1 888. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



215 



purforiiieii early in the spriiitf, in fiiet ttie ear- 

 liest of all ^raftinjf. The same is also true of 

 Plums. This point observed liy liettinyr the 

 Kraftin^ done as early as the weather will 

 allow, even though it be at the eost of etild hn- 

 (jers, and not three grafts in a hinidred ni-ed fail. 

 lie mueh prefers to cut all seions whether of 

 trees or of Grape-vines in ])eceml>er, storini; 

 them in the cellar until needed. 



PEAR CULTURE 



is a leading branch of Mr. Mun.son's business. The 

 soil here bcin^? of heavy sub-soil is well adapted 

 to this fruit. At present his main varieties are 

 Bartlett for standard and Augouleme (Uuchesse 

 dc) for dwarf, both of which have j>roved very 

 proHtiible. In future plantings, however, liart- 

 iettisnotto occupy this prominent place, for 

 the proprietor takes the reasonable view that, 

 owing to its being so e.\tensively planted now 

 everywhere both for home use and market, it 

 can be only a matter of time when the markets 

 will be o\erstocked with this early and rather 

 quick-perishing variety. His tests of othei-s lead 

 him to place the Howell at the head of the li.st as 

 a substitute for Bartlett. The tree is of free 

 growth, upright hal>it and an eai-I,v and profu.se 

 l>eaif'r. 'I"he Iruit is rather large, roundish, of a 

 light wa.xen, yellow color, and often with a 

 finely shaded cheek, and of excellent eating 

 ipiality. It comes in a little after the Bartlett, 

 and does not so quickly pass out of its best con- 

 dition for marketing, a serious ob.leetion to the 

 formei' kind, to which may be added another 

 that it is not a favorite for canning purpfises. 

 For an early Pear the Tyson is classed among the 

 more desirable sorts. Louise Bonne of Jersey, 

 stantls high in some respects, and but for the 

 fact that it is subject to a rust it woulil be plant- 

 ed here second hardly to no <jther variety. The 

 Kieffer, although not a variety that Mr. Munson 

 grows at all enthusitistic over, is still not utterly 

 despised as a market fruit, for thus far it has 

 paid, and good profits are a wonderful factor in 

 deciding many of these points. The variety 

 moreo\er has many friends as a canning Pear. 

 As regards kinds of 



CULTURE FOR PEARS, 



both that of thorough tillage and of ha\ing the 

 orchard in grass are here shown. Now that theio 

 is no serious trouble from black blight, the for- 

 mer is preferred, but at the time blight pre- 

 vailed so destructively the sod method stood the 

 owner to good purpose, for here but little of the 

 disease was present as compared with those plots 

 where clean culture was practiced, aud which 

 soon were marked by numerous dead trees. But 

 the sod treatment, which is still kept up in one 

 flne orchard, it must be noted, is far from being 

 merely Pear trees in a grass meadow. The trees 

 have an annual mulch of manure applied over 

 the roots for a distance of three feet on all sides 

 of the collar. Then the grass which is mown 

 every year us not taken away, but is allowed to 

 se'ttlu down ami deca.v, thus yielding plant food 

 to the soil. All this involves consi<lerabl.^• less 

 work than where a similar area is well cultivat- 

 ed, but it must not be overlooked that by the 

 latter system there is a compensating gain in the 

 growing of StrawlXTries and other hoed crojts 

 und(a- the ti-ees. Such double cropping of the 

 land is considered no detriment to the trees pro- 

 vided ample returns of manure and good tillage 

 are applied. 



In pruning Pear trees as in the pruning of 

 most other fruit trees, Mr. Manson aims at se- 

 curing a well-balanced head, the branches well 

 up from the ground, to admit of a free circula- 

 tiim of air and light underneath, and a rather 

 open head lor admitting sun and light through- 

 out the tree. The dwarfs he does not favor 

 keeping \ery ilwai"f, but likes to encourage the 

 early formation of a tree H to hi feet in height, 

 and then keeping it not far from this size. In 

 carrying out this idea, he does but little pruning 

 beyond providing for a good distribution of per- 

 manent bianches.and for general shape,until the 

 tree has reaeheil a dozen or more feet in height. 

 By that time it has gotten to be rather bushy and 

 then pruning is more earne-stly begun, through 

 letting an increase of light into the top by cut- 

 ting out brush, and heading back the out<'r 

 branches. In seasons when the fruit is thickl.v 

 set over the trees the owner thins freel.v, hav- 

 ing f4)und that the less fruit on a tree down to a 

 certain (juantity the larger and finer the product 

 and the bigger the profits per tree. It may be 

 ailded that the fiuit from these orchards as a re- 

 sult of the care taken in growing, handling and 

 packing has established a reputati(jn in a number 



of distant cities like Cincinnati, St. Louis, Buf- 

 falo and Toronto, and bu.\*ers come to the farm 

 and eagerly take the crop every year at good 

 figures. When I'ears net $3.()0 jjcr barrel one 

 year with another they are considered a very 

 paying crop. 



