200 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



1871 



Scrapine Apple Trees. 



Bt J. S. Needham, West Peabody. Mass. 



We hardly take up a work on horticulture, or 

 even an agricultural paper, without seeing an arti- 

 cle advising scraping apple trees. 



My orchards are from ten to sixteen years 

 planted, and until within three years I always 

 scraped the bark in the spring or midsummer. Now 

 for the results. I often found small jiatches of bark, 

 about the size of a linger-nail, discolored, having 

 the appearance of being sun-burnt ; on applying a 

 knife, cutting dry and hard,— dead to all appear- 

 ances. Now my trees look like a shagbark hick- 

 ory, all the old bark hanging by a small part in the 

 middle so loosely that it can be taken ott" by the 

 thumb and fingers better than with a scraper. 

 These little pieces of bark, about the size of my 

 hand, act as a perfect sunshade for the tender new 

 bark underneath, which is smooth, thrifty, of a pale 

 brown color, with no more indications of diseased 

 portions in it, than is found in the bark of a maiden 

 tree of the same variety. 



I have never allowed grass to grow under my 

 trees. I feed them well, keep the soil mellow, shoe 

 deep, all through the growing season, with a small 

 harrow made for the purpose, with five (of Ford's) 

 teeth, that will not catch the roots, drawn by two 

 horses, the driver riding on a seat so as to shun the 

 fate of Absalom among the limbs, the horses going 

 at a quick pace. One day will do up four acres, 

 going both ways, leaving the soil, if dry, light and 

 friable, and as porous as granulated sugar, five inches 



deep. 



A horse may be groomed until doomsday, but if 

 he does not have good food, he makes a sorry figure, 

 and is unable to work. So with an apple tree ; it 

 may be scraped and washed, but if it don't have 

 food and culture, it soon becomes a painted sepul- 

 chre, a receptacle of the labor lost trying to coa.x 

 Nature to violate her great immutable law of com- 

 pensation. 



Some theorists entertain the idea that the ele- 

 ments necessary to produce a good crop of apples 

 are deficient in the soil of late years. Is not the law 

 of compensation violated? If we draw oflf the 

 yearly crop, can we replace all the elements in the 

 soil by manure, unless that manure is made of that 

 kind of material ? The inquiry has often been sug- 

 gested to my mind, while rambling through woods, 

 where no cattle roam, why is it that those apple 

 trees found among the woods are such constant 

 bearers? Is it because all the fruit, perishing, 

 leaves all its organic and inorganic elements to pass 

 into the soil as food, to be taken up by the tree to 

 make its crop ? The fairest apples I grew last 

 year were on a tree under which a lot of cider 

 apples rotted the year previous. The original Fall 

 Harvey tree sprang up and grew (in this town) 



within six feet of a cider mil! ; it yielded yearly 

 great crops. After the mill was removed from the 

 building, the tree commenced to fail, and is now 

 gone. Had the elements of the acids anything to do 

 for these trees, or were they accidental circumstan- 

 ces? 



I have a lot of pomace from five or six thousand 

 bushels of apples, that I shall mulch a part of my 

 orchard with next June, after my second harrow- 

 ing. As a manure for grass, or any hoed crops, it is 

 worthless. 



This matter may all be crotchet, a whim of my 

 brain ; but I am going to give it a good trial, and 

 jjerhaps may report the results to you some future 

 time. 



I know it is getting out of the old rut, but the 

 old ruts are so very deep there is no prospect of 

 success in pulling in them. When the hub rubs it 

 is time to look at your ways. I have fought the bat- 

 tle, won the Irees, and good ones too ; now I want 

 the fruits of the Yictory.— Journal of Horticulture. 



Blight and Insect Composition. 



Some of our townsmen, with myself paid $50 for 

 a blight composition, but I do not think it is equal 

 to the following. My mode is : 



24 ozs of Salt, fine or coarse. 



5 ozs. of Copperas. 



3 ozs. of Blue Vitriol. 



1.}4 ozs. of Saltpetre. 



1 or 1}>4 ozs. of Oil of Vitriol. 



1 lb of Babbit's Concentrated Lye. 



5 fts. of hard soap, or 1 gal. soft soap. 



Take an old iron pot, and put in the salt, with a 

 sufficient quantity of water, then heat. Pound up 

 the Blue Vitriol, then the balance of the compound; 

 if too hard, put in lard or harness oil, until it is 

 thin enough to brush on Clean the roots of the 

 tree, and cut out the borer; have a small brush 

 something like a marking brush, and cover the 

 wound. Then take the body and limbs. On the 

 largest parts of the body and limbs I use a very 

 small whitewash brush, 4 to to 5 inches wide, and 

 not very thick. This will make the varnish regu- 

 lar, and kill every insect. To every man that owns 

 an orchard, it is invaluable. I have some 3000 

 pears and 1000 to 2000 apples, plums and peaches.— 

 Cor. Oardener's Monthly. 



Cherby Tree Bark Bursting.— The cherry 

 tree is naturally a rampant grower, and is stimula- 

 ted by a soil too rich, or by high culture, is liable 

 to burst its bark and ooze out a gummy substance, 

 from the efl'ect of which the tree must perish sooner 

 or later. In the growing ot cherry trees in a light 

 loose soil, the less it is stirred the better — nothing 

 more than surface scratching to keep the weeds 

 down and the surface loose. 



