54 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ April, 



HOVEVS SEEDLING STRAWBERRY. 

 This splendid berry was raised bv the 

 Messrs. Hovey. of Boston, and for this climate 

 is one of the "finest of all varieties. It bears 



much, and its influence extends over a much 

 larjrer area, but thus far not half the counties 

 in the State are represented. May we hope 

 that the best talent, not only in the agricul- 



thrui^Tanrmost delidouVof ' fruit.'Yre^ i tural, but also in horticultural interests in 



quently measuring, under ordinarj- cultiva- every county in the btate, w,U soon be repre- 



tion, three or four inches in circumference, 



or from an inch to an inch and a qviailer in 



diameter. To produce berries of 



mammoth 

 size, take large." thrifty plants and transplant 

 them in rich, deep soil, one foot apart, and 

 keep all the runners trimmed off. and the 

 ground loose. The next season clip oft all 

 but two or three of the first blossoms on each 

 plant, taking care to have a few plants of an- 

 other variety of the same class, with stomi- 

 nate flowers' in their vicinity. Strawberry 

 plants are commonly designated as male and 

 female, and it is of some importance to know 

 how to distinguish these from each other, 

 since a bed with too large a proportion of the 

 male plants will prove very unproductive. 

 The distinction can be readily made when in 

 bloom, the blossoms of the female having an 

 entirely green center, whilst those that exhibit 

 a great many yellow stamens represent the 

 male or barre'n "plants. Such flowers as have 

 only a portion of stamens around the l.>ase of 

 the" green conical centre of the flower are 

 terme<l staminate. or perfect blossoms. 



More than a quarter of a centuary 

 elapsed since the introduction of "Ho- 

 vey "s Seedling " to the horticultural 

 world, and many new varieties have 

 temporarily superseded them, conspic- 

 uously among which were "Wilson's 

 Albany Seedling," "Trioraph de 

 Gand,"' ' "Agriculturist." "Barnes' 

 Mammoth." "Monarch of the West," 

 "Charles Downing." "President Wil- 

 der." and many others, some which 

 were no improvement on Horey ; some 

 excelling them perhaps in special quali- 

 ties, but the larger number have been 

 long since abandoned. Perhaps the 

 most prolific in the Ions line of succes- 

 sion is the Albiny Seedling. We once 

 heard an experienced fruit-grower de- 

 clare that he could raise as many of 

 this berry on the same quantity of 

 ground, bushel for bushel, as any other 

 man could potatoes. After all the 

 newer varieties have had their "run" 

 it would not be surprising to see people 

 go back to Hovey acrain (although per- 

 haps under some other name), and we 

 only produce it here because it may be 

 legitimately rwrarded as the type of the 

 "new departure" made in the cultiva- 

 tion of the gtrawberrj" some thirty 

 years ago, and which is still in progress. 



sented in this board. Should such a result be 

 realized the combined knowledge of its mem- 

 bers would contain a store of matter from 

 which a report on the fruits of our Stale could 

 be more intelligently made than is possible 

 with all the present available sources. The 

 Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society has in 

 progress a catalogue of fruits adapted to our 

 State, which will be the most reliable for 

 Pennsylvania yet published, but it can not be 

 made complete until the State is fully repre- 

 sented in that society. The great uumlier of 

 valuable varieties of apples in this State 

 makes this a difficult task, and especially so 

 l-)ecause many varieties are popular only in a 

 few districts," while there are a few kinds that 

 are successfully grown everywhere. Therefore 

 the only .accurate report that can be made will 

 be from statistics showing what varieties are 

 best adapted to different sections of the State, 

 and which information can only be obtained 

 by proper testing. The majority of farmers 

 are not disposed to incur such inconvenience, 

 therefor it is only the more progressive that 

 we can rely upon to accomplish much in this 



VARIETIES OF FRUIT FOR PENNSYL- 

 VANIA.* 



The apple crop being of more value in our 

 State than all other fruit crops combined, 

 makes it of vast importance. It is impossi- 

 ble to do the subject justice in one short essay. 

 The great variation of soil makes it not an 

 easy task, when in addition we add the differ- 

 ence of both altitude and latitude, which 

 makes the variation of climate probably as 

 much as that of soil. Meteorological differ- 

 ences have also great bearing upon fruit crops. 

 The difficulty is not from want of varieties 

 (for we have enough to confuse almost any 

 one), but from a want of a proper system for 

 testing them in the different localities. Proper 

 organizations have always l^een and are still 

 wanting throughout the State to diffuse the 

 knowledge neeessary to enable any one to 

 make out a list of varieties, such as would 

 give the required information. There are but 

 few active horticultural organizations in our 

 State. The Pennsylvania Horticultural So- 

 ciety is perhaps the" oldest in the country, but 

 its influf-nce has never extended far beyond 

 Philadelphia. 



The Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society, 

 in less than twenty years, has accomplished 



*Be»l bsfon tbe me«tlng of tbr Pennrrlranii Bute 

 B9»rd of Ai^rlcalnire, bjr H. M. Baglc, Ju. (3, UTS. 



direction. One grand mistake 'that Pennsyl- 

 vanians have made, was the planting of so 

 manv northern wnter apples, which have 

 prov"en to be only fall apples, especially in the 

 eastern section of our State ; at the same 

 time some of the kinds most popular in the 

 eastern counties are rejected by some fruit- 

 growers in the mountain districts. All this 

 proves that a more thorough knowledge in 

 the matter of selection is of the utmost im- 

 portance. Much has been achieved toward 

 acquiring this much desired knowledge by the 

 progressive pomologists of our State. It is 

 therefore with gratification that we look upon 

 what has been accomplished, while we look for- 

 ward with hope toward still greater achieve- 

 ments in jKjmological knowledge. 



A more extensive 'Knowledge of geology, as 

 also of meteorology, would be of vast imjxirt- 

 ance to the intelligent horticulturist. The 

 ceological survey of our State, when com- 

 plete, can not help but become very u.scful, 

 not onlv to agriculture, but to horticulture as 

 well. Were we in pos.session of facts pertain- 

 ing to soil, temperature and varieties best 

 adapted to different localities, our s\jccess 

 then would not l»e complete without a 

 knowledge of how to manage our trees from 

 the time of planting to the marketing of their 

 crops, which embraces planting, pruning, 

 thinnine of fruit, proper fertilizers during 



destructive insects, applying fruits to their 

 best uses so as to realize the greatest returns, 

 with other knowledge necess.Tiry to make fruit 

 growing what it should be. It is also of great 

 importance, from a commercial standpoint, 

 that our State should realize a protit from 

 this branch of industry as well as from any 

 other, instead of paying to other States annu- 

 ally hundreds of thousands of dollars for 

 apples and other fruits which might as well 

 be grown within her own borders. In a corres- 

 pondence with a friend in Bucks county, he 

 states that from 1.5^000 to 18,000 bushe"ls of 

 apples, crop of ISii, were shipped from a 

 single railroad station. From another source 

 I learn that SI, 200 was realized from one 

 orchard, and that the dealer who purchased 

 them doubled his money on them ; also that 

 other orchards in that "section did nearly as 

 well. All these favorable reports are from the 

 same county. Xow it is not to be presumed 

 that Bucks county is tetter adapted to apple 

 growing than most other counties of our State, 

 but that the orchardists have adapted them- 

 selves to the business of apple growing. 

 Equally favorable reports could, no doubt, he 

 collected from other sections of our State, 

 even in the off year. 



I can hardly forego at this juncture to refer 

 to the hundreds of thousands of bushels of 

 peaches that are annually purchased from the 

 little State of Delaware, while our 

 State has thousands of acres just as 

 well adapted to the growing of this crop 

 as the former. Only a few years ago 

 peaches were shipped from Cumberland 

 Valley to Baltimore, while " the crop 

 was sliort in Delaware and Eastern 

 Maryland. The sections best adapted 

 to this crop lie principally south of 

 the Susquehanna river, but especially 

 in the southern tier counties. There 

 is no doubt in the mind of your essayist, 

 that should capitalists understanding 

 the business embark in this enterprise 

 in the sections referred to. the trade 

 of Delaware peaches in the middle and 

 western sections of this State would 

 in a few years be vastly curtailed, if 

 not entirely cut off. A suggestion 

 just here may not he out of place — 

 that the Secretry of this Board, while 

 collecting statistics relative to the com- 

 parative value of crops, at the same 

 time solicit reports, so far as possible, 

 of the actual value of the fruit crops 

 of our State, which would demon- , 

 strate their importance and the neces- 

 sity of their fostering care by the State, 

 so "as to make them not only of much 

 greater commercial value, but also to 

 enable our State to throw off its dependence 

 upon other States for so large a proportion of 

 our fniit supplies. 



Among the apples that have proven valu- 

 able in our State are the fellowing : 



Summer— EariyHar%est, Early Strawterry, 

 Primate, Summer Queen, All Summer, Red 

 Astrachan, Duche.ss of Oldenburg, Sweet 

 Bough. Summer Sweet Paradise. 



Autumn— Porter, Maidens Blush, Sum- 

 mer Rambo, Fall Pippin, Jefferies, Graven- 

 stein. 



Early Winter— Smokehouse, Rambo, Fal»- 

 water, "Pittsburg Pippin. 



Winter— Smith's Cider, York Imperial, I 

 Xewtown Pippin, York Stripe. Peck's Pleas- 1 

 ant, Ewalt. Rome Beauty, Dominie, Roman- 

 ite, Yellow liellflower, AVinter Sweet Paradise, J 

 Talman's Sweet, Lady's Sweet. 



Xorthem winter apples that have proven ofl 

 value, but in Eastern Pennsylvania are simply T 

 fall and earlv winter apples, are the following : 

 Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Ilubbard- 

 ston. Northern Spy. Esopus Spitzenberg, Rox-. 

 burv Russet, Twinty Ounce, King, besides) 

 other standard varieties in more northern lati- 

 tudes. These popular northern .-iiiples have, 

 however, proven equally valuable in the j 

 northwestern counties of" our State as good 

 keepers. In the mountain districts they are 

 also good winter apples, while some of the | 



the different stages of growth, keeping down | most popular kinds m Eastern Pennsjlvama 



