ing of the Club, ridiculing the 'idea that grape-vines ever blossom without bearing fruit. Mr. Foster says:

"If a grape-vine grew vigorously, and never blossomed, I should think there was a defect in its cultivation; but I feel certain that there are 'flowering grape-vines' which will not bear fruit. The largest grape-vine I ever saw grows indigenous upon the banks of the White river. It has had an abundance of blossoms every year for twenty years, but no fruit; although great pains have been taken in its cultivation, and, I might add, there is no other grape-vine within the distance of a mile. If the grape is ever dioecious, then, of course, it may flower without bearing fruit; and that some species may have perfect flowers and others not, is no more strange than the same fact as regards the strawberry and raspberry.

"All the works on botany which I have consulted agree that the flowers of the Vitis Vinifera, or Wine grape, are perfect; and those of the Vitis Labrusca, 'like most of the North American species, are diœcious.'

"An examination of the flowers would, of course, settle the question whether or not they are self-fertilizing."

Mr. Pardee.-If we could get the flowers of this vine and test it under the microsoope, some facts might be gained that would settle the question. Mr. E. P. Doughty, of New Jersey.-I have two grape-vines growing upon my place very vigorously, one of them running upon a fence, the other upon shrubbery, both of which blossom every year, and the flowers are fragrant; and I believe neither of them ever produced a grape. One of these I bought for a valuable white grape; the vine was quite large. when I set it, and during the first years I trimmed and cultivated it carefully, but as it produced nothing, I have since let it take its own course. Here, then, certainly, are two barren grape-vines.

The Chairman, Prof. Renwick.-It would be very easy for a botanist to examine the flowers of one of these barren grape-vines to determine whether or not they are diœcious; and I suggest that Mr. Foster should send some of the flowers of his vine to us for examination, as Mr. Doughty says it is. too late to examine the flowers of his vine this year.

Mr. Carpenter. I do not think one would need a glass to examine the flowers of a grape-vine, and I do not see why a grape-vine should not produce barren flowers as well as raspberries, strawberries and other plants. I have given up the cultivation of Allen's raspberry on account of the flowers being almost entirely of the pistillate variety.

STRAWBERRIES.

Mr. R. G. Pardee.—Although but few strawberries are wholly barren, it is very certain that some varieties are nearly so, unless some staminate plants of other varieties are planted near them. This is particularly the case with Hovey's seedling. It is certain that a large portion of the blossoms of apple trees, cherry trees, peach trees, etc., are barren.

Mr. Peter G. Bergen, of L. I.—I have a great many strawberry plants that prove barren in another way; they have not produced any blossoms this year. I am at quite a loss to know what to do with these plantswhether to take them out and destroy them, or let them produce runners. I am afraid the new plants would be barren,

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Mr. R. G. Pardee.—I would cultivate and manure highly, and let them live.

Dr. Trimble. I understood Mr. Fuller to say at a previous meeting, that the best time to set out new beds of strawberries was in September.

Mr. Carpenter.I have looked into this subject, and think the reason is that the vines have blossomed in the fall. My vines that blossomed last fall have no blossoms this spring.

Mr. Robinson. I never saw more blossoms on my vines in the spring as I saw on them last fall, and this spring they are as full of blossoms as

ever.

REMEDY FOR ROSE BUGS.

Mr. Solon Robinson read a letter from D. Petit, Salem, N. J., giving a remedy for this pest of the farmer.

"In the discussion of the American Institute Farmers' Club, I perceive that pest to the farmers and fruit growers, the 'rose bug,' was introduced by Mr. Robinson.

"I will endeavor to give a remedy which, if carried out fully, will prove a satisfactory one; for I, too, have had my cherries 'eaten to the stone' by this pest, and have 'had them burrowed in apples,' and have had my grape. blossoms destroyed by them. To rid myself of them I tried and adopted the following simple remedy, which, so far as I have carried it out, has proved entirely successful, viz:

"I ascertained, in the first place, that one of the vegetables they most preyed upon was radishes, or radish tops. When they had been most troublesome the year before, on my grape vines, I sowed near by, early in the spring, a patch with radish seed. These blossomed about the time the bugs just made their appearance (which is here on or about the first day of summer; I have known them to come as late as the eighth), and would attract or draw them from most other vegetables. I had a large tin cup made with a funnel-shaped tin to go inside, but not so deep as to reach the bottom. I then went around every day about midday during their season— which was from two to three weeks-bent over the radish tops and shook the bugs into the funnel-shaped tin, which let them down to the bottom of the tin cup, from which they could not extricate themselves, and they were destroyed. By this mode, if well attended to for one season only, they may be so far eradicated as not to be very troublesome the next year. It is now about twenty-five years since I first tried the experiment, and I have cleared two farms of these pests, so that we make but little account of them now, only to note their yearly return.

