POPULAR GARDENING 



AND FRUIT GROWING. 



"AOOUaiS NOT NATURE, SHE OATH DONE HEB PART; DO THOU BUT THINE."— Miltos. 



Vol. IV. 



ISrOVEIt^BEia, 1888. 



No. 2. 



It seems only yesterday Summer was here! 

 The landscape was green and the sunlight undimmedl 



The flowers were garbed In their gaudiest gear. 

 And happiest harmonies all the birds hymned. 



But now hath the Maple a gold that It spurns. 

 And cast in the dust as the season draws nigh, 



That ushers in Death to the year, and returns 

 To earth all the beauty begotten to die. 



—J, D. Vanderpoel. 



" Protection " is the main issue in tlie garden 

 now. 



Why Should This Be? Mr. Idell, the New 

 York Coraiiiission Merchant, tells us that Black 

 Currants were a scarce fruit in their market 

 during the past season. 



Cause Enough. On the kill or cure principle, 

 a Nova Scotia reader tried boring a small hole in 

 the trunk of a Plum tree, and tilling it with 

 paraflne oil, as a cure for black knot. Now he 

 reports that the tree is dying. 



The grand old Elms of New England seem to 

 fill a recent writer with alarm, because occasion- 

 ally one has been known in a storm to topple 

 over without a moments warning. We have 

 lived all our days near a city that can boast of 

 thousands of large shade trees, and have yet to 

 hear of the loss of Ufe from a falling tree. 



Next Tear's World's Fair. AWorld's Fair 

 of great magnitude will be held from May 5th, 

 to Oct. 31st, 1S89, in Paris, France, and Congress 

 has appropriated $250,000 to meet the expenses 

 of our exhibitors. Horticulture is to have a 

 department of its own, and this we trust will be 

 well represented, in view of the importance of 

 the fruit exporting industry to Americans. 

 Particulars may be obtained of Commission Gen- 

 eral W. B. Franklin, 35 Wall St., New York. 



Pliney W. Reasoneb. The terrible Yellow 

 Fever which swept over Florida during the past 

 summer, carried off this brilliant young horti- 

 culturist on September 27th, at his home in 

 Manitee. Mr. Reasoner was but 25 years old, and 

 had by his business enterprise, as the head of the 

 Royal Palm Nurseries, and as an industrious cor- 

 respondent of the horticultural press, secured a 

 position as a horticulturist quite rare for one of 

 his years. He had served the horticulture of his 

 section well as an officer of several of the great 

 expositions in the South in recent years. Mr. 

 Reasoner was a native of Illinois, but had been 

 a resident of Florida since 1881. His untimely 

 death will be widely deplored. 



Late Quotations for Apples in English 

 Markets. Under date of Oct. 2.5, we are advised 

 by DeLong, Mayer & Co., Apple exporters, that 

 the demand for flrst-class winter fruit is good, 

 and that prices since the first of the month have 

 had a tendency to rise, which they believe will 

 continue for a time. The receipts at the various 

 ports were on the 15th, inst, 59,000, on the 22nd, 

 inst, 75,000, while on the 2.5th they were only .5,225 

 barrels. The prices at Liverpool tor the latter 

 date, per barrel, was for Baldwins, $2.73 to $3.33, 

 Greenings, $2.67 to $2.91, Newtown Pippins, p.-SS 

 to $5.2], Huhbardsous, $2.3« to $2.(>fi, Wagners, 

 $2.90 to $3.19, Tallman Sweets, $2..55 to $2.67, 

 Northern Spies, $2.67 to $2.91. 



Pass them By. The men who have recently 

 turned up in Buffalo and other large cities and 

 towns, and are soliciting trade for supjilying or 

 moving large shade trees with a patent tree- 

 mover which they exhibit, had better be left 

 alone. The writer of this recently put on the air 

 of a probable customer and interviewed one of 

 these chaps. He was ready to handle any tree 

 under 16 inches diameter of trunk, and warrant 

 it to grow without marring its beauty by prun- 

 ing so much as a single branch. Not only that, 

 but he claimed he could move them as well in 

 mid-summer as any time, and without the wilt- 



ing of a leaf. His terms for transplanting large 

 trees and warranting them to grow was 

 from $25 to $35 apiece, payable two thirds down 

 and the balance within a year if the tree grew. 

 Of course any one who will make the pretension 

 that this fellow freely did, is unreliable and not 

 fit to be employed. Moreover he never expects 

 to call for the contingent one third of the price, 

 its the two thirds down that he is after. The 

 owner will keep the one third, and it should at least 

 pay for removing the dead trees which the two 

 thirds procured. 



