stone Valley, was invited by a friend to 
take a glass of beer. Instead bo took two 
apples. One was eaten by bis wife; the 
other by himself. The seeds of both were 
saved and planted; eight grew. Fi vo healthy, 
vigorous trees were produced, which have 
borne freely for several years past. At the 
Minneapolis Fair last Fall ho received $50 
in premiums on the apples grown on those 
trees. At the time the seeds were planted 
the growing of fruit in Minnesota was an 
unsettled question.'’ 
to one hundred times as much for fruit—and 
that is what 1 plant them for—health, lon¬ 
gevity, and beauty, as one with its head 
started at any distance above eighteen inch¬ 
es from the ground. 
1. That hllylit Cannot kill , and will not 
seriously injure such a tree. 
5. That a year t ree properly grown needs 
no pruning whatever. 
0. That nearly all the orchards in the 
West have been greatly injured, and very 
many of them utterly ruined,’ by the out¬ 
rageous system of pruning—ruining, rather 
—so generally practiced. 
7. That no sub-branch should ever 
betaken from near the base of amain 
branch for any reason whatever; 
that no branch or twig should ever 
i be cut. from the inside of the head 
| of a tree, as is often done with the 
expectation ef letting in light and 
air, but which in fact shuts them 
out. 
g S t u. 8. That apple trees two years from 
root-graft, and pear trees one year 
■KK from bud, or two years from root- 
graft, will make bearing orchards 
sooner than trees of any older age, 
and vastly better orchards in every 
way than trees will of four to six 
years of ago. 
0. That many of our most profita¬ 
ble apples, such as Wagner, Primate, 
Red dune, Summer Pearmain, Early 
Harvest, Summer Pouunok, Hawles’ 
Janet, &e.,h«ve fallen into disrepute 
merely from planting trees of these 
varieties with too high heads. For 
instance, a Summer Pearmuln tree 
will produce from four to twenty 
times as much fruit, larger sized, 
better flavored, and higher colored fruit, 
if its head is started within one foot of 
made inquiry of other dealers and cult iva¬ 
tors of flowers, who do not seem to know 
anything about this name for a flower.— 
L.R., Jlcading, Pa. 
There is a beautiful Tea Rose known as 
Esther Pradel. It is of medium size, full, 
double, and of a tine chamois yellow color, 
changing to salmon. 
MARANTAS 
Marantas are becoming favorite foliage 
plants. Their leaves are beautiful. They 
require a moist, warm atmosphere, and 
hence are not adapted to rooms nor con¬ 
servatories, except for a short time. Lat¬ 
terly, several very beautiful species have 
been introduced. Mamnia Y'cllchtt is a 
ver\ striking one, the leaves being purple 
underneath and deep green above, with 
yellow markings near t he midrib. Fig. t is 
an illustration of an interesting variety of 
it. Fig. ?. illustrates Maranta Inat'iata, a 
very handsome species. Its green leaves, 
handed wit h white from the midrib to each 
margin, characterize it as peculiarly suit¬ 
able for the decoration of vases. Fig, 3 il¬ 
lustrates Marantn rosco-picta, noticeable 
for its rosy midrib, and for similarly col¬ 
ored bands upon the leaf, a little way from 
the margin. Those who have greenhouses 
will appreciate these plants. It is unfor¬ 
tunate that they cannot he grown in con¬ 
servatories; but, grown in vases, as shown, 
t hey can be transferred safely to the con¬ 
servatory or drawing-room on special occa¬ 
sions. 
The Erythriria. I'rns-gnlli. a native of 
Brazil, is extensively cultivated as an orna¬ 
mental plant in the Northern States, and 
we presume at the Sout h ; at least it should 
be, for we have few more showy exotics, the 
P0M0L0GICAL GOSSIP 
The Western Triumph Blackberry. 
