288 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 334. 



the best runners are all taken and layered in pots plunged in 

 the soil between the rows, and in about a month these are 

 ready to be taken and set out in the new bed, where they 

 are kept watered for a lew days and well hoed through the 

 autumn months, all runners being picked off as they appear. 

 These young plants make strong crowns in the three months of 

 growing weather, and never fail to give us the following sum- 

 mer a full crop of large-sized fruit — larger, indeed, than we can 

 get from the bed that is two years old, but not in such quantity. 

 It is the old bed, therefore, which furnishes the fruit for pre- 

 serving, while the young one supplies (he table. 



Where the Strawberry-weevil is troublesome it is a wise 

 precaution to set the plants three in a hill, in a triangle, 

 about a foot apart, but since adopting the plan of limiting a 

 bed to two crops we have had little difficulty from this pest, 

 and we set the rows straight. Some twenty-two kinds have 

 been tried here in four years, and we have settled down to 

 three kinds that are all to be relied upon here to be of good 

 flavor and sure crop — Michel's Early for the first, Parker Earle 

 for the main crop, and Gandy to produce fine dessert fruit. 

 Some day we hope to try the Marshall ; it is a wonderful 

 Strawberry, but times must be better, or the Marshall Straw- 

 berry cheaper, before it can be planted to any extent. 



South Lancaster, Mass. E. 0. Orpet. 



Raspberries. 



GREAT as has been the advance all along the line in the 

 improvement of small fruits we are still in special need 

 of new varieties of Raspberries. Among the red varieties, 

 Cuthbert is not quite hardy, and it is really raspy ; that is, it 

 has the worst feature of a raspberry, while lacking the best 

 quality. It is a good berry to handle and to ship short distances. 

 But very frequently the canes do not altogether overcome the 

 severities of winter. It also has a tendency to send out blos- 

 soms in autumn if the weather is mild, and in this way the 

 canes are weakened. Still the foliage rusts as little as that of 

 any other, and on the whole it is our best red berry. 

 Golden Queen is nearly as good, but it is softer. Both bear 

 enormous crops, and the canes may stand quite close in the 

 rows. What we need is the rich flavor of Turner and ability 

 to stand and bear in rows, which Turner lacks. Rancocas is 

 a failure, and Marlboro needs nursing. This last is of a class 

 that easily loses foliage. 



Among the black Raspberries, Kansas may yet prove the 

 leader. Gregg was too liable to kill by frost. Palmer was a 

 notable improvement, but not so big as Gregg, and in some 

 sections it dies out quickly. I have a lot of seedlings, crosses 

 of Davison and Gregg, that promise well. They are now 

 planted for test. 



The raspberry market is such a good one that it ought to 

 tempt horticulturists to try seedlings till they get decided im- 

 provements. It occurred to me that the Shaffer might make 

 a good parent ; but so far all of its seedlings turn out to be 

 pure black, and none of them are remarkable in any way. 



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



Summer Pruning. — Where shrubs and trees are pruned for 

 the purpose of increasing flowers, different species should, of 

 course, receive different treatment. Those which bloom on 

 wood made the previous year, like the Forsythias, Syringas 

 and early Spirreas, should receive their main pruning soon 

 after the flowers have fallen, so that the young wood will start 

 to grow and develop flower-buds for the following spring. 

