Harvesting the Crops 



DURING September the main work in the 

 fruit garden is harvesting. Take care 

 that the trees are not injured when the fruit is 

 picked. One grower of plums and cherries told 

 me he had had his trees badly injured by careless 

 pickers, and that a stepladder for each tree is a 

 good investment. There are fruit pickers that are 

 very useful for the taller trees, and when these are 

 used, long, heavy ladders that break the small 

 branches are not needed. 



Watch the branches bearing heavy crops, and if 

 they are bent down with the increasing weight, sup- 

 port them at once with props. Sometimes a rope 

 tied around two opposite branches is sufficient. 

 As fast as the fruit ripens it should be picked, to 

 relieve the strain on the tree of ripening a very 

 large crop. The remainder of the crop will mature 

 sooner and better. 



Do not leave windfalls on the ground to decay. 

 When fairly ripe and not diseased, they can be 

 used for sauce and either canned or evaporated. 

 Diseased windfalls and apples infested with apple 

 maggot should be fed to live-stock; this is the only 

 way I know of to prevent maggot injury to 

 apples. 



When one sells fruit, the grading and packing 

 are of greatest importance. One grower told me 

 he received ten cents more per basket of four 

 quarts because of attractive grading and packing. 

 AH the small inferior or unripe fruit was culled 

 out, and the fruit placed in uniform layers. 



My first and about my only choice of early fall 

 apples is the Strawberry. I usually pass by the 

 Yellow Transparent and Early Bough, and wait 

 for the Strawberry to ripen. In the late fall follow 

 the Strawberry with Fameuse and Jersey Sweet, and 

 perhaps Fall Pippin. 



Plums of luscious flavor, like Bavay (Reine 

 Claude), are the most difficult to grow. Poorer 

 kinds of the European and Japan sorts are more 

 easily grown, and are fairly good if left on the trees 

 until fully ripe. Plums need to be riper than 

 most fruit when gathered. If they have not been 

 stung by the curculio, and are sound and cling to 

 the trees, leave them on until the skin easily peels 

 off, and often until the plum is quite black. Plums 

 may be more quickly picked and preserved than are 

 berries and smaller fruits. 



The best peaches to grow are the white-fleshed 

 varieties, which must be fully ripe before being 

 picked. The yellow-fleshed peach, grown commer- 

 cially and picked when not fully ripe so that it will 

 ship well, is far better than none, but it is lacking 

 in flavor. 



The bulk of the pear crop ripens in September. 

 The very earliest varieties are small and ripen 

 when there is an abundance of other fruits. Better 

 plant Bartlett and Seckel. Pears may be picked 

 when they begin to show color, and will ripen if 

 stored in a dark place. But in any event, the fruit 

 must be picked as soon as it ripens so as to relieve 

 the strain upon the tree as much as possible. 



The easiest grape to grow in a cold climate (and 

 next to the Niagara, the best green grape grown in 

 New York State) is the Winchell or Green Mountain. 

 It begins to ripen the last of August or early in 

 September and lasts all through the month. It 

 is smaller and sweeter than the Concord, but not 

 quite so sweet as the Delaware, though, in my 

 opinion, better flavored. It can be safely planted 

 where most other grapes will not ripen. It is 

 earlier than Moore's Early (a black grape and the 

 old standard) and more prolific. The vine is not 



so strong a growci as Word(,n and Concord, but 

 with good feeding and culture it is sufficiently 

 vigorous for the family vineyard. 



The selection of the location for the vineyard 

 has more to do with successful grape culture than 

 anything else. Do not plant grapes on low, level 

 ground, where the water does not run off quickly 

 and the soil is a heavy loam or clay, unless it is 

 the only place you have for them. Select a dry 

 knoll or slope, with deep light loose soil where the 

 roots can easily go deep down into the soil, and 

 where exposure with the maximum sunshine is 

 insured throughout the day. We have made very 

 good marmalade by combining grapes with sweet 

 apples; it requires less sugar than if the grapes 

 were preserved alone. We also make jelly and grape 

 juice and do considerable canning, but the one 

 preparation that has proved the most satisfactory 

 is grape juice boiled down to one-third or one-half 

 its quantity and canned after a little sugar has been 

 added. A delicious drink is made from this by 

 simply adding water. 



