M'OO'ilFS 
be Vegetable $>arbm 
RIBSTON PIPPIN. 
SEASONABLE HINTS. 
Tms is an old English apple, which for 
many years ranked among the very best, and 
was quite extensively planted. In time, 
however, as our fruit men South and South¬ 
west came to write and record testimony, 
this variety was objected to as “ liable to 
drop from the tree early;” ami some objected 
to it because of, as they stated, “ a liability to 
scab and become imperfect. In our North¬ 
ern latitudes, especially in Canada, however, 
the fruit, according to our observation of 
near thirty years, has always proved one of 
the best, the size being above medium, the 
bearing habit of the tree productive, and the 
tree itself quite hardy, coming late into leaf 
and flower, and hence the blossoms fre- 
afler it gets warm, or left on. If left on, the 
berries will be later. A bed will run out 
about every three years; and it is well to set. 
a lew rows every year. We raise the Wil¬ 
son’s Albany Seedling, as it is what we need 
here, hardy and productive. That is all there 
is of our way of getting strawberries; and, 
although it may look like a Western n ay of 
doing tilings, it usually brings us any quan¬ 
tity of splendid fruit. A Rural Reader. 
Evergreen Cottage, Wls. 
fine appearance, and agreeable flavor when well 
grown, but the berries do not always set well, so 
that i ho bunches are sometimes very loose mid 
straggling. _ ^ 
Protecting Blackberries and Raspberries_A 
correspondent asks:—“Will the RURAL toll ns 
whether the KittutJnny and Early Wilson Black¬ 
berries. and Philadelphia and Clarke Raspberries 
need winter protection In the latitude of De¬ 
troit.? The winters hero area little milder than 
in Western New York." Out Impression is that 
it will pay U) protect them there. Let some of 
our readers having experience in that locality 
answer. 
♦*-->—-- 
Canada Apple*.—The Directors of the Fruit 
Growers' Association of Ontario are endeavor¬ 
ing to contrive some plan by which really valu¬ 
able native Canadian apple*may bo brought to 
light, and placed in l he hands of nu tv ay men 
for cultivation and dissemination. They have 
offered an honorary medal to the originator of 
any now fruit that, shall be found to possess 
across the trench, lay two thicknesses of 
brick; then let your trench he contracted in 
width to the length of a brick — or, rather, 
it need only be dug a loot or fifteen inches 
wide, for the three or four feet at. the rear 
end beyond the box, so ns simply to form a 
flue, covered with brick laid lengthwise; and 
at the rear end have a stove pipe, three or 
four feet long, with an elbow that can be 
turned to suit the wind. Immediately hack 
of the row o( brick, on which the rear end 
of your box rests, make, with your brick 
that form the top of your trench, for its bot¬ 
tom, a water chamber, by cementing the 
brick together, and set brick on edge for the 
sides ol this water chamber, which is to he 
kept tilled with water to prevent the rear 
end of the box from catching fire at the only 
P°ibt it is in danger of burning. It would 
answer to have the trench only the length of 
the box, and have a horizontal eight-inch 
pipe, three or four (cot. long, with an upright 
THE MULBERRY IN THE SOUTH 
mulberry culture. He writes: 
About ten years ago, I got, a few sprigs for 
grafting of a mulberry which was very high¬ 
ly recommended, and represented to he ever- 
hearing or perpetual. 1 grafted into the 
morns multicaulis mulberry, and got about 
forty young trees from the grafts that, lived. 
They were very slow in bearing, and not, 
until this year, have borne a remunerating 
crop. The berry is quite large, long and 
black, when ripe— begins to ripen about the 
first of May, and continues till July. I have 
another kind ripening at the same time, but. 
the berries are smaller. One of my neigh¬ 
bors has still another variety, which is nearly 
white when ripe. These mulberries all begin 
to ripen at, the same time, last two months, 
and are prolific bearers ; and are valuable for 
hogs, as t hey ripen at a time when other fruit 
is scarce, or not ripe at all, except the plum, 
which, with us, ripens at the same time, and 
is equally valuable. 
I am preparing to plant largely of both, as 
I am satisfied that hogs will llirive finely on 
either plums or mulberries, but do better on 
both. Plums will grow in gullies and washed 
places which are too poor and exhausted for 
cultivation, answering a good purpose in 
renovating the worn-out soil, filling up the 
gullies, and, at the same time, giving us nat¬ 
ural aid, at a useful time, to overcome the 
iVorton’w Virginia ami Cynthlana Grapes.—A 
correspondent of the R ural World a.-dcs the ques¬ 
tion whether the Cynthhum grape Is not identi¬ 
cal with the Norton, and adds that “some per¬ 
sons who have seen those grapes under the two 
names have not been blessed with powers of dis¬ 
crimination sudfoicmly accurate to see two va¬ 
rieties. 
