POPULAR GARDENING. 



October, 



About Some of the Newer Vegeta- 

 bles and Fruits. 



SAMUEL MILLER, MONTGOMERY CO., MO. 



As early in the spring as I could I planted 

 seed of Maule's Early Ripe.Landreth's Extra 

 Early, and Alaska Peas. They were planted 

 in the same hour and in same row. Alaska 

 and Landreth's Extra Early ripened about 

 the same time, and are as early as a Pea can 

 ripen; both productive and good. Maule's 

 Early Ripe was fully one week later, but a 

 most excellent one. When a new Pea is 

 sent out the packet should state the height 

 of the vine. I have just now the Perpetual 

 Pea six feet high, with fruit and blossoms. 



Melons. On the same day we planted on 

 top in hot^bed, seeds of Orange, Maule's Early 

 Ripe and Landreth's Extra Early, and Green 

 and Gold. The sods with the plants (three 

 In a sod) were set out when the ground 

 became warm. At the same time I planted 

 seeds of the same in the open ground. On 

 August 2(1, I took in one Melon of each of 

 the above, all ripe, with no gain in earliness 

 of either, except that the Maule was a little 

 over ripe, giving it perhaps a few days 

 ahead. But in quality it falls below all the 

 others, in fact, some of the coming ones 

 must be better or it will be discarded. Land- 

 reth's is so much like Phinney's Early, that 

 not one in ten would distinguish it from that 

 variety. It has, however, a thicker rind, 

 with the llesh a little paler. 



The Orange is too well known to need a 

 description, and to my taste is of the best. 

 But when it comes to beauty and excellence 

 combined, the Green and Gold takes the 

 lead of all I have yet met with. Medium 

 size, sliglitly oval, dark green outside, with 

 blotches of fawn color when ripe. Flesh 

 yellow as gold, sweet as sugar, and very 

 pleasant. Seed white, with a pink shade 

 around the edges. These different varieties 

 are planted so distant from each other that 

 they cannot well be mixed. 



Plums. The Marianna. This has fruited 

 freely with me this season, and one tree will 

 do me. It is no earlier than the Wild Goose, 

 not quite as large, and inferior in quality. 

 It is also more liable to be destroyed by the 

 curculio. Fruit of the purple-leaved Plum 

 has been received. It is a beautiful fruit 

 and of excellent quality. Round, dark red, 

 about an inch and one-eighth in diameter. 



Butler Plum. August 4th I received a 

 very handsome Plum with the above name; 

 a seedling of the Wild Goose, about the size 

 of Marianna, and resembles that variety 

 closely in appearance, but of much better 

 quality. It will be two weeks later than 

 Wild Goose, which will make it valuable. 



The Loulsa Plum will now come in when 

 the latter is over. This is fully as large 

 as Wild Goose, darker in color, and much 

 better in quality, in fact it is the best 

 native Plum I know of. Originated on the 

 fruit farm of Mr. Scribner, some twenty 

 years ago; but was never brought out with 

 the trump of fame as most new fruits are, 

 hence its scarcity. I have none to sell. 



IVlarketing Dried Fruits. 



In an article on this subject, the California 

 Fruit Grower strongly condemns the prac- 

 tice of sending one's stock of good, dried 

 fruit to the market in old pillow-cases, bed- 

 ticks, tlour sacks, grain bags, and what not, 

 thus depreciating its value very materially. 



The same article goes on to say, that all 

 consideration of the commission-man apart, 

 the producer cannot afford to make this mis- 

 take of packages. It makes a loss outright. 

 The fruit will not sell as promptly, nor at 

 as good prices in irregular, shabby packages 

 as it would in clean, new, uniform ones, and 

 the difference in price will be more than the 

 cost of new packages. Buyers will infallibly 

 pass by your lot, as long as they can find 

 other goods in more attractive order. 



No wholesale merchant wants any such 

 packages piled in his store, and no first-class 

 retailer would care to open them on sale in 

 his liright windows. If the buyer takes your 

 lot at all, it is at a price to pay him for new 

 packages and the cost of transferring, even 

 if he stops at that. His business and aim 

 is to use every art of his own, and every cir- 

 cumstance of the quality and appearance of 

 goods to cheapen the price to him, just as it 

 is in your province to employ all skill and 

 taste to make him pay the uttermost price. 



Bright, clean, uniform packages make 

 that favorable, first impression, which is the 

 keynote to nearly every deal in articles of 

 food, and, in proportion to that impression, 

 will be your own confidence in standing for 

 a price, and his willingness to pay it. To 

 have to apologize for goods for any reason, 

 is a bad beginning for a trade. Your buyer 

 knows it as well as you, and will use it for 

 all there is in it to his advantage. 



For not over % of a cent per pound on the 

 fruit, you can get clean, bright, strong, uni- 

 form sacks, which will make your goods 

 worth several times % of a cent per pound 

 more than the pillow-case, fiour sack style. 

 Or you can have them bo.xed by capable 

 packers at a cost of three-fourths to one cent 

 per pound for boxes and packing, plain work 

 and a proportionate higlier price if grading 

 and facing are done. For common fruit 

 only, such as sun-dried, unpeeled Peaches 

 and Apricots, use burlap or grain sacks. 

 For all dark fruits and evaporated or other 

 fine goods use white cotton fruit sacks. Of 

 the latter, two standard sizes are made, viz.: 

 30 by 30 inches, and 30 by 33 inches, the lat- 

 ter costing }{ of a cent less than the for- 

 mer. Fruit in white cotton sacks looks 

 brighter, and contains no hairy lint, such as 

 comes from using burlaps. 



