142 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



Fruit Crowing in Michig-an. 



J. N. STEAKSS. KALAMAZOO CO., MICH. 



Blackberry Pruning. We made a mis- 

 take in heading back the Klttatinny Black- 

 berry too close, as they bear more on the 

 ends of the canes. The Snyder, on the other 

 hand, have a fruit spur at every bud, and set 

 more fruit than can in ordinary seasons be 

 perfected, hence this variety should be 

 headed back much closer than the other. 



Gooseberry Management. Anothermis- 

 take was made in not thoroughly pruning the 

 Gooseberries. After the work was about half 

 done other business pressed and the balance 

 were unpruned. Result: the fruit of the 

 unpruned was about half the size of the 

 other, and brought much less in market. 

 Large size Is the first point in obtaining best 

 prices for any fruit. The Gooseberry has 

 been our best paying fruit for the past three 

 years, netting at the rate of nearly $1,000 per 

 acre last year. We headed ofT the worm 

 thoroughly last season by dusting the lower 

 part of the bushes, with a mixture of Paris 

 green, plaster, ashes and flour. 



It should be applied when the leaves are 

 two-thirds grown, at which time no worm 

 is yet in sight. Thus the first crop will all be 

 killed and making much less work to man- 

 age the second crop, which usually appears 

 just before the fruit ripens. This batch 

 should be fought with white hellebore, 

 which vfiW be most effectual if applied in 

 solution with a force pump. 



Early Planted Strawberries. We hit 

 it last year in setting our Strtwberry plants 

 early, thereby getting a perfect stand, and 

 good stocky rows; while those planted later 

 have very spotted patches, and are light in the 

 row, on account of the prolonged drought. 



Battling Against Curculio. We partial- 

 ly failed last season in fighting the curculio 

 on Plum and Peach in not getting at the 

 work early enough. At the season of the 

 blossoming of these fruits it was very warm, 

 so they passed through this stage very rapidly 

 and these conditions were favorable to the 

 insects, and they were getting in their work 

 quite in advance of us, reminding us that 

 the successful fruit grower should be etern- 

 ally vigilant. 



Our mode of fighting the curculio, and very 

 satisfactory if commenced in time, is this: 

 With one bushel of stone lime we use about 

 one pint of crude carbolic acid, with just 

 water enough to slack the lime to a dry 

 powder. As soon as the blossoms begin to 

 fall the trees are dusted thoroughly with 

 this while the dew is on; renewing the treat- 

 ment as often as washed ofi' by rains. 



Drought— Summer Watering. We were 

 fully remunerated for the extra cultivation 

 given to ward off the effect of the unprece- 

 dented drought. We thoroughly stirred the 

 ground every week, either with the disc or 

 spring-tooth harrow, although there were 

 no weeds to destroy. 



The experiment in hauling water to wet 

 the roots of 1,000 Peach trees proved very 

 satisfactory. It enabled the trees to carry 

 the fruit through to maturity in good shape; 

 where many orchards not well cultivated or 

 watered the fruit wilted and dropped from 

 the trees worthless. 



Our plan of watering was as follows: We 

 hoed the soil away from the tree to a dis- 

 tance of from three to four feet all the way 

 around down to the roots; this making a 

 basin in which we put in from eight to ten 

 pailfuls of water, allowing it to soak away 

 among the roots, then the soil was drawn 

 back and left loose, which served as a mulch 

 to hold the moisture. On digging down to 

 the roots two weeks or more after this ap- 

 plication, the soil was found to be moist and 

 in condition to properly develop the fruit. 



Cultivation for Pears. We made a 

 mistake two years ago in not cultivating 

 our Pear orchard; the result being that 



nearly all the fruit was scabby and very 

 poor. Late in the fall we had it plowed, and 

 the last season kept it thoroughly cultivated, 

 and as soon as the fruit set sprayed the trees 

 with a weak solution of London purple, and 

 out of some 2,000 baskets of Pears I do not 

 think there was one bushel of wormy Pears. 

 My commission men told me they were fully 

 equal in appearance, and far superior in 

 quality to any California Pears. 



Do Varieties Deteriorate?— Some 

 Illustrations. 



E. WILLIAMS, MONTCLAIR, N. .1. 



President Smith of Wisconsin in a paper 

 before the American Pomological Society, 

 at Boston last September, I believe, advoca- 

 ted the negative side of the question, and cited 

 his experience with the Wilson Strawberry 

 as the most prominent feature to illustrate 

 his position. While this variety with his 

 special care in propagating, cultivating, and 

 management, on his peculiarly favorable 

 soil has retained its health and productive- 

 ness for a long series of years, it does not 

 alter the fact that elsewhere, if not almost 

 everywhere else, it has deteriorated in some 

 places to the extent of almost total failure. 



With an experience of 30 years, and a 

 trial of perhaps 100 or more varieties, I can- 

 not name one that has continued to main- 

 tain its original health and vigor for a series 

 of years, provided it had other merits of 

 sufficient importance to secure its retention 

 for that length ef time. 



