1877.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



best estalilished : Wilson's Early, Dorchester, 

 Kittatiuiiv aud New Unohelle. 



The Siiythn-, more ro(3eiUly introduced, is 

 remarkably hardy, a stron;;, vigorous grower, 

 very productive," though rather small, com- 

 jiared with several of the preeediug varieties, 

 yet beiug hardy and productive may always be 

 relied on for a full crop of fruit. 



The llnosac Thoruless, so highly recom- 

 mended on account of having no thorns, may 

 be rated with Dodge's Thornless, Newman's 

 Tliornless, and all others of that class, which 

 have no other merit, their fruit being too in- 

 signilicant to claim attention. The white, red, 

 and puriile blackberries, such as Crystal 

 White, Col. 'Wilder and Dr. Warder, all 

 novelties iu their way, but of no iiractical 

 value in point of profit to fruit growers, have 

 been discarded. 



Clarkson's Early, of vrhich we received a 

 box of ripe fruit on the 'J7th of June, a few- 

 days before ^\'ilson's were ripe, may prove 

 to be a valuable variety. 15ush and upright 

 grower of medium size and very productive. 

 Berries fair si/.e, being three-quarters of an 

 inch in diameter, or over two inches in circum- 

 ference ; ripens uniformly, the whole crop 

 comingoff ina short time. Like the Amsden, 

 Alexander, and Beatrice Peaches, their great 

 value consists iu their carliness. Being first 

 in market gives an increased value to any 

 good fruit. 



Wilson Jr., is a seedling from the Early 

 Wilson, raised in 1S72, which has fruited two 

 years. Being so well pleased with its great 

 productiveness, large, early and luscious fruit, 

 we had the plant taken up in the latter part of 

 November, ISiVti, the roots cut into pieces and 

 bedded oiii, and now have over 1,000 strong 

 plants growing, which are from one to three 

 inches in height, and from which, in thecour.se 

 of another year we hope to plant a field of 

 them. The fruit is quite equalKo its parent in 

 earliness, size, and other good qualities, and 

 being at leasi 25 years younger, or a quarter 

 of a century later since it started from the 

 seed, w'ill be likely, by having a more vigorous 

 constitution, to resi.st the attacks of insects, 

 winch probe the canes of the Wilson's Early, 

 causing enlargements and obstructing the flow 

 of sap, and to escape the fruitless double blos- 

 soms so abundant on the old and weakly Wil- 

 son bushes. 



The California blackberry, with its long, 

 mulberry-shaped fruit, very early, sweet and 

 delicious, would be a great favorite if the 

 canes would endure our climate, but being 

 only half hardy they must be protected 

 through the winter, which will be a serious 

 drawback to its extensive cultivation in this 

 vicinity. It sends up no suckers, but propa- 

 gates by tips, same as Doolittle raspberry. 



The Dehiware, a seedling from the New 

 Rochelle, is very large, and an excellent black- 

 berry; ripens with the Kittatinny; bush a very 

 strong, vigorous grower of the largest class, 

 and appears to be perfectly hardy. 



The Sable Queen, Sinclair, Ilolcomb, Cum- 

 berland, and many others tluit we have fully 

 tested here, were not found to be equal to the 

 four varieties first named, and were dis- 

 carded. 



Origin of the most Valuable Varieties. 



It is worthy of notice that all the most 

 valuable varieties in cultivation have been 

 found growing wild, and were selected and 

 saved on accoimt of their superiority over 

 others, and from the thousands of seedlings 

 raised, none have yet proved superior to their 

 pareids. May it not be attributed to the fact 

 that sullicient care has not been taken to mix 

 the pollen of difierent varieties ? 



Having growni seedlings for many years 

 without favorable results, we have now 

 adopted the plan of planting some of the be.st 

 varieties near each other, and drawing the 

 branches of diff<Tent kinds together and tying 

 them with tarred rope yarn, so as to insure 

 the admixture of the pollen of many flowers, 

 thereby combining qualities in their seedlings 

 which could in no other way be found in the 

 same fruit. 