FRUIT HUMBUGS, 
Of lute I have occupied a few of my Win¬ 
ter evenings in looking hack over the re¬ 
cords of men who have introduced fruits to 
public notice, with statements as to their su¬ 
periority of value over old and well known 
sorts, and 1 confess the realizations of the 
prophesies have been so meager that while 
laying my book back in my lap, 1 have said: 
“ Is there any reliability in man ? Docs he 
always work for his means pecuniary ? Is 
there any such tiling as honest, true, expres¬ 
sion, combined w Li b knowledge?” I acknowl¬ 
edge it is u direct question, but when 1 read 
such a comment on the Duhring Raspberry 
as the Gardener’s Monthly gave it in iyOG, 
and thereby induced me. to expend my 
money — receiving from tile advert iscr plants 
which killed down on approach of winter, 
when it was advertised as hardy— I confess 
my skepticism in I ho belief of the honor or 
integrity of those who wrote to the inducing 
of money from my pocket. 
We acknowledge an expectation of all 
this thing from the French, and we “ pay our 
money and take our choice;” but may we 
not he said to have indirectly imported some 
traits peculiar to that nation — some ideas 
connected with the consoling thought that, 
“if you send out a good thing, it don’t mat¬ 
ter— a man can’t have too much of a good 
thing.” All very well, perhaps, but I be¬ 
lieve those who now have plenty of one 
variety of fruit, when offered it under an¬ 
other name will feci much in this matter as 
the man with a wife weighing two hundred 
TOMATOES. 
Cureulio Catching.— The Oneida Community 
employ five men during cureulio time to free 
their plum trees from insects, four are required 
for holding- tlie shoots and the. fifth, armed with 
art.* foot.battering- t.ua.'woll padded, gives tho 
trees several sudden jars. 
How to liiiieu Them Early. 
First, have stout, tapering plants, by giv¬ 
ing them plenty of room, sunlight and 'air, 
from the commencement of growth. Then 
study the habits of the plant, and you will 
see that, from the main stem, it throws out, 
at intervals, long, rough leaves; and at a 
later period, from above Lhe, junction of these 
leaves with the stem, start out secondary 
stems with the name habits as the Original. 
These continue to multiply themselves until 
you have a large vine, and plenty of small 
green fruit, necessarily late in ripening, for 
the reason that the force of the plant has 
been spending in producing vine. Do uot 
wait thus long and think to remedy the mat¬ 
ter by slashing off the vine at random, to let 
in sunlight, as is a common practice. Begin 
with the plant in time, and train it to suit 
you. 
The time to begin trimming is just when 
the first cluster of flower buds appear. This 
will generally be at the junction of the fur¬ 
ther fifth leaf mentioned. At this time the 
secondary stems will be seen just starting 
above the junction of all the leaves below. 
Here begin your work. Pinch them all off 
at once, and when they start out again, as 
they will, pinch off again until you conquer. 
You have now stopped the making of vine 
below this cluster of flower buds, and all the 
strength ancl juices of the plant are sent up¬ 
wards pushing forward the cluster of flowers 
and the secondary stems above. After a lit¬ 
tle, commence your work above, anti pinch 
off all these secondary stems, except enough 
to leave five or six clusters of fruit. Your 
vine, so long as you continue to pinch off 
these stems, is checked both top and bottom. 
Keep it tied no to a strong stake, and in due 
time your vine will be almost completely 
hidden by a mass of ripe fruit, all in the sun¬ 
light. 
By this process I have not failed for sev¬ 
eral years having my first ripe tomatoes the 
last of July, and last year on the twenty- 
fourth. A little observation and skill will 
supply what further might be added, but for 
making this paper too lengthy. Rich soils 
can do no harm to the tomato. 
Pike, Feb. 13,1809. M. Trall. 
California Fig*.—The Alta Californian of San 
Francisco, says that California fig;* are talcing 
t he place of imported fly on the Pacific coast. 
Many of them arc decidedly superior in quality 
to all from Smyrna, save the very best. 
Coal Tnr Wash fur Plums.—A member of the 
Ad Interim Committee of the Ohio Pom. See. 
favored the use of coal tar water as a syringe 
wash, protecting the plum from the ravages of 
the cureulio. 
tire be as hot as you can safely get it, so 
that the tar will run freely from the stakes, 
which you are to lift up and hold over the 
box a moment, to have the drippage run 
back into the box ; then souse the end into 
cold water; then stand your stakes tarred 
end up until you want, to use them. Set 
them so far from the box that they will not 
take fire if the box catches fire — of which 
there is some danger —to guard against 
which some wet straw or hay ought to be 
kept within easy reach to smother it. 
TRAINING GRAPE VINES. 
