1889. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



lOI 



g-rowth, filling? any g'ap in a single season. There 

 is also this ad^•antage that it bears large quanti- 

 ties of berries that the birds like, and are thus 

 kept otT from our Kasiiberries. 



KmriT Thkes for Ohnament. Your recom- 

 mend of fruit trees for a flue lawn is judicious. 

 There are no handsomer trees, either in flowers, 

 fruit, form, or color than English Cherries, and 

 some of the Peai-s. I recommend the Buflfum 

 Pear for an avenue or drive way. Dwarf Apples 

 make nice groups of large shrubbery, so do 

 dwarf Pears, especially Howell's. Bear in mind 

 that no foliage in a\itumn colors more finely also 

 than Pears. Can you conceive a handsomer 

 picture than a Montmorency or Morelo Cherry 

 tree hanging full of fruit ? 



Unworthy New Frihts. If you do any 

 better service to horticultnro than tn ^rjuplch 

 the new sorts of 

 fruit that do not 

 equal the old, in other 

 words,are'not needed, 

 you will be wise in- 

 deed. The torment of 

 fruit gi'owers now is 

 to sort out. To test 

 all the new candidates 

 is a serious tax. I 

 have long, felt the 

 fact that many very 

 excellent horticultur- 

 ists are incapable of 

 analyzing the claims 

 of a new fruit. They 

 sometimes are too ex- 

 citable and enthusi- 

 astic. Others have 

 not nicety of taste. I 

 have friends who 

 cannot tell a Sheldon 

 Pear from the Bon 

 Chretien, e.xcept that 

 one is more juicy. 



The Jefferson, 

 gcethe, and other 

 Grapes. Mr. Goff's 

 endorsement of the 

 Jeffei'son is none too 

 strong. Grow it even 

 if you get its fruit 

 only in the best Grape 

 years. It is delicious 

 even if not fully ripe. 

 I add a note for 

 Guetbe: I have always 

 found it too late for 

 us; but this year I 

 left it out after 

 several fi-cezes, such 

 as had spoiled many 

 sorts, like Concord; 

 then picketl it, and 

 now in January, it is 

 delicious. My three 

 sorts now in best con- 

 dition are Herbert, 

 [Ona, and Goithe. 



A New (iuvDiOLUs. Among my seedling Glad- 

 iolus I have one that holds its flowers up like 

 Tulips,and unlike other Gladiolus the corolla cup 

 is uniform in petals, or nearly so. I shall care- 

 fully propagate it. I have also two double sorts. 

 This is a grand flower to experiment with. 



Hyhrid Beans. Among my cross bred Beans 

 I have a succulent sort, that goes all to pod, and 

 is solid as large around as one's Qnger. The 

 problem is to get seed enough to propagate it. 

 It is delicious eating. I have white and golden 

 pods eight inches long, and nine Beans to a pod. 

 Some pods are three inches in circumference. 



White and Ked Currants. A reference in 

 your January ninnber to red Currants, reminds 

 me that few people know the advantages of white 

 Currants. They are better in quality to start 

 with, sweeter and richer. The worms know this 

 and attack the bushes more readily than they do 

 the Beds, which is the only drawback. But the 

 birds mistake white Currants for gi'een ones and 

 rarely touch one. They will hang on, gi-owing 

 betterand undisturbed, a month beyond the Beds. 



Montmorency and Dwarf iherries. Speak 

 even more strongly than you have of Montmor- 

 ency Cherry. It is grand every way; late, hard.y, 

 prolific, tine quality. Dwarf trees of Early 

 Kichmond I have long grown to great advan- 

 tage. Dwarf Cherry trees can be easily covered 

 with mosquito netting against the birds. Two 

 or three trees will keep you in eating all sum- 

 mer. I ate my last Morellos in October, in 1888. 



AuoUT Wakdian Cases. Boys and girls should 

 resurrect the Wardian case. Nothing finer for 

 amusement or for instruction was ever popular- 

 ized. For window i)lants I have used to great 

 advantage a case half Wardian and half Wal- 

 tonian; that is, a large Wardian which could be 

 opened by doors at either end. You can in such 

 a case grow any greenhouse plants. 



How TO treat Kose Seed. In growing Boses 

 from seed I have had best success since following a 

 plan I somewhere saw suggested of putting the 

 seeds over winter in a bag and bur.vnng a few 

 inches in the ground. In the spring dig out and 

 sow them in a cold frame. In this way I succeed 

 in starting the seed readily. Plants will some- 

 times blossom the first season. 



Using Coal Ashes. You cannot say too much 

 in fin-nr of c.ini ;i<his ;is;i fertilizer for clay soils. 



THE NEW CHRYSANTHEMUM, MRS. ALPHEUS HARDY. 



Their office is mostly to open and loosen the soil 

 to the fertilizing effects of the air; but they work 

 wonders. As mulch for Raspberries, trees of all 

 sorts, and even Strawberiies they are superb. 

