Rose culture is one of the most fascinating occupations in the line of horticulture. But when you come to talking or writing about it you scarcely know where to begin or what to say, there pa.s.ses before your eye an exhibition of such an amazing fragrance and beauty of varying colors. Even now as I am writing these lines I can see with my mind"s eye every rose in my garden, some in their full glory, filling the air with the sweet fragrance; others just opening; others in bud; and so on in an ever pleasing variety. I have taken special interest in roses for some ten or twelve years and have grown a good many different varieties of them with success, good, bad and indifferent. I have succeeded well with some of the hybrid perpetual roses. At the present time I have in my garden Paul Neyron, General Jacquiminot, Ulric Brunner, Black Prince, Etoile De France, Frau Karl Droschky and Marshall P. Wilder, also others of which I have lost the names. Of climbing roses I have Crimson Rambler, Thousand Beauties, Prairie Queen and Dorothy Perkins. All the above named are everbloomers, except the climbers, and all need careful winter protection.
_How to grow them._--Get two year old No. 1 plants and prepare your soil just like you would for your vegetable garden. If your soil is not particularly rich, spade in a liberal quant.i.ty of well rotted manure and mix well with soil. Set your plants and keep up clean cultivation all summer and give them plenty of water, and you will have an abundance of roses the first year. In the fall get some clean straw, bend your rose bushes over, put a fence post across on top of them to hold them down and then cover with straw to a depth of one foot. Or if you have a number of them planted in one row, make a long box about two feet wide and about twenty inches deep, fill about half full of straw, then place along side of the row of plants, bend your plants down lengthwise the row, then tip the box over them, put some straw around sides of box and on the outside put some posts or boards on to hold it down, when you will have the best protection possible. Right here I want to put in a word of warning, and that is, if you do not like to do extra work don"t attempt to grow roses; in other words, if you are lazy they don"t like you well enough to stay with you, for it means work and lots of it.
We have, however, one cla.s.s of roses which can be grown by every one who wants them, the hybrid Rosa Rugosa roses. Of them we have such as Blanche D. Caubet, pure white of large size, a perpetual bloomer; Sir Thomas Lipton, also white, a little smaller in blossom but perfectly double; Conrad Meyer, clear silvery pink, of large size, very double and of choicest fragrance, a continuous bloomer (needs some winter protection); New Century, rosy pink, shading to almost red in the center, good size and double. One of the hardiest is Hansa, deep violet red, very large, double and an exceedingly profuse and continuous bloomer, absolutely hardy. These five varieties can be considered as everybody"s roses, because of the easiness and sureness with which they can be grown, taking into consideration the elimination of winter protection. Planting, preparation of ground and cultivation are the same as for all other roses. Do not imagine for a minute that they will do well in sod or gra.s.s.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Martin Frydholm in his rose garden, at Albert Lea.]
Another cla.s.s of roses is the Baby Ramblers. For borders and bedding roses these I think surpa.s.s all others on account of the easiness by which they may be grown. And they are a perfect ma.s.s of blossoms from June till freezing. They need winter protection, but that is not difficult on account of the low growth and small size of plant.
Above all do not forget that all roses need rich soil and lots of water.
When your rose bushes are three years old you must begin to give some attention to tr.i.m.m.i.n.g. Cut out some of the oldest wood before you lay them down in the fall, and if some of the shoots have grown very tall cut back about half, although these rank canes may give you the best roses the following season if you can protect them well enough so that they do not winter-kill. In this photograph which is shown here is one Ulric Brunner with one shoot extending two feet above my head and covered all along with the most magnificent roses I have ever had in my garden. The same thing I have done with the General Jacquiminot.
Asparagus by the Acre.
E. W. RECORD, MARKET GARDENER, BROOKLYN CENTER.
First I am careful about selecting seed of a good variety. My choice is Palmetto, because it is hardy and the best seller on our market. In starting a bed I sow my seed as early as possible in the spring in rows about eighteen inches apart, and when the plants are well up I thin out to about an inch, so the roots will not be so hard to separate when ready to transplant. My experience has been that plants two years old are more easily handled than those one or three, because the one year plants are not matured enough, while the roots of the three year old have become too matured, and when separated too many of the roots are broken off.
In preparing the ground for asparagus I plow and then harrow it and mark it off so the rows will be five feet apart. I plow a furrow from fourteen to sixteen inches deep, throwing the dirt both ways. Then with my cultivator I loosen up the bottom of the furrow. I place the plants in the furrow about eighteen inches apart, being careful to spread the roots evenly over the bottom of the furrow, putting a little dirt over them to hold them in place. With my cultivator I keep filling in the furrow, at the same time plowing out the middle to keep down the weeds.
In fertilizing a bed of asparagus my experience has been that the best way is to plow a furrow between the rows, filling it with barnyard manure, then covering this with earth. Spreading the manure broadcast makes too many of the stalks grow crooked.
I never cut my asparagus for market until the third year, and then only for a short time. By the fifth year the bed is strong enough to cut the whole season. When the season is over I cultivate often enough to keep down the weeds. I never cut the old stalks off until spring, because after the first freeze the stalks are hollow, and this would allow the frost to run down into the roots.
