MARCH 41 
450 
feet in length. In the Summer they were 
headed back so the wind might not break 
them off. Next year the tops of the trees 
were apparently as large as before grafting, 
and some of the branches bora fruit. The 
third year there was a full crop of all sorts, 
except apricots, which are shy bearers here. 
The hint we get from this experiment is to 
work stone fruits on almond stocks to insure 
rapid and healthy growth; for the almond 
does not sprout, nor is it affected with any of 
the troubles iucident to peach or plum stocks, 
and, above a)J, the graft iorms a perfect 
union. How far it will be safe for fruit¬ 
growers east of the Mountains to adopt this 
plan, if not in use, ouly depends on the tem¬ 
perature of the Winter. It is the writer’s 
opinion that the stock is much hardier than 
the peach uuder all conditions except cold, of 
which he does not pretend to know. 
Blackberries, unless grown in very moist, 
sandy soil here, are always irrigated. By 
this treatment, with plenty of stable manure, 
the writer grows fifteen bushels, by weight, 
on a row of 33 hills, besides several bushels 
taken by the birds. The feathered rascals 
are the most enterprising robbers concei en¬ 
able. There is no kind of fruit that does 
not pay them heavy toll. It is quite likely 
that irrigating tile, like ours, placed eight or 
ten inches below the surface, would lie bene¬ 
ficial on your side of the Rocky Mountains. 
Raspberries, though not quite so productive, 
bear longer with us, and are not so much 
troubled by birds. 
During the past three years bur grapes ad 
vauced from $S to $35, and $30 per ton, de¬ 
livered. There is great activity in planting; 
and vineyard land, which rated before from 
$10 to $35 per acre, has donbled in value. 
Vast numbers of phylloxera-proof cuttings 
, are in demaud—the Cliuton, the Herbemont; 
almost all American sorts. The finer kinds, 
like Black Hamburg, Chasselas, Rose of Peru, 
and Malaga, are grafted on them. The old 
favorites, Concord, Catawba, Delaware, etc , 
are not much esteemed for wine-makiug in 
a country where they haul Black Hamburgs 
and the like in pound clusters to the press 
during the vintage on six-horse wagons, as 
plentiful as corn in an III nois corn-field. 
Last Summei our valley was invaded by 
the vanguard of the orchard pests belonging 
to the Eastern States. The codliog moth 
ruined rnauy apple orchards, anl, what is a 
new feature, was about as destructive on the 
pears. Tne curculio is not here; but in some 
portions of the State there is a scale bug, 
which not only ruins the fruit but kills the 
tree. 
GARDEN TALK.—NO. 3. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
When and How to Plant. 
About the first of April the Squire came 
over to have a garden talk with me. 
I like.l your way of putting in early gar¬ 
den so well,” he began, “ that I want to talk 
with you a lirtle about planting in general. 
What will you plant next'{” 
“ I shall put in a few more peas for a suc¬ 
cession, to-day, and just as soon as the ground 
is warm and the Weather is settled I Bhall 
plant early com and beans.” 
“How early do you plant these ?” 
“ It depends entirely on the season—some 
years not till May; and when the season is 
early and the grouud in good condition, before 
the middle of April. I am always willing to 
take the risk of early planting; for if it suc¬ 
ceeds I have an early garden, and if it fails 
the loss is small, for seed costa but little, aud 
whether it succeeds or fails, I follow up with 
another planting within ten days ” 
“ What distance apart do you plant your 
corn und beans ?” 
“ That depends somewhat on the variety. I 
plant the smaller varieties of sweet corn about 
three feet by two, while Stowell’s Evergreen 
and Mammoth Sweet I plant three-and-a half 
by two and-a-half For early garden beans I 
pi efer hills to drills. I drop three beans in a 
hill about one foot apart, and make the rows 
two feet apart.” 
Do you plaut cucumbers and Lima Beans 
in April ?" 
“ Not in the open ground; but I often start 
a few hills in pots under glass and transplant 
them when the weather is warm. They will 
not, either of them, endure cold nights, much 
less frost, and in backward Springs it is often 
nearly J une before they can be planted in the 
open grouud with safety.” 
