132 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[September, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Strawberries. — Spring set plants as well as 

 older beds need sufficient cultivation to keep 

 all weeds subdued and the ground light and 

 mellow; care must be taken, however, not 

 to hoe very deep immediately around the 

 stools. Where hill culture is practised all 

 runners should be scrupulously removed. 



With the more general introduction of 

 pot-grown plants, old Strawberry beds are 

 less frequently preserved, and, except with a 

 few special varieties, it is easier, cheaper, 

 and every way preferable to make new beds 

 now, than to spend time and labor in the 

 attempt to nurse old run-out plantations. 



In the hands of any one at all skilled in 

 gardening manipulations, failure with potted 

 plants is next to impossible, yet there are 

 persons who do not succeed even with 

 potted plants, nor with anything else. We 

 have before our mind a case where several 

 hundred beautiful potted plants were set out 

 under a burning sun, in a freshly turned sod, 

 as dry as an ash-heap, not a drop of rain 

 having fallen for several weeks previous nor 

 afterward. Holes were dug with a hoe, the 

 plants thrown in and the balls, or what was 

 left of them, covered with considerably less 

 care than Potatoes should receive. Neither 

 shade nor water was given, and naturally 

 all the plants burned, — as completely as if 

 they had been put in a roasting-pan in the 

 baking oven, — to the disgust of the owner, 

 who henceforth declared potted plants a 

 swindle. 



To be successful with potted plants, 

 especially when planted during a drought, 

 the ground must be in the best possible con- 

 dition; it must be well enriched, deeply dug 

 and thoroughly mellowed and pulverized. 

 The beds or rows are marked out as for 

 layer plants. If the plants have been packed 

 several days and are, on their arrival, found 

 so dry that the soil crumbles from the roots, 

 water should be poured over them an hour 

 or two before planting. Holes a little 

 larger than the balls are then made with a 

 hoe or trowel, and in these the plants, after 

 the paper into which each is wrapped has 

 been removed, are placed so that the upper 

 side of the ball stands in a line with the sur- 

 face of the ground ; fine soil is then drawn 

 around the ball, firmly pressed against it, and 

 the surface leveled. 



Sometimes, when plants have been potted 

 a long time, they become pot-bound, that is, 

 they have formed a dense netted mass of roots 

 around the ball. In this case the ball should 

 be broken before planting. 



In dry weather the plants should be well 

 watered: not only sprinkled a little, but 

 thoroughly soaked, so as to wet the entire 

 ground to a depth of six inches. Unless the 

 drought is very severe, -this is generally all 

 the watering needed, but the plants should 

 be lightly shaded for a few days during the 

 hottest part of the day. 



The principal objection against potted 

 plants is the higher price of the plants them- 

 selves, and the additional charge for express- 

 age. But when the percentage of loss with 

 layer plants is compared with the almost 

 certainty of potted plants, the difference in 

 the actual cost is but trifling. 



PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS. 



It is not many years since the art of propa- 

 gation was clothed in considerable mystery 

 and the knowledge of its methods were care- 

 fully guarded as trade secrets. 



The progressive spirit of the age has here, 

 as in other branches of applied natural sci- 

 ence, changed darkness and ignorance to 

 light and knowledge. Nurserymen find it 

 now to their advantage to spread informa- 

 tion instead of holding it secret. Mr. J. 

 Jenkins, of Winona, O., whose large expe- 

 rience in propagating plants entitles his 

 views to special consideration, has lately 

 given an interesting address before the Nur- 

 serymen's Association, from which we ex- 

 tract the following : 



Most varieties of Grape-vines, Currants, 

 Gooseberries, Eoses, and much of the shrub- 

 bery supplied by nurserymen, grow readily, 

 and are grown from out -door cuttings. 

 Whether of trees or vines, in-door or out- 

 door propagation, the operation of nature in 

 the growth of the cutting is the same. The 

 bud holds within its brown envelope the 

 principle of life, which extends through the 

 cells that have carried the circulation, ex- 

 tended the growth, and established the bud. 

 After the cutting is divided, nature's first 

 effort is to form a callus with the descending 

 cells that would have gone to extend and 

 enlarge the roots on the mother vine. 



Now if instead of abruptly dividing the 

 cane or shoot to be used as a cutting, a sys- 

 tem of ringing or strangulation be followed, 

 every bud may be made to produce a plant, 

 with scarcely an exception. This strangu- 

 lation or ringing is performed on. soft or 

 green wood by simply tying thread tightly 

 around the point where the slip or cutting 

 is to be separated, and on hard wood by a 

 ring of copper or other- wire drawn closely. 

