202 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
red is ike most valuable variety for the New 
York market. 
CUCUMBERS. 
For field culture the “White Spine” is best. 
Pick the cucumbers when from four to six inches 
long, and pack them ill bushel crates made 
the same as described under tomatoes. Pack 
tight, and keep out all crooked, gnarled, or yel¬ 
low ones. They may also be packed in clean 
barrels, with holes bored in the sides, and cov¬ 
ered with muslin or bagging to give ventilation. 
GREEN BEANS. 
Pick when the dew is off and the beans per¬ 
fectly dry, and put in the shade a short time 
until they have lost the heat received from the 
sun. Keep out all bruised or decayed ones, 
and pack in bushel crates same as recommended 
for tomatoes. For beaus, the laths on the crates 
must be closer together than for tomatoes. The 
beans should be young and lender when picked 
and snap when broken, its it will not pay to 
send them when too old to snap. They may 
also be shipped in barrels covered with cloth, 
and the sides cut or bored for ventilation. 
GREEN PEAS 
should be picked, handled, and packed the 
same as green beans. 
CHERaiES. 
There is none of the small fruits that require 
so much care and that is more difficult to get to 
market in good order than the cherry. They 
should be picked when perfectly dry, leaving 
the steins on, taking hold of the stem instead of 
the fruit in picking. Keep out all over-ripe and 
rotten ones, and keep the fruit spread out thin 
in the shade a short time to cool and thoroughly 
dry off. Put in crates made of two ends and 
a middle piece, four inches wide by 1G incites 
long, of s / 4 -inch stuff. Make the sides with 
lath or thin boards, leaving sufficient openings 
for ventilation. Fill the crate full, and gently 
shake or press down the fruit. Mark (lie tare 
of the crate on one end. Cherries can also be 
put in long flat baskets holding about 25 pounds; 
these are covered with muslin. 
GRAPES. 
There is a greater variety of packages used 
for sending grapes to market than for any other 
kind of fruit. For a long distance, or where 
the cost would be too much for the return of 
the empty boxes, the best packages are small 
boxes holding from three to five pounds. These 
are made as light as possible, but strong enough 
to bear the handling and shipping. The boxes 
should be put in skeleton crates holding from 
60 to 90. Of the small boxes, we think the 
Fairchilds and the veneer box of the “Ameri¬ 
can Basket Co” among the best. The boxes 
should be packed from the bottom, first laying 
in a sheet of white tea-paper, then lay in the 
bunches keeping the stems up, and gently press 
the grapes close together. Fill the box so as to 
press them down solid, but not hard enough to 
mash the grapes. One crushed or bruised grape 
will ferment ami spoil the whole box. Nail the 
bottom on the box, ami put the label on the 
other side, so that that will he the side to open, 
and when opened will show a nice, smooth sur¬ 
face of fruit, with the stems hidden from view. 
Mark tare of crate off each end. 
We think the long, flat, tight, boxes holding 
about 30 pounds very objectionable, as they 
are liable to rough handling, and the fruit in¬ 
variably comes to market mashed and bruised, 
and consequently will not command a fair price. 
The very best way to send grapes to market 
is in crates such as are used for forty-five pints 
of strawberries ; those that have the comer- 
pieces on the inside arc preferable. Flat boxes 
or trays are made that will easily fit the crates. 
The travs are so made that three will fid the 
crate. Etch tray should have the shipper’s 
name and also the tare marked on it. The 
crates should also have the tare of trays and 
crates marked on them. If the tares are not 
plainly marked on each package, we have a 
trouble when making sales to deduct the weight 
of the package. For want of knowing the tare, 
we are delayed in making returns of sales until 
the return to us of empty packages—which 
often gives great dissatisfaction. 
Boxes with the covers hinged and furnished 
with a hasp are good packages for grapes. 
They should be made about five inches deep, 
fourteen incites wide, and twenty-two incites 
long inside; they should have the bottom put 
on with screws, so that it. may be taken off and 
the box packed from the bottom. Put sheet 
of white paper in first, and then a layer of 
bunches, then a sheet of paper, then grapes, and 
so on, taking care that the bunches lie close 
together with the stems up. Pack so full as to 
make it necessary to press the bottom down 
gently to bring it to its place, thus compressing 
the grapes so that they will not move in 
handling. 
Round paper boxes, bolding three, four, or 
five pounds each, may also be used. In packing 
these, use a tin hoop of the same size and depth 
as the paper box inside. Place the tin hoop on 
the cover, and pack the grapes in the hoop, 
stem up, and fill and gently press down ; then 
put the box on and draw out the hoop; this 
will leave the grapes all tight and the stems out 
of sight when the box is opened. Pack the 
paper boxes in skeleton crates holding 12, 18, 
or 24 boxes each. 
