Source:Meehan
Thomas Meehan, ed. "Editorial notes." The Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist, vol. XXI, no. 246, June 1879, pp. 177–180. Internet Archive gardenersmonthly21meeh.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
Making Gardens Pay.—The English Crystal Palace Company is having the experience unfortunate amateurs often have. We, in this country, often see that when a gentleman finds himself in straightened circumstances he rarely gets his laundry girl to take in washing; his cook to fill in her extra time in making pies for the pastry cook, his coachman in taking up passengers for a quarter, or hiring out his piano for church fairs or theatricals; but the gardener is called on to sell plants or vegetables. We never understood the system of this selection, but we have generally seen that the result is from bad to worse. The garden department becomes an annoyance and a loss, and we never knew an instance where bankruptcy was staved off by the effort, and the reason is very plain to business people. A gardener who has been educated to garden for pleasure, seldom has any idea of gardening for profit, and he has no chance whatever to compete with those who have long made a business of their labor, and who by competition among themselves have already reduced prices down to the lowest paying profit. Moreover it is hard to explain to the gardener suddenly called on to go to "market" where his "extra" time is to come from, if the garden is to be kept up as formerly.
However, this is what the Crystal Palace Company is now to do. It is poor. It is short of funds to keep the gardens going. It has not had men enough or plants enough to keep things decent. When the writer of this saw it two years ago half the plants at midsummer had not been set out, for lack of hands, and dilapidation prevailed among the fountains and statuary. Now we see by the papers that the directors have ordered the gardener to "sell the extra plants, to aid in paying expenses," and of course the gardener resigns. It is a lesson for all of us as well as Englishmen.
Adaptation to Circumstances.—The great art of gardening is not so much a great stock of experience as in the ability to so profit by experience, as to adapt one's knowledge to varying circumstances. In Great Britain with its moist atmosphere, a gardener may have great success in tree planting, while in the Atlantic United States, he would have to vary his practice very much to have the same success. So the one who may succeed very well in the East would fail utterly in the arid region of Central United States. Each great district requires very different treatment in trees and plants. There is Colorado, which on the levels has a much milder winter climate than the East has, and yet trees die very easily in comparison with those which are here. Those who went there with Eastern notions could not understand it, but students of the Gardeners' Monthly have learned that trees die in the Winter because the moisture dries out of them, and not merely by any low thermometrical range. As this knowledge spreads in Colorado, planters are achieving success. They protect them from the drying winds and the drying sunlight in the Winter season, and they have all the success they desire. The following extract from the Greely [sic] Tribune is to the point:
"Dr. Law thinks he will raise some peaches this year, and certainly the present indications are decidely [sic] favorable to that idea. The trees are several years old, and from the first the limbs have been trained near the ground, that they might the more easily be covered with brush, leaves, and loose straw in the Fall. This prevents the alternate freezing and thawing to which they would be subject if unprotected, and the tenderest twigs have passed through the recent severe Winter uninjured, until now the fruit buds are almost ready to burst. The brush of course will not be entirely removed until all danger from frost is over. Some standard apple trees have also passed through several Winters without killing down."
Productive Strawberries.—A paragraph going the rounds of the newspapers says that Mr. P. T. Quinn gathered from one acre of ground on his farm at Newark, 5,487 quarts of strawberries, which netted him in the New York market, $626.60. This is about one quart to every eight square feet, or, as usually one half the ground under fruit culture is "headland," alleys, or spaces on which there are no plants, about a quart to every four square feet, and then we have eleven cents a quart to the grower "net"; that is after all expenses of freight and the great "middleman" have been deducted. This is a pretty good showing, but it must be so rare and exceptional an instance, that it will be well to tell those who may be inclined to rush into the strawberry growing on the strength of these figures, that they must not expect to have such luck as this very often. In Philadelphia markets it is considered pretty good for even the best strawberry growers to get five cents "net" on the fruit they sell.
The Glendale Strawberry.—This is a new variety raised at Akron, Ohio, in 1871, and with some reputation in the West.
