3o8 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 282. 



extra, perhaps not medium. It is not a berry for general cul- 

 tivation. Edgar Queen is another bad grower, a seedling of 

 Sharpless, and every way inferior to the parent. It produces 

 fruit of all shapes and sizes. Standard promises well. It is 

 one of the latest, and a fine cropper. The color is bright and 

 handsome ; shape uniform and round. Barton is certainly a 

 good berry both in quality, growth and size, but just how good 

 the season prevents me from determining. Leader and Bev- 

 erly look so much alike that I am afraid Mr. Crawford sent me 

 duplicate plants of one of them, but it may be the season once 

 more that is at fault. The berries are of a class that dry up 

 easily, but I think a favorable year would set them both down 

 as valuable. 



Parker Earle is a wonderful cropper, but makes few runners. 

 It should be grown in hills and kept well irrigated, or it will 

 fail to perfect half a crop. The fruit is not high-flavored. 

 Middlefield is an early, handsome, first-rate cropper. It not 

 only pleases me, but is satisfactory this dry year. Saunders is 

 a dark berry that holds on over a very long season, so that it 

 is both early and late. It is a handsome and a good fruit. 

 Beder Wood is too small, and not needed. For very early I 

 prefer even Crystal City. Williams has surprised me with 

 qualities so much better than I anticipated that I can speak 

 very highly of it. It is a good grower and quite prolific. The 

 quality is at least above average, and the color, though dark, is 

 handsome. Yale has not proved with me to be the equal of 

 Williams, and is only a moderate grower. 



Going over my fields-I mark ahead of all others, among the 

 earlier sorts, Cumberland, a noble old standard, that never 

 fails ; and Sharpless, which, with fair culture, is my best late 

 berry. On clay soil it is superb in quality and quantity. Bu- 

 bach is a third reliable standard, and Mrs. Cleveland a fourth. 



I have a seedling that produces large double flowers. The 

 bearing capacity of this plant is not as good as I wish ; but the 

 quality surpasses that of all other varieties in my gardens. 

 Haverland is the most wonderful of all berries, if the season is 

 exactly right, and the soil is also favorable. But it is inferior 

 in a drought, while it cannot endure much wet weather. 



My experience with strawberries is emphatic that year by 

 year it is a losing crop, unless there are provisions for irriga- 

 tion, and unless there is a large quantity of fertilizers used. 



Clinton, N. Y. E. P. Powell. 



Peas. 



AMONG Peas, new or recent, the Chelsea has proved to 

 be one of the best early wrinkled varieties. It bears 

 abundantly, and is about a week later than the American 

 Wonder, which in habit it very much resembles. The pods, 

 however, are not so large, nor is it so fine a table variety. 

 Admiral is the heaviest-cropping medium early wrinkled Pea 

 we have grown. When sown at the same time as the com- 

 mon early round-seeded varieties, such as Daniel O'Rourke 

 and Alaska, it succeeds them nicely. The height is five feet, 

 and its constitution all that can be desired. The Heroine has 

 not come up to our expectations. It is, without doubt, one of 

 the best table varieties grown. Although it promises to crop 

 for a long time, it is not a heavy bearer. Its handsome pods 

 are of the largest size and well-filled. A dish of them would 

 in all probability take the first prize wherever exhibited. Hors- 

 ford's Market Garden, a splendid mid-season wrinkled variety, 

 is a very heavy cropper. Growing only two feet high, it needs 

 very little bushing, and for both private and market use it can 

 be highly commended. This season we have been successful 

 in getting good seed of Telephone true to name. This is a 

 tall, robust, main-crop Pea, slightly earlier than Champion of 

 England when sown at the same time. It is a genuine marrow 

 pea of delicious flavor and a fairly heavy cropper, the pods be- 

 ing very large. It is a favorite with the vegetable- gardener 

 because he can pick a basket without much exertion, and with 

 the cook because she can easily and quickly shell enough for 

 dinner. American Champion, sown alongside Telephone at 

 the same time, has proved to be identical in every way. The 

 English Champion is now a thoroughly acclimatized Pea, and 

 is our mainstay, and likely to be for many years to come. 

 Petit Pois, a reintroduction, appears to be an extra fine round- 

 seeded variety and a very heavy cropper, growing about four 

 feet tall. It is said to be the variety used extensively in France 

 for canning. The flavor is excellent if gathered quite young. 

 It quickly gets old, when it is quite unfit for the table. 



