30 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



November, 



Who Can Tell about the Polo Apple? 



J. L. BUDD, IOWA AGBICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



When at Pomona, California, last winter, 

 I called upon Rev. J. Loop, well known on 

 the slope as an experienced Apple grower. 



I found, in his great collection, fine varie- 

 ties of Russian Apples, that seemed more 

 perfectly at home in that climate than any 

 of his American sorts. One of these he 

 specially prized as a winter market Apple 

 on account of the large and handsome fruit, 

 its even habit of bearing, and the perfect 

 exemption of sun scald on fruit and foliage. 



This he received from Western New York, 

 under the name of Polo. T thought, at the 

 time, that it was the Aport, No. 2.52, of the 

 Department Collection. I sent cions home 

 for root grafting, and to-day I have com- 

 pared its leaves with those of the Aport. 

 They appear to be identical, but this is not 

 absolute proof. I believe it to be a valuable 

 variety for large areas of our country, and 

 would like to know where it was first pro- 

 pagated under the name of Polo: Will some 

 reader of Popular Gardening answer? 



Pruning According to Nature. 



E. p. POWELL. ONEIDA CO., N. T. 



Is it possible for any one who loves trees 

 and plants to prune them advisedly without 

 advice? That is an Irish way of putting the 

 matter, but it is to the point. Cannot any 

 one, by simply studying nature, learn how to 

 manage his lawns, vineyard, etc.? I studied 

 rules myself, and finally was driven to ob- 

 serve growth as my only director. If there 

 be any rule of general application it is, do 

 not disturb the natural tendencies of growth 

 in any tree or bush. If you do you will sac- 

 rifice what you prune. 



I once let a professional trimmer into my 

 Pear orchard. Not thinking that he might 

 be an ignoramus, a mere walking saw, I 

 left him to work alone for half a day. When 

 I returned I found my whole orchard of 

 twenty varieties, cut, so far as he had gone, 

 after the model Pear tree of a nurseryman's 

 book — that is an exact pyramidal oval. You 

 should have seen the symmetry. But my 

 poor Buffums were totally ruined; their 

 upright tops were sawed offand they cannot 

 grow in any other form. The round headed 

 Seckles were sharpened up at the peak, and 

 the stiff Clairgeaes put into stiffer corsets. 

 I sent the fool out with a flaming sword 

 after him, and a vow never to trust another 

 professional trimmer; but I did once more: 

 Living at the time in Michigan, I engaged 

 a man to trim my evergreen hedges; in this 

 place I had not less than a quarter 

 of a mile of Arbor Vitse and Hemlock 

 hedges. I found the whole had been straight- 

 ened up on the sides and flattened on top. 

 That cured me. No professional has ever 

 since got into my grounds to cut. Fortun- 

 ately my hedges were young and I could 

 reshape them. 



What was the trouble? Simply this, you 

 cannot successfully fight nature, and these 

 men tried to do it. Arbor Vitae and Hem- 

 lock will stand, in anatiu-al condition, about 

 four feet in diameter at the base to a seven 

 feet height; while the top is rounded with- 

 out being quite pointed. To trim a hedge, 

 therefore, should be to leave their propor- 

 tions, and I assure you that if you will not, 

 you will sooner or later have a ruined hedge. 

 If you crowd in the trunk the bottom limbs 

 will die. If you flatten the top you will 

 have winter killed spots and often long 

 strips. I have as superb hedges as the 

 country can show, and they are never 

 touched by weather. Evergreens love prun- 

 ing. They take to it; but you must study 

 and adapt yourself to nature. 



In the case of the Pear orchard, the trouble 

 was in supposing that all sorts of Pears can 

 be compelled to adapt an ideal shape. In 



fact each sort has its own strong will and 

 must be consulted as to growth. The Buf- 

 fum grows like a Lombardy Poplar; the 

 D'Anjou has a fine robust spread that ap- 

 proximates roundness; the Louise Bonne 

 will conform nearest to a pyramid. The 

 Seckel is round; the Nelis is spreading; the 

 Sheldon is upright and open. There, is in 

 fact, to each sort a characteristic, and this 

 must not be interferred with. To prune a 

 Pear tree is either to open the top or to 

 remove weak shoots, or to head in the year's 

 growth, or all these together. 



While an orchard is young, summer prun- 

 ing should be very constant, to rub out weak 

 shoots and suckers; and at a second pruning 

 in late October, or November, cut back the 

 year's growth about one third. In all such 

 heading-in leave, the trimmed bud pointing 

 in the direction you desire the limb to con- 

 tinue its growth. In general terms, the last 

 bud left on the limb should be one that 

 points outward. This general law for Pears 

 will also apply to all trees. 



Fancy trimming is always an abomination. 

 I do not care how many oddities you can 

 get to grow, or odd shapes you can secure, 

 you had better leave them all out. Above 

 all do not carve your Evergreens into rings 

 and into squatty or square shapes. I have 

 just picked up a horticultural journal that 

 ought to be in better business; but it tells 

 its readers how to make the Scotch Pine 

 take many odd forms. 



"These peculiar offsets are very striking 

 in a flower garden, and other things besides 

 Evergreens will furnish them," to be sure. 

 For instance, it we try we can shape our 

 babies into oddities— flat headed, or thimble 

 footed, or pot bellied, etc. How delightful! 

