Part 9

The Lombard plum received this name from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society as a token of respect to Mr. Lombard, of Springfield, who brought it into notice in that State. It is generally believed to have been raised from seed by Judge Platt, of Whitesborough, New York. It is a very vigorous and healthy tree, adapting itself to almost every soil, and is immensely productive. The fruit is of medium size, of a delicate violet-red color, thinly overspread with bloom. The flesh is deep yellow, juicy, pleasant, but not high flavored. In quality it ranks only as “good.” It ripens with us in the latter part of August. This variety has been widely disseminated throughout the Province, and is cultivated in nearly if not quite every county. In the counties of Brant, Bruce and Oxford it is reported as being the most productive of all the varieties cultivated, and the most esteemed for market purposes. In Carleton, Durham, Elgin, Grey, Halton, Huron, Lincoln, Middlesex, Northumberland, Ontario, Perth, Simcoe, Victoria, Waterloo, Welland, Wellington and Wentworth, it is mentioned as being among the most productive of the varieties grown. This plum is probably more generally planted than any other variety on account of the healthy character of the tree and its immense productiveness, by reason of which some fruit usually comes to maturity despite the ravages of the Curculio.

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ADVICE ON FRUIT GROWING TO THE FARMERS.

The transactions of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society for 1877-8, through the politeness of the secretary, F. W. Case, have just been received. The volume contains many very valuable papers, several of them written by ladies, among them is one with the above heading, so eminently practical and so appropriate to our own circumstances, that we give the substance of it to our readers. The writer, A. J. Philips, is evidently familiar with the subject, and gives his advice from the depths of his own experience. He says,

I advise every farmer, be he farming on a large or small scale, to make an effort to raise some fruit as a source of pleasure, and profit, and comfort to himself and family.

I advise the farmers to inform themselves on the varieties that are succeeding best in the sections in which they live, then on the best mode of culture, and after this to buy their trees, and use their utmost endeavors to care for and protect them.

I advise you to be careful of whom you buy, for if you depend on the judgment of others to make your selections you will find that the men who can be fully relied on are scarce. Nurserymen are anxious to sell, and some will recommend a new variety for the sake of selling it without knowing whether it is suitable; the tree agents are wholly irresponsible, and are seeking only to make as many and large sales as possible. Last fall I met a man selling fruit trees, and notwithstanding the fact that the well informed fruit growers and the State Horticultural Society have repeatedly recommended for general cultivation nothing but the Duchess of Oldenburg and Wealthy in standard apples, and a few of the best crabs, still that man had orders for trees that he knew would not be successful in that rigorous climate, I solemnly looked him in the face and said, “You have a fearful amount of cheek to sell these trees to farmers?” “Well,” he said, “I have the trees, and the only way to get out is to sell them.”

I advise you whether you plant many or few trees, whether your soil and location be favorable or unfavorable, whether you bought the trees because you wanted them or to get rid of the agent, whenever you plant trees don’t forget to mulch them the first season, and every season thereafter. They will be more certain to live and grow and to bear fruit, and you will be the better satisfied with the result.

I advise you, after taking all this pains, to see to it that cattle and horses and sheep are not turned in to destroy them. This is practised too much, and then the failure charged to climate and other causes.

I advise you to set young trees, for they will root more readily, grow more thriftily and bear earlier than older trees. Much has been lost, and many have become discouraged by planting five and six year old trees, for they never recovered from the shock received by transplanting. I have abundant evidence of this in my own orchard, and know whereof I write.

I advise you to avoid cheap trees for several reasons; first, they are likely to be poor stock, and second, if you get them for a small price you will not take as good care of them. High-priced horses, cattle and hogs always get the best care. A farmer last fall asked me what I thought of a trade he had made, he had traded an old fanning-mill that he had not been able to give away, for fifty apple trees, after letting them stand out-doors one sharp frosty night, he had buried them for spring planting, I answered him, “you have made a trade that will be a damage to you, for with the careless treatment they have already received, no doubt many of them are dead now, and as they cost you nothing, you will not take care of them, and they will die of neglect.” He replied, “I guess you are right.”

I advise you to buy of a man who has some practical knowledge of varieties, soils and location. And buy of a man who has established a reputation for fair dealing. That course would decrease the quantity and improve the quality of this class of middlemen.

I advise you to subscribe for a good paper that devotes part of its columns to imparting horticultural knowledge; read it carefully, and when in your own experience you find anything that may be of interest for others, write it and send it to the paper for their benefit. Also pay one dollar every year to be a member of the State Horticultural Society—Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario—this will help the Society to disseminate suitable information to the public; you will then be entitled each year to a copy of the transactions, which contain valuable reading, well worth the dollar to yourselves and families.

