CURRANTS, GOOSEBERRIES, AND GRAPES
were less affected by the severity of the winter of '83-'84 than by the late frosts of spring, which destroyed the young shoots of grapes and the blossoms and young fruit of the berries. Currants are yearly growing in favor and the price of the fruit advancing; and now currant culture is profitable and likely to continue so for a series of years.
Ground can not well be made too rich for currants and gooseberries. Plant in rows four feet apart and plants three feet apart in the rows; give thorough culture or deep mulch over the entire surface, cut out all wood of three years' growth (or after first crop is often considered better), and a good crop is almost certain. Red Dutch, White Grape, Victoria, and Versailles are still the favorites; and American Seedling (or Cluster) and Houghton are usually the most profitable gooseberries.
Every one who can raise corn and potatoes can as easily raise, with little trouble and expense, grapes enough for a family's use. Plant such hardy sorts as Moore's Early, Worden, Concord, and Martha, in rows seven or eight feet apart, and same distance in the row, give good cultivation the first year, cut back to two or three feet in autumn, lay the short canes on the ground and hold down with a spadeful of earth. Plant posts four feet high and stretch two No. 15 wires along them—the upper one on top—and in the spring, as the vines grow, tie to the wires, keeping one cane only for fruit this year and two new ones for next year's fruiting; and a crop is as certain as a crop of corn. Cut out weak canes every year, and encourage those starting nearest the ground, cutting back each autumn one-half or two-thirds the growth; cut out old canes. It is not necessary to lay the canes down and hold them to the ground or cover in this latitude, though this work will pay well.
In two weeks orchards will be discussed.
Illinois Horticultural Society.
The annual meeting of the Executive Board of the State Horticultural Society was held in the agricultural rooms at Springfield, January 9th. Present: John M. Pearson, Godfrey, President; A. C. Hammond, Warsaw, Secretary; S. M. Slade, Elgin, Arthur Bryant, Princeton, Dr. A. G. Humphrey, Galesburg, H. M. Dunlap, Champaign, and E. A. Reihl, Alton.
A large amount of routine business was transacted, not of public interest, after which the board proceeded to arrange for a grand fruit exhibition, to be made by the society at the next State Fair. This collection will not be entered for a premium, but only to show the diversified horticultural products of the State.
The public-spirited citizens of Illinois, and particularly of Chicago, have decreed that the State Fair of 1884 shall eclipse anything of the kind ever held in the Northwest, and the State Horticultural Society, desiring to keep abreast of the times, will make a display of fruit that the State may well be proud of.
It was also decided to offer liberal premiums for horticultural products to be exhibited at the next winter meeting, which will be held in the Industrial University, at Champaign, the first or second week in December.
After some discussion as to the best method of interesting the students in our work, it was decided to offer premiums, first and second, for the best essays on horticultural subjects. The board and members of the society hope that this offer will be the means of bringing out a number of papers from the young gentlemen and ladies of the institution.
There seems to be a determination evinced by the members of the board and society to make an aggressive, vigorous campaign the present year, and to bring our work more prominently before the people than ever before.
The following are the standing committees for the year:
Orchard Culture—B. F. Johnson, Champaign; Henry Mortimore, Manteno.
Forestry—Thomas Gregg, Hamilton; L. C. Francis, Springfield.
Vegetable Gardening—A. L. Hays, Jacksonville.
Grapes and Grape Culture—Ayres, Villa Ridge; M. A. Baldwin, Jacksonville; D. J. Piper, Foreston.
Strawberries—J. G. Bubach, Princeton; Henry Wallace, Villa Ridge; O. B. Galusha, Peoria.
Raspberries, Blackberries, Currants, and Gooseberries—H. G. Vickroy, Normal; Wm. Jackson, Godfrey; D. Wilmot Scott, Galena.
Pears—C. N. Dennis, Hamilton; Parker Earle, Cobden; W. T. Nelson, Wilmington.
Peaches—J. B. Spaulding, Riverton; H. C. Freeman, Alto Pass.
Plums and Cherries—Dr. A. H. Sanborn, Anna; L. C. Francis, Springfield.
New Fruits, Trees, and Plants—J. T. Johnson, Warsaw; E. Hollister, Alton.
Gathering and Marketing Fruits and Vegetables—R. W. Hunt, Galesburg; Ed. Rogers, Upper Alton.
Utilizing Fruits—G. H. Clayson, Crystal Lake; —— Roberts, Godfrey.
Floriculture—Thomas Franks, Champaign; Joseph Heinl, Jacksonville.
Landscape Gardening—J. P. Bryant, Princeton; Prof. Standish, Galesburg.
Vegetable Physiology—Prof. Burrill, Champaign; G. H. French, Carbondale.
