1882.] 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



5 



NUT-TREES. 



If the readers of the Garden had seen the 

 pleasure it afforded the babies, the other day, 

 to gather a pailful of Filberts in their nut- 

 groves, they would all say, we will have a nut- 

 grove. It is so easy. The same rule applies 

 to all varieties. Gather the nuts as soon as 

 ripe, or buy them as soon as they come into 

 market, while they are fresh. Get as great 

 a variety as possible. 



Before this is done, the ground selected 

 for the grove should be plowed or dug 

 over. It is so much easier to do this when 

 there is nothing in the way. The best plan 

 is to put the nuts into the ground just 

 where they are wanted to grow. This should 

 be done as soon as they are gathered, and 

 before they get dry. Some nuts — for in- 

 stance, Chestnuts — will not grow after they 

 get dry; others will germinate, but not so 

 well. When planted where they are wanted 

 to grow, cover about two inches deep with 

 fine earth, and press the ground down with 

 the foot. This is all that is necessary. The 

 soil ought to be in good heart, so they will 

 start with a strong shoot and grow vigor- 

 ously. A puny tree is not much comfort. 

 Walnuts and Butternuts will do well on 

 moist soil, but all others require dry land, or 

 ground well under-drained. If the spot se- 

 lected is exposed to squirrels of any sort, or 

 field-mice, do not plant in the autumn, for 

 these animals will scent and steal the nuts. 

 Under such circumstances the finer nuts 

 should be put into sand. Get a box, broad, 

 not deep, and put sand in it to the depth of 

 three inches — any kind of sand will do, but 

 fine is best ; on this put a layer of nuts and 

 then a course of sand, alternating, with three 

 inches of sand on the top. Set the box out- 

 of-doors where it will not be molested by 

 anything. The box should be so open that 

 it will not hold water, and will allow the rains 

 to drain off. Scatter some leaves or sawdust 

 on top of the sand, and let the box stand 

 until spring. 



As soon as the ground is settled in the 

 spring, take the nuts out and plant them the 

 proper distances apart. It is best to put two or 

 three nuts in each hill and let them grow, so as 

 to be sure of one strong and healthy tree. The 

 others can be cut off, or dug up and re- 

 moved. The work of planting must be done 

 early, or the nuts will sprout, and in handling, 

 the tender shoots will be broken off. The 

 root starts first, and this is easily broken. 

 The coarser nuts, like Black Walnuts and 

 Butternuts, may be thrown upon the ground 

 and slightly covered with straw or leaves, and 

 left till spring, when they should also be 

 planted, as early as possible, where they are 

 to grow. All nut-trees, however, may be 

 started in beds in the garden, and the nuts 

 planted in the autumn. When this is done, 

 they should be taken up the second year and 

 the tap root cut off a foot from the base of 

 the tree, so it will throw out side roots, or 

 else, if left to get much older, the tree will 

 not be likely to live when transplanted. All 

 nut-trees send out naturally a long tap root 

 and long roots, without rootlets, near the 

 trunk, which makes transplanting tedious 

 and success doubtful. ' 4& 



Nuts add to the good cheer of a family, 

 and the growing of the trees to pleasant 

 anticipations. As companions to children and 

 home attractions they are valuable. Who 

 ever forgets the pleasures of the nut-gather- 

 ings of their youth "? F. D. Curtis. 



THE BLACK KNOT. 



As the leaves fall away from the Plum and 

 Cherry trees, conspicuous excrescences are 

 frequently seen upon the branches, which, 

 from their shape and color, have appropri- 

 ately received the name of Black Knot. This 

 is an old enemy of the fruit garden, and its 

 ravages have been so severe in some parts of 

 the country, especially the older sections, 

 that the raising of Plums has been given up. 

 Though known as a very destructive growth 

 upon the trees for a long time, it is but 

 within the last few years that its nature has 

 become known beyond a doubt, through the 

 careful and prolonged study of scientific men. 