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WOMAN’S WORK IN HORTICULTURE.

BY MRS. H. M. LEWIS, MADISON, WISCONSIN. _From the transactions of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society._

I wish to have it clearly understood that I am not an advocate of woman’s rights in the full sense of the word, and I have no admiration for a manly woman, but I do advocate that woman has the right to do any and all things for herself and family that she can do with dignity, and without losing any of her womanly delicacy. I am sure that the great majority of women would not enter public life were its doors fully open to them; but I believe that the unmarried woman who pays taxes and has no protector, has the same right to the ballot box if she desires it, that the man has who uses her money for public benefit.

“The woman’s cause is man’s; they rise or sink Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free.”

Half the human race are women, and the true woman, upon whom nature has set her seal of royalty, is now acknowledged to be the finest specimen of womankind upon earth, and she is now fully awakening to her true interests, and great results must follow. Perhaps education and prejudice may retard her work, but the time is not distant when men will “fling around her conquering footsteps more lavish praises and perfumed flowers than ever wooed with intoxicating fragrance the fairest butterfly of the ball-room or opera.”

No healthy woman, from Queen Victoria down to the beggar at the door, has a right to live with nothing to do. God never put a human being on earth to waste a life, or indeed a single hour.

“A creature out of work is beggary; To Thee I come, O King of Kings, find room and use for me In Thy great home.”

Time spent in healthful rest and recreation is a necessity, and of incalculable benefit to all workers, and they are the only ones who know how to enjoy it. I would that all women were pleasantly situated in homes of their own, but such is not the fact, for one-fifth of womankind must be self-supporting; and a question of great importance before us at present is, how shall we make our dependent, respectable women more healthy, respectable and self-sustaining? Many women, particularly widows with children, are feeling the necessity of having a more agreeable work, and their thoughts are taking a new turn. They are reaching out to new fields to claim, and conquer, and may God help them, is our prayer.

Medical statistics show us that the average healthy life of a woman running a sewing machine is but four years. To be sure, she lives beyond that time, but in most instances her life is but a dull blank, for she can do little but suffer. Many noble women are sitting down in sorrow and objectless grief, leading dull, indolent lives, nursing every ache and pain, who are dependent upon relatives for their support, upon whom they have no claim, because they feel that they can do nothing for themselves. To such and all others who feel in their hearts that they ought to have some work to do, we would say, take up the work of horticulture, if you have a natural love for it; if not, do not attempt it, for you will most likely fail. But if you love it so well that you can identify your life with it, you cannot fail of success. Some women have a natural talent for fruit growing and market gardening. Both fields are open to women, and some of the very best conducted farms in the west are managed by them. One lady in the south, who was formerly worth a million dollars, is now supporting herself finely by the cultivation of the castor oil bean; others are supporting themselves by cultivating nuts and various kinds of herbs. A fair degree of health is warranted to most women in the horticultural work, for many physicians prescribe digging in the earth and out-door exercise for the cure of consumption, dyspepsia, and all nervous diseases.

The majority of women have a natural love for flowers, and find but little trouble in cultivating them successfully for their own pleasure, and I see no reason why they should not succeed as professional florists, as the art has now become so simplified that they will be enabled, after becoming fairly established and giving to it a few months careful study and experience, to succeed, if they have a natural bent in that direction. If a woman succeeds as a florist, she can do what she cannot in many other fields; she can command the same price for her produce that a man can, and that is most encouraging. If a woman wishes to engage in this business, perhaps it would be the better way to begin carefully, learning by experience, step by step; doing a small business at first, saying in the meantime to her friends that she expects them to patronize her liberally, and she will surely get the patronage if she works in the right way, as the demand for flowers and vines is largely on the increase; so much so, that no home is considered furnished without them.

