More and 



'cr Fruit 



Midsummer Reminders 



THERE are a few things which must be done 

 in the fruit garden during the summer 

 months. The new wood of raspberry and black- 

 berry canes makes a larger and better fall growth 

 if the old canes are cut out as soon as the fruit on 

 them is all picked. The new ones will begin to 

 harden up and make a more vigorous growth, 

 which enables them to go through the winter in 

 better condition, and bear larger crops next year. 

 To cut out the old canes rapidly, take long-handled 

 pruning shears and cut the canes close to the 

 ground. Then, with hands protected by gloves, 

 carry them out and burn them when dry. This 

 will also help to control diseases, especially orange 

 rust. 



Some trees and vines set more fruit than they can 

 fully mature and ripen. Generally the best way 

 to thin fruit is by pruning the vines, but sometimes 

 it is necessary to thin the fruit itself. 



Some varieties of grapes, for instance, make a 

 large growth of canes, and are prolific bearers. 

 Under ordinary conditions, if all the grapes are 

 left on the vine, they may be small and will not 

 ripen before frost, in the short season in New 

 York. By removing one-third to one-half the 

 crop the grapes will be larger and will fully 

 mature. 



If part of the fruit on trees or vines ripens first, 

 it is best to pick it, which enables the others to ripen, 

 more quickly. Some of the successful fruit growers 

 practise this plan with apples, and to some extent 

 with plums and pears. The Japan plums gen- 

 erally yield very large crops. They require thin- 

 ning in early summer, and the fruit should be 

 picked as fast as it ripens, instead of being left on 

 the tree so that the whole crop can be picked at 

 one time. The earliest pears are full sized, and 

 begin to change color a little in August, when 

 they should be picked and put in a dark place 

 to ripen. Pick the later pears in the same way. 

 Apples and most other fruits are best left on until 

 fully ripe. 



In New York blackberries are at their best the 

 last of August. Commercial growers wish to market 



their crop before the berries get too soft, and we 

 sometimes condemn varieties they sell as being 

 unfit to eat, when they would be very good if grown 

 in our own garden and allowed to fully ripen on the 

 vines. If you have hardy varieties of blackberries, 

 such as the Snyder and Taylor, don't let them grow 

 tall or thick in the rows. Thin to an average 

 distance of one foot apart in the row, cut them 

 back to three or four feet, and grow them in the 

 tree form. 



With young trees, I know the best results are 

 obtained only with cultivation. If you have set the 

 trees, do not let them grow in the grass or hard, 

 dry soil. I believe that because of such treatment, 

 fully one-half of the trees sent out by nurseries 

 never make thrifty, profitable trees. If it is not 

 practicable to cultivate young trees, they should be 

 mulched, but cultivation is better for the first few 

 years. Grow sweet corn (which requires good 

 cultivation) between the young trees, or potatoes, 

 garden vegetables, or strawberries, and keep them 

 clean. Do not make 'the soil over-rich with nitro- 

 gen, but rich enough to grow a fair crop of 

 vegetables. 



In this connection I wish to advocate what is 

 known as dry farming for strawberries, cane 

 and bush fruits. These often fail to yield sat- 

 isfactory crops because of drought in midsummer. 

 There is one kind of irrigation all can practise. 

 Make use of the water veins under the soil by 

 keeping a layer of finely cultivated soil on the 

 surface. Cultivate all uncovered portions of soil 

 between the rows of fruits, either with hand or 

 horse-wheel cultivators, when the soil is dry 

 enough to crumble. 



Shallow cultivation is of great benefit to black- 

 berries and grapes that are not mulched, and it 

 will pay to keep it up to the time of picking. 



Some summer spraying to prevent injury from 

 fungous disease is necessary. Cover the leaves with 

 Bordeaux mixture as a protection against blight. 

 A tree or plant cannot fully mature its fruit unless 

 its leaves are kept intact and healthy; when its leaves 

 are partly consumed by fungi, much of its food sup- 

 ply is cut off, for the leaves are the feeding organs. 

 Many growers of tree fruits find it pays them to 



spray with Bordeaux until the fruit is nearly grown. 

 Some of the best varieties of apples have leaves 

 that are most susceptible to blight. Protection 

 of the leaves enables the tree to fully develop its 

 fruits, and to some extent prevents loss from wind- 

 falls. Paris green in the Bordeaux mixture for mid- 

 summer spraying will destroy late broods of codling 

 moth. Black rot in grapes is controlled by thor- 

 oughly spraying several times during the summer. 

 Generally the grapes thrive with less attention than 

 most of the small fruits. 



It is always good to spray the propagating bed 

 where strawberry plants are grown for setting 

 out next year (plants for transplanting should 

 always be grown in a separate bed, instead of dig- 



When a grapevine bears as large a crop as this Worden, one-third to one half the fruit should be 



removed and the branches thinned 



27 



For gathering fruit at the ends of branches a piclcer 

 is often useful 



ging plants in the fruiting bed). This bed should 

 be sprayed several times with Bordeaux during the 

 season if one is to be sure of good healthy plants 

 for a new bed next year. Do not allow the plants 

 to mat closely together in this bed, but keep them 

 thinned to three or four inches apart. Plants grown 

 in this way make a better growth and have better 

 roots than when grown too close together. 

 New York. W. H. Jenkins. 



Fruit-Pickers 



WHEN gathering fruit the habit of shaking the 

 trees and thereby causing the fruit to drop 

 is a very bad practice, for if the fruit is bruised it 

 quickly decays. Unless intended for immediate 

 use, fruit should never be shaken from the 

 tree. 



All fruit that is to be stored for any length of 

 time must be hand-picked and carefully protected. 

 A long light ladder can be rested directly against 

 the branches of the tree without injury to them, and 

 all parts of the tree are of easy access. But to 

 facilitate the gathering of fruit without the use of 

 ladders, various forms of fruit-pickers have been 

 invented. 



The Boss is made of wire. The projecting 

 curved wires pull the fruit from the branches, 

 and as it falls it drops into the wire basket 

 below, which is large enough to hold a number 

 of fruits. The fault of this picker is that if care 

 is not exercised some of the fruit will get the skin 

 punctured or torn. 



The Schneidig overcomes the objections to the 

 all-wire pickers and is undoubtedly the better form. 

 It consists of a smooth wire hoop so shaped as to 

 have two places for engaging the fruit, and a sus- 

 pended bag for catching it. In both patterns the 

 poles simply slip into sockets, and handles of vary- 

 ing lengths may be attached. 



Pennsylvania. J. L. K. 



