58 



Garden and Forest. 



(Number 363. 



plums. In the effort to improve our Plums by cross-breeding 

 we will doubtless achieve better results by resorting to the 

 Japanese varieties, since they possess some desirable charac- 

 teristics which the European Plums do not, particularly vigor 

 and productiveness. So far as tested, these Japanese varieties 

 give satisfaction in the west. Some of them have withstood 

 a temperature of thirty-seven degrees below zero at Geneva, 

 Nebraska, without the slightest injury. By watching them 

 side by side with our hardy natives the past four years and 

 witnessing their splendid behavior, I have been forced to the 

 conclusion that there is a close relation between our natives 

 and these Japanese introductions. In their large size and fine 

 qualities lie the condensed improvements brought about by, 

 perhaps, thousands of years of selection, while our natives have 

 been left to improve under the operation of the law of " the 

 survival of the fittest." 



In the discussion that followed, Professor Hansen, of the 

 Iowa Agricultural College, called attention to the fact that the 

 Japanese varieties bloom so early that they are often caught 

 by a frost which other varieties may escape. Burbank is the 

 hardiest Japanese variety at Ames. Of the east European 

 varieties, IVIoldovka and Voronesh Yellow are doing finely. 

 Wyant is the most reliable native sort. At the college they prop- 

 agate all Pears and Plums by side-grafting at the collar during 

 the winter. 



IVIr. Masters called attention to the fact that the budding sea- 

 son of the Americana stock can be lengthened by cutting off 

 about half of the top when the bark begins to set. Then, when 

 the new sprouts begin to start, the budding can be continued 

 without difficulty. This point is important since one of the 

 great objections to this stock is that its season of budding is 

 so short. Nurserymen seem to agree that there is not a satis- 

 factory stock for the Plum in general use, and they are anx- 

 iously waiting for something better than they now have. 



EXPERIENCE WITH CHERRIES. 



President F. F. Stephens stated that he had planted some- 

 what freely for the last twenty years, and had not succeeded 

 in raising a bushel of sweet cherries, though he had planted a 

 great many varieties. Napoleon Bigarreau has seemed the 

 healthiest of the sweet varieties, but only one tree remains 

 sound, and, while that blossoms freely, it has not yielded fruit, 

 though the tree is five or six inches in diameter. Neither 

 have the Dukes given success, although the May Duke has 

 come near to succeeding. These trees remained alive till 

 they were six inches in diameter, but the birds invariably 

 gathered the fruit. They are at work earlier in the morning than 

 he is, and begin to pick as soon as the fruit colors. The gentle- 

 man of leisure may protect his fruit by covering the tree 

 with netting, but whether this will ever pay on a commercial 

 scale at Nebraska prices is doubtful. It seems wiser to plant 

 enough for the birds, our neighbors and ourselves, and this 

 planting should be of varieties that yield abundantly and ripen 

 in a comparatively short time. In 1891, in Mr. Stephens' 

 orchard, it took 100 bushels to feed the pickers and the birds, 

 or one-eighth of his crop of 800 bushels, yet he dare not dis- 

 pense with the birds lest a worse trouble come upon him, for 

 in the rapid increase of insects the birds will doubtless fully 

 repay for the toll they take from our fruits. 



In varieties the Early Richmond easily leads all others. The 

 quality of Late Richmond is good, but it fails in productive- 

 ness. In place of this the large Montmorency is recom- 

 mended, with the Ostheim and English Morello. The latter, 

 however, like all late cherries, is less desirable, owing to its 

 longer ripening period and consequent greater injury from 

 birds. The Russian varieties seem to be open to the same 

 objection, and, in addition, are lighter yielders. They are 

 hardier in tree and bud, however, and may prove valuable for 

 the north-western part of the state. The Vladimir cherries 

 reproduce themselves from seed, and are likely to prove 

 valuable in especially trying localities. 



Good growth and abundant feeding make a marked differ- 

 ence in the quality of the fruit. Even the Early Richmond, 

 when receiving high cultivation, and heavy manuring after it 

 comes into bearing freely, becomes a larger and much richer 

 cherry, and would hardly be recognized as the Early Rich- 

 mond. Deep plowing before planting, steady surface cultiva- 

 tion in the orchard and heavy surface manuring after the trees 

 come into bearing will improve any of our varieties in a sur- 

 prising degree. 



fifty-four trees, or an average of forty quarts a tree. The re- 

 mainder of the orchard gave an average of thirty quarts a tree, 

 making the total yield from the seventy-four trees 2,660 quarts, 

 which found a ready sale at eight and one-third cents a quart, 

 or $212.80. One acre planted to Cherry-trees sixteen feet 

 apart requires 170 trees, and, using the yield for 1894, would 

 give in value $488.75 an acre. With the varieties now fruifing 

 Mr. Reed has ripe fruit on the trees for about two months. 

