West, blueberries and huckleberries are quite distinct. In New England
the name "huckleberry" is restricted to berries which contain 10 large
seeds with bony coverings like minute peach pits which crackle between
the teeth, while the name "blueberry" is applied to various species of
berries containing many but very small seeds. It is the latter, not the
large-seeded huckleberry, which offers possibilities for profitable
culture.
At the present stage of the blueberry industry it is best to begin by
transplanting the most promising wild bushes, selecting them for the
size, flavor, color and earliness of the berry as well as for the vigor
and productiveness of the bush. These plants can be propagated in
various ways, which are described in detail in a professional paper of
the department, Bulletin No. 334, by Frederick V. Coville. The aim of
the cultivator should be to secure bushes which will produce large
berries. These cost less to pick than small ones and bring a higher
price on the market. A berry eleven-sixteenths of an inch in diameter
has already been produced under field culture.
The three fundamental requirements for successful blueberry culture are:
(1) An acid soil, especially one composed of peat and sand; (2) good
drainage and thorough aeration of the surface soil; and (3) permanent
but moderate soil moisture. Next in importance to these essentials is a
location such that the berries may reach the market without delay. The
best prices are obtained about the beginning of the wild blueberry
season. The main crop of wild blueberries comes from northern New
England, Canada and northern Michigan. A location to the south of these
areas where the berries will mature earlier is, therefore, to be desired
for the commercial cultivator. One of the most promising districts now
known is the cranberry region of New Jersey, where berries mature early
and the shipping facilities to the market in Philadelphia, New York and
Boston are good.
Another important factor to be considered in selecting a location for a
blueberry patch is the possibility of late spring freezes. For this
reason the bottoms of valleys should be avoided. Freezing seldom injures
the blueberry plant itself, but the fruit crop is often destroyed in
this way. From past observations it appears that wild blueberries
growing in or around bodies of water frequently escape the injurious
effects of late spring freezes, and it seems, therefore, that a flooding
equipment for blueberry plantations similar to those used for cranberry
bogs may, under certain circumstances, prove commercially advantageous.
At the present time, however, only a beginning has been made in
blueberry culture. The yield and profits in field plantations from
improved bushes have not as yet been ascertained. There is, however, one
small planting in Indiana where complete records have been maintained
for the past six years. This plantation was started in 1889 in a natural
blueberry bog, which was first drained and then set with wild blueberry
bushes transplanted without selection for individual productiveness or
size of berries. On this plantation the yield per acre has averaged
1,741 quarts for the past six years. This average would have been
somewhat higher except for the almost total failure of the crop in 1910,
due to late spring freezes. An average of 14-1/2 cents a quart has been
received for the berries and the net profit per acre is estimated at
$116 a year. In this estimate allowance has been made for interest,
taxes and depreciation. The expense for weeding, cultivation, and
irrigation is placed at $20 an acre and the cost of picking at five
cents a quart.
* * * * *
HOMEMADE FIRELESS COOKER.--A wooden or tin pail, lined with two
thicknesses of paper and provided with a close-fitting cover, may be
used for the outside container of the cooker. Allow for three inches of
packing on all sides and at the bottom of the pail. A gallon oyster can
will serve very well for the nest, which should be wrapped on the
outside next to the packing with asbestos and a piece of asbestos placed
under the bottom to prevent the scorching of the packing when hot
soapstones are used. Shredded newspaper and excelsior make a good
packing. Pack this very tightly around and to the top of the nest, the
top of which should be about three inches below the lid of the outside
container. A piece of cardboard cut to fit inside the lard can with a
circle cut out of the center around the top of the oyster can or nest
will hide the packing and make a neat finish. Place a three-inch cushion
of unbleached muslin, stuffed tightly with excelsior, on top of the lid
of the nest. When the top of the outside container is placed on and
hooked down, it will be tight enough to cause a pressure. If a tin pail
is used for the outside container, it may be enameled white, or a wooden
pail stained brown, making a neat-looking appliance for any kitchen.
Regular aluminum fireless-cooker utensils may be used for cooking the
food in the nest, but any kind of a vessel with a close-fitting top and
one that fits closely in the nest is suitable.--U.S. Dept. Agri.
