136 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1909 



The Scuppernong Grape Vine 



I HAVE always been very much interested in the 

 subject of hardiness of plants and trees, and 

 have transplanted a number from farther south to 

 this part of Southern Maryland, a peninsula located 

 between the mouths of the Patuxent and Potomac 

 rivers near Chesapeake Bay. 



In North Carolina the Scuppernong grape vine 

 assumes immense proportions, and vines which I 

 have brought from Georgia and Florida and planted 

 here have grown amazingly. They have passed 

 through very severe winters (for this part of the 

 country) with only slight injury to the terminal 

 portions of the vines. 



Last year the vines produced a few delicious 

 grapes, and I am in hopes that the crop will increase 

 each year. I have every reason to believe that this 

 is the northernmost point where the Scuppernong 

 has fruited. It seems to be quite generally known 

 that it bears fruit in southern tidewater Virginia. 

 I have never seen the thermometer register a very 

 low temperature in this place, and the success of 

 the vine may be due to the moderate temperature 

 during the winter months, which is undoubtedly 

 caused by the near proximity of large bodies of sea 

 water as well as the latitude. 



It may interest some readers to know that the 

 Scuppernong matured its fruits at this point about 

 the latter part of October, or the first of November. 

 The ordinary grape vine usually begins to fruit 

 the first part of August, and has nearly finished 

 bearing by the early part of September. 



Maryland. A. L. Hodgdon. 



Fall Planting Peaches in the South 



FIVE years ago I planted two dozen one-year- 

 old seedling peach trees in the open ground 

 during the middle of October. They had stopped 

 growing and were shedding their leaves, pre- 

 paring for their winter rest. They were from two 

 and one-half to three feet high, and were planted 

 about four inches deeper than they had been grow- 

 ing, in a well-prepared, thin, sandy, loam soil 

 eighteen by eighteen feet apart. The soil was kept 

 damp, and the trees began at once to form new roots. 

 By spring they had developed a perfect root system, 

 which enabled them to make a much stronger 

 and earlier growth than if planted a month or two 

 later in the preceding fall. 



The first, second, and third years after planting 

 the trees grew considerably. The soil was liberally 



fertilized each spring with stable manure and 

 commercial fertilizer. The second year several 

 of the trees produced from two to six peaches each, 

 and the third year they were literally covered with 

 blossoms, but a cold, northwest wind inadver- 

 tently killed most of them. It would have killed 

 all the flowers, but the trees were on the south side 

 of a hill, and this protected them to some extent. 



Last year, the fourth from planting, every 

 branch was practically covered with fruit, the 

 branches being bent low by the weight. The trees 

 were then about eighteen feet high and sixteen feet 

 in diameter. The rapid growth and early fruit- 

 ing, however, was as much due to good cultivation, 

 pruning and the liberal use of stable manure as to 

 early fall planting. When everything is favor- 

 able, you can gain very much in growth in the 

 spring by planting during the preceding October; 

 but if it is not favorable (which ten to one it won't 

 be) you will waste both the trees and the time it 

 took to plant them. 



The safest and most convenient time for plant- 

 ing most fruit and shade trees in the South is after 

 the first frost in November. I also find it best 

 to order trees direct from a nursery rather than to 

 buy them from an agent. The trees from a nur- 

 sery arrive in better condition than those purchased 

 from an agent, and if there is any complaint to be 

 made, the average agent is very often a hard man 

 to locate. Therefore, buy from a reliable nursery- 

 man in whom you have confidence. 



Georgia. Thomas J. Steed. 



In the South peaches may be planted in fall. 

 Fruits from October set trees 



Raising Onions in the Strawberry 

 Bed 



I HAD raised good crops of strawberries for 

 several years, and bumper crops of onions for 

 several years more, before it occurred to me that 

 both crops could be profitably raised on the same 

 land at the same time. The first essential is that 

 the land must be in good tilth, and free from all 

 sorts of weed seed, especially foxtail. To accom- 

 plish this, it is necessary to begin operations two or 

 three years in advance, for it is my experience that 

 a good share of the success of the succeeding crops, 

 as well as the amount of labor involved, depends 

 upon the proper preparation of the soil and the 

 rotation following. 



My plan is to begin with a crop of late cabbage 

 on ground that has been manured the previous fall. 

 Manure is applied with the spreader at the rate of 

 about twelve loads to the acre. 



