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THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[October, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Season for Planting. — Throughout all but 

 our most northern States, and in localities 

 where the ground is wet and cold, October 

 is the most favorable month for planting 

 hardy trees of all kinds. The condition of 

 the soil, the comparative ease and the 

 thoroughness with which the work may be 

 done, the important gain in time during the 

 following spring, and the condition of the 

 trees themselves, all are in favor of planting 

 at this season. Yet the tendency to put off 

 for to-morrow what can be done to-day is so 

 obdurately settled in the human mind that 

 probably not one-tenth of the trees set out 

 annually are planted in autumn. 



Planting Trees. — A serious mistake fre- 

 quently made, especially in small places, is 

 the planting of trees on the same spots where 

 others died. Rotation in trees is as neces- 

 sary as in other crops. The defunct tree has 

 taken from the soil a large amount of the 

 same nourishing material which the newly 

 planted one requires, and which cannot 

 readily and completely be restored by arti- 

 ficial fertilizers. Besides, the fact that a 

 tree died there, if otherwise than from old 

 age, suggests the suspicion that there may 

 be something at fault or unfavorable to tree 

 growth in the condition of the ground on 

 that particular spot. 



Strawberries may still be planted at any 

 time during this month, but the longer the 

 work is delayed the more care has to be 

 given to the preparation of the soil, as well 

 as to the setting out of the plants them- 

 selves. To set out poor plants is an unprofit- 

 able business at any time, but at this season 

 of the year it becomes worse than useless. 

 If good potted plants can be obtained — that 

 is, such as have been potted not less than 

 three and not more than five or six weeks — 

 they will give the best results, but good 

 ground layers are by far preferable to poor 

 potted plants. 



Nursery -grown Plants are, in the majority 

 of cases, better than those grown in the home 

 garden. This assertion may at a first glance 

 appear as a "trick of the trade," promul- 

 gated by nurserymen who have a surplus 

 stock of plants for sale, yet it is an easily 

 demonstrated fact. In all first-class nurseries 

 the propagating beds are not permitted to 

 bear fruit, the only crop produced by the 

 parent plants being the layers,which become, 

 consequently, imbued with all the vigor 

 and propagating power of their parents. In 

 the family garden, however, the runners con- 

 stitute a second crop only, after the old 

 plants have already spent most of their 

 strength and productiveness in the maturing 

 of a crop of berries, and can never fully recu- 

 perate from the effects of the stinted nourish- 

 ment during their early growth. 



Raspberries and Blackberries should be 

 renewed every four or five years. Young 

 beds produce better and larger fruit and are 

 easier kept in order than old plantations, the 

 soil of which has become a solid mass of 

 roots. Autumn is the most favorable time 

 for planting Raspberries, as they start so 

 early in spring that the ground cannot 

 always be brought into readiness before the 

 commencement of growth. 



BLESSINGS AND EVIL OF NEW FRUITS. 



Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, the beloved 

 President of the American Pomological So- 

 ciety, who is justly regarded as the father 

 of the new era of improved fruits by hybrid- 

 ization in this country, takes still, at the 

 venerable age of eighty-four years, as active 

 an interest in horticultural developments as 

 ever. His opinions and judgment are ac- 

 cepted as truisms more readily than those 

 of any other living man, and time has evi- 

 dently not chilled his ardor nor diminished 

 his earnestness in search of the truth. 



In a recent letter to us, relating to the 

 identity of some newly introduced fruits, 

 which seems to us too good and valuable to 

 be justified to keep it all to ourselves, and 

 the publication of which we trust Mr. Wilder 

 will not consider indiscreet, he says : 



"The zeal and interest now manifested 

 in the acquisition of new and valuable varie- 

 ties, especially by cross-fertilization of our 

 best sorts of fruits, is to me a source of 

 great satisfaction : for when I commenced 

 the ' hybridizing ' of the Camellia, fifty years 

 ago, the word was scarcely understood. The 

 desire for these new and improved fruits is 

 in the right direction, but with it will come 

 many disappointments, and among these the 

 promulgation of old kinds under new names. 

 This evil, just now, seems to be cropping 

 out in several sections of our country. This 

 ]>icking up of stray plants in our old gardens, 

 under the impression that they are chance 

 seedlings, must be corrected (there are many 

 instances within my knowledge), so far as 

 nomenclature is concerned. But there will 

 be this blessing to come out of it, we shall 

 retain these good old things, for they, like 

 ' truth, tho' crushed, will rise again.' Best 

 enough." 



THE AMERICAN GRAPE MILDEW. 



