1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
301 
sudden, as in 1846, I certainly would do it. There 
is, however, usually this practical difficulty about 
it: the disease is often permitted to make too much 
progress before it is attempted, and then it can do 
no good. There is also always a hope that it will 
be light, and that the vegetation of the potato will, 
after suffering awhile, recover and mature its 
tubers in a tolerably healthful condition. 
In conclusion, so uniform are the morbid indica¬ 
tions of the potato, taking sorts, soils,, modes of 
culture, and time of planting, into consideration, 
and connecting all with changing states of weather, 
that I have almost ceased to feel any curious interest 
in them. A melancholy interest all, however, must 
feel. I have no hope of a permanently better state 
of things while our old varieties continue to be 
cultivated. 
The alternative to which we are fast being driven 
is, I think, regeneration or ruin. C. E. G. Utica , 
Aug. 10, 1850. 
She horticultural department. 
CONDUCTED BY J. J. THOMAS. 
Irrigation of Gardens. 
From repeated experiments, we are induced to 
draw the conclusion, that next to manure, the great 
prime mover in successful culture, there is nothing 
more important to vegetable growth in many cases, 
than irrigation. Practical gardeners in countries 
far more moist than our own, regard it as indis¬ 
pensable, and a large share of their success depends 
on copious waterings. 
Some interesting instances which have recently 
occurred may be worth stating. Two rows of rasp¬ 
berries stand on ground in every respect alike, ex¬ 
cept that one receives the drippings from a wood- 
house, and the other does not. The watered row 
is fully four times as large in growth as the other. 
Again,-—the berries on the bushes of the Fastolff 
and Franconia raspberries were at least twice as 
large when the soil was kept well moistened, as 
afterwards when allowed to become dry,- a repeti¬ 
tion of the watering again doubled their size. 
Again,—a near neighbor who cultivates strawber¬ 
ries for market, and who uses a Water-cart for ir¬ 
rigating the rows, raised at the rate of one hundred 
and twenty bushels to the acre on common good soil 
by this means—and he noticed that where the cart 
was left standing over night so that the water grad¬ 
ually dripped from it for some hours upon a portion 
of the plants, the fruit had grown to double the size 
of the rest, in twenty-four hours. 
It should be observed that these advantages of a 
copious supply of water pertain chiefly to small or 
annual plants. The roots of fruit trees being larg¬ 
er and deeper, are to be supplied with moisture in 
a different way; that is, by a deep, rich, mellow 
soil, kept moist by cultivation, or by covering thick¬ 
ly with litter. Water applied to the surface, rarely 
descends so low as the roots, and only hardens the 
goil to a crust. 
Striped Bugs. 
John W. Bailey, an enterprising fruit raiser of 
Plattsburgh, N. Y., gives the following method in 
the Horticulturist, which he has found the only one 
effectual under all circumstances: “Take 4 pieces 
of boards about 2 feet long and 7 to 10 in width, 
[we presume he means 7 to 10 inches and not feet, 
Eds. Cul .,] nail the ends together, and put around 
the hill vines, and no striped bug will ever be found 
inside (if not there when the boxisput on.) Three 
or four short boards put around the hill and kept 
there with wooden pins will answer the purpose 
equally well. This season the bugs had destroyed 
more than half my vines before I put my boxes on. 
I then planted the vacant hills inside the boxes ; 
not a bug came on the vines after that, until I sup¬ 
posed the young vines last planted, were strong 
enough to defy the bug, when I removed the boxes, 
and they were immediately attacked again, and I 
was obliged to replace the boxes. I have tried this 
for several years.” 
American Bornological Congress. 
An invitation is given by the officers of this in¬ 
stitution, which holds its next meeting at Cincin¬ 
nati, on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of this month 
to all agricultural, horticultural, pomological, and 
kindred societies in the United States and Canadas, 
to send such number of delegates as they may deem 
expedient. Specimens of fruits are also solicited, 
“ with lists of the same, and also papers descriptive 
of their art of cultivation, of diseases and insects 
injurious to vegetation, of remedies for the same, 
and whatever will add to the interest and utility of 
the convention.” 
Packages of fruit not accompanied by the exhibi¬ 
tor, to be sent to John F. Dair & Co. Lower 
Market street, Cincinnatti, O., very distinctly 
marked, “ For the Am. Pomological Congress .” 
Delegates are to forward their certificates to J. 
B. Russel, corresponding secretary of the Cincin¬ 
nati Horticultural Society, and to report themselves 
on the 11th at the Burnet House. 
The Michigan or Prairie* Bose. 
(Rosa rubifolium.) 
None can be better adapted for pillars than the 
Prairie Rose. It is more hardy than the Ayrshire 
in some localities, and more vigorous in its growth 
than the Boursault. Its colors are fine, though 
there is room for improvement,—for if we could 
give to its flowers the brightness of Coccinea su¬ 
perb a, the dark richness of Miralba, or the pure 
white of Madame Hardy,—their beauty and splen¬ 
dor would be much increased. 
It is now scarcely ten years since much was 
known of its double varieties. It is true that in 
the spring of 1836, Professor Russel published a 
notice of a semi-double prairie rose found on an 
island of the Ohio river; but he had not seen the 
flower. R. Buist, in his Rose Manual says: u It 
was in 1837 that we first saw a double variety of 
this rose, although such had been cultivated in Ohio 
and Kentucky for many years.” He has not men¬ 
tioned, however, the name of the variety. 
In the spring of 1840, James Wilson, in the Al¬ 
bany Cultivator-, described a double variety “ with 
flowers similar to the cabbage rose.” This I pre¬ 
sume was the Queen of the Prairies. 
In the Rose Manual (1844) six kinds were named, 
which had been originated by Samuel Feast of Bal- 
* This rose is not found in the open prairies, but in the oak open¬ 
ings or barrens where the timber is sparse, and of stunted growth. 
It is not a trailer like the Ayrshire rose, but shoots directly upward, 
and sometimes occupies the tops of other shrubs. In 18161 saw one 
a few miles east of Vincennes, Ind., and made the following memo¬ 
randum at the time: “ Observing a plum tree with large red flowers 
twelve feet high, I turned from the road to take a fairer view, and 
with surprise beheld a rose bush resting its vine-like stem on the 
branches to that height. The blossoms are in clusters, and as the 
color varies with age, the appearance is beautiful. I have seen this 
rose almost every day since we crossed the Sciota, and believe it 
might be trained to the height of twenty feet. 53 Travels in the 
West, page 142. 
