1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



323 



lottB antr SUaniitjgs. 



Canning Apples. — An exchange says, "if you 

 have a quantity of self-sealing empty bottles, and 

 you wish to prepare a large quantity of apple 

 sauce and to have it until spring, an excellent way 

 is to bottle it. Prepare the sauce according to 

 whatever rule you wish ; when boiling-hot pour 

 into the bottles and put on the covers immedi- 

 ately." 



We have practiced this same method for three 

 years with perfect success. Nor is it important to 

 use self-sealing bottles. We use any kind of stone 

 jars (though narrow necked ones are most easily 

 closed up) from a quart to three gallons. First, set 

 the jar.s to be filled into an oven and heat hot, pour 

 in the hot sauce, cover the mouth immediately 

 with cotton cloth and tie tight ; have a circular 

 piece of pasteboard the size of the top of the jar 

 ready ; dip it in a vessel of hot sealing wax and 

 place it immediately upon the cloth -covered 

 mouth and press down tight all around ; lay upon 

 this another piece of cloth and tie down tight. 

 Thus sealed, apple sauce will not only keep per- 

 fectly good till spring, but will have a finer flavor 

 than that made in the spring from apples kept 

 through the winter. 



Stark and Kansas Keeper. 



D. B. Page, Clinton, Mo. — We do not positively 

 kno-w that the" Kansas Keeper" is the same as the 

 " Stark;" we were led to believe so from the descrip- 

 tion of the Stark corresponding so nearly with the 

 Kansas Keeper, and from what Dr. Warder said 

 when he saw it at our place. If what we saw at 

 Richmond, Virginia, was the Stark, then the Kan- 

 sas Keeper is not it. The Kansas Keeper does suc- 

 ceed well as far as tried here, and we think it a 

 valuable apple but not of the best quality. 



The Stark we have never seen growing and do 

 not know of a tree bearing, but have no doubt it 

 will succeed here, as nearly every variety does, as 

 well as in its native home. Should be pleased to 

 have either a specimen of fruit, or scion, or both 

 to test, and see if it is really the same as our Kan- 

 sas Keeper. Associate Ed. 



The Pbilosoptay of Pruning. 



Ed. Pomologist and Gardener :— On the sub- 

 ject of pruning there appears to be a great diversity 

 of opinion. The old notion of heading-in and pru- 

 ning at the time of transplanting is persistently ad- 

 hered to by a great majority of those who set them- 

 selves up as teachers. But there is now and then 

 one who makes a bold break from those' old notions 



and some of whom go to extremes 'injthe opposite 

 direction. 1 should be much pleased if some com- 

 petent writer, who has had practical experience, 

 (we have had theory enough) would take up the 

 subject of pruning and give its philosophy (not the 

 way to prune) but the why of pruning, done up in 

 the light of physiology and anatomv. Take notice, 

 that if it is proven to be necessary for one tree in a 

 healthy state, I shall consider the argument good for 

 all trees in a like condition, as the subject of sur- 

 gery in cases of accident and disease is of another 

 nature, and will be good enough to come in as a sec- 

 ond consideration. 



G. W. Chapman. 

 WiUiamaburg, Kansas. 



OTy Theory. 



My friend Phillips, who objects to my theory, 

 which attributes the partial destruction of the 

 apple crop of this year, to the intense heat and 

 cold of April, 1870, through a great part of the 

 Mississippi Valley, has failed to meet the question 

 entirely. If he will give the degrees of the mer- 

 cury from the 10th to 16th of April, 1870, including 

 every day, as I have done, he will then see whether 

 my theory is right or wrong, or at least, will have 

 better clue to its proper appreciation. 



Cor. Ed. 



Pear on tbe nionntaln Asli. 



Ed. Pomologist and Gardener : — I would like 

 o enquire of those who have had experience, if it 

 is in any way advantageous or desirable to graft or 

 bud the pear upon Mountain Ash stock ? I see 

 that some nurserymen are propagating in that way. 

 Are they not really of much less value than when 

 propagated upon pear stock ? To what age does 

 the Mountain Ash live, compared with the pear? 

 Which is the longer-lived tree, the American or 

 European Mountain Ash ? 



H. C. R. 

 Council Bluffs. 



The Pear and Hale's Early Peach South. — 

 The Ga. Fanner & Gardener says : — After receiving 

 all the information we have obtained either from 

 years of personal observation or from reports of re- 

 liable fruit growers, we have come to the following 

 conclusions : 



1st. That pear culture is more successful on the 

 sea coast belt (not more than twenty miles inland) 

 and in the vicinity of the great Northern Lakes, 

 than further inland. The influence of the .sea and 

 lake breezes seems to have a marked eflfect upon the 

 vigor as well as continued fertility of the trees. In 

 this belt jiear blight is scarcely known. Further- 

 more, we are convinced beyond cavil, that pear 

 trees are more fruitful and healthy in clay soils than 