 I wish Americans could get rid of the love 

 of the monstrous, and find pleasure only in 

 the exquisite variations and symmetries of 

 nature. Our work on the lawn is to remove 

 and prevent abnormal and excrescent forms, 

 to encourage vast variety, but not unnatural 

 or monstrous growths. 



I have hardly said enough of the need of 

 regular pruning, so anxious am I to aid in 

 abolishing the fancies of uncultivated taste. 

 Yet there is nothing so evident as we drive 

 about the country as the lack of proper 

 supervision of the growth of trees. The 

 orchards are hideous with suckers and limb 

 shoots, that take the life from the established 

 limbs, and soon ruin the orchard. Twice 

 every year each tree should be carefully 

 cleared of suckers. The older the tree, the 

 more need of being cared for. An orchard of 

 Apple trees may easily live 1.50 years if al- 

 ways wisely cultivated and.pruned. 



On the Subject of Transplanting 

 Large Trees, and Fall Planting. 



S. MILLER, MONTaOMERT CO., MO. 



Transplanting Large Trees. That for 

 large orchards, and commercial purposes, 

 two and three year old trees, and. one and 

 two year old vines are most suitable, no one 

 will deny; but that it will not pay to move 

 large ones, in certain instances, is a mistake. 



About six years ago, in the remnant of a 

 nursery, there were some large Apple trees 

 that I wished to have in my orchard, where 

 some had failed. They were so large that 

 one was quite as much as one strong man 

 cared to carry. They were brought here and 

 set in the orchard; not one of the seven 

 failed, but grew well and have been bearing 

 for four years. Some of them have at least 

 three to five bushels of Apples on them now. 

 The past spring some three year Grape vines 

 were set into my vineyard, that have made 

 canes ten feet long. 



In this planting, like every thing else, it 

 must be done right. Those Apple trees 

 mentioned were not chopped out, as some 

 would have done, with spade and axe, but 

 dug around with trenching forks, for at 



least three feet from the trunk, the roots 

 carefully taken up, and the holes were large 

 enough for them without doubling any 

 roots. The heads pruned and cut back to 

 balance the loss of root; the wounds ce- 

 mented. This takes labor, care, and 

 patience, and the reward comes quickly. 



Two years last spring, I transplanted Pear 

 trees two inches in diameter, that were 

 allowed to ripen a few specimens, and made 

 two feet of young shoots, that bore the year 

 after, half a peck of Pears each. Not 

 twenty feet from my house stands a Norway 

 Spruce, planted twenty years ago, that is 

 now thirty feet high, and a perfect beauty. 

 A contemplated R. R. through here may 

 take the tree. If it must go, I will move it 

 to another place, and it won't die either. 

 Fall Planting. For many years I have 

 advocated setting out Strawberry plants in 

 the fall, particularly if a crop is desired 

 the following season. Many denounced, but 

 are gradually coming to it. Matthew Craw- 

 ford, (than whom there is no betterauthority) 

 truly says, that plants set out early in the 

 fall will make twice the number of plants 

 the following season, as those set out in the 

 spring; and I say, they will bear twice as 

 much fruit also. 



But there is a vast difference between 

 doing the thing right, with the right kind 

 of plants, or otherwise. The latter should 

 be good, strong plants, grown not too thick 

 in the bed, and not the spindly plants, where 

 five hundred were grown to the square yard, 

 and sold for less per thousand than a man 

 should be paid for digging, dressing, and 

 packing them. The former, instead of goug- 

 ing a hole and cramming in, or with a dibble, 

 and the roots packed down and crowded to- 

 gether, should have a little mound in the 

 hole, on which to spread the roots, the earth 

 drawn in around, and pressed firmly. 



When the planting is finished, the crown 

 should be just a little above the level of the 

 earth, give a good watering and shade for a 

 few days. Loose, fine hay is an excellent 

 thing for this purpose. Good plants thus 

 set out, followed \vith suitable weather, in 

 one month, will stand a freeze as well as 

 any old plant, while if set in a careless man- 

 ner, as first described, they will be hoisted 

 clean out, by the first, few, hard frosts. Just 

 as soon as the ground begins to freeze at 

 night, cover lightly with some litter, and 

 when the ground freezes hard, cover up well, 

 but much heavier around the plants than 

 on the crowns. 



Raspberry plants, even the tipping kinds, 

 will do as well set out in the fall as in the 

 spring, provided they are covered as soon as 

 the ground freezes. I do all the planting I 

 possibly can in the fall or even in the winter, 

 as then the work is done. Since here in 

 Missouri, I have planted in every nionth.from 

 October until April. 



In a climate like ours here in Missouri, 

 fall planting is particularly desirable, as we 

 often have no spring to speak of; it is cold 

 and the ground too wet to work well, iintU 

 at once it becomes very warm and vegeta- 

 tion comes on with arush; everything to be 

 done at once. I have seen springs here, 

 when there was not three days in which 

 young Peach trees could be transplanted 

 decently. Those planted in fall will callus 

 the roots where cut off, even start out new 

 ones, the ground becomes well settled, and, 

 when spring comes, will be ready to grow, 

 as soon as vegetation commences to move. 



The Care of Fruit Trees. 



VIRGIL BOGUE. ORLEANS CO., N. Y. 



One of the most Important of all points in 

 fruit raising, is to give the tree such care as 

 will produce a regular and steady growth, 

 from early spring till the close of the grow- 

 ing season. I have just sold an extra fine 

 quality of Bartlett Pears, at three cents per 



