1882. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



Fruit and Vegetable Gardening, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Many like to get fruit trees in the fall, heel 

 them in, and so have them ready for the early 

 spring season. It is an excellent idea in many 

 respects. The wounds granulate, and are ready 

 to make new growth as soon as the spring 

 weather comes. Again, when we get trees in 

 the spring, they are often delayed, or we are de- 

 layed in setting them out, and spring is nearly 

 over before the work is done. Then the wounds 

 have not time to heal, and new fibres come be- 

 fore the demand for moisture, as the warm 

 weather proves too much and the plant dies. 



All this is obviated by having the plants on 

 hand. But nothing is free from objection. As 

 usually done, the fall-procured trees are put in 

 loosely, slanting, and many roots are not in con- 

 tact with the soil. They do not heal, but dry up, 

 and this is a great injury. Now it should be re- 

 membered that it is the drying up of the stems 

 by cold, frosty winds, and not so much low tem- 

 perature, that injures fall planted trees. The 

 trees should, therefore, beset together as thickly 

 as possible, in a square block, in a sheltered 

 place, the earth pounded in as tightly as possi- 

 ble, and remain there till ready for them in 

 spring. The sheltered place keeps the winds 

 away; the planting thick in a square block, 

 keeps the winds from whistling through the 

 branches, and the pounding of the earth gives 

 every root a chance to heal and to work. A 

 couple of men can put in several hundred a day 

 in this way ; and though it took more time, it 

 would be time well spent. 



The winter season is a very important one in 

 the management of fruit trees. Pruning is es- 

 pecially important. Some -believe that if the 

 foundation of a tree be properly laid in youth, 

 there will be no necessity to prune an adult tree. 

 This does not accord with the writer's expe- 

 rience. An intelligent examination, both with 

 the saw and good knife in hand, should be made 

 every winter. Real good, large, healthy leaves 

 in every part of a tree is of vast importance, 

 and these cannot be had when branches are 

 close together, smothering one another. 



It should always be remembered in pruning 

 that we want sound, healthy wood to make 

 sound growth, and yet nothing is more common 

 than to see in dwarf pears, especially, the 

 healthy, vigorous shoots shortened back, and 

 loads of weak fruit-spurs left to make the next 

 season's growth ! Thinning out, not shortening 

 back, is what such trees require. 



Pruning is very important, but above all, for 

 both apple and pear orchards, we bespeak a 

 liberal dressing— a top dressing of something or 

 another. If no manure is to be had, even com- 

 mon road sand will be found to have a beneficial 

 influence. Poverty of the surface soil is oftener 

 a cause of fruit failure than " grass," " change of 

 climate," or many imaginable ills brought up 

 from some ghostly cavern of thought to cover up 

 the poverty of pocket or oi industrial inclinations. 



The treatment of the bark of fruit trees is 

 growing in importance with practical fruit' 

 growers. There is no doubt but that Dr. Warder, 

 Mr. Barry and other leaders in the practical 

 knowledge of fruit culture, are entirely correct 

 in the ideas they have publicly expressed, that a 

 tree perfectly healthy will throw off its useless 

 bark in its own way, in its own proper time, 

 without any aid but nature. Unfortunately our 

 methods of culture are too often against nature, 

 and it is rare to find trees so thoroughly vigorous 

 and healthy that they can dispense with the fos- 

 tering hand of man. We have, therefore, great 

 faith in bark treatment as an aid in successful 

 orchard culture. An unusual burst of hot 

 sun in summer, poor soil, attacks of scale or 

 other insects will often harden the smooth bark 

 of trees, so that the new growth of wood and 

 bark the following season cannot expand prop- 

 erly. The branch is practically enclosed in an 

 iron band. In this case slitting up the bark is a 

 speedy and positive remedy. So with the rough 

 bark, if it do not scale off easily and rapidly, 

 help it to scale by rubbing or washing it off. 

 The practical old fellows, both in the old world 

 and the new, have found this to be good practice 

 by hard-headed experience, and without having 

 the advantage of reading an article like this. In 

 every collection of good orchard tools and im- 