The nature of the trouble which is called 

 mildew is not hard to explain; and yet it 

 is not so very easy to tell all that is known 

 with regard to the Grape mildew. Mildews 

 are fungi — and fungi are plants. The Grape 

 mildew is, therefore, of vegetable origin ; it 

 is, in short, a minute plant which lives upon, 

 and derives its nourishment from, the Grape- 

 vine. 



The term parasite is used for such plants. 

 The Mistletoe grows upon the Apple and 

 other trees, and is a familiar example of a 

 flowering plant that grows upon another. 

 The Dodder is another case where one 

 plant does not make its own food, but, 

 instead, has acquired a habit, so to speak, 

 of stealing it from one that does. The 

 Dodder has flowers, and forms seeds — the 

 seeds germinate in the ground, but soon the 

 young Dodder plant must find some other 

 kind upon which to climb, and into the ten- 

 der substance of which it must thrust its 

 stem-roots or "suckers" — or else it must 

 die. So soon as the Dodder has become 

 well attached, its stem — its connection 

 with the soil — decays, and it no longer de- 

 pends upon the common methods of plant- 

 growth for its development. It forms no 

 leaves, because it needs none so long as it 

 feeds iipon the assimilated food which the 

 leaves of other plants have made. This 

 parasitism of the Mistletoe and the Dodder 

 help us to understand how the mildews, 

 rusts, smuts, and other parasitic fungi get 

 their living and do their destructive work. 



The Grape mildew (Peronospora citicola) 



is first observed on the foliage of the at- 

 tacked vines as white, frost-like patches, 

 especially upon the underside of the leaves. 

 The smooth-leaved varieties show the mil- 

 dew to the best advantage, as it is not 

 obscured in its early growth by the hairs or 

 "wool." The threads of the fungus pene- 

 trate all parts of the leaves, and only come 

 to the surface for the purpose of forming a 

 multitude of white spores, to which the 

 frost-like appearance is due. It is by means 

 of these spores that the " disease" is rapidly 

 propagated, and spread from leaf to leaf and 

 from vine to vine. 



The mildew has two kinds of spores, or re- 

 productive bodies — those above mentioned, 

 found on the tips of aerial branches, and a 

 second, slow-forming kind, that are devel- 

 oped on the threads within the tissue of the 

 Grape plant. These subterranean spores are 

 found late in the year, and serve to carry 

 the mildew over the winter season. The 

 fresh spores are for immediate and a rapid 

 propagation of the pest, and it is these that 

 the sulphur kills or renders inactive ; it 

 does not have any known effect upon the 

 winter spores. 



The mildew makes its appearance from 

 about the first of June to the middle of Sep- 

 tember, much depending upon the state of 

 the weather — warm and wet days being 

 very favorable for its development. 



The thick-leaved varieties of Grapes, like 

 the Concord, seem to be less subject to the 

 mildew, while some tender, thin-leaved sorts 

 are very much injured. 



The remedy, as above mentioned, is Flow- 

 ers of Sulphur, and it can be best applied 

 with a bellows. It should be used early — 

 as soon as the trouble presents itself — and 

 repeat the dusting as the prevalence of the 

 mildew will determine. Vines that are 

 poorly kept, both as to manuring and 

 pruning, are most injured by the pest. 



Dr. Byron I). Halsted. 



THE APPLE CROP. 



Mr. Charles W. Garfield, Secretary of the 

 Michigan Horticultural Society, says in this 

 relation : " There are a great many theories 

 concerning the cause of failure in Apples. 

 It is laid to east winds, frost, moist weather 

 at time of blossoming, etc. The most 

 common explanation seems to be that the 

 continuous frosts through May weakened the 

 vitality of the young fruit so that it dropped 

 through June. The varieties of Apples that 

 have hung on the trees best are Baldwin 

 and Golden Russet. Fall Apples seem to be 

 almost a dead failure. The Northern Spy, 

 which is a great favorite in our State, will 

 be represented by very small quantities in 

 the fruit cellars next winter." 



WANDERING GRUBS. 



To test the truth of the theory that grubs 

 travel from one plant to another by an 

 underground passage, Mr. A. P. Blade, of 

 Massachusetts, took from the ground a grub 

 that had just completed the destruction of a 

 plant, and tied a piece of red thread around 

 his body, and replaced him where he was 

 found, and covered him with earth. In 

 thirty-six hours after, the nearest neighbor- 

 ing plant, which stood sixteen inches distant, 

 was struck with death ; and on examination 

 the same grub was found at work, exhibit- 

 ing clearly the mark of his identity. 



