erected green-houses for the purpose of plant- 

 ing beds at the depots and yards, and this system 

 is being extended each season. It might prove 

 profitable in many ways, to other roads if they 

 should adopt this plan more generally. 



Hyacinths in Glasses. An Englishman reports 

 the following method of managing them by 

 which fine results are obtained: FiU the glasses 

 with sand containing a small portion of vegeta- 

 ble matter but not enough to cause decomposi- 

 tion or a foul odor; then pour on boiled water 

 after it has cooled, until the sand is full, leaving 

 room for the bulb on the top. As boiled water 

 remains pure and there is Uttle evaporation, but 

 small additions of water are required. Some who 

 never succeeded in growing anything but puny 

 specimens with poor foliage, unable to develop 

 fine flowers, might, by this course secure blooms 

 almost equalling pot grown ones. 



On Bulb Culture. "Notes on the Cultivation of 

 Dutch and Cape Bulbs, by Ant. Boozen & Sons of 

 Holland," is a recent work which forms quite a 

 complete directory of cultivated bulbs, hardy and 

 tender, together with methods of treatment of 

 insects, diseases and remedies ; a portion of this 

 book is devoted to a useful list of both Ameri- 

 can and English common names of bulbs, in con- 

 nection also with the botanical terms. The 

 author remarks in the pieface, that the only 

 natural advantages which Holland possesses over 

 other countries in rearing bulbs, are the constant- 

 ly moist atmosphere and light sandy soil. Equally 

 good soil is obtainable everywhere, he further 

 remarks and only a Uttle care with strict adher- 

 ence to their instructions is needed to produce 

 most gratifying results. 



What is to follow Peachesl The Peach grow- 

 ers of Delaware and Maryland are troubled con- 

 cerning what they shall raise after the yellows 

 has killed the Peach trees which are going fast. 

 We can pass along a hint on this point, which is 

 to say that here in Western New York the fruit 

 men planted Pears after Peaches, and also went 

 more into general small fruit growing. Where 

 Pears were thus planted eight or more years ago. 



Discarded Oardcn Hose used in Stalting Trees. 



the results, especially in the case of Bartlette, 

 have been extremely satisfactory. Take it this 

 season for instance, the Pear crop has been very 

 heavy with a demand for Bartletts at $3.50 to $4 

 per barrel, far ahead of the supply. One Pear 

 canning concern in Rochester, N. Y., would alone 

 have taken 50,000 bushels of this variety at that 

 rate. In this case all the fruit is prepared for the 

 London, England, market. 



Baspberry Cane Bust. As this disease in some 

 sections is doing considerable damage we give a 

 summary of the remedial action proposed by the 

 Department of Agriculture Pathologist in the 

 last report: For prevention, train the plants so 

 that plenty of sunlight and air circulates about 

 the canes. Plant five feet apart in rows six feet 

 apart, and cultivate both ways. No canes that 

 have been killed by the fungus which causes this 



