1868 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
305 
may be advantageously used to reach those oth¬ 
erwise inaccessible. If the fruit is to be disposed 
of at the nearest market town, it will pay to use 
care in picking, but if it is to be consigned to a 
distant city, it is absolutely necessary t.o do so. 
During the first week or two after it is taken 
from the tree, fruit loses a considerable amount 
of moisture,or “sweats,” as it is termed, and it 
is necessary that this process should be through 
witix before packing. The “ sweating ” may be 
done upon a barn floor, or the fruit may be put 
in heaps in the orchard and covered with straw 
if there be danger of frost. Fruit should be 
kept at an even temperature, and as cool as pos¬ 
sible without freezing. From the time that 
fruit is mature it constantly tends to decay, and 
that state in which we say the fruit is “in eating” 
is one step toward decay. The process can be 
made to go on slowly, or be retarded almost in¬ 
definitely, by keeping the fruit at a sufficiently 
low temperature. After the fruit lias gone 
through the sweating process, it should be bar¬ 
relled. It is better to make two grades of qual¬ 
ity, separating the finest from those less large 
and fair. A few poor looking apples will injure 
the sale of a barrel of otherwise first class fruit. 
Never mix sorts, even if they closely resemble 
each other, and mark each barrel with the name 
of the fruit. It is of the greatest importance 
that the packing should be so done that the 
fruit will not shake about and bruise one an¬ 
other in carriage. The use of packing mate¬ 
rial is now generally abandoned, at least for ap¬ 
ples, but the fruit is pressed into the barrel so 
strongly that shaking is prevented. The head 
may be pressed down by means of a lever, as 
shown on page 9 of the January Agriculturist 
for 1801. A convenient screw-press for the 
same purpose is sold at agricultural ware-houses. 
- — - —» & ■— -- •--- 
Strawberries and Other Small Fruits at 
the West. 
Mr. S. S. White, Mercer Co., Ill., sends to the 
Am. Agriculturist his experience with small fruits, 
which we give for the benefit of our western 
readers. He finds “ Hovey’s Seedling (well fer¬ 
tilized) worthless. Wilson’s Albany suffered 
most from drouth. Burr’s New Pine, and three 
oilier Pines are small, but the fruit sweet. 
Triomplie de Gand does not bear as well here 
as at the East, but the fruit is large, and the 
flavor very good. The Hudson, an old market 
berry, has been more prolific with me, and 
bears the drouth better than any other variety; 
the berry is firm and the flavor reasonably good. 
I shall discard all the varieties I have tried or 
seen tried in the West, except Triomplie de 
Gand, Wilson’s Albany, Hudson, and Austin.” 
Mr. W. thinks that our directions for planting 
in narrow beds will not answer for the West, 
where land is plenty and labor scarce. He makes 
his plots of the dimensions of a quarter of an 
acre, manures well, and plows deeply. He then, 
by the aid of a line stretched across the plot, 
puts the plants out 12 to 15 inches apart in the 
rows, and sets the rows at three feet apart. 
“ To dress the bed, use the cultivator early in the 
Spring twice, and two or three times after the 
vines have done fruiting. If no cultivator is at 
hand, use the small double-shovel corn plow. 
A man or boy will go over a quarter of an acre 
in an hour, and brush off with his hand the 
dirt from such plants as may get covered. Ex¬ 
pense of work with cultivator $2; hire of girl 
0 days to clip runners $2; pulling weeds in 
rows, the season $1. Whole necessary expense 
of culture $5. Yield of berries, 25 to 40 bush¬ 
els on a quarter of an acre plot, according as the 
season is wet or dry.” Mr. White advises his 
western friends not to be content with the straw¬ 
berry alone, but to grow other small fruits. 
Houghton’s Seedling Gooseberry, and the New 
Rochelle blackberry have done finely with him. 
The Hudson River Antwerp is the only good 
variety of Raspberry that will stand the winter 
in his locality without covering. Letters of the 
character of Mr. White’s are always acceptable; 
though we may not publish them, they are of 
use in enabling us to judge what varieties are 
best adapted to particular States and localities. 