Hardy Perennials.
MISS GRACE E. KIMBALL, WALTHAM.
There has been very little in my work with hardy perennials that seems
worth relating. For many years, in Austin, we had iris, peonies and
phlox in our garden. While my love for flowers and outdoor work led me
to spend all my time, outside of office hours, in the garden, the iris
and peonies, especially, never gave any trouble but grew and blossomed
in the most approved fashion. With the phlox we have had more trouble,
sometimes in dry seasons not getting the bloom we should, and finally,
the last year we were there, losing nearly all the roots we had. I am
now inclined to think that had we divided and transplanted them some
years before, we would not have lost them.
It was only a few years ago that I began to realize that herbaceous
perennials could, with success, be planted in the fall in our climate,
and it was not until two years ago that I made any attempt at fall
planting. That year I was quite successful, but last year, wishing to
divide as close as possible, especially with the iris, I evidently
overdid the matter, with the result that I lost many of my plants.
However, I learned my lesson, and this year they were not divided so
closely, and I am hoping that they will come through the winter all
right.
With the hardy perennials easily raised from seed my first experience
was with the oriental poppy. I had greatly desired to have some in the
garden and, not knowing that the fall was the time to plant them,
ordered some one spring. They failed to grow, so the next year I
attempted to raise them from seed, starting them in the house as I did
my pansy seed. But I was far from successful in that way, and having
read some articles on the difficulty of raising them from seed, also
learning that they should be set out in the fall, I made up my mind they
were not worth bothering with.
However, father suggested I might succeed by planting the seed in the
shade out of doors, and even though it was quite late in the summer I
got more seed and sowed it broadcast in a hedge of lilacs, syringas and
so forth, kept the ground moist, and in a short time had many plants
coming up. I also had ordered a few to be shipped me in the fall.
By fall my seedlings were large enough to be transplanted into boxes, to
be moved as we were moving from Austin to Waltham. With those I had
ordered for fall delivery, they were moved to our new place, the boxes
sunk in the ground, and the next spring put into a hedge with other
plants--for while they do not stand transportation very well in the
spring, I have been successful in transplanting them from one part of
our grounds to another at that season.
Since coming to Waltham I have started the seeds of the poppy, larkspur,
columbine and gaillardia in a grove near the house, where they are
easily kept moist. If I get the seed in early in the spring, the plants
are often large enough to transplant in the fall. However I like better
to plant the seed later, about the time the first blossoms from each
variety have ripened their seed. The seedlings will then be large enough
to withstand the winter with a little protection and ready for spring
transplanting.
With a comparatively small amount of work, and very ordinary care, once
the plants are set out anyone can have continuous bloom from early
spring until frosts come, by setting iris, peonies, phlox, columbine,
poppies, larkspur, gaillardia, giant daisy and painted daisy. Such a
selection would make a big variety of color and form in the garden, and
all but the first three kinds can be very easily raised from seed. Or
not wishing so many kinds, one can have flowers all summer by a careful
selection of several varieties of iris, peonies and phlox.
Why Should We Grow Seedling Apples?
ISAAC JOHNSON, WEST UNION, IA.
There is no work in fruit growing that has more taken my attention and
given me more pleasure than the growing of seedling apples. For many
years I have been of the opinion that apples for this severe climate
must be grown from seed. If we succeed in growing hardy, productive and
good keeping varieties, they must be native, or raised at home. By
experimental work along in this line of growing fruit we have come to
this conclusion that fruit trees do best grow at home.
In looking over the list of apples we grow this far north, we all know
that the hardiest and the most productive kind are seedlings, either
from Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin. Minnesota has the Wealthy, the banner
apple; for early and late fall apple it has no equal. Wisconsin has the
Northwestern Greening and the Wolf River, which are very large, showy
and good market apples. We all know what Mr. Patten has done along in
this line of growing seedlings.
At the state horticultural meeting in Des Moines, December last, was
exhibited one hundred varieties of seedlings and a large number of
those, to my judgment, were good keepers and fine looking apples.