Strawberries. — We have tried several methods of growing 

 Strawberries, and find we are able to raise the heaviest crop of 

 the best berries in the smallest place on the following plan : 

 We first establish the runners by transplanting them closely in 

 nursery-beds. Meantime, we dig a good quantity of well-de- 



cayed manure and well-slacked lime into the permanent bed, 

 making it firm, and if the weather is dry watering it well at 

 least one day before transplanting. The earlier the plants are 

 ready for the permanent bed the better. We usually set them 

 about the 20th of August. Some planted last year the second 

 week in September did not bear half as many berries as those 

 set earlier, although the plants grew as well. We set three 

 plants about six inches apart in a hill, the hills being eighteen 

 inches apart each way. We plant a new bed every year, which 

 is better than relying on the old one, but those who wish to 

 continue a bed longer, can pull out one or two plants in each 

 hill, according to the vigor of the variety, and leave the others. 

 The earliest variety with us is Michel's Early ; the best fla- 

 vored, but not generallythebestcroppers, are Charles Downing 

 and Bubach No. 5. For the main crop we rely on Sharpless. 



Wellesley, Mass. T. D. H. 



Correspondence. 



The Orange in Northern California. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Like a good many other important discoveries, the fact 

 that that portion of California lying north of the thirty-eighth 

 parallel of latitude was favored with a climate friendly to the 

 growth of the Orange, came to light unexpectedly. In 1857 a 

 Mr. J. R. Ketchum planted a seed taken from an orange which 

 he was eating, at Bidwell Bar, in Butte County. The seed 

 sprang up, and in 1865 the shrub bore a crop of oranges. 



The golden globes shining against a back-ground of rich 

 green foliage, the sheen of the waxy leaves, the refreshing 

 shade cast by the tree, rendered it valuable as an ornament, 

 and the fruit from the lone shrub at Bidwell Bar was planted 

 in back-yards and in odd corners, by walks and on lawns sur- 

 rounding various dwellings in Butte, Placer and Yuba Coun- 

 ties. Six oranges, a part of the first crop borne by the tree at 

 Bidwell Bar, were taken by Judge C. F. Lott, of Oroville. Judge 

 Lott planted the seeds of these as an experiment, and when 

 the sprouts were one year old he distributed them among his 

 neighbors. Twenty of these trees are still living and bearing 

 abundant fruit. The parent tree at Bidwell Bar has been known 

 to bear 2,000 oranges in a season, and several of its offspring 

 have been even more fruitful. From two trees, Mrs. Pence, 

 living nine miles from Oroville, has gathered 6,000 oranges. 

 Two trees, owned by Mr. Joseph Gardella, bore 4,005, and 

 from the same number of trees Dr. McDermott gathered 

 5,500. 



These trees are still standing and receive little attention since 

 they are planted for ornament, their evergreen leaves, com- 

 pact habit, rich color of fruit and leaf and beauty and fragrance 

 of flower making them among the most attractive of trees. 



The early maturing of the fruit, however, has inspired hor- 

 ticulturists to venture upon the cultivation of Orange-groves 

 for profit, and although that section lies in the same latitude 

 of central Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, the trees that are now be- 

 ginning to bear have yielded a large interest upon the invest- 

 ment of capital and labor. 



This so-called "Citrus Belt" extends along the base of the 

 mountains covering the foot-hills. High up the mountains 

 and down in the valley the temperature may be so low as to 

 chill one who is not protected by heavy wraps ; but lying be- 

 tween the upper and lower strata is a stratum of air so warm 

 that its temperature is noticed the instant one enters It — a sort 

 of aerial gulf-stream. Within the borders of this belt are grown 

 a variety of semi-tropic fruits that, as a rule, are found only in 

 lafitudes several hundred miles further south. This section 

 of the state is circled about by protecting mountain ranges, the 

 Coast range on the west, Siskiyou on the north and the Sierras 

 on the east leaving them in a vast bowl, with an opening in 

 the southern rim, through which comes the warm breath of 



Hamburgh, Conn. Timothy Holmes. 



Japanese Irises at Short Hills, New Jersey. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Last week I found in Pitcher & Manda's Nursery a new 

 importation of Japanese Irises in flower. There were a num- 

 ber of superb varieties, and the general collection of fifty or 

 more kinds represented very completely the different color- 

 ings and forms of these favorite flowers. Kasmpfer's Irises 

 have long been favorite plants of the Japanese, who have se- 

 cured a large number of hybrids of much distinctness, con- 

 sidering the rather limited range of colors. A certain size fe 

 considered an essential to a first-rate flower, and single and 



