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The Canadian Horticulturist.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHINESE PEONIAS.

Flowers have their ins and outs as well as politicians. To-day the Camellia is all the rage—every one votes for the Camellia—no lady thinks of attending an evening party without a Camellia in her hair, or so numerous in her bouquet as to be a conspicuous feature; in short the Camellia holds the reins of power. But a change comes over the public mind. Gradually this beautiful flower loses its grasp of the popular favor, and now it is out, and the Rose is in! No lady may now appear without a rose in her hair; no gentleman without a rosebud in his button-hole.

So it is also with the flowers on our lawn; we are continually running from one extreme to another, lavishing all our attention upon one favorite flower or two, to the neglect of others equally valuable, and perhaps on the whole more beautiful. Just now the Peonia has fallen into the cold shades of neglect. Why, no one can tell, for it possesses many claims upon the attention of lovers of beautiful flowers, and especially in this trying climate of Canada. We call the attention of the readers of the Canadian Horticulturist to the Peonia, in order that a neglected but beautiful flower may find among us the position which its many excellencies fairly entitle it to hold among the adornments of our lawns. As has been already intimated, the Peonia possesses the very important quality of being perfectly hardy, able to endure the cold of our severest winters without protection, and to stand the heat of our fiercest summers. This is no unimportant quality. There is no need of anxiety in the choice of location, lest the cold of winter injure it, or of seeking shelter beneath some favoring shade from the mid-summer sun. No gathering of material on the approach of winter to spread over the Peonias, to be carefully carted away when spring returns, is needed. The foliage as it dies down when the season of rest approaches nicely covers the crown, and affords the buds that lie concealed in the soil beneath all the protection required.

Another very important quality possessed by the Peonia is its entire immunity from the attacks of insects. For five and twenty years at least have a number of varieties of this flower been growing on the grounds of the writer, and yet in all that time have they never been marred by insects of any kind. How different is the case with our roses. Those beautiful flowers can be had in their perfection only by constant care and vigilance. Armed with hellebore and garden syringe we must needs wage annual war with the Rose Slug and the Rose Thrip, or these insidious pests will ruin our roses. But we have no need of this watchfulness and toil to secure a full display of Peonias. Year after year, without fear of slug, or thrip, or caterpillar, these have bloomed on without stint, and made the garden gay with their various tints.

Besides, the plants seem to be exempt from diseases of every kind. No mildew ever ruins foliage or flower; no blight, with sudden destruction blasts our expectations, but year after year the plants grow with unabated vigor, increasing in size and beauty.

Another feature is the great variety of colors presented in the flowers, from pure white through every gradation of pink, rose, rosy-lilac to dark purplish crimson. And the flowers are so large and brilliant, and withal so pleasantly rose-scented, that while their showy brightness attracts attention, their perfection of form and sweetness of fragrance admit of the closest inspection.

For the guidance of any who may wish to enrich their grounds with these attractive flowers, which may be purchased of all nurserymen at very moderate cost, we give a list of the names of a few sorts which we have found to be the most desirable, presenting a wide range of coloring and a succession of bloom that will continue for fully a month.

Amabilis Grandiflora. This is one of the early bloomers; the petals of the outer row which are larger than the others, are of a rich deep pink very beautifully shaded, and all the interior petals of a delicate straw color. The flower is very full and perfectly double, of large size and exceedingly attractive.

Delicatissima. This variety opens very shortly after the foregoing; is large, very double, and of a fine, delicate rose color throughout.

Papilionacea. A very showy white flower, large and full, the outside petals having the slightest tint of pink which is gradually lost.

Delachii. The color of this is a very dark purplish crimson, quite double; a very striking and handsome variety.

Pottsi. This is not as double as Delachii, but the coloring is more brilliant and lively, and the contrast presented by the numerous bright-yellow anthers with the deep crimson petals is very pleasing. This variety has the singular habit of yielding single flowers, or nearly so, in some seasons, while in others they are quite double.

Festiva Maxima. A very large, full, double, globular, white flower, having the centre petals streaked with a few marks of carmine, which greatly relieve and enrich its appearance. One of the most beautiful and showy of this beautiful race.

Humei. Color, purplish rose; flower large very full and double, one of the latest bloomers, continuing the season of Peonias for nearly a month.

Queen Caroline. The form of this flower is cupped, like a rose, which it very much resembles also in color and fragrance. It is of great size and exceedingly showy.