I plow late in the spring, after most of the weed 

 seed has started growing, drag as plowed, and drag 

 or disk every week or ten days until the cabbage 

 is set. The ground is kept clean for the rest of the 

 season. The second year I sow the ground to 

 clover in the spring, and clip it three or four times 

 during the summer in order to prevent it from 

 going to seed. In August the ground is plowed, 

 and later top dressed with manure at the rate of ten 

 or twelve loads to the acre. 



The third year the same ground is planted to 

 melons or squash. No weeds are allowed to seed. 

 Plowing is done in October after the crop of melons 

 is off. After plowing, the soil is manured again 

 with well-rotted manure so as to avoid the intro- 

 duction of weed seed. 



After these three years of preparation and three 

 applications of manure, my ground is in ideal 

 condition and as free from weed seed as it is possible 

 to get it. 



Last spring, preparation began on the first 

 of April, as soon as the ground could be worked 



--rv---' i- 







A bed of onions and strawberries profitably raised 

 on the same ground at the same time 



without packing. In this instance the ground was 

 disked, dragged and leveled off with a float. On 

 April 3d two pounds of onion seed, that had been 

 previously tested, were sowed. I use a combination 

 drill and hoe, and sow in rows four feet apart, and 

 in two or three weeks the onions are up and ready 

 to be cultivated, which I begin by hoeing with a 

 wheel hoe, going astride of the rows and working as 

 close to the plants as can be done. This is done 

 when the ground is friable. 



I cultivate between the rows with a fine-tooth 

 horse cultivator. The mark of a cultivator tooth 

 nearest the centre, between the rows of onions, is 

 selected as the mark for the row for strawberry 

 plants. Holes are made in the moist, mellow earth. 

 with a hoe, cutting, slanting and deep, a hole every 

 other step as one walks forward, following the 

 mark and looking straight ahead all the while. I 

 challenge anyone to make straighter rows than 

 can be made in this way. The more holes are made 

 at one time than can be set in half an hour. Plants 

 are set well down with the roots spread out in 

 slanting cut of the hoe, being careful to set in firm 

 and to cover the crown. 



The ground is cultivated every week or ten days, 

 using the wheel hoe astride of the onions first, and 

 horse cultivator between the rows. Always cul- 

 tivate as soon after each rain as the ground becomes 

 friable. Should it rain often, and before the ground 

 becomes as dry as it should, cultivate anyway. 

 I once knew it to rain twenty-seven days in June; 

 we cultivated every four or five days, in this case 

 always before the rain. 



At the third hoeing the onions were hand weeded 

 and the strawberries hand hoed. At the fifth and 

 last cultivation, about the tenth of July, there were 

 a few stray weeds in the rows which were pulled up. 

 The onions are pulled as soon as the roots begin 

 to die; if they are not pulled at the right time they 

 will send out new roots and start to grow again. 

 Let the onions lay in the rows about two weeks, 

 or until the tops are dry, when they may be easily 

 broken off and the bulbs stored in a dry shed. 

 Be sure to have a good circulation of air. Do not 

 pile them up more than twelve or fifteen inches 

 deep. If cramped for room, put in an upper deck. 

 After onions are off, we go once or twice between 

 the rows of strawberries with the horse cultivator 

 to keep down weeds that may start in the fall. 



My plot of ground was twenty rods long and 

 seven wide, and contains seven-eighths of an acre. 

 Onions yielded 266 bushels, and were sold to the 

 local trade at a dollar per bushel. Cost of labor for 

 both onions and strawberries amounted to $92.20 

 and were as follows, leaving a profit of $173.80: 

 Plowing ......$ 2.00 



Spreading manure .... 6.00 



Disking, harrowing and floating . 2.00 



Sowing onion seed .... 2.00 



Setting strawberry plants . . . 3.00 

 Wheel-hoeing onions four times . . 4.00 

 Hand-hoeing strawberries . . . 4.00 



Cultivating six times .... 9.00 



Hand-weeding once .... 6.00 



Pulling weeds ..... 1.50 



Pulling onions, topping, storing . . 15.00 



Marketing ...... 16.00 



Two pounds onion seed (Red Globe) 4.50 



3,300 strawberry plants (Senator) . 13.20 

 Rental value of land . . . 4.00 



Total cost 



Iowa. 



$9?. 20 

 John S. Clarke. 



