February 12, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



69 



losing their individuality. An established reputation is worth 

 a good deal. Certain growers habitually receive twenty-five 

 per cent, more for the same fruit than their neighbors because 

 the dealers know their grades. The use of printers' ink pays. 

 Buyers ought to know what growers have to sell. There is a 

 growing demand for the very best. Mr. Hale's own first-grade 

 peaches sell the easiest, and they bring $2.50 a basket ; the 

 third grade sells the slowest, and for these he only gets seventy- 

 five cents, and sometimes only fifty. This year his Georgia 

 orchard came into bearing. He had a man in each large city 

 who devoted his entire time to placing his peaches during 

 their short season. He never ships to more than one man in 

 any place. These chosen men were enterprising ; they had 

 informed retailers of what was coming, so that the crop was 

 picked, packed and railroaded as rapidly as possible to a mar- 

 ket already waiting for the product. Mr. Hale attributes 

 whatever success he has made largely to methods of market- 

 ing. There is certainly not enough profit in the fruit business 

 to let this practical end of it run itself. 



Peach-growixg — -This industry is profitable in western 

 New York, if conducted on strictly business principles. 

 Peaches have the advantage of coming into bearing earlier 

 than Apples. The fruits should always be thinned, so that 

 they remain from six to eight inches apart on the branches. 

 The trees will grow on almost any soil, if the cultivation is 

 adapted to it, but, according to Mr. Hale, a light loam is an 

 ideal Peach soil, except for Crawford's Late. The fourth-year 

 trees on light land are twice the size of those on clay. Perfect 

 drainage is essential, and thorough cultivation. The Crawford 

 is the most tender type of Peaches, while Elberta is one of the 

 hardiest, ranking with Mountain Rose and Stump. Mr. Hale 

 thins when the peaches are about the size of a walnut. He 

 prunes to a single stem at planting, with three main branches 

 shortened in to six inches or more, and cuts away the limbs 

 which interfere. He wants low-headed, well-branched trees 

 shortened back every year about a half of the growth. He 

 prunes for form, but does not prune until the buds are swollen, 

 so that he can be sure to cut away dead wood. In this way he 

 often gets badly formed trees, but they bear fruit. The dis- 

 tance from the ground to the first branch is from fifteen to 

 twenty-four inches. 



Peninsula Horticultural Society. 

 "THE ninth annual meeting of the Peninsula Horticultural 

 ■*■ Society was held in Denton, Maryland, a fortnight ago. 



The Fruit Committee reported the Tennessee Strawberry as 

 one of the most promising. It is as early as Meek and pro- 

 duced well the past season. Greenville is one of the most 

 desirable for ordinary growers. Timbrell and Marshall have 

 not met expectations. Brandywine, on the lower part of the 

 peninsula, shows a tendency to rust; Lady Thompson lacks 

 productiveness, but is highly praised by many who have fruited 

 it ; Bubach is the most extensively grown. The Strawberry 

 weevil, Anthonomus signatus, seriously injured the perfect 

 flowering varieties in the vicinity of Denton the past season. 

 The best preventive is the single-crop system and burning 

 over the fields soon after the berries are picked. 



The Blackcap Raspberries have not proved a profitable crop, 

 and the early red varieties have almost entirely superseded 

 them. The Miller is largely planted and has proved productive 

 and a good shipper. Loudon is promising. Marion is a stout 

 grower. The Wilson Blackberry has been partially discarded 

 for a few years, but is now coming to the front again and has 

 been quite largely planted. Maxwell and Eldorado are on trial ; 

 the latter, though producing fine crops of large berries, may 

 prove too late in ripening. Lincoln is worthy of a trial. 



Many Peach orchards failed the past season on account of 

 the destruction of the blossoms by a fungus which was aided 

 by the moist condition of the atmosphere. Yet the reports 

 show that from two-thirds to three-fourths of a crop brought 

 remunerative prices. Elberta has proved one of the most 

 desirable varieties. The Committee on Peaches reported that 

 the area of young orchards is on the increase in western Mary- 

 land. While the last season's crop was below the average in 

 yield, satisfactory prices were secured by the growers, and the 

 money was received as soon as the fruit was loaded into the 

 cars. 



Plums and Apples have been largely planted during the 

 year. The Japanese varieties of Plums give the best satisfac- 

 faction ; Abundance, Burbank and Ogon being most exten- 

 sively planted. An acre and three-fourths of land near Smyrna, 

 Delaware, which was planted five years ago with one hundred 

 and fifty Abundance, ten Kelsey and ten Ogon trees, between 

 the rows of which were 1 .200 Currant-bushes, netted the owner 

 $650 during the past season. 



