78 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



Notes of An Illinois Fruit Enterprise 



JOBS M. STAHL, ADAMS CO., IIX. 



One of the largest fruit enterprises in this 

 country is located near Xauvoo, 111., and 

 has been worked up by Mr. Will Stahl, of 

 Quincy. Mr. Stahl has been growing small 

 fruits near Quincy for some years; has also 

 done a commission business in fruits for ten 

 or twelve years. Several years ago he be- 

 came convinced of the unusual advantages 

 offered by the soil near Xauvoo, and began 

 fruit raising there on a small scale. He has 

 increased his business there until he has 

 now 300 acres in small fruits, while he super- 

 vises somewhat the cultivation of 500 acres 

 more in small fruits, and handles the pro- 

 duct. Of the total of 800 acres, about 500 

 acres are in Grapes and about 300 acres in 

 Strawberries, Raspberries and Blackberries. 



Grapes. Of the Grapes grown, the Con- 

 cord is the principal variety. While its 

 quality is not of the best at Nauvoo, as else- 

 where, it still has more to offer the general 

 grower for shipment than any other variety. 

 Among other varieties grown are the Ives, 

 a good early Grape, though sour, but being 

 replaced by the Worden, Champion, Moore's 

 Early and Niagara. Xearly all the new 

 vineyards are of the four varieties last 

 named and the Pocklington. Mr. Stahl 

 puts a high estimate on the Worden, in his 

 o^vn words, " it is a rattling good Grape." 



Raspberries. Of Blackcap Raspberries, 

 Mr. S. has 60 acres in the Souhegan. This 

 is the only black cap variety he grows— has 

 discarded all others he has tried, and he has 

 tried many. The trouble with the Gregg 

 was that it winter-killed. He does not grow 

 the Ohio because it ripens too late; he wants 

 only a very early variety. 



Of the reds grown, the Turner, Brandy- 

 wine, Marlboro and Cuthbert are the prin- 

 cipal varieties. All are Xo. 1 bearers. The 

 Turner is excellent for home market, but 

 too soft to ship well. Brandy wine, Marlboro 

 and Cuthbert are good shippers. The Cuth- 

 bert is a little late, but nevertheless profita- 

 ble; it is apt to winter-kill a little. The 

 Brandywine is very profitable. All are of 

 good quality. 



Blackberries. The five principal varie- 

 ties of Blackberry grown are the Snyder, 

 Early Harvest, Ancient Britain, Taylor's 

 Prolific and Stone's Hardy. The Early 

 Harvest is a good early berry, but must be 

 laid down and covered for the winter All the 

 others will go through the winter fairly well. 

 Snyder is quite hardy. All are productive. 

 Snyder is now grown more than any other. 



Strawberries. Twenty-two varieties of 

 Strawberry are grown. The most import- 

 ant are I..ady Rusk, Jessie, Warfield, Cres- 

 cent, James Vick, Capt. Jack, Miner';^ Pro- 

 lific, Cumberland, Bubach, Haverland, 

 Monmouth, Bidwell, Downing, Wilson, 

 Parry, Gandy, .Sharpless and Sucker State. 

 Jessie does fairly well. James Vick and 

 Capt. Jack are superior for fertilizing; yet 

 better for this purpose is the Bidwell. which 

 is a very strong bloomer. The Bidwell 

 made a fine crop of fruit in '88, but did little 

 good this year. The Crescent does well with 

 good culture. The Parry did exceedingly 

 well this year; some of the berries beat its 

 pictures. Sharpless, Bubach, Warfield and 

 Haverland are excellent. 



Mr. Stahl usually tests a new variety as 

 soon as brought out, and therefore his re- 

 taining any variety, as he has those I have 

 mentioned as among those he is growing, 

 is evidence that he has found it possessed of 

 several good qualities when grown at Xau- 

 voo. Another thing, Mr. S. gives extra good 

 cultivation, and thinks varieties are often 

 condemned by those who have not given 

 them the cultiu-e that would have brought 

 out their good qualities. 



The Lady Rusk is a seedling which he has 

 grown for four years, and he is so well 



pleased with it that he will in future grow 

 it almost altogether. It is a very vigorous 

 grower — surpassed by none in this particu- 

 lar; withstands heat and drouth to perfec- 

 tion; it does not rust, the berry is larger 

 than the Crescent, ripens several days earlier 

 and more than any other is uniform 

 throughout the entire picking season. It is 

 a splendid shipper — has reached Winnipeg 

 from X^auvoo in good condition. It is pis- 

 tillate. 



This year Mr. Stahl shipped 300,000 baskets 

 of Grapes, 30 cars of Strawberries, 8,000 

 cases of Raspberries, etc., of course not all 

 of his own growing. His experience as a 

 shipper gives him an advantage in testing 

 fruits for distant markets. 



Virginia Fruit Notes. 



J. LUTHER BOWERS, FAIRFAX CO., VA. 



Plums. — The Weaver has not given me 

 satisfaction. I have about thirty trees that 

 are from three to four years old, on Peach 

 root. They have made an enormous growth, 

 some of the trees now being three to three 

 and one-half inches in diameter at the 

 ground, and ten to twelve feet high. They 

 set the most bloom of anything in the line of 

 fruit-trees I ever saw; but the bloom has 

 never yet expanded to an open flower, but 

 drops off. I am getting disgusted with it, 

 and if it does not do better next season, I 

 shall top-graft the trees to French Prunes. 



