14 



THE ILLINOIS FA.IIMEII. 



Downing's Seedling Gooseberry. 

 Of all the foreign or native Gooseber- 

 ries which we have had opportunities to 

 taste, for some years past, from Canada 

 to Delaware, no variety, in our opinion, 

 can compare with Mr. Charles Downing's 

 Seedling, obtained from the Houghton's 

 seed some three years ago, establishing 

 once more the fact once so startling to 

 the pomological world — so much disputed 

 and ridiculed — but, in our opinion, so 

 perfectly logical, that "the artificial pro- 

 ducts of nature improve by successive 

 generations of seedlings." 



The berries before us (which kept ripe 

 for more than ten hot days without any 

 sign of decay) are about double the size 

 of the parent, (Houghton's;) pale, or 

 light green, without any blush, and 

 smooth. The skin is very thin, and the 

 fruit as delicate and tender as any Eu- 

 ropean Gooseberry, in its native soil. — 

 The flavor and aroma are perfect; sweet, 

 with plenty of vinous subacid. In en- 

 joying a goodly supply of these berries, 

 we, for the first time for six years, could 

 not regret the superlative and very mark- 

 ed inferiority of the best English varie- 

 ties in our very different climate. 



We experienced the same satisfaction 

 as we did in tasting the Delaware and 

 Rebecca grapes, coming up so very near- 

 ly to the European standard as to be 

 almost taken for good foreign varieties. 



Let us have our native varieties of all 

 kinds of fruit. Already the pear, the 

 strawberry, and chiefly the apple, have 

 come in handsome competition with, or 

 superseded, their European relative vari- 

 eties. We never could see, after those 

 successful experiments, what could pre- 

 vent us from having just as fine goose- 

 berries, grapes, &c., and better, too, 

 than the transatlantic products! Gentle- 

 men amateurs! do try all kinds of seed- 

 lings; the Phcenix is yet in its "ashes." 

 Patience alone, (in the impressive words 

 of our honored President, Col. Wilder,) 

 "eternal vigilance," can only bring out 

 the desired results. 



Thanks to Mr. Charles Downing for 

 constant efforts. The present seedling is 

 one out of a lot of seedlings from the 

 Houghton, but it is the only superior one 

 in quality and size, as it is one of the 

 finest erect bushes among this family; a 

 vigorous and sturdy grower. 



Like its parent, it seems rather more 

 exempt from mould; we have indeed seen 

 no disposition to moulding in any of these 

 seedlings. We urged Mr. Downing to let 

 it be propagated; but, as usual, his mod- 

 esty is rather in the way of his love of 

 progress and improvement. — So^ticul- 



turist. 



<•• 



i'or the Farmor. 



Raspberries. 



A few years ago, the raspberry crop was al- 

 ways a good one. It was scarcely known to 

 fail. The variety mostly cutivated was called 



Antwerp; but it was not the real Antwerp. It 

 was a native variety, which grows wild in New 

 Hampshire. For a few years past our winters 

 have been peculiar; and this hardy variety of 

 raspberry has generally failed The wood was 

 mostly killed and the produce of that which 

 survived, small. It may seem strange that a 

 plant which is a native of a colder climate than 

 ours, perishes here. But this Is ft fattt, not on- 

 ly in relation to the raspberry 1 speak of, but some 

 other plants. It is not the cold here that kills 

 them, but the sudden changes, from heat to 

 cold that we have in the latter part of winter 

 and early in the spring. It is by the same 

 means, that our heart-cherry trees are killed — 

 not a sound one of which can bo found, I am 

 told in Illinois. 



We cannot save the cherries— at least no plan 

 yet adopted can save them; — but we can save 

 the raspberry vines and obtain good crops of 

 this delicious fruit. This can be done by lay- 

 ing the vines down on the ground in the fall 

 or early winter and covering them slightly over 

 with earth — to be removed in the spring. This 

 is not a severe task, as will be found on trial. 



Springfield, 111. 



®fo (^nv&tntv. 



Practical Hints to Amatenrs. 



BY THE LATE A. J. DOWiVINQ. 



Grafts may be cut now, as well as later in 

 the winter, if more convenient to you. Keep 

 them in a cool place, half buried in earth or 

 sand, till you want them. If not wanted till 

 spring, bury them out of doors, with only a 

 couple of inches of the points exposed, and 

 throw two or three inches of litter over them. 



Strawberry beds will produce good crops in 

 open winter quarters, in the northern States; 

 but they will hear much better ones, and much 

 larger fruit, if you cover them with straw, salt- 

 hay, or stable litter; otherwise you are likely 

 enough, in stiff soils, to find half the plants 

 dead or injured by being "thrown out in the 

 spring." 



You may tran?plant, all winter, when the 

 ground is not frozen; only take care not to ex- 

 pose the roots to frost while not covered with 

 soil. In winter planting, it is best to pile up a 

 mound of earth six or eight inches around the 

 trunk of the tree. Thi.s keeps it steady, and 

 protects it, partially, against severe frost. 



