214 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



July, 



A Cherry Crop, 



SAilUEL MILLER, MONTGOMERY COUNTT, MO. 



When a man leaves a place whereon he 

 hiis 100 bearing Cherry trees, of all the best 

 varieties, and moves to another part of the 

 country where they can hardly be grown, 

 he leaves a very valuable thing behind him. 

 Such was my experience on leaving 

 Pennsylvania twenty years ago and coming 

 to Missouri. I at once commenced to raise 

 trees and set out an orchard of fifty trees. 

 They grew well and had one good crop 

 about ten years ago, but in the meantime 

 not enough for our own use, with the ex- 

 ception of one tree, a Napoleon Bigarreau, 

 which has been giving us a fair crop nearly 

 every year for five years past. 



It is not claimed that this variety is any 

 hardier than many of the other imported 

 varieties, but I think the form of the 

 tree is what has made the difference. It 

 branches at a foot from the ground, and 

 spreads out with a round head. 



At the ground it is a foot in diameter, 

 spreads twenty-five feet, and is not over 

 sixteen feet high. We have now, June 9th, 

 picked four bushels off it, and there is at 

 least one bushel more on it. It was budded 

 on a Mehaleb stock. Have no trouble with 

 suckers, as is the case when worked on 

 Mazzard stocks. The selection was a large 

 one at first, but now only the following re- 

 main and produced in the following order: 



Bowman's May. A fair crop, but the 

 birds took all before ripe. 



May Duke. A moderate crop. 



Rhine Hortense. A splendid crop of as 

 fine as I ever saw. 



The same with Carnation. 



Napoleon as stated. I can step in the 

 Napoleon tree and nearly walk about in it. 



Governor Wood. A medium crop of the 

 best Cherries, in ray estimation, that we 

 have. 



Old as I am, my intention is to save seeds 

 of all these, work and place in nursery, and 

 when two years old set them out in 

 orchards, without any budding or grafting. 

 I don't see why there may not be some good 

 ones among them. They will be cut back 

 so as to fork near the ground. 



Cherry seeds must be kept on the ground 

 slightly covered, or they will not germinate 

 the following spring. 



On Utilizing Surplus Vegetable 

 Plants. 



A. r. REED, SOUTH BRIGHTON, MAINE. 



A very small piece of ground sown to veg- 

 etable seed will give plants enough to sup- 

 ply several families. Suppose that at this 

 season we have got of our own raising an 

 abundance of such plants, how can we best 

 proceed to dispose of them for profit? The 

 first impulse is naturally to pull up the sur- 

 plus plants that come from reasonably 

 thick sowing and throw them away. 

 While this may sometimes be necessary to 

 some extent, yet not always to the extent 

 practiced. 



To utilize and make the most of these 

 plants is an important part of gardening, if, 

 indeed, it is not more' than half. Yet it is 

 not so much of a task as one might think, 

 seeing that the season for transplanting is 

 quite long comparatively, and that even a 

 small garden has many nooks and corners 

 that had lietter be closely occupied than be 

 vacant. You cannot tell in one day how 

 many can be used, nor in two. There may 

 also be something growing in the garden 

 that will get out of the way in time to grow 

 a crop of Cabbage, Beets or Turnips, hence 

 it is always best to have numerous reserve 

 plants to use in such places that most al- 

 ways turn up sooner or later. By a course 

 of gradual thinning out also little injury 

 will result, as by pulling out everything in 



one or two days. Neither need things be 

 injuriously crowded with such judicious 

 thinning. In point of fact such a thinning 

 process has got to be gone through with 

 whether we save anything out of it or not, 

 for superfluous plants are weeds. But what 

 can be utilized as stated will be clear gain. 

 In transplanting, it is always safe to set 

 deeply, while removing the plants in a good 

 condition and as quickly as possible. Make 

 the earth quite solid and firm about the 

 plants. Good success may be had in this 

 work in a sunny day under these circum- 

 stances, if the plants are well watered and 

 shaded immediately after planting. 



Preparation of the Soil for Grape- 

 vines. 



D. S. MARVIN, JEPPERSON CO., N. Y. 



Judging from my own experience I think 

 that the roots of the vine need to penetrate 

 the subsoil. I am aware that of late it has 

 been recommended and practiced to set out 

 vineyards upon a cheap scale without 

 trenching or sub-soiling. 



This in my judgment is the chief reason 

 why the vine suffers so much from sporadic 

 diseases. The roots being too near the sur- 

 face are subjected to all the changes and vi- 

 cissitudes of climatic conditions, while if 

 set deeper they would receive the protection 

 of a deeper soil against sudden changes. 



An experiment that I made a few years 

 ago saves so much of the heavy expense of 

 subsoiling, and has proved so satisfactory, 

 that I can safely recommend it to vineyard 

 planters. It is so simple, and applicable to 

 all varying conditions, that no one need 

 hesitate about adopting it. I simply plowed 

 and cleaned out trenches in the fall as steep 

 as their sides could be made, eight feet apart 

 and 30 inches deep, set the vines in the 

 trenches in the following spring and filled 

 them in again mainly with the plow. 



The reason for success in this experiment 

 of fall trenching is found in the action of 

 frost during the winter being enabled to 

 penetrate the subsoil deeper than it could 

 otherwise do through the means of these 

 open trenches, thereby fining and com- 

 minuting the soil and subsoil and bringing 

 up to the surface some of the lost fertility 

 of past ages. I found to my great surprise 

 that before the frost had gone out of the 

 ground the trenches were deeper or the 

 ridges were higher in the spring than in the 

 fall, showing that the frost had penetrated 

 from the trenches sideways into the soil of 

 the ridges, heaving and loosening it much 

 deeper and fining it as I had never before 

 observed under any other conditions. I 

 found that I had been utilizing the forces of 

 nature to do my work free and far Ijetter 

 than I could do it at great expense myself 

 with teams and subsoil plows. 