Whitlejii. A very large flower, white, with a slight lemon tinge to the centre petals, very full and double and fragrant.

With these varieties placed in clumps among the shrubbery, or, if preferred, massed in a bed, there will be no lack of beautiful flowers during the month of June. Their culture is of the most simple and easy kind. Once planted they should not be disturbed for many years, requiring only a top-dressing of well rotted manure in the spring to stimulate their growth and increase the size and beauty of the blooms.

THE APHIS, OR PLANT LOUSE.

This pest of the greenhouse and window-garden does not often attack our orchards in such numbers as to become a source of alarm. It seems from Mr. Woolverton’s article on page 101 that they have appeared in some orchards about Grimsby in unprecedented numbers, and it will be interesting to learn how seriously they injured the trees or affected the crop, and with what measure of rapidity our friends the Ladybirds succeeded in diminishing their numbers.

In our window-gardens and greenhouses, however, we cannot rely upon the Ladybirds to rid us of the Aphis. They increase with such marvellous fecundity, and do their work of destruction so rapidly upon the tender indoor growth, that some measures must be taken to arrest them in their work of destruction more prompt and more sweeping than the voracity of the Ladybird. Hence in greenhouses recourse is had to fumigation. The ventilators are carefully closed, and every opening through which the smoke can rapidly escape is stopped, and the smoke made to remain among the plants until the Aphis succumb to the poison of the tobacco. This work of smoking them to death with the fumes of tobacco is comparatively easy in our greenhouses, but is very troublesome and inconvenient in the case of house plants. No tidy housekeeper wants to have her rooms filled with the odor of tobacco smoke every few days, until her house has the fragrance of a bar room. And the expedient of substituting sulphur for tobacco, which was tried by a lady correspondent of one of our horticultural exchanges, is one that will never be attempted a second time, for though it may kill the insects, it will also kill the plants.

Some remedy for the Aphis on our house plants, less objectionable than tobacco smoke, has been long sought for, and many expedients resorted to, but none of them have been quite satisfactory. Of late years it has been ascertained that the powdered flowers of the Dalmatian Pyrethrum are very energetic insecticides, and that either whole or powdered they retain this quality for a number of years. The attention of housekeepers has within a short time been drawn to this powder as a means of killing house flies, cockroaches and fleas, which sometimes become very troublesome, and small blowers or bellows have been made and sold for diffusing the powder and scattering it as dust in the air so as to kill these insects. Finding that our house flies were easily killed by this powder, experiments were made upon the Aphis, which were infesting some scented geraniums, and to our great pleasure they were shortly after found strewing the ground under the plant, like the wounded and slain on a field of battle.

Our entomological friend, W. Saunders, of London, has given in the Entomologist for March an account of his experiments with this insect powder. His trials were made in a greenhouse where they seem to have been very abundant, the air of which he freely charged with fine clouds of the dust of this insect powder, and found that the Aphis soon began to manifest symptoms of uneasiness and to drop to the ground, and after the lapse of a couple of hours the greater portion of them were lying upon the ground or the shelves or floor. Mr. Saunders is led to believe that they are not killed outright by the powder, but that they are so stupefied or paralized that they fall, and are unable again to return to the plants, and so eventually perish.

These experiments seem to indicate that we have in this Dalmatian Pyrethrum powder a very valuable means of ridding our house plants of the Aphis; one that can be easily applied, and at any time, without the inconvenience arising from tobacco smoke. In what way the powder acts upon them seems not yet to have been ascertained, some attributing the effect to a volatile oil contained in the flowers, others to an alkaloid. It is not at all necessary to throw the powder directly upon the insects, but merely to fill the air of the room with a cloud of the dust and close it for a few hours, when the flies of your dining-room and the Aphis on the window plants will be found killed or paralized by its mysterious power.

Mr. Saunders states that the powder made from the flowers of Pyrethrum roseum and carneum, sold under the name of Persian Insect Powder, though a good insecticide, is not as energetic in its action as the powdered flowers of the Pyrethrum cinerariæ folium, know as the Dalmatian Insect Powder, the plant being a native of Dalmatia, Austria. The Dalmatian Powder commands a higher price than the Persian on account of its greater efficiency, yet notwithstanding the price, is to be chosen in preference to the other.

HORTICULTURAL GOSSIP. (VIII.)