“ The object of spiral binding and twist¬ 
ing the grape vine is to so place the buds 
that no two shoots emanating from them 
shall be compelled to compete for light or air. 
“ Set. a stake close to the vine. Around 
this twist and bind spirally tho fruit cane, 
and secure it by tying firmly at the top ; if 
the work has been skillfully done, the young 
shoots emanating from the fruit buds may at 
the time the second pinching is performed 
be bent out horizontally so as to fully expose 
each leaf to the sun, 
and three feet deep, and as wide as wc can 
get sheet iron—say three feet or two and a 
half feet. Wall up the side fourteen or fif¬ 
teen inches with brick or stone. Over the 
end where you build the fire, lay a fiat iron 
bar, and lay on it, across the trench, a course 
of bricks for the front and of your box to 
rest upon. Make your box ms wide as you 
can find sheet iron (such as is used for stove 
pipes or similar purposes) to make the bot¬ 
tom of, and allow it to turn up, say an inch 
on the outside of each side and each end. 
If you can find iron that will allow the box 
to be three feet wide—all the bet ter. Let the 
box be, say ten feet long and thirty inches 
deep. The sides can be of one or one and 
a half inch stuff, well jointed. The ends 
should be of double thickness, the inner end 
having the side pieces nailed to its ends, and 
(he outer end piece being rabbeted and nail¬ 
ed on the ends of (lie side pieces and made 
to break joints with the inner end piece. 
Nail your sheet iron bottom on to the box; 
lay little strips of iron across your trench on 
the lap of your brick or stone work, every 
ten inches apart; then set in your box on 
these iron strips, so that the top of your box 
w i 11 be eight or ten inches above ground, This 
will occupy ten feet of your t rench in length. 
At the rear end of your box lay an iron 
bar .across as at the front end, ancl on it 
The canes for the next 
season’s crop of fruit are trained to a second 
stake, set in the row about two feet from the 
vine. Should the vine be a strong one, then 
a third stake is to be set on the opposite side 
of the vine, to which one or two more young 
canes are to be trained. In pruning the vine 
cut away the cane that produced the last 
crop of fruit; select the best young cane for 
fruit; cut this for the next season’s crop to 
ten or fifteen buds, according to strength: 
twist and bind to the central stake as before 
described. Also cut the remaining canes 
back to one or two buds each, and the 
young canes from these are to be tied to 
the outside stakes, as before described. The 
treatment will be the same each succeeding 
year.” —Du. Hull, Alton, TIL 
— - - 
Turntnci the top of a vine down and re¬ 
versing the training is said to benefit the 
fruit product. 
HOW WE RAISE STRAWBERRIES. 
I thought I would send our way of hav¬ 
ing plenty of strawberries, especially as it is 
all the trouble that the majority of folks will 
take. The plants are set in hill? the same as 
corn—that is, far enough apart To give room 
to cultivate them the same way that you do 
corn. We have done well setting them any 
wet day in spring, or after harvest. Keep 
the bed clean and the ground well stirred up 
the first year, then let them spread and cover 
the ground, if they will. After the first year, 
if the weeds are pretty tall, it. will pay to 
walk through the ground and pull them out 
by hand. Tn the fall the bed is covered with 
wild hay, or anything that inis no seed in it, 
to grow and make u meadow of it the follow¬ 
ing year. It can he removed in the spring 
White Hellebore vs. Currant Worms.—For two 
years wo have used hellebore on our currant 
bushes with perfect success. Last year tho 
worms were under full headway when I first 
discovered them. I then went to work powder¬ 
ing the worms and underside of the leaves, when 
another brood was hatching. I pursued this 
course three or four days, then after waiting a 
day or two I took my powder and went out for 
another attack. But there was not a worm to 
be found, nor did they return at all—H. II. H., 
Pen']/ Center. 
Rec-pini; Cabbage.—A correspondent of the 
Gardeners' Monthly writes how he kept cab¬ 
bages last winter'“ The cabbage, roots on, were 
taken to the wood lot, piled as compactly as 
possible in a conical heap about four feet high, 
then covered with a coating of leaves, about 
two feet thick,over all parts of the heap, and 
the heap topped off with a pitch of coarse re¬ 
fuse hay. The cabbage kept fresh and sound till 
the middle of March. They were very accepta¬ 
ble all winter, as wanted for use. I am keeping 
our cabbage iu the same manner the present 
winter.” 
Creveting Grape,—Mr. E. A. Tr owpson of Cin¬ 
cinnati says, that, by planting r je Crevoling in 
alternate rows with the Hartford Prolific and 
Concord, the bunches become fully fertilize I 
and its compact a- need be desired, Tho Own¬ 
ing is early and hardy, ripening about the same 
time as the Delaware. It is a black grape of very 
i 
