562 



THE V SA V. 



has been carefully measured and found to be sixty feet, 

 and the spread of the branches as the apples fall, is one 

 hundred feet, or six rods." 



The fruit is rather small, sweet and of moderate ex- 

 cellence. — T. S. Gold, IVt'st Connvall, Conn. 



Russian Mulberry. — How I boasted of my first 50 

 trees of Russian mulbei-ry ! They had just been offered 

 to the public, and I was taken by those catalogue cuts 

 which look for all the world like a brace of grubs for 

 bait, and the execution of which always calls to my 

 mind a school boy and a jack-knife. Not content with 

 the first 50, I have now an extra lot. Many have borne 

 for two or three years, and I have had a figure made to 

 represent as good fruits as I have yet secured. It is 

 said that these fruits are good for the birds, even if not 

 respectable enough for human food, but I confess that 

 I should look with distrust upon any bird which should 

 eat my Russian mulberries in this land of plenty. If 

 the reader looks close he will discover four fruits on 

 this sprig. I had intended to insert a copy of the cata- 

 logue cut alongside this, labelling one "The Russian 



RUSSI.\N MULbliKRV. 



Mulberry as it Grows," and the other "The Russian 

 Mulberry as it is Said to Grow ;" but the trade cut is so 

 abominably mean and crude and libellous that I could 

 not bring myself to the point of using it. But they tell 

 me that the Russian mulberry makes a good windbreak. 

 This may be true, but for all I have yet seen I will take 

 any rapid growing native tree in preference. — L. H. 

 Bailey. 



Strawberry Crates. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Grand River Valley (Mich.) Horticultural Society the 

 matter of strawberry crates was considered. The single 



tier of boxes was preferred. No matter how much cau- 

 tion is administered to employes, a serious lack of care 

 seemed to compel growers to permanently adopt the 

 single-tier, 12-box flat crate, box five inches square and 

 two and ^ half inches deep. The fruit not only keeps 

 better and carries better, but it shows off to much more 

 advantage. 



Hints to Berry Growers. — First. Post up on the 

 work. Study your facilities, your land, capital, near- 

 ness to market, and ability to obtain needed help. 



Secure the control of some good land. It costs as 

 much to prepare and cultivate poor land as rich, and 

 the profits are little or nothing. 



Plant but few varieties, and only such as generally 

 succeed. You can well afford to do without those new 

 kinds that are "destined to supersede all others." 



Be more practical than theoretical. 



Be more ready to believe what you see than what you 

 hear. 



Take some good horticultural papers, and read them 

 attentively. 



Join a horticultural society, if there is one within 

 your reach. 



Do your work well. Both profit and satisfaction come 

 from a little well done, rather than a large plantation 

 grown in a slipshod manner. 



Sell no poor berries. They will injure your credit 

 more than they are worth. Use them, or give them to 

 those who have none and cannot afford to buy. — Ex. 



New Fruits for the South. — I have some very fine 

 and rare fruits which were sent over by ex-Gov. Hub- 

 bard, of Texas, while Minister at Japan, viz. ; Three 

 varieties of pears, all apple-shaped, better than Leconte 

 and Kieffer, and beginning to bear at two years of age. 

 The plum : "Bougoume" ripens the loth of May here — 

 the very earliest of plums, very large, golden yellow. 

 I also have a cherry from Japan, not fruited yet, which 

 I expect will bear, and do well here. — J. L. Normand, 

 La. 



The Michel Strawberry is much praised in the 

 Southwest. L. M. Pyles, of Arkansas, writes of it as 

 follows in the Fruit-Growers' yournal : 



I have just returned from the State Horticultural 

 Fair, where I met a great many berry growers from 

 different parts of the State, and it has been the univer- 

 sal experience of all the growers that they would have 

 made no money out of the berry crop this year, except 

 the few who had the Michel berry, and they all say — 

 "If it had not been for the Michel, I would have been 

 left on my berry crop this year." They ripened about 

 four days later than last year, and, though they bloomed 

 all winter, produced a good crop, and went into market 

 at paying prices until the advent of the berries farther 

 north about May the 20th, and now, the 26th, finds them 

 full of ripe fruit and white with bloom after being in 

 bearing since April i8th, when the first crate was ship- 

 ped from here. 



A few words of instruction concerning this berry are 



