ii6 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



^Mi&HT 



FROM 

 'THE- 



W"' GLEAMS. 



PrunusSimonii. Pres- 

 ident Barry having fruit- 

 ed it, pronounces it a 

 fruit of no considerable 

 value. 



A child reared in the influences of horticultural 

 surroundings seldom goes astray.— Z-. D. Watkins. 



The monthly meetings of the New York Horti- 

 tlcultural Society the first TueRdays in March and 

 April, will be held in Cooper Union. 



Transplanting Large Trees. If you want to 

 transplant such cut back the top the year before. 

 In the case of Nut or other trees with tap roots dig 

 down and cut off the tap root. 



An Enterprising Society. The proceedings of 

 the Columbus Ohio Horticultural Society now ap- 

 pear in the form of a monthly Journal edited by 

 W. S. Devol, Secretary. It makes not only a valua- 

 ble but an attractive periodical. 



" Fruit growing is profitable if it be understood. 

 The first aim should be to provide an abundant sup- 

 ply for family use, then consider a surplus for 

 market. Organized effort in Societies throughout 

 the State has had a good effect in promoting Horti- 

 culture."— ^-l/ex. Hmven. at Mich. State Meeting 



Take Some Good Paper. L. H, Bailey. Jr . of 

 Agricultural College. Michigan, says: " Take one or 

 two horticultural papers. People who take the 

 papers are the best informed. Those who take 

 them are seldom imposed upon . Dishonest agents 

 find their best field among those who take no 

 such papers " 



Planting for Quality. President T. T. Lyon 

 in some introductory remarks before the Michigan 

 Horticultural Society deplored the tendency of 

 commercial growers to plant for the eye more than 

 for quality, thus taking advantage of the ignorant 

 buyers in the city, instead of cultivating in them 

 an exact knowledge of the best. "The matter has 

 gone so far as even to leave its impress on the 

 planting done by the less discerning who plant tor 

 a home supply, they relying on the ' market sorts,' 

 not realizing their inferiority. So let us promote 

 true horticulture by planting of the best and culti- 

 vating for real value more than for looks." 



BE1N(^-MATTER-THAT-DESERVE3 

 •TO-BE -WIDELY- KMOVM- 



climate from becoming more so, and to preserve a 

 proper proportion of moisture so necessary to the 

 propagation of our most tender fruits and flowers. 

 At the morning session of the third day, Mr. Jas. 

 Currie, of Milwaukee, read a paper on " House 

 Plants," after which came resolutions and other 

 business J B. Ptickney of Wauwatosa, lectured 

 on "Insect Pests." and Mr. Kellogg, of Janesville, 

 reported on " New Varieties of Small Fruits." 



The Iowa State Meeting in January. 



At the meeting held at Charles City, Presi- 

 dent Silas Wilson urged, in view of the loss on 

 fruit trees in recent years from unfavorable 

 seasons, the necessity of meeting and devising 

 means to bring about a remedy. Had a system 

 of cross fertilization and proper selection years 

 ago been adopted, we should, ere this, have 

 made substantial progress. He advocated the 

 fitting up of an arboretum.comprising ten acres 

 of the beautiful grounds of the State Agricul- 

 tural Society, and that the horticultural society 

 should do something in this line. 



Eeports. From the report of the Third Fruit 

 District, comprising the southwest counties, it is 

 safe to say that the present condition of orchards 

 in that portion of the State is decidedly better than 

 in any other; yet Ben Davis, Jonathan and nearly 

 all the old varieties except Duchess are injured, 

 and many varieties prove short-lived. The recom- 

 mendation of the director was to plant the most 

 profitable of the well known varieties, and test the 

 most promising of the new varieties. The remain- 

 der of the time was taken up with the reports from 

 the different districts and discussion on the same, 

 which may be summarized as follows: In the south- 

 east portion of the State the winters have played 

 havoc with the orchards. Willow Twig, Grimes- 

 Golden, Roman Stem and Fameuse doing best. 

 The Worden Grape seemed to promise well all 

 over the State. Thorough cultivation was recom- 

 mended as a preventive of Grape-rot. In reports 

 from neiiriy all parts of the State complaint was 

 made that orchards were dying and theory was 

 for hardier trees, and the efforts of fruit growers 

 should be largely in that direction. The great need 

 is good-keeping winter Apples. 



Eussian Apples. Mr. Tuttle, of the Wisconsin 

 Horticultural Society, gave his opinion on these 

 He stated that there could be no question as to the 

 hardiness of a large number of them, and as to 

 quality some of them were very good; thought the 

 south half of Iowa had no need for Russian varie- 

 ties, but advocated them for more unfavorable 

 parts where common varieties would not succeed. 



Meeting of the Wisconsin State Hor- 

 ticultural Society. 



The annual meeting convened at Waukesha, 

 on February It), with a good attendance. Sev- 

 eral hundred dollars had been offered in prem- 

 iums, and this led to a fine exhibition of fruits 

 and flowers, showing what Wisconsin can do 

 in the horticultural line during winter. 



On the second day President Smith gave his 

 annual address, containing an account of what 

 the society had accomplished during the year. 

 Prof. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege, lectured on "Insects injurious to Plant 

 Life and Means of Destroying Them." He 

 made the surprising statement that the annual 

 damage to the crops of the country from insects 

 was not less than S200,000,(ill0. 



In the afternoon Mr. Garfield, of Michigan, spoke 

 on " When, How and Where to Teach Horticulture." 

 He considered e.^perimental stations and horticul- 

 tural colleges necessary to attain the best results. 



