The Bulletin, . ' 67 



A FRUIT GARDEN FOR EVERY FARM. 



By F. C. REIMER, Horticulturist, N. C. Kxpcrimont Station. 



It is needless to say that every farm home should be supplied with a col- 

 lection of tlio best fruits that can be grown in that section. There is nolliing 

 that tlio average individual is more fond of than good fruit. Every child and 

 most grown people crave it. Physicians tell us that the acids in fruit serve 

 necessary and beneficial functions in the digestion of food. This being true, 

 one would expect to hud every farm home supplied with a good fruit garden ; 

 that the table would contain a good supply of fruits for many if not all 

 months of the year; that we would hnd rosy-cheeked children strolling around 

 through the fruit garden; that the winter table would be made appetizing 

 with good fruit; that the long winter nights would be made bright and 

 merry with a bounteous supply of fruit. 



This is what one should expect to find, but I am sorry to say that it is 

 what he seldom does find. In traveling from the seashore to the mountains, 

 the sad fact has been brought home to me that our farm homes are woefully 

 lacking in this respect. Even in the oldest farm communities one seldom finds 

 a good fruit garden. In place of it one usually finds sickly peach trees, and 

 a few miserable, scrawny apple trees. It is with unusual delight that one 

 finds now and then a fruit garden filled to its utmost with every fruit of the 

 temperate climate. I am sorry to say that the most of this type have usually 

 been found in towns and cities, and not around country homes. And this 

 condition prevails in a State in which can be grown to perfection every fruit 

 known to grow between Florida and Canada. What then is responsible for 

 the condition of our fruit gardens? 



There are several reasons, but the writer will confine himself to a consid- 

 eration of only one, and that one of the most potent. This is the lack of 

 varieties that are suited to local conditions. Trees are bought from tree 

 peddlers, irresponsible nurserymen, and varieties unsuited to their conditions 

 from reliable nurserymen. Such trees are planted with great hopes of future 

 crops. These hopes are never realized. The trees soon succumb to an unsuit- 

 able climate, insects and disease. Many of them make vigorous trees but pro- 

 duce very little fruit, or fruit of poor quality. 



The best way to get good results is to do your own propagation of fruit 

 trees. By so doing you secure your trees very cheaply, you get trees and 

 varieties that are best suited to your soil and climate, and you secure trees of 

 those varieties which you like best. For example, you find a certain fruit in 

 your section that you are very fond of, and one well suited to your section. 

 It is a very simple operation to produce many trees just like it. This, I con- 

 sider, by far the most important step in getting a good fruit garden. Many 

 varieties are planted in localities to which they are not well suited. Propa- 

 gate from those trees and varieties that have stood the test in your locality. 



If you have a seedling tree of excellent quality, it is an easy matter to pro- 

 duce it true to kind. As an illustration of this, I will cite an excellent exam- 

 ple: In the higher altitudes among our highest mountains, practically all of 

 the varieties of peaches now propagated by nurserymen are a failure, still 

 many seedling peach trees are grown successfully, and some of these are of 

 excellent quality. Many of them are very inferior. In trying to reproduce 

 the good ones from the seed, most of the offspring are usually different from 

 the parent and inferior to it. What should be done? Propagate by budding 

 those few seedling trees that are giving the best results in your section. 



There is usually considerable difference among different trees of the same 

 variety. The best of these can be reproduced ; while in buying from nursery- 

 men, one often gets trees propagated from inferior stock or stock of unknown 

 origin. 



Many different vai-ieties can be grown on one tree. For example, by bud- 

 ding or grafting into the different branches as many different varieties can 

 be grown as there are buds or grafts inserted. Peaches can be grown that 