Aiii>les and (.luinccs, especially the fonner, are 

 grown in huge cpuuititios here. In Quinces the 

 main r<'liance is the A pple or Orange variety, and 

 this yields almost uniformly a profitable crop, 

 the fruit finding a market in the cities named. 



IN APPLES 



the lihode Island Greening is placed first for 

 pi'ofit, while Baldwin occupies second place. In 

 former years tht^ Northern .Spy headed the list 

 as a profitable \ariety, but now takes a iilaee 

 lower down. The trees of this variety bear less 

 than formerly, and the fruit seems to have de- 

 teriorated in quality also. "Where f<irmeiiy it 

 kept w(>ll for marketing far into the spring 

 months, in recent years rot has set in quite early 

 in winter. 1 n the opinion of the writer.if the trees, 

 which have by no means been neglected in their 

 culture, had received yet higher cidtii ation ami 

 a somewhat incieased thinning out of the top 

 the product would have been less open to the 

 faults named. It is our experience that the Spy 

 rec|Uires more attention to these particulars 

 than most sorts. With good culture and air and 

 sun freely admitted thr(mghout its head, it usu- 

 ally continues a great bearer for many years. 

 In the line of 



.SMALL FRUITS, 



strawberries. Raspberries and Grapes are the 

 main crops here grown. A few years ago 

 some si.Y or eight acres were kept in Straw- 

 berries and these by the high and careful culture 

 here given pro\-ed \'cry profitable. But more 

 recently the growing of this fruit has so gener- 

 ally extended throughout this vicinity iis to ren- 

 der it exceedingly difficult to procure the help 

 for proiicriy picking and handling the fruit. The 

 truth is many of Mr. Munson 's former jtickei-s, 

 thrifty German neighbors, and owners of land, 

 that they are, when they saw the nn>ney in the 

 crop, took advantage of the knowledge, piekt^d 

 up at the business and turned growers themselves. 

 The result was that Mr. Munson as well as some 

 other large growers were lead to lessen their 

 areas of it. At i)resent the former has less than 

 three acres of Strawberries. 



The giving of new varieties of Strawberries a 

 trial as they come out receives some attention 

 here, and yet as is commonly the case with grow- 

 ers in this part of the countr.v, when Mr. Miui- 

 son sets out his new plot annually, the old Wil- 

 son \'ariet.v is called upon to cover nineteen- 

 twentieths of the area planted. At this date 

 (June 12) there are fair-sized bearing plots of 

 Jewell, Jessie, Cumberland and Manchester to 

 be seen in close proximity to the larger beds of 

 Wilsons, j'et for general good appeai'ance the 

 latter makes the best rows. A single point— and 

 it is a strong one always— in favor of the Wilson 

 clearly shown here where excellent culture pi'c- 

 vails for all, is the many strong erect leaf stalks 

 surmounted by very large lea\'es, of a deep- 

 green color, and which exceed any of its neigh- 

 bors. t>ne ma.v be sure that when the fruit is as 

 freel.v set as lieiv on the varieties named, if one 

 excels in having larger, stronger and healthier- 

 looking foliage than the others, that variety is 

 the superior one, so far as the extent of the pro- 

 duct is concerned. The method of planting prac- 

 ticed here is to have the rows four feet apart with 

 the plants set at fifteen inches apart in these. 



Raspberry culture receives about eipial atten- 

 tion with Strawberries. The crop is found to be a 

 paying one, the fruit being disiH)sed of at the near 

 markets of Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge, 

 and some at Butlalo. The Clark is placed among 

 the fiist in point of desirability; then follow.s 

 f'uthbert, and after that Saunders, of which 

 half an acre is being grown. The Gregg is 

 also considered on<! of the best, and next to it is 

 the Ohio or the Doolittle. 



The area devoted to vineyard is not large, per- 

 haps not above three-fourths of an acre, but it is 

 of sulhcient size to afford the (twner and his fam- 

 ily much satisfaction. And in it are grown most 

 of the popular \arieties, with some of the newer 

 ones. Among the latter 



NIAGARA, HRKiHTON AND WOHDEN 



are held in high esteem. Favorite as the Niag- 

 ara is, liowe\'er, Mr. Mimson has never been car- 

 ried away with the idea that to plant it exten- 

 si\'ely for marketing would Ix' profiUible. This 

 is mainl.v because oi its col<»r being against it, he 

 being fif the opinion that the sale of light as 



compared with ilark Grapes, must always be 

 limited. " When you are (choosing a color for 

 fruit," remarked Mr, Munson, "follow nature 

 and you will nuikeno mistake." 



