IS2 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



November 



Acknowledgment qf Fruits and Insects. 



Mr. D. B. Clarh, Conncll Bluffs, favors ij.s with 

 specimens of a seedlinii .apple t rigin.iting in 

 liis orclKU'd. Noticed ;ind illustrated on ,iu- 

 other page. 



We have from Mr. Lewis Martin, Anoka, 

 Minn., specimens of two seedling apples, said 

 to have originated thirty miles north from St. 

 Paul. Elsewhere described. 



Mr, H. A. Terry, an enterprising horticultu- 

 rist at Crescent City, sends us specimens of ten 

 varieties of apples, none of which are yet in 

 season. The collection includes some new and 

 very handsome apples. Will receive further 

 attention in due time. 



Mr. N. R. Harrington, near Polk City, favors 

 us with a very fine collection of apples from 

 his orchard— large, fair, and clear of the core- 

 worm— a pest Mr. H. informs us has not yet 

 appeared in hi» orchard. His crop is about 

 seventy hu.shels of the most valuable sorts.- 

 We find very fine specimens of Telpehocking 

 White Winter Pearraain, Willow Twig, North; 

 ern Spy, White Bellflower, and others, all gat| 

 factory with Mr. H. 



Mr. J. C, Finlayson. Eldora, Hardin county, 

 sends an apple for a name. It is unquestion- 

 ably a seedling. Fruit rather small, a very fair 

 cooking apple. Of its origin, etc., Mr. F. says : 

 " I found the tree growing in an old orchard in 

 this county where nearly everything el.se had 

 died out, leaving this healthy and vigorous, 

 and bearing annually good crops of fruit, such 

 as I send you. The tree seems to be remarka- 

 bly hardy, and as it is unlike anything with 

 which I am acciuainted on the hardy list, I 

 think it will be an acquisition-" 



Received from Mr. Abner Branson, West 

 Branch, Cedar county, a butterfly, upon which 

 he remarks : " In the month of September, the 

 butterflies, of which I inclose a specimen to 

 you, were very numerous alraut here in the 

 orchards. Can you inform ns what they are 

 and what insect we may look for nest season 

 as their progeny?" We are not able to give the 

 information desired. Have sent the specimen 

 to Mr. C. V. Riley, Missouri State Entomolo- 

 gist, from whom a reply may be looked for in 

 December number. 



The Mediterranean Feuit Trade. , 

 J. H, Bostwick.U. S. Inspector, publishes in 

 the N. Y, Evening Post an interesting state- 

 ment of the fruit trade between the Mediterra- 

 nean ports and New York, fron* which the 

 following particulars are gathered: 



The importation of oranges and lemons 

 previous to 1830, was small, not exceeding 15.000 

 or 20,000 boxe.s a year, and the capital employed 

 in the business did not exceed 530,000. The cost 

 of the fruit did not exceed SOo a box at the 

 place of shipment, and here it was sold at 

 about Jl.50 a box. But since 1830 the importa- 

 tions of Iruit have been steadily and rapidly 

 advancing, the present year exceeding the last 

 year by some 15 per cent, The amount of capi- 

 tal now employed in the fruit trade of New 

 York equals SI,DOO,O0O! The total number of 

 boxes of oranges imported last year was 

 ■19i,972, including 2231 cases; and of lemons, 

 241,790, including 22,")'J cases; making a total of 

 8.5,814,000 lemons, or something more than two 

 lemons to every roan, woman, and child in the 



United States. Importers of fruit are subject 

 to great losses from time to time, arising from 

 the rotting of the fruit or the glutting of 

 market. For illustration : there were at one 

 time, in March, 1859, no less than 38 cargoes of 

 fruit in the New York market— say 170,000 

 boxes; and during the year, not less than IIS 

 cargoes arrived in sailing vessels; and the per 

 centage of loss was very great, amounting to 

 $1,000,000. Down to I860, sailing vessels were 

 exclusively used for the transportation of fruit 

 to this market. An experiment \-as tried that 

 year of employing steamers. But it proved an 

 expensive failure, and .was immediately a an- 

 doned. In iSOS), however, another attempt was 

 made with steamers, and a regular line estab- 

 lished between Palermo and New York, a 

 steamer to arrive every seven or ten days. 

 Tills experiment has been more successful 

 than the first. The steamers average only 

 about 28 days in their passages, and there is 

 much less loss of fruit than by sailing vessels. 

 But still the lack of ventilation, and the heat 

 generated by the boilers and furnaces cau.se 

 very heavy losses ; and not until steamers are 

 constructed especially for this trade can the 

 trial be established of using steamships in- 

 stead of , sailing ve,ssels in this highly import- 

 t business. 



The aeundace of Fruit. 