Hovey's Seedling, one of the first vari- 

 eties I ever planted, did admirably for a 

 while, and though Mr. Hovey persisted 

 during his whole life that it was still as 

 good as ever, it failed on my grounds, and 

 later attempts with plants direct fi-om the 

 originator have utterly failed. Most of the 

 plants had degenerated into hermaphro- 

 dite or perfect flowering plants, while the 

 pistillate ones utterly refused to exhibit vi- 

 tality sufficient to make a respectable show 

 at growing or fruiting, and last season I 

 plowed them under with disgust at their 

 behavior. The Sharpless, of more recent 

 date, so remarkable for its vigor and health 

 that it still stands near the head of the 

 present varieties for size and popularity, 

 shows a strong tendency to disease and un- 

 fruitfulness in striking contrast to its be- 

 havior when first introduced, so much so 

 that some growers have discarded it. 



The Downing Strawberry held its own 

 for a long time, but now its culture is at- 

 tended with many uncertainties. If I could 

 by any system of propagation, culture or 

 fertilization, be assured of restoring and re- 

 taining its original health and productive- 

 ness, I would not exchange it for the whole 

 list now before us. But its liability to dis- 

 ease renders it unreliable as an entire de- 

 pendence. This weakness or tendency to 

 disease, which we call deterioration or de- 

 generacy, for want of a better term , seems 

 to pervade not only the whole list of Straw- 

 berries, but other fruits, as well as vege- 

 tables, and is the chief incentive for the pro- 

 duction and trial of new varieties. It is 

 this hope and desire in the heart of the cul- 

 tivator, that new blood infused into the 

 new varieties by crossing and hybridizing 

 may result in securing varieties of more ro- 

 bust and healthy constitutions, that affords 

 the chief Inducement for purchase and 

 trial, and I am sorry to add that the intro- 

 ducers and disseminators of the new things 

 very generally endeavor to excite the cred- 

 ulity of the purchaser to a far greater ex- 

 tent than the real merits of the article or 

 common honesty will justify. 



But the field of deterioration of fruits is 

 by no means confined to the Strawberry. It 

 pervades all classes and localities in the 

 older states at least, and few indeed are the 

 intelligent observers who cannot look 



around them and instance numerous cases. 

 A notable one is the White Doyenne, (or 

 VirgaUeu— St. Michael's Butter,) Pear. It 

 does seem to me that a better Pear never 

 grew, and the time was when it did splen- 

 didly in this vicinity, but we might as well 

 expect to grow Oranges or Pine-apples here 

 successfully now as to attempt to grow this 

 old favorite. The same is true of it in 

 many other .sections. Flemish Beauty also. 



The Canfield, Harrison and Fall Pippin, 

 or Vandevere, Apples were our leading and 

 surest Apples in this locality 30 or 40 years 

 ago. Now all attempts to grow any of them 

 are attended with very indifferent success. 

 I have seen Harrison Apples that would av- 

 erage as large as the finest Tallman Sweets, 

 and keep without difficulty until March and 

 April. It is rare to see a specimen more 

 than half the former size. Young and vig- 

 orous trees of Canfleld do not begin to com- 

 jiare in productiveness and size of fruit 

 with their ancestors. Why? How can we 

 account for these changes save by deteriora- 

 tion. That expresses it as no other word 

 can, and these are not isolated cases either. 



This may be due to some extent to the ex- 

 haustion of certain unknown elements in 

 the soil, but we know we produce on the 

 same soil larger crops of other kinds than 

 were grown in those days, which does not 

 seem to indicate lack of fertility as gener- 

 ally understood. Change of seasons and 

 climate may be responsible in a great meas- 

 ure for the differences. How far we can 

 counteract these charges by any efforts of 

 ours is extremely problematical. 



Change is the law of nature. It is the 

 Divine decree. It is visible all around us in 

 the animal and vegetable world, and we 

 may as well submit to the inevitable. 

 The most successful fruits of to-day will 

 ere long attain the height of their perfec- 

 tion, and though this may be maintained 

 and prolonged for a time by man's efforts, 

 decline and deterioration nill inevitably en- 

 sue, and newer, if not better, varieties will 

 take their places, to be in due time sup- 

 planted by others. 



M. B. Faxon on Growing Garden 

 Vegetables.— Concluded. 



In order to cultivate vegetables with suc- 

 cess, proper attention must be given to the 

 preparation of the soil. Drain properly, so 

 that all surplus and stagnant water which 

 may accumulate can pass freely away. After 

 this is effected, the groiind should be trenched 

 as deeply as the nature of the soil will per- 

 mit, and should be thoroughly enriched with 

 plenty of good barnyard manure. 



Vegetables can be raised with more or 

 less success on soil of varying richness, but, 

 taking an average piece of ground, if five or 

 ten cords of good barnyard manure were to 

 be spread broadcast and harrowed in at 

 some time during the fall, and in the spring 

 five hundred to one thousand pounds of 

 some good chemical fertilizer be drojiped in 

 the rows at planting time, this would be, no 

 doubt, about right for each acre of garden. 



Pole or Running Beans. These as a 

 class cannot be planted until settled mild 

 weather, say from the 20th of May until the 

 1st of June. Four plants in a hill, with hills 

 four feet apart each way, is as close as they 

 should be grown, as they require plenty of 

 air and light. Limas and Sievas, being very 

 tender, should not be planted before the 

 ground is very warm and mellow, say about 

 June 1. For shell beans, the best kinds are 

 I.,arge White Lima, Sieva or Small Lima, 

 and Pole Horticultural. Either the Black 

 Wax Pole or Indian Chief is an excellent 

 snap or string bean. The dwarf kinds are 

 tar superior for the latter use to the pole 

 beans; for the pole varieties one row will be 

 enough, which may be divided between the 

 Limas and Pole Horticultural. 



