March, 1890. 
51 
bearer, is now seldom found ; and the Sum- 
mer Harvey, which will keep through Sep- 
tember in Middle and Northern New Eng- 
land, is often exhibited for it. They are, 
however, seen to be quite distinct when 
compared together. 
Cropping and Manuring tlie Orchard. 
My experience leads me to believe that an 
orchard should be kept under cultivation as 
long after being planted as possible ; and 
that the best crops to grow amongst young 
fruit trees are those that are early, shallow- 
rooted, and will i.ear some shade. In the 
rows, raspberries and currants succeed bet- 
ter than in open sunshine : while between 
the rows, short-rooted beets and currants, 
dwarf peas and beans, and cabbage thrive 
well. Strawberries are also successful while 
the trees are small. For all of these (except 
on a heavy soil) shallow plovung with lib- 
eral manuring gives good results, both upon 
the trees and the under-growing crops, — the 
latter paying a profit on the cost of manure 
and tillage, while the trees are getting the 
thrifty growth, preparatory to liberal fruit- 
age. 
The Blenheim Bippin. 
Now that Europe, and especially England, 
affords to American orchardists so satisfac- 
tory a market for choice apples, it would 
seem well for them to consult the taste of 
their transatlantic customers in their plant- 
ings. Few apples are more popular in Eng- 
land than the Blenheim Pippin, which is as 
well known there, and as highly esteemed, 
as the Esopus Spitzenberg is in America. 
It has been known in this country, also, for 
nearly a century, and is not unfrequently 
seen upon our exhibition tables; but it has 
never become prominent among our market 
apples. There is, however, good reason to 
believe that it is a valuable apple, with a 
thr ftv and hardy tree; and that w hen prop- 
erly grow n, along our Northern border, in 
New' England, and New' York, it would be 
a very profitable apple to ship. While not 
strictly an “iron-clad,” it succeeds excellent- 
ly in the Champlai nV alle y , through its whole 
length, and also in Huntington and other 
St. Lawrence River counties in Quebec. 
Much also of Ontario would be very favor- 
able for it. 
It is rather singular that the Blenheim 
Pippin has appeared and become quite well 
known in various localities under incorrect 
names. I first found it on Grand Isle. Lake 
Champlain, under the name of Dutch Mig- 
n.-nne. I at once suspected a misnomer, 
as the fruit was much too large for its name; 
and on consulting Mr. Downing it was easi- 
ly identified. It is rather singular that 
Mr. Downing was himself deceived by sam- 
ples of this apple sent to him from Pennsyl- 
vania under the name of"BloomingOrange,” 
and still more so that they should both be 
described on the same page (p. 100) of his 
great work. Another interesting point was, 
that while his samples grown in New York 
are described as “yellow fleshed, very sweet, 
pleasant, good,” the Pennsylvania samples 
are described as “flesh white; juicy, pleas- 
ant sub-acid, good to very good.” But Mr. 
Downing was douotful about this apple, 
saying it might “yet prove to be some 
known kind!” and in his first appendix 
(1872 p. 3.) he corrected all these errors, 
gave all the synonyms, including “Dutch 
Mignonne erroneously,” and correctly des- 
cribes it as “tender, juicy, rich, brisk, sub- 
acid, slightly aromatic.” The season of this 
apple is Nov. to Feb’y., and later, when 
grown along its northern limit. I do not 
think from what I have seen and known of 
the fruit and tree for the past 20 years, that 
growers will make any mistake in planting 
it largely for the English market. It makes 
a large handsome tree in the orchard, and 
bears profusely, but not very young. — T. H. 
Hoskins, M. D. 
Re-Imported Cherries. 
In the valuable notes of Dr. Hoskins in the 
January number I notice the remark, after 
speaking of the Double Natte and Ostheim 
Weichsel cherries: “These and a long list 
of other hardy Griottes and Amarelles have 
been re-imported and are likely to have 
more attention.” 
