1889. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



33 



yellows seems to play havoc with Delaware 

 orchards, and the country needs new fields. 

 Where Peaches can he relied on to bear 

 nearly every year, they are a most prolita- 

 hle crop: and people in favored localities 

 sIkiuUI not hesitate to test the suitability ot 

 their soils for Peach growins and plant 

 largely when the results of the investigation 

 are favorable. 



Pe.vch Culture. Here it is indeed Peach 

 culture, with the accent on culture — not 

 merely Peach growing. The lesson that 

 Peaches need cultivation (and where that is 

 given proper feeding is not likely to be 

 neglected), could in no way be more indeli- 

 bly impressed upon one's mind than by a 

 comparison between the many orchards 

 kept as clean as a garden, with their splen- 

 did, large specimens of trees, in healthy, 

 dark-colored foliage, and the few weedy, 

 neglected plantations with dwarfed,sprangly 

 trees, and yellowish, sickly foliage. This 

 difference was striking, and observable in 

 every ca.se, alike with Peaches, Pears and 

 Plums, so striking, indeed, that it would 

 convince the most sceptical. We confess 

 that we have never seen orchards kept more 

 scrupulously clean, nor met thriftier and 

 healthier looking trees than in the fortunate 

 vicinity of Lewiston, Youngstown and Ni- 

 agara-on-the-Lake. 



Dr.\inage. Peaches do not like wet feet. 

 We suspect that want of proper drainage is 

 the real cause of failure with Peaches in 

 more cases than people dream of. Near 

 Youngstown we saw an orchard remarka- 

 bly for its thrift and luxuriance. A little 

 brook formed the line on one side, and here 

 the land was sloping. The row along the 

 brook consisted of a sorry looking lot of 

 trees, which were in notable contrast w^th 

 the splendid specimens just above, and Mr. 

 Henry Lutts, our kind host and guide, told 

 us that the proprietor had repeatedly re- 

 planted that one row, but could not succeed 

 in making any of the trees grow like those 

 on higher ground. Similar incidents have 

 often been observed by us in other localities. 

 Here we have the explanation why people 

 so often tell us that their Peaches give full 

 crops on rather thin upland, while they fail 

 on rich bottom land. It is not the richness 

 of the soil, that works mischief, but lack of 

 proper drainage. And our experience fur- 

 ther leads us to prefer natural to artificial 

 drainage. If the subsoil is porous. Peaches 

 often do remarkably well even on stiil clay 

 soil. Mr. Lntt's crops are a notable example. 

 But where natural drainage is lacking, 

 mere surface drainage is not sufficient. 

 This only removes the water from the top, 

 but still leaves the trees with wet feet. It 

 will not do for the Peach. Now we have 

 the following, 1 ) favorable locality; 3) 

 thorough cultivation (of course with proper 

 feeding),and 3) thorough drainage, as indis- 

 pensable conditions of the best success. 



Good-Sized Fruit. The grower does not 

 only want fruit, but he wants that which 

 win sell readily and bring him a good price. 

 The steam boat which conveyed us from 

 Lewiston to Niagara on the Canada side was 

 pretty well loaded with Peaches, Pears, 

 Quinces etc., consigned to Toronto. At Ni- 

 agara the local horticultural Society held a 

 very creditable exhibition in the town ball 

 and here again we met fine selected fruit. 

 So we had plenty of opportunity to notice 

 the great difference in size and general ap- 

 pearance of the same variety of fruit as 

 marketed or exhibited by different growers. 

 A basket of these small inferior Peaches 

 looks small and mean indeed when stand- 

 ing right beside a basket of great, large, 

 fine specimens, and the grower of the small 

 ones, when noticing the contrast could not 

 help to feel small and mean too. The returns 

 are in correspondence with the size of fruit. 

 " It is owing to the amount of fruit, the trees 



were made to bear, " said Mr. Lutts. "Atree 

 can carry only a certain amount of weight. 

 If too many specimens are left on, they ■will 

 be small. But it is always better and more 

 profitable to put this weight in fewer speci- 

 mens, and have them of large and salable 

 size." The problem only is how to relieve 

 the tree of the specimens that are in excess, 

 or prevent excessive fruit-setting. Some- 

 times, and especially with smaller trees, 

 the growers here go over the tree, limb after 

 limb, thinning the fruit while small; but the 

 method preferred by most people, we talked 

 with, consists in thinning out the young 

 gi'owth in the center of the free, during fall 

 or spring, to remove part of the bearing 

 shoots, and open the tree to air and sun. 

 The beneficial effectsof such thinning were 

 sho^^^l us in a basket of Hynes's Surprise 

 Peach, which Mr. Henry Lutts had sent to 

 this office early in August; and which con- 

 tained luscious specimens of uniform and 

 large size, all grown on this method of giv- 

 ing to each fruit its due allowance of space. 



A Fixe Early Peach. This Hyne's 

 Surprise, a Tennessee variety of recent in- 

 troduction, is well thought of by growers 

 near the Lake. Mr. Curye, an enthusiastic 

 Canadian Peachgrower,told us he had jilant- 

 ed 100 trees 4 years ago. Asthe product of 

 these he sold the second years 40 baskets, 

 the third year 250 baskets, and thi-i year 

 (which all Peach growers in that vicinity 

 agree in the first year in ten they failed to 

 have a full crop, owing to the frost late in 

 May 270) baskets. The three crops netted 

 him -*1 'Zb per basket, so that he received for 

 his crops §50.00, S312 50, and S337.50, or an 

 aggregate of almost STOO.OO. Of course he is 

 enthusiastic over his success. 