A Strawberry Protector.—It is a cheap baked clay saucer, twelve to thirteen inches in diameter, with a hole in the center. The advantages claimed by its use are: A much larger crop; much finer berries; cleaner, and free from sand and dirt; mulching the ground; the retention of the rains to the roots of the vines; killing the weeds; earlier ripening; easier picking. They are turned over as a Winter protection to the vines. Persons who have used it pronounce it the most important invention ever made in connection with strawberry raising.
The Jucunda Strawberry.—This variety seems to have many ups and downs. When first introduced from Europe, it was soon given up as worthless. Mr. Knox, of Pittsburg, gathered together all the varieties he could find for experiment, and found it the best. With his death, it in a manner disappeared from public attention. Now we find the following report of it in Mr. Roe's catalogue:
"The more I see of this berry the more I am impressed with its value. I doubt if it has been much surpassed by any of the new and highly praised varieties in localities where it succeeds. As a market berry, where it can be raised, it has no rival. Its superb beauty and size, and rich color, make most berries look common by its side. On Broadway it takes the lead. With me it is very productive, and I think it will amply repay good culture on all heavy soils. It continues bearing till very late, and the berries hold out large till the last. It should have a place in every collection. This variety has been more badly mixed than any in the country, but I have now a large pure stock of plants. The young plants are always small, feeble looking."
Fruit Troubles.—When any of our fruit growers have a little trouble to raise fruit, they generally wish that they could "do as they do in Europe." But there too they have enemies to fight, and this is what a corespondent of the London Journal of Horticulture has to say about it:
"I had a quarter of gooseberry bushes cut hard down last Spring which had made good heads, but nearly every bud has been taken, so that they will have to be cut hard back again. I have now come to the conclusion that the only safe way to grow common bush fruit is to plant thickly, leaving blank spaces at intervals for the sake of convenience, gathering the fruit and netting the bushes over. Do the netting early in the season, for when once the buds begin to swell, the work of destruction is done in a very short time.
If this plan is adopted, and the pruning delayed until the bushes are green—as gooseberries may be pruned with impunity at such a stage—hoops of green hazel or other pliable wood might be bent over the bushes to support the nets. Some of the long shoots will of course have a tendency to keep the nets from pressing too closely; the hoops to be left until the fruit begins to ripen, as at that time the blackbirds, thrushes, and sparrows are great thieves, and must be guarded against; and we can seldom keep either gooseberries or currants without protection after they show signs of coloring.
Later on come a host of bluebottles, flies, wasps, and hornets, the latter being rather numerous about here. Sparrows, hawfinches, and jackdaws are very fond of young peas, and last Spring the birds nearly cleared a quarter of early peas before they were fit for table use; and I was somewhat puzzled to account for the wholesale manner in which they were taken. I had accused rats of taking them, and had set traps, in one of which we caught a fine old jackdaw. This had a deterring effect, as the peas did not disappear so fast afterwards. Wood pigeons are great garden robbers in Spring. All these depredations take place early in the morning before the workmen are about. In the Autumn came the tits and spoiled a number of pears; othes we were obliged to gather before they were ripe, and many of them shrivelled."
Fruits of Michigan.—Mr. T. T. Lyon has prepared a catalogue of fruits of Michigan on the model of the one in use by the American Pomological Society. It is interesting to note that a large proportion of the most popular fruits of the State, are those equally popular in the East.
Le Conte Pear.—We wrote this Le Compte in our last because we were merely quoting; but Major Le Conte is the proper name of the gentleman after whom the Pear is named, and so Le Conte should be the proper orthography.
Origin of the Beurre Giffard Pear.—With a beautiful colored plate the Florist and Pomologist says that the variety was a chance seedling discovered by Nicholas Giffard, of Fonassieres, near Angers in France, and was first described in 1840 in the Bulletin of the Angers Horticultural Society.