Leaden Labels for Fruit Trees. 
A friend, who modestly wishes to be known 
as “Ignoramus,” having read a note in the July 
Agriculturist upon the importance of looking to 
the tree labels, sends us a device which he 
uses, and one which may in many cases be 
worthy of being adopted. The engraving rep¬ 
resent his fruit label. It is a strip cut from com¬ 
mon sheet lead, half an 
inch wide at one end, 
and gradually taper¬ 
ing to a point. Strips 
can be cut to this 
wedge form from a wide 
strip, without waste. 
Near the broad end a 
number, corresponding 
to that on a catalogue, 
is either stamped or cut 
with a knife. Just be¬ 
yond the number a bole 
is made with a square 
punch or nail-set, and the small end of the label 
is put through this and bent over to fasten it. 
This appears to be a feasible plan, and one 
which will be found useful where there are 
a large number of trees to label. Should a label 
be thrown off by the expanding of a limb, or 
from other causes, being of lead, it will not be 
blown away and lost, as a wooden one might be. 
A Hew Melon—The White Japanese. 
This superior fruit was first introduced to 
the public by the enterprising horticulturist, 
Wm. S. Carpenter, Esq. We understand that 
the seed wms brought to this country by some 
member of Com. Perry’s Japan Expedition. 
Fig. 1. — OUTSIDE OF MELON. 
Though this variety has been known to a few 
cultivators for some years, it is to most people 
quite new. We have grown it for two years and 
are so well satisfied with it, that we are desirous 
that our readers should be on the look-out for it, 
as the seed will soon be so generally distribut¬ 
ed as to be readily attainable. Fig. 1, represents 
the general shape of the fruit, which is usually 
globular, though some times it is slightly oblong. 
The furrows are very shallow and the surface 
but sparingly netted. The color is one of its 
most remarkable characteristics, being nearly 
white, or at least, a greenish while. The flesh, 
which is very thick in proportion to the size of 
the melon, is greenish, tinged with orange. 
When well ripened, the whole flesh is eatable, 
the rind being scarcely thicker than the skin of 
an apple. The texture, sweetness, and flavor of 
the flesh are all that can be desired. We know 
that tastes differ with regard to melons, as they 
do with respect to other fruits, and can only say 
that this new variety pleases us. It is a pro¬ 
lific bearer, and we hope to see it introduced 
in place of many inferior kinds now cultivated. 
How to Raise Seedling Tree Stocks. 
H. K. Ackerman and others ask us to give 
some hints upon planting seeds for the purpose 
of raising nursery stocks. This is a matter 
which is generally left to the professional nur¬ 
seryman, but there is no mystery about it, and 
any one who cultivates fruit can readily raise 
his own stocks. The soil for the seed-beds 
should be finety pulverized and well fertilized 
with old manure. The young seedlings need a 
tolerably rich soil to give them a good start and 
insure a vigorous growth the first season. Good 
clean and well-grown wood is essential to suc¬ 
cess, whether the stocks are budded or grafted. 
The seeds should be secured in the Fall. In 
this country it is customary to take the sound 
seeds of any variety, and for apples, the pom- 
mace left after making cider, is usually resorted 
to for obtaining seeds. In the family where 
much fruit is eaten, a quantity of seeds can be 
saved daily, if each one, after eating an apple, 
peach, or pear, will take the pains to preserve 
the seeds. A box or common flower-pot of 
sand should be kept standing in a convenient 
place, where each one can deposit the seeds 
from the fruit he cats. Where pommace is 
used, the seeds are separated by washing, col¬ 
lected, and dried, and then sown at once, or put 
into boxes with very slightly damped sand, and 
kept until Spring. If fruit is chosen expressly 
for the seeds, it is allowed to decay until the 
seeds can be readily separated. It is altogether 
best to sow in the Fall, if possible. If a large 
quantity is to be planted, it is best to make the 
drills about three feet apart, in order to allow 
the use of the cultivator, but if the bed be 
small, the rows may lie at a convenient distance 
to work with a hoe. Having stretched a line if 