B. S. Hoxie, of Evansville, read a valuable 

 paper on " Forestry," showing the growing neces- 

 sity to the country of preserving a proper propor- 

 tion of existing and of planting forests on the tree- 

 less areas to prevent our already changeable 



Nature did not give his trees any more sun 

 or rain than those of other orchards. But he 

 had acquired the skill to use, to the best ad- 

 vantage, what he did have. He had learned 

 to thin the fruit to obtain size, to cultivate 

 and enrich the ground, and to destroy the 

 curculios that would mar the beauty of the 

 fruit and lessening its worth. 



Merchants, mechanics, nurserymen, men in all 

 branches of trade have their specialties. Something 

 they make better, or sell lower, than their com- 

 petitors. So with men of science. They recognize 

 the fact that life is to short too achieve distinction in 

 more than one branch of learning. So they select 

 one, and spend a lifetime in its pursuit. 



Carl Linnaeus was a renowned scholar, but the 

 world remembers him as a botanist. Newton, Frank- 

 lin and David Hume, ripe scholars all, but known 

 to us principally through their special lines of work 

 and thought. 



I do not advocate the growing of one kind of fruit, 

 and only one : that would be putting all one's eggs 

 in the same basket, a practice that is never safe. 

 Grow as many kinds of fruit as you can, well and 

 profitably, and of these select one to be treated as 

 a specialty. 



There are growers at Cobden who have become so 

 skillful in growing Tomatoes, as never to fail to ship 

 that fruit by the wagon load when worth $1 a box. 

 The Peaches of others are said to be as firm as any 

 sold on South Water street. Others, by careful 

 growing and storing Sweet Potatoes, have made a 

 brand that sells in the market equal to the celebrated 

 Jersey stock. These gentlemen are all growing 

 Pears, Apples and small fruits like the rest of us, 

 with about the same success as the average. But 

 the largest part of their money is made on these 

 specialties. All of them are reaping a pecuniary re- 

 ward from their efforts to reach a higher grade of 

 excellence in a single kind of fruit. 



Specialties in Horticulture 



[Extract from a jmper bij Theodore Goodrich, he- 

 fore the nUnois State Horticultural Societi/]. 



One could grow a dozen kinds of fruit and be 

 considered successful; that is, make money on 

 all. But suppose that while growing the twelve, 

 he selects one and gives it closer care than the 

 others; studies its requirements and brines it 

 up to a higher point of excellence. A miller, 

 recognizing the value of this idea, madeaspeci- 

 alty of a choice grade of flour. He studied, 

 perfected his plans and machinery until he 

 could place a superior article on the market 

 cheaper than his competitors could an inferior 

 one, and he became a millionaire. 



I was on South Water Street, Chicago, last 

 September, when each commission house was 

 selling a thousand baskets of Peaches daily, the 

 great majority of which were sold for thirty- 

 five or forty cents. I desired a basket to take 

 home and they recommended a certain brand 

 at seventy-five cents, as being of an honest, 

 uniform quality of both fruit and packing. I 

 did not regi-et my purchase. 



Here was a man getting twice the market price, 

 and that when Chicago was flooded with Peaches. 

 He was evidently making a specialty of this fruit. 



Additional Notes on the Michigan 

 State Society's Meeting. 



What Can Legislation do for Horticulture? 

 L. D. Watkins in a paper suggested that the 

 aim of legislative work should be, 1st, to aid 

 the unknowing in doing what they should do. 

 3d, to establish stations for solving the various 

 practical problems of horticulture. 3d, to se- 

 cure a competent State Warden for looking after 

 the interests of horticulture, similar to those 

 they have in all Eurojjean countries. The cod- 

 ling moth alone has damaged the Apple crop 

 in only several orchards enough to pay lor such 

 improvements. Horticulture he said has a 

 wider application than simply the surroundings 

 of our homes. 



President Lyon stated that the governments 

 of Europe do not permit people to cut down 

 their own trees, except by permission of a pub- 

 lic tree warden. If ours had done so it would 

 to day be far better off ; it should now be done. 

 Mr. Fitzsimmons moved that a committee 

 be appointed to draft and submit resolutions to 

 the legislature, which was carried. He believed 

 that a suitable bounty offered for tree planting 

 for protection, if rightly brought before the 

 people would effect an improvement the same 

 as a bounty for wide wagon tire had done. 



Mr. Garfield had greater faith in the efforts of 

 horticultural societies in cultivating popular taste 

 than in laws. Spoke of the great work done in tree 

 planting through the Arbor Day movement. 



President Lyon believed that instead of a direct 

 bounty for planting, certain tax exemptions for the 

 work would be more effective- 

 Methods and Besults of Grafting. Mr. Charies 

 S. Crandall, of Lansing, presented an able paper 

 on this subject illustrated by numerous stereopticon 

 views. We expect in time to present most of these 

 illustrations in our cplumns, accompanied by Mr. 

 C.'s explanations. For the present we offer briefly 

 some of the main points advanced in the paper: 



The origin of grafting is unknown. Many ancients 

 treat upon it, some at great length. Until the day 

 of Thomas Andrew Knight (first half of the present 

 century) the art was largely shrouded in absurd 

 fables concerning its possibilities. Many problems 

 are yet wanting solution. Much needstobe learned 

 concerning the limitations of grafting; the neces- 

 sary botanical relationship.etc. On uses of grafting 

 he mentioned the increasing of kinds that will not 

 come true from seed; the clianging of the form of 

 trees; the increasing of the vigor of certain kinds 