But few women have as yet taken up floriculture as a business in the west, but in the east many are engaged in it, and not a few have secured fortunes from its profits. One of the most refined ladies we ever knew was a florist. She managed, with the assistance of a young German lad, three good sized green houses. The man did the coarse, heavy work, lifting heavy burdens, making fires, marketing the plants, etc., while she used the brain force to keep everything in fine running order, taking upon herself the personal supervision of each house. One house was kept for the hardy plants, just above the freezing point. In this was found varieties of roses, pansies, daisies, sweet alyssum and many others for daily cutting. The second house was kept at about 60°. The third at tropical heat. She bore the responsibility of buying, selling, shipping, slipping, repotting and preparing plants and boquets for market. She often re-potted three hundred plants in a day with her own hands, and when evening came, was the life of a charmed circle, who admired her for the beauty of her cultivated mind, fine musical talents, and kind, loving heart. She entered upon her work with the greatest love and enthusiasm for it. Often when she was admiring nature’s wealth and varieties of colors, and breathing the very odors of Heaven, she would exclaim, “You little know what beautiful thoughts come to me out of the ground, as I study the fathomless mysteries of plant life.” Her work was not all toil; it was truly an inspiration. Women so happily and healthfully employed are seldom sick. One such woman worker is doing more for the woman’s cause than a score of Susan Anthonys. We are proud of such women, and we have thousands of them all around us. Mrs. Little, of the blind asylum, Mrs. Harvey of hospital fame, and Mrs. Lynde, who has done so much to relieve suffering in our poor-houses and jails, are representatives of this type of women in our own State, and our good President Hayes’ wife, of national fame, whose bright light shines over the whole world, is proving that the “present epoch is initiating an empire of the higher reason of arts, affections, aspirations, and for that epoch the genius of woman has been reserved,” proving the old Oriental proverb, “that every book of knowledge is implanted by nature in the heart of woman,” to be true; scattering to the winds the pernicious and absurd saying of Voltaire, that “ideas were like beards; women and young men have none.”

Woman is emerging from the gloom of the dark ages into glorious light. She is like the famished plant in the gardener’s hand. It seemingly droops and withers without hope, but when he gives it the elements of growth, rich soil, dew, rain and God’s sunshine, it expands into a plant that sends out its beautiful foliage and rich blossoms, that will fill the air with fragrance and beauty, and the “world’s autumn” with rich fruit.

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Horticulture promotes health, furnishes appetizing and invigorating food, is a most delightful means of recreation, cultivates a refined taste, induces a spirit of cheerfulness, and awakens a sympathy with nature and a love for all the Creator’s works.

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SOME RELATIONS BETWEEN PLANTS AND INSECTS.

BY JOHN ELKINGTON, M.D., OMPAH, ONT.

Sir Jno. Lubbock, F.R.S., lately delivered a most interesting lecture on the above subject, in Leeds, England, some portions of which have a special interest to the hybridist; and though it is not possible in these pages to reproduce the whole discourse, I have thought a selection from the report in the English _Agricultural Gazette_ might give profitable food for thought to readers of the CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST.

The lecturer alluded to the difference existing in plants, not only differences in form, size and, color, but also in other respects, some being hairy, glutinous, sticky, &c. These may be accounted for in a great measure by the relations borne by plants to insects, the visits of which are generally necessary to ensure the fertilization of one flower by the pollen of the other. In some cases, however, such as that of _Drosera_, the object of the flower is to attract insects for the purpose of devouring them, and therefore the leaves are covered with sticky hairs, which bend gradually forward when an insect alights on the leaf, and squeezes it slowly to death, its juices going to the nourishment of its alluring and deceitful foe.

It is easy to see the advantage which flowers gain from secreting honey, inasmuch as they are dependent for fertilization on the visits of bees and other insects, which while feeding necessarily dust themselves with pollen, and thus carry it from flower to flower. But it is less easy to understand why honey should be secreted on those parts of flowers where no pollen exists, at the base of the leaf-stalks, for instance. For the explanation of this we are indebted to Mr. Bell, and Mr. Delphine, who observed that in some cases upon the stems, and living upon the honey, exist colonies of small ants, constituting a most efficient body-guard against the attacks of leaf-cutting ants. They also protect plants from the attacks of many other enemies, and are in their turn made use of by various small species of Aphides who, by secreting a sweet fluid, of which they allow the ants to avail themselves, convert them from enemies into friends and thereby secure a cordial, instead of an angry reception.

Harmless, however, and even useful as are ants which confining themselves only to the stalks of flowering plants, they would generally be positively injurious to the flowers themselves, as these would merely rob them of their honey without repaying the debt by carrying the pollen to others. Flowers therefore have been driven to protect themselves by various devices, such as slippery surface, sticky glands or hedges of hairs, which entirely prevent the ants from obtaining access to the nectary. For the visits of ants to flowers would not only deprive them of their honey, but would prevent the visits of those insects which are so necessary to cross-fertilization. The instance of the mode in which the common Fox-glove excludes the entrance of ants was given; the flower is a close box, which contains the anthers, pistil and honey. It has the specialties of a flower which is adapted for cross-fertilization by insects, color, honey, and the arrangement of stamens and pistils, but it is closed. The flower is adapted to cross-fertilization by bumble-bees, and they alone can force open the box; to other insects it is closed. Again, the beautiful rosy flowers of the _Polygonum Amphibium_ are rich in nectar, and quite unprotected from the visits of creeping insects so long as the plant is grown in water; the arrangement of the stamens and pistils is such that it cannot fail of cross-fertilization on the visit of any flying insect. When, however, this plant is grown on land, and consequently liable to the visits of creeping things, certain hairs terminating in sticky glands are thrown out, effectively barring the entrance of these worse than useless guests. The so called “sleep” of plants is another means of self-defence adopted by those flowers whose fertilization is dependent upon the visits of day insects; while on the other hand there are other species of flowers adapted for moths and nocturnal insects, which expand towards night, and scent the evening air with delicious perfume. The curious life history of _Silene Nutans_ was then referred to, and the advantages of early rising shown in those flowers which expand early in the morning to receive bees, but close again before the later rising ants are astir.

