1887. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



2(1 



air is most invigorating, and the sun can 

 well be borne. It is possible for people to 

 be out-of-doors all day with advantage, and 

 the fruit eaten fresh has a virtue it loses in 

 transportation. 



If these benefits were better understood it 

 would be a^ regular for families to seek farm 

 houses from September till November as it is 

 now to go the other way. A season of ripe 

 fruit eating, and stirring life in the country, 

 when the air i>rompts to activity, would be 

 better for many ailments than a course of Sar- 

 atog^a waters. 



In not a few parts of the interior it is a 

 growing custom for city people to seek the 

 vineyards at the wine-pressing season, to drink 

 the "must" or juice fresh from the press. 

 Delicious draught, which as medicine far out- 

 does drugs. For consumptives it furnishes the 

 phosphates of the vine, its actd quickens torpid 

 livers and cleanses the blood of rheumatics. 

 It is a corrective of obstinate obstructions, and 

 sallow, lanquid women go home from 

 a vineyard course with bloom on 

 their cheeks, and spirit in their 

 frames. But they do not live on fruit 

 alone, even a pig will rebel at that. 



Why cannot many farmers and 

 fruit growers raise their own poultry 

 and mutton, their fruit, Sweet Corn, 

 Tomatoes and Peas plentifully till 

 hard frost, with a little cai-e and 

 she'.ter? And then to feed such to 

 boarders at -^5 aud $8 a week, rather 

 than sell Apples at 81 a barrel. 

 Boarders don't need so much prepara- 

 tion after all. Clean uacarpeted bed 

 rooius, fur good sense and sanitation 

 are pulling up bed-room carpets as 

 abominations ; good horn em a d e 

 straw, oat chaff, husk or clean wool 

 beds, not with wire mattresses, which 

 are the chief expense. Neat toilet sets 

 of painted tin, which are the last 

 English art fashion, and a very sensi- 

 ble contribution to thrift aud con- 

 venience, such furniture as a car- 

 penter could make, and cheese 

 cloth curtains, with well drained grounds, good 

 drinking water and good food plainly served 

 would satisfy most people, and farmers cught 

 to furnish aU these to their own families. 

 The women too had far better work for boarders 

 in cool weather, when the air puts life iuto them. 



It would he shrewd too for town people to 

 buy their winter butter, fruit, cheese and 

 honey right from good farmers in such a fall 

 vacation. It would be profitable to both sid^. 

 The farm wives can get more than country price 

 for their produce, and town people can stock 

 their pantries for less than town rates, with 

 vastly better quality. The fruit has the flavor 

 of the sun, and has not been impaired by the 

 fetid air of markets. 



Summer Pruning of Pines. These trees when 

 growiiig fast are apt to make thin, unpleasant- 

 looking specimers. A remedy can be accom- 

 plished by shortening the growths which the tree 

 makts this season All the strongest growths are 

 in the upper portions of the tree, and if these are 

 cut back a few inches f(7i(7e soft and green quite 

 a number of small buds will be formed, which next 

 year will make numerous branches, and thus 

 thicken up the tree. The leading shoot must be 

 cut off as well as the rest. Another bud for a 

 leader will be formed now, and the tree will iu no 

 way be disfigured by the shortenine:-in. It is im- 

 portant to be borne in mind that only the strong 

 upper shoots should be pruned back. The weaker 

 ones growing near the ground should not be 

 touched— Germantown Telegraph. 



Trees as Bushes or Pollards. There is nothing 

 finer for i\ small lawn or for groups on a large 

 lawn. Among the best for this purpose are the 

 Lindens, especially our common Basswood, Catal- 

 pas. Tulip tree. Beeches, and Birches; and among 

 fruit trees, the Cherries. Even a dwarfed Apple 

 may be made by pruning alone, and made very 



CONDENSED GLEANINGS. 



