26o 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



FRO« 

 TflE 



SOCIETIES 



EiNQMATrERTWr Observes 

 TO asynoEvrKNoWtL 



We plant more trees than 

 the whole of Europe.— C. Q. 

 Caritcnter. 



The cry is for a regulated 

 market system for Grapes. 

 — CVias. Mitzky. 



I do not believe that any 

 real bad person ever culti- 

 vated nowcTS—Homdh-ville Farmers' Cluh. 



Oz-Eye Daisy. The progress of this weed west 

 Is about S5 miles a year.— JVfr. Albaugh, Miami 

 Coiiiitij Hiirticultural S<icictu- 



Apples for Central Illinois. The general opinion 

 prevailed that for Central Illinois, the Wealthy 

 and Pewaukee Apples were very good— Ulinois 

 HnrticuUural Society. 



Carbolic Acid for Cnrcnlio. I have been using 

 lime and caibolic acid, and the neighbors com- 

 plain I am driving the curculio to them.— Pro/. 

 Dcwitt, 111. Hart. Siieicty. 



Fruit Diet. Fruit is a natural diet for man- 

 kind; it gives tone to the system, color to the 

 cheek, twinkle to the eye, and firmness to the 

 muscles. -Miss Lucy Gaston. 



Fruits at Korthwest. The fruit grown in the 

 Northwestern States, or which is likely to be 

 grown there in the future, will probably be con- 

 fined to the hardy varieties of Apples.— T.I'. Lynn. 



Befinement in Flowers, when I go by a house 

 where flowers are well cultivated, I think there 

 must be cultivation inside. When a man can sit 

 down in his own yard and enjoy flowei-s, he grows 

 better day by day.— HorneliamUe Farmers' Oitb. 



English Filberts. Browne— Two years ago I 

 planted five, the last one of these is now barely 

 alive They mildew badly. Riehl— I got some 

 from Philadelphia a few years ago, but they all 

 died. Am now trying to grow them from the 

 nuts.— rHiiKiiS Horticultural Siiclety. 



Strawberries in Illinois. Of the newer ones, 

 Bubach and Haverland seem to be valuable. 

 Hart's Minnesota is a large, productive berry of 

 good quality, rather soft, but would be good for 

 a local market Jessie, Belmont, and Monmouth 

 are not productive enough.— E. A. Riehl. 



Good Packing Pays. Common sense ought to 

 teach a man that with the exhorbitant freight 

 charges we have to pay, we get so much better 

 prices for good packing that we not only save 

 the freight on the poor Apples, but get a great 

 deal moi-e on the good ones than altogether 

 would bring.— C. Ttinrp, before Mi.s.souri State 

 Horticultural Society. 



Blackberry Wanted. We need better varieties 

 of the Blackberry; we have none that is entirely 

 satisfactory. The Kittatinny is tender and too 

 subject to rust. The Lawton is rather too tender 

 and apt to turn red after picking. The Snyder is 

 all right except that it is too small. A really 

 good Blackberry that is hardy, healthy and pro- 

 ductive is wanted, and if early so much the bet- 

 ter.— B. A. RieM. 



Garden Work. Turnips will be sown July and 

 August and Cabbage plants set in July. We have 

 succeeded with the curled Savoy by setting the 

 last of J une. Lima Beans often need help in start- 

 ing their race up the poles: tie them with a wilted 

 straw. Pull up the old Pea vines and throw to 

 the hogs, ond no not let a crop of weeds take their 

 place. If rich enough it will be a good place to 

 sow a few Turnips by and by —X M. Pearso)i. 



Bird Lime for Tbrips. Prof. Forbes, of Cham- 

 paign, offers as a remedy bird lime, or oil sprayed 

 on the iilants. This makes the leaves sticky, and 

 the bug when he alights is held fast and dies 

 On some plants sprayed with oil they found 

 thousands of these bugs dead a short time after- 

 wards This insect sucks the nutriment from the 

 plant and eats the pollen, so that it cannot fertil- 

 ize. Hence the Strawberry buttons which we 

 have in such abundance. 



Making Home Attractive. Home and horti- 

 culture are extremely near neighbors. Where 

 gardens and flowers are cultivated, a home is 

 near— generally a home of culture and refine- 

 ment. It may be very unpretentious, yet a home 

 in the truest sense of the word. The criminal 

 classes do not receive their early training in such 

 homes Flowers were created for all— rich and 

 poor alike, the mansion of the great and the 

 humble cottage of the peasant. They fill the 

 heart with hope and make life's load lighter in 

 their culture. 



Black Knot. I have successfully tried linseed 

 oil on the black knot for the past three years. 

