58 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 206, 



great step toward success is to get plants from seeds perfected 

 near hDins. Ssads from Washing-ton or Richmond trees would 

 give a hardier race of seedlings than would those from farther 

 south. I would advise Mrs. Dandridge to cover the top of her 

 plant with forest-leaves instead of having it protrude from the 

 barrel. In late winter it is the extreme tops that suffer. Over 

 a small iM.ignolia [ have placed this winter a box with a re- 

 movable cover. When it is not freezing weather the top is 

 taken off. There are no leaves packed about the plant, atid I 

 feel confident that the shelter the box affords will suffice for 

 its protection. Yucca angustitolia is quite hardy, but Y. glo- 

 riosa is not. The lalter lives, but loses its tops nearly every 

 winter, so that it makes no trunk. The pretty shrub, Leyces- 

 teria formosa, so well known in English gardens, survives our 

 winters. And we are trying again this winter, although we lost 

 our plants on a previous trial, Choisia ternata, Ilex cornuta, 

 Nandina domestica and Elaeagnus pungens variegata. 

 Germantown, Pa. J oseph Meehan. 



Meetings of Societies. 

 The Western New York Horticultural Societ}'. — I. 



THE thirty-seventh annual meeting of this prosperous 

 society last week at Rochester brought together 250 

 of its 300 members. The address of the President, Mr. W. 

 C. Barry, was a comprehensive review of the horticulture 

 of the past year. The abundant crops of fruit and the com- 

 paratively small returns was the strongest proof, he thought, 

 that the grower should exercise the greatest care in pack- 

 ing and shipping his products. The loss from lack of 

 careful sorting was never so apparent as in j'ears of plent)\ 

 The importance of recent discoveries in the methods of 

 combating injurious insects and the diseases of fruit-bear- 

 ing plants was spoken of, and credit was given to the aid 

 which experts in economic botany and entomolog}' were 

 giving to practical fruit-growers. The possibilities of the 

 improvement in fruits and in ornamental plants were dwelt 

 upon, and the society was urged to encourage ever}' effort 

 to produce fruits surpassing the varieties now in use, in 

 size, in color, in appearance, and of increasing the beauty 

 and attractiveness of flowers and ornamental plants. The 

 societ)' was congratulated on the work it had accom- 

 plished, on the harmon)' which had prevailed through its 

 history, on the regularity and growing interest of its meet- 

 ings and the steady increase of its membership. 



As in former years, discussions relating to orchard-fruits, 

 especially to apples, pears and plums, were the prominent 

 features of the meeting. Not only did the greater number 

 of the set papers relate to these subjects, but the discus- 

 sions which followed them, and which were parlicipated in 

 by a large number of the audience, showed that the mem- 

 bers were deeply interested and thoroughly schooled in the 

 practice of the new methods. Papers referring to plant- 

 diseases and their treatment were followed by searching 

 questions, to which the experts present replied, and many 

 practical growers related their experience in the application 

 of insecticides and fungicides. As a rule, these applica- 

 tions were reported as beneficial, and this was particularly 

 true of the applications made to nursery stock. There 

 seemed to be a general opinion that ammoniacal carbonate 

 of copper was preferable for later applications in the case 

 of fungous diseases of the Grape after the Bordeaux mixture 

 had been used early in the season. The objection to the 

 use of the Bordeaux mixture late in the season was that the 

 traces of the fungicide remained upon the fruit, and although 

 analysis showed that the amount of copper upon the grapes 

 was less than theamount present in many of the foods which 

 are continuously eaten by man, nevertheless the appear- 

 ance of metallic coating on the grape was forbidding, and 

 it should be avoided if possible. 



There are no more valuable reports published than those 

 of the meetings of this society, and, therefore, it is a matter 

 of general interest to know that a larger supply will be 

 printed and distributed hereafter. The expense of the 

 printing of these reports will hereafter be borne by the 

 state, and they will be bound up with the reports of the 



State Agricultural Society, and in this way have a wider 

 circulation. 



Mr. Wm. C. Barr)'- was again elected President ; Mr. S. D. 

 Willard, First Vice-President, and John Hall, of Rochester, 

 Secretary and Treasurer. 