BY L. WOOLVERTON, M. A., GRIMSBY.

Aphis mali (Fabr.) Our apple orchards are swarming with plant lice. A few days ago we were exulting over the unprecedented show of fruit blossoms, even upon apple trees that bore heavily last year; and we were just congratulating over the almost complete disappearance of the Canker Worm, which for three or four years has been our worst enemy; when lo! these tiny insects of a hated race (Hemiptera) were discovered on every leaf and fruit blossom in countless numbers as busy as they could be, sucking the juices from the tender growth, and multiplying with terrible rapidity.

By referring to the Report of the Fruit Growers’ Association for 1869, p. 77, a very good account of this insect may be found, and to show how great is their fecundity, it is there stated that from a single female there may be produced in seven generations the enormous number of seven hundred and twenty million descendants! And as there are from nine to eleven generations in a single season, it is easily seen that this enemy, though despicable in size, may yet be most formidable by reason of its numbers. It is less than the tenth part of an inch in length, and is developed from a tiny egg concealed in a crevice of the bark. It is stated that all the young produced from these eggs are females, which at the age of fourteen days begin to bring forth their young alive; and no eggs are laid until late in the fall, when a generation of males and females are produced, which are the parents of the eggs then deposited, to be hatched the following spring.

Fig. 8.

The accompanying cut, figure 8, shews the winged male and the wingless female greatly magnified.

“These facts do not afford much encouragement about the fruit prospects of the following year, do they?” No indeed, unless there is some remedy; for such countless myriads will soon suck out the life from the blossoms and inflict serious injury upon fine trees; and the artificial remedies, viz: (1) dusting with sulphur, (2) showering with soap suds, or (3) with a decoction of tobacco, are too tedious to be applied to an orchard of thousands of trees.

Fortunately the affairs of nature are in better hands than are those of the nation; and the Governor thereof takes better care of the interests of the fruit grower than could the wisest man or body of men. On every tree infested by the lice, I find dozens of Ladybirds, of that very common species the Cocinella novem notata, or Nine-dotted Ladybird. They are just now, (May 16th), hurrying about the trees, some of them engaged in devouring the small enemy, and some of them in depositing their bunches of yellow eggs, from which will soon issue larvæ more voracious than the parent.

Fig. 9.

I feel anxious to see them get the victory, but the myriad hosts almost appal one’s faith in their friendly succour. I have no doubt that they will ultimately be victors, but when each of their enemies produce four new foes daily, one cannot help fearing that much mischief will be done to the orchard before a clearance is effected.

Fig. 10.

Figure 9 is an illustration shewing the Ladybird, and figure 10 the larva of the Ladybird, in both of which forms of life it preys upon the Aphis.

Celandine Poppy. Among other troublesome weeds that should be destroyed from our lawns and gardens during the month of May before they seed, may be mentioned the Celandine Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum). It belongs to the Poppy family (Papaveracea), and is easily distinguished by its peculiar yellow juice, which stains the hands in pulling it, and by its distinct columnar style, from which the name Stylophorum, or the style bearer, is gained. This last peculiarity is one means of distinguishing it from the Celandine itself, which has saffron colored juice, and similar small yellow flowers with four petals, but has almost no style at all.

A Botanical Society. I have seen something said about instituting a botanical society. The idea is an excellent one, and should have every encouragement from fruit growers, for there are no two departments of science to which we are so much indebted as to botany and entomology; and the advantages we would reap from the investigations of such a society would be equalled only by the invaluable assistance we have gained from the Entomological Society. What an addition to our Annual Report would it be to have a few papers on botany, either purely scientific, or still better, applied to practical horticulture, the productions of some members of this future botanical society. For instance, how interesting might a paper on the grasses (Gramineae) be made, treating of the more common kinds, of the soil best adapted to each, and their respective uses. Or an article might be written showing what characteristics the rose, pear, apple, plum, strawberry and blackberry have in common, that they should be grouped together under the same family, Rosaceae; or monographs might be written upon various single plants, trees or shrubs, containing things new and old, in reference to them, and embodying the results of careful observation.

No doubt you too, Mr. Editor, would gladly open the pages of the Horticulturist to any members of such a botanical society, who would prepare popular articles upon their favorite subject.

Thus our Association, being fed on one side by a stream of entomological information, and on the other by a stream of botanical service, would surely live and flourish, “as long as grass grows and water runs.”