Hundreds and hundreds of varieties of apples have been imported from
Russia, and I for one have tested fifty or sixty of those Russian
varieties, but at the state meeting, where I exhibited seventy-seven
varieties, I was able to show only three Russian varieties, Longfield,
Antinovka and Volga Cross. I think I have reason to ask what would we
have for apples today if there had not been any seedlings raised? Why
does the State of Minnesota offer one thousand dollars for a seedling
apple tree that is as hardy as the Duchess with fruit as good as the
Wealthy and that keeps as well as the Malinda? Because to get such a
variety it must come from seed.
Planting for Color Effects in the Garden.
MRS. H. B. TILLOTSON, MINNEAPOLIS.
The most attractive flower bed in my garden this year has been the one
planted for a blue and white effect. From earliest spring, soon after
the snow had gone, until now, October 4th, there has been something
interesting and beautiful blooming there.
In the middle of the summer it was one tangled mass of lilies,
delphinium, phlox and gypsophila, their perfume filling the whole
garden. As the lilies faded and the delphinium grew old and went to
seed, the old stalks were cut away. The phlox and delphinium bloomed
again in a little while, and in September the candidum lilies began to
come through the ground, getting ready for next year.
The bed is three feet wide by thirty long, and was covered last winter
with loose straw and leaves, with a few cornstalks to hold them in
place. Early in April this was raked off and the edges of the bed made
straight, for the grass always grows in a little each year. The warm
sunshine soon brought out the scilla and crocus, almost carpeting the
whole bed. One would not think of the other things hiding under their
leaves.
The forget-me-nots began to look green along the edge, and up through
the fading crocus and scilla came a few straggling grape hyacinths, blue
and white, and one lonely plant of the Virginia cowslip
(Mertensia)--more could have been used with good effect, for they too
disappear after awhile.
The Virginia cowslip staid in bloom until the forget-me-nots were a
mass of blossoms, and the blue Darwin tulips (pink, really, with a blue
spot in the bottom of the cup, just back of them) were in all their
glory. In the middle of the bed the Madonna lilies, and belladona
delphinium had covered the ground with green. In spots the wild violets
were in blossom--they had crept in some way from the dirt--I think it
had been taken from the woods near by.
Watching each day, for the friends I knew would soon be coming, I found
the first shoots of the hardy phlox, which I knew to be G. Von Losburg
and Miss Lingard. Double blue bachelor buttons, self sown, were there,
some transplanted to fill in the bare spots, and poppies; I didn't know
what color they would be, for the wind and the birds had sown the seed;
but the leaves were a beautiful grey-green, and I let them grow. I had
almost given up the double baby breath (gypsophila paniculata, fl. pl.),
but finally it came all the way down the bed, about every five or six
feet, between the delphinium and the phlox. There were perhaps a dozen
plants of phlox, a dozen of belladona delphinium and six baby breath
through the middle of the bed, and on each side a row of the intense
blue Chinese delphinium.
Just outside these, and next to the forget-me-nots and tulips, are the
bachelor buttons, and, coming through it all, a hundred candidum lilies,
their waxy white blossoms glistening in the sunshine, and the perfume so
heavy you knew they were there long before you could see them. The
poppies, too, were there; they were double, like a peony, rose-pink with
a white edge. I was glad I let them grow, for I don't think I ever saw a
more beautiful sight.
I let it all grow and bloom as long as it would, hating to touch it for
fear of spoiling all. Finally I was obliged to clear away the old
stalks, and it looked rather bare for a time. But I brought some white
asters from the reserve garden. The Baron Hulot gladoli were soon in
bloom. The phlox sent up tiny shoots for new bloom from the base of each
leaf, and the second crop of bachelor buttons came along. White
schizanthus along the edge, covered up the old forget-me-nots, and
funkia lilies (subcordata) threw up their buds. The delphinium all began
to bloom again, the grey-green leaves of the baby breath was still
there, and soon my bed was all abloom again and staid so the rest of the
summer.
But never did it equal the glory of those first ten days of July.
The Fall-Bearing Strawberries.
CHARLES F. GARDNER, NURSERYMAN, OSAGE, IA.
