96 
May, 1890. 
f QRCHRRD J^rndC 
GI\RDE 
from them, or use Prof. Cook's carbolic acid 
soap mixture. Spray them with his London 
purple solution and kerosene soap mixture 
for the codlin moth and other insects, given 
on another page. Rub or cut off all the 
suckers from the trees and do not let them 
form into forl$:s that are likely to split with 
a heavy crop of fruit. When trees are 
young we may soon accomplish what we 
desire by pinching back some of the limbs 
without removing them. Sometimes we 
have to deal with forks already formed. 
In such cases it is best to take a small limb 
from each branch and lap them around 
each other several times; they will then 
grow together, and the ends can be cut off. 
it will become a part of the tree, grow with 
it and become a permanent tie. 
Limbs of trees, if properly trained, should 
not cross or chafe each other; we never find 
it necessary to cut out the tops of trees for 
sunlight or air. Make a record or plan of 
the orchard and mark each tree with name 
or number. For a label we use zinc cut in 
strips, about eight inches long and three- 
fourths of an inch wide at one end, taper- 
ing at the other to about one-eight of an 
inch. The name may be written w ith a 
lead pencil, but we prefer ink made in the 
following manner which is all that can be 
desired. Take about one half teaspoonful 
of sulphate of copper (common blue stone) 
pulverize it and put into a five cent bottle 
of any kind of black ink and when dissolved 
it is fit for use. This makes a permanent 
black ink that will last as long as the trees. 
We have used it for thirty years with per- 
fect satisfaction. Wrap the small end of 
the label around a small limb and the zinc 
will expand with the growth. 
Potatoes and other vegetables may be 
planted in the young orchard, or strawber- 
ries. raspberries and other small fruits, until 
the trees come into bearing; then seed down 
to clover and let the trees have the whole 
ground. Fertilizers should be freely used 
when an orchard is heavily cropped. These 
should be applied during April and May, 
but not later than June. A good wash to 
make trees nice and slick is common soft 
soap with a little kerosene or carbolic acid 
in it, applied with a stiff brush to the trunk, 
crotches and large limbs of the trees. 
Apple and pear grafts may be put in trees 
late when the bark slips, by cutting olf the 
stocks and making a slit down through the 
bark and sloping one side of the cion and 
slipping it down between the bnrk and 
wood as in budding, tying a string around 
the stock to hold them in place and cover- 
ing with grafting wax. The grafts should 
be quite short for this method as the wind 
is more apt to blow them off. All suckers 
should be taken off from around the grafts 
as they appear throughout the season. 
Apples are the great commercial fruit 
crop aggregating in value, perhaps, as much 
as our wheat crop. No farm, however 
small, is complete without them. Every 
suburban home must have them. They 
should be in every village lot of half an acre 
or less.Thev are one of the necessities of life, 
we can enjoy neither happiness nor health 
without them. We should have them to eat 
and cook daily throughout the year in place 
of so much pork. Then we would have 
less boils, eruptions, scrofula, consumption 
and doctors’ bills to pay. If we could but 
give our children more apples and less can- 
dy they would be more cheerful and happy. 
We should have good apples, and nothing 
short of the best should be our aim. Apples 
may be grown almost anywhere and there 
are varieties that are adapted to every soil. 
It is our aim to show the sphere of each 
kind and its value there. — J. Stayman. 
Orchard Noting)*. 
METHODS OF SETTING OUT FRUIT TREES. 
The perennial tale, about two men em- 
ployed in planting an orchard, one of whom 
planted 95 trees in a day, and the other 
five, of which all throve, while the others 
all failed, might well be true and instruc- 
tive. And yet I have seen it the cause of 
a great deal of that waste of time which is 
a great waste of money. I think it quite 
safe to say that there is no need of using a 
day in setting out five trees of ordinary 
nursery size, in any soil where one would 
be apt to want an orchard. 
