POPULAR GARDENING 



AND FRUIT GROWING. 



"AOaVae not nature, she hath done her part; do thou but THIKE."— Miltor. 



Vol. IV. 



CrTJnSTE, 18 8 9. 



No. 9. 



O June, the month of merry song, 



Of shadow brief, of sunshine long ; 



All things on earth love you the beat— 



The bird who earols near his nest ; 



The wind that wakes, and singing, blows 



The spicy perfimie of the Rose ; 



And Ijee, who sounds his mutlied horn 



To celebrate the dewy morn ; 



And even all the stars above 



At night are happier for love. 



As if the mellow notes of mirth 



Were wafted to them from the earth 



O June ! such music haunts your name ; 



With you the summer's chorus came ! 



— F. D. Sherman in St. Nicholas 



Choice Roses cannot do well in sod. 



Sprouts. A motto for June is to rub off the 

 stock sprouts of all budded trees or shrubs. 



The Kaki or Japanese Persimmons, gan un- 

 doubtedly grow with success in many parts of 

 the United States, but how to utilize the fruit, is 

 another question. 



American Seed Trade association. The 

 Annual Meeting will take place in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, beginning June 11th. Headquar- 

 ters at tne " Arlington." For further informa- 

 tion adress the Secretary, A. McCuUough, Cin- 

 cinnati, O. 



Association of American Nurserymen. 

 Mr. Chas. A. Green, Uochester, N. Y., who is Sec- 

 retary of this Society, writes that round fare ticlt- 

 ets to the Chicago meeting which begins June 5th, 

 can be secured by any person, nurseryman or 

 not, at the rate of li^ single fare from any part 

 of the United States and Canada, lieduced rates 

 are also secured at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chi- 

 cago, the headquarters of the Society. All are 

 in\ited. For further information, programmes, 

 etc., address the Secretary. 



Fruit Outlook in this Vicinity. A large 

 crop of almost all kinds of fruits seems to be 

 now assured. With a largely increased acre- 

 age of small fruits, every plant seems to be de- 

 termined to do its best. Api>le tiees, with the 

 exception of RaMwins, have set fruit bountiful- 

 ly; Pears, although thej' have not bloomed very 

 full, promise to bring out a fine crop, while 

 Cherries, Plums and Quinces have plent.v of 

 fruit on them. Peaches are the least promising 

 of all, and the crop will not be large. 



The Coming Buffalo Meeting. The local 

 committees are activelly at work jireparing for 

 the reception of the American Association of 

 Floiists in this city in August iie.xt. A .special re- 

 quest comes from the committee on e.vhibits that 

 intending exhibitors inform them, ss early as pos- 

 sible of the extent of space that will be required 

 in each c<ise. Mr. E. J. Mep.'ted of Iluffalo is 

 chairman of this committi-o*. .\t this date all 

 things augur well for one of the most successful 

 meetings in Buffalo yet held by this most success- 

 ful Society. 



A Step for Pure Fruit Protiucts. Any law 

 calculated to put a stop tf) the adulteration of 

 articles used for food or in its preparation, pro- 

 vided it be enacted and worded so that it can be 

 readily enforced, is decidedly good law. Connec- 

 ticut legislators have just passed one of the good 

 laws. It provides for a fine and imprisonment 

 for any person who produces for sale or sells as 

 cider-\'inegar any vinegar not produced from 

 the juice of Apples, forbids the putting in of any 

 drug or foreign substance to make any other 

 kind of vinegar taste, or what seems to be more 

 like cider vinegar, fixes the limit below which 

 the acetic acid shall not go, etc. This is good as 

 far as it goes, but it is merely a good begimiing. 



Let the honorable gentlemen next turn their at- 

 tention to the compounds sold in any grocery 

 under the name " fruit Jelly," " fruit extract," 

 etc., and which stand in nearer relationship to 

 gelatine, alum and coal tar than to natural fruits. 

 With the ease that good fruits can be produced 

 in this country, we have no need of these adul- 

 terations. Let us proceed in the direction of the 

 step taken by Connecticut law makers. 



The Plum Knot Question. To move slowly 

 with all untiied innovations, and accept facts as 

 such only after they are well established, is com- 

 mendable,but it is not wise to go to the extreme, 

 as is so often done. Mr. Woodward and other 

 people of experience have for many years been 

 telling that they have found the Plum-knot cur- 

 able by cutting the scrofulous growth away and 

 painting the limb with turpentine ; but they are 

 not successful in making the body of fruit grow- 

 ers accept this as a fact, much less to move them 

 to action. Careful investigation of this matter 

 by the Massachusetts College Experiment Station 

 now devolopes the fact that not only turpentine, 

 but kerosene and linseed oil when painted on the 

 affected parts in sufficient quantity to penetrate 

 the spongy growth, will certainly kill the spores 

 of the disease ; but while the first named two 

 may possibly do considerable injury to the 

 heatlthy part of the wood also, linseed oil is per- 

 fectly harmless. Let us expi-ess the hope that 

 growers will give up preconceived, and often 

 persistenly maintained ideas of the incurable 

 character of certain plant diseases, and try the 

 simple remedies suggested by experts. 



