124 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



March, 



ed, yet an open exposure Is often preferable 

 to a site sheltered on all sides by woods, etc. 

 The growth in the spring should be rather 

 retarded than forwarded. Sand or sandy 

 loam is preferable to other soils. A clover 

 sod plowed in fall and fitted for Corn is 

 excellent for Peaches. The first two years 

 after the orchard is started, plant it to Corn, 

 then to Rye or Bnckwheat, these latter 

 crops to be plowed in. Clean cultivation 

 should be given year after year, in dry 

 seasons until middle of August. Feed the 

 trees plentifully, as Peaches will not bear 

 neglect. Plant the old standard sorts that 

 are tested all over and found reliable. New 

 sorts are, however, constantly added to the 

 list. Popular in Michigan are Louise Seed- 

 ing, Crane's Yellow, Early Barnard, Jacques 

 Rareripe, Hill's Chili, Smock. Early Craw- 

 ford is not prolific enough. 



Before planting trim to a whip, and cut 

 back to three or four feet in length. The 

 cuts on branches should not be close, but 

 rather a little ways from the tree. During 

 growth remove all superfluous sprouts. 

 Once or twice a year make a thorough 

 search for borers. When fruit sets, it 

 should be carefully thinned by hand, 

 begining with the early sorts and continuing 

 to the latest. Let the fruit remain three or 

 four inches apart on each limb. Really 

 good fruit can not otherwise be grown. 



Peaches are always of best quality when 

 ripened on the tree, and the nearer to full 

 maturity they could be left on the trees, the 

 better the market will like them. If possi- 

 ble market without the assistance of middle- 

 men. For home market leave Peaches on 

 the tree until they begin to ripen. For dis- 

 tant market be sure that there are no soft 

 specimen in the package. Always handle 

 the fruit like eggs, and never shake it out 

 of one package into another. A good tree 

 well taken care of should produce one 

 bushel of fruit. 



Peacli culture in Michigan and Ontario is 

 justified to the fullest extent that transpor- 

 tation chances are at command. The 

 yellows began to trouble in 1877. The first 

 indication of the tree being affected is the 

 flesh turning red. It does not at first show 

 in leaf or otherwise. Mr. Taylor began his 

 warfare against the disease by cutting 

 down 40 trees out of 300; next year he cut 

 down six of those remaining, and since then 

 he has had little yellows in his orchard. In 

 other localities, where the trees were doc- 

 tored and kept, the disease has kept on 

 spreading, until now Michigan growers 

 generally are convinced that cutting down 

 every tree at the first sign of the disease is 

 the best and cheapest policy. It wipes out 

 the yellows at short notice. Mr. Taylor 

 tears out the tree even if he finds but a 

 single diseased Peach among healthy ones 

 on it. He has, however, no evidence that 

 the yellows can be transferred from one 

 tree to another by means of pruning tools. 

 The law requires the tree to be burned. The 

 roots are dug out in the fall. If the trees 

 and stumps are left in the land, the trouble 

 seems to remain and spread. 



In the discussions following this paper, 

 the essayist advises to search for the borer 

 in early spring and again in summer, also 

 to paint the bodies of trees with white- 

 wash flavored with carbolic acid. 



It cultivation is stopped too early in the 

 season, say in July, especially in dry 

 weather, the wood will ripen too early and 

 develop fruit buds too.soon. The cultivator 

 should go four inches deep. The round 

 basket, with so-called "rail-road" cover 

 (two slats crossing each other) has proved 

 to be a very serviceable package. 



Sec'y Woolverton says he used to plant 

 30 feet apart. Now he plants 13 feet each 

 way. Keeps the tree in bush form, closely 

 pruned. Thus they occupy the ground 



better, keep in better health, produce more 

 young, bearing wood, and consequently 

 more fruit, not to speak of the advantages 

 of the chances of thinning and picking vrith 

 greater ease and comfort. The trees have 

 been liberally fed with wood ashes, and the 

 results have pleased him very much. This 

 fertilizer seems to affect color, size and per- 

 haps the flavor. He prunes in March or 

 early in April, cutting the young growth 

 back severely. Where the branches are 

 long and straggling, the old wood is cut 

 back also. Unleached wood ashes are ap- 

 plied yearly at the rate of one-half bushel 

 to the tree. Thinning would pay, but he 

 can not find the time to do it. 



The Borer. Sec'y Woolverton tries to 

 keep borers out altogether, as it is tco much 

 trouble to hunt for them every year. The 

 eggs, laid near the ground, hatch in June, 

 July and August. About June 1st a mound 

 of earth is heaped up around each tree, and 

 the young borer will be kept off from the 

 only part where it can enter, namly at the 

 surface of ground where the bark is soft. 

 Since adopting this plan, Mr. Woolverton 

 has had no more trouble with the borer. 



A member states that weak lye, or some 

 other alkaline wash applied to the bodies of 

 Apple trees about June 1st, has always 

 done good service for him in disposing of 

 the Apple tree borer. 



The Peach in Essex County. Mr. Wm. 

 Mitchell says the greatest trouble here is 

 the borer. Among good varieties for that 

 locality are named Reeves' Favorite, Smock, 

 Chair's Choice. The Crawford is not pro- 

 ductive enough. Old Mixon is a fine Peach, 

 but he can not get it to bear. Tyhurst's 

 Seedling is a fine local variety, in fact the 

 best in this section, and seems to reproduce 

 itself from seed like the Wager. 



Mr. S. D. Willard of New York says the 

 troxible with the Crawford is that the buds 

 are too tender to endure our severe winters. 