Sir John proceeded to discuss the means by which insects provide themselves with means of concealment, by imitating the appearance of plants; the “walking stick” insect, and many larvæ are cases in point. Some caterpillars, living on the under side of leaves, not only adapted their color to those leaves, but actually, as their growth increased, altered their markings so as to coincide with the fibres of the leaves. Curiously enough, sometimes bright and striking colors were used as a mode of protection. In these cases, however, they are accompanied by an unpleasant smell and taste, so that the gorgeous dress which would seem so dangerous is in fact a most effectual shield.

The lecturer pointed out that there were five principal types of coloring among caterpillars. Those which live inside wood or leaves or underground are generally of a pale uniform hue; the small leaf-eating caterpillars are green, like the leaves on which they feed. The other three types may “_si parva licet componere magnis_” be compared with the three types of coloring among cats; there are the ground cats, as the lion and puma, which are brownish or sand color, like the open places they frequent; so also, caterpillars which conceal themselves by day at the roots of their plant food, even if originally green, tend to assume the color of earth. The spotted or eyed cats, such as the leopard, live among trees, and their peculiar color renders them inconspicuous, by mimicking the spots of light and shade among the foliage. Lastly, there are the striped cats, as the tiger, which inhabit the jungle, whose markings render them difficult to see among the brown grass they frequent. The stripes of the tiger are transverse because he walks horizontally on the ground; while the stripes on the caterpillar are either longitudinal or oblique, the direction of the lines follows those of the foliage; those caterpillars which cling to the grass in a vertical position have longitudinal lines, while those which live on mere leaves have oblique lines, corresponding with the oblique midribs of the leaves.

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THE BLACKBERRY.

This fruit has received the least attention at the hands of fruit growers of any of our small fruits. Plants are seldom inquired for, and only a few hundreds are planted, where thousands of currants, raspberries, and gooseberries, and millions of strawberries are set out. Mr. Parry, of New Jersey, is an extensive cultivator of small fruits, and for many years boasted a large number of acres of blackberries under cultivation, and may therefore be considered good authority on the cultivation of this fruit. In a paper read before the Pennsylvania Fruit Growers’ Society, at its meeting in January, 1877, he states that this fruit has sold readily in his markets at from twelve and a half to fifteen cents per quart. The average received by him during the past fourteen years is fourteen cents per quart, and the yield two thousand two hundred quarts per acre.

The varieties to which he gives the preference are Wilson’s Early, Dorchester, Kittatinny, and New Rochelle. The Hoosac Thornless he finds to have no other merit than its freedom from thorns; and the Crystal White, Col. Wilder, and Dr. Warder, with all white, red, and purple blackberries, prove to be unprofitable. Sable Queen, Sinclair, Holcomb, Cumberland, and many other varieties have been tested and found not to be as valuable as the four sorts above named. He has found the Snyder to be remarkably hardy and very productive, qualities which make it very valuable in many localities, because it can be relied upon to produce a full crop, but the fruit is smaller. Clarkson’s Early promises to compete successfully with Wilson’s Early, ripening as soon, and very productive, with fruit of fair size. The Delaware is a very large and excellent blackberry, ripening at the same time with the Kittatinny, and the bush a very vigorous grower, and seemingly perfectly hardy.

The blackberry should not be planted on very rich soil, lest the result prove to be a large growth of canes and very little fruit. After experimenting with many soils, from a firm clay to a light blowing sand, Mr. Parry gives the preference to a light moist sandy loam, and if water would otherwise stand near the surface that which has been thoroughly underdrained. He states that a fruit grower who had forty acres devoted to the growing of blackberries bought a tract of light sandy land at thirteen dollars per acre, and planted it with them; but in order to have a model patch he purchased a few acres of the best and richest land in the vicinity, at three hundred dollars per acre, and planted it with the same kind of blackberries, gave it the best of care, obtained an immense growth of canes; but never as much fruit as from the cheaper land.