ea 
Jloiirologifitl. 
DO STRAWBERRIES PAY? 
This Las been a mooted question for the 
past two or three years with many, and I 
have noticed many articles pro and eon 
relative to it. Being in the midst of the 
great fruit growing section of Western New 
York, with plantations around us in great 
numbers, and with a universally large crop 
for two years in succession, 1 can say they 
hare paid us, and will do so, so long as we 
can get even six cents per quart here. 
We had in fruiting this season tifteen 
acres, comprising some forty odd varieties. 
As is well known, we sell large quantities of 
plants, taking from this plantation last spring 
and fall over one million plants and cutting 
a large share of the rows down very closely, 
and, too, a large share of the varieties of 
those shy hearing sorts that are desirable 
only for the amateur on account of their dif¬ 
ferent peculiarities. Yet notwithstanding all 
this, we have marketed about eight hundred 
bushels of strawberries. Nearly all of these 
we have sent to New York City, a distance 
of over three hundred miles by railroad, 
where they have sold tar an average for four¬ 
teen and three-fourt hs cents per quart. Fully 
one-quarter of the crop were, of the softer, 
smaller kinds, which brought only eight to 
ten cents per quart. Had they all been of 
the better marketing kinds, such as 1 lie Wil¬ 
son’s Albany, Triomphe de Claud, Jueunda, 
&e., they would easily have averaged six¬ 
teen cents per quart. As it was, however, 
they netted us here, over and above tdl ex¬ 
penses, eight cents per quart, or a trifle over 
two dollars and fifty cents per bushel, or 
about $3,000. 
Now, had we not taken any plants from 
our plantation, we estimate loir (judging 
from a few undisturbed rows,) when we say 
WO should have got 1,300 bushels and netted 
fully $0,000 from our c rop. Or, had wo 
grown them in “hills,” or by the “half hill 
and matted row” system, we should have 
marketed, at a low estimate, between 3,000 
and 2,!500 bushels. This is not “ guess work,” 
for we had one plantation grown in hills 
that yielded 300 bushels per acre. We are 
aware that, many strawberries went into the 
New York market that were thrown away 
or barely sold for enough to pay expense of 
shipping, but this was explained by our con¬ 
signees, who wrote us that such fruit was 
covered with sand, full of slicks, stems, 
leaves, and green fruit, and that so long as 
we shipped them the quality of fruit we did 
they would guarantee they would sell for 
prices that, would prove satisfactory to us. 
We mulched our plantation all over with 
clean straw and fresh-mown hay just before 
t hey commenced ripening—keeping the cul¬ 
tivator going among them up to that time, 
and the consequence was large, fully-devel¬ 
oped fruit, of bright color and free from 
sand. Our sorts, too, were all pure, and we 
took particular pains to have each kind 
packed in crates by itself, marketing them in 
the square splint quart baskets, which we 
have found preferable to all others. 
All we have to advise those who are 
growing strawberries for market is to choose 
soil that is easily worked ancl that can be 
worked soon alter rains. Employ boys and 
women at half the price you would have to 
pay men. Grow your plants pure and un¬ 
mixed, for mixed fruits of any kind will not 
sell at good prices. Mulch them well, and 
work them well up to the fruiting season. 
Plant thick, so that the ground will be. fully 
occupied. Grow only the best and largest 
market sorts,—for remember, it costs no more 
t<* cultivate such, no more to gather them, no 
more for boxes, and no more for express 
charges, while the prices are double and 
triple. While our Agriculturists, .Jucundas, 
Triomphe dc Gauds, &c., sold for twenty to 
thirty cents per quart, the Early Scarlet, 
Hooker, Jenny Lind, &c., sold for eight to 
ten cents. Our Wilson’s Albany averaged 
about fourteen cents per quart in New York. 
No person need calculate on making this 
fruit pay by growing it on the “ slip-shod ” 
plan. It must have clean and oil-repeated 
culture. Don’t, after you have set out a 
plantation, wait until you see the weeds 
growing before you start the hoe and culti¬ 
vator. Remember, you can hoe over a plan¬ 
tation four times, if done in season, where 
you can once if it gets weedy and surface- 
stiff. A. M. Purdy. 
Palmyra, N Y., 1809. 
-- 
CULTIVATION OP THE PEACH. 
N. P. 1 Ledges of Erie county, N. Y., writes 
to the Horticulturist that, himself and his 
neighbor have succeeded in raising good 
crops of peaches about every other year, 
and that, too, in places where there are no 
large bodies of water and not much forest 
protection. 