This vineyaril is phuitt'd at K by R feet apart for 

 the vines. TIu^ li-ellise consists of f<air bars of 

 wood supported by posts. But such a trcllise 

 would not be built again by the owner, for he 

 sees merit in a trellise consisting of one inch gas 

 pipes for post.s, driving these into the ground 

 and supj^orting the three wires, which for an 

 ordinary trellise arc enough. Mr. Muns(jn is not 

 certain but that some system of high trellising, 

 which would bring the vines farther up from the 

 ground and giving each more space also, would 

 be a great improvement on the present system 

 and may yet be adopted. It wo\ild be following 

 the natural style of Grape-vine growth. He 

 pointed to an end vine of a row of Concords, and 

 which had been allowed on one side to clamber 

 over a Cherr.v tree, reachingahcighth of perhaps 

 ten feet, and this part of the vine always bore 

 abundantly, and if anything more eatisfact^jry 

 than the trellised vines. Varieties that are sub- 

 ject to mildew on trellises are sure to be free of 

 the disease if allowed to run to some height over 

 trees. Referring to the summer pruning of vines 

 this is followed up closely. He lays special em- 

 I)hasis on pinching bearing canes at the third 

 joint beyond the fruit cluster, for in this way the 

 strength goes into the fruit, instead of inciting 

 new wood growth as in the case when more 

 young wood is left. 



One feature of Mr. Munson's place worthy 

 of special mention is 



THE NURSERY OR RESERVE PLAT. 



Here he has grown from seeds or small stocks 

 a large projtortion of all the trees of his orchards, 

 with obvious advantage in most cases. He 

 believes in the free use of wind-breaks, and 

 the planting stock both in deciduous and 

 evergreen kinds, which has been used for setting 

 out numerous lines of these hiis first been brought 

 along for some years in the nursery. The marked 

 ad\'antage of such a nui-sery is seen especiall.v in 

 the ease of evergreens, which can be (as they are 

 on this place) transi>lanted into the nursery with 

 little loss when they are quite small, and then 

 after being fit for permanent planting they can 

 be moved that short distance necessary without 

 shaking the earth from the roots, a point not to 

 be underrated. It may be added that the wind- 

 lireak along the north line of this farm consists 

 of a double row of Norway Spruce, the rows 

 three feet apart with the trees at eight feet from 

 each other in the rows, and alternating. 



A man of Mr. Munson's experience cannot but 

 givesome valuable ideas on the subjects of 



MANURINH AN!) TILLAGE. 



While he has no prejudice against commercial 

 fertilizers, yet he has never employed them. 

 This is because b.v his methods he has lieen able 

 to procure all the stable manure needed for 

 bringing his laud from a run-down state up to 

 one of high fertility. The manure has Ix*en 

 mainly procured from the livery stables at Ni- 

 agara Falls five miles away. Here he has jiro- 

 curcd an immense quantity of manure, it being 

 as he estim.ites the yield of an average of 4tl ani- 

 mals and extending over a period of fifteen years. 

 Much of this manure has been secured by trade, 

 he buying straw in the neighborhood and fur- 

 nishing this as bed<ling to the stjibles for the ma- 

 nure. He con.sidei-s that the manure has cost 

 him (»n an average $1..'»() per two-hoi-se load. 



The laud here is kept fhonuighl.v sub-soiled 

 by the frecpient use <if the sub-soil phtw. What 

 is called thorough sub-soiling is not simply to 

 follow once in the wake of the common plow 

 with a subsoil plow, but to do so a second time 

 al.so. The first time the plow penetrates to about 

 lli inches in depth, and the second something like 

 f<au' inches more. Tin • results in his estimation 

 always well warrant such a i;ourse, and he cited 

 luinierous iust4in(^es in its support. 



Asked to gi\c tlic sum and sul.tstjuicc of his 

 (M inclusions concerning profitable fruit and \-ege- 

 table culture, Mr. Munson did it to this effect: 

 work with h^ss trees anti area, and gl\'e such 

 superior attenti(m as will invariably secure the 

 best, even " fancy " prices. 



In conclusion it may Iw said that Mr. Munson, 

 like all ardent lovers of horticulture, has a great 

 fondness for oriaimental frees, plants, and vines. 

 His home groiuids which receive the constant 

 close oversight of his estimable wife, contain a 

 fine collection of trees, shrubs, and hardy and 

 t^'uder fiowering plants,— one might travel a 

 great ways Ixifore meeting such another. Not 

 the least charm of the estate is the lines of mag- 



