7«4 



HORTICULTURE 



December 12, 1908 



swelling, or the tying material is like- 

 ly to nil Into the wo. hi causing gum- 

 ami strangulation. Ai starting 



n a good watei ing should be given, 



and a! no time should the border he 

 allow ! li gel di J - nol even in winter 

 When the trees are dormant. It' it does, 

 a loss of buds is most sure to be the 

 re it! 



Thev should he started at a night 

 temperature of 45 deg.— day tempera- 

 lure in or l."> higher. After two weeks 

 this should be increased gradually un- 

 til they are in bloom, syringing twice 

 a day and shutting up with sun heat 

 in the afternoon; but on no account 

 try to tone i hem too much at first for 

 if "you do the wood buds wil get ahead 

 of the ilower buds and a poor set will 

 result. 



Care When in Bloom. 



When in bloom the house should be 

 kept free from moisture. No syring- 

 ing, and a crack of night air with a 

 slightly lower temperature is the best 

 condition at this time. When the 

 blooms are fully expanded and the 

 pollen dry, which is generally near the 

 middle of the day, a good sharp rap- 

 ping of the trees distributes it; a rab- 

 bit's tail on a stick or a camel's hair 

 brush is all that is necessary to set 

 the fruit. Once or twace through the 

 blooming season a very slight syring- 

 ing is very beneficial. This should be 

 done in tlie middle of the day so that 

 t lie trees will be sure to get dry before 

 night. 



Another means employed is to take 

 a hive of bees into the house. This 

 seems too cruel to me as so many of 

 them die and it is entirely unnecessary 

 when these other means are employed. 

 There is no danger of not enough fruit 

 setting; in this country the trouble 

 seems to be too. free setting. 



Disbudding and Ripening. 



After the trees go out of bloom a 

 thorough syringing every fine morn- 

 ing must be resorted to and a higher 

 temperature maintained until the ston- 

 ing period, when they must be kept 

 cooler and less water given, or crack- 

 ing of the stone will result. After 

 stoning they will swell very rapidly 

 and almost any amount of heat and 

 moisture may be given them. When 

 ripening, plenty of air, and less mois- 

 ture both in the house and border must 

 be used, but on no account let the bor- 

 der get dry, or dropping of the fruit 

 may result. Never syringe in the af- 

 ternoon, except in the earlier stage be- 

 fore blooming, or rust on the fruit will 

 ensue. 



After the blooms are set the wood 

 will begin to grow, and disbudding 

 must be taken care of; all surplus 

 growths should he rubbed off. taking 

 care so far as possible to leave one 

 growth at the base of the last year's 

 >ih; this will be the wood for 

 next year's fruiting. Of course all sur- 

 plus growths cannot be taken off at 

 one operation. Generally we take off 

 all the growths on the underside of the 

 limb fit st and then thin out the others 

 to be taken off as the shoot from the 

 base grows, doing the whole operation 

 gradually before they get too long, 

 though a peach tree seems to resent 

 pruning less than any other tree. 

 These shoots must be tied in. as it is 

 termed, or down to the wires and kept 

 in a line with the limbs, as the 

 straighter the growths are kept, the 



better the general appearance of the 

 tree. If any shoots make a rampant 

 growth they can be stopped and will 

 produce two or thiee medium growths 

 which will make good fruiting wood. 

 The fruit should be thinned as soon as 

 it is possible to determine which will 

 swell, and it will be necessary to go 

 over the tree several times to be sure 

 and leave plenty and not overcrop the 

 trees. A good plan is to leave the 

 fruit rather thick until after they are 

 stoned as sometimes from one cause 

 or another the trees will drop quite 

 a few fruit during the stoning period. 



The fruit should be left on the tree 

 until thoroughly ripe and great care is 

 necessary in removing it from the trees 

 so as not to injure it as it is very 

 easily bruised. Ooing over the trees 

 every day grasping the fruit lightly 

 with a slight twist, without pinching, 

 will take off all fruit that is ready. 

 A man can soon become expert at 

 this when doing it every day and will 

 almost know by sight the fruit that 

 ia ready. 



After the fruit is taken from the 

 trees do not make the mistake so many 

 do of neglecting the trees; keep them 

 syringed, and this can be thoroughly 

 done now, and go over them and take 

 out all the wood not required for next 

 season's fruit, so giving that remain- 

 ing all the chance to make up its buds 

 and ripen the wood thoroughly. 



I have mentioned in the treatment 

 in regard to watering that the border 

 should never be dry, but on the other 

 hand it should not get so much water 

 that it becomes sour. I never water 

 without first testing the border with a 

 spading fork, and a good plan is to 

 lightly fork over the entire border 

 occasionally, this making it possible 

 to water more evenly. 



Feeding Peaches. 



