22 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
it does. This regular bearing is an important 
matter in an apple for family use ; the usual 
way is, an excess one year and almost no 
fruit the next. In our original description, 
the quality was ranked as best, and Ellwanger 
& Barry, who are not given to extravagance 
in praise of fruit, say : “Of the highest qual¬ 
ity, equal to the best Newtown Pippin.” The 
original tree was standing in 1867, in Brooks 
Co., West Va., and had been known since 
1804. In a selection, however small, of fruit 
for family use, we should include Grimes’ 
Golden. It has stood the severest winters of 
northern Ohio without injury. The variety 
is now in all of our first-class nurseries. 
Notes from the Pines. 
It is a common impression that the beauti¬ 
ful autumn colors of our forest leaves are 
due to the action of frost. An observation 
of the trees during the past few months, in 
the vicinity of New York, must have shown 
those who hold to this idea, how little the 
frost has to do with causing the change of 
color. While were we suffering a drouth un¬ 
precedented in the experience of any now 
living, we had in October three mornings 
with severe frosts, and on at least one of 
these, ice was formed. These frosts were 
not followed by any change of color in the 
leaves; those upon the more tender trees 
were killed, and soon fell, while those that 
were uninjured remained as green as before. 
The long drouth had suspended the functions 
of the leaves and they had not yet ripened. 
After these frosts came slight rains, sufficient 
to refresh the leaves, and some weeks later 
rain came in abundance, and there was in 
November a fair display of the bright colors 
we look for in autumn.Some time ago 
I mentioned to a friend that a great service 
was done to horticulture by the introducer 
of that grand late-blooming shrub 
Hydrangea, paniculata grandiflora. 
The reply was : “ Too common ; anybody 
can grow it, and you see it everywhere.”—I 
had always thought it to be one of the great 
merits of the plant, that anybody could grow 
it. I was somewhat surprised at the remark, 
as I had supposed that one of the objects of 
horticultural societies and rural journals was 
to create a taste which would lead to our 
seeing beautiful plants “everywhere.”.... I 
have occasionally seen this 
Hydrangea Grown as a Standard, 
a form to be commended, at least for a variety. 
A single stem is trained upright to a stake, 
and a head formed at the liight of about four 
feet, allowing three or four buds at the top 
to push, and rubbing off all that start below 
these; the upper buds will form branches 
and bear a large panicle at the end of each. 
After the flowering is over, these branches 
should be cut back to about three buds each ; 
the next spring these will give a very full 
head and a great mass of bloom. Close prim¬ 
ing of this shrub, in whatever form it may 
be grown, greatly improves both the size of 
the clusters, and of the individual flowers, 
and I think that the change of the flow¬ 
ers from white to pink is finer than on 
unpruned shrubs. One advantage in the 
standard form is, the great clusters, when 
heavy with rain can not reach the ground and 
be soiled.... This training of plants, that 
usually form bushes—as standards, is an 
Interesting Occupation for the Amateur, 
and useful too, especially to one whose win¬ 
dow or greenhouse space is limited. The 
Heliotrope, for example, is so much better in 
this shape that one who tries it will not after¬ 
wards grow this plant in any other form. It 
requires no great amount of skill; a little 
attention as needed, and time will do the 
rest. Begin with a straight young plant from 
a cutting, and whenever a side shoot starts, 
remove it, allowing growth from the upper 
point only. Place a stake to support the 
stem, and take care that it grows perfectly 
straight. The whole object being to form a 
straight stem, all flower-buds should be 
pinched out as they appear. When the stem 
is three or four feet high, cut it back to the 
desired hight, usually two or three feet high, 
and allow as many of the uppermost branches 
to grow as may be desired for the head, sup¬ 
pressing all others. The future treatment 
consists in pruning in such a manner as to 
keep the head in a regular shape. Ordinarily 
the Heliotrope is a most unsatisfactory plant 
on account of its straggling habit of growth ; 
treated in this manner it is easily kept in 
form, and it flowers freely ; besides it saves 
room, as the head stands well above other 
plants.Another plant suited to this train¬ 
ing is the Lantana, a still more rambling sub¬ 
ject ; this, when grown with a clean stem, 
which bears a compact head, studded with its 
brilliant flowers, is indeed a beautiful object. 
There are many other plants which the ama¬ 
teur may train in this manner, and find much 
interest in shaping them to his will..... 