(SO. MINN. HORT. SOCIETY.)
There are now such excellent varieties of fall bearing strawberries on
the market that a person can have no good excuse for not planting some
in his garden. Select the ground for the bed where you will get the
whole benefit from the rays of the sun. I want no trees, bushes, or tall
growing plants of any kind near the bed. The farther away, the better.
The earth should be made quite rich with well rotted compost. I like the
plan of preparing the bed a long time before you get ready to set your
plants. You can then work the soil over, time after time, and every time
kill a crop of weeds. More plants are set in the spring than any other
time, but they will grow and do well if set in midsummer or any time
after that up to the middle of October. Get through setting in September
if you can. If you set later, in October, cover the plants with a slight
covering of straw as soon as planted. Then afterwards, when you make a
business of covering put on a little more, cover them nicely--but you
are liable to kill them if you put on too much. Two inches deep I find
to be about the right depth to go through our ordinary winters. I mean
two inches after the straw has settled. I think many persons spoil their
plants, or at least injure them severely, by putting on too heavy a coat
of covering. I will also tell you to beware of using horse-manure as a
covering for strawberries. Clean straw or hay is the best of covering.
(Fall planting of strawberries not advisable in Minnesota.--Secy.)
Most people do not trim the plants enough before they are set. All fruit
stems should be cut off, if there are any, and the most of the old
leaves removed, two or three of the youngest leaves on the plant is all
that should be left. These will start right off into a vigorous growth,
and you will soon have strong, healthy plants. I think it pays to put a
small handful of tobacco dust on and around each hill. You can generally
get it at your nearest greenhouse--or you can find out there where to
send for it. Get enough to put it on two or three times during the early
and latter part of summer.
Do not select ground for your new bed that has been in strawberries;
take ground that has never had strawberries on, or at least that two or
three crops of some kind have been taken from it since it was covered
with strawberry vines.
After the plants are set, they should be well firmed; it is absolutely
necessary that they should be very solid in the earth. They should not
be too deep nor too shallow, one is as bad as the other. The crown buds
should be in plain sight, after the ground is firmed and leveled, just
in sight and no more. A little temporary hilling will do no harm, but
the ground should be kept as level as possible. All cultivation should
be shallow so as to not disturb the roots of the plants. This is also a
very important item. Just remember that every plant loosened after it is
set means death to the plant if it is not reset at once. Cultivate often
when the ground is not too wet. Keep your bed entirely free of grass and
weeds. This is easily done if all work is done when it should be. The
time to kill weeds is when the seed first sprouts; don't wait until the
weed plants are an inch or more high; if you do you will never keep them
clean, and then you will never have success in your work.
[Illustration: Chas. F. Gardner at work in his everbearing strawberry
experiment grounds.]
Cut all fruit stems off as fast as they appear, until your plants get
well rooted, and then let them bear as much as they want to. But if some
plants set an unusually large number it is well to cut out part of the
fruit. If rightly thinned you will increase the yield in quarts.
If fruit is the main object, after the plants are well located and begin
to set fruit for your main crop, they can be mulched with clean straw or
hay, carefully tucked up around each hill. This will keep the fruit
clean and conserve the moisture in the soil, and you can stop
cultivating. If plants are the main object, then you can not use the
mulching, but must keep the cultivator going between the rows. Well
informed growers of the strawberry plant generally have beds on purpose
for fruit in one place, and in another place one to grow plants.
No one will make a success in growing strawberries unless he can learn
to detect the rogues that appear from time to time in strawberry patches
or in the fields. These rogues are generally plants that have come up
from the seed that has been scattered in one way and another over the
bed. Berries are stepped on and mashed, other berries are overlooked and
rot on the ground, but the seed remain and germinate when the time comes
for it in the spring, and some of these plants are not destroyed by
cultivation or by hoeing, and soon make trouble for the grower. No
seedling will be like the original plants that were first set, and many
of them will be strong growing plants, good runners but worthless for
fruit. When you set a new lot of plants you get some of these seedlings,
and that is how the mixture comes in. I have counted one hundred and
fifty seedling plants around one old plant in the spring. Of course the
most of these where good tillage is practised are destroyed, but some
remain in spite of all you can do unless you pay the very closest
attention and learn to distinguish rogues from the true named varieties.