—Three years ago we saw advertised in a 
Western paper a now blackberry under the 
above name, and we ordered a dozen plants 
which came duly to hand, with a modest 
bill for the same, amounting to $5, which 
we promptly paid. The plants wero set out 
and made a vigorous growth, producing a 
fair quantity of fruit last year, which we 
thought was of very good flavor, but were 
not up to the standard for size. The past 
winter was quite a severe one on all the 
small fruits, the blackberry not excepted; 
but our Western Triumph plants passed 
through uninjured, and are at. this time 
more heavily loaded with fruit, than any 
other sort in our collection. The berries 
are also large, and so deliciously rich and 
sweet t hat to add sugar would be superflu¬ 
ous. The ladies of our household pronounce 
this now blackberry u “Triumph,” especial¬ 
ly the dyspeptic portion, who have to deny 
themselves of the privilege of eating sugar 
upon fruits of all kinds. If our Western 
people can succeed us well with this vari¬ 
ety as we have, there is no need of sending 
East, for Kittatinny, Wilson and Lawton 
Blackberry plants. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES, 
Molasses or Hydrochloric acid for 
Flowers. E. S. CL, Philadelphia, Pa. 
writes the Scientific American the following 
note. If our readers choose to try the ex¬ 
periment we advise that, it first be tried on 
some plant they are willing to lose. Here 
is the note:—“ Several years ago 1 became 
passionately fond of flowers, and 1 pur¬ 
chased a great many. 1 gave them all the 
attention I could possibly spare, and watch¬ 
ed over them anxiously for a long time; 
but I found to my disappointment, that be¬ 
fore several weeks hail passed, they all sud¬ 
denly assumed a poor and dying appear¬ 
ance. 
“ I changed the earth, enlarged the pots, 
and did everything imaginable, but they did 
not seem to improve at all. About this 
time, I removed the earth around the roots 
of a favorite geranium, and pouring molas¬ 
ses (the unrefined will serve the purpose 
well) around the roots, I covered it up with 
earth, and waited patiently for a change. 
You would have really been surprised to 
have seen the great improvement in the 
flowers. I tried several others with the 
same result. If any one thinks that molas¬ 
ses is too expensive to be used for such a 
purpose, I would assure him that hydro¬ 
chloric acid answers equally as well. It. 
should be diluted in water (say one ounce 
of the acid tn three or four quarts of water), 
and the flowers should be washed with it at 
the usual time. If these simple facts are of 
any value to lovers of flowers, 1 trust this 
will be made public." 
flowers being a bright crimson, approaching 
scarlet. The exotic species grow to quite a 
large shrub if kept in a green-house during 
the winter and carefully planted out in 
summer. 
Variegated Mint. Inclosed And leaves 
of a plant, which please name forme. Does 
it blossom?—1’. E., (iraiul I sir. 
Variegated Mint (Mi ntho varieyata). 
Yes, it sometimes blossoms, hut the flowers 
are small and inconspicuous. 
Seedling Strawberries of greater or 
less merit were exhibited to us in our office 
by Elbert H. Boo art, Roslyn, L. I. One 
of them has been grown six or seven years, 
but constantly in a single locality. The 
othersarenet as old. All are promising; 
but none of them have yet been put Upon 
the market, unr have they been suflh i'.mtly 
tested on different soils and climates to es¬ 
tablish their value, compared with other 
well-known varieties. Mr. Bogart appears 
to be an enthusiast, in t his branch of horti¬ 
culture, having exhibited sixty-two seed¬ 
lings at the recent Queens Co. Show, taking 
the first, premiums for the six heaviest ber¬ 
ries (all his own seedlings), for the three 
best new varieties, and for the best, seed¬ 
ling. None of these have been named or 
numbered. 
POINTS IN ORCHARD CULTURE 
D. B. Weir, Laoon, Ill., writes the Prairie 
Farmer that he wishes to prove the follow¬ 
ing points:—That ninety-nine per cent, of 
all the pruning that has been done to fruit 
trees in the West, has done more injury to 
the trees and to their crops of fruit, than 
good. 
1. That, a fruit tree, if its head lie started 
low, where naiore indicates, requires none, 
and should hav e no pruning or thinning out 
whatever, until it has at least fifteen sum¬ 
mer's growlh, except it he a shortening in 
of overgrown shoots. 
