Editors Letter- Box. 127 



J. G. G., Kingston, N.Y. — Can plants of the Hovey's Seedling Strawberry- 

 be obtained ? If so, where ? I want none unless warranted true to name ; for 

 I have bought plants several times for the Hovey when there was not a single 

 plant of that variety among them. — We are sorry our friend has been so unfor- 

 tanate in his purchases. The true Hovey's Seedling-plants can be had. It is 

 more difficult to procure them than it is to get plants of most any other sort. 

 It you would consult our advertising pages, we think you would have no diffi- 

 culty in deciding where to buy. If all other sources fail, the originator, we pre- 

 sume, could furnish them. 



Gardener, Germantown, Penn. — A few years ago, I set out about twenty 

 dwarf apple-trees worked on the Paradise stock, expecting to get fruit from 

 them in a short time ; but in t'.iis 1 have been disappointed. They have grown 

 very vigorously, but have given little fruit. They are six to eight feet high. 

 What shall I do with them to bring them into bearing ? — They make so much 

 growth, that they cannot bear : check their growth, and they will at once show 

 fruit. Sow the land to grass ; stop manuring, or pinch in the new growth in 

 midsummer, and so force them to make truit-buds. 



Beginner, Lockport, N.Y. — What one variety of grape would you recom- 

 mend, all things considered .'* what one variety of strawberry to plant for mar- 

 ket-purposes ? what variety of currant 1 — For the one grape, the Concord ; for 

 the one strawberry, the Wilson; for the currant, the La Versaillaise. 



X. X., Geneva, N.Y. — Which are preferable for planting, — fully ripe, or un- 

 ripe potatoes ? — We should prefer those not fully ripe, of fair size. We think 

 they would throw more vigorous sprouts than those fully or over-ripe. We should 

 like to have some of our many readers give us their views on this question. 



W. j\I., Kansas. — I wish to inquire if any of the readers of the Journal have 

 ever observed the seedless persimmon ? I found an isolated grove of those 

 trees in this county, bearing large crops of fine, luscious fruit almost entirely 

 without seed. Occasionally one seed may be found in a specimen ; never more. 

 It is a new thing to me, and I wish to know if others have observed a like phenom- 

 enon. — We think the persimmon is occasionally found without seeds, and con- 

 clude that the case cited above is not an isolated one. In looking over our ex- 

 changes, we find the following, which we clip from " The Horticultural Recorder." 

 It is part of a letter written by D. Redmond of Areola, La. " I send a few grafts 

 of a seedless persimmon-tree, which I discovered in Columbia County, Ga. The 

 fruit of tliis tree may be called seedless ; for, in cutting a large number, I found 

 only one or two seeds in five or six of the fruit ; the ' seedless' specimens showing 

 only the slightest rudiments of seeds in the form of a pulp a little thicker and 

 less melting than the other portion of the fruit, which ripens gradually on the 

 tree from the middle of September until frost, and does not require the amelio- 

 rating influence of old 'Jack ' to render it palatable." We see no reason why 

 this fruit may not be well worthy of cultivation. 



