52 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1917 



the older ones have been root pruned 

 and discount 100 per cent, any 

 thought that the older trees will bear 

 earlier; for ordinarily handled nurs- 

 ery stock will not bear satisfactorily 

 as soon and the tree will always 

 be less plastic — can't be as easily 

 trained. A few dealers have speci- 

 ally grown large trees however. 



Cut Backs Declined with Thanks 



ONE nurseryman wrote that he 

 couldn't supply two-year 

 apple trees of certain varieties but 

 that he could send "cut-backs." 

 We declined with thanks; for 

 every nurseryman who will give 

 his customer a chance to decline 

 deserves to be thanked. Why? 

 Because cut-backs are inferior 

 trees. The first season in the 

 nursery they are small, the second year they 

 still do not reach the standard sizes suitable 

 for sale, they are inferior in other ways or 

 they are some the nurseryman has failed to 

 sell. They would grow too large if left to con- 

 tinue growth next year so the nurseryman 

 cuts them back to the surface of the ground. 

 This results in forcing a strong shoot which in 

 a single season produces a more or less sturdy 

 and attractive looking top. But the roots, the 

 important part of the plant, are then three 

 years old and therefore must suffer severe in- 

 jury when the trees are dug — often as severe 

 as a three year tree suffers unless previously 

 root pruned. As the nurseryman was willing 

 to send one year trees of the varieties desired 

 so the order was filled to our satisfaction. 

 The third rule is obvious: Never order or 

 accept a cut-back tree because it was either a cull 

 to start with or it was unsalable the previous 

 year, both of which points are sinister. 



What Age of Tree 



PRACTICAL fruit growers have less 

 *■ dispute than formerly as to the age of a 

 tree for planting. All now agree that fruit 

 trees more than two years old are undesirable 

 for reasons already outlined. They also agree 

 that peach trees should never be older than one 

 year from the bud, for a similar reason. The 

 only discussion one hears now is as to the 

 relative value of one- 

 year and two-year 

 trees. Among the 

 reasons for choosing 

 one-year in prefer- 

 ence to two-year 

 trees the following 

 are most important: 

 They cost less; being 

 smaller the express 

 or freight charges 

 are less; none but 

 well grown sturdy 

 trees are of salable 

 size at the end of one 

 season's growth, so 

 there is no danger of 

 getting runts or culls 

 of the previous sea- 

 son; one-year trees 

 have few, and small, 

 or no branches so 

 the head may be 

 formed exactly 

 where the planter 

 wants to have it, 

 high, low or me- 



Evergreen trees and shrubs di um , often without 

 are safely handled in early rail 1 



->r when the ball is frozen any pruning and 



. i 



~^5gS^i 



Ornamental shade trees and vines for the home and all hardy perennials for the border 

 should be set out this fall to leave time free for food crop planting in spring 



possibly consequent injury to the tree. The 

 last point is more important than at first may 

 appear because once having formed it is diffi- 

 cult to change the head. 



Trees once headed high should be allowed 

 to so develop because the new branches forced 

 to develop by cutting off the first to form are 

 almost sure to come irregularly anywhere on 

 the trunks and to produce misshaped trees. 



Most important point of all, however, is 

 that one-year trees will transplant with great- 

 est ease, least work, and most assurance of 

 success, especially in the hands of an inex- 

 perienced planter. 



Our experience in planting last autumn bears 

 out that of other planters in being able to get 

 the varieties we wanted. Only one of the 

 nurserymen was sold out of one variety, where- 

 as when we placed our much smaller spring 

 order each of the three nurserymen we then 

 patronized had no trees left of two to five var- 

 ieties we wished to plant. 



Things Best to Plant 



TPHERE are some plants that should always, 

 ■*■ if possible, be planted in the fall; others 

 must not. Among the former currants and 

 gooseberries are conspicuous and ornamental 

 shrubs (such as Lilacs) which ripen their wood 

 and drop their leaves before mid-autumn and 

 start to grow very early in the spring — grape 

 vines also. The sooner such things can be planted 

 after their leaves fall the better. If planted in 

 the spring after the buds begin to swell or the 

 leaves form they are sure to suffer more or 

 less. Among the plants that probably are 

 best not fall planted the most prominent are 

 blackberries, dewberries and raspberries (espe- 

 cially blackcaps) red raspberries can be fall set 

 on well drained land. The autumn before 

 I arrived one of my clients set out a plantation 

 with the result that with some varieties 

 (blackcaps in all cases), not a single plant 

 survived the winter. In other cases the 

 losses ran from 25 to 75 per cent. The ones 

 that suffered least were the Golden Queen 

 raspberry plants. This is a yellow-fruited red 

 raspberry! The loss in this case was only 5 or 

 10 per cent. It has been easy to fill the 

 vacancies because the red raspberry makes 

 numerous sucker plants from the roots. 



As to grapes my own planting has turned out 

 very well, no fall set vines dying from any but 

 accidental causes. The plantings for one of 

 my clients underwent a series of very severe 

 tests, so did the gooseberries and currants 

 which formed part of the plantation. They 

 were exceptionally well planted last fall, but 

 during the winter plans were changed and a 

 sudden order given to have them removed. 



They were dug on an April day 

 when a gale was blowing. Each 

 vine was temporarily heeled in 

 where it stood, a couple of shovel- 

 fuls of earth being thrown over 

 their roots. Before they could be 

 collected and bundled for better 

 heeling in a snowstorm buried 

 them. Then without warning 

 motor trucks began driving over 

 them delivering hardware and 

 glass to build a greenhouse. They 

 were collected — such of them as 

 were uninjured and could be 

 found. After being bundled and 

 heeled in several weeks elapsed 

 before they could be planted, un- 

 favorable weather preventing the 

 preparation of the land. And yet 

 the losses were only about 15 or 20 

 per cent, of the original number. 

 This shows how serious abuses certain plants 

 will stand; for by knowing of such experiences 

 the beginner may take heart and promise 

 himself good results if he will only do the 

 work properly. 



Now the Disadvantages 



A MONG the disadvantages,, not already 

 *~V touched upon, that we weighed before 

 planting in the fall are the following: we had 

 to run the risks of winter injury due to alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing with consequent 

 heaving and settling of the soil. With fall 

 set trees this is more likely to occur than with 

 spring planted ones. But as our soil is well 

 drained we felt that the risk was slight, and 

 experience so proved for we lost only one or 

 two from this cause. Another risk is the pos- 

 sible damage by mice and rabbits. But half 

 inch mesh hardware cloth protectors were 

 used on some of the trees; "sulfocide" on 

 others. Not one tree was barked but this 

 may be because of the abun- 

 dance of food for both rab- 

 bits and mice in the fence 

 rows and the woods that 

 border the orchard. In no 

 case was any dead grass or 

 straw allowed to remain 

 near the trees as this would 

 have invited mice to set up 

 housekeeping therein. 



One interesting experi- 

 ence was in connection with 

 trees that could not be 

 planted last fall. They had 

 been taken to the field an J 

 heeled in — that is, earth 

 had been thrown over the 

 roots and the bases of the 

 trunks — pending the time 

 when we could reach them. 

 Winter arrived, however, 

 and prevented their 

 planting. Every one 

 was in good condition 

 when spring came and 

 all but one are now liv- 

 ing and doing well. Why W 

 that one died I don't 

 know. The subject of 

 "Fall Heeling -in for 

 Spring Planting" was 

 discussed in October 

 1916, page 102. 



Don't be in 

 too much of a 

 hurry. Wait till '. 

 the leaves are 

 almost ready to 

 fall. 



