POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



Under the Apple-Trees. 



This is the orchard, here they grow. 

 The Apple-trees In triple row, 

 Ab, well I mind the years ago. 



When we were young together. 

 They stand it well, this Baldwin, now. 

 The red fruit fairly loads the bough. 

 Has it forgot, I wouder, liow 



I used to dig around it ? 

 This Pippin, standing next, tiiey say 

 Bears Apples good the following May 

 Bite one, you'd thlulc 't would last for aye. 



Though ail so fair and yellow. 

 Such men I've Icnown, pray who has not. 

 That hardened as they older got. 

 Would shrivel, shrivel, yes, and rot, 



But never once grow mellow. 

 Youths' Companion. 



To a Bird. 



Sing on, sweet warbler, sing- 

 Sing thy Creator's praise. 



Whose power supplies thy every want. 

 And lengthens out thy days. 



How lonely were the woods, 

 Or hedgerows though so green. 



Did not thy carols echo walte 

 While flits thy form between. 

 . Witness. John Robinson. 



Oh ! the dreadful frosts. 

 Give the Gladioluses support. 

 In Sweeden Mountain Ash berries are eaten. 

 We favor early lifting of plants to be kept over. 

 Nothing better for Grape posts than Red Cedar. 

 The Vine Walk at Woodbanks interests all vis- 

 itors. 



The White Tigridia should be Everybody's 

 flower. 



New York State Fair, Albany, September 12th 

 to ISIth. 



Blood-leaved Filherts are true to name only in 

 the spring. 



Choose single Hyacinths and Tulips in the main 

 for forcing. They do better than the doubles. 



Pyrethrum roseum the " Insect Powder Plant " 

 is with us in free bloom from seeds sown in April. 



Perennial Sanflowers belong by themselves; 

 any other plants near them are robbed of food 

 and moisture. 



The Garfield Apple is suspected by Mr. Cotta 

 to be some German variety whose original name 

 has been lost. 



Annual weeds disappear from the lawn when 

 kept mowed off. Fear not the Rag-weed; but 

 pull up the Plantain. 



If the Silver-leaved Poplar did not sprout from 

 the root what a valuable tree it would l)e. Fine 

 for contrasting with Purple-leaved Plum. 



The Oz-£ye Daisy not an insect powder jilant. 

 So says Prof. Riley who has tested its alleged 

 virtues in this direction. Sad news indeed. 



The Hattie Jones is a new Strawberry of the 

 Crescent type from Indiana. A single plant of 

 them is reported to have had 163 berries on it at 

 one time. 



Take a Look Ahead. Hyacinths and other 

 bulbs to be forced into winter bloom must lirst 

 have roots. To have roots they should be potted 

 early. The Catalogues are about ready. 



The Merkel Bed Raspherry, so Mr. John F. 

 Rupp writes us, is really a remarkable thing for 

 its non-suckering habit. In growth and general 

 appearance it resembles the Blackcaps. 



The Tale Strawberry introduced by S. Hoyt's 

 Sons of New Canaan, has been awarded the prize 

 tor the best seedUng variety introduced within 

 the last five years, offered by the Massachsetts 

 Horticultural Society. 



Golden Dawn, a new double Geranium received 

 from Peter Henderson la,st spring, has more of 

 the yellow in its scarlet than anything we before 



have seen. It is a new departure in color, and as 

 such worth noting; of free growth and bloom. 



For Winter Bloom. If you have no specially 

 prepared Geraniums then select suitable plants 

 this month. Cut them back one-fourth and set 

 in a shady, then a sunny place for a few weeks, 

 siirinkliiig the foliage lightly several times daUy. 



Phloxes, Verbenas, Poppies, Asters, Zinnias, 

 Petunias, Mignonette, Sweet Peas, and many 

 more beautiful Annuals now in bloom— what a 

 vaiiety, what a display of colors, what a fra- 

 grance! And all this out of a few packages of seed. 



