116 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[August, 



J|e |fait (jwien. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Strawberries. — In many sections the crop 

 has been an exceedingly poor one. The 

 plants had wintered badly, and although the 

 weather during the bearing season was 

 favorable, the plants were too much 

 enfeebled by last year's severe drought to 

 produce a full crop. 



It is a poor plan to attempt to rejuvenate 

 an old, worn-out and neglected Strawberry 

 bed. It is much cheaper and more satisfac- 

 tory to plant new ones. Old Strawberry beds 

 are the favorite breeding-grounds of the 

 June beetle, the larva* of which — the white 

 grubs — are most effectually destroyed by 

 plowing or spading up their habitations. 



Raspberries and Blackberries should have 

 the new canes cut off at a height of from 

 three to four feet. This strengthens the 

 canes so that they will stand upright without 

 stakes, effecting considerable saving in time 

 and material. Only three or four of the 

 healthiest shoots of each stool should be 

 allowed to grow, and all other sprouts should 

 be cut away. It is impossible to raise a 

 first-class crop of berries and a crop of plants 

 at the same time. 



Summer Pruning of Grape-vines is decidedly 

 losing in favor. Many of our largest and 

 best Grape growers do not prune at all dur- 

 ing summer, or confine the operation to an 

 occasional finishing off of a few too rampant 

 growing shoots. Intelligent vintagers who 

 have tried both methods think that the bene- 

 fit derived from summer pruning is, as a rule, 

 not worth the time and labor bestowed upon 

 it. In small vineyards, when extra choice 

 fruit is desired, summer pruning, when com- 

 bined with judicious thinning of imperfect 

 bunches, may produce the desired result, but 

 it must always be borne in mind that it is 

 the sun's action upon the leaves, not upon 

 the fruit, that effects the ripening of the lat- 

 ter. 



A skeptical friend, who to disprove this 

 theory pulled off every leaf from a vine 

 loaded with beautiful bunches, found to his 

 dismay that shortly after the operation not 

 only every berry shriveled up and dropped, 

 but the vine itself died, rather than become 

 again subjected to such barbarous treat- 

 ment. 



Bagging Grapes. — The use of bags as a 

 means of protection against the depredations 

 of insects and birds is rapidly gaining favor. 

 The process consists in placing cheap ma- 

 nilla paper bags, such as are used in stores, 

 over the half-ripe bunches. The bags have, 

 of course, to be large enough to admit of the 

 increasing size of the bunch. The crease on 

 the side is usually opened a few inches, to 

 admit the bending over of the edges and the 

 closing of the bag, which is afterward fast- 

 ened with a pin or string. Some make a 

 small hole in the bottom of the bag to allow 

 the rain water to run out, but there is little 

 need for this if the bags are well secured at 

 the top. These bags, although fully exposed 

 to the weather, last a whole season. This 

 bagging is found to increase the quality of 

 the Grapes considerably, and admits also of 

 leaving the bunches longer on the vines, the 

 paper providing complete protection against 

 light frosts. 



MANCHESTER AND HOVEY NOT IDENTICAL. 



Our first impressions of the Manchester 

 were so favorable that we did not hesitate 

 to pronounce it a most valuable new variety, 

 possessing more desirable qualities than any 

 other kind we were acquainted with, and 

 never for a moment doubted its being a 

 distinct variety. Yet the careless statement 

 of Mr. Hovey found many believers who ac- 

 cepted the identity of the Manchester with 

 the Hovey without examination. The error 

 of this assertion is now so plainly proven 

 that all doubt is dispelled. 



As a matter of justice to Mr. Hale and Mr. 

 Lovett, the introducers of the Manchester, as 

 well as in vindication of our own statements, 

 we feel it our duty to give room to the fol- 

 lowing communication : 



Editor American Garden. 



Early last spring my attention was called 

 to the fact that Messrs. Hovey & Co., of Bos- 

 ton, in their catalogue for 1882, closed their 

 description of the Hovey Seedling Strawberry 

 by saying, " after nearly fifty years of suc- 

 cessful cultivation, this variety is now being 

 introduced under the name of Manchester." 



No simple hint that it might prove to be 

 the same, but a plain, broad statement that 

 Manchester was nothing more than the old 

 Hovey under a new name. This statement, 

 coming from such a well-known firm as 

 Messrs. Hovey, who certainly ought to know 

 their own pet child after over forty years of 

 care for it, naturally attracted the attention 

 of Horticulturists all over the country, and 

 i led to touch discussion in the Horticultural 

 j and Agricultural press ; consequently letters 

 began to pour in upon us, accusing us and 

 other nurserymen of palming off an old and 

 now obsolete variety for a new and valuable 

 one ; some even refusing to take plants they 

 had ordered, and others declining to pay for 

 those already received. To all such we wrote, 

 "that Mr. Hovey knew very little of the 

 Manchester, having never seen the plant, and 

 the fruit only once, and that as exhibited byus 

 at the Massachusetts Horticultural Exhibition 

 at Boston, June 28, 1881, at which time, in 

 connection with the Longfellow, it took first 

 prize for the best new varieties on exhibition, 

 and that as soon as Mr. Hovey saw the 

 strong, vigorous plant with its load of fruit 

 he would at once admit that it was entirely 

 distinct from the Hovey Seedling." 