THE FIRST OF THE SEASON.

BY REV. VINCENT CLEMENTI, B. A., PETERBOROUGH.

Those persons, if any such there be, who have been indulging the pleasing hope that the swarm of potato beetles, Doriphora decemlineata, is becoming “small by degrees and beautifully less,” will, I fear, find such hope a fallacy.

I had set out in my garden a dozen fine tomato plants, six of the Improved Trophy, and six of the Acme, and had carefully protected them from the sun by day and from the frost by night, when, on Saturday the seventeenth instant, I discovered the terrible pests above named feeding upon their leaves, and in so lively a condition that they were evidently preparing for the propagation of their unwholesome species.

I have intimated that I had to protect the plants from the frost at night as well as from the sun by day, for whatever the nocturnal temperature may have been in your more genial climate, with us, on the night of the eighth instant, my self-registering thermometer ran down to 30°, and again, on the thirteenth the spirit rose in the afternoon to 86° in the shade, a variation of 56° in five days.

Another and far more agreeable “harbinger of spring,” a so-called robin, which, however, is really a thrush, (Turdus migratorius), built her nest on the capital of one of my verandah pillars, within a few feet of the front door; and notwithstanding the disturbance occasioned by the passing to and fro of many people throughout the day, has succeeded in hatching out her progeny, and, aided by her mate, is now diligently supplying her callow brood with their favorite food, the luscious worm or the juicy caterpillar.

My lawns, thanks to a good top-dressing of old manure given them last fall, are looking beautiful, never more so, and have already been subjected three times to the operation of the mowing machine.

BARREN PLUM TREES.

An esteemed correspondent writes, “I have a number of plum trees old enough to bear fruit but which yield none. What plan would you recommend to promote or hasten fructification?”

It is well known to experienced fruit growers that the wood producing forces of a tree are in some degree antagonistic to the fruit producing, and hence when a tree is rapidly making wood it bears but little or no fruit. It may be that our correspondent’s trees are in that condition, and that by reason of the richness of the soil, or the application of stimulating fertilizers, and that perhaps for a very different purpose, such as the growing of garden produce, the trees are kept in a condition of active growth, and hence its energies, so to speak, are exhausted in the production of wood and leaves instead of fruit. If this be the case, the remedy is to be sought in the use of some means whereby the tendency to produce wood may be checked. This can be done by withholding fertilizers, if any have been applied, either to the tree or to the soil within reach of the roots. If the soil be naturally so rich as to produce strong wood growth, or it be inconvenient to cease using the ground within reach of the roots for garden purposes, the growth of the tree may be checked by digging a trench around the tree at a sufficient distance from the trunk to prevent too severe a shock to its growth, and to a sufficient depth to cut off the feeding roots, and so diminish the supply of stimulating food. This check to the growth of a tree will often at once produce a change, and throw it into bearing. The like effect is sometimes produced by bending down the limbs, and fastening them in a horizontal position. This checks the rapid upward flow of the sap and induces the formation of fruit buds. Another method, but one that requires much care lest permanent injury result therefrom, is to bind some ligature tightly around some of the branches, and in this way hinder the flow of the sap sufficiently to arrest the rapid growth and induce fruiting. Such ligatures will need to be carefully watched, and not allowed to remain long enough to injure the limbs by cutting too deeply.

Some varieties of plum, apple, pear, &c., do not come to fruit bearing age as early as others, and though the trees may seem large enough to bear large crops, they have not yet reached that degree of maturity requisite to the production of fruit. The Northern Spy Apple tree is an instance of this slow maturity; the trees of this variety will attain a size three times as great as that of the Early Harvest near by, which has been yielding fruit for several years, before it will begin to bear. It may be that our correspondent has some variety of this slow habit, which takes many years to come to a fruit-bearing condition. If so, the root pruning, and other methods of inducing fruitfulness already mentioned, will have a tendency to hasten maturity.

But there is another cause of seeming barrenness in the case of plums trees, which must be traced to quite a different source. The tree is not to blame, it forms fruit buds, blossoms, sets fruit, but the fruit all drops off before it is half grown, and the owner naturally enough complains that his plum trees yield him no fruit. The plums drop off because they are stung by the Curculio. Such however is now the general diffusion of knowledge on this subject through the labors of our entomological assistants, to whom the fruit grower and the farmer owe many a debt of gratitude, that it is not probable that the Curculio is the cause of want of fruit on our correspondent’s plum trees. The fallen plums, scarce half grown, strewing the ground beneath the trees, bearing the crescent mark of the little enemy, tell all too plainly the cause. The remedy in this case is already well known to our readers.