 Applied it with a paint brush, daubing the knots 

 which prevents the knots from increasing, while 

 the trees keep on growing. Tried it on 40 trees 

 where the knot had appeared, and had no trouble. 

 We much prefer cutting off all the excrescence 

 before applying the remedy; and have used 

 chloride of lime and crude petroleum. But ex- 

 cision is the most reliable remedy, if used on the 

 very first appearance of the disease, instead of 

 first leaving it for months.— Jfr. Briggs. 



Cherry Culture. A. H. Gaston claimed that the 

 Wild Ked is especially valuable for grafting or 

 budding; the stocks always remain larger than 

 the grafts or buds. They are a great improve- 

 ment on the little Dwarf Mahaleb stocks which 

 are short lived and ought not to be used for pro- 

 pagating purposes. Capt. Augustine, of Normal, 

 and several others could not grow seedlings from 

 the Wild Cherry, and further contended that they 

 have Mahaleb trees 25 and 30 years old, still bear- 

 ing profusely. Dr. H. Schrceder added, as good 

 varieties, the German Glass and the Oestheim, 

 both hardy and good bearers.— IH. Hurt, Society 



Influence of Home. The best education I ever 

 had was what my mother gave me as I worked 

 with her among the flowers. You can't start a 

 real home without something to beautify it. We 

 go to the flower garden to get the decoration for 

 the grave and for the bride. Let one of the 

 family pass through the flower garden; he can 

 hardly resist plucking a flower here, pulling 

 a weed there or helping a struggling climber to 

 a firm hold. Suddenly his eye catches some new 

 beauty; he calls some one else to admire it; then 

 another member of the family is attracted to the 

 spot, and before you know it you have a family 

 gathering about one of the most beautiful alters 

 God ever gave to man.— Jfembcr of Hornellsville 

 Farmers' Club. 



Lower Express Bates. The American Seed 

 Trade Association has been appealing to the ex- 

 press companies for lower rates on prepaid ex- 

 press packages of seeds, and has been measurably 

 successful. Ten of the largest companies in the 

 United States have adopted a rate as follows, 

 which took effect the first of June: Prepaid 

 packages of seeds and bulbs may be carried at 

 10 cents for each package containing IH lbs. 

 (24 oz ) or less. When package exceeds 1^ lbs in 

 weight the charge is one cent additional for each 

 two ounces, unless graduated rate is less. If the 

 through rate exceeds $8.50 per 100 lbs , no pack- 

 age weighing over four lbs. will be carried at 

 these rates. When passing over the lines of more 

 than one company the charge is not less than 10 

 cents for each company. 



Select Apples and Pears. P. Barry at meeting 

 of Western New York Horticultural Society, 

 named the following Apples as the best for West- 

 em New York, in which good judges will agree. 

 Fall Pippin, Fameuse, Chenango, Gravenstein, 

 Jersey Sweet, M aiden's Blush, Oldenburg, Stum p, 

 for autumn. And for winter, Baldwin, Esopus, 

 Spitzenburg, Golden Kusset, Jonathan, North- 

 ern Spy, Ilea Canada, Rhode Island Greening, 

 Tompkins King. For Pears— Chas Downing 

 would take, if for one only, Bosc; next Dana's 

 Hovey; then Tyson, Boussock, Sheldon, Anjou; 

 and for market. Bartlett, Angouleme, Lawrence, 

 Anjou, Winkfield. For larger collection.s. Dear- 

 born's, Giffard, Manning's Elizabeth, Petite Mar- 

 guerite, White Doyenne, Frederic Clapp, Made- 

 line, Emile d'Heyst and Souvenir d'Fsperen. 



Enemies to Stone Fruits. The Plum borer at- 

 tacks the crotches, but the larva has also been 

 found in the wood, two inches under ground. It 

 is dusky brown in color, and, in this connection, 

 is different from the Peach-borer, and may be 

 thus distinguished. They spin small webs, in 

 which they pass the winter, and emerge in the 

 spring as moths. The species seem to be single 

 brooded. A minute beetle, that preys under the 

 bark, bids fair to become destructive to stone 

 fruits. The female excavates extensive galleries 

 under the bark. The young larva? move out to 

 right and left, quickly destroying the trees by 

 girdling, when numerous The adult seems not 

 to be largely migratory. Prompt destruction by 

 burning infested trees seems, as yet, the only 

 feasible means of destruction. In Europe, many 

 parisites infest the pest, but in this country only 

 one parasite has yet been observed to do so.— 

 Prof. Forbes, befcn-e Illinois HorticuUvral Society. 



