December 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



167 



For the Wi stern Pomologist: 

 Winter Protection of the Strawberry. 



Little argument is necessary to show the 

 advautagc of some protection to strawberry 

 beds during winter, especially in a Northern 

 climate subject to great extremes of cold, and 

 transitions to moderate or mild thaws, etc. 

 If we could be sure of snow coverina: the 

 ground, without compacting so as to smother 

 the plants, from December to the middle or 

 Jast of ilarcli, in one unbroken coating, 

 there would be little need of any other cov- 

 ering for our strawberry beds. There are 

 very few, if any varieties, worthy of cul- 

 ture, that the mere cold of winter injures; 

 but what is the worst, operating the most 

 severe on our hardiest varieties is, the con- 

 stant changes from cold to warm, freezing 

 and thawing, to which, unprotected, the 

 plants are subjected if left uncovered ; some 

 varieties are more subject to damage than 

 others, such as those with high prominent 

 crown. Almost any material which will 

 shade the ground and plants, without com- 

 pacting to smother the ijlauts, will answer 

 for protection to slrawberrj' plants. Straw, 

 cornstalks, old refuse hay, or any kind of 

 litter, are materials used ; but in my experi- 

 ence I find that pine, or other like evergreen 

 boughs, make the best of all protection, for 

 they give tiie necessary shading of the 

 ground and plants, catch and hold the snow 

 while they keep it light, and do not settle 

 down on the plants to smother and destroy 

 their life. Hay and straw are objectionable 

 in that they arc liable to scatter seed and 

 cause much trouble by iutrodiicing into the 

 bed weeds, etc., while pine boughs are not 

 thus objectionable. Leaves arc very apt to 

 smother the plants if put over them as is 

 usually the case; cornstalks are liable to the 

 same objection, and unless great care is used 

 in covering they often kill the plants. I have 

 known of instances where the plants were 

 smothered with a light covering of leaves 

 and also destroyed by too many cornstalks 

 resting on the plants, when used for cover- 

 ing ; but I have yet to lear.i of the first in- 

 stance of ill-eSects where judiciously cov- 

 ered with evergreen boughs. 



Winter protection should be given before 

 the ground freezes hard, and, of course, in 

 time to anticipate the first fall of snow. 



Hartfurd Co., Cunn. W. H. W. 

 ♦-♦-* 



A Ne-w Plum. 



Ed. Western Pomologist : I send you 

 by mail to-daj' a small tree of my new plum 

 which was grafted last spring on to a wild 

 plum stock. Tou will se j that it has blossom 

 buds on it, although it is not yet over 15 or 

 18 inches high, and every one of a few hun- 

 dreds of the same sort grafted in the same 

 way last spring arc full of blossom buds, 

 which goes to show you that the trees are 

 young bearers, as I wrote to you they were 



when I sent you the scions of them last 

 Spring. 



The history of this fine plum is as follows: 



A gentleman went from Oregon to Ivenhawa 

 county,West Virgiiiia,taking seeds of a yellow 

 plum with him, which he had got ofl'of a wild 

 tree in Oregon. The seedlings varied in the 

 character of their fruit, some being fine and 

 productive and others not so good, but were 

 generally hardy and early bearers. They 

 were brought from there to this neighborhood 

 hy Ruel Daggs, who planted the seeds here 

 and gave some to Michael Miller, a neighbor 

 of mine, who then lived near Luray. 



One of Miller's trees (the parent of my 

 stock,) proved so productive, and produced 

 such'rtne flavored and beautiful fruit, ripening 

 late, after other plums arc gone, and resisting 

 the attacks of the curculio so well, that I ob- 

 tained two small scions of it in the spring o 

 1861, and grafted them on to a bearing Green 

 Gage. They both grew and bore the next 

 year and every year since, but the crop was 

 light this year as the Green Gage is dying ; yet 

 these two branches seem sound and healthy ; 

 but I think they have borne their last as they 

 must die with the stock on which they are 

 grafted. I think it will take its stand along 

 with the Miner and Wild Goose, and jjlums of 

 that class, and fiill a place in September and 

 October, which neither of them can. 



