48 
March, 1890. 
/ORCHARD 
AND 
TOT 
GARDEN 
next season, but was killed last spring by a 
fire in my grape-house. 
Late last spring a neighbor brought me a 
single cutting of a seedling grape with the 
request that I should graft it. Not having 
much faith in the grape and being in a liur- 
rv I put the cion in the cellar. A few days 
later it rained, and being in the cellar I no- 
ticed the cion and inserted it in the branch 
of a Naomi vine that was growing near 
the cellar door. I used a large ball of clay 
in covering the graft and wound and cover- 
ed as in the preceding case. I put the 
branch on the trellis intending to tie it, but 
forgetting to do so, it fell to the ground and 
lav in the grass neglected. One day in July 
I happened that way and remembering the 
graft began looking for it and was surpris- 
ed to find it had • taken’' and had grown a 
foot or more. It had lain in the grass where 
it had been kept moist. All three of the 
above were grafted on the “Champin'' 
system. My experience convinces me 
that above ground grafting of the grape 
can only be successful when a large 
amount of clay is used in protecting the 
union, and that the clay must be kept 
constantly moist, as I have observed that 
if the clay is allowed to dry out it means 
death to the cion every time. — F. L. 
Wright, Livingston Co., Mich. 
March Memoranda. 
The extraordinarily forward season and 
mild weather of the present time should not 
be allowed to beguile us intc the belief that 
spring has come and that it is safe to un- 
cover the strawberry plants, or to remove 
the earth from the canes of tender raspber- 
ries, blackberries and grape vines with 
which they may have been covered. Indeed, 
on the contrary, it may happen that this is 
just the critical time at which they need 
protection, for March may bring us fre- 
quent spells of hard freezing weather which 
the sun, gaining in power daily, will as fre- 
In the Orchard and Garden for Jan- 
uary, S. Miller asks if any of its readers 
have succeeded in grafting grape vines 
above ground. I have never tried graft- 
ing above ground myself as I have no old 
vines of any wild grape growing on my 
place and moreover my soil is so well 
adapted to grape glowing that nearly 
all varieties grow well enough on their 
own roots. But I have a friend, Mr. 
Nestor Clay, of Independence, this coun- 
ty, who has been very successful in graft- 
ing above ground on cld vines of the 
Mustang grape. 
He has a number of Live Oak trees on 
his place and most of these trees have 
been overrun with vines of the wild 
Mustang grape. He has grafted nearly 
all these wild vines with Concord, Niag- 
ara. Herbemont and other varieties. He 
cuts the vines off up in the tops of the trees, 
and then inserts the grafts, following the 
wedge system of grafting, and covering 
with grafting wax. A very large per cent 
of those he grafts grow. I saw vines fully 
three or four inches thick that he had graft- 
ed and the grafts had made a most wonder- 
ful growth and were loaded with the finest 
of fruit. — David H. Watson, Washington 
Co., Texas. 
How Farnierm are Taxed. 
It Is not uncommon to hear our farmers complain of 
the taxes they have to pay. Sometimes they are too 
high and the payment of them could be largely lessen- 
ed by increasing the productive power of an acre of 
ground. For instance: a farmer who sows poor seed 
raises scrub stock, or buys antiquated or imperfect im- 
plements. must certainly pay proportionately high tax- 
es. Not to mention the improvements he might make 
by getting the best seed and live stock, he could buy a 
Deerlng Binder or Mower, and save money in the har- 
vesting of his grain and grass crops. Adv, 
raffia 
New Japanese Wineberby. 
quently dissipate, to the great injury of the | 
exposed plants. Canes of raspberries and 
similar plants, after being covered all win- 
ter are very tender and susceptible to cold. 
Covering should be kept over everything 
until the season has fairly opened. 
* * 
* 
Advantage may be taken, however, of 
mild and open weather to set out plants of 
all the small fruits including strawberries. 
It will protect them from heaving out and 
also assist their growth if a shovelful of 
well-rotted manure or compost be thrown 
over them after planting. At the North, 
little planting will be done until April but 
it is well to remember that small fruit plants 
should be got in the ground early, while the 
soil is cool and moist. There is nothing 
gained by planting upon hasty and imper- 
fectly prepared ground. To secure the best 
i results with small-fruits, and especially is 
this the case with strawberries, the soil 
should be ploughed deeply and well enrich- 
ed. Bone meal is admirably adapted for 
small fruits and has the desired advantage 
of not bringing in weed seeds. Well rotted 
compost may be applied now to much bet- 
ter advantage than later in the season. 
* * 
* 
Raspberry and blackberry canes may be 
pruned by cutting back one-third, and re- 
ducing the laterals to about one foot or 
eighteen inches. This will result in an in- 
creased productiveness and larger size of 
berry but at the expense of earliness. Goose- 
berries and currants may also be pruned if 
it has not yet been done. This is essential 
to a vigorous and thrifty growth and should 
not be neglected. Gooseberries are seldom 
apt to mildew badly when kept vigorous 
and clean by regular pruning and careful 
culture. The fruit of currants and goose- 
berries is borne on two-years old wood 
and the bush should be so pruned as to 
furnish an annual supply of such wood, 
as well as to admit light and air freely 
to the centre. 
* * 
* 
There is perhaps no fertilizer that will 
so greatly benefit the strawberry planta- 
tion and aid it in producing and abund- 
ant crop of large berries, as will a top- 
dressing of unleached wood ashes, ap- 
plied early, at the rate of from fifty to 
seventy-five bushels to the acre. 
riilldt’ Japanese Wineberry. 
There are, perhaps, few more interest- 
ing and valuable novelties being intro 
duced this season than this new Japan- 
ese berry now being sent out, under the 
above name, by John Lewis Childs of 
Floral Park, Queens Co., N. Y. As we 
have grown and fruited it in quite a large 
way we may be permitted to know some- 
thing about it and to tell our readers that 
it is really a good thing. It is a Japanese 
raspberry but differs considerably from 
any variety common to this country. It 
is the product of some seeds sent home 
by Prof. Georgeson, late of Tokio, Japan, 
and gathered by him from a plant grow- 
ing in a wild state on the mountams of that 
country. 
The canes of this interesting plant are 
large, robust, and entirely hardy here; they 
are thickly covered with purplish-red hairs 
which extend along the stem to its extremi- 
ty. The leaves are large, tough, dark green 
above and silvery gray beneath. Each ber- 
ry is at first tightly enveloped by the large 
calyx, forming a sort of burr, which is also 
covered with purplish-red hairs so thickly 
as to present the appearance of moss rose 
buds. These gradually open and turn back 
exposing the fruit in all its beauty. The 
berries are of medium size as compared 
with our raspberries, but of a beautiful 
translucent appearance, running through 
the shades of deep amber to crimson as they 
ripen. In quality it may be rated first 
class, being sprightly and of a brisk sub- 
acid but good flavor. Ripens early in July. 