Between a form of Leaf blight, the flea beetle 

 and the dry weather, our Potatoes are having a 

 rather hard time of it. The flea beetle which has 

 only recently appeared for the first, is by aU odds 

 the worst. Now we can sympathize with Bro. 

 Carman. 



Fine Poppies. One cannot help becoming a 



friend of these too often disliked flowers if they 

 will but sow such fine kinds as the following: 

 Fairy Blush, The Mikado, Faust, Snowdrift. 

 They have been the delight of all visitors to our 

 grounds. 



Two beautifnl Apples of the crop of 1888 were 

 received from Judge Miller on August Ist. Our 

 Missouri friend has a way to preserve them of 

 his own. If I lived in your latitude, he says, I 

 would undertake to keep Apples two years. The 

 expense is trifling. 



Cut worms have bothered me terribly for the 

 past four years, by cutting off my Lima Beans 

 and Dahlias. This year I sprayed the plants with 

 White Hellebore solution, wetting the ground 

 thoroughly, and have seen no signs of the worms 

 since.— Jt/rs. Albert A. Varliny. 



Cheaper Phosphoric Acid, There is a prospect 

 that the basic pi'ocess of manufacturing steel wUl 

 be largely employed in America before many 

 years, thus giving us in the waste product known 

 and imported under the names phosphate meal, 

 Thomas slag, etc., a cheap source of phosphoric 

 acid in that form at home. 



Tree Tomato of Jamaica, catalogued by Messrs. 

 Hendeison & Co. in 1886, but discarded since, is 

 probably the same as the " Brazilian Tree Toma- 

 to" (Cyphomandra betacea) described and illus- 

 trated in June number. We grew plants, but 

 lost tliem accidentally, and now are unable to get 

 either seed or plants.— L. G. 



The Chilian Beets can never become popular 

 ornamental plants while we have the Coleus, 

 Achyranthus, etc , on which to depend for effects 

 in ornamental foliage. The former arc attractive 

 to numerous insects which spoil them; the latter 

 are never so harmed. Leave Beets to the vege- 

 table garden and the cow patch. 



The General Boyal Union for the cultivation 

 of flower roots at Haarlem, Holland, will hold its 

 16th show of Bulbous plants March 20 to 25, 1890. 

 A large number of prices are offered, and the 

 show promises to be a great attraction. For par- 

 ticulars address Mr. D. Bakker, Gedempte Oude 

 Graeht No. 110, Haarlem, Holland. 



My Bemontant Boses never before have 

 bloomed so long, all through June and July, and 

 bid fair to continue through August. Whether 

 it is due to their having been transferred to new 

 and richer earth, and receiving better culture, or 

 to the f recjuent rains I do not know, but am de- 

 lighted with the effect, whatever the cause.— 

 Ehlcr's Wife. 



Begonia rubra gives the most satisfaction 

 when trimmed back, or compelled to grow in a 

 branching or tree form. Grown in this shape it 

 produces a greater amount of blossoms, B. met- 

 alica does not bloom as freely as rubra, but its 

 showy foliage seems to make up for this defic- 

 iency. The plant does not bear frequent changes 

 and should be grown in the house.— £. L. V. 



A Novel Plant, Miss Bacon (they have been 

 discussing Orchids): "And now. Professor, I 

 want you to teU me about the plant from which 

 electricity is made." Professor Hohonthy 

 (aghast): " The which '/ " Miss Bacon. " You 

 certainly must have heard of it. Father says 

 its high cost prevents the general use of electric 

 lighting— I mean the electric plant."— Fiom Har- 

 IJcr'n Bazar. 



The Wilder Pear, received from Mr. Chas. A. 

 Green, first week in August, was not only fair to 

 look at, but very good to eat for so early a varie- 

 ty and in quality certainly much ahead of its still 

 fairer coutemporary, the Lawson, or Comet. The 

 latter rots from the eoie, while our Wilder spec- 

 imen, having been kept on our desk for some 



time, had ,iust begun to decay from the apex, 

 when we applied the final palate test. 