The history of the investigations into the 

 nature of the Black Knot would make a vol- 

 ume of no small size, and of interest in more 

 ways than one. The insect theory prevailed 

 for a long time ; and there seemed to be 

 very strong indications that the Knot was 

 similar in origin to the galls of the Oak, 

 Willow, etc. The fact that the excrescences, 

 especially the old ones, contained living in- 

 sects, their eggs, and remains of the dead, 

 was taken as positive evidence that the 

 " house " they occupied was built by the in- 

 dwelling insects. The Knot is now known 

 to be of fungus origin, and therefore is re- 

 lated to the Peach curl, Potato rot, Wheat 

 rust, and a long list of other microscopic 

 plants too small to be seen, except by their 

 destructive effects, as they prey upon the 

 higher forms of vegetation. The fungus, or 

 parasitic plant, was first described in 1838, 

 but it remained for Dr. Farlow, of Harvard 

 University, to publish a full account of the 

 minute plant, and its methods of propagation 

 and growth. I can do no better than to give 

 the argument against the insect theory, or 

 for the fungus nature of the Knot, as briefly 

 presented by Dr. Farlow : " First, the Knots 

 do not resemble the galls made by any 

 known insects. Secondly, although insects, 

 or remains of insects, are generally found in 

 old Knots, in most cases no insects at all are 

 found in them when young. Thirdly, the in- 

 sects that have been found by entomologists 

 in the Knots are not all of one species, but 

 of several different species, which are also 

 found on trees that are never affected by 

 the Knot. On the other hand, we never 

 have the Black Knot without the Sphceria 

 morbosa [the scientific name of the fungus], 

 and the mycelium of that fungus is found in 

 the slightly swollen stem, long before any- 

 thing that could be called a Knot has made 

 its appearance on the branch ; and, further- 

 more, is not known to occur anywhere ex- 

 cept in connection with the Knots." 



The Knots range in size from an inch to 

 a foot in length, usually growing upon one 

 side of the branch, causing it to bend away 

 from that side, or twist irregularly. The 

 parasite first makes its appearance in the 

 spring, when the affected branch increases 

 rapidly in size, and becomes soft in texture. 

 The bark is soon ruptured in various places, 

 and the soft interior comes to the surface, 

 expands rapidly, and soon turns green. Mul- 

 titudes of minute spores are formed on this 

 exposed green surface, which fall away and 

 are carried by the winds, etc., to other twigs, 

 thus propagating the disease. These spores 

 continue to be formed until late autumn, 

 when the surface of the Knot takes on a dry 

 and black surface ; in the meantime, insects 

 may have taken possession of the soft tissue 

 within, and so eaten and destroyed it that at 



the end of the season only a thick, hard crust, 

 or shell, remains. Another kind of spore is 

 found in small pits and sacks of the crust, and 

 as they form late in autumn, they are the 

 winter spores of the fungus, and the form in 

 which the pest is carried through the winter. 

 These spores germinate in the spring, and 

 thus continue the Black Knot. The same 

 Knot lasts for several years, or until the 

 branch is lulled, it spreading from the old 

 growth up and down the branch. 



The only remedy is the knife. A branch 

 once affected is beyond recovery, and as long 

 as it remains is a seat of propagation of the 

 spores of the fungus. The Knots should be 

 cut off some inches below the main part, be- 

 cause the wood for some distance is filled 

 with the threads of the fungus. I have seen 

 cases where the Knot was thought to be en- 

 tirely removed by the knife, and a new one 

 would form at the cut end of the stump, thus 

 showing that the work was not properly 

 done. The removed branches should all 

 be burned, as the Knots contain spores which 

 will otherwise become detached and spread 

 the disease. The best time to cut the Knots 

 is in late autumn, because, the leaves having 

 fallen, the excrescences can be more easily 

 seen. Byron D. Halsted. 



PRUNING GRAPE-VINES. 



fuller's system. 

 Editor op American Garden: In No. 

 III., page 37, of The American Garden, 

 there is a notice of the Kniffin system of 

 pruning and training Grape-vines, in which 

 the writer says that this system has become 

 so popular in the Hudson River Grape region 

 " that hundreds and thousands of acres have 

 been changed from the 'Fuller' and other 

 methods." 



As no other Fuller but myself appears in 

 the list of authors of works on Grape-culture, 

 I conclude that the paragraph quoted refers 

 to me. But I confess to a total ignorance of 

 the system of pruning or training of vines 

 referred to as the " Fuller," because I never 

 claimed to have invented a system, or to 

 have made any discovery in regard to the best 

 method of pruning and training the Grape. 

 In fact, at this age of the world, I can 

 scarcely conceive how it is possible for any 

 one to invent a system which shall be of any 

 practical utility in training the vine. All 

 that I ever attempted to do was to explain 

 the principles which govern the growth of 

 the vine in all its parts, believing that when 

 the grape-grower could be made to under- 

 stand these, he would no longer be at a loss 

 to know how to prune and train his vines. A 

 man may vary his system or style of pruning 

 and training in a thousand ways, so long as 

 he keeps within certain limits, and does not 

 violate the laws which govern the growth of 

 the plant. I may have expressed my prefer- 

 ence for certain systems of training vines, 

 but I never claimed to have invented them, 

 but, on the contrary, stated (page 120) that 

 the main features of the system of training 

 which I preferred had ' ' been in uninterrupted 

 practice for more than a hundred years." 



A. S. Fuller. 



[It is not rare that systems and inventions 

 and countries even are named after those 

 who first described them, instead of after the 

 discoverers, and that in this ease a grateful 

 people should have named a system which 

 Mr. Fuller has first made extensively known 

 in this country, "Fuller's System," is hardly 

 surprising. — Ed. ] 



