92 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



February, 



ordinary frame open to plant, pot or water, 

 causing injurious delay, perhaps. In this 

 we can at any time do the work required and 

 often succeed in getting to earlier market. 

 Besides vegetables, flowering plants of all 

 kinds may be readily grown for market or 

 for home or outside use during the summer. 



Planting and Care of Young Apple 

 Orchards. 



SAMUEL NQLLER, BL0FFTON, MO. 



It has been said that if all the Apple trees 

 set out in the past thirty years had lived and 

 borne well the Apples could not all have 

 been used. But we know they did not, nor 

 will many that are hereafter set, unless 

 things are better managed than in the past. 



In the first place, rather than buy your 

 trees of a tree agent, even if you believe him 

 to be honest, go to the nursery and see that 

 trees and varieties to suit you are got. Two- 

 year old trees are the most suitable, with 

 low heads, stout and healthy. Before get- 

 ting the trees, have the ground ready, and 

 that ready is of great importance. The 

 earth should be plowed, following vrith a 

 subsoU plow, for loosening the earth 18 or 

 •H) inches deep. If not fit to yield 7.5 bushels 

 of Corn per acre, manure it to make it so. 



For fall planting have the ground well 

 pulverized; if for spring setting, it should 

 be prepared the fall before. Lay out rows 

 32 feet each way, dig holes two feet across 

 and one foot deep. The trees, after the 

 ground settles, should stand an inch or two 

 deeper than they did in the nursery. Wait 

 with planting until the ground will pulver- 

 ize nicely. Fill the ground well in among 

 the roots, using the hands if necessary to 

 get them well spread out. Firm the earth 

 well over the roots with the foot, fllUng in 

 the last with loose ground. Use all surface 

 soil to fill in the hole. 



With the planting well done, if the trees 

 were sound, there should not one in a hun- 

 dred fail to grow. The tree can now be 

 given it« right start in life, in the way it 

 should grow, by using a sharp knife and 

 good judgment in heading back the branches 

 in proper shape. Ever after they should be 

 attended with a knife, and the thumb and 

 finger; the latter mainly by pinching the 

 shoots while small. 



Crops of Potatoes, Corn or Beans can 

 without harm be grown between the trees, 

 for five or six years, if as much fertilizing 

 matter is returned to the soil as the crops 

 take out. But grow no part of a crop nearer 

 than six feet fi-om the trees; and even as 

 close as six feet is not advisable. 



Keep the borers out of the trees, loosen 

 the groiind around them as far as the roots 

 may extend, and it will not be many years 

 until there will be fi-uit. When they begin 

 to bear, the ground can be set with clover, 

 which can be mowed twice during the sum- 

 mer and left to rot on the ground, K the 

 hay was to be hauled off, manure must be 

 put on the ground to make up for the tax 

 on the soil. 



An orchard started vrith good trees, on 

 well prepared land and thus cared for, can 

 defj' the driest summer if the ground is kept 

 loose under the trees. Young trees must be 

 protected from mice and rabbits. 



Should anyone choose to raise his own 

 trees, he will do well to take the following 

 plan. Select seeds from sound apples grown 

 on trees of a hardy and thrifty variety; and 

 if of our native Crab Apples it may be 

 an advantage. Sow these in the fall, cover- 

 ing an inch deep, not too thick. Cultivate 

 well the following summer. In the fall 

 take them up and heel in. In the spring, 

 instead of cutting the roots into pieces, use 

 a whole root to each graft cutting off at the 

 crown and a trifle of the tap root. Grow 

 them in good soil for two years, when they 



vrill be superior trees, and It planted and 

 properly cared for as indicated in the fore- 

 going, an orchard that will last a generation 

 should be the outcome. 



It is important to only grow such varieties 

 as succeed in one's neighborhood. Here in 

 latitude 38.30 we hear of the Ben Davis, ten 

 years planted and well cared for, failing the 

 past summer, the cause being attributed 

 to the two last severe winters. The climate 

 here is a trying one, as we have such ex- 

 tremes so suddenly. I have seen the mer- 

 cury at zero at sunrise one morning, and 

 the grasshoppers jumping thirty-two hours 

 after under the lofty cliffs on the banks of 

 the Missouri. This is what, in my opinion, 

 does the mischief. While farther north they 

 have snow that protects low plants, here we 

 get it as low as 20 or 30° below zero, with 

 but an inch or two of snow on the ground. 



The fear of planting too many Apple trees 

 is groundless, so fong as this is done some- 

 thing as suggested. The population in- 

 creases fast, besides people now consume 

 but half the Apples that they will in later 

 years when they become better educated. 



Plum Culture in Western New York. 



At a recent meeting of the New York 

 State Farmers' Institute, our correspondent, 

 Mr. Virgil Bogue, of Albion, N. Y., offered 

 the following practical remarks on this topic: 



Plum culture has been neglected perhaps 

 the most of all the fruits we grow. We pro- 

 fess to be engaged in cultivating the trees, 

 by furnishing moisture, food, and other re- 

 quirements for development, but are we in 

 fact doing the best we know how ? 