A Shrub for You, Beader. Are you yet without 

 the Panicle-flowered Hydrangea {Hijdraiigca 

 pa n Iculata ura ndifttira) in your collection of hardy 

 shrubs? Then take our counsel and let not an- 

 other planting season pa.ss without setting one or 

 more of these shrubs. The more we see of them 

 the better are they liked. Vouug plants set at 

 Woodbanks in May are now loaded with from 

 three to twelve immense panicles each of bloom. 

 A perfectly hardy shrub. 



Geranium Slips root readily; if we only prepare 

 them proiierly. Select a thrifty shoot, about S to 

 5 inches long. Cut off clean and smooth with a 

 sharp knife, then remcjve thelower pair of leaves 

 with a close cut, and trim the leaves left, so that 

 the cutting will resemble the one here illustrated . 

 It is now ready for insertion in the propagating 

 bed, or in a pot or bo.v of sand. Sandy soil will 

 do in absence of clean sand. Fuchsia and other 

 cuttings are prepared in same way. 



Cutworms and Calosoma, I notice this year an 

 unusal number of cutworm-moths; they often 

 come into the window at night, flying about the 

 light. The kinds most f i-equently found here ai-e 

 Agrotis devastator, messoria and clandestina. 

 Fortunately the tiger beetles or ground beetles 

 (Calosoma) were also quite numerous this spring. 

 Often I found the iarvic in the act of devoui-ing 

 a cutworm. They frequently seize cutworms 

 several times as large as themselves, holding on 

 by the neck in spite of the victim's struggles, un- 

 til the juice is all extracted and nothing but the 

 skin left. The illustration on next page re|)re- 

 sents a group of most common cutworm-moths.- 

 Walter A., Lynn, Iowa. 



Saving Garden Seeds. It is a common jiractice 

 for the ordinary farmer's wife and those in charge 

 of the garden to use the best vegetable crop for 

 house use, and when the Peas, Beans, Radishes, 

 Sweet Corn and the like have dried and ripened, 

 to gather the seeds for i>lanting the following 

 season. No wonder we hear of certain varieties 

 running out, as they call it. Instead of that I 

 always mark off enough of the best part of a row 

 or patch for seed, don't take any from it, unless 

 the small pods of Peas and Beans, the small ears 

 in Corn, and the smallest Radishes. Then, when 

 cleaning the seed out, take only the best devel- 

 oped. By this method there is a chance of im- 

 provement instead of deterioration. When the 

 seeds are dry, put them i n packages, and mark the 

 year on the packet. The Sweet Corn I leave in 

 the husk, and hang up in an airy place.— S. Miller. 

 A New Work on Grape Vines. Prof. P. Viala, 

 of Montpelier. France, who made a tour of the 

 Grape growing regions of this country under 

 the direction of his Government in 1887, has just 

 published a book, entitled Une Mission Viticole 

 en Amcrunte, in which are embodied the results 

 of his observations relati\e to our vines. Briefly, 

 the work embraces a monogi-aph of the North 

 American species of the genus Vitfa— desciiption, 

 history, synopsis, vai-iations, hybrids, geograph- 



TRIMMING CUTTINGS. 

 ical range, natural soils, culture and horticul- 

 tural value; and the principal fungus diseases to 

 which they are subject. The volume contains 

 eight Hnely colored chromo-lithogra])hs, and 

 eoveis 387 I'Jmo. pages. An authorized American 

 edition is being prepared by Mr. F. Lamson 

 Scribner, who assisted Prof. Viala while here and 

 accompanied him in liiscxcursions to the various 

 parts of the tlnited States. The information 

 gained by his observations here has enabled Prof. 

 Viala to in-esent many new points of interest and 

 settle many disputed questions, hence the work 

 will be one of great interest to all American 

 viticulturists, and especially to those of Call- 