 This will cause an enlargement and a depo- 

 sition of cambium at the point of arrest and 

 make the growth of the cuttings thus pre- 

 pared, when finally separated and planted, 

 almost as certain as though they already had 

 roots. 



One very successful experiment with out- 

 door cuttings of the Grape was performed 

 by allowing the canes to remain on the 

 mother vines until the buds had started a 

 growth of one-half inch or more and the 

 leaves had begun to unfold ; every eye was 

 separated, the old wood placed entirely be- 

 low the soil, the new growth just appearing 

 above the ground, shaded carefully, with a 

 result of full eighty per cent, of vine. 



In the usual manner of preparing ciittings 

 greater success follows when the cuttings 

 are taken off immediately on the fall of the 

 leaf before freezing, when they should im- 

 mediately be packed away in moss or soil 

 until time for planting in spring. 



Cuttings of Currants and Gooseberries 

 taken in August and September may be im- 

 mediately planted, covered with a heavy 

 mulch of straw to carry them through the 

 winter. 



Grape cuttings for out-door planting may 

 be made with single eyes, but all the advan- 

 tages of a two-bud cutting may be retained 

 by simply cutting across the node with a 

 sharp knife or with shears, commencing the j 

 cut opposite and one-eighth of an inch or 

 more below the bud and finishing one-eighth 

 of an inch or more above. We find a new 

 and very profitable use for vines thus grown 

 in propagating Delaware, Cynthiana, Nor- 



ton's Virginia, and other hard-wooded vines 

 by grafting. Roots are thrown out from 

 these long single eye-buds through the cut 

 surface below, while another tier of roots 

 starts immediately below the bud. Above 

 this upper tier of roots the vine is separated 

 and planted on good ground, where it will 

 make a strong two-year old the following 

 season. The lower tier of roots with the 

 piece of stump of the cutting is used as a 

 stock and grafted with any of the varieties 

 difficult to propagate. There is no fear of 

 mixture or mistake from the growth of the 

 stock, as it contains no buds, and as no 

 sprouts start from the stock it the more 

 readily and certainly unites with the scion. 



A CLEAN FERTILIZER FOR STRAWBERRIES. 



The accumulations of horse stables and 

 cow stables are usually full of the seeds of 

 several kinds of grass ; and many times 

 there will be present a sufficient number of 

 the seeds of noxious weeds to cover the en- 

 tire ground with young plants, after the 

 seeds have germinated. Composting coarse 

 manure for one or two years will not de- 

 stroy half the seeds among the manure, 

 unless the compost pile is allowed to gener- 

 ate a degree of heat so high that the value 

 of the manure will be greatly injured. 



To avoid the annoyance incident to weeds 

 and grass, my own practice has been, during 

 many years past, to fertilize the ground 

 when Strawberry vines are growing, by the 

 application of oil meal and wood ashes 

 spread about the plants and worked into the 

 soil. The growing vines will find all the 

 essential elements of fertility in these sub- 

 stances, both for making strong and vigorous 

 plants and for developing large and beautiful 

 berries. These substances can be applied at 

 any season of the year ; and one may dis- 

 tribute a generous sprinkling about every 

 plant without fear of producing weeds or 

 grass, or injuring the growth of the crop by 

 too much mamire. Still the better time to 

 apply such fertilizers is late in autumn, so 

 that all the elements of fertility in the coarse 

 materials may be rendered available before 

 the next growing season. 



. S. E. T. 



MOLES. 



Moles are by common consent considered 

 a nuisance and pest in the Strawberry field, 

 and various devices are constructed for their 

 destruction. Yet, although moles destroy a 

 few plants hy undermining their roots, it is 

 more than probable that they are but blessings 

 in disguise, and that we would lose more 

 plants from the ravages of the white-grubs 

 than from the underground work of the 

 moles, if we should succeed in killing the 

 latter. That moles do not eat Strawberry 

 plants, but grubs, admits of no doubt, and it 

 is also observed that moles are mostly found 

 in places where grubs are most numerous. 

 We have frequently followed the mole tracks 

 under rows of dead plants and have always 

 found on their roots the peculiar marks of 

 the gnawing of the grubs, proving that the 

 latter were already engaged in their de- 

 structive work, and were only arrested in 

 their mischievous progress by the timely ar- 

 rival of the mole, who after having found his 

 prey, would not follow the same row on a 

 fool's errand, but would make a short cut to 

 the next row, where his keen scent indicated 

 another choice morsel. 



