Sometimes our labors seem as lost 



And all our j.'earmngs seem in vain. 

 And blessings that we pri^e the most 



Are blown in winds or dropped in rain. 



Planting Grapes at Night. — According to the Cali- 

 fornia Fruit Grower, hundreds of men are engaged in 

 planting vineyards by lantern light in Fresno county in 

 the planting season. It is said that the stakes can be set 

 straighter by the use of lanterns than in daylight, and 

 that the men do more work. 



Yellows, Peaches and Grapes in the South.— 

 Procrastination has been the cause of the great spread 

 of the yellows in Kent county, Maryland. (See page 20, 

 January issue.) The disease was getting hold there as 

 far back as 1870, and perhaps earlier. In 1872 I had a 

 nursery of peach trees in Kent county. One spring an 

 old gentleman came to me for advice as to what varie- 

 ties to plant. I gave him a list of good sorts. He looked 

 at it carefully a little while, and said, " I don't see any 

 of the Prematures down here ; I have always noticed 

 that Prematures bring a good price, and I want to plant 

 a good many of them." The old gentleman really imag- 

 ined that the prematurely ripened peaches, the precursor 

 of the yellows, were a distinct variety of peaches. The 

 neglect to remove these diseased trees in the early days 

 gave the disease a stronghold, and will, ere long, drive 

 the peach culture off the peninsula. Years hence, the 

 peach district of the south will be the Piedmont country 

 of Western Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. 



In North Carolina the vast region of high, rolling, 

 sandy hill country, lying along the line of the Raleigh & 

 Augusta R. R., between the Peedee and the Cape Fear 

 rivers, now mainly occupied by a vast forest of long-leaf 

 pines, which the turpentine gatherers and the saw-mill 

 men are now rapidly using up, is coming into notice as a 

 grape and peach growing section. The balmy climate 

 of this region is attracting crowds of health seekers from 

 the north, and the settlement at Southern Pines is rapidly 

 becoming a second Vineland. The grape and the peach 

 are found to flourish wonderfully here. Bearing vine- 

 yards here, last summer paid their owners over $100 per 

 acre, clear of freights and commissions, from land that 

 costs but a few dollars per acre. No yellows, as yet, 

 exist in North Carolina, and if our nurserymen and or- 

 chardists exercise ordinary care, it may never appear. 

 Grapes are shipped from this region the first week in 

 July, and of course have the market pretty much to 

 themselves. — W. F. Massey, North Carolina Experiment 

 Station. 



Spraying Apples. — Spray as soon as the last blos- 

 soms fall. It is best to repeat the operation in a week, 



or even sooner if a very heavy rain should follow just 

 after the first application. Apply the liquid forcibly in 

 a very fine spray. Do the work thoroughly "When the 

 foliage begins to drip, pass on to the next tree. Send to 

 pump dealers for circulars and prices ; or ask dealers in 

 agricultural implements for them. The experiment sta- 

 tions of Ohio (Columbus) and Michigan (Agricultural 

 College P. O.) and some others have published bulletins 

 describing various pumps, but more direct information 

 can be obtained from the manufacturers. Use a weak 

 mixture. Both Paris green and London purple are good. 

 Use a pound to 200 or 250 gallons of water. When ap- 

 plied in this strength and not needlessly thrown upon 

 the grass, stock can be pastured in the orchard. Keep 

 the poison well stirred. 



Wild Apple. — The most important work now to do, in 

 my opinion, in apple culture, is the improvement of Py- 

 rus coronaria, our western native apple, which alone is 

 able to stand the excessive heat and droughts and cold 

 winters that destroy all apples of European origin in 

 these places. The Russian " iron-clads " have been 

 looked to for the orchards of these peculiar regions, but 

 there are many sections where these are a failure. In 

 some of these sections coronaria offers the only hope 

 and it is high time our enthusiasts took hold of this spe- 

 cies and improved it. Enthusiasts always lead the van 

 in all new enterprises, and this is a case of special need 

 of them. 



It seems to me extraordinary that this very promising 

 native species of the apple has had little consideration 

 so far. It has produced the several seedlings of as 

 large size and much better quality than the aver- 

 age fruit produced by seedling apples of the European 

 species, after thousands of years of cultivation. It seems 

 probable that it is capable of developing individuals 

 with good-sized fruits, by a very short course of high 

 culture and selection ; and a good-sized apple of fair 

 quality, raised from seed of the Coronaria without 

 any hybridizing whatever, would be worth millions of 

 dollars to certain sections that now are unable to grow 

 any apples whatever. 



Pyrus coronaria has an aroma which distinguishes it 

 from all other apples, and will, when this species shall 

 have been developed, give our people apples of a far 

 more aromatic flavor than those now in use. One cau- 

 tion I think absolutely necessary in this matter. No 

 hybridizing of this species with any other apple must be 



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