^/'e I^ruit Trees Gregarious. Ill 



Third. — A third object in mulching strawberries, is to keep down the weeds while 

 the fruit is maturing. If it is replaced or put on in the spring in proper quantity, just 

 after the weeds have started, it will keep them down pretty eifectually until the 

 crop of fruit is gathered. 



Fourth. — A fourth object in mulching strawberries, is to keep the fruit clean. - 

 On light soils this is an important item. Strawberries grown upon the light soils of 

 the prairies of the West, or upon the sand hills of Michigan, are often rendered 

 unmarketable by the sand that is dashed upon them by heavy rains. 



I might add as a fifth and collateral reason for mulching strawberries, that a good 

 coat of mulching facilitates the picking of the fruit, and renders the work much 

 more pleasant and cleanly. 



These remarks might be extended by way of showing what is the best material 

 for mulching, and what is the proper time for putting it on in the fall and for re- 

 moving it in the spring ; much might be said by way of illustrating the important 

 collateral benefits of mulching, in giving the moisture and the gases of the atmos- 

 phere, access to the sjil and to the roots of plants, etc., but I waive the consideration 

 of these topics for the present. 



Ouarga, 111. W. P. P. 



•♦ 



Are Fruit Trees G-regarious. 



IN your issue for November, page 342, Mr. R. W. Furnas, of Nebraska, asks: 

 "Are fruit trees gregarious or clannish in their formation or development ? " My 

 observation is, that that they are not, for I have seen two trees produced from one 

 pit containing a double seed, each tree producing a peach different from the other. 

 Again, Mr. Clement of Branch county, Michigan, has an apple orchard of 200 trees, 

 the seeds for which were saved from Fall Pippins, gathered I'rom a tree in Ohio ; in 

 his orchard there are trees ripening their fruit in August and others later, and some 

 will keep until April and May. Some are large and fine flavored, others are small and 

 inferior; and these are intermixed promiscuously over the orchard. Again, in 1859, 

 I sold five peach trees to a Dr. Merideth, in Hannibal ; they were to be one of a 

 kind ripening from the earliest to the latest; in 1861 they all bore, and what was 

 my astonishment to be informed that none of them ripened until the middle of 

 August, and in ten days were all ripe and gone. The trees were planted in rich 

 garden soil, and made a vigorous growth. I had no reason for doubting the state- 

 ment, yet it was a circumstance which I wished to make amends for to the fullest 

 extent. I visited the place the next summer, and found the trees bearing according 

 to order, and that the season before was only a sport. Although the instance which 

 he gives would rather go to show that there was a clannish developement in his case ; 

 at least it's a condition which I would not like to attempt to produce from seed, and 

 one that would require care on the part of both budder and planter to produce from 

 budded trees. I am aware that our Western soil is spotted, there being often three or 

 four different varieties of soil in one forty acre lot, which will make quite a 

 difference in the size and color of fruit, but I don't think there is enough to change 

 a yellow freestone to a red cling. Perhaps with another year's experience, friend 

 Furnas may find some way to account for this singular: circumstance, or that it was 

 only a sport. g. p_ t. 



