HORTICULTURAL CLIPPINGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 351, 16 March 1889, Page 5

HORTICULTURAL CLIPPINGS.

Pjsas. — For exbiaearly, a Yankee gardener s.-jys that Rawson's Clipper beats all competitors, as also in productiveness and quality. In his opinion, Vermont Wonder far excels American Wonder in productiveness and perfection of pods, being of the same season, and constituting a satisfactory succession to the Clipper. As a third sort he is satisfied with Telephone, and for late the Aroostook Marrowfat is good, nnd free from mildew. This is not the BlockMarrowfat, but a semi-wrinkled pea, much better in quality.

(Hakdev Bkets. — About thia vegetable the same writer quoted above states as follows : — Again I am constrained to repcrt that as a second-early (Egyptian being still first) I find nothing that gets ahead of the Dewing-, which otherwise has my preference for its deep colour and remarkable sweetness. For seveial years I have grown it I side by bide with Eclipse and Edmunds; and although both the latter, growing above ground, appear to be earlier than Dewing, which grows under ground, examination bus shown the latter quite as large at the same time. Theio is no doubt that Eclipse in better in qnnliry than Egyptian, but I cannot make it as caily, and there is a strong preference for a dark beet among my I customers.

" Useless " Pla\ts. - There a»e hunrircds of planip of each of which men =ay, " Thiit of io earthly u«o," even if they don't go further and \<r chiim ib " a pest." Bub we ar<j cotitinually finding oufc s-urprisinply ii-etul profierfcius of ono port or anooner in hitherto despised plants, and good uses for nil may some day be discovered. We already befrin to acknowledge tl^it some weeds are blessings. The prickly pear, a hated peßt where abundant, is now woiked up into valuable cattle food, and even conserved for table use, and is eaid to resemble dried figs.

Apple Compktition*. — American or- ' chardists, says an Amciican write), musb soon moefc the competition in English mar1 ets of apple growers in Australia and Tasmania. The import of choice applos from these latter points has already increased to such an extent as to affect British fruit-growers.

New Fruits,— R. S. Colo ( Farm and Home) warns horticulturists nob to be in a hurry about pronouncing upon the merits of new fruits. He has grown strawberries for thitty-fix years, and knows no variety can be fairly tested in one season. Ho remembers how his neighbours ploughed under the Wilson and Crescent nt worthies after ono sea-on's t'ial, and afterward-* puid big prices for plants from others who held on to them. There are so many varied conditions of soil, climate, location, season and modes of culture to which the strawberry is subject in any country, that only thorough test* are the criterion by which we may judge of the value of a variety upon its first introduction.

Three- year-old Strawberry Plants. — It i-< stated by a horticultural writer that in England strawberry plantations are considered to be at their be^t when two or three years old. He remarks thai the opposite view apparently prevails in America, where often only one crop, and never more than two ci'ops arc taken before ploughing up. In New Zealand, we notice, growers take little pains to keep the planta'ions clean atter their hryb season, letting them run quite wild the third season, and then ploughing up.

It Wants Brains. — In fruit growing, as in many of the other branches or lines of farm work, the best plan of management i* to commence on a moderately small scale at first, and then increase as your experience warrants. Many things seem very nice to read about, and it is comparatively an ea«y matter bo figure out pos-ible profits. A little experience will change much of this, and the fact will bo developed that profits are only obtained by intelligent management, and this is fully as important with the making of any specialty of farm products, as in any other line of business. Men fail in other lines of business for the same reason that they fail in making a specialty of growing fruits — lack ot experience and management. It is id c to imagine that a man who hue made a failure of any other business can readily make a success ot farming or fruitgrowing. There in no doubt but that he can try, but the idea th t anyone can at the present time go into fruit-growing and be sure of success without any experience is an enoneous one.