Annual Report, 1915, Vice-President, Second Congressional District.
JOHN BISBEE, MADELIA.
A summer remarkable in many respects has pa.s.sed. Many of our people have labored hard, and the rewards of that labor have been meager and unsatisfactory. Horticulture with all the other labors on the land has been rewarded like the other cultivators of the soil in our section of the state. I sent out twenty-five of the circulars and twenty were filled out and returned.
Apple raisers report, four a good crop, the balance poor or none.
Plums: One fair, others poor or none.
Cherries: One good, all others poor.
Grapes: One good, balance poor to none.
Blackberries: One good, balance poor to none.
Other fruits all poor.
Nursery stock: One place reports one car load planted, the balance a few, all making good growth.
Strawberries: Five report good crop, balance few to poor.
Blight: Some reported but little efforts made to eradicate.
Fruit trees did not suffer much last winter (1914-5). All report plenty of moisture in ground.
Varieties of apples doing best: Wealthy, d.u.c.h.ess, Longfield, Salome, Spitzenberg, Northwestern Greening, Anisim, Malinda, Hibernal, Jonathan.
Spraying neglected very largely.
I am doing all of the top-working I can get done every spring.
Am setting largely the Salome. I find the tree hardy here; a moderate bearer; apples fine and handsome; a good keeper; tree does not blight and grows very thriftily. It grows on a great share of the stocks in which I have placed it.
My next best apple is the Spitzenberg. I am not placing many Wealthy scions, as I have about all I want of them.
I tried thinning the fruit on some of my heavy bearers last summer and like it much. I think the best way to do it is to cut out the fruit spurs, as that can be done in the winter.
Annual Report, 1915, Vice-President, Fifth Congressional District.
CHAS. H. RAMSDELL, MINNEAPOLIS.
The horticultural interests of the Fifth Congressional District (of which Minneapolis is the largest part) comprise three lines of activity, the raising of fruit, vegetables and flowers for home supply and profit, ornamental horticulture for pleasure and the city marketing of the produce of this and every other region, furnishing whatever is demanded by a large metropolitan market. Therefore, I will report along these lines.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Chas. H. Ramsdell.]
Judging from the reports of my correspondents throughout the country, the "freeze" in May was responsible for a rather complete absence of local fruit the past season. Sheltered orchards and those on the south side of any lake bore a small crop. Of apples, the Wealthy and Malinda are mentioned as bearing fairly well. Plums were entirely a failure, cherries are not raised to any extent, grapes and small fruits were not enough to supply the market as a whole. Raspberry and strawberry growing seems to be on the decline, owing to the prevalence of insect pests which do _not_ receive attention to keep them in check. The importance of this is all the more apparent, because with the shorter distances of this district being the rule, the danger from rapid spread is more p.r.o.nounced.
The growing conditions of the season have been of the best, and all stock goes into the winter in excellent shape with a good amount of soil moisture and a promise for better conditions next season.
Several market reports have been received which give valuable information. Prices of fruit, vegetables and floral stock have been low in almost all cases. The public demand has been rather below normal, although it has been steady and fair in volume. There seems to be a good deal of complaint about the care of the railroads, etc., with fruit and perishable products, but, on the other hand, a good deal of local produce is not put up in good shape. The uniformly good packing of western fruit reveals the cause of its popularity on the local markets.
Certain kinds of fruit almost glutted the market this season, notably Florida grape fruit, western box apples and peaches. I quote one market statement as very pertinent:
If Minnesota apple growers would gather their apples before they are too ripe, carefully grade and pack uniformly through the barrel, thus making it possible for the wholesaler to ship out on orders, they would undoubtedly realize more for their product than to market them themselves in the usual manner in which apples are marketed.
Ornamental horticulture in my district is making rapid progress. Large lots of nursery stock are yearly put in with excellent results. The influence and interest of the "Garden Flower Society" and of these horticultural meetings is nowhere more felt than in Hennepin County. The gardens of the Minneapolis park board, in Loring Park, at Lyndale Farmstead, and near the Parade and Armory, give the horticultural public much valuable information. Even the wild flower garden in Glenwood Park is yearly receiving an increasing number of visitors. The increasing use of perennials is creating a new gardening enthusiasm. The perennial exhibit at the summer meeting of the Horticultural Society was worthy of much study. Careful use of hardy evergreens is increasing also, adding value especially to our winter landscapes. This season has been very favorable to gardening work and steady has been the progress made.
Greater care with insect pests, and better methods of preparing fruit for market seem to be the two greatest needs of the horticulturists of the Fifth District.
APPLE PRODUCTION AND PRICES.--According to the best authority available, the apple crop in the United States for 1915 promises to be about 22,500,000 barrels, says The Niagara County, New York, Farm Bureau News. This will be the lightest crop in several years, the 1910 crop being the next lightest, when about 24,000,000 barrels were produced. In comparison, the 1914 crop was about 45,000,000 barrels and the 1913 crop about 30,000,000 barrels.