THEY SA \. 



563 



necessary : ist, if you have set them less than four feet 

 apart, talte up ev«ry other one and prepare more ground 

 and reset ; 2d, keep the runners off till late in the sea- 

 son ; 3d, don't let them mat and get thick in the rows. 

 If you do, you will have a good crop of early fruit. 



Apple 1 nstruction-s. — Plant your apple trees on the 

 highest and dryest land you have that will produce a 

 fair crop of corn . Prune to one central trunk with side 

 branches eight inches apart. When you plant the trees, 

 set two inches deeper than they stood in the nursery ; 

 mulch for three feet all about the tree, and shade the 

 body of the tree, both fruit and shade trees, up to the 

 limbs, to keep out the borer and keep off the sun. Use 

 marsh hay, lath, bits of fence boards or brown building 

 paper ; this shading is very important in the west. If 

 you must replace a tree in the orchard where an old one 

 has died, remove a wagon load of earth and replace it 

 with fresh new soil. — George J. Kellogg, Wisconstu . 



Varieties of Native Plums. — The varieties of native 

 plums are promising, especially the offspring of Pritnus 

 Americana in the northwest. — H. E. V.^n Deman, before 

 Nurserymen' s Association . 



The Fruit Garden. — Do not plant small fruit in your 

 orchard. Have an acre and fence it from the chickens ; 

 have long rows, and plant everything wide enough to 

 cultivate with the sulky cultivator. Every family needs 

 for each member of the family one bushel of currants 

 and gooseberries, two bushels of strawberries, one 

 bushel of raspberries, one bushel of blackberries, fifty 

 pounds of grapes, and two barrels of apples, each and 

 every year. This will give health, happiness and a love 

 for the old home. You can grow as many strawberries 

 on a square rod of ground as you can of potatoes. Set 

 the plants in long rows early in the spring. Strawberry 

 plants should not be set on ground where water will 

 stand in winter. Set the plants even with the surface — 

 not too low, nor the crown above ground. Firm the 

 roots of everything, and use a little water in planting. 

 Get plants that are true to name — the pistillate plants 

 are the best bearers, but an acre of them would be 

 worthless for fruit. They outrun all others, so don't go 

 to the old bed for plants, you may get all pistillates. If 

 you plant two rows side by side of one variety, you can 

 depend upon the plants between those rows as pure, and 

 you may thus keep them by planting a few rows each 

 year. 



That garden acre should have on the north or west 

 side, a row of grapes eight feet from the fence, and eight 

 feet apart ; then eight feet a row of currants, gooseber- 

 ries and pie-plant three feet apart, a row of blackberries, 

 a row of red raspberries, a row of black raspberries ; 

 then your strawberry ground where, after it gets grassy, 

 you can plow it up. Your ground should be rich enough 

 to produce one hundred bushels of corn to the acre, for 

 all kinds of small fruit. — George J. Kellogg, lVisco)i- 

 sin. 



Windbreaks for Oranges. — I have been much in- 

 terested in the bulletin on windbreaks from the Cornell 

 Experiment Station, I have given a good deal of atten- 



tion to the sheltering of orchards by belts of timber, 

 and have found that they protect from winds and ordi- 

 nary late and early frosts. At Rivers our orange 

 groves are subject from October to March to so-called 

 " northers, " a wind blowing from due north and usu- 

 ally for three days and nights continuously. When 

 orchards are not protected from these winds, the injury 

 some seasons amounts to fully 75 per cent, of the whole 

 crop. Have found also that when the shelter belt was 

 planted on all sides, and that on the east side was tall 

 enough to shelter the orchard from the first rays of the 

 morning sun, the injury from frost was only perceptible 

 in the branches first exposed, while in orchards without 

 the shelter on the east side, the damage was quite marked 

 throughout the orchard. The following diagram will 

 illustrate my meaning and experience : 



A. orchard trees not injured by frost. B. tree top 

 nipped by frost. The Eucalyptus globulus (Blue Gum), 

 Schinus Molli (so-called Pepper Tree) and the Monterey 

 Cypress, are all used for shelter belts, the last named is 

 the best. — H. J. Rudisill, Los Angeles, California. 



[Note. — This is another instance of the old and ever 

 new experience that frosted plants suffer less when kept 

 in the shade. The trees and branches first struck by 

 the sun suffered most. This is a kind of protection from 

 shelter-belts which had never before occurred to us. — 

 Ed.] 



Strawberries in Cold Storage. — An Oswego, N. 

 Y., paper speaks as follows concerning J. Heagerty's 

 cold storage, a description of which appeared in our 

 July issue (p. 396) : 



"The value of cold storage is illustrated by the 

 strawberries in Mr. Heagerty's store, which were put 

 into his cooler six days ago. Take a box, shake them 

 up, and examine carefully ; not a mouldy berry will be 

 seen. Apparently they are in as good condition as 

 when first put in. The tendency is towards drying up, 

 not decaying." 



Trials of "New and Rare" Seeds. — We return 

 our heartiest thanks to the Department of Agriculture 

 for eight (S) packets of White ruta baga seeds and 

 (2) of Red-top Strap-leaf turnip seeds. We note the 

 instruction to "please report results" and siiall be glad 

 to comply with it. We have rented a bit of land for the 

 purpose of giving these novelties an honest trial. Uncle 

 Samuel will always find us ready to aid in the advance- 

 ment of horticulture. 



United States Agricultural Appropriations. — 

 The total sum given from the public funds for the sup- 

 port of agricultural experiment stations for the year 

 iSgo is $725,000. This is about equivalent to a tax of 

 I cents per capita on the population of the United 

 States. 