American Apples in England.—Paragraphs go the rounds that American apples, and other American products increase so enormously in price by going through the hands of so many agents, as to make the growers' receipts appear like a single feather in the pound. But we see that American apples sold the past Winter in Covent Garden market London, at about three dollars per barrel.
Peaches in Delaware.—It is reported that the Peach crop in Delaware, promises to be one of the best known for some years.
History of Delaware Peach Growing.—A correspondent of the Philadelphia Press says: "About the time that the great Clayton made his famous boast about Delaware and peach brandy and died, there were some folks who were dimly beginning to see the value that was in the peach as an article of culture and commerce. Probably the first to venture into the business, was Reybold, of Delaware City, in Newcastle county, who planted several large orchards. People laughed at him, and told him he was going into folly; but he held his peace and let them laugh. After the lapse of a brief number of years, his trees began to bear prolifically, and in less than no time he was reaping a bountiful harvest. Well, time went by, and his trees continued to bear abundantly; but, strange to say, it was some time before any one else could make up their minds to follow his example. Too many followed it years afterwards, though, and found out to their own loss that there was no room at the top. Some years after Reybold had gotten well under way, Reeves and Ridgeway, also of Delaware City, planted immense orchards that also did well. Henry Todd, of Dover, and Jehu Reed, of Frederica, followed the next year, the former on a larger scale than any up to that time. His orchards covered hundreds of acres, and he has told me that his returns from one week's sales, have given him $3,000 clear profit. This was in 1840–45; and not much later people began to awaken to the fact that peach growing might be made a vast source of revenue. Having realized this, they at once embarked in the industry, until it became almost general. As people became more acquainted with it, and more decided that it was profitable employment, the whole peninsula, from the Delaware to the Chesapeake, and from the Brandywine to the Breakwater, became more and more like a vast fruit orchard."
Sparrows and Gooseberry Bushes.—The London Journal of Horticulture says that sparrows and other small birds, have been very destructive to the Gooseberry bushes during the past severe Winter in England.
The Snowflake Potato.—According to Dr. Warder, as reported in the proceedings of the Montgomery County (O.) Historical Society, this fine flavored variety is unproductive in the West.
Early Peaches.—J. H. Parnell, West Point, Georgia, writes that he will probably have Alexander, Amsden, and Beatrice peaches ripe by the 25th of the month.
Fine Plum Orchard.—Some weeks ago we noticed the plum orchard of Judge Ramsdell, of Traverse City, Michigan, an account of which was given by Prof. Beal in the Rural New Yorker. The orchard consists of 700 trees, set twelve by sixteen feet; these have been planted at different times within the last six years. Hoed crops have been planted in the orchard; a sown crop of buckwheat injured the trees. Half a bushel of wood ashes to each tree much improved them. Judge R. excludes insects from climbing the trees by a belt of tin encircling each, the ends of which hook together, the lower edge is pressed into the soil. The insects cannot crawl up over the smooth surface of the tin. Curculios are killed by the means of an unremitting application of the jarring process, which we have frequently described. From past experience, he would plant at the following rate for market, for each hundred:
| 20 Washington, | 20 Jefferson, |
| 17 Bradshaw, | 17 Smith's Orleans, |
| 16 Lombard | 10 Lawrence Favorite. |
From 200 of his oldest trees, he picked three years ago fifty bushels; the next year seventy-five bushels, and the past season 150 bushels—the trees then six years old. The average price was $4.00 a bushel.—Country Gentleman.
Grafting Wax.—Yellow wax, one pound nine ounces; black pitch, three pounds two ounces; white pitch, three pounds two ounces; tallow, five ounces. Place the whole in an earthen pipkin over a gentle fire, stirring it with a spatula as it melts, taking care to incorporate the ingredients thoroughly. This kind of grafting wax will remain solid at ordinary temperatures. In order to use it in the rose garden, we must provide ourselves with a charcoal or coke stove, or if only a small quantity is to be used, a spirit lamp will serve the purpose, more especially when the spot is at a distance from the house.—Garden.