Intebestino Potato Culture. Last spring, 

 Mr. E. S. Carman, of the Rural New Yorker, 

 undertook to show what he knew about growing 

 large yields of Potatoes, by his trench method 

 of culture. The land chosen for the test had, for 

 12 years, been devoted to Potatoes, and which in 

 that entire time had not received over 50 tons of 

 horse manure per acre. On April 20th, the seed, 

 already sprouted, was put into trenches, which 

 to begin with were eight inches deep, but which 

 had received a scattering of Commercial Potato 

 Fertilizer, at the rate of 800 pounds per acre, in 

 the bottom, and in this, two inches of soil for a 

 seed bed. The trenches were three feet apart 

 from center to center, the seed pieces, ha\'iug at 

 least three strong eyes each, were placed at one 

 foot apart in the row. Over the seed was scat- 

 tered another lot of fertilizer equalling in 

 amount that first applied, and also some sul- 

 phur to repel wire worm. Then the trenches 

 were filled even full of soil. Shallow level cul- 

 ture prevailed throughout the season. On Sep- 

 tember 28th, the Potatoes of which there were 

 three varieties, were dug in the presence of a 

 committee of five reliable men, who reported on 

 the result as follows: Variety No. i yielded at 

 the rate of 644 bushels, No. 2, 1076 bushels, and 

 No. 3, (which was a comparative failure, owing 

 to the ravages of the flea beetle in the growing 

 season,) 276 bushels per acre. The test is to be 

 repeated on a large scale next year. 



New Dwarf French Carinas. 



PETER HENDERSON. JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS, N. J. 



These, introduced first into this country 

 from the establishment of M. Crozy, of 

 Lyons, France, three years ago, are proving 

 to be some of the grandest plants ever intro- 

 duced into our gardens. 



This new class differs from the old Cannas 

 (which are mainly.used in summer, for the 

 tropical effects produced by their grand foli- 

 age), in growing only from two to four feet 

 in height, blooming continually from mid- 

 summer until October. The flower spikes 

 are from six to 12 inches in length, ranning 

 through all the shades of crimson, scarlet, 

 carmine, orange, and yellow, many of them 

 so spotted and mottled as to resemble some 

 species of Orchids. 



The flowers, gorgeous in themselves, are 

 greatly enhanced by the rich tropical foliage 

 by which they are enveloped; but these new 

 Cannas are still expensive, and will con- 

 tinue to be for a year or two yet, until stocks 

 for propagation can be secured. 



The plants produce seed freely, but un- 

 fortunately the bulk of it is imperfectly 

 fertilized. The seed, to all outward ajipear- 

 ance, is plump and sound until cut open, 

 when it is found that only about one in 

 twenty shows the seed germ to be perfect. 

 Out of 10,000 seeds that we imported last 

 year, only about .500 plants were produced, 

 but among these we have obtained some 

 splendid sorts, surpassing even the named 

 plants that were imported at the same time 

 at a very high price. 



Canna seed should not be started in this 

 latitude, even in the greenhouse or hot^bed, 

 until the middle of May. At that season 

 (if the germ is perfect) they will vegetate, and 

 grow to make strong flowering plants in (iO 

 days from time of sowing. 



Some Errors in the Garden. 



WM. F. BASSETT, ATLANTIC CO., N. J. 



" Squash BoREii.s." Walking with Mr. T. 

 Greiner recently in his garden, in Monmouth 

 Co., N. J., in which are conducted numerous 

 careful experiments, we came to some Melon 

 vines which had wilted down and were 

 dying, as so many of this family do. Then 

 the old theory of Squash borers came up for 

 discussion, and a comparison of experience 

 showed, that neither of us had ever been 

 able to find any indications of borers in such 

 cases, although we had repeatedly made 

 careful examination, and on various occa- 

 sions it was determined to make a thorough 

 search once more,and the vines were carefully 

 cutaway in slices, with but the same result. 

 Various insects were found around and 

 under the vine, but they were evidently 

 brought there by dampness and the already 

 diseased condition of the plant. 



The difficulty appeared to be more in the 

 bark just at the surface of the ground, and 

 we pronounced it fungus, but to make sure, 

 a section of a vine was mailed to Prof. Scrib- 

 ner; he reported the disease fungoid, but 

 says it is not yet much understood, although 

 the department sent an agent to South Car- 

 olina last year to investigate. It seems 

 hardly credible that the whole horticultural 

 world should accept such an error for 30 

 years, but it goes to show that, in the absence 

 of any better explanation, plausible theories 

 are often taken up, echoed and re-echoed 

 without proper investigation. 



Wire Worms and Potatoes. The wire 

 worm theory, as causing scabby Potatoes, 

 is another preposterous idea which was taken 

 up by some editors who are generally sound. 

 Several correspondents of an agricultural 

 paper advocated this view a few years ago, 

 and the editors endorsed them. I wrote an 

 article at the time showing conclusively that 

 it could not be wire worm, because they are 

 never found in our soil to any extent, and 

 that they invariably do their eating by bor- 

 ing a small hole. No notice whatever was 

 taken of this communication. 



Soon after, in digging early Potatoes, in 

 land that was wholly dried otit, so that wire 

 worms could not exist, if they had ever been 

 there, some were found with incipient scab, 

 and I sent a specimen by mail with a com- 

 munication on the subject, which also went 

 into the waste basket, and some lime after 

 the editor stated that there were two kinds 

 of scabby Potatoes— one produced by wire 

 worms and one by fungus. 



A certain amount of guess work and crude 

 theory, almost necessarily attends the in- 

 vestigation of many questions in horticul- 

 ture before their nature is understood, and 

 the publication of these serves a useful pur- 

 pose in directing attention and farther 

 inquiry to the subject; butthose whose pride 

 of opinion is too gi-eat ever to acknowledge 

 an error, should be very careful how they 

 commit themselves on such a matter. 