Trees twenty, thirty, and sometimes forty 
years old, standing perhaps in exposed as¬ 
pects, hear fair crops, while the more recently 
THIS DOWNING RASPBERRY. 
planted trees, unless thoroughly protected, 
seldom bear fair crops of fruit. 
He thinks the bearing principle in most of 
the old varieties has been injured by budding 
from young trees. The old Early York and 
the Crawford, that used to be excellent, bear¬ 
ers, are so no longer, and many other old 
soi ls, although they live in favored localities, 
refuse to bear full crops. 
One great cause of failure is that the trees 
are not of the right kind. They have been 
produced from late Southern pits, and are of 
rampant, growth, not satisfied with the length 
of our summer. 
One of his neighbors planted peach trees 
live times and live times were they frozen to 
death, root and branch, while some old trees 
in the same orchard lived and bore well. A 
hardy tree is worth more to the peach grower 
than all the protection which trees can get. 
Early ripening cannot be produced, to any 
great extent, by summer pruning. Shorten¬ 
ing in may make the tree stouter and less 
liable to break down with snow or ice, but it 
will not make it hardier, or cause the fruit to 
ripen earlier. 
-- 
FRUIT HUMBUGS. 
J. have often wished to write a few lines 
about certain fruits which have bothered me 
exceedingly, and I suppose others as well. I 
should like to know from some of your val¬ 
uable contributors if there is any difference 
between the Mammoth Cluster Raspberry 
and the Miami or McCormick. Also, what is 
the difference between the Missouri Mam¬ 
moth Blackberry and the Wild Blackberry 
of the fields ? It seems to me, Friend Ru¬ 
ral that these Mammoth Raspberries, mam¬ 
moth blackberries, and mammoth strawber¬ 
ries are getting to be Mammoth Humbugs. 
And I should like to ask you why is it that 
fruit growers (I do not mean all, there are 
some honest ones among them,) cannot tlo 
as they say? We pick up a catalogue of 
some and we read, “ We warrant our plants 
pure and strong-rooted What do they mean 
by pure and strong-rooted ? I could give 
you the names of some w r e bought plants of 
this last spring Unit would open some peo¬ 
ple's eyes. But, as one of your valuable 
contributors has said, “It would do no 
good.” If they were sent to me alone 1 
might think it was a mistake, but no. Two 
or three of my neighbors bought the same 
kind of plants, and after paying high prices 
have seen them die under the very best 
treatment. Is it any wonder that those who 
are engaged in trying to raise small fruits, 
and who want to keep up with the times, 
are so chary in investing money in worthless 
stuff? Who will spend eighty dollars for a 
thousand plants when they can buy better 
ones at home for twenty, and get the genuine ? 
Do you not think this new fruit humbug- 
gery has gone lar enough ? lias all this 
worthless trash that has been put on the 
market these few years helped the cause of‘ 
horticulture? Has it done anything to help 
sustain the confidence of fruit growers gener¬ 
ally ? Take, for instance, this new straw¬ 
berry, (if new,) the Mexican Everbearing. 
Mr. A. 8. Fuller, a noted horticulturist, 
says it is nothing but the old Red Alpine 
under a new name. Mr. F. R. Elliott (in 
your nnmberyl' August 7th,) says, Mr. A. S. 
j Fuller has put. his foot in the mire, when 
lie asserts it to be only the old well-known 
Red Alpine. Who is right? Or, is it only 
a horticultural misunderstanding? If so, 
had not horticultural misunderstandings bet¬ 
ter stop? Our Mammoth this berry, and 
our Prolific this berry, have been such 
mammoth prolific misunderstandings, that 
all honest fruit growers will be pretty sure 
to understand where and from whom they 
receive tlieir plants. 1 have written these 
few lines because 1 know you hate imposi¬ 
tion and love fair play. F. H. W. 
New Brunswick, N. J., Aug-ust, 1899. 
Ik our friend continues to read the Rural 
he will soon discover—if indeed he has not 
already—that we are in favor of abolishing 
all fruit humbugs, root and branch, and giv¬ 
ing 1 heir propagators I heir just deserts. Like 
the Ledger’s stories, the subject is “ to be 
continued.”—E d. 
-- 
POMOLOGICAL GOSSIP. 
Blackberries. 
“ Mason’s Mountain" has ripened its fruit 
the earliest of all; hut although it is pro¬ 
ductive, the size is such that whoever named 
it must have seen very small mountains. We 
consider It unworthy of culture. 
Duncan's Falls Mammoth is a variety dis¬ 
tributed, we believe, only about two years 
since, which resembles the Kittatinny in the 
size and general form of its fruit; but the 
peduncle which attaches the fruit to the 
main stem is more slender. It is our first 
year of fruiting it, but from present appear¬ 
ance it promises to be a week earlier than 
Kittatinny, is quite productive, a strong, vig¬ 
orous grower, and the fruit quite sweet as 
soon as well colored. 
