52 
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ORCHARD 
March, 1890. 
©rchard^Sarden 
AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY JOUR- 
NAL OF HORTICULTURE. 
Devoted exclusively to the Interest of the American 
Orchard, Vineyard. Fruit, Vegetable and 
Flower Garden. 
Progressive ! Reliable ! Practical ! Scientific ! 
subscription Price, 50 Cents per Annum 
Five Yearly Subscriptions for $ 2 . 00 . 
Entered at the Post Office at Little Silver as second class 
matter. 
H. G. Cornet, Editor. 
Advertising Rates. 
Per Agate line, each insertion 30c 
One Page, “ $90.00 
One half Page “ 50 00 
One quarter Page “ 30.00 
Rates for yearly ads. and for2 >0 lines or over giv- 
en upon application. 
Reading uotices ending with adv. per line nonpa- 
reili 50c. Preferred position ten per cent, extra. 
LITTLE SILVER, N. J„ MARCH, 1890. 
CONTENTS. 
Berry Patch. March Memoranda— Childs' New 
Japanese Wineberry 48 
Biographical. John J. Thomas 52 
Catalogues Received 53 
Editorial 52,53 
Flower Garden. Floral Notes for March— Dahlias 
— How to Grow Chrysanthemums from 
Plants 44, 45, 46 
Fungi. The Bordeaux Mixture for Potato-rot— 
Black Spot of the Rose— Treating Black-rot. .57, 58 
Horticultural Societies. A Home Garden— Fungi 
Injurious to Horticulture 49 
Household. March— Kitchen Indispensables — A 
Nightingale — Children’s Parties — Children’s 
Rights— Some Choice Recipes 58, 59 
Insects. The Strawberry Leaf- beetle 56, 57 
Lawn. The Flowering Cornel— The Weeping Cor- 
nel 43, 44 
Orchard. March Work— The Peach Apples— The 
Decaric Apple— The H irvey Apples— Cropping 
and Manuring the Orchard— The Blenheim Pip- 
pin -Re-imported Cherries— The Native or Wild 
Plums 50, 51 
Our Book Table 53 
Vegetable Garden. Horticulture and the Prac- 
tical Farmer — March Topics -Early Peas— Some 
Good Onions — Potatoes and Tomatoes — The 
Early Kitchen Garden— To Raise Celery Plants 
—Bash Lima Beans— Barnyard Manure for Po- 
tatoes 54, 55 
Vineyard. March in the Vineyard— Grapes in Cen- 
tral Illinois— Grafting Grapes above Ground. 47, 48 
I take this opportunity to say that I have been very 
much pleased with Orchard and Garden. It con- 
tains much most valuable information UDon fruits, nuts 
and plant diseases. On the two latter subjects I think 
no other of our horticultural journals equals it.— E. S. 
Goff, Horticulturist , Experiment Station , Madison, 
Wis. _ 
We again ask our readers not to write us 
for back numbers. We do not keep back 
numbers and cannot supply them. Sub- 
scriptions begin with the issue of the month 
in which they are received. 
The past winter has been remarkable for 
its mildness, heavy rainfall, fog and wet- 
ness generally. Such weather has brought 
about a bad condition of things over a wide 
extent of country, both in the garden 
and in the orchard. At the present time 
nearly all the shrubs in this neighborhood 
are budded and some of the Spiraeas are in 
leaf. Cydonia Japonica is opening bloom 
and Magnolias have buds ready to burst; 
Almond trees are in bloom and Peach buds 
swollen. When a cold snap comes these 
will suffer. 
Joint J. Thomas. 
The subject of this sketch was bom in 
the year 1810, near Cayuga Lake, Cayuga 
County, New York. His father was David 
Thomas the botanist and engineer. With 
an inherited fondness for scientific and me- 
chanical pursuits he early devoted himself 
to intellectual studies, the results of which 
afterward proved so valuable in the ad- 
vancement of his horticultural and agricul- 
tural work. At the early age of twenty-one 
he became associate editor of the Genesse 
Farmer, first published at that time by Lu- 
ther Tucker and Son. In 1840 the Albany 
Cultivator, a monthly magazine, was con- 
solidated with the Genesse Farmer, and he 
continued as horticultural editor. In 1853 
this again became a weekly — the Country 
Gentleman — with J. J. Thomas as horticul- 
tural editor, which position he still holds. 
