July ii, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



277 



Fertilizers for Orchards and Vineyards. 



NITROGEN is the element of plant-food which fruit-grow- 

 ers are cautious about giving to their trees. It has been 

 observed that fruit-trees growing in rich enclosures about 

 country houses and in old family gardens often lose their fruit- 

 buds for the apparent reason that their wood-growth is ten- 

 der, while trees on land which contains less nitrogenous mat- 

 ter grow more slowly and ripen their wood more perfectly. 

 This is the reason why the advice is so often given to dress 

 orchards and vineyards with phosphoric acid and potash alone. 

 Wood-ashes and bone-dust have been considered the most 

 suitable mixtures for fruit-trees, although the German salts are, 

 no doubt, quite as useful for furnishing potash, and even the 

 rock phosphates make a fair substitute for bone, since they do 

 not leach out of the soil, and what the trees or vines do not 

 get one year they can use afterward. 



But, after all, nitrogen is an essential to all plant-growth. 

 The leaves which fall from the trees, the clippings from the 

 vines, the weeds that are turned over in cultivation, all add 

 considerable nitrogen to the soil. Sometimes, however, this 

 will not suffice, and Mr. J. H. Hale, who is one of the most 

 careful and intelligent fruit-growers in the country, lately 

 wrote that he had spread broadcast two tons of nitrate of soda 

 over a peach-orchard of twenty-two acres, and that in less than 

 a week a tremendous growth began and the foliage looked 

 much darker and richer. Now, of course, enough nitrogen to 

 keep up such a growth during the year might carry the trees 

 into winter with unripened wood and tender buds, but the 

 condition of this orchard was peculiar. It was on light, sandy 

 soil that had an abundance of potash and phosphoric acid, and 

 had heretofore been cultivated in the early part of the season 

 until the first of August, when the trees were allowed to ripen 

 their wood. The land was so poor, however, that few weeds 

 or other green material grew after the cultivation had ceased, 

 so that there was little nitrogenous matter to turn under in the 

 spring. The orchard has borne several crops of admirable 

 fruit, but for two years past the new wood-growth has not 

 seemed sufficient. Under these circumstances Mr. Hale made 

 his application of nitrogen. The trees are carrying now only 

 a moderate crop of fruit, but this, too, has been stimulated to 

 a remarkable growth, so that it is now one-third larger than 

 any fruit which has ever been seen on Mr. Hale's place at 

 this season. 



There can be no doubt that the application of some nitro- 

 gen under these circumstances was advisable. The only 

 question is as to the amount and the time of application. It 

 would naturally be supposed that early spring was the time 

 for using nitrate of soda, which is very soluble and which can 

 be taken up by the roots of the trees as soon as they begin to 

 work. Perhaps a smaller amount would have answered the 

 purpose. Of course, where farm-yard manure is available no 

 extra nitrogen supplies would ever be needed in orchard or 

 vineyard, but the result of this treatment upon Mr. Hale's trees 

 will be looked forward to with interest by all those who try to 

 use fertilizers intelligently. 



New Haven, Conn. *->• 



Forming the Heads of Fruit-trees. 



I HAVE just read a statement to the effect that a fruit-tree 

 properly pruned when planted out will need no further 

 pruning to form a satisfactory head. I am tempted to suspect 

 that the propounder of this idea has just been putting out his 

 first orchard. In forty-odd years of nursery and orchard work, 

 I have never yet been able to formulate any hard-and-fast rule 

 as to pruning fruit-trees, even of a single species or variety. 

 In tree-surgery, as in the practice of the profession upon 

 human subjects, I have felt compelled to study each case by 

 itself. In a large orchard of many varieties and species one 

 will find, as time wears on, that there is an individuality which 

 demands respect, even in trees of the same variety — de- 

 pendent upon soil, climate and exposure as regards the winds, 

 the slope of ground, and a number of other points that will 

 arise as the work goes on. 



