i68 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



CULTIVATION AND CARE OF THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



FTER fruit trees have been planted they should be thoroughly 

 and frequently cultivated. In short, the fruit garden should be 

 worked in much the same way as the farmer works his corn or 

 potatoes when he desires^an extra fine crop. The trees should 

 be cultivated for four or five years, when after this time the 

 ground may be seeded in clover, but the small fruits must be 

 cultivated every season, early and late, and the ground kept entirely free from 

 weeds, if good crops are desired. While trees and bushes are small, the ground 

 between the rows may very profitably be occupied by summer crops of vege- 

 tables, as potatoes, cabbage, or sweet corn, the only precaution to be remem- 

 bered being to replace with fertilizer all which such crops may extract from the 

 soil. 



The best plan of pruning trees is to remove a branch whenever it is seen to 

 be out of place or to be crowding others. The earlier this is done the better, 

 as it will produce less injury to the tree. There is probably not much difference 

 as to the time when a regular pruning is given the orchard. Some prefer the 

 spring to the autumn or winter. Possibly the early spring is the safest time for 

 this work. Pear trees need very little pruning, and cherry trees do not endure 

 severe pruning. Suckers must be carefully removed from the apple trees. 

 Peach trees may have from one-third to one-half of each year's growth removed 

 with profit every spring. Peach trees, like grape vines, stand a good deal of 

 pruning, and are benefited by it. Raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries and 

 currants all do best when thoroughly pruned. Stakes are unnecessary for any 

 of these bushes if the young shoots are cut off when they reach the height of 

 two or three feet. Extra fine crops are to be secured only through a liberal use 

 of the pruning knife. The soil in the fruit garden should be fairly good before 

 the trees have been set. Afterward stable manures should not be used in large 

 quantities, except on the berry bushes. Wood ashes, bone dust, and the salts 

 of potassium will give the best results applied to grapes, apples, pears, peaches 

 and plums. These plants are little benefited by stable manure, as wood is pro- 

 duced at the expense of fruit. 



Many persons do not grow fruit on their farms, thinking that it is no longer 

 possible to control the ravages of insect pests. In this they are mistaken, for 

 at present almost every form of insect may be quite perfectly controlled. The 

 fruit trees should be examined every spring for the eggs of caterpillars, and then 

 by scraping the earth away for a few inches around the trunk of each tree, 

 search should be made for borers. If the ground is kept loose and free from 

 weeds about the trunks of trees, and heaped up three or four inches at the base 

 of each trunk, there is usually very little trouble from borers. The currant 

 worm is easily combated by dusting both the currant and gooseberry bushes 



