94 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



February, 



Notes From a Rochester Fruit Farm. 



BY CHAS. A. GREEN. 



To-day, December 14, I have planted a lot 

 of Apple, Pear, Plum, and Chestnut trees. 

 It has been a remarkable season, and all 

 hands have been at work out-of-doors up to 

 this date. The Apples and Pears are for a 

 specimen orchard, and embrace one tree 

 each of all the varieties we can get, about 

 1.50 varieties. These are planted ten feet 

 apart in the rows, with rows 100 feet apart, 

 giving ample space for cultivated crops 

 between. Two men plant 300 trees each 

 day, in well prepared soil. 



Each tree had a common printed label on 

 when planted. This I removed to-day and 

 attached a zink label, with a narrow end 

 wound around the tree. Zink makes the 

 most enduring and satisfactory label, the 

 writing becoming more and more distinct 

 years after it is written. The wind does not 

 wear it out, it does not rust or fall oil. I 

 purchased 10 pounds of Zink at 8 cents per 

 pound. It cost 60 cents to get it cut into 

 labels, making about 1,000 labels, thus cost- 

 ing about 30 cents per hundred. 



Not wishing to rely wholly on labels, I 

 record the position of each row and tree in a 

 record book. Fruit growers should keep 

 such a book. They will find it serviceable. 



After the trees were planted I followed 

 vrith a sharp knife to prune. Some people 

 are particular about the form of heads of 

 trees as they come from the nursery. This 

 is well if the trees are to remain low branched, 

 with no cultivation after coming into bear- 

 ing; but if it is intended to cultivate the 

 ground after bearing the branches are too 

 low as ordinarily trimmed in nurseries. 

 Therefore, from these trees that I planted I 

 cut off all branches but the one most nearly 

 upright, leaving simply a straight whip, 

 then cut back the leader a little it too high. 

 If this pruning is not done at planting it 

 must be done in after years, which is a loss 

 to the tree; the longer delayed the greater 

 the loss. An orchard planted ten years ago 

 has been continually trimmed, cutting out 

 the lower branches to get them out of the 

 way of teams. Even it they do not appear 

 to be too low the first ten years they will 

 become too low later, for when heavy laden 

 with fruit the limbs are weighted down 

 low, and, growing in that position, remain 

 there. All who plant fruit trees should bear 

 this fact in mind. 



The top of the straight, whip-like tree as 

 planted contains numerous buds which will 

 quickly form another top higher up than 

 the top removed, and as there are fewer 

 buds to push into growth the top is formed 

 rapidly. Please note this fact, that at plant- 

 ing pruning is not imperative. All cutting 

 can be omitted and the trees live. There- 

 fore, if you doubt your ability to make a 

 new top do not cut it until later, when some 

 skilled person can do it. Peach trees are 

 nearly always cut back to a whip at planting, 

 but other trees are often neglected, the cause 

 for heroic cutting not being so apparent, 

 and not always being necessary. 



Ndt Trees. We are planting Chestnut 

 and Black Walnuts, believing that there is 

 money in such planting. While the nuts 

 are the main inducement I do not doubt 

 that the timber will give a good profit. We 

 desire to make our farm take care of us in 

 our old age. I can see no better way to 

 make it profitable than to plant fruit 

 orchards, Apples, Pears, Plums, Cherries, 

 and nuts. But little planting of nuts is 

 done here. People have not yet become 

 aware of the profit from such trees. Con- 

 sider the product of one Sweet Chestnut 

 tree, then of 100 or 1,000. While Chestnuts 

 spring up naturally on sandy soil, 1 have 

 seen them bear well on clay or loam. 



Protecting Grape-vines. Our men have 

 nearly completed trimming and laying down 



the Grape-vines. They bend them down 

 carefully, and cover with soil to hold the 

 vines close to the earth. We do not deem it 

 necessary to cover all of the vine, except the 

 Duchess, a noble variety, but so tender as to 

 give no fruit here if not covered. Strawy 

 manure or earth answers the purpose. 

 Concord and other hardy varieties usually 

 come out safely without covering, but occas- 

 ionally they are injured, and the loss of one 

 crop would pay for protecting many years. 

 If such kinds are simply weighted down 

 with fence rails the object will be secured. 



The first few years that Grape-vines are 

 planted they need banking up with earth, 

 or covering lightly with stra\vy manure to 

 protect the roots, which are then near the 

 surface and not so tough as they will become 

 with age. It is an easy matter to start a 

 vineyard, and everyone is surprised at the 

 low price they can sell at with profit. Con- 

 cords at two or three cents per pound are a 

 good paying crop. The Concord has not yet 

 been supplanted by any new variety. 



Angouleme Peak. While this variety 

 has given the largest profits in past years in 

 Western New York, we find it unsatisfactory 

 as a dwarf. On our soil it is difficult to 

 keep it in dwarf form, as it sends up shoots 

 3 to 3 feet long in one season if not cut back, 

 and, without attention, after a few years, is 

 so high as to be swayed by the autumn 

 winds. Anjou, Tyson, and others require 

 but little pruning to keep them in shape, 

 while Angouleme keeps one cutting contin- 

 ually, and yet is too rampant. It blossoms 

 prodigiously each spring, yet bears but little 

 fruit, and that often imperfect. Flemish 

 Beauty and Vicar yieldnobly on dwarf trees. 