As to manures, this is a very im- 

 portant part of fruit growing, and must 

 be done with consideration of what 

 you are trying to produce with that 

 manure If swelling the fruit is the 

 consideration, liquid cow or sheep ma- 

 nure is the best means of applying it, 

 but to make growth and complete that 

 growth so as to produce good fruiting 

 wood, something more than nitrogen- 

 ous manure is needed. Phosphoric acid 

 and potash are required. The latter ex- 

 ists to a greater or less extent in our 

 soils, so liberal quantities of bone with 

 a manure such as sheep manure will 

 give the best result. Thompson's Vine 

 manure is good and I use it with the 

 others, but I rely to a great extent on 

 bone. If a t,*ae is making very vigor- 

 ous growth it can be tempered by us- 

 ing bone alone, and on the other hand 

 it can be encouraged by the use of 

 nitrogenous manure to put on more 

 vigorous growth when weak. 



Don't overcrop, thoroughly syringe 

 to keep down red spider, watch your 

 border, give plenty of manure and 

 water during the second swelling, and 

 fine, luscious f: uit will be your re- 

 ward. Nice fruit can be grown in 

 tubs; these will come in useful whilst 

 your trees are filling up the house. 



Perhaps a few words in regard to 

 the tying of the trees would not be 

 amiss. Too many make the mistake 

 of tying them much too close, not 

 giving room enough for the proper de- 

 velopment of the foliage. They should 

 he about 6 in. apart over the tree. Of 

 course judgment must be used in this 



matter as it would be ridiculous to 

 tie it so far apart with small growths. 

 I am speaking of healthy trees. The 

 finest peaches and nectarines I ever 

 saw were grown on this plan and 

 peaches of the weight of 17 ounces and 

 nectarir.es in proportion were pro- 

 duced. They were grown by Mr. W. 

 H. Divers of Ketton Hall, England, 

 now gardener to the Duke of Rutland. 

 Geo. Munroe, that veteran salesman of 

 Covent Garden, told me that they were 

 the finest he had ever seen. I think 

 they were the result, to a great extent, 

 of the growing of the trees with the 

 shoots far apart. Red spider, thrips, 

 mealy bug, and scales are the chief 

 enemies of the peach family. What 

 has been said of them in grape grow- 

 ing applies here also. Thrips can be 

 got rid of by using Nicoticide, syring- 

 ing with fir oil, or Nicotine. Scale 

 can be got rid of by using the gas 

 when the trees are dormant, and a 

 quite heavy dose may be applied at 

 this time. I rid my house of San 

 Jose scale with one dose of it, using 

 in the house 33 ft. long by 25 ft. wide, 

 two pounds of cyanide of potassium. 

 Frequent smokings for green fly will 

 be found necessary whilst the foliage 

 is young and care should be taken to 

 clear them out just previous to the 

 flowers' opening or they will do con- 

 siderable damage. 



Alexandria, Gros Mignonne, Dymond, 

 Goshawk, Violette Hative, Thomas 

 Rivers and Sea Eagle are amongst the 

 best varieties of peaches, while Cardi- 

 nal, Early Rivers, Lord. Napier, Stam- 

 wick Elrttge, Humboldt and Pine Ap- 

 ple are the best nectarines, and ripen 

 in the order named. Victoria is a late 

 one but I found it of very indifferent 

 flavor. 



Strawberries. 



I now come to the third and last sec- 

 tion of fruit grown under glass, viz., 

 strawberries. While with the other 

 two sections it needs special houses to 

 grow them, strawberries can be grown 

 by almost anyone who has a little heat 

 at his command, and they well repay 

 the little care necessary to bring them 

 into fruit. No berry grown out of 

 doors can ever compete for flavor with 

 the indoor one when properly grown. 

 The earlier the runner can be obtained 

 the better; these should be layered in 

 pots filled with good turfy loam, a 

 small stone being placed on the layer 

 to keep it in place; kept well watered, 

 and in about two weeks the pots will 

 be filled with roots. It should then be 

 cut off and left for a few days. It can 

 then be potted up into the fruiting pot, 

 which should be a G-inch pot. The 

 compost best suited to them is a good 

 turfy loam with one part of old cow 

 manure and a liberal sprinkling of 

 bone. They should be potted firmly in 

 clean pots, put in a shady place for a 

 few days, and then set on or plunged 

 in ashes, carefully watered, when dry 

 given an abundance, syringed frequent- 

 ly, and given atl the sun and air that 

 comes. This will build up a good 

 fruiting crown. 



They should be plunged in a frame 

 in coal ashes before the frost is se- 

 vere enough to crack the pots, and 

 kept as near the freezing point as pos- 

 sible until you are ready to start them. 

 About Jan. 1st to the 14th is early 

 enough to bring the first batch in. 

 These should give fruit in April and 

 successive batches brought in every 