FIG CULTURE AT THE NORTH A SUCCESS.

We have been favored with a second paper from Mr. G. F. Needham, of Washington, D. C., with the above title. He is very confident that the fig can be successfully and profitably grown in our climate. He has recently received a letter from a gentleman in England, an American, who has resided in England and France some thirty years, and for seven years at Brighton on the south-east coast. In his letter he expresses his astonishment that the fig has not found hundreds, aye thousands, of cultivators, and a ready market for all produced. He says, “I have enjoyed special opportunities for witnessing fig culture in this part of England, where it is grown profusely, without any special care or outlay, though much exposed to the cold south-east winds, which are blighting in their character and effects at certain seasons of the year; yet the fig tree survives it all, gives a good growth in leaf and branch, yields abundantly, and the fruit finds a ready market, and gives a good profit to the grower. Some of the fig orchards in this vicinity were planted in 1745, from some old stocks which had been brought from Italy by Thomas à Becket.”

Mr. Needham argues that if the fig will succeed in the damp, foggy atmosphere of England, where melons and cucumbers cannot be grown, how much more will it flourish in our bright and sunny climate; and adds, “the climate of our north temperate zone is one of the best possible for the full development of the fig. It is a well known fact that too great heat is inimical to this plant; it causes the tree to cast its fruit. Our northern climes are superior to the southern for another reason, our days are several hours longer than at the South, which gives a lengthened and temperate day, which precisely suits the fig. Countries where figs are grown as an article of commerce are exposed to similar vicissitudes of climate as are the northern States. A gentleman in Massachusetts writes, ‘I was born in the Levant, and was a resident in Constantinople one winter, when the Golden Horn was frozen over, and there was a snow-fall of eighteen to twenty inches for a couple of weeks, without injury to the fig trees in the vicinity.’ ”

Mr. Needham further states that the fig has no insect enemies, and the wood has no blight or disease; and that what Gen. Worthington says of its culture in the Ohio Valley is true of the Northern States throughout. The General says, “It is quick grown, suits our climate admirably, is easily protected, is a sure bearer, and very prolific. The trees begin to bear when two years old, and when four or five they produce from the same area, with less labor, a greater and more certain crop than either potatoes or tomatoes. The fig tree is eminently the fruit for the cottager and villager, and when its merits and adaptability to our climate become known, it will be as regularly grown for family use all over the Ohio Valley as either the potato or the tomato.”

Mr. Needham’s paper goes on to give the following suggestions:

The ficus carica of Linn., is indigenous in Asia and Northern Africa.

With us it is a deciduous shrub, which can be propagated by cuttings as easily as the currant. It fruits when very young, and different varieties bear white, black, brown, green, blue, etc., fruit which vary in size from a hickory nut to a Bartlett pear. The trees should be planted in a moderately rich soil. Too rich soil causes the tree to run to wood. By selecting suitable varieties the ripening season may be extended from July till frost.

PLANTING.

In the spring (at time of corn planting), throw up one or more ridges eight feet wide and sixteen inches high in the centre. On the top of this stake off distances ten feet apart. At these stakes dig trenches across the ridges, say two feet long and ten inches wide. Throw the top soil in a pile, and throw the sub-soil away. Replace the soil in the form of a mound, one inch below the level in the centre and six inches below at the ends. Then separate the roots into two parts. Set the trees at the centre point, with the roots extending right and left down the mound. Fill up with any good soil and tread down thoroughly.

PROTECTING.

In the autumn, before danger from severe frosts, prepare the trees for winter quarters, by cutting the roots growing lengthwise of the ridges with a sharp spade, not disturbing the original roots that were planted. Lay down the trees (lengthwise of the ridge) pegging down the branches that may need to be, then cover with earth, in the latitude of Boston four inches deep. And no matter how old the trees, by this method of planting they are laid to rest very easily. Only with older trees, after the branches are pegged down, it will be best to fill in the interstices with leaves and then cover as before.