Greenhouse "Without Heat. An old or any 

 house can be utilized to good advantage by in the 

 fall planting the beds with Tulips, and Candidum 

 Lilies, and let the house take care of itself, until 

 toward spring, wlien with a very little heat, 

 and sometimes with merely i he heat of the sun, 

 there will be Tulip blooms for Easter and Candidum 

 for June school commencements. The treatment 

 follows nature so closely that the bulbs are not in- 

 jured for future blooming —American Florist. 



Best Crop for the Young Orchard. In our clim- 

 ate, Buckwheat. If any one doubts this it may pay 

 to sow half the ground for the first four years to 

 Buckwheat, and plant the other half to Pv-^tatoes, 

 Corn, Cabbages, or other cultivated crops. By the 

 end of the four years the trees in the Buckwheat 

 will be the largest, healthiest and soundest of the 

 patch. The Buckwheat has a tendency to keep the 

 ground cool, mellow and moist during the critical 

 period during July and August. With this kind of 

 soil the nitrogen feeding roots can come up near to 

 the surface and the trees seem to ripen up better 

 for winter. The Buckwheat can be cut for use, but 

 if left on the ground there is little danger of the 

 giidling by mice.— J. L. Budd, in Iowa Ilegister. 



HEAD OF DWARF GERMAN GREENS. 

 pretty. The Jonathan, grafted on ordinary stock 

 and headed low, becomes a marvel of beauty. Of 

 forest trees cut into shrub form; I have on my 

 lawns many specimens of Catalpa. They do not 

 exceed ten feet in height, and are in some cases as 

 many feet through. Most of the Magnolias do 

 better cut in this form. The Linden furnishes 

 much larger leaves and will blossom freely when 

 old. I have cut them down three to five inches in 

 diameter, and in two years secured superb shrubs. 

 Our wild lands often show us superb specimens of 

 such planting, the result of cattle browsing. Na- 

 ture thus gives us a hint. —Gardener's Monthly. 



Dwarf German Greens. This hardy variety is 

 well known to market gardeners near New York, 

 and is more generally grown than any other kind 

 of greens. It is called ''Sprouts," and cultivated 

 extensively on Long Island and in New Jersey for 

 the New York market. It will grow and winter 

 better on a rich, sandy loam than when raised on 

 a heavy soil. The seed should be sown in Septem- 

 ber, using two pounds of seed to an acre, on ground 

 well manured and worked in rows, from twelve to 

 fifteen inches apart When the plants are two 

 inches high, let them be carefully hoed, thinning 

 them out where they are too thick. Some garden- 

 ers put on a mulch of salt mareh-hay in December, 

 removing it in April. When the Sprouts have 

 made a fair growth in the fall, mulching is not nec- 

 essary. When Spinach is scarce, this kind of 

 greens sells freely in large quantities and at very 

 profitable rates. Wtiere it does well gardeners 

 realize from two to three hundred dollars per acre 

 profit. Prices often fall very low. I have known 

 hundreds of barrels of Sprouts to be sold at fifty 

 cents, and even less, per barrel, while other seasons 

 they will range from two to four dollars per barrel. 

 Two ounces of seed will yield enough for garden- 

 culture for home use. The seed can be sown early 

 in April, and tender greens can be had in this way 

 in June. When grown on rich soil it is very tender. 

 — giiinn's "■ Money in the Garden." 



The Philosophy of the Use of Fertilizers. 



No soil can produce any crop abundantly if it 

 does not contain all the food that the plants require. 



The value of commercial fertilizers is based chiefiy 

 on the analysis showing the available phosphoric 

 acid, ammonia and potash. The bone phosphate 

 of lime existing in the bone meal must be made 

 available by the addition of sulphuric acid, thus 

 changing the bone i)hosphate into phosphoric acid, 

 which is readily transported to the roots by the 

 water of the soil. ShouM the undissolved bone 

 phosphate in shape of bone-meal, bone-ash, bone- 

 black, horn, hair, wool, etc., be applied to the 

 ground they would feed the roots so slowly by 

 natural decomposition thet it would be insuflScient 

 for heavy cropp, or else very large quantities of it 

 are required. Many are under the impression that 

 commercial fertilizers are nothing but stimulants. 

