162 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



December 



mer, provided Ihc] glass is partially shaded 

 and the house kept moist." 



Here we have the positive testimony of 

 Mr. Sanders' experience, who no person 'will 

 question who knows him. But to fully set- 

 tle this matter in a scientific point of view, 

 we find the following in the Praii-ie Farmer, 

 copied from Editor's Scientific Record in Har- 

 per'i Magazine of September : 



"Cause of variegation of i«aw«.— According 

 to Mr. Marnen, the difference in the color of 

 the leaves of the variegated plants, which 

 form so ornamental a feature of our green- 

 houses, is due to a disease which is at once 

 contagious and capable of being transmitted 

 from one species of plants to another, by a 

 kind of inoculation. He considers that the 

 alteration of the chlorophyll (which he com- 

 pares to the red globules of the blood), or 

 green coloring matter gives rise to variegated 

 leaves, which consist of a mixture of green 

 parts with others more or less yellow. If 

 the discoloration is general, it produces 

 death, variegation is a sign of organic disease; 

 the discolored or variegated portions of the 

 leaf have lost their power of reducing the 

 carbonic acid of the atmosphere ; the plants 

 arc generally weaker and smaller, their flow- 

 ers and fruit much poorer, and their power 

 of resisting cold diminished. Variegation 

 can be propagated by means of layers, buds, 

 or grafts, showing that the buds themselves 

 are infected. The seeds, however, from 

 variegated individuals usually produce nor- 

 mal and healthy." 



Here Mr. Morren has given the 

 result of his experiments with varie- 

 gated plants, which are precisely the same 

 that we gave more than six years ago, 

 in almost the same language. Had his ob- 

 servations extended through the different 

 orders of dark and light colored plants of the 

 same species, he would have arrived at ex- 

 actly the same result with them ; for the 

 reason that the light colored plants do not 

 have the same amount of chlorophyll as the 

 dark colored plants, consequently they do 

 not have the same "poicer of reducing tlie car- 

 bonic add of Vie atmosphere." Or, in other 

 words, they do not absorb tlie same amount oj 

 heat, electricity, and carbonic acid, because 

 theh poicer of absorption is in relation to their 

 cohr, which we have before shown. 



In eoucludlDg our remarks, we would a.sk 

 a careful perusal of the within principles, 

 for if true they will lead to a fundamental 

 change in the production of new varieties 

 of flowers and fruits. Hereafter we hope to 

 be able to show that there is not only a law 

 of variegation, but also a law of degeneracy, 

 and we are now on the descending scale. 

 J. S. Kan. Ed. 



For the Western Pomologist. 



The Miner Plum. 



— The English elms on Boston Common 

 still hold their orange-colored leaves, while 

 the American elms hare been leafless for 

 weeks, as have been the maples. 



liaising 0)e Miner Plum from the Seed — Afore 

 about its History — Grajting the Miner on the 

 common wild stock. 



A correspondent in the February issue, 

 mentions the name "Miner," as applied to 

 the " Hinckley " plum before any other. He 

 gives as date Lancaster, "Wisconsin, about 

 the year 185G. Now I wish to show why 

 Mr. Hinckley, deserves more to have the 

 plum called after him than Mr. Miner does. 

 I know, as far as any man can know, that 

 Mr. Hinckley obtained this plum and grew 

 it in Galena, about, or more than, 30 years 

 ago. I have grown it upon my own place 

 here 18 years. Mr. Hinckley — a very gen- 

 erous man — kindly gave to all who asked, 

 sprouts or seed of the plum, and the recii> 

 ients of his hounlv brought the variety into 

 this county, more than 24 years ago. An- 

 other correspondent says that Mr. Miner 

 brought the plum 33 years ago, from Apple 

 River country, Illinois. Mr. Hinckley distrib- 

 uted that plum — and particularly in Han- 

 over, on Apple River, 25 years since. It is 

 said Mr. Hinckley bought the plum from a 

 tree peddlar in Galena, Illinois, and I have 

 no dout't that he did so. We hear of it hav- 

 ing been cultivated in Sangamon county, 

 Illinois, 40 j'cars ago, under the names of 

 William Dodd, Chickasaw Chief, etc. We 

 believe, at that time, it was an admitted fiict 

 in Illinois, that Mr. Dodd was the first man 

 who brought it into that State. The same 

 men who knew it then, by that name, now 

 know it as the " Miner." 



