58 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



Hlgrh Culture for the Strawberry. 



BY P. M. AUGUR. 



The old saying, " whatever is worth doing is 

 worth doing well," is specially true of Straw- 

 berry culture, As illustrative of what may 

 and has been done in this direction, I give a 

 few notes. The last week in July, 1884, my sons 

 took a piece of ground two years under garden 

 culture, previously in grass yielding about 

 three-fourths ton to the acre. This patch had 

 been liberally manured both years with stable 

 manure, ashes, bone, hen manure, etc., and 

 was planted each spring with 

 Peas. After the last crop had 

 been gathered at the time re- 

 ferred to, the ground was well 

 prepared and planted with 

 Strawberries as follows: 1st, 

 1 row Cumberland Triumph, 

 then 4 rows Jewell, then 1 

 row Seneca Queen, then 4 

 Jewell, and so on, with Jewells 

 alternating in each .5 rows with 

 a good bisexual variety, the 

 Jewell being pistillate, until 

 the Jewells aggregated just 

 l-33d of an acre. 



The plants of the piece stood 

 in rows 2 feet apart and 18 

 inches in the row. The run- 

 ners of all were nipped off as 

 they started. The gi'ound was 

 frequently hoed and the 

 growth of plants became spe- 

 cially heavy, with numerous 

 crowns upon all the varieties. 

 When the ground was well 

 frozen, the patch was covered 

 with a mulch of coarse hay. 



In the spring of 1885, as 

 soon as the gz'ound was well 

 settled, the mulch was removed 

 and the patch carefully hoed shallow, every 

 weed having been removed. Then came a 

 wonderful profusion of flowers. Until near 

 the last of May the ground was free from 

 mulch, but at that time after a careful re- 

 moval of all weeds part of the mulch was 

 restored to keep the fruit clean. 



On June iitj, following, the public were in- 

 vited to see the plot and judge for themselves 

 as to the merits of high culture. The amount, 

 size and beauty of the fruit caused many ex- 

 clamations of wonder. AU the kinds were re- 

 markably loaded, the Jewell taking the lead, 

 with a wonderful show of fruit. Many indi- 

 vidual plants contained a quart of ripe ber- 

 ries beside numerous green ones. Altogether 

 the number of picked quarts was 678, or at the 

 rate of 4(i6 bushels per acre. 



This experiment shows conclusively that 

 Strawberry plants set August 1st will, under 

 favorable conditions, give a full crop the fol- 

 lowing June ; that single hiU culture for heavy 

 plants is practicable ; that a maximum of two 

 quarts to a plant and an average of more than 

 a quart is attainable. It suggests that only 

 those varieties best adapted to the hill system 

 of management should be chosen ; that a good 

 pistillate when properly coupled with good bi- 

 sexuals will out yield the latter, as the Jewell 

 did in every instance, and as the past season 

 has specially emphasized ; that careful, liberal 

 culture is generously rewarded. Again, as a 

 chemical experiment fails if any important de- 

 tail is omitted, so in horticulture success de- 

 mands close attention to all the details each in 

 its proper time and manner. 



but which is much too rarely met in cultiva- 

 tion. Of its two most striking qualities, free- 

 dom of bloom in the early Spring, or the rich 

 deep red garb of beauty its foliage assumes in 

 the fall, there is a perpetual question as to 

 which excels in attractiveness. 



In the matter of bloom, a well-grown Dog- 

 wood is for beauty excelled by no other hardy 

 tree, not even by the beautiful Magnolias. 

 The white blossoms make their appearance in 

 the spring before the leaves are out, and for a 

 short time cover the tree like immense snow- 



SPRIG OF THE WHITE-FLOWERING DOGWOOD. 



flakes. In size they vary from two to three 

 inches across. Before proceeding further, 

 we should, to save ourselves from criticism by 

 botanists, say that what is looked upon as the 

 flower of this Dogwood, is not really such, but 

 is a very large four-leaved involucre, in the 

 midst of which is situated the true flowers, 

 of an inconspicuous greenish yellow color. 



There are two things that have had much to 

 do with the fact of this beautiful tree being so 

 seldom cultivated. One of these is that it 

 grows wild and has but single flowers, hence 

 for a long time was not properly appreciated ; 

 the other is that the tree is with difiiculty 

 transplanted from the woods. 



Those who are familiar with it only in the 

 woods can form but a faint idea of its beauty 

 when grown in rich, deep soil, and where there 

 is ample room for development. Not only are 

 the flowers finer here, but the tree itself as- 

 sumes a most attractive mnbrella form of 

 growth. As to size, it often reaches from 15 to 

 20 feet in height, and may attain to a diameter 

 nearly twice as great. 



