LIGHT FROM THE SOCIETIES. 



Wintering Onions. — Mr. Gregory says the cheapest 

 and best way is to freeze them. Choose the northwest 

 portion of some out-building, cover the floor with a foot 

 or so of hay, on this spread a layer of onions to the depth 

 of from xYz to 2 feet, leaving a vacant space of about 2 

 feet on the sides next to the building, Fill this with 

 hay. Let the onions become thoroughly frozen, then 

 cover them with 2 or 3 feet of hay. Here let them re- 

 main until the frost is entirely out in the spring, when 

 they should be spread, well aired, and turned carefully 

 and often until thoroughly dried. To store them largely 

 for winter or spring sales is attended with much risk. 

 A beginner ought rather to sell in the fall, and begin to 

 store on a small scale. — Wiscoyisin State Horticultural 

 Society. 



Renewing Strawberry-Plants. — I set new beds every 

 year, in order to secure good plants to use or sell. 

 Strawberry-plants should never be taken from an old 

 bed. On my new beds I allow no fruit or blossoms to 

 grow. I never use or sell a plant from a bed that has 

 borne a crop. By taking those that have borne nothing 

 you secure extra-strong plants, and you will notice the 

 difference in the roots themselves. In taking up roots, I 

 usually prune them back to make them throw out little 

 feeders, and always cut off old runners. 1 insert my 

 finger in the center of plants so that in setting them the 

 roots are fan-shaped, and I take great care to prepare 

 the ground so that every portion of it is very fine. The 

 Warfield I consider the best strawberry yet produced for 

 money. I have fertilized for the last two or three years 

 with Jessie. This year I have been trying Michel 

 Early, which promises to be the best fertilizer known. 

 I have found it a very good berry, of medium size, per- 

 haps too soft for shipping, but remarkable for fertilizing. 

 —M. A. Thayer, President of Wisconsin Slate Horti- 

 cultural Society. 



Some New Raspberries. — Palmer gave a fine crop on 

 one-^ear-old plants ; fruit glossy black, without bloom, of 

 medium size ; the canes are thickly set with briers, but 

 form young plants readily. As an early black-cap, 

 this is very promising. Winona and American Ever- 

 bearing each bore a moderate crop of good-sized berries 

 with a too-heavy gray bloom. Ada had too much bloom. 

 Progress, a small, early blackcap, gave a fair crop of 

 fruit, and plenty of young tip-plants. Muskingum bore 

 a few berries of the purple type. As the bush roots 

 from the tips, this might be called a red or purple-cap. 

 Child's "Japan Wineberry" made a beautiful bush cov- 

 ered with red spines, and bore a few small, tart, orange- 

 colored berries, that were covered with a mossy calyx 

 until ripe. The berries separate from the calyx like the 

 black-caps. The fruit ripened after all other raspberries. 

 Unless the plants fruit better on full-sized bushes, they 

 will have little value. Thompson Early Mammoth 

 blackberry killed to the ground, even with winter protec- 

 tion, and is doubtless too tender here. — From Report 

 of Trial Stations, Wisconsin State Horticultural 

 Society. 



Plants for the Poor. — The Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society stimulates a love of flowers among the 



children of the poor by exhibitions of plants and flowers 

 grown by children living in tenement-house districts. 

 The exhibitors are not limited to this class of children, 

 but the plants exhibited always come from tenement- 

 house localities. Plants are given to the children at 

 Easter time, and the exhibitions are held in September. 

 Small prizes, sometimes of money and sometimes of 

 books, are given to successful competitors, and results 

 accomplished in the way of window-gardening among 

 children of the very poor are surprising. The exhibi- 

 tions are held in school-rooms or in churches on Satur- 

 days. No admittance is charged, and there is always a 

 good attendance of children and their mothers. At the 

 last exhibition the writer attended, a little boy and a 

 little girl of about eight and ten years came up to the 

 school-house door with two pots of well-shaped and 

 thrifty scarlet and pink geraniums, in a little wagon 

 made of an old soap-box on two wobbly wooden wheels. 

 These children lived on the third floor, in a tenement- 

 house district noted for its filth and squalor. No one 

 can say how wide an influence for good those two little 

 plants exerted in the squalid home from which they 

 came. A beautiful set of floral picture cards is given to 

 every child exhibiting plants, and the children are in- 

 structed in the care of plants and encouraged to increase 

 their collections. It is missionary work of a kind that 

 will count for something in the future lives of these 

 children, for flowers and plants are great teachers. — ■ 

 Max Beunner. 



Some Japanese Plums. — The following extract from 

 an address by J. L. Normand, before the Louisiana 

 Horticultural Society, gives an estimate of several kinds 

 of Japanese plums which are now demanding much at- 

 tention ; "Of all fruits that I have tested on my experi- 

 mental grounds, the oriental plums stand at the head of 

 the list as the most profitable for us to plant, either for 

 market or home use. I have sent them by mail and 

 express as far as New York and Chicago, also to Cali- 

 fornia, and they reached those distant markets in good 

 condition. In northern cities they command fancy 

 prices, and I predict that it is but a question of a very 

 few years when the Gulf states will take the lead in sup- 

 plying early plums to the north and west. We are at 

 least 1,000 miles closer to the great markets of the 

 United States than California, which gives us an advan- 

 tage of cheaper freight rates, our fruits reaching their 

 destination fresh and the first on the market. 



Bougoume and Japan Apricot are first to ripen, about 

 the middle of May in Central Louisiana. Bougoume, 

 like Kelsey, is sometimes caught by late frosts in full 

 bloom ; it blossoms a few days ahead of Kelsey, hence 

 it would not be advisable to plant largely of that variety 

 north of here. Japan Apricot is much later to bloom ; 

 this is the only Apricot that has ever succeeded with me 

 here in Central Louisiana. It can be planted from the 

 Gulf coast to Mason and Dixon's line. The above two 

 varieties were imported by ex-Governor Hubbard, of 

 Texas, while minister to Japan. Kume and Hanayume, 

 catalogued by some nurserymen as Gold-Dust and Hub- 

 bard, bloom too early. I have discarded them, and 