At the Nurserymen's Convention in Roch- 

 ester in June I was beset on all sides in 

 regard to the matter, and was asked in all 

 seriousness by some, if we were not really 

 afraid that the two were identical, and would 

 so be proven at fruiting time this year, 

 showing conclusively that the impression 

 was gaining ground ("even among those thst 

 ought to have known better), that the two 

 berries were really one and the same. 



Now if the two were really alike in every 

 other particular, the fact that the true Man- 

 chester always has from ten to twenty fruit- 

 stalks to a single plant, while the Hovey never 

 has more than two and seldom but one, should 

 have convinced every intelligent grower 

 early in the season that they were entirely 

 distinct varieties, even it they doubted the 

 statements of such high authorities as Dr. 

 Hexamer, Peter B. Mead, E. Williams, Win. 

 Parry, P. M. Augur, E. P. Roe, and many 

 others that saw it in fruiting last season 

 and pronounced it a new and most valuable 

 variety producing enormous crops of deli- 



cious berries on poor, worn-out, sandy soil ; so 

 poor that I think the the Hovey would hardly 

 grow there, much less produce any fruit. 



Thus far I have refrained from saying 

 anything in regard to the matter in print, 

 wishing before doing so to once more exhibit 



' the fruit and plant as well at Boston, where 

 Mr. Hovey could have ample opportunity to 



! compare it with his favorite, and thus be able 

 to render a more just verdict than that of 

 last season. 



This opportunity was offered at the annual 

 Rose and Strawberry show of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, June 30th, 

 and the following is an extract from a letter 

 received from Mr. C. M. Hovey, and dated at 

 Boston, Mass., July 4, 1882 : 



"Messrs. Hale — Gents. 



" I am glad to have this early opportunity 

 to reply, because if the specimens of the 

 Manchester Strawberry exhibited by you last 

 Friday are a fair sample, I must frankly ac- 

 knowledge my great error in considering it 

 I a synonym of the Hovey, for there is no com- 

 parison or resemblance, only in the single 

 fact that both are pistillate." 



The frank acknowledgment of his error 

 by Mr. Hovey settles the whole matter in 

 dispute ; and I ask for the publication of this 

 letter, not only to clear our firm and other 

 nurserymen from the imputation of sending 

 out an old and worn-out variety for a new 

 and valuable one, but for the benefit of the 

 general public, who are greatly interested in 

 this valuable variety which, from present 

 indications promises to be planted more ex- 

 tensively during the next few years than all 

 other sorts combined, on account of its vig- 

 orous growth, great productiveness, and firm- 

 ness to bear transportation, as well as the 

 perfect form and bright color of the fruit. 



The one great injury that is coming out of 

 all this talk of its being the same as the 

 Hovey Seedling, is that some unprincipled 

 dealers are sending out plants of the Hovey 

 as the true Manchester, and many people are 

 being tempted into buying them because 

 they are offered at a lower price than the 

 genuine Manchester ; and while we know of 

 no way to prevent this great fraud, the public 

 can protect themselves by buying only from 

 nurserymen of known reliability, and I am 

 happy to say there are plenty of such in 

 every State in the Union. 



J. H. Hale. 



South Glastonbury, Conn. 



LARGE STRAWBERRY CROP, 



Mr. Frank Freeman, my next-door neighbor, 

 gathered from his Strawberry-bed, ten feet 

 by twenty-eight, this year, one hundred and 

 ten quarts. The variety was Wilson, planted 

 one year ago last May, from runners of the 

 year previous, in hills two feet apart each 

 way. The berries were from medium to 

 large, and quite uniform to the last. The 

 soil was stiff clay, and the bed kept free from 

 runners and weeds. The place was one side 

 of the garden, with no extra fertilizing except 

 being covered with coarse stable manure last 

 fall, raked off clean this spring. Mr. Free- 

 man's garden is in good condition for com- 

 mon garden purposes. If any of the readers 

 of the American Garden can beat this, let 

 them tell us how it is done, and be as partic- 

 ular in the description as I have been in this. 



Rev. E. Hathaway. 



Middlcportj Niagara Co., N. Y. 



