BUD-S, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



39 



Railway Hedges. — Norway spruce, arbor-vitse, or 

 Japan quince would look much handsomer as snow- 

 screens along the railroads than do the familiar rough 

 board fences. That they would answer as well is proved 

 by their use for this purpose in Europe. 



The National Flower agitation will not down. 

 Recently when the matter was submitted to the vote of 

 the attendants at a Chicago flower-show, the decision 

 stood as follows: Goldenrod 1,268, rose 390, chrysan- 

 themum 243, sunflower go. That settles it ! 



Tell us what you have been doing in the garden this 

 year. If you succeeded, how ; if you harvested a fail- 

 ure, why — reckon the experience gained as of a cer- 

 tain value, and try to get your money's worth from it, 

 and let others of us profit by it, too. — Elder's Wife. 



Hedge-trimming Machine. — A correspondent of the 

 Sciencific American, urging this invention, suggests that 

 the cutting part might be a sickle or a set of whirling 

 disks, very strong. He thinks it might form an attach- 

 ment to a common wagon, the power to drive it being 

 derived from the wheel 



White Grapes. — Go slow in planting even the best of 

 them for market. Buyers take to a dark grape better 

 than a light one — perhaps because the former is the 

 natural grape color. The past season has shown that 

 certain light grapes, which it was supposed would al- 

 ways bring fancy prices, were sold at nearly or quite the 

 price of dark varieties. 



The Flemish Beauty pear is a grand success here in 

 the Arkansas Valley, and we have heard of an instance 

 of its producing 25 bushels to a single tree in one year. 

 We also learn that it is being propagated under a new 

 name. A fruit-grower at Grand Junction tells me that 

 it is nearly seedless with him. A specimen he gave me 

 contained but one seed. — Sam. Bucas. 



The Curious in Nature. — Several contemporaries 

 have recently referred to the singular fact that when the 

 well-known tender climber, liciis repens, reaches a 

 fruiting stage, it changes its leaves most remarkably. 

 While the plant as generally seen has small rounded 

 papery leaves, in the fruiting stage the leaves become 

 large and leathery, more like those of the India-rubber 

 plant. 



Sensible Mr. Chitty, member of the Paterson, N. 

 J., common-council, and chairman of the committee on 

 parks, is also a successful florist with practical ideas. In 

 a recent report to the council he used severe words 

 against the management of the city parks, going so far 

 as to disapprove all further appropriations for them 

 until the services of a practical superintendent be se- 

 cured for carrying out future improvements. 



Trust Chief Thorpe to make good use of his oppor- 

 tunities in the horticultural department of the World's 

 Fair. He will arrange to use the south corridors of 

 the great plant-hall for tropical plants in irregular 

 groups. With the great number of palms, cycads, 

 dracasnas, crotons, marantas, ferns, anthericums and in- 



numerable other kinds to be employed, this should 

 prove a veritable bit of the tropics dropped down into 

 the fair. 



Poverty Gardens. — No appreciative reader of Amer- 

 ican Gardening is satisfied with a poverty garden ; that 

 is, one having next to none of nature's handsome gifts, 

 in fine shrubs, trees, .plants, fruits, etc., within its 

 limits. But let us not be understood as recommending 

 the other extreme, of getting together every kind heard 

 of or read about. The happy medium gives maximum 

 results for a minimum outlay. Next month some infor- 

 mation will be given, helpful for beginners, on selecting 

 kinds. 



The gardening of -America is distinct from the gar- 

 dening of every other land in a thousand particulars, 

 incident to difference in latitude, atmospheric influences, 

 etc. This is why the horticultural books and periodicals 

 of that great garden-land, England, are of little use as 

 close guides in this country. During the early settle- 

 ment of America, our people blundered along by adopt- 

 ing the methods and materials in gardening of all 

 Europe, but by to-day there has been worked out a dis- 

 tinctive American system of gardening, forwhich Ameri- 

 can Gardening stands. Visitors to the coming World's 

 Fair in Chicago in 1893 may be prepared to see some 

 evidences of the wonderful development of American 

 gardening to date. 



II. THRIFTY SAPLINGS. 



Novelties in Horticulture. — We believe in them, 

 of course, for every standard sort was a novelty at 

 some time. What we don't believe in is that the rank 

 and file of amateurs should invest freely in all novel- 

 ties of the day, passing by the multitude of tested stand- 

 ard sorts. The money wasted on purchasing new flow- 

 ers and fruits, not one in a score of which has ever 

 amounted to anything, if devoted to well-tried, standard 

 sorts, would have made the homes of our people from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific ' ' blossom as the rose. " Nur- 

 serymen and seedsmen who have been of greatest bene- 

 fit to .American horticulture have always laid the 

 greatest stress on standard sorts. To invest in a few 

 novelties may be interesting, even though disappoint- 

 ment is in store for one ; tb invest in many is folly. So 

 it has been in the past ; the future will be no exception. 



A Profitable Lima Bean. — Last spring I planted a 

 peck of Ford's Mammoth-pod Lima beans. We com- 

 menced picking for market about August 20, and con- 

 tinued until the heavy frost of October 8 killed the 

 vines. We sold 560 quarts at 15 cents a quart ; have 

 saved five pecks for seed and three pecks of dry beans 

 for eating. They are the finest Limas I ever saw, and 

 all who examined them were enthusiastic in their 

 praise. The vines were very large and prolific, some of 

 the pods being ten inches long and about one-half of 

 them eight inches, all well filled with large beans of 

 fine flavor. I intend to plant 8,000 or 10,000 hills next 

 year. My soil is timber-land and a sandy loam. — L. C. 

 Emerson, Vermilion Co., III. 



