226 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



July, 



Some Fruit Notes from My Grounds. 



E. P. POWELL, ONEIDA CO., N. Y. 



Currants. Of all the small fruits I like 

 the Currant best. If gro\vu in rich, strong 

 soil you can have fruit from the different 

 kinds until late in September. The Ver- 

 sailles is in my iudgment the best red— at 

 least as good as Fay; and the White Grape 

 is best of the whites. There are several 

 advantages in growing the whites. The 

 birds do not so easily see them, probably 

 considering them unripe fruit. They will 

 often strip a bush of red and wholly neglect 

 a white bush by its side. The white is by 

 odds the sweeter and richer,and in every way 

 the better table fruit. It also is the better 

 cropper. But on the other hand the whites 

 do not market as readily, although people 

 are getting educated to know the best. 

 Besides, in an acre of mixed bushes, you 

 will find the Currant worm knows the diff- 

 erence, and takes the white by preference. 

 It is well to plant a few Gooseberry bushes 

 scattered about your Currant fleld. The 

 worms always prefer these and can be fought 

 on them, but on the whole no plague can be 

 whipped more easily than the Currant 

 worm. Apply hellebore early, as soon 

 as they begin to work. 



Planting. When you plant a new 

 orchard, depend on it its whole success 

 depends on the treatment your trees get for 

 the first three years. They should first of 

 all be carefully mulched, and always kept 

 mulched. They should be limbed low to the 

 ground, that is, if Pears, down to three or 

 four feet from the earth, and if Apples, five 

 feet. Then keep suckers and useless shoots 

 out, and give the tree limbs all the strength. 

 Young orchards often waste so much 

 strength on useless wood that they lose 

 three or four years of time. So your profit 

 goes. Trees should be kept pruned so that 

 large limbs need never be cut away. Merely 

 rubbing with the hand will remove when 

 just starting what will need a saw and large 

 wound in a few years. Don't think this 

 simply a matter of nice culture; it is a mat- 

 ter of profit and loss, of life and death. 

 Fruit growing is a farce if you do not attend 

 to it. The poorest trees in the world to take 

 care of themselves are Apple trees. As to 

 the borer, you must go about with a wire 

 twice or three times a year and bore him. 

 You can eliminate him in two years from 

 your land, but you must always watch. 



Birds and Fruit. One year I bagged my 

 Grapes. It took much time and labor and 

 did not pay. Where birds destroy a great 

 deal it may be well to do it. I shut up my 

 hens and I poison the sparrows. It is curious 

 how all the robins in central New York find 

 out when my early Richmond Cherries are 

 ripe and come in crowds, jawing me if I 

 claim one. But I have them now, for each 

 year I cover my dwarf Richmonds as well as 

 the Montmorencys and the common acid 

 Cherries, with mosquito netting. I ate 

 my last Cherries of early Richmond last 

 year from the tree the middle of September. 

 The Cherry is a grand fruit to keep if pro- 

 tected. So you see I had them from Mayon 

 for four months, and nearly every day I 

 crawled through the netting and enjoyed 

 my favorite summer fruit. Is is as delicious 

 as it is healthy and when dead ripe is too 

 nice to sell. Birds should be encouraged, 

 however, so I leave a few trees uncovered, 

 and then make up by planting enough Ber- 

 ries for all of us and for market also. 



Hints on Marketing Methods. 



L. B. PIERCE, SUMMIT CO., O. 



One point not usually touched upon by 

 writers and essayists on market gardening 

 is the desirableness of planning so as to 

 equalize the loads and adapt them to dis- 

 tance travelled. The party growing cheap, 

 bulky crops, as Pie-plant, Cabbage, Pota- 



toes, Turnips and Squashes, should live not 

 more than four miles from market, while 

 the grower of Strawberries, Peaches, Celery 

 and Asparagus may be ten miles distant 

 and still make it pay. The grower of early 

 Onions should also grow Asparagus and if 

 his taste inclines that way, he can add a 

 plant house to his business and grow Cab- 

 bage and Tomato plants for dealers to sell 

 in flats. The grower of early Cabbages can 

 add Raspberries to his load with profit, and 

 early Peas can be marketed with Strawber- 

 ries, while Tomatoes, Peaches and Black- 

 berries work in well together, the idea being 

 to have a part of every load consist in some- 

 thing high priced in proportion to its bulk. 

 A bushel of Strawberries worth $3 can be 

 easily added to ten bushels of Peas worth 40 

 cents per bushel, making the load bring a 

 total of $7, and the Strawberries will be sold 

 at the same places as the Peas, while if the 

 load consisted of seven or eight additional 

 bushels of Peas, to make the same amount 

 it might be necessary to drive three or four 

 miles farther and spend several extra hours. 

 The same I have found true with Tomatoes; 

 ten bushels at 30 cents makes -$3, but a bushel 

 of Blackberries at $4, or two bushels of 

 Peaches or Bartlett Pears at -*1..50 doubles 

 the receipts while it adds only from one 

 tenth to one fifth to the weight. The grower 

 of Celery, who has to market his crop 

 through the winter, can draw away a good 

 many bushels of Turnips, Potatoes, Pars- 

 nips or winter Apples, without overloading. 

 I find a growing tendency among market 

 gardeners, as they pass the meridian of life, 

 to engage in fruit growing, but many do not 

 use due care in the selection of varieties 

 suited to the soil or locality. In the first 

 place the best market gardens are on flat 

 bottom land, soil which is wholly unadapted 

 to the growing of tree fruits, and in many 

 instances to all the small fruits except Cur- 

 rants and Strawberries. This land is farther 

 unfitted by heavy manuring for a series of 

 years, which causes a rank succulent growth 

 and subjects the trees to winter killing. If 

 fruit grooving is added to market gardening 

 land adapted to it should be planted, leav- 

 ing the level low lands to be still devoted to 

 their proper crops. 