Important to Tree Planters. 



.J. N. STEARNS, KALAMAZOO CO.. MICH. 



As it is very desirable to get all the growth 

 possible the first season, the proper planting 

 of trees is very important. By the usual 

 mode of planting, a hole is dug, just large 

 enough to crowd the roots into it, the soil 

 shoveled in, stamping the roots down in a 

 mass at the bottom of the hole, and after 

 the soil is replaced, it is tramped solid and 

 smooth on the surface, which, if it remains 

 dry for some time, is almost sure death to 

 the tree. If the planter thinks it necessary 

 to water, he turns the water on this firmed 

 surface, which only serves to make it the 

 harder, and is worse than no watering at all. 



To illustrate the proper way to plant, (we 

 say proper, for by this mode, if the tree has 

 the requisite vitality, we never loose a tree,) 

 no matter how dry the season, and we plant 

 thousands of trees and plants every season : 

 If the whole ground planted has not been 

 thoroughly fitted by deep plowing, (and 

 on stiff land subsoil plowing is of great 

 benefit), the hole for the tree should be fully 

 as large again, as would be required to 

 simply take the roots in. All bruised roots 

 should be cut off with a sharp knife, and 

 the top headed back fully more in propor- 

 tion, than roots cut off by digging. 



The soil should be sifted in carefully, so 

 as to allow each root to remain in its natural 

 position, just as it grew. When the roots 

 are just covered, and the hole about two- 

 thirds filled, tramp it firmly and turn in a 

 pail of water, allowing it to soak away 

 around the roots before putting in the bal- 

 ance of the soil; I consider this the important 

 part of the planting. It will pay if you are 

 planting one or a thousand trees, even if you 

 have to haul the water five miles, especially 

 with such seasons as the last three. 



This furnishes the requisite moisture to 

 give the tree an early start. The past season 

 we had no rain to wet down to the roots of 



newly transplanted trees for three months 

 after planting. The result was, thousands 

 of trees died, and many that barely lived, 

 succumbed the first winter, while those 

 planted as above, made a healthy growth. 



In no case should the soil be firmed that 

 is put in after the water has soaked away, 

 but leave it loose and keep it so by frequent 

 stirring with cultivator or hoe. If watering 

 is considered necessary, dig a hole down to 

 the roots and turn in water, allow it to soak 

 away and then draw the soil back. This 

 plan is equally applicable to planting Straw- 

 berries, Cabbages, etc. 



Fall Stirring Destructive to Garden 

 Pests. 



N. Y. L., ADAMS CO., ILL. 



The gardener finds so much that must be 

 done in the spring, that it is best to do in 

 the fall all that may be done at this season. 

 The ground may be Ijroken up in the fall, 

 and by doing tliis we reduce the amount of 

 spring work, increase the solvent action of 

 the frost, increase nitrification largely, and 

 what is of even more importance, lead to 

 the destruction of garden pests. 



Many of these pests spend the winter in the 

 pupa; state, near the surface of the ground, 

 or the eggs are deposited here. By breaking 

 up the ground in the fall, and stirring it once 

 or twice afterwards, we expose the pupai or 

 eggs, which may or may not lead to their 

 destruction through the action of frost. 

 Thus the cut worm larva?, unprotected, sur- 

 vives a temperature of 30° below zero; but 

 other larva3 are certainly destroyed Ijy expos- 

 ing them to the severities of the winter. 



Fall stirring accomplishes far more, how- 

 ever, by bringing the larv<B where the birds 

 can get them. In the late fall and early 

 spring the birds are hard driven for food, 

 and will devour almost incredible numbers 

 of these larvae it where they can be found. 

 It is often well to call in the pigs to aid the 

 birds, as the hog is truly omnivorous, and 

 larvae are a dainty to him. The white grub 

 of the May beetle often gives the gardener 

 much trouble. Their favorite abodes are 

 pastures and meadows, and where they are 

 once established in the grass, the only prac- 

 ticable thing to do is to put all the hogs 

 in the fields that can be had, in the fall. The 

 swine get very fat, and, if there is enotigh of 

 them, make clean work of the white grub, 

 so also of the cut worm. The blue bird and 

 the robin, especially, are partial to a diet of 

 cut worms, and they come early in the 

 spring. The ground should be broken up 

 in the fall, and stirred at least once, two 

 weeks later, and be again stirred in the 

 spring as soon as the work can be done. 



The wire worm is another serious pest. 

 In many places it is the worst of all. It does 

 not injure Peas, Beans, or Buckwheat, but 

 these are the only considerable crop of the 

 garden or farm that it may not injure 

 seriously. They pupate in an earthen 

 cocoon, and if brought within reach, the birds 

 and swine will make short work of them. 



The Squash vine root borer pupates in a 

 rough cocoon of earth about the roots of the 

 plants it has destroyed; so does the Tomato 

 worm and the Radish fiy (likely). The striped 

 Cucumber beetle pupates in the earth dur- 

 ing the winter, and so do many other enemies 

 of the gardener or fruit grower. Some of 

 these may not be eaten by birds or swine, 

 but nearly all are, and there are yet other 

 friends whose elflcient aid may be had by 

 bringing the pests on or near the surface. 

 Thus, the skunk delights in a feast of the 

 pupa? of the Tomato worm. As these pupae 

 measure three inches in length, a skunk 

 having the range of a stirred plat infested 

 by them, ought not to hanker much after 

 their nearly every day fare of eggs. 



If we stir the ground in the fall, we must 

 first clear up the rubbish and ashes left on 



