BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



just how to put them up. It is much nicer than canned 

 fruit and much less trouble and expense. You can put 

 up a bushel of berries in about ten minutes." Some- 

 thing like this is sent to other papers also, and many of 

 them are taken in. Our readers will do well to look out 

 for the fraud. 



Water-lilies from Seed. — It is not generally known, 

 perhaps, how easily some varieties of water-lilies can be 

 rai.sed from seed. Last year I obtained a package of 

 seed of the Zanzibar water-lily (Xymphca Zamibar- 

 cusis), which proves to be an annual and of the easiest 

 culture. About the first of March I filled a common 

 bowl three-fourths full of leaf-mold, and after making it 

 firm I sowed the seeds, covering them slightly with sand. 

 The whole was then covered with about an inch of water 

 and set upon the mantel-shelf near the stove-pipe. In 

 about two weeks they began to germinate, when they 

 were removed to a sunny window. Here they were kept 

 until they had gained considerable size, when a common 

 wooden pail was filled about two-thirds full of rich earth 

 and the seedlings transferred to it and covered with 

 two inches of water. They remained in this until they 

 became large plants, with leaves three or four inches in 

 diameter, and it was truly astonishing how soon the tiny 

 seedlings reached this size. Tubs made by sawing mo- 

 lasses-hogsheads in halves were then sunk into the ground. 



and filled more than half full with a compost composed 

 of good soil and well-rotted manure in equal parts. One 

 or two plants were set into the center of each tub, and 

 an inch of coarse clean gravel was placed on the surface 

 to keep the soil down and the plants in their place, and 

 the whole covered with a few inches of water. No 

 further attention was given except to add water occasion- 

 ally as it evaporated. I was surprised to find that the 

 water in the tubs remained clear throughout the season ; 

 the growing plants in some way keeping it pure and 

 wholesome. 



In a short time the water-lilies pushed up with sur- 

 prising rapidity leaf after leaf of large size until the 

 space within the tubs was completely filled with them. 

 About the latter part of July they began to flower, and 

 they blossomed continuously until they were cut down 

 by the frosts. The frogs came and made their abode in 

 my miniature lily-ponds, and seemed to like their new 

 quarters very much, as they remained even after cold 

 freezing weather. The color of the flowers is either a 

 beautiful light blue or a bright pink. They stand up 

 well out of the water and the same flower opens for sev- 

 eral successive days, closing about the middle of the 

 afternoon. Finally they settle back into the water again 

 to perfect their seed, which is always ripened under 

 water, — S. M.'insfield. 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



\One idea often suggests another. Here is a page in which all readers are invited to . 

 has recently appeared in these columus. If you thiuk you know better regarding some poi 

 you thin/cyou can forcibly confirm or add to some present or late statement in these colunn 

 Many such contributions would be welcome each month.] 



i-press themselves regarding any matter that 

 t than the writer of some recent article, or if 

 r, the Editor would be gjad to hear from you. 



Trimming Trees for Planting. — H. M Stringfel- 

 low, a successful fruit-grower of Galveston county , Texas, 

 strongly advocates cutting away most of the tops and 

 nearly all the fibrous roots of trees, as described and illus- 

 trated in the American Garden for November, 1890. 

 He told me that his practice was to cut off all fibrous 

 roots, leaving nothing but short stubs, and trimming the 

 tops short also. He claimed that if so prepared the new 

 roots would start fresh and vigorous, and reach out 

 deep for moisture and food, forming roots more like 

 the original tap-roots, which nearly all tree-planters 

 agree is highly important. Now if this is correct, the sys- 

 tem has some advantages. Much time and labor in setting 

 the trees would be saved, also much expense in packing 

 and shipping, if trimming were done at the nursery. If 

 trimming were done early in spring, or at time of dig- 

 ging, the wounds would be healing and much of the 

 energy and life-force of the trees would be saved. It 

 has for years been my practice when I received peach 

 trees from the nursery to trim off all the side branches, 

 cut back the tops and trim off the broken ends of the 

 roots smooth, before heeling-in, if not ready to set 

 them in the orchard. If they are well heeled-in, in moist 

 earth, the buds begin to swell, and the ends of the roots 

 to become callus much sooner than those of trees left un- 

 trimmed. I recall some instances which prove to my 

 mind the correctness of this idea, and that it is at least 



well worth testing more fully. Some five or six years 

 since I received a May Duke cherry, a small inferior tree 

 with practically no roots — two or three small broken 

 stubs, two to four inches long, and no fibers. I had 

 little hope of making the tree grow, but I set it near the 

 house and watered it occasionally. It started nicely and 

 has grown vigorously ever since, although for the last 

 four years it has stood in a grass-plat and the seasons 

 have been dry. It is now a fine healthy tree, 10 or 12 

 feet high and 3 to 3,'2 inches in diameter. My brother, 

 a fruit-grower of long experience, tells me that for years 

 it has been his practice to shave off the small fibrous 

 roots from trees before setting, believing them to be use- 

 less as well as in the way. — M. L. McClane, jSIichigan. 



Native Apples. — E. P. Powell speaks in such a way 

 of making a change in apple-culture by the addition of 

 native sorts and of wild apples, that the reader would 

 infer there were in colonial times wild apples of which 

 our present sorts are an improvement. This, if true, is 

 news ; as we know of no native sort, except Pyrtis coro- 

 iiari'ci, the common wild crab-apple, and Pvrits inijrus- 

 /i/olia,oi Pennsylvania and southwards. Downing says 

 that as yet no cultivated varieties of the apple have been 

 raised from our native crabs, but from seeds brought 

 here by colonists from Europe. Yet Mr. Powell says 

 that the Indians had wild apples and some very good seed- 

 lings. We in the west, who are looking for just such 



