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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\Jidi/, 



first berries on the first day of March, and the 

 last of them on the first day of May ; the most 

 picked in one day was nine quarts on the last 

 •day of March. 



I will be glad to hear from any one through 

 the Monthly who may consider it a failure, for 

 I don't. I know of no better authority for my 

 statement than my own respected employer, if 

 the "fruit grower and farmer" doubts it. 



HARDINESS OF THE JAPAN PERSIMMON. 



BY A. B. C, PHILA. 



I wrote to you that my only surviving Japan 

 Persimmon had perished, "root" and branch 

 during the past winter. That indeed did seem 

 to be the fact at the time I wrote to you. The 

 stem and the top of the roots near the ground, 

 were killed as I then said, but it seems the 

 lower portions of the roots survived, and from 

 them I have a good crop of sprouts. 



Practically the matter stands as it was before, 

 for a fruit tree that gets killed to the ground in 

 a not very severe winter is of no value ; but as 

 I said it was killed "root and branch," it is due 

 to truth to say that it was not utterly destroyed. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Cracking of the Pear.— It is generally 

 supposed by American pear growers that Europe 

 is the paradise of fruit growing, but in truth the}' 

 have their peculiar troubles as we have ours ; in- 

 deed they have many troubles of a kind similar 

 to our own. Of "cracking," a correspondent 

 of the London Garden writing of the " Pear in 

 English Market Gardens," thus speaks : 



"Pears of the commoner kinds are chiefly 

 grown on the old-fashioned standard run-wild 

 system, no pruning being given but what is done 

 with the saw ; and, in a good season, it is wonder- 

 ful how heavil}^ the trees are laden with fruit. 

 These standards have been "worked" on the 

 pear stock, which forms a clean stem, the 

 branches usually springing from near the union 

 of the stock with the scion. There are dwarf 

 pear trees too, and many that succeed better on 

 the quince than on the pear. Market gardeners 

 generally are not, however, very particular 

 about their stocks, for they get the bulk of their 

 trees at the nurseries, and what they graft them- 

 selves is usually done on whatever stock they 

 have at hand, be it seedling, sucker, or layer of 



pear or quince. They practice grafting more on 

 old and worn out trees than on young stocks, 

 and for this purpose they head back the trees in 

 winter or early in spring, either at pruning or 

 digging time ; the scions, after being selected, 

 are "heeled in" until March, when they are 

 put on the trees. Grafting more than one kind 

 of pear on a tree is said to be a preventive of 

 fruit cracking during the swelling period. A 

 large grower near London, who possesses the 

 finest natural pear tree soil in the district, states 

 that a somewhat light yet deep, substantial, 

 hazelly loam suits pears best. In reference to 

 cracking, he found that, although the trees were 

 in a thriving and healthy condition, and annu- 

 ally set good crops of fruit, yet at gathering 

 time scarcely a half sieveful of good marketable 

 pears could be obtained from them, the fruits 

 being invariably cracked. This induced him to 

 tr}' the effect of grafting more than one sort on 

 each tree, and the result proved most satisfac- 

 tory ; for, not only did the grafted portions pro- 

 duce excellent fruit, but the original kinds no 

 longer cracked ; on the contrary, they produced 

 fruit of exceedingly fine quality, well formed 

 and symmetrical. Finding grafting in this way 

 successful in a few cases, he extended the prac- 

 tice throughout his orchards; therefore, where 

 one kind of pear grew alone on a tree, now there 

 are at least three sorts, each apparently being 

 of material benefit to the other; for example, a 

 number of trees, formerly Beurre Diel only, 

 now bear huge branches of Beurre Bosc and 

 Louise Bonne, the trees being furnished in good 

 season with large crops of these three sorts." 



As for the remedies suggested, we. may re- 

 mind our readers that " cracking " is a very in- 

 definite term, and that cracked pears come from 

 a variety of causes. The cracking which we 

 find on the White Doyenne undoubtedly comes 

 from the growth of a minute fungus, which in an 

 early stage of growth destroys the cuticle ; this 

 deprived of the power of increasing its cells at 

 that particular point, as healthy cuticle can do 

 in order to permit the expansion as the fruit 

 grows, has to crack. But the cracking of Beurre 

 Giffard, as we have carefully noted, and per- 

 haps in Beurre Diel and others which we have 

 not noted so closelj', does not appear to come 

 from fungoid attacks, and we have never been able 

 to arrive at a clear understanding of the cause. 

 In these latter cases perhaps the companion- 

 ship of some other kind on the same main stem 

 might remedy the trouble ; but we can say posi- 



