Currants, grapes, and gooseberries are three timely suggestions for fall planting. Set out all possible food crop plants this fall 



Plant Now — or Wait Till Spring? 



M. G. KAINS 



RELIEVE THE SPRING PRESSURE OF TILLING AND PLANTING ANNUAL FOOD CROPS BY STARTING NOW WITH 



FRUITS, BERRIES, AND MOST ORNAMENTALS 



ONE of the greatest advantages we 

 gained by planting last autumn was 

 getting the work done when other 

 matters were not nearly so pressing 

 as they were in the spring. Had we not 

 planted in the fall it is very doubtful if we 

 would have anything like as good trees as we 

 now have. The fall set trees started into 

 growth promptly and kept the lead all through 

 the season. To be sure a few besides the 

 clipped ones died and had to be replaced, but 

 it is one thing to replace such trees and quite a 

 different one to set out a whole planting. The 

 former may be done much more quickly be- 

 cause there is no time lost determining the 

 positions for the trees. 



Another point strongly in favor of fall set- 

 ting is the fact that the trees are dug only a 

 few hours or days before being reset in the 

 ground. They are therefore more likely to be 

 in prime condition than are the majority of 

 trees sent out in spring by nurserymen. This 

 remark applies not to trees freshly dug in the 

 spring but to those trees stored in "cellars" over 

 winter. Whether stored in sand, sphagnum 

 moss or "stacked up like cordwood," ex- 

 perience goes to prove that nothing compares 

 with the newly dug tree. We had trees de- 

 livered last April, some of them stored in each 

 way. Our results favored the spring dug 

 trees in every case. The next best results were 

 with trees stored over winter in damp sand. 

 In the cases of nursery stock "stacked up" in 

 the storage house we lost heavily, some of the 

 trees being so badly shriveled that in spite of 

 soaking root and top in water for more than a 

 day — a good practice where the trees are at all 

 dry upon receipt — we lost more than 50 per 

 cent, and many of the balance will make poor 

 trees. The nurseryman volunteered to replace 

 this part of our order next spring. But we 

 have done our planting for nothing, and lose a 

 year because of the faulty method of storage. 

 Here, then, is a good rule: Before ordering 

 nursery stock for spring delivery find out 

 whether it will be spring dug, or if stored, how 

 handled. 



What and When to Do, or Not 



T^HE seasons of 1916 and 1917 gave us all 

 ■*■ of the 57 varieties of experience in tree 

 and bush fruit planting. Some of these 

 varieties were already well known to us but 

 others were brand new and interesting from a 

 practical standpoint. I, therefore, believe 

 that readers of The Garden Magazine will 



find a rehearsal a good guide as to what to 

 plant, what not to plant, when to plant and 

 when not to plant in this period of food 

 urgency. Parenthetically let me say that 

 when I use the word "we" I am referring to the 

 experiences in two business orchards or small 

 fruit plantations. Planting on my own 

 suburban lot is thus kept distinct from the 

 other work. 



We ordered stock in October from five 

 different nurserymen, all in Western New York, 

 not that the New York nurserymen have 

 better stock than others but solely because 



Six Reasons for Fall Planting 



^TT Newly dug trees are decidedly superior 

 a to stored trees, no matter how good the 

 6torage. 



Jlf When orders are placed late, it is a good 

 Til plan to furnish a substitute list so the 

 nurseryman may choose from this in case he 

 has run out of the most desired varieties. 



i]f The most important risks run in fall 

 Til planting are danger of winter injury due 

 to poorly drained land — and the gnawing of 

 the bark by mice and rabbits. 



fVi Heeling-in nursery stock is a thoroughly 

 Til satisfactory way to store trees to be set 

 in the spring, because you are not dependent 

 upon the transportation companies at plant- 

 ing time. 



tf]T Early fall ordering is important, for at no 

 TJI season of the year is one so sure of get- 

 ting exactly what he wants both as to 

 variety, size, and age. In spring the nursery- 

 man may be sold out of the very things you 

 need most. 



(][ Fall planting has thegreatadvantage that 

 31 the work is done and out of the way when 

 time is not at a premium. Furthermore, 

 most fruit trees and deciduous ornamental 

 shrubs do better when fall planted because 

 they get an earlier start than do spring 

 planted ones. 



we knew them personally or because they 

 had the varieties we wished to plant. One 

 of these men wrote that he thought it unwise 

 to plant peaches in the fall, that he would 

 advise his holding that part of the order until 

 spring but that if we wished he would send the 

 trees aftertheleavesdropped which would prob- 

 ably be about November first. As a master of 

 fact, it was about November 20th before the 

 trees reached us. But such trees! Ripened to 

 the very tips and branched almost the full length 

 of the trunk. Except for one or two that were 

 injured in transit every one of those late 

 planted trees is doing well to-day. 



Another nurseryman made his shipment al- 



51 



most immediately after the receipt of our 

 order. When the trees arrived we found that 

 all the peaches of certain varieties had had 

 their leaves clipped off and were already be- 

 ginning to shrivel. I predicted serious loss 

 among these plants, and sure enough when 

 spring opened the majority died. In some 

 varieties the loss was one hundred per cent. 

 It is only fair to state that when the nursery- 

 man was told of our ill success he offered to re- 

 place the trees either this fall or next spring as 

 we may decide. This is all that any could 

 expect under the circumstances, but we have 

 lost a full year and have started with an 

 irregular or ununiform orchard. So here is an 

 important deduction for the reader to draw: 

 When ordering nursery stock for fall delivery in- 

 sist that the trees drop their leaves naturally. 

 Be willing to wait until they do; for it is better 

 to plant a well ripened tree even very late than 

 to risk loss by planting earlier one that is 

 immature. This rule is general, that is, it 

 applies to all fruit trees and shrubs. 



In all but one case our orders called for one 

 year peach trees and not older than two year 

 trees of other fruits. That one case was an 

 accident: the specification of age was omitted. 

 The nurseryman sent trees as old as four years 

 in some cases. If these had been systemati- 

 cally root pruned each year, as is general in the 

 production of specimen ornamental evergreens, 

 to produce abundant fibrous roots thev would 

 have been splendid though costly. But they 

 had not been so treated. They had either 

 large roots fearfully mangled in the digging or 

 in some cases the roots were so few and small 

 that it seemed almost incredible that the large 

 tops could have been produced and supported 

 by them. The tops too (many of them) had 

 badly placed branches which had to be re- 

 moved, so the head of the tree could be made 

 the proper height from the ground and the 

 branches the right distance apart on the trunk. 

 The result was a large number of big wounds. 

 After this pruning was done the trees in many 

 cases were unsightly, partly for this reason and 

 partly because the breakage and removal 

 of twigs left the main branches bare for con- 

 siderable areas. But the worst is yet to come: 

 those trees will never make as sightly, pro- 

 ductive, healthy, hardy or in any other way 

 satisfactory trees as younger trees have always 

 made with less, far less attention both before 

 but especially after planting. So here's the 

 second rule the reader may write in his 

 memory : Insist upon having young trees unless 



