272 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 172. 



productive by extra attention. Even in fruits, the rule prevails 

 that the best are the most costly. 



The rule to limit planting to a few standard sorts has no 

 validity in the private orchard. One may set as many varie- 

 ties as one fancies, and may be continually adding to these as 

 experience gives knowledge. Usually, unless at a distance 

 from markets, it is not desirable to plant many culinary sorts, 

 as these can be often more cheaply purchased than grown, 

 especially where space is limited. But it must be remembered 

 that some of this class are much better for special purposes 

 than the best kinds grown for eating out of hand. This is par- 

 ticularly true of pears and peaches, grapes and strawberries. 

 Firm-fleshed fruits that retain their shape in cooking are uni- 

 versally preferred. These may be sometimes much improved 

 by being cooked in the juice of finer dessert sorts. 



Selections will necessarily be controlled by the requirements 

 of climate, but this rule is less severe in the private than in 

 the commercial orchard. By choosing a sheltered spot, and 

 by top-grafting on hardy stocks, the private grower will be 

 able to succeed tolerably with many sorts that it will not pay 

 to plant for the market. I should be disposed to advise those 

 who are about to begin the formation of their home orchards 

 to select some of the best varieties of their own neighborhood 

 — the fancies of their childhood, perhaps. There are a large 

 number of excellent sorts in every long-settled locality that 

 are not generally known, and which would perhaps grow no- 

 where else so well. I should counsel the avoidance of too many 

 trees of a single sort, however good. One tree, when it is well 

 established, will usually produce all of its sort that a single 

 family will utilize, while variety is always agreeable. Besides, 

 where a good many varieties are grown, we are more sure to 

 have a good supply every year. 



Those who are not familiar with varieties will desire to have 

 some suggestions as to their particular choice in this respect ; 

 but in a periodical of wide circulation it is difficult to give lists 

 suited to various sections. Local inquiries will give the most 

 satisfactory results, but as our American Pomological Society 

 has a membership of continental extent, a selection from the 

 best tree fruits on its list is here appended. The early varie- 

 ties are named first, and so on to the last named, which are 

 the latest sorts. 



Apples. — Summer Rose, Yellow Transparent, Early Straw- 

 berry, High Top Sweet, Primate, Early Joe, Garden Royal, Fall 

 Wine, Porter, Chenango, Aromatic Carolina, Haskell Sweet, 

 Rambo, Gravenstein, Fameuse, Shiawassee, Wealthy, Wagner, 

 Yellow Bellefleur, Hubbardston, Jonathan, Lady's Sweet, 

 Melon, Buckingham, Baltimore, Grimes' Golden, American 

 Golden Pippin, Newtown Spitzenberg, Mother, Northern Spy, 

 Swaar, Hunt Russet, Romanite, Westfield. 



Pears. — Bloodgood, Clapp's Favorite, Madeleine, Dear- 

 born, Giffard, Quimper, Rostiezer, Tyson, Souvenir, Ansault, 

 Bartlett, Andrews, Bilboa, Boussock, Clairgeau, Cornice, Dix, 

 Foster's Seckel, Frederick Clapp, Gray Doyenne, Dr. Reeder, 

 Dana's Hovey, Doyenne d'Alencon, Easter BeurrS, Josephine 

 of Malines, Lawrence, M'Laughlin, Winter Nelis. 



Plums. — De Montfort, Hudson Gage, July Green Gage, Bel- 

 gian Purple, Bradshaw, Denniston, Green Gage, Imperial Gage, 

 Jefferson, Lawrence, M'Laughlin, Prune of Agen, Smith's 

 Orleans, Washington, Bavay, Coe's Late Red, Coe's Golden 

 Drop, St. Catherine. 



Peaches. — Alexander, Amsden, Beatrice, Cole's Early, Early 

 York, Hale's Early, Tillotson ; Albert, Amelia, Early Grosse 

 Mignonne, Royal George, Thurber, White Imperial ; Alexan- 

 der Noblesse, Coolidge's Favorite, George IV., Grosse Mig- 

 nonne, Malta, Morris' White, Oldmixon Free, Oldmixon Cling, 

 President, Susquehanna, Van Zandt, Wheatland ; Cook's Late, 

 Crawford's Late, Druid Hill, Heath Cling, Hyslop Cling, Late 

 Red Rareripe, Petite Imperial, Stump the World. 



Cherries. — Belle d'Orleans, Early Purple, Knight's Early, 

 Rockport ; Osceola, Belle de Choisy, Bigarreau, Black Eagle, 

 Black Heart, Black Tartarian, Coe's Transparent, Elton, Gov- 

 ernor Wood, Hovey, Napoleon, Olivet ; Reine Hortense, Dow- 

 ner's Late, Red Jacket. _ • ,, 



Newport Vt. T. H. Ho skins. 



Bagging Grapes. 