In gathering the grapes use care to not rub 
the bloom off more than can he helped. The 
best plan, if crates and trays are used, is to put 
the trays on a wheelbarrow and move along 
among the vines. In gathering, take hold of 
the stem of the bunch and cut off with a pair 
of scissors; at the same time trim out all un¬ 
ripe berries, and lay the bunch in the tray stem 
dawn. When the travs are full they require no 
further handling. Use care to put none in hut 
good, fine clusters, The seconds should be 
shipped by themselves, or used up tit home. 
Alter the trays are filled, put them in the shade 
to cool off before packing in crates. If to be 
packed in tight boxes, the grapes should be cut, 
carried to a cool, dry place, and allowed to 
lay about twelve hours to dry and wilt the 
stem, which will facilitate the packing and also 
prevent molding. If the stems tire not dry 
when packed, and the boxes lie any length of 
time, tlie grapes soon become moldy, and the 
sale of them is spoiled. 
Notes on Asparagus. —“Trojan,” Lansing- 
burgh, N. Y., in commenting upon Mr. Hel- 
frich’s article on asparagus in the May number, 
says: “He might have added that the knives 
were better for being ground half-moon shape; 
that the easiest way to raise it was either in 
rows two feet apart, or in beds three feet square, 
with IJ-foot space between, which allowed of 
the ground being plowed through botli ways 
and the earth thrown on top of the square nice 
and evenly, so as to smother all the weeds; 
that the best way to sell it is by weight, so as to 
save the labor of hunching, which we find to be 
one of the greatest expenses attending it; that 
brewers’ hops, privy or blood, or very fine bone 
manure were the best, as horse-dung contains 
so many weeds that you can not get along, no 
matter how well rotted; that in warm weather 
it must be cut every other day, or else let 
grow up for good; that where salt can be pro¬ 
cured cheap enough it is the great desideratum, 
as it will both kill the weeds and improve the 
asparagus.”—If “ Trojan ” can sell unbundled 
asparagus, so much the better for him; but 
when one sends produce to the New York or 
any other market he must conform to the cus¬ 
toms of that market if be expects to get satis¬ 
factory prices. If a lot of loose asparagus, or 
strawberries in the large trays used in Cincin¬ 
nati, were sent to the New York market, they 
would probably find their way into the garbage- 
cart. The object of the articles by Mr. Helfrich 
is to let people tit a distance know what is re¬ 
quired in the New York market, and unless 
they can conform to this it will be better for 
them to seek a market near home. 
Notes from the Pines. 
A great deal has been written in prose and 
verse about the resplendent hues of autumn 
foliage, and, if I mistake not, spring flowers 
have had mention by the fine wriLers, but I do 
not recollect that any one lias gone into 
ecstasies over 
Spring Foliage. —Yet there is much in the 
varied hues of the just developing leaves to at¬ 
tract the observer who has an eye for the minor 
beauties of nature. The expanding leaves of 
the pear and those of the ash-leaved maple are 
both of a tender green, but quite unlike, and 
both are quite different from the near-by Vir- 
gilia (more properly Gladrasiis). Then just 
beyond is a Weeping Poplar, the young leaves 
of wiiich are of a brownish green, fonce the 
French would say, as dark as the neighboring 
Gingko tree is lively. An artist would describe 
the foliage of this last-named tree as “gamboge 
green.” Then a little nearer the house is a 
golden glow from the young leaves of what the 
nurserymen call Spiraea aurea, but which is only 
a bright-leaved variety of the well-known. 
Nine-bark (Spiraea opulifolia). A little more at 
1 he right.is the charming purple-leaved variety 
of the common Barberry, and st ill farther along 
are the Purple Hazel and Purple Bush. These 
last-named tire varieties cultivated for their 
colored foliage, but there is enough in the 
different shades of the young leaves of trees 
in their normal condition to make the effects of 
spring foliage worthy thestudyof the landscape 
gardener. I have alluded to the 
Weeping Poplar, which is one of the most 
desirable of lawn trees. Its branches are most 
decidedly pendulous. It comes out very early, 
the leaves bold on late, and all through the 
season its quivering foliage upon the drooping 
branches makes it a most enjoyable tree. This 
and similar weeding trees increase in height 
very slowly, and they are grafted upon upright 
stocks of some kind. The nurserymen graft all 
such trees loo low. My poplar was grafted at 
about eight feet, but this is not high enough; 
the branches already sweep the ground. I am 
growing a Lombardy Poplar to a straight stem, 
and when it gets about fifteen feet or so high I 
shall graft it with the weeping variety, and 
hope for a tree worth having. I saw to-day 
that a neighbor had planted near his house a 
Weeping Ash, grafted not above six feet high. 
