In our experience with new varieties of the strawberry, we have very often found that change of soil and climate make a great change also in the size and quality of the fruit, and the productiveness of the plant. There is not another variety in cultivation that has so universally accommodated itself to all soils and all climates as the Wilson. Many varieties have risen into a short-lived notoriety, a few yet remain that are generally cultivated in order to give variety and extent to the strawberry season, but we are fully persuaded that there are yet thousands of quarts of the Wilson grown and consumed, to every hundred quarts of any other sort. Time will tell whether these seedlings of Mr. Moore’s raising, or any of them, will be able to rank in general usefulness equal to or above those we now have; meanwhile we hope that some of the members our Association will procure them, and give their opinion of the value they are likely to possess for us.
In peaches, we notice that the Foster has become exceedingly popular about Boston, for not only did it receive the prize for the best single dish, but that more of this variety was exhibited than of any other. It is a large, yellow fleshed peach, much resembling the Early Crawford, rich and juicy.
The variety of pear which attracted the most attention was the Souvenir du Congres; the specimens exhibited averaged a little over a pound each in weight, and the largest one measured seven inches in length. The fruit committee state that this new pear ranks in quality as “very good.” It originated with M. Morel, of Lyon-Vaise, France. The writer has found the tree to be a vigorous, healthy grower, but it has not yet fruited. He has however seen the fruit on exhibition, and noticed that it was of large size, having much resemblance in form to the Bartlett, and ripening apparently about the same time, or possibly a little earlier. The color was a very handsome yellow, washed with carmine on the sunny side.
The great sensation in grapes was a seedling raised by Mr. John B. Moore. On the first of September it received the first prize for the best early grape. The committee state that on the fourth of September they visited Mr. Moore’s farm and found several hundred vines of this grape, which is called Moore’s Early, growing in near proximity to the Concord and Hartford Prolific, and that the Moore’s Early was fully ripe, and bearing an abundant crop on all of the vines, while both of the other varieties were yet unripe, and seemed to require two or three weeks yet to bring them to maturity. The soil of the vineyard was a light sandy loam. This grape was first exhibited in 1872, and for the last four years has received each year the first prize for the best early grape. The committee recommended that the prize of sixty dollars be awarded to it for the best seedling grape.
A very good early grape is yet in demand. Most of our earliest grapes are deficient in some respect; the Eumelan is wanting in flavor; Hartford Prolific drops from the bunch; Creveling does not set its fruit well; Massasoit has small bunches, &c. We shall be most happy to receive from any member the result of his trial of Moore’s Early, and to give it a place in these pages for the benefit of all.
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DISEASES OF APPLE TREES.
Inquiry is made by Thomas E. Turnbull, Hall’s Corners, Ontario Co., N. Y., as to the cause of the disease in the young apple trees known as “black fungi,” its description and remedy. It is a matter for congratulation indeed, if there be a disease to which any of our fruit trees are liable, and they have so entirely escaped it as to leave us in ignorance of its existence. The editor is very happy in being able to say that he does not know what that disease is. Young apple trees sometimes become what is termed black hearted, from improper fall pruning, and the equally improper attempt to grow them in undrained soil. If this be the subject of our correspondent’s enquiry, we have given him the cause and cure.
He also asks “the cause of trees casting the bark to the height of eight or ten inches from the ground; under the bark the wood looks dead, and the bark scales off in time. No sign of borers. Two trees stand in a garden and are well cultivated, another outside of the garden in sod. The trees are of the Spitzenburg variety, and twenty years old.” “Also on other trees of the same variety the bark dies in streaks on the body and limbs. Is it caused by borers?”
The reason why the bark scales off, is because the wood beneath is dead, but why the wood has died is a question not easily answered by one who is ignorant of all the peculiar conditions in which these trees are placed, save the information given in this inquiry. Also it is impossible, for the same reason, to say what is the cause of the death of the bark in streaks on the bodies and limbs of the other trees. Our correspondent should be able to ascertain by examination whether it is probably caused by borers.