In the first place it is a great mistake to 
dig a very large and deep hole for such a 
tree, and a greater one to waste time and 
money in mixing manurial substances, and 
especially animal manure, with the earth 
to be replaced about the tree. No experi- 
enced fruit grower would tlynk of starting 
an orchard upon a barren and poverty- 
stricken field. No money can be made in 
planting fruit trees upon naturally poor or 
otherwise unsuitable land. If a naturally 
good soil, but somewhat worn, is chosen, 
the first thing to be done is to get it into 
good condition, before planting any trees. 
In the selection of land for this purpose I 
know of no better rule than to take such as 
originally bore a vigorous growth of native 
deciduous forest trees. Where these throve 
there is no good reason why any of our 
fruit trees should fail. It is true that there 
is a difference between a light and a heavy 
soil in regard to their adaptation to partic- 
ular kinds of tree fruits, and heed must be 
given to this fact. Good orchards grow 
upon somewhat heavy soils, provided there 
be good natural or artificial drainage, but a 
medium soil is best. 
If there is good drainage and a proper 
soil, there is no use in digging the holes any 
broader or deeper than will enable the 
planter to place every root of the young 
tree in a natural position, and at the same 
depth at which it grew in the nursery. The 
true secrets of success are to have vigorous, 
well-formed young trees, carefully dug, 
with abundant length of unmangled roots, 
and to set them firmly, working in the soil 
solidly against and about every root, apply- 
ing no manure, and using no water. The 
best instrument for this purpose is the hu- 
man hand. Increasing experience has 
taught me that it is wise to lean the young 
trees about 12 degrees from the perpendicu- 
lar towards the prevailing summer winds, — 
the winds that blow strongest while the 
trees are in leaf. All mangled or bruised 
ends of roots I cut smooth, with an under- 
cut. The roots should all slope downwards. 
In suitable land, free from large stones, one 
good man can dig at least 40 holes suitable 
for 3 or 4-years old nursery trees, and two 
men can set the trees well, in a single day. 
GROWING SEEDLING TREE FRUITS. 
New varieties, some of marked merit 
among them, appear from time to time, 
mostly of chance growth, and there has 
been in this country very little systematic 
planting of the seeds of our tree fruits with 
the object of securing improved sorts. Per- 
haps the chance growths do as much for us 
as systematic work would do, in the middle 
and southern sections. Certainly it is to 
chance that we owe most of our leading 
native varieties. The number known to be 
otherwise produced is very small, with the 
exceptions, perhaps, of pears and cherries. 
In the “cold north,” however, the good 
new varieties adapted to the rigors of the 
climate, present themselves too slowly to 
satisfy the planter; and already there are 
a considerable number of experimenters in 
this line. The pioneer was Mr. Gideon of 
Minnesota, and his energy and perseverance 
have been well enough rewarded to encour- 
age his successors in renewed and system- 
atic efforts. It is not a difficult matter to 
glow seedlings from the more promising 
“iron-clads,” native and foreign, which at 
three or four years of age may be planted 
cut along the fences, and left to show what 
they can do. The more promising selections 
made from these can easily be given a bet- 
ter chance by grafting, and their good qual- 
ities determined from the result. This work 
is especially commended to our experiment 
stations, where, also, the more skilled work 
of crossing and hybridization can be follow- 
ed to valuable results. 
WINTER APPLES. 
Proportionally, but very few of the seed- 
ling apples which appear from time to time, 
are long ktepers. It is a curious fact that, 
desirous as all sections are for these late 
maturing fruits, we have collected, from 
foreign and native sources together, consid- 
erably less than 200 varieties which can be 
classed as winter fruit in any part of the 
country; while the apples otherwise valua- 
ble which will keep until April, south of 
New Jersey, hardly reach 20 named kinds. 
And yet the ready critics are loudly attack- 
ing the Russian apples, which have been 
imported within the past twenty years, be- 
cause no large numbers of them have yet 
showed themselves to be all-winter fruit. 
It will require at least a dozen years more 
to settle this question thoroughly; and un- 
less I am much mistaken it will turn out 
that in the section for which they are adapt- 
ed, the North-European apples will show as 
large a proportion of winter sorts as those 
i which have been longer known. Meantime 
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