March 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



4B 



For the Weetern Pomologist. 



Fruit Trees in Hedge Row. 



Ou the first page of your number and vol- 

 ume, the first caption with regard to trees 

 shoulil be ameuded if we may judge from the 

 experience of the most successful cultivatots 

 of fruit trees that are remarkable for their 

 longevity ou this Peninsula, and especially 

 the peach. The caption referred to is — 

 S^' " Plant youlig trees." Now I propose 

 briefly to recommend all to do what I would 

 do, if I were again compelled to commence 

 the world by a displacement resulting from 

 the war, or any other cause — and find my 

 tarm destitute, not only of trees, but a dwell- 

 ing, fences, ditches and banks; moreover 

 encumbered with debt. Plant the seed of 

 the best varieties of fruit trees where they 

 may grow, and alternate with dwarfs from 

 the Northwestern nurseries. 



The produce sold from this farm during 

 the past fifty years, under the care of the 

 best practical farmers — drilled to the plow 

 from infancy — never exceeded $3,000, and 

 rarely half that sum. Half was given as 

 rent, or a cash rent of $450, minus taxes, 

 $50, lime $50, and repairs |25 — netting say, 

 $325 annually. The last triad of the last 

 septenniad, my first practical experience in 

 farming, has resulted in an income from this 

 same farm of 240 acres (and one-third of that 

 swamp, etc.), say on an average $5,000 an- 

 nually. This I regard as a failure when 

 compared with what I clearly see that I 

 could have done had I received the advice 

 at the head of this article seven years ago, 

 wheu I commenced farming. I have trees 

 now in full bearing during all of the ji^ast 

 four years that which sells readily for five 

 dollars per basket of about half a bushel. 



8®" Because tliey are Western trees that I 

 obtained from tlie old Rochester nurseries, 

 and ripen their fruit, say two weeks earlier 

 here lban_ those raised in nurseries in this 

 vicinity. Moreover, I budded a quince tree 

 that grew up from the root of one of them 

 that was sent to me from Rochester in 1863, 

 say one foot from the ground, and last sum- 

 mer sold from this graft a lot of pears at 

 $3 per basket, or $6 per bushel ; and al- 

 though they were the third crop from this 

 bud on the quince stock a foot abote the root, 

 it was nccessivry to tie up and support the 

 branches of this tree, now ten feet high, 

 or nearly the height of the dwarf pear that I 

 received from Rochester in '03. This origi- 

 nal dwarf tree may possibly be virtually a 

 standard by a natural " lipping process" — 

 certainly not by any artificial process of the 

 kind, (which, by the way, I may describe 

 hereafter). It bore about two baskets of 

 choice pears last year, and part sold for $5. 

 per bushel, and has borne six crops I think ; 

 never missing a year, and always very large 

 fruit. Q^uery — is it true, as recently stated 

 [by a distinguished Pomologist, I suppose], 

 iu a paper of standard authority in the West, 

 8©" "That alX successful dwarfs have 



really become standards?" Again being 

 conscious that I am comparatively a novice 

 in such matters, I ask the question whether 

 success will probably attend the following ex- 

 periment : 



Three years since I obtained five hundred 

 imported anger quince stocks. These were 

 budded from the most successful tree I re- 

 ceived from Rochester, us its early fruiting, 

 large size and the exquisite 'beauty of the 

 fruit, its juicy and luscious flavor was so 

 in contrast with those from other nurseries, 

 that were small and mealy, I imagined tlmt 

 I had possibly a new variety. These trees- 

 are now about four feet high only, with the 

 best manure and cultivation. I propose to 

 set thfm out in trenches, five feet apart, and 

 inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees due 

 west; "lip" each tree above the quince, and 

 mound up the surface soil alteruatel}' with 

 good compost and silicates or potash com- 

 post, until the m<nind thus produced by 

 throwing the furrows to the trees, etc. covers 

 the lippings, leaving however the quince 

 roots above the subsoil, and not elevating 

 the mound unduly in any case by moans of 

 the inclination of the trees referred to. 