A marked feature of the meeting was the display of fruit 

 from Delaware and Maryland. There were 250 plates of 

 apples exhibited, comprising ninety varieties, several varieties 

 ot pears, chestnuts, walnuts and filberts. A striking contrast 

 was shown between the apples from trees sprayed during the 

 season and from those not sprayed, the fruit from the former 

 being much fairer and of better color than that from the 1111- 

 sprayed trees. 



The San Jose scale appears to have gained a foothold in 

 numerous localities in Maryland, and vigorous measuies will 

 be necessary to prevent extensive damages to the fruit interests 

 of the state in future. Mr. R. S. Emory, of Chestertown, 

 has been making a vigorous fight the past year to exter- 

 minate it in portions of his Pear orchards, which have become 

 badly infested. He stated that whale-oil soap, manufactured 

 from oil containing its original impurities, had proved effectual 

 in destroying the scales. He used two and a half pounds of 

 the soap to one gallon of hot water, and sprayed the hot mix- 

 ture on the trees after the leaves had fallen. Mr. Emory has 

 one block of almost 300 Pear-trees, planted in ttie fall of 1888, 

 which were found to be nearly covered with the scale in the 

 fall of 1894. Since that time he has repeatedly treated them 

 with various insecticides, such as kerosene emulsion, whale- 

 oil soap, etc. At this time the hot mixture of whale-oil soap 

 appears to have been effectual in freeing the trees from the 

 scale. The Delaware Experiment Station officials reported 

 that 116 suFpected orchards in Delaware had been visited and 

 the trees examined during the past season. The San Jose" 

 scale was found in thirteen localities in the state. The infested 

 trees, in nearly every instance, were at once destroyed, and 

 others have been treated with insecticides under the supervi- 

 sion of the station entomologist. The society urges the pas- 

 sage of laws that will prove effectual in preventing the spread 

 of injurious insects and fungal diseases, and, whenever prac- 

 ticable, to exterminate the same. 



Mr. J. J. Rosa, of Milford, Delaware, a successful grower of 

 Sweet-potatoes, gave an interesting talk on his method of cul- 

 tivation. The Big Stem Jersey variety gives the best satisfac- 

 tion. The plants are grown by the use of bottom-heat, and 

 from a bed ten by forty feet he took more than ten hundred 

 thousand plants. The potatoes are stored soon after digging, 

 and kept at a uniform temperature of sixty degrees. The 

 yield in 1894 was 650 baskets of marketable tubers from an 

 acre and 200 baskets ot culls. The baskets held five-eighths of a 

 bushel each. The receipts from four and a half acresof Sweet- 

 potatoes in 1894 were $433; in 1895 the crop from the same 

 land was sold tor $650. 



Mr. H. E. Van Deman, ex-United States Pomologist, was re- 

 elected President ; Mr. W. Webb, Secretary and Treasurer. The 

 next annual meeting will be held in Milford, Delaware. 



Delaware Agricultural Experiment Station. ■ M. -*?• hSCICWltfl. 



Recent Publications. 



Number 6 of the third volume of the Contributions from 

 the United States National Herbarium is devoted to a list of 

 plants collected by Mr. Frederick Funston on the shores of 

 Yakutat Bay, in Alaska, and prepared by Dr. F. V. Coville, 

 of the Department of Agriculture. One hundred and sixty- 

 eight species are included in the list, to which is prefixed 

 Mr. Funston's interesting Field Report, from which it 

 appears that Picea Sitchensis, the Tide-water Spruce, is the 

 common tree of the region, growing to a height of seventy 

 feet and extending from the level of the sea to an altitude of 

 2,200 feet on the slopes of Mount Tebenkof. This tree 

 plays an important part in the economy of the Ala 

 Indians ; with it they construct their houses and canoes : 

 it is used in the manufacture of oil-crates, bows, arrows 

 and other implements, and the small roots, boiled and split, 

 are employed in basket-weaving. The Hemlock, Tsuga 

 Mertensiana, is found sca'tered through the forest of 

 Spruces with about the same vertical range as that tree, 

 although it is much less abundant and of smaller size. The 

 third conifer found by Mr. Funston in this region was a single 

 individual of the Sitka Cypress, Chamsecyparis Nootka- 

 tensis. The common deciduous-leaved tree is the Red 

 Alder, Alnus Oregona, which Mr. Funston noticed in great 

 quantities in the forest region, especially on the 

 open glades, along the banks of streams and on the moun- 

 tain sides, where it ascends to higher elevations than the 

 Spruce, extending up Mount Tebenkof eight hundred feel 



