126 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



May, 



Some Points on Gooseberry Culture. 



J. N. STEARNS, KAI^MAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



Why this fruit is not more grown for market 

 and family use may be based, it seems to me, 

 upon several reasons, and it is to help dispel 

 these that I write. 



First, it seems to be the general impression 

 that the Gooseberry will not do well excepting 

 on certain soils, which it is fancied are just adapt- 

 ed to it. This is an error, as there is no fruit I 

 have grown that more readily adapts itself to 

 all soils than this. Moreover, I know of no fruit 

 of which as many bushels can be grown upon 

 a given area, or one that can be better depended 

 upon, for a crop annually, if well cared for. 



That the Gooseberry is most at home on a rich, 

 moist soil I can admit, but yet it is a fact that 

 I have produced, for years, perfectly satisfactory 

 crops on very dry, sandy soil. It is a fact, also, 

 that prices in the Chicago market have niled 

 much higher for this berry, for the past three 

 years, than for any other kind of small fruits. 

 In cultivating the Gooseberry my advice is to 

 set the plants fully four feet apart in the row, 

 and the rows six feet apart. Thorough priming 

 is one of the essentials. Keep the bushes well 

 trimmed out by cutting away aU small branches 

 where these grow thickly together. Give good 

 tillage and an annueil dressing of wood ashes, 

 and I think I may say the more the better. 

 Ashes act both as a fertilizer and for promoting 

 moisture in the soil — so acceptable to the plants. 

 With such treatment, if you have the right 

 variety, you will be rewarded with crops of 

 fruit to be proud of. 



A second reason for the unpopularity of this 

 fruit, no doubt, lies in the planting of unsuit- 

 able varieties. To my mind the Downing is by 

 all odds the best Gooseberry (fully tested) for 

 this country. But it should be stated that 

 thousands of the Houghton are delivered every 

 year by agents who have taken orders for the 

 Downing. Of course when they come to bear 

 the planter is disgusted with its small size 

 and at once says he wants no more improved 

 Gooseberries. The picture I have given is no 

 false one for I have seen agents packing hundreds 

 of the Houghton labeled Downing at a nursery 

 not far from my home. 



This, I should add, is not the fault of the 

 nurseryman referred to, for the agent buys his 

 stock at wholesale, and finding he can get the 

 Houghton at about half the price of the Down- 

 ing, as it is much easier propagated, he invests 

 in this and the fruit buyers sutt'er. The true 

 Downing, if it is weU grown, sells, I learn from 

 commission men, for the English Gooseberry, 

 The inference to be drawn from the above 

 is, in all cases of buying nursery stock, send 

 your order directly to some reUable nurseryman , 

 and you will get what you order ; give it to the 

 average agent and you will get what he can 

 buy cheapest — irrespective of what you order. 



Plum Culture In the Far North. 



K. W. MKRRITT, AROOSTOOK CO., UAIME. 



The Moore's Ai'ctic has proved with us to be 

 the hardiest and most prolific of all our fine 

 Plums,standing with this fruit where the Olden- 

 burg does in the list of Apples. We have 

 picked five quarts from one tree the next year 

 after setting out, and foui' years old when set. 



The trees are raised by sowing Canada Plum 

 pits for stoc=ks and grafting on them when one 

 year old, as early in the spring as convenient, 

 transplanting the next spring. The Canada 

 Plum being a fine small-grained tree it some- 

 what dwarfs the Plum put on it, making the 

 tree more fruitful. For this reason we graft as 

 high on the stock as possible. 



Root grafting has been tried but without 

 success, not more ttian one out of ten growing. 

 It IS therefore not practiced, nor is the method 

 of grafting so low as to allow the scion to root 

 and the tree to stand on its own roots. The 

 hardiest Plums put on the tender stocks com- 

 monly used are worthless here. We have an 

 excellent chance to test the hardy fruits, being 



on the 40 pai-allel ; many called hardy elsewhere 

 are tender here, we being probably 100 miles 

 fai'ther north than any othbr grower of similar 

 stock in the United States. 



A Talk About Fruit Packages. 



C. W. IDELL, COMMIFSION MERCHANT, NEW YORK. 



For years there has been a gradual change 

 going on for the better in fruit packages, to re- 

 alize which we have only to recall the time 

 when Huckleberries and Wild Blackberries 

 were marketed in soap or shoe boxes of any 

 size that could be picked up. When a box of 

 uniform size with broad bottoms and narrow 

 sides, holding 16 quarts, came in they were con- 

 sidered a superior package. One cannot avoid 

 smiling at the thought of the old and popular 

 Grape boxes, and how readily purchasers paid 

 fifty cents deposit on them ; they are gone and 

 the gift cases have finally followed them. 



Then there were the little old-fashioned splint 

 berry baskets once so popular in our market, 

 and packed in "Dutch Hampers" in order to 

 cart to the market, when on arrival frequently 

 the peddlers would string them on long poles 

 for retailing them. When Andrew M. Hopper, 

 of Poscack, N. J., who is yet a hearty old far- 

 mer, first introduced the open skeleton crate to 

 pack them in it was thought a model for others 

 to copy ; and for years there were no others, 



I remember well when the Beecher crate and 

 basket were introduced. What a wonder they 

 were, but the great objection to them was the 

 cost — three dollars. And now after repeated 

 introduction of various kinds I am offered a 

 crate, sufficiently strong to make one or two 

 trips filled with quart baskets, for 32 cents. 



The crates with baskets referred to are in- 

 tended for gift packages, and it does not seem 

 possible that a manufacturer can make money 

 in producing them at that price. They will be 

 of great advantage to the trade for out-of-town 

 buyers, who will gladly pay the difference in 

 cost in order to be rid of returning crates. 