 What I wish is not the experience of some 

 one tree which rtmy be an exception like the 

 above; but the reason why trees thus planted 

 as a sort of hedge at^intervals often feet may 

 not pay better than by the usual mode of 

 planting. Of course it will involve faithful 

 and close pruning, not only of the branches, 

 but the roots ; and this latter is acccom- 

 plished with greater facility than by any other 

 arrangement, by what is calletl bar plough- 

 ing — filling the furrows with the compost 

 referred to, and mounding up again with the 

 plough, thus insuring the plant food peculiar 

 <» <A«<)'ee, precisely where it wants it. This 

 idea was derived from a crop of iX)tatoes 

 that I planted in my orchard between the 

 rows of trees, and manured with compost 

 which was robbed from the potatoes by 

 small fibrous roots thrown up icom. the trees, 

 and filling the hills of potatoes, resembling 

 cocoa matting ; consequently I did not dig 

 the seed I planted iu quantity — much less in 

 size. The information I now beg of some of 

 your correspondents is, whether this indina- 

 iion of young trees at five feet will injure 

 their full development, remembering that we 

 are dealing ^vith a, hir/hly cultimtal variety, 

 and not one of the Poniaceie which we call 

 " hedge thorn," or " hawthorn," tliat is usual- 

 ly "laid," and lives and bears fruit for half a 

 century. A highly bred English cow will 

 degenerate rapidly, and give less milk, and 

 that of a poorer qualitj', if put in my bar.i 

 yard with a common half starved "Sussex 

 cow," while the latter fattens and doubles 

 her milk. This is tlie secret of success in 

 fruit growing. 



David Stewart M. D. 

 Port Penn, Delaware, Jan. 1870. 



The White Spruce. — M. L Dunlap thinks 

 that the white spruce will ere long supercede the 

 Norway spruce as an ornrmental tree, and thinks 

 this variety of the spruce should receive more 

 attention by nurserymen. 



— • 



The Grapb Without Sunlight. — At the last 

 annual meeting of the New York State Grape 

 Growers Association, a member related an exper- 

 iment made to prove that sunlight on the grape 

 cluster was not essential to perfect maturity. — 

 When the berries were about the size of buckshot 

 some clusters were enclosed so as to be in complete 

 darkness, and they ripened and colored equally 

 well with others on the vine fully exposed to the 

 sunshine. 



F. E. Elliott had seen at Detroit, trellises eight 

 feet high, loaded with Hartford Prolifics. — 

 Thought the grapes could not possibly ripen, but 

 was informed that the owner had buried about 

 the vines the carcasses of a great many beeves, 

 and that the grapes did ripen. The phosphates 

 are the right thing. I think the Byington system 

 has substantially the same effect on the health of 

 the vine as ordinary summer pruning. 



— A red cedar hitching post, set iu Plym- 

 outh, Connecticut, in 1770, is still servicea- 

 ble, and apparently will be good for twenty 

 years more. 



Grow the Cauliflower.— It is surprising 

 how few ever think of growing this delicious veg- 

 etable. It is true the plants should be started in 

 a hot bed in this latitude to insure success. But 

 for all this, there is no reason why every family 

 should not enjoy the luxury afforded by this 

 plant. A Lady correspondent of the Rural New 

 Yorker gives her method for growing the Cauli 

 flower without the use of a hot bed, and which is 

 so simple that every family in the land may pro- 

 duce it. The writer says : 



" I start my plants in the early part of March. 

 In lieu of a hot-bed, I use pans filled with rich, 

 moist loam, placed in any warm situation in the 

 kitchen ; and to keep moist, I cover with a paper 

 or board, or even a cloth, until the seeds have 

 germinated, then put them in the lightest part of 

 the room, and keep moist with soap-suds. When 

 the plants have put out the second pair of leaves, 

 I transplant into half-pint pots, made of coarse, 

 strong paper, (Hour sack is very good ;) cut the 

 pieces half square, lap the corners together, and 

 fasten with a few stitches or a pin. I set thes« in 

 a pan, fill the spaces between with earth, keep 

 well watered with soap-suds ; and as soon as the 

 weather is warm enough. I have nic«, large plants 

 for the garden. I make the soil rich, deep oimI 

 mellow, tear the paper off and set in the plant; 

 keep the earth drawn well around the stems, and 

 water in dry weather. In August they will be 

 ready for cooking." 



Gas Limb on Orchards. — "Runnymeade" 

 writes us that in the spring of 1S69, Charles Bar- 

 ties. Flemington, N. J., applied to a young and 

 thrifty orchard — each row of trees consisting of 

 but one variety — about fifty bushels of gas lime 

 per acre to one-half, and twenty-five bushels to 

 the other half. The lime was applied across the 

 rows, and last October the increased quantity and 

 quality of the fruit was very evident, and the 

 stronger and healthier growth of the trees well 

 marked, in each variety, where the larger quan- 

 tity of lime was used. Our oorrespondent con- 

 cludes that fifty bushels of gas lime per acre is not 

 " too much," since it did not result in death to 

 the trees, as Mr Sylvester recently said too much 

 would. Soil, red shale. — Rural New Yorker 



