ORCHARD AXB YIXETARD. 123 



those creatnrea which spend the whole of their brief existence in deTonring 

 the tender shoots and juvenile leaves of fruit trees. 



Cultivating tUe Orchards -A successfol fruit grower puiHues the 

 following plan: He plows his orchard one way, leaving strips close to the 

 trees about eight feet wide, and plants potatoes, covering them with straw. 

 In the fall, when he digs his potatoes, he piles the straw, and the next spring 

 he plows the ground crosswise and plants again, using the same straw. 

 After the straw has been used two years, it is turned under in the fall, to 

 manure the ground. ' In this way his orchard is manured with very httle 

 trouble, and he cultivates his orchard at the same time. He says that he 

 does not believe, from his own experience, that it is good for fruit trees to 

 have the plow run any closer than fotir feet on each side, but thinks it better 

 to cultivate in this way between the rows ^bfo. to seed down to gnisa and 

 pasture. 



IIint« on Gathering Apples and Pear*. — Most people are disposed 

 to gather the autunm fruits too soon. A rule is generally adopted by gar- 

 deners, that if the pips of the apples or pears are turning brown, the crop 

 may be taken; but a decidedly dark and settled hue of the seed is a safer 

 criterion. As to the objection that waiting late into the autumn causes a loea 

 of the fruit by falling, it has httle weight, because it is by this process that 

 the weaker and least sound fruit is got rid of, while the best remains. Tak- 

 ing the crop too early will not only injure the good fruit by causing it to 

 shrivel, but will also render frequent removals necessary in order to 

 separate from the stock the rotten ones, which would, of themselves, have 

 fallen irora the tree if more time had been given. 



To Preserve Pear Trees From Blight. — A New Hampshire fruit 

 grower preserves his pear trees from blight by winding a rope of straw 

 around the trunks so as to completely cover them frtjm the ground to the 

 limbs, keeping it on, moderately tight, through the season. His theory is 

 that the blight is caused by the rays of the hot sun coming in contact with 

 the body of the tree, heating the sap and causing it to dry up and the bark 

 to grow to the wood of the tree. 



Iron Ibr Fruit Trees_ The scales which fly oflf from iron being worked 

 at forges, iron trimming, filings, or other ferruginous material, if worked 

 into the soil about fruit trees, or the more minute particles spread thinly on 

 the lawn, mixed with the earth of flower beds or in pots, are most valuable 

 to the peach or pear, and, in fact, supply necessary ingredients to the sn). 

 For colored flowers they heighten the bloom and increase the brilliancy of 

 white or nearly white flowers of all the rose family. 



Secret of Raising Q,uinces^_Purcha»e the Orange variety, and set the 

 frees frx>m sis to eight feet apart in rich soil. Bandage the stem with two or 

 three ^.Tappings of old cloth as far down in the ground as possible, as the 

 root starts from near the surfece. Let the bandages run six or eight inches 

 above the ground, then pack the soil a couple of inches around the band- 

 ages. This should be renewed every spring. 



Fruit Pests. — At the time when fruit trees are blossoming, and when 

 sparrows have commenced their annual raids upon them, a good way of 

 dri\-ing away these diminutive plagues, consiats of lime-washing the trves. 

 When thus whitened, the birds disappear. 



