September, 1889. 
1 i 6 
V.jWV^"A'W'AA^^I 
ORCH RRD 
September Suggestions. 
Except at the far north strawberry plants 
may be set with profit for field culture in 
September and will make a good growth 
and become well established before winter 
sets in. Much may be gaiued by fall plant- 
ing and where plants can be procured cheap- 
ly by the latter part of the month it is bet- 
ter to plant then than to wait until spring, 
even though it necessitates the covering of 
the plants during the winter. The patch 
in the family garden may yet be renewed 
by runners from the old bed taken up with 
a ball of soil and reset in another place, 
or plants procured from the nurseryman 
and watered and shaded with a care impos- 
sible to give to plants set out largely for 
market. 
Few varieties will pay the market grower 
so well planted in hills with runners cut as 
in matted rows. For the latter system the 
rows are better at four feet apart than at 
three, but this depends upon the vigor and 
growth of the plant, some varieties running 
much better than others. But this system 
also requires frequent renewal of plants 
and pays best when but one crop is taken 
off. The system that will give a constant 
succession of well filled rows of young 
plants is the one that will give the best re- 
sults every time. The amateur and home- 
grower will continue to clip the runners 
from his plants, forming stools and produc- 
ing large fruit; it will pay him and can be 
well done on a small scale but is almost im- 
practicable with the market grower who 
plants acres with strawberries. A few 
kinds such as Triomphe de Gand, Jucunda, 
Great American, etc., can only be grown 
satisfactorily in hills with runners cut but 
these are not the soits that prove profitable 
to the market grower except in cases where 
there is a demand for extra fine berries at 
fancy prices. 
The list of really good varieties is now so 
large that good sorts for any purpose or lo- 
cation may be found among the standards, 
described , as a general thing, quite honest- 
ly in the catalogues of the leading nurseries, 
in which, by the way, it is pleasant to mark 
such a decided advancement both in illus- 
tration and text. Many of these are now 
interesting and instructive reading and it 
is well to procure and look them through 
oeforo planting. One cannot well go wrong 
in planting the old standard sorts and the 
new things, however valuable they may ap- 
pear, and often are, should be planted cau- 
tiously and < n trial. 
Plan to set out the raspberries, blackber- 
ries, currants and gooseberries this fall 
rather than next spring if you purpose do- 
ing so at all. These start early in spring 
and unless planted before the young sprouts 
and buds start they do not make a satisfac- 
tory growth, and often die. This may 
be avoided by fall planting. We except 
black cap raspberries which should be plant- 
ed in spring. 
Currants are propagated very readily from 
cuttings and the best time to make the lat- 
ter is as soon as the leaves part readily from 
the wood. Planted early they will callus 
and emit roots before winter sets in. Make 
the cuttings from six to seven inches long 
and insert them obliquely in the ground 
leaving but one or two buds above the sur- 
face. When the ground has frozen, the cut- 
tings may be covered with long strawy ma- 
nure which will protect them from the sun 
and prevent heaving out when the ground 
thaws. Gooseberries do not root readily 
from cuttings in the openground but are best 
propagated outside by layering or mound- 
ing up soil about the bush. If the cuttings 
are made early, however, and set carefully 
in the soil we think better results will be at- 
tained. In all cases pack the soil firmly 
around cuttings. 
Tl>e I.avvton and Erie Blackberries. 
Within the past year the opinion has been 
frequently expressed, by persons of high 
standing as horticulturists, that the Erie 
Blackberry is merely the old Lawton or New 
Rochelle, re-introduced under a new name, 
and so confidently has this conclusion been 
put forth that, to some extent at least, it is 
apparently being acted upon by planters, if 
not also by nurserymen and dealers. Having 
bcth growing and fruiting on my grounds 
in considerable quantity, I was impelled to 
institute a comparison between the two. 
This allegation attracted my attention, in 
1888, at too late a date for comparison while 
they were in fruit; but an obvious similari- 
ty was noticeable in their habits of growth, 
save that the Erie appeared to be of lower 
and more spreading habit, with somewhat 
more numerous and stronger spines. 
