HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



199 



son, and in the event of a dry season during spring 

 time they will be ready for use. 



" From what I have learned in this little experiment, 

 I will introduce water appliances to my Highland 

 berry farm in the near future either by pipes from 

 the city water plant or by well and wind mills. I 

 firmly believe that our berry crop can be quadrupled 

 by the use of water on berry plants at all dry times 

 during the season of plant growth." 



PROFITABLE SAFEGUARDS. 



The evaporating establishment and the canning 

 works are to a fruit-growing community a sort of a 

 safety-valve, cold-storage, or insurance arrangement. 

 It may often happen that a crop of perishable fruit 

 will be wholly lost, or nearly so, because of some- 

 thing which hinders marketing at the instant the fruit 

 is ripe. Berry growers in parts of California this sea- 

 son lost their whole crop by reason of the great strike 

 stopping all trains so long that their fruit rotted in 

 the crates awaiting shipment. Sometimes a glutted 

 market is almost equally disastrous. Large growers, 

 or communities of those operating in a small way, 

 would doubtless be well repaid in the long run by be- 

 ing prepared either to evaporate or can, or both, a 

 heavy crop of good fruit when, for any reason, re- 

 munerative prices for the fresh product in open 

 market suddenly fail. 



Remedy for Pear Blight. The greatest draw- 

 back to profitable pear culture in almost all parts of 

 the country is blight. Trees are affected by blight 

 in nearly every part of the United States, and the 

 disease does not respond readily to most of the treat- 

 ments adopted. Like peach yellows, pear blight, if 

 not incurable, is at least generally regarded as ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to cure. The result is, that or- 

 chards are allowed to go on from year to year produc- 

 ing but little fruit, and that of very inferior quality, 

 thus to a great extent bringing pear culture into dis- 

 repute in many sections. To be sure, a great num- 

 ber of so-called remedies have been applied from 

 time to time, and some of them have undoubtedly, 

 proven in a measure effective, but a sovereign remedy 

 for pear blight is among the things still to be desired. 

 In a discussion before the Missouri State Horticul- 

 tural Society some months ago, Dr. J. Henesley gave 

 a prescription for pear blight which he had tested 

 quite fully with the greatest satisfaction. 



THE REMEDY. 



The remedy prescribed by Ur. Henesley was sim- 

 ply calomel, a substance widely prescribed by the 

 profession for various ills of humanity, and com- 

 posed of two equivalents of mercury and one of 

 chlorine. It is a drug familiar to all and to be found 

 in every drug store. The dose, which should be 

 about ten grains, is administered by cutting across the 

 trunk through trie bark, then lifting the edges and 

 inserting the calomel. The wound should be bound 

 up by a piece of cloth of some kind to aid it in heal- 

 ing. Trees should be treated during the growing 

 season, when it is found that the medicine is readily 

 taken up in the circulation and its good effects soon 

 made manifest. 



This treatment is here recommended, not with the 

 positive assurance of its efficacy in curing the dread 

 disease known as pear blight, but in the hope that it 

 may prove of value. The mode of treatment is sim- 

 plicity itself, and the cost is merely nominal; hence 

 any who wish to experiment may do so without loss 



or heavy expense, and in the light of the experience 

 of Dr. Henesley and of others cited by him, with rea- 

 sonable hopes of success. It is hoped that many read- 

 ers of THE AGE may make experiments with the 

 calomel treatment and report results to this depart- 

 ment. 



Raise Fruit. " In this era of low prices," says 

 the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, " one article of general 

 production on the farm stands forth a decided excep- 

 tion. The average wholesale price of apples in 

 New York for the past season was $4.50 a barrel. 

 Thus, a barrel of good apples was worth the same 

 as 1% bushels of wheat. If it be remarked that the 

 apple crop of last year was unusually short, the 

 fact may be cited that apples in the season of 1892- 

 93 brought $2.50 a barrel at wholesale in New York, 

 and this price is the equivalent of more than four 

 bushels of wheat. The farmer who is not looking 

 after his apple orchard in these times, enriching 

 and extending it, is missing what seems to be his 

 best opportunity. No glut of fine apples need be 

 feared. Large quantities of American apples are 

 demanded in London, the price for No. 1 ranging 

 from $5 to $8 a barrel. The fast ocean steamers 

 make special provisions for the fruit, and a shipment 

 of 8,000 barrels on one steamer is on record. While 

 the English prize most our Newton Pippins, North- 

 ern Spys, Baldwins and Russets, they have learned 

 the value of all good varieties, and shipments now 

 begin as early as August. A well-flavored red- 

 skinned apple is the favorite with the English 

 masses. The sight of a neglected orchard on a 

 farm is woful evidence of a business misunderstood." 



It will be a long time before the production of 

 good apples is overdone, if it ever is. And the 

 same is true of the other leading and staple fruits. 

 The demaad for these products is increasing faster 

 than the supply. It will be impossible, for many 

 years at least, to have too many pears, plums, cher- 

 ries or peaches of good varieties. Even at prices 

 quite a little below the average of late years, fruits 

 will pay; and should prices lower but a little, con- 

 sumption will increase so rapidly as to check the 

 downward tendency. More and more attention to 

 fruit growing will pay. 



Pineapple Culture in Florida. A compara- 

 tively limited area in the United States is adapted to 

 the successful culture of the pineapple, and practi- 

 cally all of this area tested lies in the State of 

 Florida. Experiments in raising pines on a small 

 scale have been tried in various parts of California, 

 but thus far the business has not proven a commercial 

 success. The pine requires a climate free from 

 severe frosts and cold winds, and the Indian river 

 region in Florida has been found to comprise more 

 desirable conditions than any other fully tried with 

 this crop. For the season to July, the district referred 

 to had shipped to market about 33,000 crates of pines, 

 and a considerable fraction of the crop then re- 

 mained unharvested. While pineapple culture is 

 quite expensive, especially the establishment of the 

 orchard from the plants or suckers, it has paid re- 

 markably well in many cases in Florida. An average 

 of $200 per acre, in some instances reaching as much 

 ), has been claimed for the fruit in the Indian 



river region and about Lake Worth. Most of the 

 Florida pines, amounting to some 50,000 crates for 

 the entire crop, are sent to the markets of the At- 



