BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



429 



nothing. Whether we should choose a high grade of 

 quality with a lower grade of productiveness, or a high 

 grade of productiveness with a lower grade of quality, 

 will depend entirely upon circumstances. For example, 

 in some localities the Ben Davis apple would rank occa- 

 sionally in the scale given above — 15 in productiveness and 

 only five in quality. In the same locality King of Tomp- 



kins County would rank 15 in quality and only 5 in pro- 

 ductiveness. On theie two counts alone, the two varieties 

 would average the score, but their commercial value 

 might be quite different, as it might also depend upon their 

 respective rank in other qualities, the demands of the 

 market, etc. — William R. Lazerby, Ohio Slate Uni- 



COMMENTS BY READERS. 



[One idea often suggests another. Here is a space in which a 

 that has recently appeared in these columns. If you think you know 

 or if you think you can forcibly confirm or add to some present or 

 from you. Many such contributioiis would be welcome each month. 



Mulching Strawberries. — (Page 303.) We have a 

 fine illustration of the value of a mulch on strawberries. 

 Our mulched plants are a mass of fine fruit, while the 

 fruit of the same varieties unmulched is hardly worth 

 picking.— W. F. Massey, X. C. 



The Stachys.— (Page 284.) We tried Stachy.'i .Sic- 

 boldii last year, and think it good. Eaten raw it is bet- 

 ter than radishes to my taste, and will make delightful 

 pickles. It is doubtless good in many ways, but our sup- 

 ply was too small for a full test. — W. F. M, 



The Agapanthus. — (Page 292.) You do well to put 

 in a good word for the agapanthus. I wish you could 

 see the magnificent umbels on our plants now. They 

 winter well in North Carolina with a mound of soil over 

 their crowns. Erylhrina crista-ffatti cs.Tae through the 

 winter outside under a mound of sawdust. The top of 

 the plant was cut oft within a foot of the ground, after 

 frost had cut the foliage, and then sawdust was piled in 

 a conical heap above it. The plant is now making a fine 

 growth.— W. F. M. 



The Fuchsia-Flowering Gooseberry. — (Page 104 ) 

 The fuchsia is not one of Washington's wild-flowers. It 

 does not grow wild anywhere in United States territory 

 on the Pacific Coast. The plant I referred to in " Some 

 of Washington's Wild-Flowers " is the fuchsia-flowering 

 gooseberry (Ribes spcciosum) which has showy and beau- 

 tiful flowers like fuchsias. This plant is worthy of a 

 place in the ornamental shrubbery of California where 

 they can grow almost everything. — T. H, Carter, 

 Clallam Co., IVash. 



Fungicides and Insects. — More than a year ago 

 American Gardening published a formula for a prepara- 

 tion of copper carbonate and ammonia made by com- 

 pounding blue vitriol and carbonate of ammonia. I 

 I found this an admirable mixture, not only for a fungi- 

 cide, but for an insecticide. Persistent colonies of aphides 

 that had defied tobacco-water, whale-oil soap, and every 

 other mixture, were destroyed by it at once. My honey- 

 locust hedge was ravaged by a beetle much like the old- 

 fashioned potato-bug. Arsenites burned the foliage, but 

 this copper carbonate cleared them out at once and did 

 no mischief. — W. Wade, Pa. 



The Lucretia Dewberry. — (Page 274.) This is at- 

 tracting a good deal of attention here and is very profit- 

 able. Its fruit ripens about May 30, and reaches the 

 New York markets before strawberries, from some locali- 



II readers are invited to express themselves regarding any matter 

 better regarding some point than the writer of some recent article 

 late statement in these columns, the Editor would be glad to hear 



] 



ties in that state, are sent in. The strawberry-crop was 

 poor and late here this year, because of cold and dry 

 weather. The first berries were sent off May 6, several 

 weeks later than usual. We have some wild plants of 

 the dewberry class which we are testing beside the Lu- 

 cretia. — W. F. Massey. 



Truck-Growing for Wealth. — (Page 296.) Down in 

 the eastern part of North Carolina there is money in 

 trucking, and a great deal invested in the business. We 

 have, for instance, single growers who plant from 700 to 

 1,000 barrels of early Irish potatoes. You would imag- 

 ine that the crops, shipped in May from mile after mile 

 of fields planted in early cabbage, near New Berne, 

 would be sufficient to supply the whole country. One of 

 our New Berne truckers has used this spring on one farm 

 123,000 worth of commercial fertilizers. The men get 

 two, three, and sometimes four crops from the same land 

 in one season. — W. F. M. 



Propagation of Blackberries, Raspberries and 

 Figs.— (Page 271.) My method is similar to Mr. Pierce's, 

 only I start earlier and pot the plants under glass. My 

 plants are now (May 16) four inches high in the pot, and 

 would have been outdoors long ago, but for press of 

 work. We propagate figs largely in a similar way from 

 single eyes. The eyes are cut with a piece of wood two 

 inches long below the eye. They are then buried out- 

 doors until February, when they are placed singly in 

 three-inch pots and set on the benches of the propagating 

 house with bottom-heat. The air overhead being kept 

 cool, they are well rooted before growth begins. These 

 plants are now well established in the pots with five or 

 six inches of new top, and are being distributed to 

 growers in all parts of the state. Nearly 6,000 of these 

 have been distributed in three years. Small fig-plants 

 set out here last May were five feet high when frost came, 

 and full of green figs. This year they will give a fair 

 crop of fruit. — W. F. M. 



The Rhapis Palm.— The interesting notesupon "The 

 Rhapis Palm," in the May issue of this magazine (page 

 261) omitted what to me seems one of the charms of the 

 plant, namely, the graceful filaments which hold the 

 leafstalks to the main stem. Indeed, the main stem 

 seems a real " E. pluribus iiiium," for its beautiful fingers 

 clasp each other round and round. The illustration given 

 certainly showed a very finely-grown plant, but all the 

 suckers were left on and they hid the beauty of the 