The Brazllllan Tree Tomato. 



Gardening World gives a description of 

 Cyphiimandra hciacea, which, although not 

 a true Tomato, belongs to the same family, 

 and in some respects resembles our common 

 garden vegetable. The foliage also possesses 

 a peculiar odor, which though distinct from 

 that peculiar to Tomato leaves, is not less 

 disagreeable. The plant, being of a shrubby 

 nature, must attain some size before it can 

 tlower. Ultimately it will attain 12 feet in 

 height, but flowers very freely in pots when 

 only four feet or five feet high. 



It is a native of Brazil, and largely culti- 

 vated in the West Indies, and now forms a 

 regular article of food in many of those 

 countries where it may be planted out of 

 doors, requiring no protection. The fruit is 

 orange-red, egg-shaped, about two and one- 

 half or three inches long, and proiluced in 

 drooping clusters from the branches. 



It is not effected, or only to a slight extent, 

 by the odor of the leaf, and is more pala- 

 table to the taste of many than is the 

 Tomato until they have acquired a tiiste for 

 it. In flavor it resembes the Tomato and 

 appears very tempting to the eye. The 

 plant grows easily from seed, but will prob- 

 ably not fruit the first season. 



Girdling the Grape Vine for Commer- 

 cial Gains. Shall it be Done ? 



Vicivs o/ IcckUikj hortlcultiirists on qinl- 

 lihri the Orapc. The purpose, time, and 

 manner of yirdlinci, its effect on fruit and 

 vine and the ethic aspect, application to 

 other fruits, etc. 



WHAT DR. HOSKINS, OF VERMONT, aiTS. 



I have occasionally tried girdling, but 

 until I saw the easy way of doing it with a 

 twisted wire suggested by Prof. Maynard, 

 I thought it too slow work to amount to 



anything as an extensive operation. I mean 

 to give it a thorough trial the coming season. 

 As to the ethics of the matter, while it is 

 not fair to compete at exhibitions with fruit 

 as ordinarilly grown, yet as regards the 

 general public, I see not the slightest moral 

 objection to ofi'erlng it Grapes grown by any 

 method whatever. The public neither 

 knows nor cares anything about cultural 

 methods. The only thing it is concerned 

 with is results. The whole thing, therefore, 

 will have to stand or fall upon that. If we 

 can please our trade with the produce of 

 girdled vines, they will certainly be girdled, 

 providing it pays enough better to recoup 

 us for the extra cost. 



COL. ALEX VV. PEARSON, OF NEW .JERSEY, 

 REPLIES: 



" For what purpose can the girdling 

 of Grape vines be condemned?" I am 

 asked. To enlarge the size and hasten the 

 ripening of the fruit. 



"When and how should it be done?" 

 Shortly before the vine blossoms. On one 



Knife for Oirdling the Vine— Prof. Maynard. 

 year old canes, below the young fruit-bear- 

 ing shoots, a ring of bark one-quarter inch 

 wide is removed, without injuring the wood. 

 A tool is made for this purpose similar to 

 shears, having two parallel concave cutting 

 edges on each blade. These clasp the cane 

 to be " ringed " and the circle of bark is re- 

 moved by a turn of the wrist. 



" How does it effect the fruit; its earliness, 

 size, flavor, etc.?" Grapes upon girdled 

 canes ripen (or at least color) two weeks 

 earlier than do those upon canes of the same 

 vine which have not been girdled, and they 

 are rather larger. Such fruit does not differ 

 in quality from fruit ripened on canes not 

 girdled. Some claim that girdled Grapes 

 are interior. They are not so, if allowed to 

 hang on the vine until ripe. 



"What is the after-effect on the vine?" 

 I cannot see that girdling has any effect on 

 the constitution of the vine. The canes 

 operated upon are usually destroyed or 

 damaged, for future fruiting, but where'the 

 renewal system of pruning is practiced, 

 these girdled canes may be cut out and new 

 canes substituted. Sometimes bark will 

 form over the ringed space and the girdled 

 cane, if left on the vine, will fruit next year, 

 its fruit continuing to show the influence of 

 an obstructed circulation in the cane. 



The results of this obstruction are anahi- 

 gous to a dropsy artiflcially produced by 

 litigation of a member of the aiiinial body, 

 and may be caused in the Grape by the con- 

 striction of a wire tightly twisted around 

 the cane. I girdle and wire a few canes 

 yearly to hasten the ripening of some Grapes 

 for home use. 



"Should fruit thus grown be placed on 

 exhibit? " There is no objection to such ex- 

 hibition, if Grapes thus abnormally devel- 

 oped be shown and described as artificial 

 monstrosities. Of course they should not 

 compete with the ordinary vine product. 



" What about ringing as applied to other 

 fruits? " Informed that girdling trees would 