AT the last meeting of the New Jersey Horticultural 

 Society, Mr. W. H. Goldsmith, of Newark, read an 

 instructive essay on Grape-culture. The following extracts 

 from it show that the practice of covering the clusters with 

 paper-bags has not yet been abandoned in the most suc- 

 cessful vineyards : 



Next to spraying, I consider bagging as an essential in 

 profitable grape-growing. With me it is not only equally im- 



portant, but more so, and if I could not use both I should use 

 bags in preference to the Bordeaux mixture. In fact, I have 

 done this when circumstances have given me but one selec- 

 tion. In the use of bags I have had an experience of several 

 years, and so pronounced has been my success with them that 

 I can unhesitatingly recommend the practice as one of the 

 most efficient safeguards to the preservation of the crops. In 

 1884, out of a vineyard of 700 Niagaras, we bagged the fruit on 

 about 200 vines. During the summer the foliage on the entire 

 vineyard was almost completely obliterated by mildew. The 

 fruit not bagged became hard and did not ripen, while the 

 clusters over which the bags had been placed ripened nicely 

 and were finely flavored. This one experience settled in my 

 own mind the value of bags, and ever since I have used them. 

 The summer and fall of 1889 were perhaps as trying to vine- 

 yards as any in the memory of the members of this society, 

 and yet I had grapes as finely flavored and as well ripened as 

 I have had at any time since I began their cultivation. Owing 

 to bad weather I had succeeded in putting on but one spray- 

 ing of Eau Celeste over the entire vineyard, and making but 

 one application of the Bordeaux mixture upon about one- 

 quarter of my vines, but I had succeeded in getting bags on 

 nearly all my fruit. Of course, in such a season, it is almost 

 impossible to get ahead of the mildew, and it even affected 

 grapes that were bagged, but when my fruit was placed along- 

 side of fruit that had not been bagged it needed no second 

 view to determine what had been the effect of the treatment. 

 The work of putting on bags is no small item ; indeed, it is one 

 of the costliest necessities. During the past season I put on 

 about 66,000 bags at a cost of $130. Aside from the matter of 

 cost, the work itself must be done not only during the busiest 

 season of the year, but, to get the best results, the period during 

 which the bags should be applied is comparatively short. As 

 soon as the clusters have set, the work should begin, and be 

 pushed as fast as possible until completed. If it could all be 

 done at once it would be much better, as the sooner the 

 bunches are covered the less danger will there be of loss from 

 mildew. In the early part of last season I put some bags over 

 clusters that had not bloomed, and found it answered as well 

 as where the sets had already formed. In no case, however, 

 should the work be done while the Grapes are in blossom. 



It might be supposed that those bags are best which are 

 least susceptible to the destroying influences of the weather. 

 I have oiled bags and bags made of parchment which were 

 sent me as samples and highly recommended, as, in addi- 

 tion to their being less liable to be destroyed by the weather, 

 they may be taken off and used successively through several 

 seasons. The fallacy of this is apparent when we consider 

 that far the heaviest item of expense in bagging is the labor of 

 putting the bags on. Wet weather does not injure the bags, 

 as they are protected by the foliage from the direct effect of 

 storms. The bags I use are the common manilla one and a 

 half pound paper bags put together in the old way, with cor- 

 ners square, and they are so flimsy as to frequently tear down 

 the sides while being put on the vines, and yet, when I come 

 to take them off in the fall they are quite difficult to tear, as 

 the action of sun and moisture has toughened them. Before 

 the bags are put on the grapes the corners of both tops and 

 ' bottoms should be cut off. This can be done rapidly by a 

 broad chisel, and serves the twofold purpose of enabling the 

 top to be closed up neatly over the cluster and allowing any 

 water that may get into the bag to drain out. In putting the 

 bag on care should be taken to pin the top above the lateral 

 from which the cluster depends, as otherwise if the pin is put 

 through the bag around the small stem of the cluster it will be 

 found that the wind blowing the bag about will break the clus- 

 ter from the vine. This happened in my vineyard when I first 

 began the practice of bagging, and I had the opportunity of 

 seeing a large number of bags on the ground, and in each one 

 a cluster of grapes. 



Aside* from the question of mildew, bagging will have to be 

 resorted to in the future to protect our vineyards from the 

 ravages of a pest that threatens to become nearly, if not quite, 

 as destructive as both mildew and black rot together. I refer 

 to the small black worm which we find taking up its quarters 

 in the grape some five or six weeks before ripening. This in- 

 sect is hatched from an egg deposited on the side of the berry 

 by a fly resembling somewhat the common house-fly. As 

 soon as it is hatched it goes to the seeds, and after perma- 

 nently injuring the berry it will go to the next, and so on until 

 it has spoiled several. I have seen bunches in my vineyard 

 containing scarcely one good grape. This pest has attacked 

 our vineyards for a number of years, and is doubtless known 

 to a large number of grape-growers. Its depredations have 

 usually been so limited as to call for no special notice, but 