Entomology and Ornithology—Prof. S. A. Forbes, Normal; Miss Alice Walton, Muscatine, Iowa; Miss Emily A. Smith, Peoria.
Geology and Soils, as Affecting Plant Life—Wm. McAdams, Alton; Henry M. Bannister, Kankakee; Henry M. Shaw, Mt. Carrol.
Horticultural Adornment of Home—Mrs. Lavina S. Humphrey. Galesburg; Mrs. H. N. Roberts, Alton; Mrs. P. V. Hathaway, Damascus.
The appointment of ad-interim committees was referred to the members of the board from each horticultural district. A portion of them asked time for consultation, which was granted. When the entire committee in appointed, the names will be reported to The Prairie Farmer.
A. C. Hammond, Sec'y.
Diogenes in His Tub.
And first, Diogenes would discourse of that remarkable polar wave that struck us on Saturday the 5th of the year, and its probable effect on the fruit product. Great fear is manifested on all sides, and not without grounds: yet the conditions, it seems to me, have been so favorable that there is cause for hope. Remember that there was no very sudden change, the temperature having been low for two or three weeks before, and no sudden rise since. The sudden changes seem to be the ones—coming in the midst of winter—that are the most destructive to our fruits. So I conclude there is ground yet for hope; and unless some future disaster should occur, Dio., if living, will expect to eat of several sorts of fruit this year grown on his own grounds. Keep in good heart, brethren; Providence will send us all we deserve.
But hasn't that man at Cape Girardeau a level head? Dio. himself could not have given as many sensible suggestions concerning farmers' libraries, as he did in No. 1. All farmers and horticulturists can not go as deeply into periodicals as he, but they can profitably go much deeper than they do. Take a farmer's home provided on his plan, and then imagine, if you can, sensible sons running off to breaking on freight trains, or selling soap and candies behind counters! Improbable.
And then, again, in No. 2, his thoughts on naming country houses. How suggestive!
The Editor in No. 1, favors interdiction of French liquors, etc., as retaliation for their interdiction of American pork. Dio. says interdict them as a matter of protection to ourselves, without regard to hog or hominy.
"Man of the Prairie" was looking out for a little colder weather. Did he find it—and is he satisfied?
An extremely suggestive paper that, of Prof. Budd's on the "Cherry Possibilities." Further investigation in the wide field of European horticulture is demanded, not only in regard to this but to most other fruits. Even unpromising sorts, not prized there, transplanted here, may turn out to be the most valuable of any. I fear the agricultural colleges are not taking as much interest in this matter as they ought. Our State Society ought, and doubtless does, feel thankful to Prof. B., for his presence and wise counsel at its late Bloomington meeting. His remarks will be found valuable reading in the forth-coming volume of Transactions.
Seedsmen's catalogues will soon be floating around thick as autumn leaves, and planters will be puzzled what to buy. My experience may be worth something: Of tomatoes, I know nothing better than Acme and Trophy, and I think favorably of the Golden Trophy—though with some the color is objectionable. The Short-horn carrot can't be beat for table use, nor the Egyptian beet. Of the former, planted pretty thick in good soil, in rows two feet apart, 400 bushels per acre can easily be grown; and besides being good for stock, they are mighty good for men and women. In squashes the Hubbard and Boston Marrow are standbys, and that little Perfect Gem is likely to prove A No. 1. And give me the Stowell Evergreen sweet corn and the Winningstadt cabbage yet all the time. But Dio. will not be fooled with so many new sorts in 1884 as he has been in former years.
Yes—increase the tax on dogs, and collect it; so say the Iowa stock-breeders, and so echoes every sensible friend of the farmer and his interests.
Next time Dio. proposes to call up a subject of much importance to everybody, and one that badly needs ventilating.
Dio.
Possibilities of Cherry Growing.
The insertion of one little word gives too unfavorable an idea of the best varieties of the Griotte cherries, grown all over the interminable steppes north and east of the Carpathian mountains in Europe.
As printed the paragraph reads: "Some of the thin-twigged Griottes, with dark skins and colored juice, are as large as the Morello and nearly or quite as sweet."
The copy reads—or should read—"as large as the English Morello and nearly or quid sweet."
As you say my object in talking the matter up is the hope of interesting some of the large nurserymen, like those at Bloomington, in the desirable work of importing and propagating the Griottes, Amarells, and the Asiatic sweet cherries known as "Spanish," of the East plain, on a large scale.
Why should our Western propagators permit our importing of fruits, ornamental trees and shrubs, to be done by the nurserymen of the Eastern States.