The spirit of invention is the order of the 

 day, and these inventions come none too soon. 

 They are simply the outcropping of a de- 

 mand that already exists, for the cry tunong the 

 fruit buyers is, "We must have packages to go 

 with the fruit, for we will not be bothered with 

 such as must be returned; we can sell more 

 fruit in ' gift packages ' and get better prices." 



Now who are the ones to judge of the ne- 

 cessity of these changes, the dealer or the ship- 

 per? The dealer is compelled to meet with and 

 contend against these demands, and it is his 

 duty to inform his shippers of these changes. 

 The shipper may be blinded to his own interest 

 by owning some old packages "that cost him 

 money," yet the fact that these packages have 

 done duty for years and paid lor themselves 

 over and again is lost sight of, and he refuses 

 to adopt any "new tangled gift packages " as 

 he calls them, and sends off his old ones again 

 and again, although he has been told that the 

 loss arising from the sale of his fruit in them 

 amounts to more than would buy new ones. 



Fruit growers must not forget that each year 

 creates an increased production, and it is this 

 increase that the receiving merchants have to 

 contend with. Take it in New York, for ex- 

 ample, it is impossible for the local demand 

 here to consume it, hence new outlets must be 

 obtained and worked to get rid of this increase. 



Now is it just for the grower to say to the 

 merchant, ' ' We do not care how much trouble 

 or expense you are at to dispose of it, all we 

 care for is the net proceeds." Yet take this as- 

 sertion for granted, you must remember that 

 all you do get is the net proceeds; but you 

 want more, and yet refuse to believe your 

 merchant when he teUs you that a light new 

 gift package will return you a larger net than 

 the one you are sending in. But a few days 

 since I heard a Grape grower say : "I have 

 adopted the ' gift ease ' altogether and I con- 

 sider that I was the gainer during the past 

 season of one thousand dollars by so doing." 



The present movement among those who 

 handle Peaches to sell the basket with the fruit 

 is considered by some an arbitrary act. Some 

 growers ignore the statement of dealers who 

 say, "We can get more than the cost of the 

 basket in disposing of the fruit ;" but years of 

 experience has convinced the dealers of this 

 fact, for these baskets are an endless source of 

 contest and disputes, and they frequently create 

 breaches of friendship between shippers, re- 

 ceivers and purchasers. The dealers are simply 

 " foot balls " for the shippers and purchasers to 

 kick whenever there is the least excuse for 

 either to kick them ; and the former are so sore 

 from this kicking that they think it time to 

 stop and apply a remedy, and the seUing of the 

 baskets with the fruit is the true remedy. 



The purchaser is required to leave a deposit 

 on each basket he takes away ; frequently he 

 pays but little attention to the marks on them ; 

 during his possession they get marks mixed, 

 then arises a dispute when they are returned. 

 The dealers agree to pay for all baskets they 

 fail to return. The dealer considers a delivery 

 to the transportation company that brought 

 the fruit a return, and for all deficienciesup to 

 that point they are willing to pay for, but the 

 shipper knowing that these companies will pay 

 for no loss while in transit refuse to accept this 

 as a delivery, but they must be delivered at the 

 depot from whence they were shipped. This 

 and the difference of opinion on the value of 

 old baskets lost are other fruitful sources of 

 contention. Generally the shippers claim more 

 for the value of their old baskets, many of them 

 having been used for years, than the cost of new 

 ones. And often new onts are refused as substi- 

 tutes and cash is demanded. 



Some New Jersey farmers during the past 

 season have demanded fifteen cents for baskets 

 and covers when new ones could have been fur- 

 nished them at 8 1-2 cents. When remon- 

 strated with they retort, " Well if you wont 

 pay me my price I wont ship to you." This 

 is the real principal or basis of the demands of 

 the growers on the dealers, who have in one 

 season paid hundreds of dollars for old baskets 

 that they were compelled to thus pay for. 

 Shippers have only themselves to blame for the 

 action the dealers have taken for self protection. 



Growlngr Green Peas. 



MRS. J. S. R. THOMPSON, SPARTANSBURG, CO., S. 0. 



My plan is so entii-ely different from that 

 published in the March issue, and is so successful, 

 that I wonder if both can be good. When 22 

 years ago I began gardening I drilled in 

 Peas, one at a place, and two inches apart— re- 

 sult, one mess of Peas. Going in a garden of 

 one of my neighbors and seeing her plant her 

 second crop, I was astounded to see her bring 

 out a peck measure full of seed, and walk up 

 the open row with a handful of Peas, scattering 

 thickly in the drill, a row full 3 inches wide 

 with Peas, a continuous thick sowing. Noting 

 later when in bearing the bushels of Peas 

 gathered, I leai-ned then and there a lesson 

 ever since practiced. 



My fii-st and only planting of Peas was made 

 of Landieth's Extra Eai-ly. At this writing 

 they ai-e up thickly, a soUd green band 45 feet 

 long and three inches wide. I plant always in 

 double rows, ie. , two rows close together, 8 

 inches apart, then a space 3 1-2 feet, then two 

 more rows. 



As soon as well up I cultivate clean, and at 

 once stick with short bushy sticks from Dog- 

 wood, pushed down into earth to where the 

 bushes begin, which gives the very youngest 

 Peas something to cling to for support. 



My neighbor says that Peas love shade for 

 their roots and hot sunshine for vines, and this 

 is best obtained by thick planting. I find that 

 after once one foot high the ground never 

 seems entirely dry, a soft moisture pervading 

 the ground, delicious to the drought-fearing 

 southern cultivator. 



For my own use I never plant more than 

 three double rows, generally 45 feet long, and 