In yonr July number, a correspondent, 

 describing the " Wild Goose Plum " as orig- 

 inating on the Cumberland river, in Tennes- 

 see, causes me to think that that plum is 

 what we call the " Miner" from his descrip- 

 tion of fruit and tree ; climate will make the 

 difference in time of ripening. I hear of the 

 " Miner" being cultivated under the names 

 of " Old Hickory," and " General Jackson," 

 in Tennessee more than 50 years ago. We 

 know grand-children of men who first plant- 

 ed them in that State. When I was at Des 

 Moines, last winter the wood of the " Wild 

 Goose " was shown me, and it was identical 

 with that of the " Miner." 



I have taken great pains, this summer, to 

 find the result of the propagation of the 

 " Miner " from seed. The question was put 

 to me at Des Moines, last winter when I was 

 unable to give a positive answer. Mr. 

 George Scarborough, of Sterling, Messrs. 

 William and Henry Dickenson, of ffabula, 

 and many others whom I have visited this 

 summer, have shown me trees and fruit 

 which they have raised fi'om seed, standing, 

 side by side, with those raised from .sprouts, 

 and there is no perceptible difference be- 

 tween the two, in wood or fruit. Therefore 

 I can say from personal inspection that this 

 plum is as good to raise from seed as from 

 sprouts. On my own grounds I have treef> 



ten years old, "top-worked" on the wild 

 plum ; and I find that the " Miner," thus graft- 

 ed, very little outgrows the original stock. 

 Mrs. William Dickenson, of Sabula, has 

 upon her grounds a number of very fine 

 trees grafted just above the ground, upon 

 the wild plum, and 12 or 14 3'ears old, which 

 have all the appearance of being long lived, 

 and give abundance of fruit. . I give the 

 above names for reference. The " Miner " is 

 only a few days later in blossoming than 

 other varieties, so that it is not its tardiness 

 which saves it from that destructive insect 

 (genus Cureuliouido'.) The Curculio does 

 juncture the " Miner " plum, but, evidently 

 from some peculiarity|in tlie fruit, the larvoe, 

 though the)' occasionally live, do not thrive 

 in it. The "Miner" plum was first heard 

 of from the Chickasaw Indians, at Great 

 Bend, on the Talaposa Creek, somewhere 

 near the north line of Florida, and the south 

 line of Georgia. As the Northern Illinois 

 Horticultural Society has adopted the name 

 " Miner," I have notJiing further to say 

 against the name to describe the plum. I 

 have sent out 400 packages of cions of this 

 plum, in this State, free, and am willing to 

 send out 400 more, providing parties apply 

 before pressure of spring work comes on. 



AXFBED G^DDINGS. 



Sabula, Jackson county, Iowa. 



The Hagloe. 



Ed. Western Pomologist : — If friend 

 Budd had said (in the July number,) that the 

 Hagloe apple had been disseminated "all 

 over the West," as the Red Astracan," it 

 would have been applicable to this part of 

 the West in particular. I know several re- 

 spectable nurseries in which it has been cul- 

 tured as such. There is certainly a differ- 

 ence in size and color ; the Hagloe being a 

 blush on a paler ground. It is very hardy, 

 and of rapid growth in the nursery, and 

 makes a fine tree in the orchard. I got it, 

 12 years ago, as the " Red Astracan. It is a 

 shy bearer with me, and others of my ac- 

 quaintances. I bought the Duchess of Old- 

 enburg, as the Duchess of Oldenburg, from 

 nurseries in this State, 17 years ago, and I 

 find it abetter bearing tree than the Hagloe. 

 Alfred Giddinos. 



Sabula, Jackson county, Iowa. 



Hale's Early Peach. 



A writer in Ru,al World top-budded 

 Hale's Early upon a seedling standing in 

 sod. Three first crops of fruit rotted badly, 

 but entirely free from rot the last season. 

 Has since budded and set trees in orchard 

 aiid cultivated with similar results. "The 

 past season I had fine peaches — Hale's 

 Early — on thrifiy-growing, well cultivated 

 trees, but three years from the nursery. 

 Thirteen of Hale's Early producing more 

 fruit than one hundred and twenty trees of 

 other popular varieties, and the fruit entirely 

 free from rot. I had supposed the rot in the 

 Hale's Early was caused by insects, the 

 Hale's Early being the only variety sufli- 

 ciently advanced to invite their attacks. 

 But this is mere theory with me, and I have 

 no facts to support it." 