Both are now(August, 1889), fruiting free- 
ly in adjacent rows, under the same mode 
of treatment, having been planted in the 
spring of 1888. The peculiar differences al- 
ready mentioned are even more noticeable 
than they were last year; in addition to 
which, the Erie showed ripe fruit on August 
1; while none appeared on the Lawton till 
the 7th. In form also, the Erie, although 
quite as large as the Lawton, is shorter and 
more regularly rounded. Of the 20 or more 
varieties growing on my grounds the Erie 
is one of the most vigorous, and also the 
most unpleasant to handle, on account of 
its strong and hooked spines. As to its rel- 
ative productiveness, and its consequent 
value as a market variety, I am hardly yet 
prepared to speak confidently. — T. T. Lyon, 
in Itural New Yorker. 
The Early Harvest Blackberry. 
Chester Co, Pa. Aug 12th. 1889. 
I send you a small box of Early Harvest 
Blackberries, the kind we are now picking. 
I wish you could have seen them in the 
height of the season, being much larger 
then. We began picking the last of June and 
have picked every day since. Have % of an 
acre in and have picked so far 125 bushels. 
Some of the vines are loaded yet but I think 
this week will finish them. Owing to so 
wet weather and the birds so bad we have 
lost many bushels. I think this a splendid 
yield when all other blackberries are a fail- 
ure. Kittatinny rusted, Snyder, the leaves 
fell off and Lawtons very small and imper- 
fect. My Early Harvest Blackberries are 
planted 5 feet apart, rows have spread un- 
til they are from 1)4 to 2 )4 feet wide and 
topped back to 4 feet. — R. S. Darlington. 
Tlie Burt (?) Strawberry. 
Pulaski, Oswego Co., N. Y. Aug. 10, 1889. 
J. T. Lovett, Little Silver, N. J., Dear 
Sir: — Enclosed you will find a letter from 
friend Perkins in regard to your notice of 
Burt in your Orchard and Garden. M. T. 
Thompson in a letter referred me to a no- 
tice of Burt in your paper but as Ido net 
have access to O. & G., this is the first I 
have known about what was said. I would 
like you to explain yourself. As I claim to 
be the introducer of Burt this seems to mean 
me. My hands are clean in regard to the 
Burt strawberry and I can prove that I nev- 
er send out Gapt. Jack for Burt. The plants 
I sold in the Spring of 1888 were the in- 
crease of 100 plants of my own growing, 
bought of Brazian, who manages for Miss 
Burt, 5,000 of Mr. who had his stock 
of Miss Burt. The plants I sold last Spring, 
1889, were all from increase of plants, bought 
of Miss Burt. I could not corner stock be- 
cause they sold to all their neighbors in 1887, 
and A. M. Purdy 1000 * * *. I bought what 
I could sell and did the best I could. It is a 
very cowardly way to even insinuate against 
the business of a rival nurseryman without 
any good reason and I ask you to retract If 
you do not see fit to I can throw mud as well 
as you. I am a young man and my character 
is above reproach in my native county. You 
are a young man yourself and is it even 
policy to try and damage my business? Yqu 
know Mr. Lovett everybody has their friends 
and enemies. I can be a friend to you as 
well as an enemy. Will you correct your 
insinuating statement? I am no A. M. Pur- 
dy and don’t wish the idea to go abroad 
that I copy after him. 
Respectfully, Lawrence J. Farmer. 
We notice the following in Matthew 
Crav\ ford’s report on Strawberries for 1889: 
“Burt.— This is the old Capt. Jack under 
a new name. In this case, however, no one 
intended to deceive. Miss M. Y. Burt, of 
Scriba, N. Y., discovered it in a plantation 
of Wilson, and supposing it to be new and 
valuable, gave it the name. Miss Burt was 
at considerable trouble and expense to 
bring it before the public, but was exceed- 
ingly unfortunate so far as getting any 
profit was concerned. Certain nurserymen 
in New York could tell a good story about 
this if they would. There is no Burt straw- 
berry. 
