Vol. I. 



Pomology, Gardening, Forestry, Horticulture, Rural Architecture, Bees. 



DES MOINES, IOWA ; LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS, AUGUST, 1870. No. 8 



MARK MILLER, 



Editor and Proprietor^ - - Des Moines, 



J. STAYMAN, Leavenworth, Kansas. 



Single Cnpy $ 1.00 



To a Club of Five 460 



Twenty 15.00 



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QtJEKiES. — We invite questions from our 

 readers upon subjects pertaining to Pomology, 

 upon which information may be desired. — 



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For a longer continuance than three months 

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.^- Fifty per cent will be added to the above 

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Central Iowa District Agricultural Fair. 



All things considered, we are led to regard 

 the summer exhibition of this society a suc- 

 cess, though the display in some departments 

 was quite meagre. The time for holding the 

 fair was fixed in accordance with the usual 

 run of the seasons for small fruits, such as 

 the strawberry, etc. It is well understood, 

 however, that the season for this class of 

 fruits was some days in advance of the usual' 

 time of ripening. Heuce it was, coupled 

 with a short and defective crop, that the 

 display of summer fruits was comparatively 

 light. Grown in large variety, the straw- 

 berry is the fruit in making up a summer 

 exhibition of fruits. 



In the strawberrjT line, Mrs. F. R. West 

 presented two baskets of very fine fruit, one 

 of which represented a seedling of her own 

 originating, and the Wilson. Mrs. West's 

 seedling is a large berry, lighter color, and 

 of milder acid than the Wilson. Season about 

 the same. Mrs. W had also Lum's Autumn 

 and Doolittle's Black Cap raspberries in good 

 condition — fine, large, and perfect. 



Rev. S. Haines made a very good show of 

 small fruits. We observed in his collection 

 the strawberry, currant, and raspberry. Mr. 

 H. had taken time, or rather the season, by 

 the forelock. Seeing that some ten or a 

 dozen varieties of his strawberries were 

 ripening up too early for the Fair, he picked 



and bottled specimens, and thus had them in 

 a good state of preservatiou. With an ordi- 

 nary season, Mr. H. would have made a 

 capital display of the strawberry fresh from 

 the vines. Mr. H. also showed raspberries and 

 apples — the Willow Twig, large, sound, and 

 fair. 



John C. Smith made a good show of ap- 

 ples, considering the season — Willow Twig, 

 Domine, and Jonathan — all plump and sound 

 and apparently good for an indefinite length 

 of time. We were surprised to find the Jon- 

 athan so sound and perfect on the 23d of 

 June. Mr. Smith's modus operandi for keep- 

 ing his apples in so fine a condition, is sim- 

 ply tight boxing and storing in a cool, dry 

 cellar, with the temperature a little below 

 the freezing point. It should be understood 

 that the apple may be frosted without at all 

 injuring it, if boxed or barrelled. In fact, 

 for long keeping it must be kept at a lower 

 temperature than almost any other fruit. 



The floral department was very fine — by 

 far the best show of plants and flowers that 

 has ever been brought together in this part 

 of the State. For this veiy attractive fea- 

 ture of the Fair the public arc mainly indebt- 

 ed to the Messrs. Westphall, of Davenport. 

 Their collection was quite complete, and af- 

 forded those present a favorable opportunity 

 for purchasing rare plants and flowers for the 

 conservatory and garden. And, we were 

 pleased to ob.serve that the opportunity 

 seemed to be highly appreciated, judging 

 from the purchases made by many of our 

 citizens. 



The display of pantry stores was very 



creditable, though here, as in the fruit de- 

 partment, a very full exhibition was not to 

 to be expected, for the reason that many 

 fruits indispensable to a good show in this 

 department were not in season for prepara- 

 tion. Mrs. F.R. West made 24 entries ; Mrs. 

 J. M. Otis 20, and Mrs. 8. S. Hoopes, 6— ma- 

 king altogether a very good display of pre- 

 serves, cakes, biscuit, hams, butter, etc. 



The show of stock was confined to horses, 

 alone, and we take it for granted was good, 

 as the knowing ones said it could'nt be beat. 



A Geological collection from the Agricul- 

 tural College, was a point of much ^interest 

 in the exhibition. It included many speci- 

 mens of rare interest to the lovers of this 

 science. The collection was in charge of 



Mr E M. Hungcrford, a college student, an 

 enthusiastic j'oung gentleman, who will make 

 his mark some day. 



The arrangements for the fair could not 

 have been more complete. Floral Hall was 

 very tastefully festooned and otherwise oraa 

 mented, as might have been expected under 

 the supervision of Or. Shaw, the Secretary 

 of the Association. 



For the Western Pomologist. 



The Early Pennock. 



Friend Miller. — As the Homestead has 

 made the statement that the Pennock apple 

 is the most successful bearer of any other 

 variety in this county, (Van Buren), I would 

 state that I do not wish the public to be mis- 

 led by it. In emigrating to this State in the 

 spring of 1843, my father bought 50 apple 

 trees at Cincinnati, and brouglit them here, 

 among which were a number of trees of the 

 Winter Pennock, or Big Romauitc, and as 

 they proved to be rapid growers and prom 

 ised to make nice trees, we budded quite ex- 

 tensively from them ; and as the trees sold 

 quite readily, a good many were distributed 

 through the county, and we set quite a 

 number ourselves. In from six to eight 

 years they commenced bearing, and have 

 generally borne pretty fair crops of fruit ever 

 since, with an occasional season of abundant 

 fruitage — as last season — and then followed 

 bp a season of total failure, as the present 

 one. 



The Pennock has probably borne more a|i- 

 ples here than any other variety, because the 

 trees are old and ham been a good white in bear- 

 ing, but there are many others of the newer 

 varieties that will " beat it to death " at the 

 same age. 



1 he Pennock, too, has been a profitable 

 market apple here, for the very reason that 

 the majority of those who buy fruit, look al- 

 most exclu.sively to the size and color — re- 

 garding the flavor as of secondary considera- 

 tion. Une dealer from this vicinity shipi)ed 

 over two hundred barrels of fruit to Des 

 Moines two years ago, about ninety of whieh 

 were the Pennock, and he actnally used the 

 Pennock to sell the balance of his stock with 

 ■ — requirii g so ma.ij' of other varieties to be 

 taken with every barrel of Peni,ook. 



During a resideLce of 15 years on a farm 

 of my own, I have never been guilty of the 

 folly of planting a Pennock tree, and I never 

 recommend it to others, and consequently 

 keep but few in my nursery. 



The real quality of the fruit is third rate, 

 and its tendency to " speck " and consequent- 

 ly to early decay, render it a very undesira- 

 ble fruit to plant, when so many better va- 

 rieties can be obtained at the same price. 



KeosauquM, Iowa. Ira Phillips. 