If we are to believe the reports that come 

 from all quarter^, the fruit crop of the county 

 was never more abundant, taking the county 

 through than the present season. In many 

 of the older States, apples-the fruit of all 

 fruits— are .a drug in the market. In some por- 

 tions of northern New York farmers are feed- 

 ing out large quantities of their apples rather 

 than manufacture them into eider at S1..50 per 

 barrel— the mai'ket price of cider. All through 

 the New England States the apple crop is re- 

 ported immense, beyond any precedent. An 

 exchange says, "cider mills are kept running 

 night and day, by lantern and moonlight." A 

 Boston paper says western New York apples are 

 selling in that market (or S2.00 to $2.25 a barrel, 

 wholesale. 



The grape crop all over the country has been 

 a very full one, and in qra'ity never before so 

 good. The numerous tests made in different 

 localities of grapes and wine, invariably show a 

 richer fruit than has every)een produced in this 

 country before. The California crop was not 

 only superior in quality but unusually large. 

 At Pleasant Valley, N. Y., the crop in that sin- 

 gle locality is set down at not less than 7,000 

 tons. 



The peach crop appears to have come up also, 

 " hip and thy," witli the apple and grape crops. 

 The little State of Delaware alone claims to 

 have produced at a low estimate 1,3-50,000 b.tskets 

 of peaches. At the height of the peach sea- 

 son in New York, the receipts for one week 

 were reported at 578 car loads, to say nothing of 

 the arrivals by steamers and sloops. 



Duncan's Falls Blackeekry. 



Mr. J. C. Neff, of Duncans's Falls, /5hto, 

 writes us about a new blackberry he#ias in 

 cultivation, he saysof it:— I picked ripe berries 

 of the Puncan's Falls, July 14. I believe this 

 blackberry Is bound to supercetle all others. 

 The plant Is t\ rampant grower and fruits 

 abundantly. The fruit Is as large as Lawton 

 and as sweet as the Dorchester. It is the 

 earliest among many varieties on my grounds, 

 except Mason's Mountain, a variety, though 

 early, too srp.all. I picked one bushel of fruit 

 of the Puncan's Falls from sixteen oajies last 

 July." 



Apple and Plum on Wild Stocks. 



Ed. romolorjist .-—Allow me to inquire through 

 the columns of your journal if our leading 

 varieties of apples can be grafted successfully 

 upon the native wild crab, and the Miner and 

 Lombard plums on our native wild plum stocks, 

 and whatwould be the result of such a union 7 



Newton, Iowa. Enquirer. 



i?cmarAs.— The finer varieties of the apple and 

 the plum lake readily on the wild stock. With 

 the apple, however, there is nothing to be 

 gained whatever by such a method— it is labor 

 lost. The scion outgrows the stock, and is lia- 

 ble to break oflT. As to growth of scion and 

 stock, the same objection applies to the plum 

 —the scion makes a larger growth than the 

 stock. But there is one important advantage to 

 be gained by working the domestic plum upon 

 the wild stock— early and great fruitfulness 

 while the tree does last. II will pay to 

 propagate the plum In this way. The nearer 

 to the ground the grafting is done the bettor. 



A Seedling Apple Orch.\rd. 

 Editor Western Pomolor/ist .-—Near me Is a 

 seedling grove of apple trees of about three- 

 fourths of an acre, standing upon the site of an 

 old nursery. The trees are in bearing and the 

 fruit embraces fifty or more varieties, no two 

 of which are alike either in taste or color. 

 Some of them are good imitations of some 

 grafted varieties. With a little selection much 

 of the fruit bears about as good a price in the 

 market as the cultivated varieties. This patch 

 of seedling apple trees forms a handsome grove 

 and produced fifty or sixty dollars worth of 

 fruit annually. What crop will pay better? Is 

 there not room yet to increase the list of oitr 



valuable apples by the production of new seed- 

 lings. 



Thomas Paddington. 

 Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 



Apples for the South.- A correspondent 



of the 8outh Land says there are not over a 



dozen varieties of northern apples that succeed 



in the southern States— is not acquainted with 



more than six : Red Astrachan, Early Harvest, 



Jonathan, Duchess of Oldenburg, Summer 



Queen, Benoni, and Fall Pipin. Knows four 



more that will ripen, but are out of season as 



they come to maturity when pears and peaches 



are abundant ; hence, of no account except for 



drying, Ked June, Streaked June, and Yellow 



June are all fine early apples of southern 



origin, 



•-•-♦^ 



Shade for Tomatoes. — A corespondent 

 of the Country OeJitXeman 837,1: — "During 

 this season I have tried mauy plans for 

 ripening tomatoes and melons early, by 

 pruning the vines near tlie fruit, removing 

 leaves and other shade, and e.xpo.siiig the 

 plants to the action of the sun, while I have 

 'ft other vines much shaded by grass, and 

 to my utter surprise, find the latter ripen 

 more rapidly and evenly, besides being of 

 better size. The same seems true as regards 

 the large Hubbard squash. I believe the 

 above facts are at variance with the general 

 idea on the subject." 



The largest, sweetest, and best grapes are 

 those grown in the shade of the leaves, a 

 fact fully and fair'y demonstrated. Why 

 may not the same conditions be favorable to 

 the best development of some other fruits, 

 and also to vegetables? There is a great 

 deal yet to be learned in the school of horti- 

 culture. 