The Wild Goose is the Plum for this local- 

 ity, a heavy annual bearer, always smooth 

 and perfect, fine for shipping, fine for can- 

 ning, and brings good prices. The crop of 

 the four trees eight years old, one season 

 sold for *i0.00. I have had trees to bear 

 when only two years old. Gen. Lee is a 

 Virginia seedling from Bradshaw, very 

 early, ripening here the last of August. It 

 is similar to the Niagara in shape and color. 

 ThejGerman Prune, Gen. Hand, Shropshire 

 Damson, Yellow Egg, Green Gage, and sim- 

 ilar kinds of the European type are badly 

 afflicted with curculio, but if sprayed at pro- 

 per time and proper intervals a large crop 

 can be grown. I am testing twenty new 

 varieties of Plums. I think the Satsuma 

 will prove hardy here and be a valuable 

 Plum for this section. 



Apricots. — An annual crop can be ex- 

 pected here only of trees that stand very 

 much exposed to the north or east of north, 

 or on north or northeast side of building. 

 One of my trees in a southeast exposure, 

 bore well this year. The curculio affects 

 Apricots badly here, and spraying is neces- 

 sary to save the crop. Seedlings will do 50 

 per cent better than budded stock. Am 

 testing quite a number of named Russian 

 Appricots, and hope to have fruit on some 

 of them next year. 



English Walnuts.— My trees are seed- 

 lings from large nuts, and under certain 

 cLrcumstances are hardy. If a dry Septem- 

 ber follows upon a wet summer, the trees 

 will winter all right, but when a wet and 

 warm September follows after a dry sum- 

 mer, the ends of branches are sometimes 

 winter-killed. My trees are all young. 

 There are, however, some fine trees in this 

 country that bear annual crops, some years 

 very heavy, other years light. If young 

 trees come safely through until they get two 

 to three inches in diameter at the ground, 

 they are hardy, and even more hardy on a 

 hill or hillside than on low or bottom land. 



I put in a lot of grafts on Black Walnut 

 last spring. They made a fine growth; one 

 graft grew four and one-half feet with seven 

 side branches, and is one and one-half inches 

 in diameter just above union. I think by 

 top-grafting the Black Walnut with English 

 Walnut the latter will be entirely hardy. 



Evaporating Prunes.— It seems strange 

 to me that we have no evaporated Prunes 

 here in the east. I am planting largely of 



Prunes for the purpose of evaporating, and 

 should like to hear from some Xew York 

 man on the subject of Prunes. 



I spent a portion of three years on the 

 large fruit farm of John Bidwell, Chico, 

 Butte Co., California, where upwards of 100 

 tons of Plums and Prunes are dried and 

 evaporated every year. The evaporated 

 Prunes sell better than the sun-dried. 



Planting an Orchard. 



-v. r. REED, CL-MBERLAND COrNn", ME. 



Although not claiming to be an experi- 

 enced orchardist, I have observed some 

 things that I think would be of value to 

 me it I should plant an orchard. In the 

 first place, I should put the trees into plow- 

 ed ground. I should keep the ground plowed 

 several years, till the trees came into bear- 

 ing, cropping it all the while lightly, but 

 putting in each year, more plant nourish- 

 ment than I take out, thus laying in a 

 reserve fund for the support of the trees in 

 years to come. 



Then I would lay it down to grass, but 

 keep the grass from growing for several 

 feet around each tree by mulching quite 

 heavily each year after haying, with leaf 

 mould, compost, etc. In the meantime I 

 would keep the ground well up with liberal 

 top dressings. Thus managed, I do not see 

 the necessity of plowing much if any in the 

 orchard, after it has come to maturity, and 

 it is certainly not convenient to do so 

 among low trees such as I believe in, and 

 thus managed, we .shall find that no crop 

 comes easier into our hands than the Apple 

 crop. An orchard where both the land and 

 the trees give a good showing, even though 

 the Apples bring but -*1 per barrel, pays a 

 per cent, on the capital invested that any 

 merchant would be proud of in his business. 

 "WTiat way is there to earn a dollar any 

 quicker or easier in horticulture, than to 

 pick a barrel of Apples from a low tree? 



Fertilzers for Fruit Trees. 



The science of agricultural chemistry 

 leaves us yet in the dark about many im- 

 portant points concerning the rational and 

 economical feeding of our crops. It has 

 failed, thus far, to furnish us definite, abso- 

 lutely reliable data upon which we might 

 base our calculations, or map out a certain 

 line of action with any kind of assurance 

 that we are right. 



The different kinds of fruit, for instance, 

 quite likely require different elements of 

 plant-food, or these in different proportions. 

 But we are as yet unable to say, this tree 

 needs so many pounds of nitrogen, so many 

 of potash, and so many of phosphoric acid, 

 of which the particular soil furnishes so 

 many of this, and so many of that, leaving 

 just so much to be supplied by applications 

 of fertilizers. And probably it will be a 

 good many years before we will reach this 

 state of absohite knowledge, if ever. 



We know, says Mr. W. J. Green in Ohio 

 Farmer, that Pears thrive best on heavy 

 soil, and Quince trees require a damp soil, 

 but we give little consideration to the ele- 

 ments in the various kinds of soils. The 

 best that we can do is to supply our trees 

 with about what we think is required, 

 basing our judgment upon experience. 

 Fruit trees require at least a dozen different 

 chemical elements, but nearly all these 

 elements are present in most soils in suffi- 

 cient quantities. There are only three 

 elements, nitrogen, potassium and phos- 

 phorus, that we are likely to be called upon 

 to supply to any ordinary soil. 



Stable manure, as everyone knows, con- 

 tains the elements named, but it is not 

 always suitable lor fruit trees. It may safe- 

 ly be used on thin poor soils, and upon old 

 Apple orchards. In such cases there is 

 nothing better, but where there is danger of 



