1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
339 
interesting am! instructive, but also the public spirit and 
enterprise of Mr. Orange Judd, Editor of the American 
Agriculturist, who placed his rooms at the disposal of the 
Society, and contributed the prize money and entire ex¬ 
pense of the Exhibition. 
CHAS. DOWNING, WM, CHORLTON, 
D. S. DEWEY, ISAAC BUCHANAN, 
JOHN DAILLEDOUZE. Committee of Judges. 
Crab Apples. 
Every housekeeper knows the value of this 
fruit for sweetmeats and jellies, though few are 
aware of the number of varieties now in culti¬ 
vation, presenting a great difference in size and 
color, and all beautiful. Aside from the use 
of its fruit, the tree is well worth cultivating for 
ornament. In Spring it is covered with charm¬ 
ing flowers, while the fruit following, remains for 
several months, and presents a very showy ap¬ 
pearance. Crab apples maybe grown as stand¬ 
ards or as dwarfs, and in either case when load¬ 
ed with their brilliant fruit, are most attractive 
objects. There is now upon the Exhibition ta¬ 
bles of the Agriculturist ^Office a collection of 
crab apples from Frost & Co., of the Genesee 
Valley Nurseries, Rochester, N. Y., which com¬ 
prises most of the old and new sorts. The largest 
and finest colored is the Transcendent Crab, and 
it is difficult to conceiveof anything more beau¬ 
tiful than this in the way of fruit.—Most of the 
crabs are from the Baccata variety of the Pyrus 
maltts or Siberian Crab, and vary from the size of 
a currant up to an inch or more in diameter. 
The “ Lady Crab ” does not belong to the same 
variety, and is not a proper crab. It is a very 
pretty little fruit, about one quarter the size 
of the common Lady Apple, and like that is an 
excellent dessert fruit. It makes up in num¬ 
bers what it lacks in size, for the limbs are 
actually crowded with them. 
Growth and Treatment of Gooseberries. 
Geo. H. Hite, Esq., of Morrisania, a success¬ 
ful cultivator of the Gooseberry, sends his meth¬ 
od to the American Agriculturist. As his com¬ 
munication is rather long, we extract the prin¬ 
cipal points of interest. Mr. Hite does not 
follow the usual method of training to a 
single stem. He plants a bush of one year’s 
growth and allows but a single branch to grow 
the first year. The second year several shoots 
will spring up from the root, and as many of 
these, say 5 or 6, are allowed to grow, as will 
make a frame work of the bush, and all others 
are suppressed. He allows these limbs to 
grow upward, and -when side branches appear 
on them, allows them to grow to the length of 6 
or 8 inches and then nips them off to 4 inches. 
The terminal bud left at the pinching will start 
and grow a few inches, when it must be pinch¬ 
ed back to a single leaf. The next spring he 
cuts back the side branches to the first pinching. 
All laterals (branches which spring from the 
main stems) must be treated in the same man¬ 
ner. The main stems or frame work are allow¬ 
ed to prolong themselves undisturbed, while the 
side branches are kept short, in the manner 
above indicated, m order to keep the bush free 
and open to admit light and air. Mr. Hite 
prevents mildew, the great obstacle to the 
cultivation of the foreign sorts. He puts a 
quart of dry unleached wood ashes into a ves¬ 
sel that will hold about 5 gallons, and pours 
upon it 3 gallons of boiling water, stirs it for a 
few minutes, and then fills up the vessel with 
cold water, the object being to have the solu¬ 
tion as hot as the hand can bear without scald¬ 
ing. The application is made by the hot liquid 
being thrown forcibly into the bush, by means 
of a good sized garden syringe. The work 
should be done thoroughly, taking care to 
drench every berry ami every leaf, both on the 
under and upper side. Early morning, when the 
dew is on, is the best time for the purpose. The 
application should be first made as soon as the 
fruit is formed—and be continued from time to 
time as signs of mildew appear—until it is ma¬ 
ture. By growing his bushes in the manner 
above described, and persistently syringing them 
with this'solution, Mr. II. succeeds in obtain¬ 
ing the English gooseberries in great perfection. 
His manner of training leaves the bush open 
so that the liquid can reach every spot. He 
adds that the same liquid with the addition of 
a tablespoonful of sulphur, has been used by 
him with great success in preventing mildew 
upon grape vines. 
What to Do with the Lantanas. 
“ E. P. H.,” of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., furnish¬ 
es for the American Agriculturist , his experience 
with this favorite plant as follows : Four years 
ago a white lautana in my garden seemed to 
be so flourishing in October, that I determined 
to try it as a house plant during the Winter. 
The furnace heat of the house allowed it to do 
little more than spindle out a poor existence 
Until Spring, all my trouble having been in vain, 
so far as blossoms were concerned. In May I 
turned it out into the garden, and then came my 
reward; for from June until the end of Autumn 
it was covered with a profusion of its beautiful 
flowers, and the more they were cut, the greater 
was their number. Of course it had proved it¬ 
self too valuable to be lightly discarded, and 
therefore, it being too large for the house, I 
sent iT to a professional gardener to he kept 
through the Winter. The same plant is now in 
my garden, this being its fourth Summer, and 
it is 5 feet across horizontally in every direc¬ 
tion, and 5 feet high. Its trunk is 4) inches in 
circumference at the base, and 3 inches, at II 
feet above the ground, and it is still constantly 
covered with its beautiful blossoms, which are 
well shown off against the deep green leaves. 