I sent scions of it last spring to Marshall 

 P. Wilder, Dr. John A. Warder, Charles 

 Downing, F. R, Elliot and many other prom- 

 inent fruit growers in the Union for them to 

 test. If it proves as early and constant a 

 bearer of heavy crops of nice, beautifuh 

 delicious plums, with them as it has with me 

 then I will think I have done a public good 

 by bringing it to notice. If it does not let it 

 fall. IlicKe no trees for sale yet. 



B. P. Hanan. 



Luray, Clarice Co., Mo. 



Transplanting the Sugar Maple. 



Mr. R. H. Clark, of Rootstown, Ohio, after 

 thirty years experience in propogating and 

 transplanting the sugar maple, is convinced 

 that small trees are the best for transplant- 

 ing. For the last five years he has been 

 making sugar from maples, which thirty 

 years ago sprung from the leaf mold of his 

 timber land, or " sugar camp." On the ques- 

 tion of large or small trees for transplant- 

 ing Mr. C. says: 



" The familiar attempt at roadside propaga- 

 tion of pole maples, from the large lower 

 section of the tall forest grown tree, is no 

 adequate test of what young, well rooted 

 nursery trees will do. And yet, I can show 

 some prodigous maples, transplanted in that 

 manner bj my own hand and thirty-three 

 years ago. And then again close by, there 

 is another row of maples transplanted by 

 me fifteen years ago, of the size of my fin- 

 ger ; have had some cultivation and manure, 

 and are now from six to ten inches in diam- 

 eter near the ground, and have magnificent 

 tops. And still another row clo-se at hand 

 of such little slips of maples and elms trans- 



planted by me, (taken from the fence-rows 



near the forest,) twenty-three years ago, are 

 now notably magnificant maples and elms. 

 Therefore I reason that a thrifty young tree, 

 the size of my penholder, three or four feet 

 high, and three or four years old, everything 

 considered, is the best size and age for trans- 

 planting. The time of year may be autumn 

 or spring, as suits best. Only, if done in 

 spring it must not be till the sap stops 

 flowing. 



Do Bees Injure Fruit Blossoms? 



The question whether bees in working on 

 fruit blossoms injure the pollen, and thereby 

 lessen the amount of fruit, has attracted 

 some attention. A year or two since, the 

 authorities, (select men,) of our township 

 in Mass., placed bee keeping under certain 

 restrictions, under the beleaf that bees were 

 injurious to the fruit interests of the town. 

 A writer in the Wedern Rurcd says ; 



" Instead of injnring the plants upon 

 which bees work, they are, on the contrary, 

 highly beneficial, by leaving pollen in the 

 flower where it would not find its way but 

 for the agency of the bee. Pollen is neces- 

 sary for the fertilization of plants, and many 

 of them would remain barren, were it not 

 for the insects which work upon their flow- 

 ers, foremost of which stands the honey bee. 

 In my own experience, I have found true 

 the remark of Aristotle — made more than 

 two thousand years since — that " bees hurt 

 no kinds of fruits, but hornets and wasps are 

 very destructive to them." 



I have no doubt but that many miproved 

 fruits found growing wild in our fields and 

 woods, owe their origin to the honey bee. 

 I have ever found that section of country to 

 be the most fruitful and productive, where 

 the greatest number of bees were kept. 

 The same wise Creator who created the dif- 

 ferent varieties of fruit for the use of his 

 creatures, called the honey bee info existence 

 for the same purpcsL'. As both were in- 

 tended for man's use, would it be rational 

 to suppose the latter was made the natural 

 enemy of the former? I think that no sane 

 man would answer in the aflirmativc." 



The Jujube.— The Mohile Register says 

 this is a fruit which has been more or less 

 cultivated about Mobile for at least 40 years, 

 but is so little known that its appearance at 

 the fruit stalls for the first time, -within the 

 last few days, has puzzled everybody. Some 

 thought the polished brown ovoids were a 

 new kind of nuts; others recognized them 

 at once as dates, a fruit Wxey were perfectly 

 familiar with ; but nobody guessed what 

 they were. 



The Mi.\mi Raspberky.— A member of 



the Oneida Community, located near Utica 

 N. Y., says : " A mong several varieties of the 

 Blackcaps, the Miami proves to be superior 

 fruit in size and quality. It is also a week 

 later than the Doolittle, and perhaps equally 

 as productive, which facts render it a very 

 desirable variety for cultivation. The 

 Thornless is the earliest of the Blackcaps, 

 but being rather a poor biarcr, is scarcely 

 worth cultivating." 