He has thus occupied the editorial chair 
continually, of what is virtually the same 
journal, for nearly sixty years. Few men 
can point to such a record of persevering 
usefulness. 
In addition to his editorial work he has 
used his pen and pencil in other ways. His 
American Fruit Culturist, one of the most 
valuable and popular pomological works 
ever written, was published in 1846 and of 
which no less than twenty successive edi- 
tions have been issued. To the agricultural 
community he is well known as the inven- 
tor of Thomas’ Smoothing Harrow and oth- 
er farming implements, and as the author 
of Farm Implements and Machinery, the 
drawings of which — nearly three hundred — 
are also the work of his hands. For a per- 
iod of over thirty years he was engaged in 
the nursery business, where he had abun- 
dant opportunity to add to his horticultural 
learning a large amount of actual experi- 
ence, of which he has imparted so freely 
to us. 
Mr. Thomas has been active in the ad- 
vancement of the interests of the communi 
ty both horticultural and otherwise. He 
was one of the founders of the Western 
New York Horticultural Society, and its 
first President, being re-elected through 
several subsequent years; a leading member 
of the American Pomoh gical Society, and 
he has labored hard in the cause of public 
education. He is a member of the Society 
of Friends and lives at his beautiful home 
in Union Springs, New York. 
It is said that there has been, thus far 
during Lent, no decline in the prices of cut 
flowers as has invariably been the case in 
past years at this season. 
To determine the question whether the 
practice of girdling the grape vine produces 
increased size at the expense of quality, a 
careful experiment has been made during 
the past season, by Dr. Jabez Fisher, at the 
instigation of the Mass. Experiment Station. 
The results show a decided gain of ten days 
in ripening of the fruit with largely increas- 
ed size of berries but with the drawbacks of 
a loss by cracking open and the production 
of berries too soft for market. Both of 
these were due to the wet weather and would 
be lessened in a drier season. In the mat- 
ter of quality there was no loss of sugar, but 
on the contrary, an increased sweetness in 
the fruit from the girdled vines compared 
with those not girdled, The gain in earli- 
ness would make the crop more valuable 
and the increased size of the fruit would 
make it very attractive and more than make 
up” for the softness of the berry. There is 
also to be considered the injury which may 
be done to the vine in repeating this opera- 
tion yearly. 
The Orchid Show. 
The recent exhibition of Orchids at the 
Eden Musee, New York City, of Messrs. 
Siebrecht & Wadley, was one of the finest 
displays it has ever been our good fortune 
to behold. Every comer was filled, and 
Palms, Ferns, Heaths and Azaleas were 
largely used for general decoration. In the 
display of Orchids the greater portion were 
from the nurseries of Siebrecht & Wadley, 
but there were many fine contributions from 
other collections. It was a grand exhibition 
and we are glad to learn that it was a suc- 
cess financially. It speaks well for the en- 
terprise of the managers, who deserve the 
thanks of the flower-loving public for such 
a treat. 
Spraying Pumps. 
If we are to make the most of our orch- 
ards we must spray the trees. That is now 
settled and no progressive fruit-grower will 
dispute or doubt it. It ie desirable to possess 
the best spraying outfit for this purpose and 
now is the time to get it. It will pay 
orchardists to procure the catalogues of the 
leading manufacturers and read up all 
about them. The pumps and apparatus 
for spraying fruit trees and grape vines 
manufactured by the Field Force Pump Co., 
of Lockport, N. Y., the Nixon Nozzle and 
Machine Co., of Dayton, Ohio, and by Rum- 
sey and Co., of Seneca Falls, N. Y., are relia- 
ble and adapted to this purpose. They are 
also reasonable in price. See their adver- 