If as much care and attention were bestowed 



in selecting and propagating new seedling 

 blackberries as have been with the strawberry 

 and grape, we might yet obtain varieties even 

 superior to those that are now cultivated. 



Yield and Profit. 

 The yield and juice of blackberries vary, 

 like other fruit crops, with the surrounding 

 circumstances. We have known some i)lanta- 

 tions to yield aninially ^400 per acre, and up- 

 wards, for several years in succession, while 

 others did not pay more than lialf that 

 amount. Having kept a record of the yield 

 and sale of our blackberries for fourteen 

 years past, we find the average to be about as 

 follows, viz: Price fourteen cents per ipiart, 

 and yiehl 2,200 <iuarts per acre; which gives 

 the following results : 



Commission .it 10 per cent g'lO.SO 



Piekiiig 2,200 quarts at 11.^ cents 33.00 



Use of boxes 10.00 



Frunins;, cultivating, &c .34.20 



Net profit per acre 200.00 



Gross sales 3,200 qts. per acre, at He §308.00 



Sometimes we hear of extravagant reports, 

 calculated from the product of a small lot up 

 to what ten or twenty acres under similar cir- 

 cumstances woidd yield. A safer rule is to 

 take the acres and see what they have jiro- 

 duced. By refererencc to tlie report of tiie 

 West Jersey Fruit Growers' Association, who 

 appointed committees to collect the returns 

 from all tlie fruit growers in the neighbor- 

 hood, it will be found that 770 acres of land, 

 in strawberries, raspberries and blackberries 

 produced the sum of nearly 8200,000, or about 

 $2.50 per acre. 



The cultivation of blacliberries should al- 

 ways have strawberries and raspberries to 

 precede them, as the same pickers, crates and 

 baskets will serve for all, and there is less dif- 

 ficulty in keeping the pickers to finish up the 

 raspberries where there is a field of blackber- 

 ries ready to enter when the others are done. 

 — Wm. Parry. 



CHOICE WINTER FLOWERS. 



A Ramble through the Newport Greenhouses. 



Tons of Blossoms — How they are Grown, 



and the Prices Paid for Them. 



Newport, R. I., Jan. 0, 1877. 

 We hear much of Newport in summer, but 

 of Newport in winter little; and yet the at- 

 tractions of one season are quite equaled by 

 those of the other. The flowes uo longer 

 bloom on the lawn or around the doorstep, 

 but they are still liere in the greatest abund- 

 ance. The conservatories are all full, many 

 of them to repletion. Those that are owned 

 by florists are well patronized, and the con- 

 servatories of non-residents are taxed to meet 

 the owners' wants in town. From tlie latter 

 boxes of flowers are sent to the city mansions 

 on regular days the winter through — superb 

 boxes of roses, carnations, lilies of the valley, 

 violets, heliotropes and other flowers, valued 

 alike for their fragrance and their color ; and 

 like boxes are daily sent by florists to their 

 customers — dealers in the larger cities. The 

 quantity of flowers raised is marvelous, and 

 the deniand is never .slack till the advent of 

 spring and the return of blossoms in the 

 garden. 



The Newport Greenhouees. 



In these conservatories will be found all 

 that is rare and beautiful in horticulture. 

 From the rafters hang orchids from tlie 

 jungles of Asia and the swamps of South 

 America ; and in the shady spots will be 

 found the most delicate ferns. Here is a 

 banana rejoicing in a wealth of broad leaves 

 and a pendant bunch of fruit that will be slow 

 to ripen ; tubs of azaleas not yet in bloom, 

 for they will be kept back till Easter ; a 

 scarlet passion flower hanging in festoons 

 overhead, heliotropes trained to run on a wall 

 like a vine, and orange and lemon trees, in 

 fruit or flower at one and the same time ; with 

 thousands and tens of thousands of other 

 plants that are equally beautiful and are sure 

 to attract attention. But there are uo 



flowers more admired than the orchids when 

 they are in bloom. 