Mr. Pardee said he had often destroyed these bugs when they invested rose-bushes, by shaking them into a pan of water.

THE BLACK BLIGHT OF PEAR TREES.

Mr. Solon Robinson.-Some weeks since Wm. H. Pettit, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, wrote to the Club for a remedy for the black blight in pear trees, which attacks the bark upon the body of the tree, which turns black and dies, and the wood under it often decays so as to kill the tree. He now sends us the following letter upon the same subject:

"The pear tree (a Flemish beauty) about which I wrote you a short time since has leaved out fresh and green as any tree I possess, and notwithstanding Mr. Carpenter says there is no remedy for it, I am going to try one experiment upon the bark, to wit: I am going to cover the bark on the body of the tree with a thick coating of tar. Tar is said to possess healing virtues for sore lungs and other ailments of the human body, and I am going to see what effect it will have on my pear tree. I can't say I have much faith in my medicine; I don't believe it will injure it any.

"I ought to have told you in my other letter what I supposed caused my pear tree to show signs of disease. It stood not far from a spout which conducted off the water from the roof, and the rain of last summer was so frequent and liberal, that the water from that spout sank into the ground at the roots of the tree, and drenched them to almost drowning. I shall have to make a conductor to convey the water off from the tree, or my tar will be of no avail.

"If I succeed in saving my tree I will let you and the Club know. If I fail, perhaps the symptoms of its final dissolution and departure from this sublunary sphere I will watch and send you."

Mr. Carpenter. I think that Mr. Pettit will kill the tree.

Mr. A. S. Fuller.-Some years ago I removed a good many trees from a nursery, where they had stood ten or twelve years, and afterward found a large number of them affected more or less with this black blight. A few of them died, and others recovered. I noticed that the disease afflicted some varieties much more than others. Those which naturally produce a rough bark appeared to be affected the most. Some of the smoothest barked varieties escaped entirely. I have never found any remedy for this disease. If good cultivation is given to the ground, and the right kind of fertilization, and for this ashes are valuable, the trees will often outgrow the disease. The only benefit of tar would be to preserve the dead wood from decay until the scar might be partially healed over.

Mr. John G. Bergen. It is possible that tar has sometimes killed young trees, but I doubt it unless it was coal tar In our neighborhood young trees are often tarred to prevent the goats from eating the bark.

Dr. Bliss. A few days since I was at Hoboken, N. J. I saw a number of young trees planted out; they were all tarred; it appeared to prevent all shoots from starting on the tarred part, but above the tar they were growing vigorous.

Mr. Solon Robinson.-If tarring fruit trees will kill them, nearly all the orchards in the eastern part of Connecticut would have been destroyed long ago, for they were tarred regularly every day for some weeks during every spring, when I was a boy, to keep the canker worms from ascending. The tar used was that procured from pine trees.

Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter.-I have one fact about tarring trees. I had a cherry tree which was liable to being gnawed by horses, and I tarred it to prevent that, and the tree died; I don't know that tar killed it, but I should be afraid to try further experiments.

Mr. A. S. Fuller.-Well, I am not, and I will try it upon a variety of trees, and know to a certainty whether tar will kill them.

FIELD AND GARDEN CULTURE OF STRAWBERRIES.

The regular subject of the day, "Field and Garden Culture of Strawberries," was then called up.