The Yellows. Little fear of that great 

 bug-bear, the Y'ellows, was expressed by 

 any of the Peach growers, although they 

 claim it occasionally makes its presence 

 known, and we were shown trees and limbs 

 of trees al leged to be affected with the disease. 

 In a rather hasty examination, however, we 

 could not detect any of the symptons which 

 we thought were characteristic of the true 

 Y''ellows, especially that "porcupine-appear- 

 ance" produced by numerous tiny shoots, 

 as we have often seen it elsewhere. In some 

 cases we thought we could trace the cause of 

 thesickly, yellowish appearance of trees to 

 " wet feet " or lack of cultivation and feeJ. 



When one of the trees shows signs of al- 

 leged yellows, it is simply torn out and de- 

 stroyed, and this stops the trouble. Specific 

 remedies do not seem to be needed here, and 

 yet it is a fact that further away from the 

 Lake, in the same county, Peach culture is 

 pretty near abandoned just on account of 

 the ravages of this disease. 



Mushrooms for IVIarket and Home 

 Use. 



JOHN ASH. NORFOLK CO., MASS. 



Materials for Beds. Good fresh stable 

 manure must be procured in sufBcient 

 quantity for the size of the bed to be made, 

 and it should come from stables where 

 healthy horses are kept, as that from horses 

 dosed vrith drugs will often cause failure. 

 Let the manure be put into a heap, say from 

 three to four feet high, shaking out of it the 

 longest of the litter. Make the heap square 

 if the manure is in good condition, or rather 

 drj', but if wet, let the width of the heap be 

 one-third the length, so that the working ot 

 it will help to dry it. Let the heap remain 

 about a week, then turn it, carefully mixing 

 the outside with the middle. This should 

 be four times, allowing an interval of not 

 longer than two or three days between each 

 turning. The manure should then be in 

 good condition for being made into a bed. 



Formation of Bed. If the bed is to be 

 made in an ordinary Mushroom house, give 

 it a depth of ten inches in front, and sixteen 



inches at the back, if in an outhouse or 

 shed it should be made against a wall in a 

 similar manner, or when there is room, 

 make the bed ridge-shaped, about two feet 

 nine inches at the base, and three feet high. 

 It is indispensable in every case, that the 

 bed rest upon a thoroughly drained bottom. 

 In making the bed, the manure should be 

 again thoroughly mixed, as above directed, 

 and beaten down as firmly as possible. 

 Beds made according to these dimensions 

 will be found to contain a sutfient body of 

 manure to generate and maintain heat 

 enough for the production of the crop. A 

 temperature of from 60° to 65° from the time 

 it is spawned, until it has finished bearing 

 is required. 



To determine the suitableness of the bed 

 for spawning is one of the most important 

 points, as the manure may be in the finest 

 possible condition when the bed is made, 

 but having a strong tendency to become 

 heated, soon rises to a high temperature 

 which causes it to dry so that before the bed 

 is cool enough to spawn, it may be too dry 

 to produce a crop. The bed should therefore 

 be tested "before spawing " by taking out 

 a handful of the manure at about nine 

 inches below the surface and pressing it 

 tightly in the hand, when, if it retains near- 

 ly the same shape into which it has been 

 pressed, after the pressure is removed, it is 

 in good condition ; but if it falls to pieces, 

 it is too dry and the bed must be allowed to 

 cool down to about .50°, when it must be re- 

 made, thoroughly breaking it in pieces, 

 mixing it well, and carefully damping it 

 through a very fine rose. The temperature 

 in this case will not rise nearly as fast as 

 when the bed was first made, and some- 

 times the heat will not rise at all, in which 

 case, the bed must be spawned at once and 

 covered up well to help to raise and main- 

 tain the temperature. 



In order to allow the excessive heat to es- 

 cape, when the bed is first made, make a 

 number of holes in the bed about twelve 

 inches apart, allowing it to cool down to a 

 temperature of from 65° to 70° when it 

 should be spawned. Care should be taken 

 to guard against the manure getting too 

 wet, this can be ascertained by pressing the 

 manure between the fingers and the palm 

 of the hand, when, if a slight hissing sound 

 is heard, the manure is too wet, and the 

 chances of success are very small. 



In spawning the bed, break up the cakes 

 of spawn into pieces about three inches by 

 two inches and bury them just below the 

 surface, eight or nine inches apart every 

 way, then beat down the bed firmly so as to 

 present an even appearance, cover the sur- 

 face with mould and beat down to the thick- 

 ness of about two inches, then put on a 

 covering of soft litter. If the above men- 

 tioned temperature be maintained, the 

 Mushrooms will begin to appear in about 

 six weeks. Avoid watering the bed if pos- 

 sible, this can generally be done by keeping 

 the covering damp, using care that it does 

 not get saturated with water. When water- 

 ing is absolutely necessary, it should be 

 done through a very fine rose using tepid 

 water, as cold water will check, if not spoil 

 the crop. When gathering the Mushrooms, 

 take them out by the roots, if these are 

 allowed to remain, they will seriously in- 

 terfere with the succeeding crops. 



1,44K. Settiner Strawberries. Fall is best titae 

 in the south. You can best learn the varieties 

 that succeed in your climate by consulting 

 neigboring fruit growers. The Crescent Fertili- 

 zed by the Bidwell, possibly the May King, are 

 adapted to your section.— i. J. Farmer. 



1,400. Wintering Eoots. One of the very best 

 and safest ways ot storing Rutabagas, Beets, Car- 

 rots, etc., is by pitting, same way as much prac- 

 ticed for Potatoes, and descritied in October 

 number, which see. — 