Thinning Fruit With Incidental 

 Pruning. 



W. W. FARNSWOKTH, LUCAS CO.. O. 



The practice of removing the surplus 

 fruit from trees which have ambitiously 

 undertaken more than they can properly 

 perform without injury to the present crop 

 and permanent injury to the trees them- 

 selves in many cases, is an operation which 

 needs only a careful, thorough trial to com- 

 mend itself to all painstaking fruit growers. 



Many who acknowledge that the crop after 

 thinning will sell for more money per tree 

 thau it not thinned are still unwilling to 

 admit that the gain will pay for the extra 

 labor involved. Well, about how much 

 more time is required to remove .500 Apples, 

 Pears or Peaches in June and 500 more in 

 October than would be occupied in picking 

 the entire 1,000 in October? 



Further than this,it is a well known fact 

 that the production of the seed of a fruit 

 causes by far the greater draft upon the 

 vitality of the tree than the formation of the 

 pulp surrounding it, also that 1,000 small 

 Apples will contain nearly twice the weight 

 of seeds found in five hundred specimens 

 double their size of the same variety and 

 thus be much more exhaustive to the tree. 



We might in this connection mention an 

 incidental benefit which may result from 

 thinning of fruit. The horticulturist may, 

 in thinning the fruit, notice many young 

 shoots that by pruning time next spring 

 will become stout limbs to be cut off, 

 whereas now they may be easily rubbed off 



while the plant food required for the forma- 

 tion will be saved for the tree and fruit. 



The Early Cabbages Weighed In the 

 Balance. 



In our continuous tests of the different 

 varieties of Early Cabbages — new and old— 

 we have not yet found anything that might 

 threaten to drive the old, well-tried and ever- 

 reliable .lersey Wakefield out of popular 

 favor as an early market sort. Of all the 

 very early kinds this is yet the be.st. Closely 

 following it we have the Vandergaw, intro- 

 duced a year or two ago by Mr. Burpee, and 

 indeed one of the finest medium early sorts 

 in existence. Henderson's Early Summer is 

 also excellent and reliable. As a reliable 

 sort for general use, both early and late, and 

 a boon to the home grower, especially if pos- 

 sessing but little skill as a gardener, or un- 

 favorable soil or location. Early Winnig- 

 stadt can hardly be surpassed. The prac- 

 tice to introduce strains of old varieties 

 under new names, must necessarily lead to 

 much confusion in nomenclature, yet the 

 selection of the best strains of any one varie- 

 ty is a matter of much importance. The 

 horticulturist of the Ohio Experiment Sta- 

 tion has tested many of these strains for the 

 sake of comparison, and reports that in no 

 other vegetable is the effect of selection 

 more marked, and in none the necessity of 

 good stock more apparent. Early Wakefield 

 also was the leading sort. Among the varie- 

 ties tested were the following : 



Burpee's Advance took USdays from date 

 of planting to maturity ; average weight of 

 heads 3 lbs. and 14 oz. A mixture of several 

 varieties, some plants resembling Early 

 Wakefield, but the majority more like Early 

 Etampes. Usually soft and unmarketable. 



Berkshire Beaiitj/ requires 139 days to ma- 

 ture; average weight 2 lbs. 14 oz. Heads 

 solid, but show tendency to rot. 



Chiise's Excelsiiir requires 120 days to ma- 

 ture ; average weight 4 lbs. 8 oz. A strain 

 of Early Flat Dutch. Very uniform and re- 

 liable for heading. Heads solid, and of 

 good size and form. 



Early Dwarf Flat Dutch requires 130 days 

 to mature ; average weights 3 lbs. 8 oz. 

 Good stock ; shows but slight variation. 



The Early Flat Dutch varieties, grown by 

 Landreth, Maule, Henderson, Burpee, Brill, 

 Vick, Harris, Gregory, Livingston, and 

 others, are all about the same with a little 

 variation in average weight; require 130 

 days to mature, and are good stock. 



Eorlu Etampes requires 112 days to ma- 

 ture ; average weight of head 2 lbs. 12 oz. 

 Foliage of a lighter green, and heads more 

 pointed than Wakefield. Habit of growth 

 much the same as that variety, but will per- 

 haps bear closer planting. About as early 

 as Wakefield, but much inferior as a mar- 

 ket variety. Heads usually loose and un- 

 marketable. Not adapted to this climate. 



Early Drumhead requires 130 days to ma- 

 ture ; average weight from 5 to b lbs. per 

 head. It is apparently a good strain of 

 Early Flat Dutch. 



Early Blcichfeld Giant, requires 130 days 

 to mature ; average weight about 3 lbs. ; 

 heads usually a little flattened ; very solid ; 

 a good second early variety. 



Early Deep Head, 130 days to mature ; 

 average weight 4 lbs. 14 oz. A very uniform 

 and reliable strain of Fottler's Brunswick. 

 Early Dwarf York, formerly highly es- 

 teemed, but now superseded by better sorts. 

 Early Wakefield, True, requires 112 days 

 to mature, average weight 3 lbs. 8oz. Stock 

 very uniform and true to type. The most 

 reliable ot all early varieties. The Early 

 Wakefield is grown by nearly every seeds- 

 man, but considerable variation is found in 

 the stock received from the different sources. 

 Some was very poor, and others with differ- 

 ent degrees of variation. 



