This is an open department for the use of all interested observers, from whom correspond- 

 ence is solicited on any topic of horticultural interest. Valuable items are frequently crowded 

 out, but all will appear in due time. 



Longevity of Peach Trees. — The short duration of of the Worden grape, has recently 



the peach of late years has attracted more attention than 

 the apple. There are many casual observers who jump 

 to the conclusion that the practice of budding is the 

 cause of this, and to those who only look at the outside 

 there is much to support this view. From the window 

 •where I write I can look out on a lot of seedling peach 

 trees, whose age I can only guess at, but which cannot 

 be less than twenty-five years. They are pictures of 

 health. Budding is not, per se, responsible for the fail- 

 ure, I think, but rather the carelessness of our nursery- 

 men in growing stocks for budding. All over the land 

 there has been an insane sort of impression that peaches 

 must be budded upon stocks raised from southern nat- 

 ural seed. These seeds are collected by country store- 

 keepers in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and else- 

 where — and are almost invariably saved from half ripe 

 peaches cut for drying. They are not only half ripe, 

 but from the stunted, starved trees one sees all through 

 this country. The constant use of seed of such poor 

 vitality is largely the cause of the short life of the tree 

 budded on these stocks. The late Col. Edward Wilkins, 

 of Maryland, at one time the largest peach grower in 

 the state, had a theory that much of the trouble of or- 

 chardists came from the trees being budded on dissimilar 

 stocks — a late peach on seed from an early one, etc. 



He once raised a large orchard in accordance with this 

 idea. He saved seed from the earliest to the latest 

 peaches, and budded them with similar sorts. The seeds 

 were all from budded trees, yet this orchard was one of 

 the longest lived and most successful orchards in the 

 peach district. Many of the trees grew to an enormous 

 size, and when Col. Wilkins built the present mansion 

 at Peach Tree Hall, the newel post of the grand stair- 

 way, a very large and ornamental one, was turned from 

 the solid heart-wood of a giant peach tree. This newel 

 post, in its finished state, if I remember right, is nearly 

 one foot in diameter. The members of the American 

 Pomological Society who attended the meeting in Balti- 

 more in 1877, visited this place, and many will doubtless 

 remember the peach-tree stairway. I firmly believe 

 that if our nurserymen would select their seed from 

 healthy trees, without any regard to their being seedlings, 

 the success of budded trees would soon be equal to the 

 seedling ones. — W. F. Massev, North Carolina Experi- 

 mental Station. 



A New Pear — The Worden (See cut, page 753). — 

 Schuyler Worden, of Oswego, New York, the originator 



sent me specimens of a seedling 

 pear of unusual promise. Mr. 

 Worden writes : " It is a seedling from the Seckel . The 

 tree has fruited five years ; is an upright grower ; bears 

 its fruit in clusters, and drops from the tree the least of 

 any pear we have. It is a more vigorous grower than 

 the Seckel, and holds its leaves well." 



The fruit is broadly bell-shaped, flattened on the apex 

 and obtuse at the lower end ; stem short, straight and 

 thick, oblique in a very shallow or nearly obsolete cavity ; 

 calyx open, the basin scarcely manifest ; color rich yel- 

 low with a bright crimson flush upon the exposed side ; 

 flesh sweet and melting, slightly musky, very aromatic, 

 high in quality. Its season is last of September and 

 first of October. 



John J. Thomas writes me as follows concerning this 

 pear : "I have examined this pear from specimens sent 

 me by Mr. Worden in 1888 and 1889. Last year, in 

 particular, the specimens were very fine. Its great 

 beauty and the greater vigor of the tree seem to give it 

 much value I think it a remarkable acquisition, and I 

 should be glad if Mr. Worden, who has never been paid 

 for his excellent grape, could make something out of it. 

 I cannot speak confidently of its value without seeing 

 the tree and more of the variet)', but am very favorably 

 impressed so far." 



Mr. Thomas published an account of it last fall in the 

 Country Gentleman under the name of Worden's Seckel. 

 But as the fruit is entirely unlike Seckel, I should prefer 

 to call it simply Worden. — L. H. Bailey. 



Blackberries. — The seasoned opened with the Lucre- 

 tia dewberry, July 5th. This is a vigorous growing 

 plant, but the fruit has not equalled wild specimens I 

 have often collected in Pennsylvania. On July 12th the 

 Erie and Early King were beginning to ripen. Both 

 these varieties promise well, though this being their first 

 season to fruit on my grounds, I cannot properly judge 

 their fruit. — G. G. Groff, Lewisburg, Pa. 



The Apple Scab in Wisconsin.— My trees suffered 

 so much from apple scab in 1882 or 1883 that they did 

 not recover sufficiently to fruit till i886. It is possible 

 that checking growth may develop fruit buds, but loss 

 of foliage we have always found to be a calamity here, 

 where our severe winters often emphasize the effects of 

 any weakness a tree may possess at the end of the grow- 

 ing season. 



I once entertained the idea that wet, cold weather in- 