 Plainly such buds will be sacrificed if the branches are taken 

 off before flowering time in spring. On the other hand, Hy- 

 drangea paniculata, Hibiscus Syriacus, the late-blooming Tam- 

 arisks and other shrubs which flower on the new growth, or 

 the wood of the year, will bloom more abundantly when cut 

 back hard in spring. Nevertheless, in any considerable collec- 

 tion of shrubs pruning must be attended to throughout the whole 

 growing season. The surplus wood can always be thinned out 

 during the summer, and clean-cut wounds will then heal more 

 quickly than those made in frosty weather. This is particularly 

 true of trees like the Birches and Maples, which in early 

 spring bleed copiously, but quickly cover over wounds with 

 new bark when in full leaf. Many shrubs are pruned too 

 much, but where strong-growing ones are planted with those of 

 more delicate habit, the robust ones must be restrained or they 

 will smother their less vigorous neighbors. After a shrub has 

 been carefully pruned, the surplus branches cut away to admit 

 light, and the old flowering wood shortened in, it will still be 

 necessary in midsummer to stop the stronger-growing shoots 

 with the thumb and finger. This directs the vital forces of the 

 plant to the development of flowering buds, and shrubs and 



trees treated in this way will produce more flowers and fruit, 

 and produce these when they are smaller than if they were left 

 to themselves after the spring pruning. Summer pinching is 

 useful, too, in ripening up the wood, so that it will be in good 

 hard condition to endure the winter cold. The practice is 

 especially good with trees which grow vigorously and in wet 

 seasons when the branches continue to grow late. This work 

 requires good judgment, it is true, but when carefully done it 

 not only helps to form symmetrical plants, but it is the surest 

 and safest means of making these plants strong, floriferous 

 and fruitful. 



Clinton, Conn. ■"• ^. 



Correspondence. 



Injuries by Seventeen-year Locusts. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The locusts have done much injury to our young trees 

 here ; many of them are punctured all over, and most of the 

 young branches have died; others have not suffered so badly, 

 but all are injured. Would it be advisable to cut off the dam- 

 aged branches and burn them ? 



'Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y. D. G. 



[Where these insects have abounded this year they have 

 damaged trees severely. In some parts of New York and 

 New Jersey fruit-trees have been cut back to the ground, 

 not only every twig and branch, but even the trunks, hav- 

 ing been used for oviposition. Little will be gained, how- 

 ever, by cutting the injured branches back. Branches 

 which have been punctured so badly that they will die, 

 will sooner or later be broken by the wind and fall off, 

 while the tree will do what it can to repair the damages in 

 the larger branches. If the twigs are cut back to the punc- 

 tures as soon .as the leaves die beyond them, something 

 will be gained in the matter of appearance, but that is all. 

 The burning of the branches would destroy a few thou- 

 sand eggs, but this would make no impression on the 

 millions of insects which will appear at their next resurrec- 

 tion. Professor J. B. Smith, of the New Jersey Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, writes that almost every variety 

 of trees except coniferous evergreens in that state have 

 been attacked, and that all shrubs, even down to the Poison 

 Ivy which climbs over the fence-posts, have been cut. — Ed.] 



Recent Publications. 



The Industries 0/ Russia. English edition. Translated 

 by John Martin Crawford, United States Consul to Russia. 



The third volume of this important work, which is de- 

 voted to the agriculture and forestry of the empire, con- 

 tains the best account of the composition and distribution 

 of its forests and the methods adopted for their protection 

 and development which has yet been published in the 

 English language. 



Russian forests, unlike those of Germany, are not the re- 

 sult of artificial sowing, but are of natural growth ; and a 

 Russian forest, like those of the United States, rarely con- 

 sists of any single species of tree or of trees of the same 

 age, but is made up of a mixture of trees of various species 

 and ages. Unlike the forests of North America, however, 

 the Russian forests of the north are composed of few spe- 

 cies, their number increasing in lower latitudes, so that in 

 the south a comparatively large variety of trees and shrubs 

 is met with. 



To the student of our American forests the small number 

 of arborescent species of economic importance in the Rus- 

 sian forests will appear remarkable. The principal Russian 

 trees are the Pine, Fir, Oak, Birch, the Trembling Poplar 

 and the Linden ; that is, these are the predominating species 

 over immense areas of the empire. Other species, like the 

 Beech, the Elm, the Silver Fir, the Larch and the Swiss 

 Pine, in this work usually spoken of as Siberian Cedar, have, 

 of course, great value economically, although, owing to 

 climatic conditions, they are of inconsiderable geographical 

 distribution within the empire. 



The most widely distributed and important timber-tree 