COVER CROPS IN THE ORCHARD 



September, in most localities, is the time for 

 sowing catch or cover crops in the orchard, and 

 each fruit grower must study his own local con- 

 ditions. My plan in starting an orchard would 

 be, after planting the trees, to grow between the 

 trees for three or four years, such cultivated crops 

 as corn, potatoes, cabbages, or some crop I could 

 fertilize and cultivate each year; then afterward, 

 as the roots of the trees grew out so that only very 

 shallow cultivation could be practised, I would 

 harrow the soil and sow a cover crop early in the 

 fall. The purpose of this is to keep the ground 

 from freezing and thawing, to prevent a loss of 

 moisture and gases and to get plant food from the 

 atmosphere. The plant that can best do this is 

 clover. 



Study the clover family and its requirements. 

 Probably nearly all fruit growers can grow either 





Both newly set straw^berry plants (on the extreme 

 left) and well established ones should be cultivated 

 until frost 



75 



red or crimson clover in their orchards if they will 

 learn how to do it. It must be determined by each 

 individual grower whether lime, manure, or other 

 plant food is lacking and whether the soil needs 

 to be sweetened by cultivation and aeration. Gen- 

 erally it is safe to thoroughly cultivate the young 

 orchard during the first part of the summer. Apply 

 some lime, give a light dressing of manure that is 

 reenforced with phosphate rock (used in the stable 

 as an absorbent), and then sow clover late in sum- 

 mer. Red clover should be sown in New York 

 State the last of August, and crimson clover, if it 

 will thrive, early in September. If you are in 

 doubt about clover, sow rye or vetch for a cover 

 crop. Commercial fertilizers in the orchard should 

 be used in connection with cover crops. 

 New York. W. H. Jenkins. 



Caring for the New Strawberry- 

 Bed 



rHE strawberry bed that was planted in August 

 must be well fed until growth ceases, if a 

 full crop of berries is to be gathered next spring. 

 Leave the heavy manures for some other season 

 of the year and use only quick-acting fertilizers 

 now. 



A fertilizer which gives speedy results is com- 

 posed of three-sixths superphosphates, two-sixths 

 nitrate of soda, and one-sixth muriate of potash. 

 You can buy the ingredients from any dealer in 

 garden supplies and mix them yourself; or the 

 dealer may sell you a mixture of superphosphates 

 and muriate of potash to which you may add the 

 nitrate of soda. (The cost of the ingredients is 

 usually about three cents a pound in small quan- 

 tities.) 



Use a long, rather shallow box, a mallet, a 

 coarse sieve and a hoe. Break all lumps with 

 the mallet, shake through the sieve and mix 

 all together with the hoe, drawing it back and 

 forth till the different elements are thoroughly 

 distributed. 



Twenty-four plants will require from one to two 

 pounds of this fertilizer. Apply to the bed in a 

 shallow furrow on either side of the row. The 

 first week in September is the proper time to 

 fertilize. 



Where leguminous plants, such as peas, beans, 

 or clover, have been previously grown, a fertilizer 

 of one part muriate of potash and one and one- 

 half parts of ground bone is more practicable. 

 A similar application should be given in the spring 

 before the blossoms open. 



Cultivate regularly over all the surface of the 

 ground, running very shallow near the plants. 

 Every six days is not too often. 



Soon after growth is established, the plants will 

 send out stolons or runners. These delicate stems, 

 tipped with a tender bud, must be clipped ere they 

 take root. They are too great a tax upon the 

 young plants now, sapping their strength and 

 lessening next year's crop. 



There is no injury to be feared from frosts, but 

 the freezing and thawing of the ground in winter, 

 as it raises the plants and breaks the close contact 

 of their roots with the soil, is injurious. 



Mulch the plants about December ist, with 

 straw, salt hay or leaves, applying it over every 

 part of the bed to a depth of three and one-half or 

 four inches. This may remain on the bed until 

 after the crop is gathered in the spring. 



New Jersey. M. Roberts Conover. 