Mr. Baldwin says Stump the World is one 

 of the best varieties in Essex' Co. Most of 

 his trees are seedlings, and he finds them 

 more profitable than the uncertain, mixed 

 and unreliable lots bought of agents. 



Pres. A. M. Smith says Crawford is the 

 standard in the eastern section of Ontario. 

 Good sorts are, for early, Alexander, which 

 is about the same as Amsden's June, Shoe- 

 maker, Early Canada,etc.; for .second Early 

 Rivers; filling a gap, Hale's Early; for later 

 Crawford's Early, Wager, Longhurst. This 

 latter is a local variety of which he thinks 

 very highly. It is productive, of fair size, 

 and altogether reliable in that section. 

 Late Crawford is good when you can get it 

 to bear. Steven's Rareripe is Old Mixon 

 right over, only from .seven to ten days later 

 and a better bearer. Wheatland is a shy 

 bearer. Foster is similar to early Crawford, 

 perhaps a little rounder, and higher colored. 



Mr. S. D. Willard speaks highly of 

 Steven's Rareripe, which was introduced 

 probably 30 years ago. but again lost sight 

 of. Comes just before Smock. Tree hardy, 

 fruit white-fleshed, large and fine. A stand- 

 ard variety. Salway is too late for Geneva, 

 N. Y. Hyne's surprise is one of the 

 earliest sorts, and an absolute freestone. 



Pear Culture. Mr. McMichael reports 

 that he now grows only standards, since the 

 dwarfs were not satisfactory. Thorough 

 underdraining made his orchards produc- 

 tive. The fruit is thinned by means of a 

 pair of sheep shears. Applies barnyard 

 manure in sprmg and ashes in fall, As a 

 preventive of fungus diseases and insect 

 attacks his orchard is sprayed with solutions 

 of hyposulphite of soda and Paris green. 



Mr. Willard's opinion is that all lauds for 

 Pears should be uuderdrained unless pro- 

 vided with a natural drainage. Heavy 

 soils are probably better fitted for Dwarf 

 Pears than for standards. 



In reply to the query— Should the vigor- 

 ous watershoots be cut off, Sec'y Woolver- 

 ton says if it is a branch wanted, encourage 

 it — otherwise remove it. 



Mice and Rabbits in Orchard. A mem- 

 ber states that if one of the wire screen pro- 

 tectors, now manufactured and put on sale 

 by a firm in London, Ont., is sprung around 

 the bodyof a tree, the latter needs no further 

 attention, and saves all trouble. They only 

 cost two or three cents apiece. Another 

 member suggests putting a few stooks of 

 Cornstalks in the orchard, and placing some 

 poisoned bait under it. This has proveed 

 effective for mice. 



Mr. Taylor, of Michigan, uses common 

 tarred .building paper. When put around 

 the tree and tied, it hardens and will remain 

 for years. 



CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 

 EIGHTH PAPER. 



DR. J. STAliTIAN, LEAVE.N'WORTH, KANSAS. 



Our system of pruning is particularly 

 adapted to vines cut off at the ground as a 

 preventive for Grape rot. As soon as the 

 shoots from the old stem have made a 

 growth of about twenty inches, select two 

 of the strongest canes and pinch or cut 

 them off at the height of first wire, then 

 cut off all others close to the stem. These 

 canes must be left without their laterals 

 being checked throughout the whole season, 

 but all the suckers or shoots from the 

 stems must be cut off close to the stalks 

 as often as they appear. This timely pinch- 

 ing and removing suckers will force out 

 from the dormant buds lateral canes which 

 are shorter jointed, smaller in size, with 

 better developed buds, and producing much 

 finer fruit. These canes should be tied up 

 in the vacant space as they grow. 



In pruning those tor fruiting, select two 

 of the strongest canes with well developed 

 buds, and cut them four feet long for a 

 strong full-bearing vine, cutting away all 

 others. This length we would recommend 

 for Concord and all of that class of equal 

 growth and productiveness ; but for such as 

 Cynthiana, Norton, Herman and Ozak the 

 canes should be longer, and for Delaware 

 much shorter, say two canes eighteen inches 

 long. These three classes represent all the 

 varieties we have worth mentioning. 



This method of cutting off vines may be 

 considered a loss, and some may hesitate to 

 adopt it, but they will find it will pay in 

 extra productiveness, quality of fruit and 

 exemption from rot. 



If we were setting a new vineyard of 

 Concord tirapes by the common method of 

 doing it, we would lay off the ground in 

 rows six or eight feet apart according to the 

 location, and then set the vines in the rows 

 four feet apart and erect a trellis with two 

 wires, and train every alternate vine to the 

 lower wire and the others to the upper wire, 

 with two canes to a vine, each four feet long. 

 This would fill both when in full bearing, 

 and as soon as we discovered rot, would cut 

 dovra clear into the groimd every alternate 

 vine in the rows, and train up renewal canes 

 as we have herein directed to fill the vacant 

 places. The next season after we would 

 cut down the other half and treat them in 

 like manner. 



This alternate cutting off the vines and 

 renewing them we would recommend every 

 second or third year, and then we would 

 always have good fruit and no Grape rot, 

 and each year a full crop. 



We have now given two methods of 

 growing Grapes to prevent rot, either of 

 which is more simple and effective than 

 spraying with .solutions, and collecting the 

 diseased berries to keep the spores under 

 subjection. The fact is they have no power 

 to destroy Grapes vipon perfectly healthy 