In the summer of 1882 in company with 
Mr. Charles Gibb we had a grand opportu- 
nity for studying and testing the varieties 
of the cherry grown in great quantity in 
parts of East Europe to the Volga in Russia, 
and we were able to import young plants 
of the sorto we concluded would prove most 
valuable in the West and North. So far as 
we then knew only two or three of the va- 
rieties we imported had been introduced and 
tested on this continent, and a majority of 
th* m we yet believe have been fruited dur- 
ing the past three years for the first time in 
this country. As instances, if the Spate Ain- 
arelle, Shadow Amarelle, Large Long Late, 
Kings Amarelle, the true Cerise De Ostheim, 
Orloff, Lutouka, Bessarabian, Sklanka,Lien- 
jaka Black, Heart-shaped Weichsel, etc., 
have been introduced and tested in this 
country I should be glad to learn when and 
where, yet I believe that the elder Princ* 
did introduce some of them under other 
names many years ago. — J. L. Budd. 
The Native or Wild Fining. 
Dr. Hoskins in the December number of 
this paper takes Mr. Charles Gibb of Cana- 
da to task for speaking of some of the nam- 
ed varieties of western wild plums as “im- 
proved varieties, "and goes on to say that none 
of them, so far as he can learn, are in any 
“instance the result of culture by the hand 
of man.” I fear that the Doctor has been 
a little hasty in this remark, for we have 
men West, who have devoted years to the 
improvement of these plums, notably H. A. 
Terry of Crescent. Iowa, myself in Illinois, 
and many others. It is true, as he says, 
that most of the now’ well known, named 
varieties were found growing wild, or the 
result of accident or promiscuous planting 
of seeds. But there are new varieties com- 
ing out that are the result of long, persis- 
tent, skillful effort for improvement by se- 
lection and crossing. I had, when I left Illi- 
nois, 64,000 carefully grown seedlings, most- 
ly from cross pollinated flowers of Prunus 
Americana and P. Chicasa to select from for 
pruning, and also many crosses between 
these and P.domestica, and had up until that 
time fruited near 5,000 selected seedlings, 
and besides fruited nearly every named va- 
riety I could hear of, and gathered up from 
all parts of the country scores of unnamed 
varieties of local reputation. 
I have long believed that the most valua- 
ble of fruits both for domestic use and mar- 
ket, for the prairie States and the north- 
west generally, if not for the whole conti- 
nent would be found in these plums. I 
have seen plums of these species as good 
for eating and canning as the best of the 
European plums, though not nearly so large 
and handsome. I have grown them from 
seed myself as large and handsome as the 
European, though not so good in quality 
for dessert, but fully equal if not superior 
for the kitchen. The handsomest fruit of 
any kind I ever saw was one of these plums. 
These plums in some of their species, 
strains and varieties are perfectly hardy 
and adapted to every part of this Con- 
tinent where man would wish to live. 
They hybridize freely with each other 
and with the European plum. I wrote four 
years ago that I had facts tending to prove 
that all the species belonging to the Almond 
family would pollinate or fertilize each 
other’s flowers generally, though perhaps to 
a limited extent. This belief was founded 
on observed facts with the result that some 
of my horticultural friends told others con- 
fidentially that I was a crank and a fool. 
The past summer I paid several visits to the 
great horticultural experimental gardens of 
Luther Burbank at Santa Rosa in this coun- 
ty, and there I saw my dream, as it were, 
of hybridity in the Almond family in living, 
growing and, in many instances, fruiting 
organisms. 
In Illinois I had what all would call a 
peach tree that I was sure was a hybrid be- 
tween the peach and Chickasaw plum , 
though I did not know it. Why ? Because 
the tree withstood thin j -five degrees below 
zero and suckered from its roots, and the 
cellular system of the fruit was like those 
plums, the pit was nearly smooth, etc. 
Unfortunately for the general popular- 
ity of these plums, but few of them are 
fertile with their own pollen, therefore a 
variety isolated from other trees of the fam- 
ily w'ill not mature fruit; it all falls off 
when about the size of a pea, not from being 
“stung” by the Plum Curculio, but simply 
because the ovaries of the young fruit was 
not pollenated. The certain remedy for this 
is the planting of several varieties — the 
more the better — clustered near together. 
Some of the native plums are showing 
value here in California, and some of the 
wild plums from high up on the Northern 
Sierras are said to be wondrous fine and 
productive, and may prove of value East. 
— D. B. Wier, Sonoma Co., Cal. 