What do you use for bean poles, and how 
do you set them if” 
Of late years I use Osage Orange exclu¬ 
sively. I have never seen any timber that 
equals it for durability, aud as our farmers 
have, many of them, neglected their hedges, I 
have no trouble in getting all I want of this 
timber, and it pays to be at some trouble to 
get these poles, for they last indefinitely 
When I used elm and soft maple poles they 
would often decay and snap off in a wind be¬ 
fore Fall. The next best timber for bean poles 
is Black Locust; saplings will grow from seed 
in four years large enough for the purpose, 
and it will pay every farmer to set out an acre 
or two of his poorest land in locust, not only 
to cut bean poles from, but to be grown into 
post timber. The bean poles must be set deep; 
if set shallow, when they get weighted down 
with a heavy growth of vine and pods, and a 
rain makes the ground soft, a little wind will 
tip them over, and you lose the crop. I take 
a tapering iron bar and make a hole fifteen 
inches deep, so that the point of the pole holds 
in the hard subsoil, and then I have no 
trouble.” 
“ When do you put out tomatoes, and what 
distance apart f ” 
“This is another plant that will not grow 
till the weather is warm, and I rarely put to¬ 
matoes out before the middle of May. 1 put 
them fully five feet apart each way, unless I 
trellis or stake them, in which case i set them 
3x4 feet. I plant peppers in rows, just as I do 
beets, and set the mangoes eighteen inches 
apart each way, and the small varieties twelve 
by eighteen. Early cabbage will grow two 
feet by one and-a half, which will make over 
13,000 to the acre; and Winter cabbages I set 
two-and-a half by two feet, giving 8,713 to 
the acre.” 
“ How long does the planting season con¬ 
tinue ? ” 
“ Till nearly or quite September. I plant 
snap beans until about the first of August: 
sweet corn till about the 10th of July, and 
rarely fail to eat roasting ears from this last 
planting; encumbers for pickles from June 15 
till July 10; Hubbard squashes, any time in 
the first half of June; radishes until the first 
of September; turnips from July 25 till Au¬ 
gust 13, aud occasionally later. Last year I 
grew a good crop sown Sept. 1, but the Fall 
was unusually favorable.” 
“ How late do you continue planting peas ? 
“ I rarely plant peas later than the first of 
May, and sometimes make but a single plant¬ 
ing; for if we plaut three or four kinds, in¬ 
cluding the earliest and the latest, it will give 
a succession for a month and last till snap¬ 
beans come to take their place. I usually 
find that late planted peas mildew' and fail to 
produce satisfactorily.” 
“ I recollect reading an article by Peter 
Heuderson, the title of which was ‘The Use of 
the Feet in Gardening,’ in which he recoin 
mended tramping on the rows after they wei-e 
planted; do you recommend it i” 
‘ That depends on several conditions. Some¬ 
times it is absolutely essential, and again it 
would be ruinous. The fable of the donkeys 
illustrates it. They were trav eling together, 
one loaded with salt aud the other with wool. 
The first laid down in a stream and the water 
dissolved the salt and he found his load was 
gone; he told the other to try it, and on doing 
so the wool took up so much water that he 
could not get up. I always step on my pota¬ 
toes before covering, to press them down in 
c loae contact with the soil aud get them as 
deep in the furrow as I can. In late Summer 
planting it is often so hot and dry that seeds 
will not come up unless they are pressed firmly 
into the soil, but cm clay laud I rarely step on 
the hill after the seed is covered; geueral'y l 
drop the seed and Btep on it, and then cover 
with loose earth. On light soils, sandy or 
mucky, the plan of walking on the row after 
it is planted is often excellent; but if it was 
practiced on our claj r soil, particularly early 
in Spring, many varieties of seed would never 
come up at all.” 
‘1 want to ask some questions about varie¬ 
ties,” said the Squire, but just then I was 
called away and toid him I would spend an ev- 
e ning with him soon, and we would take up 
that question. 
Butler Co., Ohio. 
- -♦-■»-♦ - 
GROWING ONION SETS. 
As there are large sections of country in the 
more Southern States where onions cannot be 
grown profitably from seed, the growing of 
onion sets is extensively followed. There are 
three methods of growing:—1, multipliers; 3, 
top or button onions; and 3, sets from seed. 
The first, which is also called the “Potato’ 
Onion, is not growu to much extent. Onions 
of thi« sort are, however, the mildest in flavor 
and the best for family use of all onions; but 
they are poor keepers, and this prevents their 
coming into general use, as the seed stores 
cannot handle them profitably. This oniou is a 
singular and interesting plant. A large one 
planted splits up into six or eight small ones, 
which will usually grow an inch in diameter, 
and these small ones planted form large ones 
the next season. They will mature earlier 
than any other onion. 