One of the most interesting of the papers read was by 

 Professor I. P. Roberts, of Cornell University, and we re- 

 produce it below almost entire. Our report of the meeting 

 will be continued next week. 



MAINTAINING THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL IN ORCHARDS. 



If the land produces well, we usual!)' call it fertile ; if it pro- 

 duces nothing-, we say it is barren ; and yet the land which 

 proJiices little or nothing often contains far n-iore of the ele- 

 ments of plant-growth than does the productive soil. The 

 products of cultivated land are not, as a rule, the nieasure of 

 the aniount of plant-food which it contains, nor the aniount 

 which may be liberated by scientific culture. In our farm ver- 

 nacular fertility means production, whereas it should mean the 

 amount of plant-food which can be profitably set free by the 

 best methods. To the orchardist the amount of plant-food 

 which the trees can get out of the land is practically the true 

 measure of the fertility of that land. 



Now, the roots of an orchard, after it is fairly well grown, 

 occupy very fully the entire groimd except a small portion of 

 the surface. From this lime on, the feeding roots are practi- 

 callv confined to the exact ground from wliich they have been 

 feeding for the last fifteen or twenty years. The roots of fruit- 

 trees set the ordinarydistance apart have extended themselves 

 nearlv as far into the subsoil at fifteen years of age as they will 

 ever go, because there is little more food that can be reached 

 in that direction. The surface roots have by this time extended 

 themselves as far as they will grow, because they have met and 

 interlocked with those of the ailjoining rows. 



tfow to get the orchard grown up to the time when it is in 

 full bearing is now to be considered. First, the land should be 

 reasonably dry. If it is very wet, it shoidd be niade dry by 

 draining; if only slightly wet, the field may be thrown into 

 ridges as wide as the rows of trees are to be apart, and if the 

 plan is not to drain the land after the trees have begun to bring 

 an income, then the rows and ridges should be wider — that is, 

 a little land may bo sacrificed in order to save the expense of 

 draining, and where the land is not too dear, this is often the 

 cheapest way to solve an embarrassing- problen-i. Having de- 

 cided the method of drainage, a full year should be given to 

 preparing the land. It should lie plowed deep and often, and 

 if thrown in ridges or lands the subsoil-plow should be used 

 freely in the bottom of the dead furrows. If the land is at all 

 sandy and poor the plowijigs shoidil be not less than four, and 

 none of them should be later than the middle of September. 

 With this start, for the next five to fifteen years, according to 

 the varietv of trees set, enough ])lant-food can easily be set 

 tree bv shallow plowing, cidtivating and the use of surface 

 crops. Manv a yoinig orchard is ruined by overfeeding with 

 manures, ;is are also many by starvation, while the soil con- 

 tains an abundance of food for all necessary growth. The tree 

 is too often treated like the unwise dairyman treats his stock, 

 which are fed to repletion when young, and sen->i-starved at 

 maturity, when the demand for food is great, especially if a 

 large surplus product is to be secured. Healthy, continuous, 

 hardy growth, and not too much stiniulaling nitrogen, is what 

 is wanted in both cases. 



In rare instances the land n-iay be deficient in fertility. In 

 that case, a little mineral fertilizer will be all that is needed. 

 When the orchard begins to fruit heavily there will be an extra 

 demand on the soil for food, and that must be met quickly 

 and in a liberal way if large, superior fruit is secured. As the 

 roots have lieen drawing upon this soil for several years, and 

 as they can find no soil frorn which they have not already ex- 

 tracted the larger part of the readily soluble footl, the tree suf- 

 fers ; the quality and quantity of the fruit diminish, and the 

 tree l>ecomes an easy prey to its enemies if something is not 

 done. Something usually is done at al)Out this period of the 

 orchard's existence. Not infrequently it is seeded dawn to 

 Tin-iothy, and very often this grass is cut for hay, and thus 

 more fertility is taken from the land. Of course, the Apple- 

 orchard cannot well be kept under the plow all the time after 

 it has come into full bearing, because of the inconvenience of 

 gathering the fruit on a plowed surface in the wet fall months. 

 There is usually a better way than this. Clover should be 

 raised so far as possible in the orchard, and it is not necessary 

 to plow it up often, as Clover catches on sparsely-seeded land, 

 nearly as well without as with plowing. This treatment usually 