Cheap Evaporator. At a small expense I made 

 ■a dryer which has done good work. I laid up a 

 brick wall of three sides, about thirty inches 

 square and three feet high, inside of which I 



placed an old box stove, of large size, and on top 

 of the brick work I set a box 27 x 38 inches inside, 

 and about five feet high above the brick work, 

 with a door in front, which, when fipen, would 

 admit ten sliding trays 27 inches square. These 

 trays were made of light basswood frames and 

 mosquito netting tacked on the under side of the 

 frames— although they could be used either side 

 up. The netting required replacing once during 

 the season. In the evening my sou or hired man 

 would pare about a barrel of Apples in an hour, 

 one other person and myself would trim the ends, 

 cut the Apples halt in two. and our two little 

 girls, aged seven and nine, would spread the fruit 

 on the trays and I would slide them into the 

 dryer. In this way we usually filled the dryer 

 in sixty or seventy minutes. We endeavored to 

 have the temperature 1.50 degrees, and about 120 

 degrees after the fruit was partially dry. We 

 had a ventilator, 6 x 27 inches, near the top 

 which could be opened or closed as desired, but 

 should always be kept open while in use. At 

 bed time we filled the stove with large wood, 

 closed it tight, and in warm, dry weather our 

 Apples would be nicely evaporated in the morn- 

 ing. Out of this little cheap drjer we have taken 

 over seven barrels of nice evaporated Apples 

 well pressed down, over two barrels of Peaches, 

 besides Currants, Com, etc. I should have said 

 that this dryer being one inch longer from front 

 to back than the trays, it admits of a space of 

 one inch at the back of the fii'st tray, and also at 

 the front of the second, and so on alternately. I 

 have found this better than a half inch space in 

 front and back of each tray.— Mr. Arnold, before 

 Miehigan Horticultural Society. 



Principles of Crop Feeding. 



lEjrtract of paper read by Prof. TT. O. Atwater before 

 thf Massa<^husetts Sortii:ultural Soci^ty.\ 



In the following are given some of the 

 fundamental principles of plant nutrition 

 as applied to the ingredients of the food of 

 plants, their sources, application, etc.: 



1. A part of the food of plants comes from the 

 atmosphere; the rest is furnished by the soil. If 

 the available supply of any one of a number of 

 substances needed for plant food be too small, a 

 Ught yield is inevitable. If, for instance, all the 

 other conditions for a profitable crop of Corn or 

 Potatoes are fulfilled in the soil, except that pot- 

 ash is deficient, the crop will surely fail. But if 

 the potash be applied the yield will be abundant. 



2. The most important soil ingredients of plant 

 food are potash, lime, magnesia, iron, phospho- 

 ric acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine and some com- 

 pound of nitrogen. Plants also take silica, soda, 

 and some other materials from the soil, but these 

 are needed only in minute quantities, or not at all. 



.3. In removing crops from the soil we take 

 away plant food. This is the chief cause of soil 

 exhaustion. 



4. Soils vary greatly in their capabilities of 

 supplying food to crops. Different ingredients 

 are deficient in different soils. The chief lack of 

 one may be potash, of another phosphoric acid, 

 and of another several ingredients, and so on. 



.5. Soils fail to furnish enough of food for crops 

 chiefly because the materials are not in available 

 forms. A soil may have thousands of pounds of 

 phosphoric acid within reach of the plants, but 

 locked up in fragments of rock so that the roots 

 cannot absorb it, and then the crop will fail for 

 lack of phosphoric acid. 



6. The sterility of many soils is due more to 

 their mechanical condition, their texture, and 

 relations to heat and moisture, than to lack of 

 plant food. Such soils want amendment first 

 and manures afterwards. Some soils will give 

 good returns for manuring; others, without irri- 

 gation, or amendment by draining, tillage, the 

 use of lime, marl, or muck, etc., will not. 



7. The chief use of fertihzei-s is to supply plant 

 food which crops need and sods fail to furnish. 



8. The indirect action of applications in im- 

 proving the mechanical condition of the soil and 

 rendering its stores of plant food available, is 

 often very important. Hence lime, plaster, etc., 

 are frequently more profitable than fertilizers. 



9. Plants vai-y greatly with respect to their de- 

 mands for food and capabilities of gathering it. 

 Hence, the proper fertilizer in a given case 

 depends upon the crop as well as upon the soil. 



10. The only ingredients of plant food which 

 we need to consider in commercial fertiUzers are 

 potash, lime, magnesia, phosphoric acid, sul- 

 phuric acid, and nitrogen. Of the list, magnesia 

 is generally abundant even in "worn-out" soils. 

 Sulphuric acid and lime are more often deficient 