2. That an apple tree so grown, with alow 
head, and no thinning out of its head, will 
The Charles Downing Strawberry 
is winning its way in the West, so far as wo 
hear, just as it, has in the East. J. L. Bunn, 
Shellsburg, Iowa, says:—" We surely need 
a strawberry for homo use With less add in 
it than Hie, Wilson, at the same time retain¬ 
ing, as far us possible, the hardy habit, and 
productiveness of the latter. So far as my 
experience and observation go, the Charles 
Downing is Just about the berry we have 
been looking for. It is of large size, moder¬ 
ately firm, of most, excellent flavor, plants 
vigorous and hardy, about as productive as 
the Wilson, and the strength of the plant is 
such that the berries are held up from the 
dirt much better than with the Wilson. ” 
EuonyimtH and Wistaria.-Please give 
the names of the flowers iiio'losed, in your 
valuable paper. No. 1 is a wild vine, called 
here “ Virgin Bower,” with purplish flow¬ 
ers. Nn.a shrub, Jias white flowers and 
red berries, very pretty.— Southern Hire. 
No. I is the American Wistaria(1 VitsUirla 
frutcsccn#) a beautiful climbing shrub, ex¬ 
tensively cultivated by Northern as well as 
Southern nurserymen and dealers in plants. 
No. 2 is the American Burning Bush, or 
Strawberry Tree (Euonymus A mcHcanus.) 
The flowers are small, much nearer a green 
than white. There are several species of 
the Euonymua which are cultivated for 
their beautiful scarlet berries, which ap¬ 
pear in autumn. 
Pears for the Plains.—Dr. William M. 
JInwsley, of Kansas, names the following as 
varieties of pears best suited to the region 
from the Mississippi t,o the Rooky Moun¬ 
tains, and between the latitudes of .Id and 
H north:—Of standards, first, in every re¬ 
spect,, the Bartlett; second, the Flemish 
Bounty; third, the Bello Lucrative; fourth, 
Buffutn; fifth, Lawrence; sixth, Winter 
Nelis. Oil quince roots or dwarfsFirst, 
Beurro d’ Anjou; Second, Beurro Diel; 
third, Duchess do Augouleme; fourth, Eas¬ 
ter Beurro; fifth, Louise Bonne do Jersey; 
sixth. Vicar of Winkfield; seventh, White 
Doyenne. 
Kansas Plant for Name.—Inclosed find 
bud. blossom and leaf of a plant found 
growing wild upon our prairies. The leaves 
all grow from the ground; one straight 
seed-stalk grows up from the middle of 
them, and has twenty-five or more such 
blossoms ranged closely together around 
top of stalk, blossoms open a few at a time, 
commencing at bottom; color delicate 
straw. The appearance of plant is tropical; 
style magnificent. Please toll me, through 
the Ritual, the name. -J. M. Copeland, 
Waco, Kansas. 
The plant was rotten and past recognition 
when received. Carefully press leaves and 
flowers between paper, and when dry send 
us another specimen. 
Fio. 2. 
All of these points, and many more of 
equal importance, I obligate myself to prove 
conclusively to all who will visit my fruit 
farm, during the present summer and fall, 
free of charge, pro hono publico. 
Fio. 1. 
produce from four to twenty times as much 
fruit, and better fruit than one having 
equal chance, but with its head started at 
the regulation flight of from four to six 
feet from the ground, and l can see no rea¬ 
son why ifc will not continue to do so for 
forty or fifty years. 
3. That a standard pear tree without any 
naked branches whatever, but clothed with 
branches from the ground up, and kept in 
regular pyramidal form, is worth from four 
St rawberries for Forcing in England. 
—The ('ottago Gardener says:—“ The favor¬ 
ite sorts for forcing arc Keens’ Seedling, 
Princess Alice Maude, and British Queen; 
but there are others well worthy of atten¬ 
tion, as Ingram’s Prince of Wales, which for 
productiveness and certainty of setting 
beats all. Trollope’s Victoria is a good bear¬ 
er under heat, where very early fruit is re¬ 
quired, Cuthill’s Black Prince and the Scar¬ 
lets should be grown.” 
Esther Pradel ltose»—Are you aeqainfc- 
ed with a rose, or other flower, bearing the 
name Hester Prodal or Proa dal, or some¬ 
thing like It ? If so, please give a descrip¬ 
tion of it in the Ritual, New-Yorker. My 
wife bought a rose from a dealer in flowors, 
a short time since; the label was lost, but 
finding one near where the rose stood, he 
thought that, probably, the name on that 
label might he the proper one. I have 
ARBORICULTURAL NOTES 
A Minnesota Apple Tree Story.— 
The Winono, Minn., Herald tells this sto¬ 
ry:— “In 1858 Mr. John Hart, of Rolling 