I think I hear an objection, “too much trouble.” We do not hesitate to grow other luscious fruits on that account; and the necessity of winter protection will be atoned for from considerations before named. It cost about one cent each to protect the trees of my fig orchard this fall. A man and a boy laying down and covering over a hundred per day.

AFTER TREATMENT.

In the spring, at the time before noted, remove the earth from the trees and raise them to their positions. Thus it will be seen that the care of the trees is not great, and the whole operation is quite simple. The unripe figs that were buried with the wood will form the first crop of the next year.

HOW TO EAT FIGS.

In the East they seize the fruit in the left hand, with a knife cut off a thin slice from the large end and then peel the fruit. Fresh figs and cream make a dish “fit to set before”—an “American sovereign.” Fig preserves are also most delicious.

DRYING THE FRUIT.

The method is: The fruit is put into baskets, which are dipped for two minutes in strong potash lye, and then into clear water. The lye eats off the tough and gummy coating, and improves the color of the fruit. The figs are then placed on hurdles and dried in the sun or by artificial heat, and when sufficiently soft to press closely they are packed in boxes.

ROOT PRUNING.

Should the soil be too rich it will be necessary to root-prune the trees at time of laying down. This is done by cutting off with a sharp spade a portion of the original roots. The necessity of this will occur when the tree is woody and long jointed.

English authorities say that the fig will thrive in almost any ordinary garden soil, but care must be taken not to make the soil rich, for invincible grossness will be the consequence. A plain maiden soil is quite rich enough for general purposes.

The numerous letters of inquiry on the subject of Fig Culture at the North received by Mr. Needham from Canadians have induced him to send these further hints for publication in the Canadian Horticulturist.

RECOLLECTION OF A RECENT JOURNEY SOUTH.

BY WM. SAUNDERS, LONDON, ONT.

Atlanta, “the Chicago of the South,” is well situated, on a very elevated plateau, more than one thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is probably the healthiest city in the south, and enjoys a temperature comparatively cool in the hottest periods of the year. It is the centre of an extensive railway system, and has a busy aspect; its population is about forty thousand, one third of which is black. Since the burning of the city after its capture by Sherman, towards the close of the war, it has been almost entirely rebuilt, many of the buildings being of a very substantial character, and some of the private residences quite elegant.

An early morning walk revealed some novelties. One of the first things which attracted my attention was a tree new and strange to me, one which is extensively used here as a shade tree. It was leafless at this season, but being decked with large clusters of milk-white berries, was very attractive. This proved to be the Pride of India or Chinaberry Tree, Melia Azedarach. The berries are said to contain saccharine matter, and were used to make a fermented alcoholic beverage during the time of the war. One who has only seen the beautiful glossy foliaged Euonymus Japonicus in greenhouses or as a small half hardy shrub in the open border during summer, can form no idea of the beauty of this bush here where it is perfectly hardy and thrives most luxuriantly. It bears trimming into all sorts of shapes, and makes the prettiest hedges I have ever seen. In addition to the richness of its evergreen foliage, it is doubly attractive in winter when adorned with its bright red berries; the long luxuriant branches thus richly ornamented are much used for interior decorations, producing admirable effects. Shortly my attention was riveted by a lovely evergreen, with an enchantingly soft foliage, about ten or twelve feet high, and eight or nine in diameter. I had seen small specimens of it in the north, and recognized it as the beautiful Deodar Cedar. It was a lovely sight to watch the graceful waving of its branches in the morning breeze, and the effect of the sunlight on its silvery and hoary green foliage. Subsequently I saw many others of the same species, some of them admirable specimens. The Evergreen Magnolias also grow to a limited size here, alongside of most of our northern shrubs and trees. Beautiful specimens of some of the dwarf forms of the Arbor Vitæ were met with, also examples of several of the interesting variegated forms of the Japanese Euonymus. A few of the residences of the wealthier inhabitants are surrounded by neatly kept lawns, with trees and shrubbery tastefully arranged; but when compared with what might be done in a climate so favorable, it must be admitted that there is plenty of room for improvement.

During my stay I called on Dr. Samuel Hape, who is one of the most enterprising nurserymen in this district, from whom I learned that fruit growing was on the increase in Georgia. In season, peaches are abundant and cheap, and large quantities are raised for export. Plums also are somewhat grown but are subject to be attacked by the Curculio much as they are with ourselves, and the practice of jarring the trees and collecting the insects seems to be too troublesome an undertaking to find much favor here. The Doctor esteems the Wild Goose as a valuable sort, as it is, he says, less liable to attack from the Curculio than the more highly flavored varieties, and for the same reason he speaks well of the Newman’s, Decaradeuc’s, Harper’s, Brill, and Hattie, all descended from the Chickasaw Plum.

