October 26, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



543 



Tiausparent, Gov. Wood and Yellov,' 

 Spauish, lor eating; for cocking, Mont- 

 morency and Early Richmond. 



Currants: Fay's, Wilder and Red 

 Cross, for red. White Grape or White 

 Imperial, for white. Black Naples and 

 Champion, for black. 



Gooseberries. Red- Industry and 

 Red Jacket. White: Chatauqua, 

 Columbus and Triumph, while Down- 

 ing fills the bill for a small white, 

 and is good for cooking, and when 

 thoroughly ripe is of excellent quality 

 for eating. 



Raspberries: Cuthbert for red. 

 Golden Queen for white, and Kansas 

 for black, while Herbert might be 

 mentioned as a close rival of the Cuth- 

 bert. 



Blackbeiries: Agawam, Dorchester 

 and Ward. 



Strawberries: Marshall, Brandy- 

 wine, Sample, Parson's Beauty, Car- 

 dinal, Granville, .Sen. Dunlap; among 

 the newer ones, Chesapeake, Abington, 

 E. H. EcKey, New Home and Golden 

 Gate. 



Directions for Planting. 



I will not attempt to infringe on 

 your good nature by giving planting 

 and cultuial directions for ihe list that 

 i have just read you, but will say in 

 passing, that you should use thj same 

 care iu planting fruit trees, plants and 

 bushes that you give to your best 

 ornamental planting, always keeping 

 in mind that a tree well set is half 

 grown, and also that many of our 

 fruit trees have very poor roots to 

 start with, and need even more care 

 at this critical time than many of the 

 ornamentals. Spring setting should 

 be preferred to fall in most cases; one 

 exception to this is the strawberry, 

 which, for garden culture, should be 

 set in .August or September. 



Cultivation. 

 All hard wooded fruit plants should 

 have thorough cultivation for at least 

 three months in the year, May, June 

 and Julv, after which cultivation 

 should be discontinued, in order that 

 the new wood should have time to 

 ripen before cold weather, and where 

 trees and bushes are planted in a 

 space by themselves, the ground 

 should be sowed with a crop of vetch. 

 winter rye or wheat, late in July or 

 early August. This serves to keep the 

 weeds down and protects the ground 

 from freezing and thawing during the 

 winter, whereby many of the small 

 feeding roots are broken. It the 

 ground niust be cultivated until lat.-^, 

 a mulch of some kind should be put 

 about the roots foi winter protection, 

 hut not next to the bark of the trees 

 or bushes, as mice are apt to live in 

 this litter and girdle the stems during 

 the winter. This mulch n.ust be ap 

 plied after the ground is frozen. With 

 the strawberry, cultivation can be kept 

 up through September and possibly a 

 part of October, according to the 

 v/eather. Before the winter mulch is 

 applied to the strawberry bed, see 

 that there are no low" places where 

 water will stand over the plants, and 

 it is always best, if youi bed is on 

 flat land, to dig a few holes in the 

 ground at least three feet deep, filling 

 them with leaves. These act as drains 

 for all surface water which would 

 otherwise be kept on top of the plants 

 by the frozen ground The mulch 

 over the strawberry ijed should be 



very light, bearing in mind that you 

 do not want to keep the cold out, but 

 the frost in. when once the ground is 

 frozen. 



Spraying. 

 ^\'lren your orchard and garden are 

 once started and grow'ing, the spray- 

 ing and pruning of your trees and 

 thinning of your fruit, will largely 

 determine your success or failure in 

 producing good specimens. In these 

 days of insect pests and blights, 

 spraying is as important to the grow- 

 ing of good clean fruit, as the disin- 

 fecting of a room after a case of 

 smail-pox or scarlet fever, to the 

 preservation of the public healtir. 

 Spiaying should be done at least three 

 times in the year, — November tor 

 scale, with Scalecide or lime, sulphur 

 and salt; May. with bordeaux and 

 arsenate of lead in combination, foi' 

 blight and insects; and late July, for 

 late fruits, witn bordeaux, alone. An ■ 

 other spraying can be given in March 

 or .\pril, with benefit. 



Pruning. 



The subject of pruning alone, could 

 occupy at least one evening's discus- 

 sion, and then we would only get at 

 some rudinrentary principles, but these 

 will be enough for the practical gar- 

 dener to enlarge upon. There is a 

 difference between pruning and cutting 

 off limbs. Pruning generally helps 

 trees, but cutting as it is done by the 

 average attendant, is no better than 

 butchery. First, in pruning, bear in 

 mind that sunlight and air are as 

 essential to fruit as to !lov/ers; there- 

 fore, keep your trees and bushes open 

 to both of these life-giving, indis- 

 pensable elements, removing all sur- 

 plus branches, dead wood and suckers, 

 and pinching back soft growths, [n 

 bush fruits, such as cu:Tants anl 

 gooseberries, remove all four-year 

 wood and keep at least two new canes 

 coming on all the time. In raspberries 

 and blackberries, the fruiting wood 

 bhodld be cat off and burned as soon 

 as the crop is gathered. On all 

 standard trees, keep the tops well cut 

 back; in other words, keep the trees 

 low-headed ,so It will be easy to work 

 them. In low-headed trees, the work 

 can be reduced at least 50 per cent. 

