1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



Ill 



foot, which is very cheap, and they look neat and 

 tidy. Can be rolled up and stowed away in win- 

 ter, and will last many years. 



What they call double wire cable No. 14 costs 

 about seven cents a pound and will stretch about 

 twenty-nine feet, so that a person may calculate 

 beforehand what it will cost to wire his crop for 

 field or garden. 



By getting galvanized wire it will last a long 

 time and save the trouble of painting. Indeed, 

 galvanized wire is the only kind to use for garden 

 purposes. 



Now suppose we calculate the cost of an acre 

 of Lima beans, for the sake of comparison : A 

 square acre is about 69)^ yards on each side, and 

 with poles placed 3x4 Vi' feet apart will take 3.226 ; 

 and good cedar poles will cost at least 3 cents 

 each, which amounts to J96.78. Now two double 

 wires stretched over the same distance 4'^ feet 

 apart would take 661 lbs., and at 7 cents (the 

 highest figure) would cost S46.27. Or, suppose 

 we do not plant so close and place the poles 4x4 

 feet apart, this would take 2,723, and at the same 

 price, 3 cents, amount to $81.69. Two double 

 wires placed 5 feet apart would take 589 lbs., and 

 at 7 cents cost $41.23. 



Posts, staples and thread will cost something, 

 but I consider the extra labor of putting down and 

 taking up the poles offsets that cost, and I think the 

 wire bears the most for the whole line is covered. 



Accordingly, wire costs about one-half, or, as 

 in the first calculation, a little less than half the 

 price of poles, even supposing they could be pro- 

 cured easily and purchased cheaply. 



Chambersburg, Trenton, N. J. 



[Our readers will we are sure unite with us in 

 giving thanks to Mr. Bennett for this excellent 

 practical as well as suggestive communication. 

 There is no doubt but wire might be used with ex- 

 cellent economy in many cases now seldom thought 

 of. In field culture there will yet be one item in 

 favor of poles for hops and beans, wherever they 

 can be easily obtained, namely, the ease with 

 which a horse can work the hoe and harrow both 

 ways ; but this may be obviated by having hori- 

 zontal wires at the regular pole distances, and 

 strings from the wires to the ground when poles 

 are scarce. — Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Vegetation Under Orchard Trees. — At the 

 recent meeting of the New York Horticultural 



Society, the everlasting topic of surface manage- 

 ment in orchards, was of course warmly discussed 

 — discussed warmly on both sides, says the re- 

 port. 



.'^nd yet it is a very simple question in the light 

 of all that has been adduced during the last 

 quarter of a century. It is nothing more than 

 this : The feeding roots of trees are the small an- 

 nual fibres. These love to be as near the surface 

 as they can get, providing the temperature be not 

 too high, food and moisture be abundant, and an 

 absence of light. Sometimes these conditions will 

 be best secured by a clean surface ; sometimes by 

 keeping the surface shady by vegetation. We 

 have to penetrate into this question much deeper 

 than the grass that covers it. An orchard in grass 

 affords the comparative coolness required by the 

 roots, the shade which they love, and permits, by 

 the shade, the roots to get nearer the surface 

 than when growing in the fuU light which the 

 bare ground provides. But where food and mois- 

 ture are scarce, the advantages are counterbalanc- 

 ed. Food and moisture are the first essentials of 

 all good culture. A clear surface, or a surface de- 

 voted to other crops, is a secondary question. 



Uniformity in Apple Barrels. — At the 

 meeting of the Western New York Horticultural 

 Society, a committee consisting of Julius Harris, 

 H. T. Brooks and C. M. Hooker appointed at the 

 last annual meeting to ascertain the dimensions of 

 a loo-quart apple barrel, then presented a report. 

 The committee recommended the use of a barrel 

 made of staves 28 '4 inches long, heads 17 inches 

 in diameter, with the bulge 64 inches in circum- 

 ference on the outside, holding 106 quarts of wheat 

 by actual measurement, and when shook down 

 III quarts; this being the size of the common 

 flour barrel now in use. 



Prices of Fruit in Rochester in 1884.— Mr. 

 Charles M. Hooker, at a recent meeting of the 

 Western New York Horticultural Society stated 

 that the past season was one of very great abun- 

 dance in the production of nearly all varieties of 

 fruits in Monroe county, and we think never be- 

 fore were our markets so well supplied with fine 

 fruit of all kinds at such moderate prices. Dealers 

 in Rochester paid about as follows for good fruit : 

 Strawberries, 6 to 8 cents per quart ; black rasp- 

 berries, 6 to 8 cents ; red, 10 to 14 cents; black- 

 berries, 9 to 12 cents; currants, 4 to 6 cents per 

 pound; grapes, 3 to 5 cents per pound; peaches, 

 %\ to Si. 50 per basket ; plums — Lombard, Monroe 

 Egg and Common Blue sorts, 75 cents to $1 per 



