THE FUTURE FRUIT-GROWER. 



WHAT HE MUST 



^ijjllLHILE horticulture has made 

 vast strides in the last decade, 

 there is still much to learn. One 

 thing is certain ; we in these 

 parts must change our tactics or 

 be left in the rear. The Cali- 

 fornia fruits are making such 

 inroads in our fruit trade as are 

 seriously felt by the growers here. That the Cali- 

 fornia pears and peaches are inferior to ours in 

 flavor, all good judges of fruit know ; but this 

 makes little difference in our markets so long as 

 California fruits excel ours in beauty and size, 

 freedom from insect injuries, and gilt-edge style of 

 package. 



Well, what are we going to do about it ? That is the 

 question ! Simply plant only of the best and most 

 popular varieties ; prune and cultivate properly ; use 

 arsenites at the'right time to destroy the codlin moth 

 and curculio ; thin out the fruit at the right time, and 

 do it thoroughly. 



Some say it won't pay to thin out apples on a large 

 scale; but if it 'pays on a small scale it will pay on a 

 large one. I have seen orchards where the owner 



would have done 

 well to employ act- 

 ive men at five dol- 

 lars a day to thin 

 out his apples. In 

 one instance there 

 was a large orchard 

 of Jennettings so 

 heavily loaded with 

 fruit that they 

 never attained a size 

 fit for market, and 

 brought the owner 

 little or nothing, 

 though if properly 

 thinned out the fruit 

 would have been 

 worth fifty cents per 

 bushel in the or- 

 chard. Besides this, 

 his orchard was 

 nearly ruined by 

 limbs breaking from the exhausted vitality of the trees. 

 This thinning out of fruit I have practiced and advocated 

 for forty years, but I have not yet reached quite the right 

 gauge when at it ; that is, I have not learned to take 

 enough peaches off when the trees are full. The fruit 



Abronia umbellata. 



DO TO SUCCEED. 



of such varieties as Susquehanna, for instance, should 

 not be nearer than six inches to each other. Healthy 

 trees in good soil properly cut back at the right sea- 

 son, if the ground be well cultivated, will give fruit 

 that always commands a big price, no matter how 



much the market is 

 glutted with ordinary 

 ilfw]^ stock. The same holds 

 good in regard to pears 

 and apples. 



Grapes, as a rule, 

 are allowed to bear 

 three bunches where 

 two, and I believe in 

 many instances one 

 bunch alone, would be 

 better. I can grow 

 Concords to weigh a 

 pound to a bunch, and 

 such grapes will bring 

 nearly double the price 

 that the ordinary ones 

 do, besides bearing 

 better ; and in this we 

 will be well paid for 

 our labor of clipping 

 out the smaller 

 bunches. Then there 

 is much time and ex- 

 pense saved when we go to bagging them; and this we 

 must do, as we have formidable enemies in the cur- 

 culio and other insects. Near my vineyard is an apiary 

 of near a hundred bee-hives, full of industrious little 

 yellow-banded workers that know what grape juice is. 

 I will not admit that a bee can puncture the skin of 

 an ordinary grape ; but when the birds, wasps and 

 yellow-jackets begin, the bees follow and will soon 

 wind up the crop of a small vineyard. Spraying I do 

 not like. Others may do it, but not I. 



When we have the fruit raised, we must send only 

 perfect fruit to market, put up in neat and clean pack- 

 ages of uniform size all through, with the grower's 

 name on the package. Then, and not until then, can 

 we compete with the fruit-growers beyond the Rockies, 

 who understand these little points which go so far to 

 attract purchasers. 



Vines can now be pruned at any time, and the half- 

 hardy ones cut loose from the trellis ready for their 

 winter protection. 



An illustration of the importance of sending only 

 good fruit, properly put up, has occurred in St. Louis 

 within a week of this writing. A cargo of Western 



MiMULUS CARDINALIS. 