 .'^U spraying can be d-')ne from the 

 ground, while pruning and thinning 

 can be accomplished with a short step- 

 ladder. 



One important point to be remem- 

 bei'ed vvhile pruning, is that you can 

 carry harmful bacteiia on your prun- 

 ing tools from one tree to another. 

 Pear blight, Peach yellows ?nd vavioua 

 other forms of plant disease are car- 

 ried in this way, so treat all wounds 

 made by pruning with coal tar or 

 creosote, and dip your tools in a solu- 

 tion of corrosive sublimate before 

 going to a new tree. Yoir would never 

 hear of a good surgeon using the same 

 instruments twice, without disinfect- 

 ing them first, and the gardener must 

 take equal precautions, if he would 

 keep disease frorri spreading in his 

 orchard. Flies and other insects carry 

 disease from wounds that ai-e not care- 

 fully treated, especially if pruning is 

 done too late in the spring. 



Thinning the Fruit. 

 Probably the most important point 

 to the gardener who has a type of 

 excellence always before him, is the 



thinning of the fruit, and indeed here 

 lies in a large me.asure the final and 

 crowning result of his labor; for, to 

 place before his employer or upon his 

 own table specimens which are per- 

 fect in form, smooth of skin, large in 

 size and, most important of all, de- 

 licious in flavor, is largely due to 

 judicious thinning. A general rule as 

 to thinning, to be followed in all fruit 

 culture is, remove at least one-half 

 of the specimens set, and the time and 

 method of so doing will depend much 

 on your own good judgment. Apples 

 and pears should be thinned when 

 about the size of an P'ngl'sh walnut; 

 plums, peaches, apricots and all stone 

 fruits, when about as large as the end 

 ot your little finger; currants and 

 gooseberries, as soon after they have 

 formed as possible. Few people real- 

 ize the value of thinning these bush 

 fruits. You well know what quanti- 

 ties of f;-uit both these species will 

 set. You have seen currants so thick 

 and so small that there seems to be 

 nothing but currants, no leaves or 

 stem are visible; the strength of the 

 bush has gone towards producing im- 

 mense quantities of these small, poor 

 specimens. This condition of affairs 

 can be changed through judicious 

 thinning of the heavily laden bushes. 

 Remove at least two-thirds of the 

 fruit, and you will still have plenty of 

 currants left and of a far superior 

 quality. The same rule follows with 

 gooseberries. With grapes, never let 

 moie than three bunches grow on one 

 spur, and two are much better than 

 three, and for very fine fruit produc- 

 tion, one bunch to a short spur, allow- 

 ing perhaps a few more spurs to the 

 vine. Strawberries show marked im- 

 proveirrent when thinned; cane fruits 

 are the only exception that I know' to 

 the rule of improvement by thinning. 



Give the Gooseberry a Chance. 



Just one word before closing about 

 one fruit which we seldom find in our 

 gardens to-day, or if it is there it is 

 in the most neglected part, ovei grown 

 with weeds, perhaps, or covered by a 

 tangled growth of vinj and bushes, 

 yet struggling to live, and producing 

 some friut in spite ot neglect. Once 

 in a while it is turned to by some- 

 body, who says "O, it is only a goose- 

 berrv.' Give this gooseberry half a 

 chaiice, though, and it will produce 

 liuit which is delicious, both raw and 

 cooked. We ai-e only beginning to 

 realize its value, and in some places 

 are now giving it the position it de- 

 serves Our friends from .across the 

 water are not unappreciative of its 

 meiits. but they have not interested 

 others who have had less experience 

 with it, in its cultivation. But it is 

 not too late new, so let us plant the 

 gooseberry and enjoy this most pala- 

 table and unusually attractive fruit. 



I shall feel that my eforts have not 

 been in vain to-night, if you will take 

 away this thought- that spraying, 

 pruning and thinning of your fruit are 

 as imiortant to the growing of good 

 specimens, as are watering, disbudding 

 and training ot your plants and flow- 

 ers to the producing of good blooms, 

 and the man who practices these rules 

 will not only derive ir^uch pleasure, 

 but he will have the satisfaction ot 

 knowing that he is benefiting mankind 

 in producing a fruit beautiful to look 

 upon and pleasing to eat. 



