112 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



cause, as long experience has taught them to 

 deal direct with honest, reliable nurserymen, 

 who have an interest in every tree sent out. 



Insufficient cultivation is another cause. 

 Many plant healthy trees at proper distances, and 

 if they are cultivated once, they think this is 

 sufficient, and they become stinted and yellow. 

 By all means, give young peach trees as thor- 

 ough cultivation as you would a cornfield, if 

 you expect to raise a long-lived, healthy peach 

 orchard. If you reside in a peach section, select 

 high, warm soil. Procure from a reliable 

 source small, healthy trees, raised from long- 

 lived Southern seed, and budded from healthy, 

 young nursery trees and not from fruiting or- 

 chards. Plant from eighteen to twenty feet each 

 way, being careful not to set the trees deeper 

 than they were in the nursery. Give them good, 

 clean cultivation, or, better still, raise corn or 

 some cultivated crop that needs constant care. 



If the soil is light 'and no means of properly 

 fertilizing the crop, better not raise anything 

 with the trees; but just give clean, thorough 

 cultivation up to August 1st, then sow rye with 

 300 or 400 lbs. bone or phosphate to an acre ; 

 let this stand until it shows signs of heading the 

 following spring, then roll or drag down and plow 

 under. In this way an orchard can be raised and 

 manured cheaper than any other. To avoid the 

 borer, make a small mound of earth as compact 

 as possible and six to ten inches high around 

 the trunk of the trees. This must be done by 

 June 1st. Let this remain until September 1st, 

 then remove mound from trees and with a 

 coarse cloth rub the portion of the trunk that 

 was covered with the soil thoroughly; this will 

 cleanse the trees of any signs of borers ; and if 

 this method is followed for two or three years 

 there will be no loss from borers. After the 

 trees get older with an unbroken bark, they can 

 make but little headway. 



The best method of pruning and that which 

 our most successful and intelligent orchardists 

 follow here, is when the trees are first planted to 

 cut the main stem down to within eight to 

 twelve inches of the root — small trees are better 

 for this mode ; let three or four shoots start 

 from the main stock. This makes a low head 

 in every way preferable to a high head formed 

 from large trees. Where a vigorous growth is 

 made it is well enough to cut back one-half of 

 the present year's growth. Keep young, feeble 

 branches well thinned out inside^so that plenty 

 of air and light can get through, them. 



As to varieties, it is best to depend on old, 

 well-tested varieties known to succeed in the lo- 

 cality. If the natural elements are provided to 

 the peach tree, its long life will astonish many 

 who look on it as a short-lived tree. I have in 

 mind a tree standing alone over twenty years 

 old, vigorous and healthy, and no other cause 

 than that it stands where its roots can reach out 

 every year and supply it with the food required 

 to makejust a medium growth, and it does not 

 starve or get overstimulated. 



Let anyone who has an orchard that they 

 think has the yellows, leave occasionally one of 

 the best, and if the soil is well cultivated and 

 fertilized, these trees will turn green, live and 

 produce fruit for several years, and only because 

 they have room to procure the elements they 

 need from 'the soil. When occasionally a tree 

 in a young thrifty orchard becomes sickly take 

 it out ; but when your orchard turns yellow gen- 

 erally, give them more thorough cultivation 

 and fertilize them if the soil is poor. 



If your trees are .too thick, pull out every 

 other tree or row, and as a rule you will cure 

 the yellows ; if your orchard has been started 

 from healthy trees, some seasons have a great 

 effect on them, and they may appear diseased 

 and failing one year, and the following season 

 being more favorable they will be healthy and 

 all right. 



THE CROS COLMAR CRAPE. 



BY A. SIGLER, ADJIIAN, MICH. 



In your January number of Gardexer's 

 Monthly, I noticed an article of inquiry about 

 the size and quality of the Gros Colmar Grape. 

 I would not differ very materially from the 

 answer it received from the editor. But as I have 

 had some experience in the cultivation of 

 forcing grapes under glass for nearly twenty 

 years I will give my experience with that variety, 

 and must say that it is a very shy bearer in a 

 cold grapery and not first quality. It produces 

 very large berries but no long clusters, and it 

 takes almost a lifetime before you get any fruit, 

 at least seven to eight years after setting before 

 you get fruit. 



PETITE MARGUERITE PEAR. 



BY C. G. WKIKERSHAM, PARSONS, KANSAS. 



My Petite Marguerite Pear has fruited with 

 me here, three seasons. The last season I picked 

 live bushels, and placed them for marketing in, 