Certainly, if we consider the small size of an ordinary nur- 

 sery tree, we can at once see that when allowance is made for 

 the necessary bare trunk there is far from being sufficient 

 space left to form the necessary head. In a short time this 

 space, as it exists, would be demanded by the diameter of one 

 or two limbs of a medium-sized tree, especially in the case of 

 Apples and Pears. In my own practice I do not consider that 

 ultimate size and distance at all. I prune with the view of 

 giving sufficient light and air to the tree as it is, using some 

 judgment and foresight, of course ; but well knowing that we 

 cannot foresee with much exactness all that the tree will re- 



quire as it increases its size. Though well along in the last 

 decade of my legitimate three-score and ten, I am now form- 

 ing the heads of orchards of Apples, Pears and Plums set 

 within the past six years. Visitors, and I have a goodly num- 

 ber of them nearly every day, remark upon the unusual uni- 

 formity of the whole orchard. In older orchards of mine — some 

 of which were set immediately after the close of the war — the 

 same uniformity is noted and commented on, yet the whole 

 work of training these trees has been empirical, and I am still 

 unable to discover a better way. A very able member of my 

 profession has said, " There are now no more diseases ; there 

 are only cases " ; and I find this rule to apply excellently in my 

 orchards. I treat every variety and each single tree by itself, 

 and yet by due care I am able to impress upon whole orchards 

 a sort of uniformity with variety by my adherence to the lead- 

 ing principle — which is, to gradually form a symmetrical open 

 head by moderate yearly pruning and disbudding. 



One of the greatest hindrances in accomplishing this is found 

 in the influence of the south-west winds of summer, which 

 tend to press all the new growth over to the north-east and 

 cause it to become fixed in that direction, by the "splinting" 

 effect of the new wood upon the old, as it becomes firmer. 

 This "set" cannot be entirely overcome ; yet the spring prun- 

 ing, rightly conducted, reduces it to such a degree as to 

 excite comment upon the erect growth of my orchards. The 

 pruning of young trees in spring for this purpose is pretty 

 severe ; but as every tree is visited weekly during the growing 

 season, there is not time for much of a "set" to take place. 

 A photograph of my orchards would show this erectness in a 

 striking way, as compared with other orchards not so care- 

 fully treated. Perhaps one additional reason is that I plant all 

 my orchards north and south in the rows twice as close 

 as they are to remain. As most of my varieties are early 

 bearers, with the rather dwarf growth characteristic of Russian 

 fruit-trees, and of most of our native ironclads, I not only get 

 this mutual protection for my young trees from the full force 

 of the summer winds, but also get a great deal of fine market- 

 able fruit during the six to ten years before the thinning-out 

 process becomes necessary. I may add that I choose a north- 

 erly slope for all my orchards ; and they are tilled and cropped 

 with Beans and Strawberries until in full bearing. Besides 

 this, Currants and Gooseberries are planted between the trees 

 in the rows with great success, yielding crops even better than 

 when planted in full sunshine. Following this plan, my or- 

 chards begin to give a profit from the start ; first, beans, then 

 strawberries, then currants and gooseberries, and finally 

 apples. Manure and fertilizers are applied so as to keep up an 

 annual growth of new wood on the trees not less than fifteen 

 inches in length. It is not until nearly twenty years after 

 planting that the ground is wholly abandoned to the trees, and 

 these thinned one-half, as stated above. 



T. H. Hoskins. 



Newport, Vt. 



The Flower Garden. 



AFTER the main flowering of the hardy Roses and the 

 advent of hot weather the garden takes on new aspects, 

 as the annuals and tender plants become more prominent. 

 Hardy plants there are still, with flowers in abundance. The 

 cheerful Coreopsis lights up the garden as do few other flow- 

 ers, and quite pales the blooms of the yellow Chamomile, 

 Anthemis tinctoria. This is also the season of the Hollyhocks, 

 the Larkspurs and the Foxgloves, all most effective flowers, 

 and some tall Bellflowers are showing their white or purple 

 bells, Platycodons the largest of all. This is also the season 

 of Japanese Irises, which quaintly and at the same time glori- 

 ously finish the main flowering of the genus, as they show 

 their flamboyant beauties. If these are white there cannot be 

 too many of them in any garden. Many of the Ka^mpfer Irises 

 are handsome, but good white flowered varieties of the species 

 are among the most beautiful and precious of all flowers. 

 They not only wear a quaint grace and elegance in the gar- 

 den, but are very charming in the house. They should be cut 

 before the petals are unrolled and as they show signs of loosen- 

 ing. They open up perfectly when the stems are plunged in 

 water. This is a flower that the florists should add to their 

 limited list. 



Other hardy flowers are worth naming, but in this hot sea- 

 son, when one's garden energy begins to fag, the annuals, with 

 their profusion of bloom, are counted on for the main supply 

 of flowers. The first Poppies are passed, and one has a chance 

 to secure another crop from the cleared space, always a wel- 

 come opportunity in a small garden. I have said before that 

 fall-sown annual Poppies will give a crop of enjoyable flowers 

 while the leaves of the early-flowering bulbs are maturing, 



