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235 



THE ILLIKOIS FAEMEE. 



are more than a thousand bushels of apples, and 

 pears in abundance, peaches by the load, with the 

 smaller fruits in plentiful supply. We deny that 

 Mr. VVakeman possesses superior natural advanta- 

 ges ; indeed we think his soil for the production of 

 ifruit is inferior to many locations in the State. 

 Such thrifty trees, and such success with every- 

 thing he touches in the raried varieties of fruit, 

 what does it argue but that modicum of common 

 sense which has developed the most gratifying and 

 praiseworthy results which' may be truly class- 

 ed with scientific attainments. Mr. Wakeman has 

 a reason for everything he does, and whpn you 

 learn that reason, are at once impressed that you 

 have become possessed of a fact. We are resolved 

 to make him unlock his storehouse of knowledge 

 in the culture of fruits, for the benefit of the many 

 beginners on our prairies, and also for those who 

 have failed so often as about to despair of produc- 

 ing the most necessary requirement for health and 

 attractive homes in our otherwise celebrated, fer- 

 tile, fair State, l^ow, friend Wakeman, prepare 

 to open your bundle of knowledge, and give the 

 readers of the Illinoian a few useful facts. — UTorth- 

 em Illinoian. 



— The cherry above alluded to, is the Early 

 Richmond of Downing, and known also as the 

 May Cherry, or Virginia May. In the south half 

 of our State it is ripe in May; with us it ripens June 

 10th, and continues two or three weeks. It is an 

 immense bearer and should be in every garden in 

 the State. Some of the Eastern nurseries have 

 sent out the Early May of Downing, for this May 

 Cherry which is a very inferior fi-uit, while others 

 have sent out the Montmorency, under the name 

 of Early Richmond. We have fruited this cherry 

 for a dozen years, and have sent out thousandt of 

 trees from our nursery. 



Mr. W.'s orchard is one of the best in the State. 

 The trees all have low heads ; the soil has been 

 plowed against them at least a foot deep, giving 

 ample surface draining, and is kept well cultivated. 

 We have on several occasions called the attention 

 of our readers to this orchard, as well as to the 

 history of the May Cherry, 



We have a cherry orchard of six hundred trees, 

 about the number in the orchard of Mr. W.; they 

 are grafted about two feet high on the Morello 

 stock, and will come into bearing uext season for 

 the first. When grafted,] on the Mozzard stock 

 they are apt to die out after three or four years ; 

 we have seen several dead ones this season. Ed. 



-«•»- 



Renewing Strawberries. 



It is sometimes made an objection to certain 

 kinds of strawberries, that after producing a few 

 crops they die out, and leave the cultivator with- 

 out a crop for the ensuing year. 



It is worth remembering, however, that all 

 strawberries bear better, and produce fruit of bet- 

 ter quality the second year of planting out than at 

 any other period of their lives, and it is probably 



on the whole better to base one's calculations on 

 renewing beds every second year. 



This is more particularly desirable where straw- 

 berries are grown in hills — a plan which is now 

 followed by most who seek the best results, and 

 which plan is very liable to be attended by the 

 well known enervating effects of overbearing. 



Many market growers of the strawberry, whose 

 pecuniary interests generally lead them to the most 

 profitable way of raising fruit, renew their beds 

 every third year. They make a plantation every 

 season, which, after bearing two crops, is destroyed. 

 A new one planted and an old one abandoned, thus 

 keeps up the annual succession. These are not 

 planted exact in hills, but in plow rows — the plants, 

 perhaps, twelve inches apart, and the rows two or 

 two and a half feet. These rows are usually hoe- 

 harrowed continuously through the early part of 

 the season, till the fruit ia ripening, when the 

 whole bed is left to the undisturbed possession of 

 the runners and the fruit. In September, after 

 the new ground has been thoroughly prepared, the 

 runners are taken off and set in pans of water, 

 from which they are transferred to their assigned 

 positions in the new rows. All the runners not 

 / wanted are then cut off with a hoe or harrow, the 

 plants left to bear one more good crop next season, 

 which is usually the best, after which they are 

 destroyed, and the ground planted again with 

 young plants, or left for the purpose of using for 

 some other crop, accordingly as it may suit the 

 views or convenience of the planter in regard to 

 rotative cropping. 



This is a general outline of the practice of some 

 of the best growers we know. They each vary in 

 some particular, but the main point is in the earlj 

 renewal of the plant, as we have stated. 



The questionable point would be this: Granting 

 that a third year's crop fi"om the same plants would 

 not be as good as the second year's had been, 

 would the difference be so great as to warrant the 

 increased labor of making new beds ? We believe 

 it would. Moreover, the labor is very likely to be 

 overrated ; for it costs but little more to make a 

 new plantation than it does to clean out and fix up 

 an old one. 



There are some instances, no doubt, where it can 

 be proved best to let a bed remain more tban two 

 fruiting seasons, and as long as it will bear well. 

 In the ever varying circumstances under which 

 horticultural rules are to be practiced, these ano- 

 molies are continually occurring, but we have no 

 doubt, as a general thing, it will be found most 

 profitable and satisfactory to make a new planta- 

 tion every second or third year. 



[^Gardener^s Monthly. 

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Japanese Horticulture. .1 s '> 



The following passage occurred in a series of 



lively letters written by an [American traveler in 



Japan : 



From Mengoori we rode on into the country 

 through delightful rural roads, which recalled to 

 memory the environs of Boston. We passed on 

 the road, in succession, tea-houses, pleasure gar- 

 dens, and cultivated fields. A nursery, too, which 

 had a living gateway — a gateway witli posts, roof 

 and two folding half-open doors, all the product ef 

 the skillful training of two pines, whose trunks 



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