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// you are planning to build the Readers' 

 Service can often give helpful suggestions 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



May, 1909 



Tested by Time 



THE "ERICSSON 



There is a large element of risk in 

 the purchase of some articles ; this 

 applies to new inventions, as well 

 as to imitations of many which are 

 well-known. The risk, of course, 

 increases with the price, and too much care can- 

 not be given to the selection of such articles as 

 are intended for permanent use. This risk is 

 eliminated when it is possible to purchase of 

 firms whose reputation and goods have stood the 

 test of time; for then the buyer merely looks for 

 the firm name or trade-mark, which protects 

 him. It so happens that he is thus protected in 

 the purchase of a 



Hot-Air 

 Pump 



The cuts upon this page show two different styles 

 of the Hot-Air Pump; the upper is called the 

 "Ericsson," and the lower the "Rider." The 

 motive power in each is identical; the "Rider" 

 merely being of larger capacity. The world-wide 

 popularity of these pumps and their adoption into 

 every clime have naturally resulted in the appear- 



ance on the market of imitation pumps, not only 

 inferior in construction and lacking in durability, 

 but so named as to deceive the innocent purchaser. 

 Complaints received from many, who have been 

 thus imposed upon, impel us to advise intending 

 buyers to look carefully at the two cuts here shown . 

 They are facsimiles of the genuine. Be sure, 



nfm^pilt: MP RIDER - BE-ERICSSON 



appears upon the pump you purchase. When so 

 situated that you cannot personally inspect the 

 pump before ordering, write to our nearest office 

 (see list below) for the name of a reputable dealer 

 in your locality, who will sell you only the genu- 

 ine pump. Over 40,000 are in use throughout 

 the world to-day. 



Write for Catalogue U, and 

 ask /or reduced price-list, 



Rider-Ericsson Engine Co. 



{Also makers of the new 

 "Reeco"- Electric Pump) 



35 Warren Street - 



239 Franklin Street - 



40 Dearborn Street 



40 North 7th Street 



234 Craig Street West - 



rider" 22 Pitt Street - 



New York 



- Boston 



Chicago 



- Philadelphia 



Montreal, P. Q. 



Sydney, N. S. W. 



rDYCTAI m 



— sue A 



m 5 ■> 'Sealed Boxes Only] - Sejt£#gjr/0ffoM/0fc/- By Grocers Everywhet 



GARDEN ACCESSORY, such as shown here, 

 will make your garden more attractive, by giv- 

 ing it an air of permanency and comfort. Let 

 us help you to make your garden an out-door 



living room. We have furnished 



many large estates as well as small 



old fashioned gardens. 



The Garden Studio has on exhibition and for 

 sale sun-dials, benches, urns, gazing globes, 

 tables, balustrades, fountains, etc. Send at 

 once for book of accessories for your garden 

 which will enable you to order by mail. 



The firm desires also to announce that it 

 makes and has made for years a specialty of 

 interior decoration for town and country houses, 

 libraries, churches and theatres. 



L. HABERSTROH & SON 



647 Boylston Street 



Boston 



Mass. 



± 



Why It Pays to Thin Fruit 



THERE are more people who advocate thinning 

 fruit than there are those who practice it, 

 chiefly because most people have not the courage 

 to pull fruit from their trees. Yet thinning is one 

 of the most paying operations in the fruit garden 

 if done judiciously. 



Except to cut off some of the fruit spurs, it 

 seldom pays to thin cherries. In the Pacific 

 Northwest apples and pears are quite frequently 

 thinned; in other sections rarely. Repeated 

 experiments have shown that it pays to thin these 

 fruits if the trees are heavily laden even though 

 it may cost fifty cents or over to thin a large tree. 

 Much, however, depends upon the fruit-bearing 

 habit of the variety. Some sorts, as Rhode Island 

 Greening, usually set but one fruit from a cluster 

 of blossoms, and may need little or no thinning; 

 other varieties that set fruits very thickly, as 

 Wagener and Oldenburg, are much benefited by 

 thinning. 



Grapes and all the brambles are commonly 

 thinned by reducing the amount of bearing wood 

 when pruning, but thinning the bunches or 

 clusters of fruit has not proved beneficial. The 

 berries of bunches of grapes grown under glass 

 are usually thinned, to prevent crowding and to 

 increase size. If the ends of bunches of currant 

 blossoms are clipped off with shears, the size 

 and quality of the berries are increased. Bunches 

 of strawberries under glass are severely thinned, 

 but in the field the only practicable method is to 

 limit the number of plants, or it may sometimes 

 pay, when exceptionally choice fruit is desired, 

 to reduce the number of fruit stalks. 



HOW TO THIN TREE FRUITS 



Fruit is thinned in two ways: by reducing the 

 bearing wood in pruning, and by picking off part 

 of the fruit when it has set. The fruits most 

 commonly thinned by pruning are those that bear 

 on one-year-old wood, as the peach, apricot, rasp- 

 berry, blackberry, dewberry, grape, and the 

 brambles; and, to a considerable extent, Japanese 

 varieties of the plum. The new wood, which 

 is the bearing wood, is shortened, and it is best 

 not to do this until all danger of winter injury 

 has passed. Thus the laterals of the brambles 

 are not shortened until after the buds have started 

 and the extent of winter injury is easily discerned. 

 After a severe winter it may be best not to shorten 

 the bearing wood of peaches and apricots until 

 the blossoms have appeared; then one can judge 

 best how much fruit to tbin off by pruning. 



Fruit plants that bear mainly on spurs, as the 

 apple, pear, plum, and cherry, are thinned with 

 the pruning shears by cutting out weak or crowd- 

 ing spurs. The thinning of fruit spurs has received 

 little attention in American fruit gardens; in 

 Europe it is just as much a part of the annual 

 pruning as the removal of crowding branches. 

 When an amateur fruit grower wishes the choicest 

 fruit, and can afford to devote some time to the 

 attainment of his ambition, his pruning will become 

 more minute and specialized; its unit will be the 

 spur, not the tree. 



The second method of thinning fruit, that of 

 removing superfluous fruit, is usually necessary 

 in addition to the thinning by pruning, except 

 with the small fruits. The time when it; should 

 be done varies with different fruits, but 'in every 

 case it should be after all danger from losmg fruit 

 by frost and the June drop has passed. A tree 