 This notion is simply absurd. Commercial fertil- 

 izers furnish true plant food if made from raw 

 bones, as their composition is the same as that of 

 farm manure, only in a more concentrated form, 

 and therefore more cheaply applied; a very few 

 pounds of powdered bone meal will contain as 

 much actual plant food as a load of barnyard ma- 

 nure. Plants have been grown to full maturity and 

 abundant yield on poor lands with commercial 

 bone phosphates only; this could not be done 

 with stimulants or ammoniates, same as 

 cotton-seed meal, blood, castor bean, re- 

 fuse, etc., as they contain only ammonia, 

 which is soon exhausted in starting the 

 growth of the crop, but unless there is an 

 abundance of plant food in the soil with- 

 out permanent results to the crop so far 

 as the seeds go ammonia will proJuce 

 grass and roots only. A sick man may 

 be carried over a crisis with alcoholic 

 stinmlanis, but cannot recover on the 

 same or exist on it permanently. Sir J. 

 B. Lawes, of England, has grown crop 

 after crop at a practical profit on ex- 

 hausted lands for forty-two years In suc- 

 cession on bone phosphates only, and his 

 crop of 1KS3 was as large as in IH-IO, using 

 the same quantity of fertihzer annually 

 as necessary to produce that quantity 

 of grain per acre. — H. Studniczka, in 

 Coleman's Rural World. 



Handling and Marketing Grapes at 

 Penn Yan. Picking is usually done by 

 men, but can be done by women. The 

 best pickers are the men who have been 

 with the vines from the spring. The 

 qualities required in a picker are a 

 thorough knowledge of the condition 

 and ripeness of the fruit and care in 

 handling. All the fruit can seldom be taken off 

 at one time. Usually enough fruit is kept on 

 hand in the cellar for two or three days' packing 

 for the purpose of curing, and to guard against 

 having to stop packing in unfavorable weather 

 for picking. Dry weather must be chosen for 

 picking if possible. The fruit is placed in picking 

 trays 24 inches long by eight inches deep and 

 twelve inches wide. These are taken to the cellar 

 or packing room on wagons arranged for the 

 purpose. Packing and trimming are done by 

 the women. The packing room is light, clean, 

 and well ventilated, and is kept as cool as practi- 

 cable to be comfortable to work in. Every imper- 

 fect Grape must be removed. The clusters must 

 not be mutilated any more than positively neces- 

 sary, nor the bloom brushed off. Each trimmer 

 has a stand, chair, a pair of trimming scissors 

 with long, slim points, and a pan for refuse Grapes. 

 Four hands to trim, one to tack, and a man for 

 the lifting, covering, marking baskets, etc., are 

 the usual gang Five and tea-pound baskets with 

 covers are universally used as packages Good 

 judgment and experience on the part of the 

 packers will largely determine the condition of 

 the fruit when opened. Seventy-five cents for 

 trimmers. Si for packers, and $1.25 for pickers 

 are the usual wages per day. Many Grapes are 

 shipped by express, but by far the larger part by 

 freight, the roads giving refrigerator or well ven- 

 tilated cars and quick time. Our markets are the 

 larger cities east and west and the wine compa- 

 nies. Inferior Grapes are either thrown away or 

 the juice is used for wine, brandy, or vinegar. 

 Certain conditions of the weather will cause a large 

 loss in shipping fruit which will in no wise injure 

 it for wine purposes. Catawba, in a good, common 

 cellar, can be kept for months with little loss, if 

 properly ventilated, and with proper humidity, 

 in a temperature which can be obtained without 

 ice. Delawaresare shoit-lived, or too delicate to 

 keep long. Concords can be used to holiday time. 

 The Niagara, for a white Grape, though com- 

 paratively new, is without doubt a valuable variety 

 and is being extensively planted —Geo. C. Snow, 

 in Kiirttl New Yorker. 



