4 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



If pruning of trees, bushes, or vines is 

 not yet completed, not a moment should be 

 lost in finishing the work. It is a mistake to 

 suppose that liberal manuring and good cul- 

 tivation alone will produce fruitfulness ; 

 without judicious pruning these means will, 

 in many cases, only increase barrenness. 



Ordering plants and trees from nurseries 

 should not be de- 

 layed until a few 

 days before plant- 

 ing-time. Al- 

 though reputable 

 dealers try to fur- 

 nish good stock 

 to all of their cus- 

 tomers, yet here, 

 as in other trades, 

 the rule of "first 

 come, first serv- 

 ed " has, of neces- 

 sity, to be some- 

 what observed, 

 and those who 

 order early will 

 rarely be disap- 

 pointed. 



Strawberr ies . — 

 With proper man- 

 agement, Straw- 

 berries may be 

 planted at any 

 time d u r i n g 

 spring, until fruit 

 sets, yet the sooner 

 they are planted 

 after the ground 

 becomes fit to be 

 worked the better. 

 At planting, all 

 blossoms and flow- 

 er-buds should lie 

 pinched off, and 

 leaves and roots 

 shortened. Pack 

 the soil firmly 

 around the roots, 

 but not on the sur- 

 face, and do not 

 cover the heart 

 of the plant. 



Baspberries and 

 Blaclcb er r i e s 

 should be planted 

 as early as pos- 

 sible ; after planting, the canes should 

 be cut off entirely, leaving only enough to 

 mark the position of the plants. New canes 

 will soon spring up ; these should be pinched 

 in when about three feet high ; they will bear 

 the second year after planting. 



Currants and Gooseberries, if allowed to grow 

 unpruned for several successive years, will 

 soon become a mass of slender, weak shoots, 

 that will produce only small fruit, and this, 

 too, notwithstanding they may have received 

 an annual dressing of manure. Old, neglected 

 bushes had better be replaced with young 

 plants than to spend time and manure in 

 the attempt to renovate them. 



Grapes. — However limited one's ground 

 may be, for a grape-vine there is always room ; 

 even in a flower-pot a grape-vine may often 

 be grown with gratifying results. 



THE CUTHBERT RASPBERRY. 



If it were better known that Raspberries 

 can be as cheaply grown as green Peas, tak- 

 ing measure for measure, and that little or 

 no more skill is required on the part of the 

 grower, surely they would be more generally 

 planted. Raspberries, in a sense, may be 

 said to be like Potatoes — they are substan- 

 tial! In another particular, also, do they 

 resemble that important vegetable — the vari- 

 eties rapidly deteriorate. A celebrated hor- 

 ticulturist compared them, in this respect, to 

 the waves of the ocean. " New ones," he 



CUTHBERT RASPBER 



NOONING UNDER THE TREES. 



said, "constantly appear, pass, and disap- 

 pear, and are quickly succeeded by others. 

 And such, in all probability, will ever be the 

 ease." Whether this fact is owing to our 

 present system of culture, or an inherent 

 characteristic of the fruit, who can tell ? 

 That varieties do deteriorate, however, and 

 especially in vigor and hardiness of the 

 canes, must be admitted; otherwise, what 

 has become of such fine and, in their day, 

 popular varieties as the Hornet, Clarke, 



Catawissa, Pastolff, Knevet's Giant, etc.? 

 Even that venerable variety, the Hudson 

 River Antwerp, has of late become so unre- 

 liable that it is rapidly passing out of culture. 



The subject of these notes, the Cuthbert, 

 is a chance seedling that sprung up in the 

 garden of the late Thomas CuthDert, at 

 Riverdale-oii-the-Hudson (now a part of New 

 York city), and, from all appearances, is a 

 hybrid between the European and our Red 

 American species — possessing the tall, strong 

 growth of cane and the large, luxuriant 

 foliage of the Antwerp, and the hardihood 

 of the American 

 species. The ber- 

 ries, too, are large, 

 fully equaling in 

 size the well- 

 known Hudson 

 River Antwerp, of 

 a fine, rich,red col- 

 or, — which, how- 

 ever, is a shade 

 darker than the 

 Antwerp or Bran- 

 dy wine, — unusu- 

 ally firm, rather 

 long, and formed 

 of many drupes or 

 "grains," closely 

 wedged together. 

 In quality, it is 

 juicy, rich, ano 1 

 with just enough 

 acid to prevent 

 cloying ; it is more 

 than ' ' good " — if 

 is "very good"; 

 although, in pomo- 

 logical parlance, 

 it could scarcely 

 be termed "best." 

 In time of ripen- 

 ing it is medium 

 to very late. For 

 the home garden, 

 in order to get 

 the benefit of the 

 whole season, 

 there should be 

 planted in connec- 

 tion with it some 

 early variety, as 

 the Turner 01 

 Herstine, to pre- 

 cede it, but its 

 fruiting season is 

 longer than that of 

 any other Rasp- 

 berry. In pro- 

 ductiveness and 

 vigor it is some- 

 what remarkable, 

 suffering a vast 

 amount of ' 'whole- 

 some neglect" 

 with impunity, 

 and, with good 

 culture, yielding an amount of fruit that 

 is simply astonishing. It has now been 

 fruited in almost every State in the Union, 

 and, after thorough trial and careful obser- 

 vations, the Cuthbert may be considered 

 decidedly the most desirable Raspberry ex- 

 tant ; in fact, its combination of excellences — 

 its large size and handsome appearance, its 

 firmness and fine flavor, its vigor, hardiness, 

 general adaptability and great productive- 

 ness — place it apart from other varieties and 