Mr. R. G. Pardee.-I consider spring planting as far preferable to autumn. The plants are more likely to live, and are pretty sure to bear a full crop the next year, while plants set out in autumn often make feeble growth, and seem never to recover their full vigor. Wilson's seedling is a variety that needs and will bear higher manuring than any other sort. I have noticed frequently that it is a rare chance for plants set after July to produce a crop the next year. I have tried all seasons of the year, and know that spring planting is best. I am aware that some persons are very successful in summer and fall planting-Mr. Fuller for one, but I notice he shades his plants with boards. All staminate plants produce more runners than pistillate plants, but none produce fruit and runners at the same time. If it is an object to multiply plants, they should not be allowed to bear fruit. New plants can be produced at a very rapid rate by stimulating the roots, and the best thing for the purpose that I ever tried is sal soda dissolved at the rate of one ounce in three gallons of water, and that applied copiously. I have also used copperas in about the same proportion, and so I have sulphate of potash, with wonderful results. I once had eight plants of a very choice variety of strawberries, and a gardener offered me thirty-one cents apiece for all the good plants that I would deliver him in the fall, and by means of this stimulating process I had a bill of over $100 against him. It is no use to say that pure water would produce the same effect; it is not so that I am fully satisfied of from numerous experiments. Soap suds make an excellent application for strawberries. There are some beds that will not produce fruit by any kind of fertilizing, because they lack staminate plants. The sal soda application that I have mentioned, if applied to a lawn, will double the grass in thirty days. I have satisfied myself that the more we dilute the stimulating fertilizers, the better for the crop. One spoonful of guano in a pailful of water is better than a pound. To make a new bed of strawberries I would recommend the use of the salt and lime mixture to the ground, and then plant it with potatoes, and after the crop is gathered plow the ground well and plant the vines in rows three feet apart, and one foot apart in the rows, use the cultivator freely, and thin the runners out so that no plant should have less room than one foot. I believe that 150 bushels can be raised on an acre. Never let your strawberries mat.

The Chairman remarked that farmers should remember the distinction between sulphate and carbonate of potash; the first is a neutral salt.

Mr. Adrian Bergen, of Long Island, inquired if the several salts mentioned would suit all kinds of vegetation.

Mr. Pardee and the Chairman both replied that there was no doubt about the beneficial effects to all crops, of soda, potash, copperas, guano and many other articles, if applied in as weak a solution as Mr. Pardee used for strawberries.

Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter attributed much of the benefit supposed to be derived from the soda, etc., to the water, as strawberries are extremely

thirsty. He thought it was the drought last year that gave the barrenness of blossoms to Mr. Bergen's plants. He said: I don't know but sulphate of potash applied in weak solution will make plants produce runners; but I do know that ashes, although the best kind of manure to make plants produce fruit, are the worst to make them produce runners. To obtain plants in a small way, of choice varieties, my practice is to manure highly, and strike the plants in thumb pots. It is my opinion that the barrenness of some strawberry beds this year arises from their putting forth so many flowers last fall.

The Chairman.-That theory will not do, because in California, where they are all grown by artificial watering, they regularly produce two crops a year, and at Los Angelos the strawberry plants are blooming and fruiting all the year.

Dr. Trimble. I should like to know how we are to settle the question, whether to plant strawberries in the fall or in the spring, or whether to manure or not, when there are so many conflicting opinions.

Mr. John G. Bergen-I have no doubt that spring is the best time to plant for field culture, where I live, on the light soil of Long Island. I have seen plants set out in summer from the first runners, that produced a good crop the next season, but as a general thing plants set out in autumn do not produce a good crop the next year; so I think it best to plant in the spring, and tend them well that season as long as it is possible to use the plow and cultivator on account of the runners, and then let them be, and next year get a good crop without any more labor, and then plow all under, and at the same time have a new plantation coming on. By this means we can use plenty of manure. I would say that in my young days we used to raise strawberries for market. The Crimson Cone and Scotch Runner were the kinds approved of in those days. I have had a good deal of experience in growing strawberries for market. If I am using old ground I prepare it thoroughly, as for corn, and then mark off the ground, four feet by four feet, and set the plants two in a hill, and work it both ways as often as two or three weeks. I also believe in hoeing strawberries as much as I do corn. I have sold $300 an acre from the first crop, and, when I have tried to preserve the same vines for a second /crop, have rarely exceeded $100, unless it was on new ground.

Mr. Fuller.—I think if you plant strawberries for a field crop, say fifty acres, the plants should last five years.

Mr. Carpenter. Some kinds must be cultivated in hills-the Triomphe de Gand, for instance. The Austin grows best in mass. I have always heard that hoeing the strawberry was condemned by most growers, but I think the ground should be kept clean and light. I like the hoe.

Rev. Mr. Weaver, Fordham.-I set 150 plants last fall, dressing the bed with horse and hen manure, and all lived, and now look remarkably well and full of fruit.

Mr. R. G. Pardee.-I tried six years and failed to get fruit, using manure freely in a good garden soil, and then by a different course succeeded in growing as fine fruit as I wish. I call a strawberry bed a good one when I can pick quarts of berries five inches around. For field culture, I would first make the soil very mellow by plowing and harrowing and subsoiling, [AM INST

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