If we turn to a good map of Europe we will see at a glance that the importing of fruits so far has been from the west coast of France, Belgium, and Holland, or from the south of England. As with our west coast, this whole region has been made a land of verdure by the soft, humid air of the Gulf stream. Tracing on the map the line of the Carpathian and Caucasus mountains, we find three-fourths of all Europe, north and east of these ranges, without a mountain or hill traced on the great expanse except the Valdai hills, and these are only bluffs not as high or extensive as those of our rivers and dividing ridges. It is the greatest plain section of the world, and is the ancient home of the best fruits of the temperate zones. Common sense should lead us to give trial to the horticultural products of this plain. To find apples, pears, cherries, and plums as hardy, and as well adapted to the hot summers and cold winters of Illinois and Iowa as the Fameuse apple, we need not enter the empire of Russia. Northeastern Austria has a variable summer and winter climate, which will not permit the growing of apples of the grade of hardiness of the Ben Davis, Stark, Jonathan, and Dominie; of pears of the grade of Flemish Beauty, or of cherries of the grade of Early Richmond as to foliage and ability to endure low temperature. The commercial nursery-man who will visit the "King's Pomological Institute," at Proskau, in North Silesia, will see at a glance, as he wanders over the ground, that the fruits, forest trees, ornamental trees and shrubs of the nurseries of England, France, Belgium, etc., suddenly disappear with the Carpathians on the edge of the great steppes.
J. L. Budd.
Ag. College, Ames, Iowa.
Prunings.
The soil for window boxes is the same as for plant culture in pots; the best is that formed by rotted sods with a little well decomposed stable manure mixed with it.
Rhubarb requires deep, rich soil. A good dressing of well-rotted manure, put on the ground this winter when it is not frozen, will start off the plants briskly in the spring. The same is true for asparagus.
Mr. Russel Heath, Carpenteria, Cal., has an "English walnut orchard" of two hundred acres of rich, level land, near the sea-shore. The trees are from ten to twenty-five years planted. His crop in 1882 was 630 sacks of 70 pounds each; this season he expects the harvest will aggregate about one-third more.
Gardener's Monthly: The writer found among the gardeners in Canada, when in that country recently, that the English plan of preserving grapes in bottles of water was in not uncommon use. The bunches are cut with pieces of stems, and then so arranged that the ends are in bottles of water. By this plan the grapes can be preserved far into the spring season.
The American Cultivator: "Can you tell we what kind of weather we may expect next month?" wrote a farmer to the editor of his paper, and the editor replied: "It is my belief that the weather next month will be like your subscription bill." The farmer wondered for an hour what the editor was driving at, when he happened to think of the word "unsettled," and he sent a postal note forthwith.
The Farmer and Fruit Grower: Mr. Willis, Lamer, a prominent fruit grower of the Cobden region, says he very distinctly remembers that the freeze of 1864 killed young fruit trees to the snow line, and that he cut his peach trees to that line, and saved that much. In 1864 the temperature was about the same as it was on January 5, 1884—in the neighborhood of 21 degrees below zero. Mr. Lamer thought no damage was done to strawberry plants.
A pomologist gives the following excellent advice in regard to maintaining the fertility of fruit lands: "Encourage the utmost variety of vegetable growth near and upon your orchard lands, and never rob the soil of its honest dues. Give judicious and thorough cultivation and pruning; and with our generous soils and climate, I do not believe the child is yet born that will live to see our orchards languish on account of poverty of soil, or any necessity arise for the importation of fertilizers."
The Country Gentleman says two things are necessary for the growing of good asparagus, namely, plenty of room for the plant to grow, and copious manuring. The latter is best applied to thick beds by covering the whole surface with manure two or three inches thick, late in autumn, and forking it in very early in spring, before the new shoots start. Thick beds, however, should not be planted, but the plants allowed three or four feet each way to each. Three by five is a common and suitable distance, and large stalks may be obtained in this way.
Charles Merritt, of Battle Creek, has been very successful with strawberries. His plan is to plant rows about two and one-half feet apart and plants nine inches in the row; he prefers the spring time. He manures highly, cultivates thoroughly and mulches with clean straw late in the autumn. The next season he gets a large crop, and, while he is taking it off, another patch is being treated in a similar manner for the next year's crop. The second year with any bed he simply pulls out the weeds, and after picking turns it under. This plan proves to be satisfactory.
T. F. Leeper, of Warsaw Horticultural Society, says: I have been greatly interested in the condition of orchards this season, and have examined quite a number. One orchard in my neighborhood died during the summer—I supposed it was winter-killed, but an investigation showed that the roots had been destroyed by mice. Last spring I reported a number of trees in my orchard, winter-killed. These trees have been dug up and it appears that they too, were killed by mice. In my orchard the greatest injury by winter-killing has occurred in the draws or low places and I would not plant another orchard without tile drawing such places.
