October 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



137 



The Miner PiiUM. 



Mr. Alfred Giddlngs, of Sabula, Jackson 

 county, sends us a liberal package of the Miner 

 plum, the first fruit of the kind we have ever 

 seen. Fruit about the size of Lombard, and In 

 quality comes quite up to expectation from 

 what we, had previously learned of it. We 

 could discover no marks of the Curculio, the 

 fruit being plump and fair. Taking into 

 account fair quality of fruit, the hardiness and 

 great productiveness of the tree, we cannot but 

 regard the Miner a valuable acquisition to the 

 fruit garden. We liad long wished to see and 

 taste the Miner, and we liave to thank Mr. 

 Giddings for the first opportunity. In a note 

 accompanying the fruit Mr. G. says: 



"Editor Western Fomologist.—l am sending 

 yon a few of the " Hinckley" or Minor plums, 

 which I hope you will receive safely. I wish 

 you were here, so that you could see them on 

 tlio trees, for they are in such great abundance 

 this year, and that is, I believe, wliat cannot 

 be said of .any other variety of plum. We are 

 able to sell them as low as 75c. per bushel under 

 the tree, or peddled out iu towns, up to 82. The 

 sample which I now hand you comes straight 

 from the old" Hinckley stock." 



The Dracut Amber. 



The Se.\son and Fruit. 



Editor Pomologist. — The drought In May 

 and July cut short much of the small fruit 

 crop. Fruit is very scarce. Not many apples, 

 some peaches, a few grapes; no other fruits 

 worth mentioning, consequently the insect 

 report is very short this season from this 

 section. 



There are but few pears and of the finer clier- 

 ries planted here, but so far the following var- 

 ieties of fruits are the best iiere: 



Apples.— V.etl Astraohan, Yellow Bellflower, 

 Maiden's Blush, Rambo, Smith's Cider, Sum- 

 mer Queen. 



Pear*.— Bartlett, Doyenne White, 



Peaches, mostly native. 



Small fruits, kinds mostly recommended. 



Mexico, Ind. D. A. F. 



Fruit in Tennessee. 



Editor Pomologist. — Fruit does remarkably 

 well here. Peach crop a failure iu some por- 

 tions of the mountains, iu others good. Apples 

 excellent everywhere; very few worms or im- 

 perfections of any kind. Grapes perfect, even 

 iu tire woods, and in neglected vineyards, of 

 which I know one of Concord, Catawba and 

 some other varieties, and no rot. 



The Muscadines grow wild here as large as I 

 ever saw the Concord, and I have seen them 

 covered with bloom as blue, and the flavor Is 

 quite good, although the skin is thick, and pulp 



liard. 



If I expected to live long enough to carry out 

 my desires, I would cultivate these native 

 grapes, .and li.vbridize them, then raise new 

 seedlings from the hybrid fruit seed 



Howard Springs, Tennessee. 



W. C. CONDIT. 



Wild Plums. — The Cedar Rapids Times ack- 

 nowledges the receipt of a " very superior va- 

 riety " of wild plums. They hang in clusters 

 upon the trees — are very large and uniform in 

 size. People should give more attention to 

 the propagation of the plum. There is as mucli 

 if not more difference among the wild plums 

 (in quality) of the thickets as among the im- 

 proved. Many of our wild plums are worthy 

 of domestication. Some of them grow to a 

 large size and by no means deficient in flavor. 



Mounding Trees.— Peach growers of Wayne 

 county, Ind., say there wilt be fall crops where 

 the trees were mounded late last fall, and half 

 a crop elsewhere. A foot and a half or two feet 

 of mounding is recommended. 



Thp aocompanying engraving illustrates tlie 

 much disseminated, but whore tried has prove; 



the Reading nurse- 

 ries, Reading, Mass., 

 has made it rather a 

 ■specialty among 

 grapes. lie says it 

 never fails of a crop 

 even iu the worst of 

 seasons, and ripeus 

 up some ten days 

 earlier tliau Hart- 

 ford Prolific. We 

 also have very fav- 

 orable reports on 

 the Di-acut Amber 

 from other sources. 

 The Superintendent 

 of the Experimental 

 Gardens at Wash- 

 ingtou, in his re- 

 port to the Com- 

 mis.sioner of Agri- 

 culture for 18 68, 

 says : 



"The Concord, 

 Hartford Prolific, 

 Ives, Perkins, Cliu- 

 toii, and Dracut 

 Amber, have proved 

 to be the only vari- 

 eties perfectly ex- 

 empt from disease 

 during the past 

 year. The Ailirou- 

 daek, loiia, Dela- 

 ware, Rebecca, Di- 

 ana, and others of 

 very superior fla- 

 vored I'rnit, when 

 compared with the 

 preceeding list of 

 healthy varieties, 

 will decidedly take 



precedence in localities congeiiial to their 

 growth ; but tluir liabibtics to disease 

 should always be taken into consiileiatiup, 

 when extensive planting is contemplated. 

 The conditions securing suecess, altho\tgh 

 known, cannot always be made available, 

 and, iu planting new localities, experiments 

 can bi-'St decide upon the most suitable vari- 

 eties." 



tli<> Di-acut Amber. This grape is not yet 

 d quite satisfactory. Mr. J. W. Manning of 



Grapes in Vine Valley. — Accounts 

 from this valley, published in th? Cultivator 

 and Country QeiMeman, state that the vin- 

 tage this year will be fully two weeks 

 earlier than last season, but the crop as a 

 whole will not be in excess of what it was 

 then. Isabellas and Delawares are set down 

 for a full crop ; Catawbas about an average ; 

 Concords and Roger's Hybrids fruit sparing- 

 ly ; lonas doing well there, though indifler- 

 ently about other points. 



TnuiT FOR Dyspeptics.— The Troy Whi/j 

 reports that a physician of that city, of many 

 years experience declares that he never knew 

 a confirmed case of dyspepsia that could not 

 bo cured by a free use of ripe fruit— more 

 especially apples which possess certain qual- 



ities that affect, favorably, the human system. 

 In summer the people would be much heal- 

 thier if they ate meat no oftener than a few 

 times a week, and used fruit and vegetables 

 instead. Pork and lard are the great pro- 

 moters of dyspepsia, and fevers and billions 

 diseases are fed by keeiiing up our bodily 

 heat of mid-winter through June, July, Au- 

 gust, September, by never changing our diet 

 from the heavy meals of January. 



Barrenness op Apple Trees. — The 

 Maine Farmer says: "David C. Pottle, of 

 Aliia, had two apple trees that were about 

 thirty years old, and never bore any fruit 

 nor even blossomed. One of them had been 

 grafted sixteen years, and the other was un - 

 grafted. They were apparently in good 

 health. He spread two or three quarts of 

 salt under each one as far as the limbs ex- 

 tended. The next year they bore crops and 

 have continued iu beariugeaeh season since. 

 The application of salt was about six years 

 ago, and it has not been repeated. Let other 

 readers of the Farner try the experiment, 

 and tell us the result. 