If you are very anxious to be cheated, send 

 to some nursery that modestly informs the pub- 

 lic of its immense superiority over every estab- 

 lishment in the world; or that offers hundreds 

 of varieties of "splendid, pre-eminent and deli- 

 cious" fruits, not to be found elsewhere — or 

 tl.at challenj^es competition for accuracy. — 

 Where there is so much modesty in boasting, 

 there must be great diffidence in sending you 

 anything but what the dealer knows to be first 

 rate; and you must be aware, yourself, that 

 there are now hundreds of first rate fruits. If 

 you send to a nursery for a new variety of tree 

 or plant, don't expect to see the plant as high 

 as your head, or the tree fit to bear a bushel of 

 fruit. Be content if it is healthy, has a good 

 root, and is a foot high. People "in the trade" 

 can't afford to send you largo trees, full of 

 grafts or cuttings, of sorts which are scarce as 

 guineas, and which have not been long enough 

 in the country to enable them to get more than 

 one year's growth. If you want "big trees," 

 order the good old standard sorts. 



When a tree brought from a distance has 

 been a long while out of the ground, and looks 

 quite dried ap, don't plunge it into a tub of wa- 



ter; that would be well-nigh as fatal as giving 

 a gallon at a single drink, to a man nearly 

 dead of thirst. Moisten the roots, and after 

 ■hortening the branches severely, bury the 

 whole tree in the ground for three or four days. 

 When you prune a branch of a tree, always 

 see that a bud is left opposite the cut; this will . 

 help it to heal over quickly; and yBu will assist 

 the matter still tnorie, by inaking the cut a slop- 

 ing one. 



If you are obliged to plant trees in the rich 

 but worn-out soil of an old garden, and you 

 have not lime nor means enough to cart away part 

 of the old soil and replace it with new, you can 

 renew its fertility by throwing a part of it up 

 in heaps, mixing it with brush, fagota, sawdust, 

 or any sort of cheap fuel, and burning it. 



Don't let insects of various kinds overran 

 your orchard or garden, and then lazily fold 

 your arms and say, "It's no use, this trying to 

 raise things, now that so many vermin are 

 about." Spend three days, industriously, in 

 the early stage of the matter, in putting down 

 the rascalsj and then look around you and see if 

 a little industry is not better than grumbling. 



If you want early vegetables, set yourself, in 

 winter, about making some boxes to protect 

 tliem. A few cheap boxes, a foot square, with 

 a pane of glass in the top, to put over tender 

 things at night, will cost you but a trifle, and 

 will give you ten days start of the ope» ground. 

 To have good currants, gooseberries, or rasp- 

 berries, the old plants should be dug up at the 

 end of three or four good crops, and their places 

 supplied by young ones. If you plant a few cut- 

 tings of the two former, as you should do, eve- 

 ry spring, you will always have a supply of 

 fresh plants ready at all times; always cut out 

 all the eye8(bud8)of a cutting, onlthat part which 

 goes in the ground; otherwise you will be troub- 

 led by their coming up, year after year, in the 

 form of suckers. 



Ifyouhavea tree that grows "apace," but 

 won't bear, dig a trench around it, and cut oflF 

 a third of the roots. This will check its growth 

 and set it about making fruit buds. 



Never buy fruit trees in the "market-places," 

 of unknown venders, who have no character to 

 los.e. Yon cannot tell by "examining the arti 

 cle," whether they cheat you or not; and you get 

 your tree at half price, only to wish, when it 

 comes to bear, that you had gone to an honest 

 dealer and paid ten times as much for something 

 worth planting. "Hog-Peach" trees are dearer 

 at a penny, than "George the Fourths" at a 

 dollar. 



If you don't love flowers yourself, don't quar- 

 rel with those who do. It is a defect in yoar 

 nature which you ought to be sorry for, rather 

 thhD abuse those who are more gifted. Of what 

 possible "use" is the rainbow, we should like to 

 know? And yet a wiser than you did not think 

 the earth complete without it. 



Do not grudgp the cost and labor necessary 

 to plant a few of the best shade-trees round your 

 house; and if you have any doubts about what 

 to plant, stick in an elm. There are few trees 

 in the world fiber than a fine sweeping elm; 

 and two or three of them will give even a com- 

 mon looking dwelling a look of dignity. If you 

 plant fruit trees for shade, they are likely to be 

 broken to pieces for the fruit, and they grow 

 unsightly by the t'me that forest trees grow 

 spreading and umbrageous. 



There are very few men whose friends build 

 so fair a monument to their memory, as they 

 can raise with their own hands, by planting an 

 elm or a maple where it can grow for a centu- 

 ry, to be an ornament to the country. 



Don't be afraid to clip hedges, or cut back 

 young trees, when jou are planting them. You 

 gain more growth than yoa lose, though you 

 may not be able to comprehend it till you have 

 seen it with your own eyes. 



Never work y6ur ground in wet weather if 

 you can avoid it, as it makes it clod^like und 

 compact by forcing the air out. Add ridge up 



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