April, 1919 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



123 



as good as I can grow. Vegetables are less dif- 

 ficult to buy so I would limit my planting to those 

 kinds hardest to get in the stores — salads, really 

 ripe tomatoes, peas, lima beans, sweet corn, aspar- 

 agus, and the early spring vegetables that will 

 grow anywhere and that are not affected by the 

 slight shade cast by the trees up to the end of May 

 or early June. 



HpHE next erroneous theory is just as easy 

 -*- to demolish. Pruning is not mysterious, 

 but a simple process which any one may learn and 

 apply with satisfactory results. In fact, about 

 its most important principle is to avoid cutting 

 as much as possible! You see, each plant knows 

 its aspirations far better than does any mere hu- 

 man being so the main thing to look out for in the 

 training and pruning is simply to advise the plant 

 not to do so-and-so because if it does trouble will 

 follow. In order to do this intelligently the habit 

 of the plant must be the guide. This may be 

 learned by personal observation and from books. 

 Knowledge of the way a plant bears its blossom 

 buds is a fundamental in pruning. This can best 

 be learned from the plants themselves. (Also 

 read The Garden Magazine for March, 1918.) 



[ ASTLY we have the pest-control bogey. 

 -*~ / Like all other apparitions it is not to be 

 feared; for when once understood it is simple. 

 The pests that cannot be controlled in the home 

 garden are surprisingly few, far fewer than the 

 commercial fruit grower can and does- keep in 

 check. This is because the home gardener can 

 afford to practise methods that the commercial 

 fruit grower would find too costly. The only 

 uncontrollable diseases that occur to me are: yel- 

 lows, little peach, big peach of peach trees; orange 

 rust of raspberries and blackberries; and rosette. 

 Digging up and burning affected plants is the 

 only remedy. New trees may be put in where 

 the old ones are taken out. 



To be sure trees, shrubs, and vines may be 

 killed by any of several diseases or insect pests 

 but that is almost invariably the fault of the grower. 

 For instance, fire blight killed more than half the 

 pear trees in the garden of my boyhood. It was 

 not understood in those days. For its nature and 

 method of treatment are known and trees are 

 saved even on a commercial scale. So of black 

 knot which killed all the plum and sour cherry 

 trees in all the orchards of my boyhood. Even 

 the San Jose scale which killed tens of thousands 

 of trees and is continuing to do so where unfought, 

 is easily controlled bysprayingwith proper materi- 

 als at seasonable times. In short, there is little, al- 

 most nothing, to fear from eitherdisease or insects. 

 To carry on a successful fight against plant 

 pests it is not necessary to have a university edu- 

 cation, to be a trained economic entomologistoran 

 erudite phytopathologist. In all cases of course it 

 is necessary to know the kind of foe and the char- 

 acter of attack to make. This simmers down to 

 personal observation supplemented by reading. 



T70ES are readily classified first into diseases 

 -*■ and insects. Next the diseases are of a 

 physiological, a bacterial, or a fungous nature. 

 If the first, the remedy usually lies in rectifying 

 the culture; if the second, in cutting off and burn- 

 ing the affected parts; and if the third, in spraying 

 as a preventive. The insects are as simply 

 grouped into chewers and suckers. Among the 

 chewers are borers and miners which work wholly 

 beneath the surface and can usually be controlled 

 individually. Moat of the chewers, however, 

 may be destroyed readily by poisons placed upon 

 the plants ready for their. attacks. For the suck- 

 ers poisons are useless; contact insecticides that 

 burn their skins, or fill their breathing pores with 

 dust or oil are needed. Here in one short para- 

 graph are the fundamentals of plant-pest control. 

 Any one may master and apply them. 



A few instances in proof: A neighbor lost all 

 the leaves from her currant bushes last spring be- 

 cause she did no spraying. Another used bor- 



deaux mixture which is a fungicide, applicable and 

 effective for plant diseases (not for insects). She 

 also lost the leaves of her currant foliage just as 

 if she had used nothing at all. Still another neigh- 

 bor used arsenate of lead only once, but he re- 

 tained the foliage until late fall. In each case 

 the pest was the same — the currant worm, a 

 chewing pest. Casual observation showed the 

 last person that the leaves were being chewed up. 

 So he used a poison! Simple as A. B. C! 



Two other neighbors planted pear trees; one 

 sprayed with "all sorts of things, but the trees 

 died in spite of him" as his wife remarked; the 

 other cut off the diseased parts and disinfected 

 the wounds with corrosive sublimate and he has 

 plenty of pears every year. 



^HOICE of varieties is perhaps the most im- 

 ^-^ portant thing in success in home fruit grow- 

 ing. Where area is not too seriously limited var- 

 ieties should be chosen to give the longest possible 

 succession. Few people seem to realize that by 

 proper selection of kinds they may have straw- 

 berries from July to November; raspberries from 

 July to October or November; gooseberries, cur- 

 rants, and cherries from late June to early August; 

 mulberries from June to September; plums and 

 peaches from late July to late October, November 

 and in some cases even until Christmas; pears 

 from late July or early August until March; 

 grapes from late August till February, March and 

 even April; and apples from late July to late May 

 or early June — thus making a complete annual 

 cycle of fruit from strawberries through all the 

 other fruits to strawberries again. 



In making up a list the house gardener will 

 give preference to the highest quality and the 

 softest textured kinds. Only where space is 

 abundant is it justifiable to plant culinary var- 

 ieties for home use. Another point where space 

 is at a premium is to select those fruits that ripen 

 when the stores have none to offer or when prices 

 are so high as to be prohibitive. In these ways 

 the home table may not only have fruit choicer 

 than can be bought but it may be had when there 

 is no market supply to draw upon. For instance, 

 there are always plenty of Bartlett pears but few 

 later than that. Yet there are far superior kinds 

 that reach their best during October, November, 

 December, and later. Again, grapes are abundant 

 during September and early October, but these 

 are mostly Concord which at best is but a jelly 



The insect and disease bugaboo is not so terrible as it seems. 

 Ordinary cleanliness, and reasonable spraying will control 



grape, decidedly inferior to at least a score of other 

 varieties which are easily kept under ordinary 

 storage conditions until Thanksgiving, Christmas, 

 Valentine's or even Easter Days. For details ask 

 the New York Experiment Station. 



Success should attend each effort at planting 

 provided young and only moderate sized trees 

 are chosen. In this matter it is well to follow 

 the practice of commercial fruit growers. These 

 men are unanimously in favor of one year peach 

 trees, but are about equally divided as to choice 

 between one and two years fruit trees of other 

 kinds, also of grapes, currants, and gooseberries. 

 As to raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and 

 dewberries one year or younger plants are pre- 

 ferred. It is a great mistake to use plants older 

 than these because so much root is unavoidably 

 destroyed in digging that the plants are slow to 

 recover. Almost invariably younger plants over- 

 take and outstrip larger ones of the same kinds 

 and handled equally well at and after planting. 

 The only exception to this statement is in the 

 case of trees root pruned during one, two, or more 

 years in the nursery before being dug. *This 

 practice is well recognized and popular in the 

 handling of evergreens and other ornamental 

 stock but not common with fruit plants. 



Here is a comfortable, intimate, little corner of a garden that should please. Fruits, vegetables, and flowers in friendly 



association 