 On sandy soil 1 should say they would prove of 

 little use.— B. P. Powell, Oneida Co., N. Y. 



IMMER.S10N AS AN Insecticide. Have tried 

 plan of immersing plants to kill insects. I put a 

 Coleus under water 48 hours; result, the tips of 

 the plant are killed, but otherwise it is all right, 

 and so are the mealy bugs. It took off their 

 jackets and that seems to be all, but will try it 

 for scale.— James Front, Jeffermn Co., N. T. 



"Firm the Seed in the Soil." Good advice" 

 generally, but I made a failure of it in the first 

 season. A piece of ground having been prepared 

 for seed and moderately firmed with the feet; 

 Pansy seeds were sown in rows and pressed firmly 

 into the soil with the back of a narrow weeding- 

 hook. This left the seed in gutters ?4 of an inch 

 deep and slightly covered with earth. Now had 

 we not, following on this, had a heavy rain 

 which washed the ground and filled the gutters 

 with soil, burying the seeds too deep, all would 

 have been well, for another piece not so washed 

 came up nicely. Thus, to always be successful 

 with small seeds, care should be taken to have 

 the whole surface of seed bed, especially such as 

 ax'e exposed tn the weather, evenly firmed to 

 prevent such washing. — W. C. Jeunisim. 



Butting or Lapping Greenhouse Glass. 

 On page 84 you ask for reports on experience in 



butting instead of lapping glass. Have hiid butted 

 glass in use tor the last four years on a lean-to 

 40 feet long, the size of glass being iaxl.5 and the 

 broken glass from all causes has only been five 

 lights in that time. The firm of W. W. Green, 

 Son & Sayles have put up over 6,000 feet using 

 12x16 glass, all butted, being laid in white lead 

 mi.xed with whiting and spread with a Scollay 

 puttying bulb; it makes a tighter, lighter and to 

 my mind a stronger roof than lapping, for the 

 reason that the gla.ss has a bearing the whole 

 length on the bar, a thing it can't do in lapping 

 and using luitty, as the putty will work out by 

 freezing. In butting, with a little care to keep 

 the rafter straight, there are few lights but 

 what will make a nearly tight joint, and what 

 won't can go at the top or bottom; a man will 

 f;lnzc niorr than half as fast again by butting 

 and there will not be 

 half the drip from in- 

 side moisture as the 

 water has a clear 

 course to the bottom 

 of the roof.— J". Frost. 

 The New Gladio- 

 lus-Flowered Can- 

 nas. Mr. Henderson 

 does well to call at- 

 tention to these. I 

 have seen some fine 

 collections of them in 

 bloom, and consider 

 they are one of the 

 finest things lately 

 given to the horticult- 

 ural world. And not 

 only are they availa- 

 ble as out-door sum- 

 mer plants, but as 

 many of them are of 

 dwarf growth they 

 are also well adapted 

 for greenhouse dec- 

 orations in the winter. 

 — TFm. Falconer. 



Errors in the 

 Garden. The writer 

 of these is wrong in 

 saying there is no such 

 thing as a Squash vine 

 borer. I have often 

 [lulled up wilted 

 Cucumber vines and 

 cut away the stem 

 near the ground in 

 slices, and have nearly 

 always found the 

 borer in the heart of 

 the stem. It goes in 

 near the ground, 

 then makes its way 

 upward, boring as it 

 goes. The borer is 

 15-16 or )4 f^^ an inch 

 long.— Franii Aihen. 



ViNEY'ARD Trellis, 

 No. 890 Dec. No. I see 

 that my recent contribution on this point is not 

 as clear as it might be. Where it reads "it 

 would re<iuirc l,;i(X) pounds of No. 12 wire to 

 trellis four acres of vineyard with two straight 

 rows ijlanted eight feet apai't," it should read, 

 "with two strauds.rows planted eight feet apart" 

 And where it reads, "Charring would still be 

 good, petroleum useless," etc., it should read, 

 "Charring would still be good, petroleum use- 

 less," etc., that is, if not seasoned.— i. Bneiich. 



One Commission Man's Way. In the Decem- 

 ber number is the statement that a committee is 

 appointed to present a bill to the New York 

 State Legislature aiming to compel the com- 

 mission houses of that State to give on bills of 

 sale the names of purchasers of consignments. 

 That is a move in the right direction. If a com- 

 mission house is disposed to deal fairly and 

 squarely with its consignees it will do nobody 

 any hurt; if they are not so disposed it will bring 

 them to time or shut them up. The past season 

 I consigned some produce to a prominent com- 

 mLssion h<tuse in a certain city. They sold it and 

 were prompt in returns at fair prices. A month 

 later they made returns for other shipments and 

 included by mistake a second bill of sale on first 

 shipment; in the latter the freight was more and 

 sales about one half of first statement, showing 

 they made the figures to suit their own pocket- 

 book when they could. Can we producers con- 

 sign our property to such rascals'/ Not if we 

 know it.— .4. M. Nichols, Licking Co., Ohio. 



