82 



Garden and Forest. 



[February 12, 1890. 



the meadow larks singing, and April was everywhere, stirring 

 all the life in the ground and in the air. Some Nectarine-trees 

 in sunken pots were ready to burst into bloom, and I inquired 

 of Mr. Gardner whether he did not fear the consequences if 

 freezing weather should suddenly come ; but he pointed out 

 that on all these flowering shoots there were enough buds, 

 still dormant, to ensure a crop if the precocious ones should 

 freeze ; and this explains why so many car-loads of Peaches 

 come to market from Delaware after a serious frost when the 

 buds are swollen has seemed to justify the prophecy that the 

 crop is ruined. These Nectarines in pots, by the way, show 

 what the houses will be called upon to do a little later on. In 

 a general way it may be said that the business here is the grow- 

 ing of Tomatoes and Mushrooms in winter, with Grapes, Figs, 

 Nectarines and Peaches as summer crops. Of course other 

 vegetables are grown, but the Tomatoes and Mushrooms are 

 the main crops. 



Many details of the cultural practice here have already been 

 given in Garden and Forest (vol. ii., p. 5), but the ability to 

 grow good crops under glass is only one of the qualifications 

 for success in the business. The producer must know his 

 markets, and know just what will pay best at a given time, 

 and while having his crops ready in their due season he must 

 arrange for succession in his houses so that the entire space 

 is constantly utilized to the best advantage. In no two of the 

 houses are the rotations exactly alike. In one of the long pits 

 outside, for example, I observed a row of thrifty Tomatoes, just 

 showing bloom, a row of Beans just starting in a long trough- 

 like box extending through the middle of the pit, while pots 

 of Adiantum cuneatum were set closely on the front wall. A 

 crop of Cucumbers and one of Asparagus had already been 

 grown in the same pit — the Cucumbers first, trained along 

 under the glass, and the Asparagus roots on the bottom. One 

 large house was filled with tall Tomato plants, trained to a 

 single stem and running up a cord to the roof. They were 

 still bearing well, but would soon give place to other Tomato 

 plants which are now three weeks old. In this house are 

 Vines permanently planted, from which the grapes were cut 

 in November. They were then pruned, laid down and boxed 

 in, to keep them cool and dark before the Tomatoes now bear- 

 ing were brought into their present position. In April these 

 Vines will be lifted to their places to start, and the second crop 

 of Tomatoes will all have been gathered before the foliage of 

 the Vines shades them injuriously. In another house, where 

 the second crop of Peas is nearly marketed, and where the tem- 

 perature has been kept low, heat is now gradually admitted, 

 to^start the buds of Nectarines, grafted on Plum stock and 

 trained fan-shape along the roof. In another house still, 

 where the first crop of Tomatoes began to yield in November, 

 a second crop is now setting fruit, and after this is marketed 

 the house will be occupied with Figs. These are examples of 

 rotation in different houses ; and there will always be a fresh lot 

 of plants ready to take the place of an exhausted crop until the 

 last pot is brought in with a Peach-tree or Grape-vine for the 

 summer. 



Mushrooms are growing everywhere in unexpected places, 

 not only in the regulation, deep, dark cellar, but in the side 

 pits, under the staging of the cool houses, and even in the 

 warm houses, where the shutters over the beds are covered 

 thickly with straw for the unusual purpose of keeping the heat 

 out. No Asparagus is now being forced, and the roots are all 

 thrown out. This year the southern Asparagus appeared in 

 New York as early as the 25th of January, and, of course, this 

 arrival breaks the market at once. The increasing competi- 

 tion from the south makes it necessary to know what is going 

 on there every year, so that the grower here can adapt himself 

 to the changing situation. It would not have paid to grow 

 Strawberries for the last holiday season, when Florida was in 

 the market with good berries by Christmas. Hot-house ber- 

 ries grown at that season are necessarily expensive when the 

 days are short, and perhaps dark and foggy; and so few people 

 are willing to pay five dollars a box for berries, that a consign- 

 ment of fifty boxes will overstock the market. Strawberries at 

 a dollar a basket in March or April are much more profitable, 

 for they are more easily grown in the longer and brighter days, 

 and while the buyers are few who will think of paying five dol- 

 lars, many a one will take the berries at a dollar or a dollar and 

 a half a basket when southern berries are selling for ten cents 

 a quart. Of course the hot-house berries are better in color, 

 form and flavor than any out-door berry can be after long car- 

 riage. It was in preparation for this spring demand that the fine 

 Strawberry-plants, now just coming into bloom here, were 

 layered about the 20th of last July. In August they were 

 potted, and the strong, well developed, single crowns promise 

 an abundant yield. Sharpless is the variety which Mr. 