Too often the answer must be. No. Every- 

 one should know when he sees his trees 

 suffering from drought to an extent that the 

 leaves are dropping prematurely, end the 

 fruit drying up, that it could have been 

 avoided by plowing and cultivating suflS- 

 cient to keep a good moist surface over the 

 roots, as is the condition of a well-worked 

 summer fallow. No one would plant com 

 in an unctiltivated soil and expect a crop. 

 Much less should he expect fruit from an 

 orchard under like treatment. 



Plum trees, being governed by the same 

 natural law as other trees, we should culti- 

 vate with a view of keeping them in as 

 healthy and well-developed state as possible. 

 This can best be done by thorough tillage, 

 and by spreading on the orchard, in the 

 early winter, what manure is to be used. 



The best time to trim the Plum is in the 

 spring, between the last heavy freezes and 

 the breaking of the buds. It should never 

 be done later, as a tree cannot be injured 

 more by any one treatment than to trim 

 when the leaves are the size of mice ears. 

 Trimming in the fall or early winter Is, for 

 this fruit, the next worse time, as it exposes 

 to the severe elements of the weather the 

 inner parts of the tree. 



The life of the tree, which is secreted in 

 minute glands near the exterior, is easily 

 killed by freezing, and the scars made by 

 pruning are really much larger than the 

 outside appearance would indicate. Where 

 there are too many such spots for the tree to 

 cleanse it becomes diseased and rotten- 

 hearted, or hollow, as is often the case. 



In the way of culture, plow reasonably 

 deep, as early in the spring as the land will 

 allow. Frequently cultivate or harrow until 

 the tree has flnished extending its branches, 

 which is usually the fore part of August; 

 then seed to rye. This will soon cover the 

 ground and form a good winter protection, 

 and at the same time will improve the land 

 under the natural law that seasons following 

 winters in which the ground is covered most 

 of the time with snow are more productive 

 than those following open winters. 



The trees should be banked up with dirt 

 late in the faU to protect them from mice. 



This earth should be removed from them 

 early in the spring. 



All trees have their diseases or insects, 

 that are ready to infest them as opportunity 

 presents. Among those of the Plum is for 

 one the black knot. This can be remedied 

 by cutting off the woody formation as it 

 flrst appears, and by burning the insect. 



The curculio,which has stung the fruit for 

 many years, appears to be leaving our sec- 

 tion. To such an extent is this true that 

 we have no further fears of them. They 

 seem to have been sent for the purpose of 

 teaching, if possible, the necessity of thin- 

 ning the fruit on the trees, for it is an ad- 

 mitted fact that if the tender varieties of 

 Plum are allowed to bear all they would, 

 without being thinned by insects or by hand, 

 they would soon exhaust themselves and 

 die. This, notwithstanding it is empowered, 

 like all stone fruits, with a great facility for 

 searching for its food, and will thrive well 

 in the nursery on land that is exhausted 

 from raising other kinds of trees. 



MIna Lobata and Its Culture for 

 Bloom. 



L. W. GOODELL. DWIGHT, MASS. 



This new annual climber, introduced 

 from Germany last year, I find to be a re- 

 markably rapid grower, with an abundance 

 of foliage which resembles that of the Ivy- 

 leaved Cypress Vine (Ipomcea Q. hederm- 

 foliii). It is indeed a relative of the last 

 named, but entirely different in its flowers. 

 The flowers are tubular and produced in 

 erect forked racemes, and are at first as 

 buds, bright-red, but change from orange- 

 red to yellowish-white when in full bloom. 



I notice several statements from those 

 who tried this flower last year, in which 

 failure to get it to flower are reported. My 

 own experience with it was much the same. 

 I started about twenty plants in March, 

 transplanted to cold-frames in April, and 

 planted out the last of May. They made a 

 very rapid growth of fifteen or twenty feet, 

 but no flower buds appeared until the last 

 of September, when the tips of the vines 

 were well covered with them, only to be 

 killed by frost a few days later. 



Now, it is a fact that this plant blooms 

 and seeds freely in Germany, and there is 

 no reason why it should not in this country 

 if properly treated. The failure to bloom 

 is, no doubt, owing to improper treatment 

 of the young plants. Haage & Schmidt, 

 the introducers, have recently sent out these 

 additional instructions : 



" In order to enjoy the beauty of this 

 plant as early in the season as possible, 

 success depends on cultivating the seedlings 

 in the following manner. Having been 

 potted off singly in small thumb pots in 

 light, sandy soil, and being well rooted 

 through (pot-bound), they ought to be 

 shifted to large pots, using of course the 

 same light soil. In these pots the plants 

 must remain until they show their flower 

 buds, hardening them off in the meantime ; 

 once they show these the plants may be 

 planted oxit in the open ground, but also in 

 light sandy soil, where they will continue 

 to produce their flowers freely. If the plants 

 are cultivated in very rich soil it may hap- 

 pen that they will attain enormous dimen- 

 sions and produce a most luxuriant foliage, 

 but hardly any flowers until very late." 



It is to be hoped these instructions will 

 enable us to flower it this year, for it is cer- 

 tainly, in other respects, a fine addition to 

 annual climbers. Its history is quite re- 

 markable. It was introduced into Europe 

 from Mexico about fifty years ago, but for 

 some unknown reason, perhaps because it 

 failed to mature seeds in England, where it 

 is supposed to have been grown, it became 

 lost and nothing more was heard of it until 

 re-introduced by Messrs. Haage & Schmidt. 