In transplanting the Dogwood, two points 

 are important ; fii-st, to obtain trees of small 

 size, and second, to procure such as have been 

 grown in cultivated soil, with a view to plenty 

 of small fibrous roots. The latter are apt to be 

 very few in numbers on trees taken from the 

 woods. Where one can get seed of the Dog- 

 wood it might be sown in the garden and the 

 trees be raised thus without further outlay. 



For the use of our illustration we are indebted 

 to Ellwanger & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y. 



brick and glass structure with some added 

 cloth (usually discarded carpet) cover in 

 coldest weather sufBced to keep plants alive 

 during the coldest winters. But lai5t vrinter 

 was a sui-prise to all the dwellers of the Sunny 

 South, and caused the loss of many flue collec- 

 tions of plants, mine amongst them, which, 

 with the exception of about 30 pot plants, were 

 killed outright. 



Nothing daunted, I this past season collected 

 again by purchase and exchange, and put on 

 my thinking cap to gain additional heat for it. 

 I piu'chased two small oil 

 stoves— called "The Florence," 

 costing me $1.00 each. I up to 

 date have kept my flowers in 

 beautiful growing and bloom- 

 ing condition. I have had 

 hundreds, nay thousands of 

 blooms from lifted bulbs of 

 Pearl Tuberose, which had ad- 

 vanced flower heads formed 

 before lifting. 

 I place one of these heaters 

 near the door in the centre of 

 the pit — the other at the real- 

 end. During our recent storm, 

 in which eight inches of snow 

 fell, the house showed no sign 

 of frosting. I hope to be able 

 to carry it safely through the 

 winter. I have the small oil 

 stoves sitting in tin coffee can- 

 isters, the kind grocers buy 100 

 pounds of parched coffee in. 

 This is to catch the oil in 

 case of leakage. They are 18 

 inches deep by 14 square. The 

 tops of course are turned back 

 to allow free escape of heat. 

 Daily attention is given to fill- 

 ing the lamps and trimming 

 the wicks, this being about the extent of the 

 attention the heating part requires. 



Popcorn a Novelty In England. 



[ I am going over to England next year to 

 introduce Popcorn to the unfortunate natives, 

 who have been brought up to regard com as 



! food .for horses and chickens only. Every 

 English visitor to the exposition goes wild over 

 Popcorn and declares he never saw it before. 

 So I have taken the contract for the American 

 exposition in London next spring and have 

 5,000 bushels of corn ready to ship over. 

 It has always been supposed that corn 



] wouldn't pop if it got damp, and to try how a sea 

 voyage would affect it I sent some over to Lon- 

 don and wrote the consignees to send it back . 

 It popped nicely.— S^Loui's Glube-Demncrat. 



A Remarkably Fine Flowering Tree. 



Along with the healthy tendency of the day, 

 to appreciate single flowers quite as much as 

 (or now perhaps more than) double ones, the 

 charms of the white-flowering Dogwood, illus- 

 trated herewith, have found increasing favor. 

 The tree is a native one, rather scarcely dis- 

 tributed over the United States, with an in- 

 crease southward, and also found in Canada, 



Inexpensive Heating of a Green- 

 house. 



MRS. J. S. R. THOMSON. 



In August 1885 I had built me quite a large 

 greenhouse for an amateur— fifteen feet wide 

 and 35 feet long- which I had filled to crowd- 

 ing with a grand collection of plants, many of 

 them 12 to 15 years old. Here in the South, 

 (Spartensburg, S. C.) it has usually been unne- 

 cessary to have fire heat. A close well-built 



A Handsome Little Hardy Shrub. 

 The Garland Flower. 



This pretty dwarf evergreen, known botani- 

 cally as Daphne Cneorum, is not so well known 

 by flower lovers as it deserves to be. It is 

 especially suited to planting on rockwork, de- 

 lighting as it does in light soil and dry situa- 

 tions. In a paper by G. F. Newton, of MiUers- 

 burg, Ohio, on the subject of Flowers for the 

 Garden, and which appeared in the last volume 

 of the proceedings of the State Horticultural 

 Society of Ohio, we find the following interest- 

 ing reference to the plant. 



This exquisitely beautiful little plant is a low 

 gi-owing hardy shrub, and entirely different 

 from the classes of plants here spoken of. It 

 flowers freely, early in the spring, and also at 

 intervals throughout the summer and quite late 

 in the fall. The flowers which are veiy frag- 

 rant, are bright pink, borne in a small num- 

 ber; somewhat resembling a minute bunch of 

 Honeysuckle, their pink flowers contrasting 

 beautifully with their dai-k green foliage. 



This plant must be grown in a deep rich 

 sandy loam, and the bed be elevated. The plant 

 does best when a few evergreen branches are 

 stuck in the ground about it in the fall, so as to 