I have now two other Lantanas, one the com¬ 
mon yellow and the other the deep orange col¬ 
ored, known to some as “the Grand Sultan,” 
which are now in their third Summer, and also 
thrive equally well with the treatment given to 
the white. Cared for in this way, the Lantana, 
instead of being one of the bedding plants, to be 
ranked with Verbenas and Petunias, becomes a 
shrub or bush, not like the Weigelias, Deutzias, 
and Spiraeas, covered fora few weeks with beau¬ 
tiful flowers, and then resuming its sober coat of 
green, but it is always in its holiday dress. 
Neither is the Lantana thus treated a delicate 
plant which must be pampered with rich soils 
and fed with liquid manures, but it thrives in 
any ordinaiy garden soil. Now this may be all 
known to the Editors of the Agriculturist , but it 
was not to me, and I know it is not to many 
others who will look upon the Lantana as a tol¬ 
erable little plant, and allow it to die every Fall. 
[The Lantana is one of our favorite - bedding 
plants; but when grown in the manner de¬ 
scribed by our correspondent, it forms a shrub 
of great beaut}', and will repay the trouble of 
taking up and keeping through the Winter. 
To those of our readers who do not know the 
Lantana, we can best describe it as a shrubby 
kind of verbena. It bears numerous trusses of 
small flowers which are shaped somewhat like 
those of the verbena. There are quite a num¬ 
ber of colors—white, cream color, yellow, pur¬ 
ple and orange. The orange is remarkable for 
thechauge which takes place in the color of the 
flowers: they are of a very light orange when 
they first open, and gradually change to an 
orange red. The plants grow very readily 
from cuttings, and are supplied in the Spring in 
large quantities by the florists.— Eds.] 
Bulbs in Pots. 
There are no more beautiful decorations for 
the parlor or sitting room than Hyacinths, Cro¬ 
cuses, Tulips and other bulbs grown in pots. 
They are cultivated with great ease, and with a 
little care, a succession of blooms may be had 
throughout the Winter. The soil should be light 
and rich; a sandy loam enriched with well 
decomposed cow manure; if the loam be not 
light, a portion of clean sand should be added. 
Hyacinths are general favorites for their beauty 
of color and delightful fragrance. In selecting 
these, choose medium sized heavy bulbs of the 
single varieties, as these flower much more free¬ 
ly than the double ones. It is also desirable to 
get an assortment of colors in order to produce 
strong contrasts. If planted singly, a 5-inch 
pot will answer, but a much better effect is pro¬ 
duced where three bulbs of different colors are 
planted together in a 7-inch pot. In potting, 
care should be taken to secure good drainage; 
place a piece of broken crock over the hole, and 
on this some coarse fragments of charcoal be¬ 
fore putting in the soil. The bulbs should then 
be planted so as to leave just the crown uncov¬ 
ered. Give the pots a moderate watering, and 
then set them away in a warm, dark place, wa¬ 
tering occasionally, until the earth becomes well 
filled with roots. The condition of the roots 
can be examined at any time by inverting the 
pot in the right hand, which is spread out over 
the earth; then give the rim of the pot, held in 
the left hand, a slight tap against the edge of a 
table or other hard substance. The ball ot 
earth will be loosened and the pot maybe care¬ 
fully lifted off. When plenty of roots are 
found, the pots may be brought to a light, 
warm room, and with liberal watering they will 
soon give spikes of bloom. When the flower¬ 
ing is over and the leaves become yellow, the 
supply of water should be diminished and the 
bulbs dried off. When the bulbs are completely 
ripened, they can he removed from the earth and 
kept for planting the following Autumn. If not 
carefully ripened, it is better to plant the bulbs 
out of doors and take fresh ones for pot culture. 
By potting bulbs at intervals of a week or two, 
from now until Christmas, a succession of bloom 
can be kept up in the house through the Winter. 
The little Tulip, called Due Van Tliol, which 
is a dwarf kind of various colors, is best adapt¬ 
ed to pot culture. These may be planted from 
3 to 12 in a pot, and treated like Hyacinths. 
Crocuses are much grown in pots, though the 
short duration of their flowers renders them less 
desirable than either Hyacinths or Tulips. A 
number of them may he planted in a pot and 
treated as directed above. These bulbs, espec¬ 
ially the Hyacinths, are sometimes grown in 
water in glasses made for the purpose, but they 
are more trouble, and the bloom is seldom as 
fine as when in pots. They may also he grown 
in pure sand or in wet moss, taking care in all 
cases to keep the bulbs in the dark until they 
have formed strong roots. Narcissus, Jonquil, 
Iris, Snowdrop, and Scilla are readily grown 
in pots and are pleasing home decorations. 
