98 
May, 1890. 
©RCHARD^§ARDEN 
AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY JOUR- 
NAL OF HORTICULTURE. 
Devoted exclusively to the Interest of the American 
Orchard. Vineyard, Fruit, Vegetable and 
Flower Garden. 
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LITTLE SILVER. N. J.. MAY, 1890. 
CONTENTS: 
Berry Patch. Notes for May — Growing Strawber- 
ries for Market — Nitrate of Soda on Strawberries 95 
Biographi al. Dr. George Thurber 98 
Catalogues Received 99 
Editorial 98,99 
Flower Garden. Floral Notes for May— Aphides 
on Asters 92, 93 
Fungi. Plum Rot or the Monilia of Fruit— The Smut 
of Onions— Black-rot Treatment 103, 104 
Household. U. S. Mall— Save the Scraps— Kitchen 
Tables - Make Haste Slowly— Hints about Wash- 
ing— A Suggestion— Beautifying the Home— Sea- 
sonable Recipes 105.106 
Insects, a Seasonable Suggestion— The Codling 
Moth 102, 103 
Lawn. Rosa Rugosa or Janan Rose — Deciduous 
Shrubs— Transplanting Evergreens— Citrus Trl- 
follata—S . me Desirable Flowering Shrubs .. 91,92 
Orchard. May Memoranda— Methods of Setting 
out Fruit Trees— Growing Seedling Tree Fruits 
—Winter Apples— Himelberger Apple— Blen- 
heim Pinpin — Kerosene and Soap Mixture. 95, 96, 97 
Our Book Table 99 
Our Clubbing List 106 
Nuts and Nut Trees. Profitable Varieties of Chest- 
nuts— Grafting the Hickory 97 
Vegetable Garden. Notes for Mav— Vegetables for 
Pickles 100, 101 
Vineyard. Notes for the Month— Grape Grafting- 
Growing Grapes on Houses and Trees— Grapes 
for Family Use— Bees Sucking Grapes 93. 94 
It will be a good thing to experiment this 
season with the different insecticides and 
determine if possible the best suited to repel 
the attacks of insect enemies. Rest assured 
the latter will give us a plentiful opportun- 
ity to test them. Both in the vegetable and 
fruit garden may be tried Pyrethum, Bu- 
hach, Slug Shot, tobacco dust, carbolic 
lime, air-slaked lime, bone-meal, the arsen- 
ical poisons, and many other things that 
may suggest themselves to us. 
One of the most useful aids to successful 
outdoor work is a pocket note book in which 
may be pencilled memoranda of work to be 
done, as the thought occurs, and results of 
experiments, with other important data. 
The information thus secured may be re- 
corded at length and in detail in a larger 
book at the house when one has leisure, 
perhaps later in the season, but whether 
one does this or not the note book for the 
pocket is indispensable. Try it for one sea- 
son and at its close observe how much val- 
uable matter has been preserved, 
The late Dr. Thurber, 
Dr. George Thurber, one of the most ac- 
complished botanists and horticultural 
writers this country has ever produced, died 
at his home, in Passaic, N. J. , on the sec- 
ond of April last, after an illness of about 
five •weeks. 
Dr. Thurber was born in Providence, R. I. 
1821 and at an early age was apprenticed to 
an apothecary, after receiving an ordinary 
private school education, which business he 
afterwards conducted for himself in his na- 
tive city. His pharmaceutical studies gave 
him an interest in botany and aided by a 
natural love of plants he devoted himself 
to its study so successfully that it is said that 
when he began business for himself he was 
master of the history and derivation of ev- 
ery drug in his store. The friendship of Dr 
John Torrey, the most prominent of Amer- 
ican botanists at that time, secured for him, 
in 1850, the position of Naturalist of the 
Special Commission appointed by the Gov- 
ernment to settle the boundary between the 
United States and Mexico, of which he was 
also Quartermaster and Commissary. For 
a period of four years he was thus engaged 
making researches among the natural pro- 
ducts of the country between the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, entailing 
long and arduous journeys. He discov- 
ered many new plants and completed a 
collection that comprised a large number of 
plants which had hitherto been unknown 
to science. Many of those were published 
by Asa Gray in 1854 (“Plantse Novae Tliur- 
berianae”). 
When the commission was disbanded, 
Dr. Thurber came to New York and receiv- 
ed an appointment in the Assay Office but 
on account of political differences with the 
ruling powers he resigned, and pursued his 
chemical and botanical studies at the Coop- 
er Union where he had a room, occasional- 
ly lecturing on these subjects at the Cooper 
Union and at the NewYork College of Phar- 
macy. In 1859 he was appointed Professor 
of Botany and Horticulture in the StateAg- 
ricultural College of Michigan. While there 
he published “American Weeds and Useful 
Plants,” a revised and enlarged edition of 
Dr. Darlington’s “Agricultural Botany,” and 
which is still the standard work on this sub- 
ject. Here he remained until 1863, when 
he accepted the editorship of the Ameri- 
can Agriculturist which position he filled 
with remarkable success until 1885 — a per- 
iod of twenty-two years — when failing 
health caused him to retire, although he con- 
tinued to aid it with his counsel and literary 
contributions up to within a few months of 
his death. He had also sole charge of the 
revision and editing of all the works on hor- 
ticulture published by the Orange Judd Co., 
during that time. 
His writings were not by any means con- 
fined to the American Agriculturist. The 
articles upon botanical and horticultural 
subjects in Appleton’s Encyclopedia were 
written by him and he has contributed many 
special papers of value to botanical and hor- 
ticultural periodicals, his very last work, 
written almost upon his death-bed, being 
“The Poisonous Hairs of the Primula Ob- 
conica” for Garden and Forest. He had 
made a systematic study of Grasses and 
was the foremost authority upon that sub- 
ject in the United States. It is much to be 
regretted that his failing health prevented 
him from preparing the work on “Ameri- 
can Grasses” which it was his intention to 
do but which had to be abandoned ; no one 
was better equipped for such a work than he. 
Dr. Thurber was a charming writer and 
he possesed the rare gift of presenting the 
most difficult subjects in a clear and sim- 
ple style, an example of which may be found 
in his “Doctor’s Talks” in the American Ag- 
riculturist, to young people upon scientific 
subjects. His full and exact knowledge of 
his subjects and sound common sense made 
his articles of peculiar value and as is truly 
said by Garden and Forest, “they did more 
in his time to elevate the standing of the 
agricultural and horticultural press of the 
country than the writings of any other 
man.” Personally he was a man whom to 
know was to love; of the broadest sympathy, 
unselfish, generous and true. He was nev- 
er married, but leaves a brother and three 
sisters. 
Spraying; for Pear Scab. 
Spraying with sulphide of potassium or 
liver of sulphur for the Scab of the pear 
has been recommended and some striking 
results have recently been furnished. The 
Delaware Experiment Station has been 
making some experiments in this line. In 
the most affected portion of an orchard that 
for a long time has been badly infested 
with Scab fourteen trees were selected as 
nearly adjacent to each other as possible. 
Seven of these were sprayed and seven left 
unsprayed. The varieties were Bartlett, 
Duchess and Lawrence. The experiment 
consisted in .spraying certain trees at five 
different times during the season, i. e., 
June 11, 25, July 6, 18, August 2, with a 
solution of the sulphide of potassium or 
liver of sulphur prepared by dissolving one 
half an ounce of the salt in each gallon of 
water used. The cost of the liver of sulphur 
was 25 cents per pound, or 78 cents for 
every 100 gallons of the solution used. The 
results showed that out of every 100 pears 