 The best variety in quality, by all odds, is the one supposed to 

 be Early Morello. This ripens three or four days after the 

 first Early Richmond ; is a black cherry ; meat and stone 

 colored red to the seed. It commands a ready sale, cus- 

 tomers asking for the black cherry. The tree is a good grower 

 and as prolific as Early Richmond, and fully as hardy on our 

 grounds. Next in quality and season is Large Montmorency, 

 closing up the gap between Early Richmond and English 

 Morello. This is a better cherry for eating from the tree than 

 Early Richmond ; as good a grower and as prolific. Mr. Reed 

 also finds this fruit to respond quite as promptly to good cul- 

 tivation as any other fruit, and more certainly than most fruits. 

 The last two summers have proved — in Nebraska and Iowa, at 

 least — that orchards must be cultivated to keep in health, and 

 thus get growth of wood and fruit-buds ; for without wood- 

 growth there will be but few buds. That cultivation is the 

 next thing to rain was demonstrated in many instances lastyear. 



Mr. Peter Youngers said that by planting Dye House, Early 

 Richmond, Early Morello, Large Montmorency, Ostheim, 

 English Morello and Wragg a constant succession of fruit may 

 be obtained in Nebraska trom June 5th to August Sth — two 

 full months of ripe cherries. This list, compared with one 

 made in 1874, is remarkable ; at that time the Early Richmond 

 was the only Cherry considered safe to plant. But the cause 

 of horticulture has advanced in twenty years until, instead of 

 one variety, two full months of this wholesome fruit can be 

 had. And with the new additions from Russia and Germany, 

 together with the new seedlings that are now in process of 

 development, Mr. Youngers felt assured that the gain in the 

 future would equal that of the past, and when the list of the 

 best market sorts of cherries is called for twenty years from 

 now it will cause the old members of the Nebraska Horticul- 

 tural Society to feel that they were not born in the cherry age. 



Professor Hansen considers the Mazzard to be far the best 

 stock for the Cherry, notwithstanding the fact that the Mahaleb 

 is the one almost wholly used throughout the west. The cher- 

 ries with colored juice, especially, do not succeed well on the 

 Mahaleb stock. There seems to have been a general fear of 

 the Mazzard stock on account of its sprouting, which is, per- 

 haps, aided by the nurserymen, since they find the Mahaleb the 

 most convenient stock to work. The Sand Cherry has proved 

 a failure as a stock for the Cherry, but is a good stock for the 

 Japanese Plums. It seems to be more closely allied to the 

 Plums than to the Cherries. 



T 



Mr. D. N. Reed, of Blue Springs, Nebraska, has a Cherry 

 orchard of seventy-four trees. The first Richmonds ripened 

 about June ist, and a crop of 2,160 quarts was marketed from 



Western New York Horticultural Society. — II. 



HE following is a continuation of our report of the 

 annual meeting of this society : 



HOME-MIXED FERTILIZERS. 



Dr. Caldwell, of Cornell LJniversity, in an address on this 

 suliject, said that a " cheap thing " in fertilizers was quite as 

 unsatisfactory as other cheap things. The composition of 

 commercial tertilizers is usually given in per cent. Available 

 fertility is rated by units in the trade, and a unit is twenty 

 pounds, so that the figure denoting the per cent, gives us the 

 number of units of the potash, phosphoric acid or nitrogen in 

 a ton. The price of a unit is twenty times the price of a pound, 

 which means for nitrogen $3.50, for phosphoric acid $1.30, 

 and for potash $1.00. Most ot the cheaper grades of fertilizers 

 are sold for more than they are worth, while the better grades 

 are sold at their actual value, or a trifle under. In New Jersey 

 last year 700 tons were home mixed at an average cost of $29.70 

 a ton, and an average value of $49.27. The farmers bought 

 high-grade fertilizers intelligently, not hit or miss. The average 

 cost of a pound of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash re- 

 spectively, in the home-mixed fertilizers, was 14.9 cents, 5.7 

 cents and 4 cents, while in manufactured goods it cost 24.8 

 cents, 9.4 cents and 6.7 cents. The available food was 436 

 pounds to the ton in the home-made fertilizer, and only 299 

 pounds in the manufactured. 



The manufacturer claims that he can do the mixing better 

 than the farmer. The farmer can buy the goods ground as 

 finely as he wants and mix them as thoroughly as the manu- 

 facturer, as is shown by the comparison of twelve samples of 

 manufactured articles with ten of home-mixed. The impor- 