Subsequently it was shown that as the 

 roots of the vines spread out and grew the 

 feeding roots at the ends gradually rose a 

 little as they approached the centers of the 

 rows, and that occasionally the plow in the 

 subsequent tillage of the vines cut off the 

 end of a few of these feeding roots, but I 

 could not perceive that this was a serious 

 injury, for new and more branching roots 

 were sent out from the severed ones the 

 next season, and I sometimes imagined that 

 it had reinvigorated the vines, and caused 

 them to grow more luxuriantly, but I could 

 not express a positive opinion as to this, 

 without more experience and observation. 



Another point gained was, that in the 

 spring I did not have to dig holes to set the 

 vines at a busy season of the year. The 

 holes were already dug just the right depth. 

 The fine top soil had fallen in from the sides 

 of the ditches making the very best possible 

 conditions after strewing a little phosphate, 

 ashes and bone dust in the trench, for the 



fine subsequent, healthy and vigorous 

 growth obtained, and I found that I could 

 work the soil some two weeks earlier than 

 that entrenched. I actually set the vines 

 while there was yet frost in the ridges, the 

 soil working dry and mellow. 



Niagara County Notes. 



THE MUNSON FRUIT FARM, LA SALLE, N. Y. 



Directly across the creek and highway which 

 skirt one side of "Woodbanks," the newly ac- 

 quired grounds of this journal, (and which, us ex- 

 plained last month, are to be devoted to experi- 

 mental purposes in the interests of the .iournal's 

 readers) lies the successful 46 acre fruit farm of 

 H. D. Munson, Esq., who resides on the farm. 

 Not the entire farm is devoted to fruit, how- 

 ever, for after the failure of the Peach crop in 

 this vicinity some years ago nearly half of it was 

 given over to farm and garden crops. Among 

 the latter, Tomatoes now figure extensively, the 

 product going to the canning factory at LaSalle 

 and to others in the vicinity. 



The land of this farm is mainly a light chest- 

 nut loam, overlajing a subsoil of blue clay. It 

 is naturally the home of the Chestnut tree; 

 those acquainted with the particular likings of 

 the Peach as to soil will easily underatand why 

 here the tree readily thrives. Still at the present 

 time there are but few bearing Peach trees to be 

 seen in this locality, owing to 



THE RAVAGES OF THE PEACH YELLOWS 



in the jiast. When that scoui'ge appeared as al- 

 luded to it found the Peach orchai'ds hereabouts 

 generally in a condition, owing to the advanced 

 age of many of the trees, the easy methods of 

 culture in vogue and the ignorance of the own- 

 ers concerning the disease and its treatment, that 

 made them an easy prey to it, and orchard after 

 orchard was swept away. But the planting of 

 new orchards is again being undertaken and 

 with more or less promising results, one plot 

 planted two and three years ago, especially be- 

 ing very satisfactory, and which assures the ob- 

 server that Peach growing will soon again be 

 flourishing hereabouts. 



A peculiarity of this particular Peach orchard 

 is that the trees were worked after the European 

 plan upon Plum stocks, those of a wild species 

 having been employed. While the trees show a 

 flue state of ^dgor and healthfulness, the single 

 objection may be noted against the Plum stock, 

 that it sends up sprouts from the roots. But 

 the owner believes in absolutely clean culture 

 for the Peach and in this view finds little trouble 

 in dealing with the sprouts,— he treats them as 

 weeds. His trees are planted in quincunx order 

 (illustrated on page 184) at 12 feet apart and the 

 orchard includes the leading standard sorts. The 

 pruning adopted is that of a rather open head 

 while young, and not much besides. From his 

 observation Mr. Munson would now ha\'e little 

 fear of the Peach yellows in any orchard of 

 healthy, moderately young trees, by practicing 

 perfectly clean culture and keeping up good 

 soil fertility. In the fight against the yellows 

 at the time of its former worst attack he noticed 

 that notwithstanding the general odds as ■ re- 

 ferred to against success, those orchiuds in 

 which absolutely clean culture was resoi-ted to 

 were the last to succumb to the ff)e, and in 

 that tact he thinks lies the important lesson in 

 dealing with this disease. 



THE CHERRY 



has received some attention on this farm as a 

 market fruit, with the result of deciding against 

 the sweet class and in favor of the acid class as 

 regards profits. Objections to former: loss from 

 curculio, birds, and in wet weather rot, besides 

 uncertain markets with prices so low at times 

 as to hardly pay for picking. Of the latter Mr. 

 Munson has a single line of trees extending 

 along the margins of his nearer home grounds 

 the trees of which rarel.v fail to jield good re- 

 turns, in fact *' two to one " as compared with 

 the sweet kinds. They are mostly of the Early 

 Ilichmond variety. Trees of the old Morello are 

 also somewhat numerous, this being a favorite 

 for marketing. In this class he esteems the 

 Montmorency highly, for its heavy crops of fine 

 fruit and the beaut.v and vigor of the tree. 



Keferring to the difficulty of grafting the 

 Cherry Mr. Munson,— who makes it a jK^int to 

 work over undesirable varieties in all kinds 

 as soon as the fact is made clear, for something 

 better, lays much stress upon the well-known 

 fact that to be successful the operation must be 