All rogues must be kept out if you keep the variety true to name. Of
course once in a while a rogue will prove to be a valuable variety, as
was the case when Mr. Cooper found the Pan American eighteen years ago,
from which our fall varieties owe their parentage. If you want to be
successful remember to keep in mind the value of constant selection and
keeping your parent stock true to name.
When you first set out your plants, go over them and examine them
closely and see that everything is right. Then remember that the first
sign of a good fall bearing variety is to see it throw out fruit stalks.
You can cut these off, so that the stub of the fruit stem will show that
it has sent up a flower stalk. You can see the stub. In this way in a
small patch you can easily keep track of them. If some plants do not
throw out fruit stems, mark them so you can tell them, and if they pass
the season without trying to fruit, you must refrain from setting out
any of the runners that appear, or there is liability of trouble. Let
such plants alone for another year's trial. Then if they do no better,
dig them up and destroy them. Once in a while they prove to be all
right, but often they are worthless.
Learn to tell a variety by a careful examination of the plant at
different times during the season. Fix the general color of the leaf in
your mind, its shape and size. Notice whether the fruit stems are long
or short, whether the blossoms are above the leaves, in plain sight, or
are hidden below. Are there many fruit buds to the stalk, or but few?
Are the blossoms pistillate or staminate? Are the petals large or small?
Are the stamens long or short? Are the anthers well or poorly formed?
They should be plump and well filled before they are ready to open.
Is the receptacle on which the pistils sit well formed and capable of
being developed into a perfect berry, or do they look ungainly in shape?
Are the petals pure white or slightly crimson? Are there many runners,
or few, or none? Do the new runners bear blossoms and fruit? If so, when
do they commence to bud and bloom? When do the berries begin to ripen?
Notice the size and shape of the fruit, also the color. You can tell
much from the taste of the berry. No two varieties taste exactly alike.
Some are real sweet and some kinds real sour. Then there are all grades
between.
The perfume, or fragrance, of the fruit of the common strawberry when
fully ripened under proper conditions of sunlight and moisture has long
been esteemed and highly appreciated by mankind in general, and in this
respect the fall-bearing strawberry varies greatly. The most of the
varieties excel all common kinds as to perfume and that delicate
strawberry flavor which nearly everybody loves so well. Once in a while
a musk-scented variety is developed, like the Milo on our grounds, which
as yet has never been sent out. By paying close attention to these
things you can soon learn to distinguish many varieties at any time
during the growing season.
In 1898 Mr. Cooper found his seedling which he called the Pan American.
From that small beginning there are now many varieties, perhaps
thousands, that excel the parent plant, and perhaps a hundred varieties
of great value. Some varieties have very superior merit. I will mention
a few: Progressive, Peerless, Advance, Danville, Forward, Prince, Will,
Milo, Nathaniel, 480, and there are others which might be mentioned.
Good reports have reached me of kinds produced at your Horticultural
Experiment farm by Prof. Haralson, but I have never tried them. My
private opinion is that several kinds I have not mentioned will very
soon take a back seat, as the saying is. The best varieties are bound to
come to the front.
The best advertisement one can have is the ability to ship thousands of
quarts during the whole autumn. This season we shipped 22,565 quarts,
mostly sold in pint boxes. They netted us from 12-1/2 to 18 cents per
pint. At home we kept them on the market during the whole season at 15
cents per quart. We lost as many as 5,000 quarts by violent storms
during the season. It was a fair season for growing plants, but there
was too much water to grow the best of fruit.
Heredity in Gladioli.
G. D. BLACK, GLADIOLUS SPECIALIST, INDEPENDENCE, IA.
(SO. MINN. HORT. SOCIETY.)
As heredity is a comparatively new word, it may be well to define it at
the beginning of this paper. Webster says "It is the transmission of
mental or physical characteristics or qualities from parent to
offspring, the tendency of an organism to reproduce the characteristics
of the progenitor."