The second method of growing onion sets is 
to grow the top or button onion. In starting 
you plant sets, and set out the onions grown 
from them in the Fall early enough so they 
will get a little start before cold weather. In 
the Spring each onion will throw up from 
three to five seed stalks, each of which will 
bear at the top a cluster of small ouions. The 
bottoms will also multiply, forming as many 
onions as there are seed stalk*. I believe it 
will pay to re-set every year, but it is the usual 
practice to let them stand two years and then 
re set. The same onions will grow sets for a 
loDg series of years. I have known the same 
onions to be re-set and used, for nearly twenty 
years. This fact makes the growing of button 
onion sets much cheaper than the growing of 
seed or sets from seed, as a seed onion is good 
only for one crop, and it takes from 30 to 40 
pounds of onion seed to the acre to grow what 
are known as bottom sets. For growing sets 
from seed, a light soil should be chosen, and it 
need not be rich, but should be clean. They 
should be sown very thickly in rows nine or 
ten inches apart in beds just wide enough so 
that the weeder can reach from the path to 
the center of the lied; they must be kept free 
from weeds. If they can be crowded so that 
they will be of uniform size, and not much 
larger than Marrowfat Peas, they will be the 
more valuable. They should be taken up in 
August and thoroughly dried and put in bins 
about four inches deep, in a room where there 
is no fire heat. It will not injure them to freeze, 
if they are not disturbed when frozen. Ordi¬ 
narily onion sets are a very profitable crop, 
but occasionally a glut in the market will 
bring the price down very low. I grew some 
40 bushels of top sets in ]877, and could not get 
over a dollar a bushel in the Fall, and so held 
them until Spring and sold them for 50 cents a 
barrel. I then foolishly plowed up a plot of 
an acre that I had started, and quit the busi¬ 
ness; but I made a great mistake, for the 
price has been so high for the last three or 
four years that I could have cleared $100 per 
acre had I kept on at the business. 
I would advise any one who intends to go to 
raising onions or sets to begin on a small scale 
and increase as he gains experience. A fourth 
of an acre is enough the first year, and in 
many cases an eighth woul d be better. If you 
find it profitable, increase gradually as you 
find a market for the crop and learn how to 
manage it. If you can get a fair price, sell in 
the Fall and escape the risk of wintering. 
Those who have land suited to the crop and 
who will grew onion sets (especially top sets) 
every year, will in the long run find them 
profitable. w. f. b. 
Oxford, Ohio. 
-»♦ * 
FRANCONIA AND NAOMI R ASF BER¬ 
RIES. | 
Mr. A. M. Purdy’s Answer to Mr. C. A. 
Green. 
In regard to Chas. A. Green’s article, 
headed Franconia, Naomi and Lost Rubies, 
in a late Rural, allow me room to answer him 
as follows:—I obtained my Naomis from the 
“original stock,” in Ohio. It was well known 
then that the plants in the garden where they 
were raised were b idly mixed. No w it is as like¬ 
ly that Mr. Chas. Downing’s plants were not the 
Naomi, but the Franconia yas Bateuaui aud oth¬ 
ers acknowledged at the time that Francomas 
were in the bed). While I have as high an 
opinion of Chas. Downing as Mr. Green can 
have, I probably do not go as far as he in 
supposing that he and Fuller are infallible, 
and that they do not make mistakes. In fact 
1 know of mistakes they have made. 
As to Mr. Fuller’s “exposing the fraud,” 
allow me to give my statement as to the visit 
of Mr. Downing and A. 8. Fuller to my 
grounds. At the time they came here, there 
were scarcely any red raspberries left on my 
plants, and to show Fuller’s reliability in judg¬ 
ing by the stalk and leaf, I wish to state one 
fact: On our way to look at the Naomi and 
Franconia we passed a small bed of Kirtlands. 
Says Fuller: 
“Ah! what have you here V' 
“ Kirtlands,” I answered. 
“ Oh, yes; I recognize them.” 
So we passed ou to a heavier and stronger 
soil, aud in looking at Naomi rows he was cer¬ 
tain they were the Franconia, aud asked Mr. 
Downing his opinion. Mr. D. turned on his 
heel and walked off, sayiug: 
“Can’t tell much about it by the leaf and 
wood.” 
Soon we came to another sort. 
“ What have you here ?” says Fuller. 
My reply was, “You tell.” 
He looked them over, but was unable to 
tell, and so I informed him they were the 
Kirtland. 
“ Oh, no, no, no," he answered, “ those are 
not the Kirtland.” 
“Well, Mr. Fuller, I know they are Kirt¬ 
lands, for I took the plants up and set 
them here with my own hands from the rows 
down there, that you only a few moments 
ago pronounced the Kirtland.” So much 
for Mr. Fuller’s “ thorough method.” 