(Jrchids are supposed to require a great de- 

 gree of heat — so great that it has been found 

 necessary by persons who would cultivate 

 them to any extent to build houses for tlie 

 express purpose, the heat required being too 

 great for otlier plants .save the iiiucapple and 

 banana. But a fmv years ago the idea was 

 broached in I'higland that the thing was over- 

 done, and that while orchids from the hot, 

 damp jungles of Asia might need excessive 

 heat, those from Brazil and the Andes, on the 

 contrary, did better with a cool treatment, 

 and bloomed mor(; freely in a temperature of 

 40 degrees. Experience has not confirmed 

 this, but it has been found that tliey will do 

 well in the atmosphere of an ordinary green- 

 house. 



Some Statistics of Flower Selling. 



But the florists who raise flowers only for 

 the market give little heed to the culture of 

 other than jiaying plants — ]ilants that yield 

 a direct return for the time and trouble ex- 

 pended on them ; and so large has the busi- 

 ness become that men engaged in it find it to 

 their interest to take u)) one or two varieties 

 to the exclusion of all others. One florist, for 

 example, makes a specialty of lilies of the 

 valley, raising them in the greatest quantities, 

 while others only raise enough to meet a local 

 demand. Another, who is also a great grape 

 grower, devotes himself iiarticularly to roses, 

 and has si)ared no expense to jjcifect his col- 

 lection, having made repeated visits to Europe 

 to secure all that is desirable in his depart- 

 ment. A third divides his time between 

 violets and roses. Some notion of the business 

 may be formed from the number of flowers 

 sent from here to market in Boston, Provi- 

 dence, New York and Philadelphia, but 

 chiefly New York, between the first of Novem- 

 ber and the first of May. In 1871 there were 

 .shipped about flfty-six hundred dozen rose 

 buds at an average wholesale price of one 

 dollar twelve and a half cents per dozen ; in 

 1872 about eighty-five hundred dozen at an 

 average of one dollar a dozen ; in 1873 about 

 twelve thousand dozen at an average of 

 eighty-seven and a half cents ; in 1874 about 

 seventeen thousand dozen at an average of 

 seventy-five cents; in 1875 about twenty thou- 

 .sand dozen at an average of sixty-two and a 

 half cents, and during the present season about 

 twenty-five thousand dozen at an average of 

 fifty cents per dozen. Thus, with a constant 

 decline in the price, there has been a rapid in- 

 crease in the quantity raised. Of violets 

 there are a hundred thousand raised and for- 

 warded, one florist supplying one-half that 

 number ; of carnations fifty thousand ; of 

 lilies of the valley more than one hundred 

 tiiousand ; and of mixed flowers from fifty 

 thousand to one hundred thousand. This is 

 exclusive of flowers raised for this market, and 

 exclusive also of theyield of private conserva- 

 tories, which are sent to the owners as often 

 as once a week, and frequently at shorter in- 

 tervals. 



The Flowers that are Sold. 



It is the bud of the tea rose that attracts 

 most attention. Formerly it was the jajionica 

 that stood the -highest, but the latter is now 

 only cultivated to form a variety, for it has no 

 market value. One house iu England has 

 been engaged in raising camellias for fifty 

 years, having for that purpose a house two 

 hundred feet long, eighteen feet wide and 

 fourteen feet high, stocked with Chandlerii, 

 Elajnns Formosa and other leading varieties, 

 some of them ten and twelve feet high and 

 producing two thou.sand buds hi the course of 

 a season. 



The Rose Tree Jungles. 



One who has not seen these beds of roses 

 can have no idea of their size and beauty. 

 There are long liouses — liousc after house — 

 filled with bushes. In some of these houses 

 the bushes are so massed together as to seem 

 almost like a jungle— tea roses, as high as one 

 can reach, and covered with the greatest pro- 

 fusion of buds all fresh and vigorous and free 



