e<5HTN^seS0CIETIES 



BeinqMatter That Deserves 



To BE WJCEUY KNOWN, 



Possibilities of Persimmon- 

 Culture. — At a recent meeting 

 of the Indiana State Horticul- 

 tural Society, Mr. Kingsbury 

 told of a grower in the southern 

 part of the state who makes a 

 business of growing persim- 

 mons, packing the fruit in 

 bo.xes and sending it to Indianapolis, where it sells for 

 20 cents a box, and the boxes do not hold over a quart. 

 He has been doing this for years and now has a large or- 

 chard of persimmon trees. He has also established a 

 nursery for them and is raising trees to sell. 



Keep Immature Products at Home. — The practice of 

 marketing fruit and vegetables before they are ripe is re- 

 sulting in a reduced consumption and will surely injure 

 the business. An Akron lady told me that she would be 

 glad to have peaches as dessert twice a day, could she 

 get thoroughly ripened, full-flavored fruit; but the flavor- 

 less ones found in the market were not good, so they 

 did without. A New York paper is responsible for the 

 statement that the muskmelon market there was totally 

 ruined by the unripe melons sold early in the season. — 

 L. B. Pierce, Ohio HorticidtHral Society. 



Packing Apples for Market. — I use a table eight feet 

 long with side boards six inches high, that will hold two 

 barrels of apples. Sort them into two grades at least. 

 For the first grade set two tiers of smooth, good-colored, 

 medium-sized apples, and fill up the barrel with apples 

 that will run as good or better. Shake them well, level 

 off the end, press the head in so tight that there is no 

 chance for an apple to move, and after the head is nailed 

 turn the barrel upside down and put your name on it as 

 guarantee of a No. i apple, to be sold for what the buyer 

 is willing to give. — kelson Cox, at Farmers' Institute 

 in Ohio. 



Cold-Storage for Fruit. — At the last meeting of the 

 W. N. Y. Hort. Society, Mr. Powell said it would pay to 

 have cold-storage for the Bartlett pear, for otherwise it 

 crowds upon the market too fast. A portion of the crop 

 should be held back so as to prolong the season of mar- 

 keting. Temperature is an important consideration. If 

 too low, the flavor of the fruit is injured ; 36° or 37° 

 Fahr. is about right, for that is low enough to prolong 

 the season of marketing a little while. Apples may be 

 kept in a considerably lower temperature, and if held 

 back and marketed in April, the owner will reap consid- 

 erable advantage. 



Stock and Graft in Apples. — Two years ago Dr. Wil- 

 cox directed my attention to some Wealthy apple trees 

 top-worked on Transcendent and full of fruit. The 

 fruit was ripening and we tested it. There was no differ- 

 ence in the fruit of Wealthy on its own root and on 

 Transcendent stock. Grafting the Wealthy on the 



Transcendent was a remarkable success. I believe that 

 a good way to utilize a few Transcendents in the north 

 would be to put Wealthys on them. The Bethle- 

 hemite apple is much grown about Wheaton, 111., and it 

 was a favorite winter apple of mine. In that vicinity 

 they got to working it on the native wild crab. They 

 found that it united better with the wild crab than any 

 variety I am acquainted with. Mr. Fuller, knowing I 

 was partial to the Bethlehemite apples, brought out a 

 plate of them. He watched me quite closely until I had 

 taken a bite and began to draw up my face. Some of 

 those Bethlehemites had been top-worked on the native 

 crab, and although they preserved the shape of the 

 Bethlehemite, they had the astringency of the crab. 

 The union seemed good. It looks to me as though in 

 this case it was a real example of communicating that 

 particular flavor that the wild crab has, to the Beth- 

 lehemite. — Prof. J. L. Budd, Northern loiva Hort. 

 Society. 



Keeping Grapes Fresh. — The following recipes were 

 given at a fruit-growers' meeting in Ohio : ( i ) Dip the stems 

 of the bunches, where broken off, into melted red sealing- 

 wax and pack them in cotton in large pasteboard boxes. 

 They must be kept where it is dry and cool. (2) To- 

 ward the end of October cut the shoots with the cluster 

 attached, sharpen the lower ends to a point and stick 

 them into potatoes. Spread the bunches out on straw or 

 dry hay, so that they shall not touch each other. The 

 grapes must be placed where it is dry and cool. 



Worm Attacking Carnations. — At a recent meeting of 

 the Chester County Carnation Society, Mr. Shelmire ' 

 showed an enemy to the carnation-plants in the field, a 

 small "measuring worm" that attacks the newly set 

 plants at or slightly above the ground, boring into the 

 center of the stalk, the plant withering and dying above 



CARNATION ENEMY, 



;CH ENLARGED. 



the point of attack. The roots are not killed and pre- 

 sumably renew their growth. The "worms" as shown 

 were from three-sixteenths to one-half inch long, and for 

 about one-third their length, in the middle, brown, each 

 end being white. 



Dooryard Pruning. — A distinguished landscape-gar- 

 dener once said to me, as we stood in the Spring Grove 

 cemetery : "A man of leisure with no eye for the details 

 of landscape beauty, can in a single spring day, with 

 pruning-saw and ax, do more to mar the beauty of a 

 home than a landscape-gardener can do to create it in 

 half a life time. If idle men who desire to enjoy the 

 April sunshine would get a pile of sand and shovel it 

 back and forth as the children do, they would do infin- 

 itely more for rural adornment and taste, than they do 

 in pruning their shrubbery. Men are all born butchers, 

 and when they get too old, pr too lazy, or too rich to 

 butcher men or animals, they butcher the innocent 

 trees and shrubs around their homes. They ruth- 

 lessly throttle every effort of nature, and make their door- 