Gardner prizes most highly. While on the subject of varieties 

 it may be said that Sion House is the kind of Snap Bean planted 

 generally here. It gives a crop in six weeks from seed, the pod 

 is of fine size and of a deliciously sweet flavor. Rollinson's 

 Telegraph is the frame Cucumber preferred. 



No variety of Tomato has been found superior to the 

 Lorillard, which originated here from seed of Perfection fertil- 

 ized with pollen from Acme. The plants have been kept 

 pure by raising them from cuttings up till the present year. 

 The good points of this Tomato are, its uniformity of size, 

 good color and shape, rich flavor, and a solidity which con- 

 tinues till the fruit is well ripened. The plant, too, has a 

 strong constitution. Ignotum has a good, bright scarlet color, 

 but it lacks uniformity. An Ignotum tomato that will weigh 

 a pound is not uncommon, but many of them are corrugated. 

 The Lorillard will average three or four to the pound, and 

 tomatoes of this size, especially when all are round and 

 smooth, sell more readily than those which weigh from half a 

 pound to a pound. Of the Ignotum, only one out of five will 

 prove of good form, while of the Lorillard nearly four out of 

 five will- be of perfect shape. Perfection may be named as the 

 second best Tomato for forcing. Paragon would be valuable, 

 but it fails to color about the stem. Four Tomato plants are 

 grown in a box two feet long and eighteen inches wide, as 

 was described in the article before alluded to. I noted that 

 where the roof was low and the plants had a height of about 

 four feet, the yield had averaged fifteen tomatoes to the 

 plant, or say fifteen pounds to each box. Where the plants had 

 room to grow about six feet high, each vine averaged twenty- 

 six to twenty-seven tomatoes, or, since they were somewhat 

 larger than the others, thirty pounds to the box. A fair whole- 

 sale price would be fifty cents a pound. The plants begin to 

 yield about ninety days from the seed. 



Mr. Gardner finds the market for winter vegetables enlarg- 

 ing every year. The number of growers are multiplying still 

 more rapidly, however, and success can only be won by the 

 best cultural practice, the widest knowledge of the demands 

 of the market, and the alertness and enterprise to occupy new 

 fields promptly. 



" What are you doing with so many Grape-vines in pots ? " 

 I asked, when about to leave. 



" They are Black Hamburgs, and I sell a good many. You 

 see they will all bear a fair crop this year. When a man 

 builds a grapery he does not like to wait three or four years 

 before he gathers fruit. These potted vines can be set in 

 between his permanent vines, and give almost immediate 

 returns. Since they are to be discarded it is not bad practice 

 to let them bear heavily now. Those which I do not sell can 

 be made to yield me paying crops." S. 



Jobstown, N. J. 



Recent Publications. 



Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, includ- 

 ing the district east of the Mississippi and north of North Caro- 

 lina and Tennessee. By Asa Gray. Sixth edition, revised and 

 extended westward to the one hundredth meridian by Sereno 

 Watson and John M. Coulter, with twenty-five plates, illustrat- 

 ing the Sedges, Grasses, Ferns, etc. Ivison, Blakeman & Co., 

 New York and Chicago, 1890. 



The fifth and last edition of " Gray's Manual" appeared in 

 1867. A great advance has been made during the twenty- 

 seven years which have elapsed since its publication in the 

 knowledge of the plants of the region it covered ; and the 

 want of a new edition to contain the results of the author's 

 own investigations and those of a number of botanists in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, whose early botanical inspirations 

 were largely derived from the early editions of this very work, 

 the constant companion for more than forty years of every 

 one who has studied the flora of eastern America during that 

 time, has long been felt. Professor Gray himself proposed at 

 different periods during the last part of his life to snatch the 

 time from the more important "Synoptical Flora of North 

 America" for a new edition of his Manual, but just the right 

 time never came, and it has been left to Mr. Watson, and his 

 associate, Professor Coulter, to produce, with such assistance 

 as was available, this new and greatly improved Manual. The 

 original plan of the work, so long adhered to and of such gen- 

 eral acceptance, has been retained, but the territory covered 

 in the old edition has been extended westward to the one hun- 

 dredth meridian of longitude — that is, to the western limits of 

 our true Atlantic flora. This change and the insertion of such 

 plants of the old region as are now first included in the Manual 

 increases the bulk of the volume by only fifty-seven pages, and 

 therefore does not take away from its value as a book for field 

 reference. The work seems to be admirably done, and so far 