The Downing Raspberry is comparatively 
new, originated a few years since from seed 
by Charles Downing. No new variety 
equaLs it this year in our grounds for size. 
It is of rich flavor, rather soft, but should be 
in the grounds of every amateur. The canes 
need protection in winter the same as the 
Orange or Red Antwerp. The berry is 
large, regular, conical, with medium but 
rather irregular sized grains ; bright crimson 
scarlet, juicy, rich, a little tender; separates 
readily from the core, which is large and 
conical. 
New Early Peach, — The Washington 
Chronicle of July 7th has this account of a 
new early peach :—“ We were shown, a few 
days since, a very remarkable specimen of 
early peaches, grown in the orchard of Col. 
E. J. Plow den, St. Mary’s Co., Mil, about 
seventy-five miles south of this city. The 
fruit is solid, beautifully formed and deli¬ 
cately colored, and one of the peaches meas¬ 
ured fully eight inches in circumference. 
They seem to be of a variety never before 
known, and ripen much earlier than Hale’s 
celebrated pcacli, which has hitherto been 
the earliest in the market. The specimens 
shown us were gathered on the SGtli of June. 
We understand that Col. Plow den* has 
made arrangements for sending this early 
fruit by express to the New York market, 
which point can be reached in eighteen 
hours. Specimens of these peaches have 
been sent to the Agricultural Department, 
and are much admired by Commissioner 
C AKRON.” 
Slightly Productive. — While among my 
pears to-day, thinning them out, I found on 
one tree of Louise Bonne de Jersey, two 
hundred and forty-seven pears, and on one 
branch, eighteen Inches long, and having 
four fruit spurs, thirty-three well and per¬ 
fect formed fruit. The tree is a dwarf, and 
came from the nursery four years since. 
Some may ask why I did not thin my fruit 
earlier in the season —if they do, I’ll tell 
them. —Addi. 
-- 
KEEPING GRAPES. 
A CORRESPONDENT of tllC RURAL asks 
about keeping grapes. It is the easiest mat¬ 
ter in the world, providing the grapes are of 
a kind to keep, such as the Diana, Isabella 
and others, but chief of all, the Clinton. 
This will keep till in the spring, and then be 
better than at any other time. Simply gather 
when ripe and put for a few weeks where 
the air, under shelter, without artificial heat, 
lias access to them, say in a chamber, or any 
out-room with the windows open. The 
object is to dry the stems. Then there will 
be no evaporation, and consequently no 
mold, or but little at the worst, us the 
grape itself loses but little moisture, its thick 
skin holding it. Then put in dry wooden 
boxes; covering the boxes. Lay dry leaves 
or cotton in the bottom, and cover with the 
same for a second tier of grapes. Two tire 
enough, or at most three. This way is 
varied somewhat. By It we keep our Clin¬ 
ton’s nice and wincy till May. March and 
April find them prime. Put boxes in a cel¬ 
lar where the temperature is uniform and 
cool, with the medium between the dry and 
damp, such as will keep fruit generally. 
F. G. 
Arboriculture. 
THE BUTTERNUT. 
You mention the hemlock and chestnut 
as among our best ornamental trees; and 
such they certainly are. The hemlock, 
grown alone, from its youth up, is one of 
the most graceful, if not the very finest of 
all our ornamental evergreens. It is not the 
same tree as we see in the forest, where it is 
an Indian, coining up in ranks to the very 
threshold of a cliff or precipice often. They 
are the fine-looking trees, warriors, straight 
and dark and compact, in group. This will 
do for association, and even for view. But 
the hemlock, isolated, is a beauty, soft and 
rounding in ius outline, and all that you 
claimed for it; and I am glad you have 
spoken a good word for this. 
But there is another that is as sadly neg¬ 
lected and as important as the hemlock or 
the chestnut. This is the butternut. Its 
form is graceful and varied; its leaves in 
their arrangement and their soft, slightly 
russet hue, darkened in midsummer, arc sur¬ 
passed iu attractiveness by none. It is 
healthy, a good grower, ancl easily culti¬ 
vated, and bears a good fruit, in harmony 
with its leaves, coming in clusters. 
It will not do to grow in rows or groups; 
but, as a single tree, a field or meadow orna¬ 
ment, it is, next to the elm, the most grace¬ 
ful and attractive, only however when July 
and August have darkened its leaves. We 
have stopped oftener for a look at this tree 
than any other. f. g. 
MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 
Henry II. Cuapo, of Michigan, discuss¬ 
ing the management of orchards in the 
Country Gentleman, says It will be con¬ 
ceded, I think, that Hie ultimate value of an 
orchard depends upon the healthy and vig¬ 
orous growth of the trees while young — 
until, at least, their habits of growth, etc., 
become fully developed. As an apple tree 
can no more make such growth without 
proper care and treatment than any other 
plant, it becomes a question of serious con¬ 
sideration what these should be; for an 
orchard of stunted, dwarfed and sickly trees 
upon a farm, is not only an unsightly object, 
but a valueless incumbrance. 
The better course of treatment for an 
orchard of young trees, undoubtedly, is to 
cultivate the ground constantly with root 
crops until they shall have attained a con¬ 
siderable size, during which the fertility 
of the soil should not only be kept up but 
increased by a liberal application of manure. 
Where this cannot be done, the next best 
method will be to seed down the ground ex¬ 
clusively with clover. This will not make 
a stiff, compact sward, like fine grasses, so 
detrimental to the. growth of young trees, 
but will keep the land open and porous, and 
will serve to enrich it. 
When the clover shows indications of 
“running out,” put in the plow and turn un¬ 
der the sward. The ground, for one season 
at least, should then be cultivated with some 
kind of root crop, to be followed again by 
clover. But if this is not practicable, then 
after being thoroughly plowed and worked 
over, clover should again be sown upon it— 
clover following clover. 
In the meantime the ground Immediately 
about the trees sliohld be kept constantly 
shaded and manured to a distance equal, at 
least, to the diameter of the head of the tree 
and the further the better. 
By this course tjie land will yield a fair re¬ 
turn in clover crops, and at the same time 
will be constantly increasing in fertility ; 
and in a few years the owner will find him¬ 
self in possession of an orchard of healthy, 
vigorous, and well developed bearing trees, 
—not only one of the greatest ornaments to 
his farm, but a source of employment, profit, 
and real wealth. 
-- 
CULTIVATING CHESTNUTS. 
d : 
% 
Tire Germantown Telegraph says:—“ We 
notice in an Ohio journal a communication 
from Dr. Kirkland, in relation to the culti¬ 
vation of chestnuts. Ho raised in his gar¬ 
den, from seed, the French, Spanish and 
Italian chestnuts, some twenty - years ago, 
which he transplanted, and which when ten 
years old commenced bearing crops. He 
thinks they will pay to cultivate, and also 
recommends the she! I bark hickory nut for 
cultivation. lie says the three kinds of 
chestnuts named are about equal in quality. 
Is he sure of this? We find that the French 
is superior to either the Spanish or Italian, 
and we believe this to be the general opin¬ 
ion. But neither of them equals in quality 
our own natives, though twice to three times 
as large. 
“ While ou the subject we desire to add 
that we have often been surprised that farm¬ 
ers generally do not give some attention to 
the growing of chestnuts and English walnuts. 
On almost every farm is a plot of ground 
that is useless for farming purposes. Chest¬ 
nuts will grow almost anywhere, however 
poor and stony the land. No doubt the 
French variety Is more profitable, from tlieir 
being more marketable than our own. These 
can be raised either from the plant or our 
native varieties can be grafted with them. 
They grow as readily from the graft as the 
apple or pear. Even for home use, a tree or 
two of the French is very desirable. Plant 
them out, protect them from cattle, and let 
them alone ; and in the course of time the 
l'ruit will come in abundance. 
“ But we desire to say a word for the 
English walnut. We consider this fruit as 
more profitable to cultivate tliau the chest¬ 
nut. The tree grows readily, affords good 
shade, and will commence to produce regu¬ 
lar crops of fruit in ten years, anti will add 
to the quantity each year as the tree in¬ 
creases in size. The fruit is much sought 
after in its green state for pickling; and 
in its ripe state it is better than those im¬ 
ported. Its quality every one relishes. The 
price it commands at the fruiterers will al¬ 
ways doubly repay all trouble and expense 
attending the gathering and marketing.” 
--- 
The Tea Plant, as cultivated by Mr. Campbell 
on the bottom lands of French Broad River, 
Tennessee, is described as “a deep evergreen 
shrub, and attains, at its full development, a 
height of about five feet. It is strung and com¬ 
pact, and needs but little protection IVom the 
frost. It bears well: it has a beautiful llowef. 
which develops about October, The next season 
it produces a seed something resembling ft * u,/l 1 
which grows readily.” There seems to be no 
question as to the practicability of growing tea 
in Tennessee. 
----- 
In June Just a Maine man removed 133 trees 
ill full leaf, for the purpose of Starting a cherry ^ 
orchard, and the trees arc now flourishing. 