Mr. Downing’s only remaik was, “Soil 
makes a diffe.-enc i in the appearance of the 
same sort,” and this remark I know to 
be true from my plantations of the same 
kind of red raspberry here, at Rochester 
aud at South Bend, Indiana. The Franconias 
I had came from Mr. Piilow, of Rochester, 
and a widow lady at Lockport, and were re¬ 
cognized by all who had seen them as the Fran¬ 
conia. Wben Mr. Chas. Downing and others 
were on my place previous to that, not one of 
them recognized the Naomi as Franconia or 
pronounced them the same. 
Again, Mr. Green, I did plant them side 
by side, not only here, but at South Bend, 
Indiana, and every Winter, ou my grounds at 
South Bend, the Franconia was killed to the 
ground , while the Naomi went through un¬ 
scathed. Prof. Burgess of Highland, N. Y., 
had them in the same plantation a few years 
ago, and the difference in the fruit was very 
perceptible. But I am tired or the subject 
and if any party desires to purchase the 
Naomi under a new name he can buy the Lost 
Rubies. The original Lost Rubies were dug 
from my bed of Naomis and sent to Mr. 
Green. 
-- 
The editor (page 93) asks if any of the read¬ 
ers of the Rural have fruite 1 the Exochorda 
grandiflora. I have an impression that I have 
already stated in this column that it has fruit¬ 
ed with me. If I have not, I do so now; and 
I should be glad to know if it has fruited 
with others. Upon this fact I had based 
hopes that this grand shrub might become 
cheaper and more widely known, as it de¬ 
serves to be. People who buy plants should 
not expect nurserymen to grow them at a 
loss; and in view of the difficulty in propagat¬ 
ing this plant, the price asked for it is none 
too much. There are many who will not un¬ 
dertake to propagate it at all. Nurserymen 
understand that plants must be sold cheaply 
after they have been fairly introduced, but 
in some cases this can only be done in a com¬ 
parative sense; such plants as Exochorda, 
therefore, are hard to get at any price. 
My old friend, Mr. Meehan, has a good word 
to say for the Golden Spiraea, and wonders 
why it is not more generally used on the 
lawn. 1 do not know how it may be with 
others, but, notwithstanding I quite agree 
with Mr Meehan, the plant with me, for the 
past two or three years, was so infested with 
the black aphis that I ceased to regard it as a 
suitable plant for the lawn, except it be put 
in a distant border. Has Mr. Meehan ever 
noticed this \ It would be interesting to know 
if the aphis has in any manner prevented its 
use in other cases, or how far the presence of 
the aphis has been observed at all. The only 
other place w here I have noticed it, so far as I 
can remember, was at Mr. Carpenter’s. 
I have only just observed that Mr. Green 
very kindly offers me a plant of bis new rasp¬ 
berry, for which he will please accept my 
thanks. I shall be very glad to get it, and 
will give it a fair chance to prove itself to be 
all he claims for it. 
There are a great many people who have no 
greenhouse from which a di h or stand of 
flowers may be gathered almost every day in 
the Winter to ornament the parlor or sitting- 
room, and they may be glad to 1 arn tbat 
there are some things that preserve their 
freshness and beauty for a long time, and cost 
but little to procure. One of the very best 
and prettiest of these is the leaf of Cissus 
discolor, the rich and varied coloring of which 
surpasses many kind of flowers. Take an 
ordinary soup plate (or any similar thing 
that will hold water), and fill it with water, 
or, better still, sand kept saturated with 
water. Now go to some florist’s and get 
leaves enough of Cissus discolor to go round 
the edge of the plate. Pick out the prettiest- 
colored leaves, and get the leaf stalks as long 
as possible. Insert the stalks in the sand 
arouud the edge of the plate, and you will be 
delighted with the charming effect. It will 
not be very lone before the lea t stalks emit 
roots freely, aud the leaves will retain their 
freshness and beauty for a long time in the 
sitting-room, no matter how hot aud dry the 
air may be, provided only the sand be’ kept 
w'efc. I have kept them fully three months in 
this way. Having usually plenty of flowers, 
I keep the ceuter of the dish filled with them, 
renewing them as they fade. If you have no 
flowers for this purpose, get some variegated 
Wandering Jew, (Tradescnntia zebrina is 
good,) and dot it over the dish. It will soon 
root and grow. Selaginella may be used in 
the same way for the center, and makes a 
good green ground in which to insert a rose, 
a carnation, or other choice flower that may 
happen along. AII this can be done with very 
little trouble, and will make the center table, 
or even the dinner table, look very cheerful. 
The rich, velvety leaves of Maranta zebrina, 
when well grown, will also last a long time in 
the sitting-room, treated in the same wav, but 
look best in a small vase, or something of that 
kind. Houiicola. 