Tlio Tnberous-Rooted Begonias 
have been rather slow in making their way 
to popularity. This may be due to the high 
price-at first asked for the bulbs. If those 
who attempted to raise them from seed fared 
no better than myself, they may well have 
been disgusted. When seeds were first of¬ 
fered, I sent to a celebrated grower in France, 
and paid a round price for two packets of 
them. They came up freely, and the plants 
grew well.; after caring for some dozens of 
plants for a year or more, they began to 
bloom, and every plant, without exception, 
produced small dingy-white flowers. But 
they all had beautiful tubers! Not a plant 
of the lot was worth keeping. Since then 
some of my friends have had fine success; 
the seedlings, some of them with enormous 
flowers, in various shades of scarlet, crimson, 
etc. Used in masses, they produce a fine 
effect, being equal in brilliancy to the best 
Geraniums, and superior to them from the 
fact that rains do not injure the flowers; 
after a heavy rain storm the flowers recover 
at once, while those of Geraniums are quite 
ruined, and the bed appears ragged until new 
clusters open. Besides, these Begonias can 
be stored so conveniently ; they are allowed 
to dry off, and the tubers are kept until it is 
desired to start them in spring. They make 
very fine pot plants also.I have here¬ 
tofore suggested that in selecting shrubs for 
planting, we should not look to the beauty 
of the flowers solely, but include some that 
have showy fruit. A few clusters of bright 
berries lighten up the shrubbery wonderfully 
in autumn. Among shrubs with showy ber¬ 
ries nothing can be finer than 
The Common Barberry 
in full fruit; the graceful curve of its stems 
and the pendent coral-like berries make it a 
charming object. A little species from Japan, 
Thunberg’s Barberry (Berberis Thunbergii ), 
only about two feet high, makes a neat com¬ 
pact mass of green, against which its berries, 
which are not in clusters, but solitary, large 
and bright scarlet, show with fine effect. 
The Scarlet Clematis of Texas, 
which was figured in March 1879, has proved 
to be a valuable plant; it bloomed all sum¬ 
mer, and was not checked by the severe frosts 
of early autumn. Its flowers are not very 
large, but they are so bright that every one 
who sees the plant is pleased with it.I 
have wondered that we have in this country 
So few Amateurs with Hobbies. 
Those who devote themselves mainly or 
solely to one class of plants, and by giving 
their attention to these reach a perfection not 
otherwise possible. In Europe there are 
noted growers of the Auricula, the Rose, the 
Chrysanthemum, and many others, whose 
achievements have given them a wide repu¬ 
tation. What a splendid hobby the Clematis 
would be in all its species and varieties, and 
what a chance for still new floral prizes in 
the way of new beauties it offers ! 
“My First Peach Orchard.” 
A correspondent, “J. V.,” Oakland Co., 
Mich., who has now over 3,000 peach trees, 
gives an account of his first orchard. We 
give this essentially as written, for two rea¬ 
sons ; first: as an encouragement to others, 
as Oakland Co. is far from the peach-growing 
localities of the State, and it shows that even 
under adverse circumstances his land gave 
him fair returns. Secondly, for the purpose 
of suggesting some points in which the man¬ 
agement might have been improved. Mr. V. 
writes: “ Four years ago last spring, I plant¬ 
ed 300 peach trees on poor sandy land, set¬ 
ting them 16 feet apart each way; all the 
trees lived. For the first two years I planted 
corn in the orchard, which gave a fair crop 
for such land. The third year I planted 
beans, which were a failure, but that year I 
had 20 bushels of peaches, which I sold for 
$2.50 per bushel. This year, the third, I dis¬ 
covered that the borer was injuring the trees, 
and I dug out of the 300 trees about 700 bor¬ 
ers. Last year, the fourth, I did not plant 
any crop in the orchard, but cultivated the 
soil and kept it perfectly clean, and also 
hunted the curculio. I picked and sold 500 
bushels of choice fruit, which returned me 
$600 clear, after paying freight and commis¬ 
sions. I made use of about 1,000 props, be¬ 
sides several balls of hemp twine to keep the 
trees from breaking down. The injury by 
the borers the third year, the heavy crop of 
the fourth, followed by the severe winter 
which we had in Michigan, together caused 
the death of about half of the 300 trees.”— 
This experience is interesting, and it may be 
instructive to analyze it, and see what our 
correspondent made by the operation. Three 
hundred trees, at 16 feet apart, occupy less 
than two acres (which would hold 342 trees), 
but we will call the land two acres. We are 
not told what the returns from the com were, 
but it is fair to assume that the two crops, 
and the $50 for the first crop of fruit, the 
third year, paid for the trees, their planting 
and all the cultivation, so that at the begin¬ 
ning of the fourth year, the orchard had paid 
all its expenses. Supposing that all the trees,, 
instead of one-half, had been killed, the fire- 