Among the apples especially recommended for market orchards here, are many unfamiliar sorts. For example, among the winter varieties are the Hockett’s Sweet, Mangum, Nickajack, Romanite, Shockley, Yates, Santa and Black Warrior. Pears suffer much from blight, and hence are not very extensively grown; but grapes and small fruits are generally cultivated and usually give good returns; figs also thrive well in the open air in this section. With the mild and genial climate which middle Georgia enjoys, fruit culture of every sort should succeed. The present condition of society, however, is not very favorable to the development of industrial interests of any sort. The dignity of labor is much undervalued. By many of the whites manual labor is looked upon as in some measure degrading; and the negroes as a class are so lazy that they do not care to exert themselves unless their necessities drive them to it, and then their wants are so few that an occasional trifling effort will furnish them with such subsistence as will content them. These blacks are the most jovial people one can meet with, always light hearted and merry, no matter how great their poverty; often without a cent in their pockets and hardly knowing where their next meal is to come from, nevertheless they are as frolicksome as young lambs, and very much prefer basking in the sunshine, standing around the railway stations or steamboat wharves to engaging in any active employment.

A morning ramble with a friend brought us to a part of the city where the “poor whites” rendezvous, who raise small quantities of produce in the mountainous parts of Georgia and the adjoining State of Tennessee, and bring their crops here to market. Finding one of these remarkably slow looking people, who had just arrived with a few bushels of apples in his waggon, we ventured to interview him. We found that he had left his home, some hundred miles distant, eight days previous, with thirty bushels of apples. Some he had sold on the way at one dollar per bushel, the others he expected to sell here at seventy-five to eighty cents. The varieties he had were the Limbertwig, Abram and Howard or Nickajack, all very good sorts, but they had been poorly kept, and were not very presentable. Having finished his marketing and purchased his supplies, he would trudge his weary way over bad roads for another eight days before he could reach his distant home. These poor creatures enjoy but few comforts, and many of them seem to be less intelligent than the negroes.

We met with many kind friends during our stay here; found the southern people extremely hospitable, and we left Atlanta, taking with us very pleasant recollections of our visit.

An afternoon train brought us, about dusk, to another thriving city, Macon, where we took a sleeper on a night train for Brunswick, in the southern extremity of Georgia. Daylight disclosed great changes in the character of the vegetation, which now began to assume a tropical aspect as we approached the land of flowers.

ENQUIRIES ABOUT GOOSEBERRIES.

An esteemed member of the Association inquires, “Which gooseberry do you consider the best to plant for market purposes, Smith’s Seedling or Downing’s;” also, “do you know anything of a gooseberry called American Amber, and if so, what are its characteristics and value as compared with the above?” “Is it desirable to plant any of the English kinds for market, and if so which?”

In replying to the first enquiry, we can only say that we have not sufficiently tested the Smith’s Seedling, or as it is usually known among horticulturists, “Smith’s Improved,” to speak positively of its merits as a market berry. The Downing we have cultivated for some fifteen years, and have tested it thoroughly, and can confidently recommend it as a very valuable variety, and profitable for market. With our present knowledge of the two sorts we would plant the Downing for profit.

We are not able to throw any light on the American Amber Gooseberry. It is not mentioned in any of the catalogues of leading American nurserymen in our possession, nor have we noticed any description of it in any of the American horticultural publications.

The English varieties of gooseberry are subject to mildew in our climate. In some seasons the fruit is completely coated with a tough fungoid growth, and the leaves are destroyed. Some mitigation of this evil is thought to be obtained by planting in very rich and strong soil, by keeping the ground well mulched and plentifully supplied with salt, and thinning out the branches, so as to admit of free circulation of air. But with all this, there is too much uncertainty about escaping the mildew to make the planting of English sorts for market a promising investment.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

A table of contents has been added for convenience.

Obvious printer errors including punctuation have been silently corrected, with the following exceptions:

Inconsistencies and variations in spelling have been preserved.

[The end of The Canadian Horticulturist Volume 02, No. 07 edited by D. W. Beadle]