 We double work Winter Nellis, Souvenir 

 and some others, in order to get them on 

 dwarf trees, as they do not take well to the 

 Quince. Bosc is a noble Pear, having one 

 drawback, slow growth in the nursery, 

 which makes the trees scarce and high 

 priced. Winter Nellis, .Josephine, and Gifl- 

 ard the same defect. Our Kieffers were the 

 most handsome of all the past fall, and were 

 selected first by buyers. People stopped the 

 wagons to buy pocketsful. The quality 

 was not equal to others in the same load. It 

 was the appearance that sold them. 



How TO Tighten Wires on Grape Trel- 

 lis. While visiting Messrs. E. & J. C. 

 Williams, at Montclair, N. J., last fall I 

 noticed a novel method. It is simply an 

 iron bolt 4 inches long with square head, 

 sharp point and sharp thread, made for 

 bolting wood to wood, no nut being attached, 

 selling at $1..50 per 100. A hole large enough 

 to admit a treUis wire is drilled through the 

 bolt near the head. The end parts of the 

 trellis being well braced, the wire is fastened 

 to one post and strung along the ground to 

 the other end. A hole a little smaller than 

 the bolt is bored in the post at the desired 

 height, and the bolt inserted. The wire is 

 passed through the hole drilled in the bolt, 

 and drawTi tight, then an assistant screws 

 the bolt a turn or two into the post, which 

 clinches the wire, which is then cut, and 

 successive turns of the bolt by the wrench 

 makes the wire as tight as desired. It is but 

 a moment's work to tighten or loosen the 

 wires, a desirable feature, as in winter the 

 wires should be loosened, as they contract, 

 and in summer tighthened. Nothing looks 

 more shiftless than wires of Grape trellises 

 left flopping about, or shiftlessly fastened 

 at ends, with end posts half pulled over, as 

 is the case unless the wires have some device 

 as this, and the posts are well braced. 



Pruning Plum and Cherry. More care 

 is required in priming Plum and Cherry 

 than other fruit trees. All trees should be 

 pruned when young, so as to prevent the 

 removal of large limbs, which removal is 

 always injurious, but with the Plum and 

 Cherry the removal of large limbs is often 



fatal, and always more injurious than with 

 other fruit trees, as the wounds do not heal 

 so rapidly, and often not at all; thus often 

 disease steps in and the trees die. I once cut 

 off a large branch of a thrifty Plum tree and 

 grafted it. The graft grew and the next 

 spring I cut ofl: all the remaining natural 

 branches but one. The graft grew rapidly, 

 and the third year bore an immense load of 

 Plums, nearly as large as hen's eggs, and so 

 close together the fruit touched everywhere. 

 It was a wonderful sight, almost a solid 

 block of Plums; but next year the tree died. 

 The wounds had not healed and the bark 

 was dead for several feet below them. 



Bleaching Evaporated Fruit. 



FRED. W. CARD, BRADFORD CO., PA. 



A recent writer in your columns condemns 

 the practice. K it is such a short sighted 

 method and there is such a prejudice against 

 it as he claims, why is there no demand for 

 Apples \rithout bleaching ? Those who 

 evaporate fruit would gain nothing by 

 bleaching if just as good market could be 

 found for the unbleached. 



To show something about this I will quote 

 the words of a Chicago commission firm 

 written to me under date of September 3(5, 

 1887: "We cannot sell evaporated Apples 

 without blcachiiuj. We do not know any- 

 thing about the process of unbleaching you 

 speak of." I have but little doubt that of 

 two samples made from the same kind and 

 quality of Apples, equally well put up, one 

 with bleaching the other without, and placed 

 on sale at the same price, most persons 

 would purchase from those that were 

 bleached. 



When I am compelled to ask at the table, 

 as I have been, whether the sauce or pie is 

 made from evaporated or fresh Apples, I 

 fail to see wherein the flavor is materially 

 impaired. By being left too long in the 

 bleacher the fi-uit may be injured, but if 

 properly done and left only long enough to 

 set the color, I think it has no bad effect 

 either on the flavor of the fruit or the health 

 of the consumer. 



I am not a physician, and therefore not 

 qualified to discuss the effects on the system, 

 but as sulphur is simply a mild cathartic, 

 and I believe in many cases an excellent 

 blood purifier, I do no believe it can cause 

 any injury. The sulphurous acid produced 

 by the burning sulphur, as well as being a 

 useful bleaching agent, is a powerful anti- 

 septic, destroying fungous and bacterial de- 

 velopment. Meat subjected to its action 

 can be preserved from putrefaction for a 

 long time. My bleaching is done after the 

 Apples are sliced, and as they are in the 

 bleacher only a very short time the amount 

 of sulphurous acid which can be absorbed 

 by the fruit is very small. Considering the 

 fact that there are very many diseases in 

 which this agent, inhaled as a gas or taken 

 internally in the form of sulphites, is found 

 very beneficial, 1 see little cause for alarm. 



Plum Taltc from Northern Maine. 



E. W. MERRITT, UOULTON, MAINE. 



Some of my Plum trees set in spring of 

 1885 bore five quarts in 1880, and one peck in 

 188". In the orchard there are Green Gage, 

 Imperial Gage, Lombard, Magnum Bonum, 

 Columbia and Mooer's Arctic, and the latter 

 has outborn any other two. 



The Arctic may or may not be called cur- 

 eulio proof, for some of the fi-uit is stung. 

 Some claim that many of the curculio eggs 

 are drowned, the Plum being very juicy. 

 As it is, it sets such a superabundance of 

 fruit buds that sufficient are left for a crop, 

 and thus it is said to be curculio proof. 



The curculio is slviggish and prefers to as- 

 cend the same tree where it was reared. 

 Perfectly clean cultivation with horse and 



