July, 1890. 
127 
ORCH PiR D flN GARDEN 
July. 
The orchard, nursery and young trans- 
planted trees must be well cultivated this 
month to keep the weeds down; at no time 
in the year do trees suffer more from ne- 
glect than in July, when the ground be- 
comes dry, hard and parched for the lack 
of moisture. Trees or plants thoroughly 
cultivated in due season suffer but little in 
a drought. We have seen this fully exem- 
plified here in Kansas during the extreme 
drought of 1860 when we had no ram dur- 
ing the whole growing season. A party 
set out about 10,000 two and three years 
old trees; the work was well done and they 
were thoroughly cultivated throughout the 
season and apparently' all lived and did 
well. Another party set out 100,000 trees 
of the saine age on adjoining land and 
scarcely any lived. This difference in re- 
sults was entirely due to the tillage, for 
it was very evident that the 100,000 trees 
would have grown, in any favorable sea- 
son, with the amount of cultivation they 
received, which was not, however, sufficient 
for such a drought. This one lesson did 
more to convince us that thorough cultiva- 
tion at the proper time always pays the 
best. Whenever we hear a person remark 
that it takes too much work and time to 
cultivate so thoroughly, we feel safe in con- 
cluding that he is not fit for orcharding and 
not at all likelv to succeed in it. 
Summer apples and pears will commence 
lippning this month and we should prepare 
to pick them before they are fully ripe, as 
they cannot be shipped and handled to good 
advantage when ripe. And the same is 
true of early fall varieties; they must be 
disposed of before fully matured or they 
will deteriorate very rapidly after becoming 
ripe and are then unfit even for vinegar, 
canning or evaporating. 
We fear there is going to be another craze 
after crown-grafted trees on whole sections 
of roots, as we have received several long 
articles devoted to that subject, so marked 
to call our attention to the matter. We 
have not the space to fully reply and neither 
have we the time at present, but would 
simply say to our readers that we hope they 
%ill fully investigate the subject before 
they are carried away with it. We will 
mention one fact that should fully settle 
this matter in sections of the country where 
the temperature sinks rapidly 60 degrees in 
24 hours: as it dots sometimes here and 
in many other portions of the North and 
West. In the fall of > 858 we had 40,000 
apple seedlings that we intended taking up 
to graft, but before we did so there came a 
blizzard which put an end to the matter; 
for when we went to take them up, we 
found they were all killed, and black from 
an inch or so above the crown to about 
three inches in the ground. We exhibited 
some of these seedlings at the time before 
the Galesburg Horticultural Society to 
prove the fact. Since then we have seen 
several instances of the same sort, and the 
same facts have been often stated by others. 
This shows conclusively that for such sec- 
tions of the country as this, crown work- 
ed trees on whole roots are of no value. 
We must graft with long hardy scions on 
short sections of roots to get good trees, 
and top work them with suitable varieties. 
— J. Stayman, Kansas. 
Orchard Noting*. 
BLOOMING TIME. 
Perhaps I may be allowed, at this busy 
season, to make up my month's quota with 
somewhat disjointed chat in the way of 
notes in tin- orchard. The apple bloom, — 
in fact the bloom of all fruit trees,— is this 
year a week late relatively to the average; 
and only to-day, June 5, are the later bloom- 
ers among the apples dropping their petals. 
The date of full bloom of some leading ya 
rieties, as noted in my diary, were as fol- 
lows: Oldenburg and Tetofsky May 24; 
many crabs and Siberian crab hybrids, 26th; 
though Gideon's Martha, (which I regard 
as the best of all these hybrids) is a very 
late bloomer, being just out. Yellow Trans- 
parent, 27th; Wealthy and Magog Red 
Streak, 28th; Fameuse and Switzer, 29th: 
Scott‘s Winter. Bethel of Vt., McIntosh 
Red and Alexander, 30th. Among the 
plums, our native red and yellow plums 
were in full bloom May 17, while the west- 
ern native plums are just now dropping 
their petals. A like difference is to be not- 
ed in the eastern and western Juneberry, 
which are over a week apart, while the Si- 
berian form is as early as our own. We 
have, however, no dwarf form of this spe- 
cies, — at least I know of none, though I 
hear that there are some seven distinct va- 
rieties in the woods of northern Maine. 
Wild strawberries were well bloomed in 
warm exposures May 18; garden varieties a 
week to ten days later. The Russian pear, 
Bessemianka, was in full bloom May 30; 
while the Russian plum. Early Red, was 
four days later. The North German cher- 
ries, and many of the Russian kinds, were 
in full bloom June 1, though some were 
considerably earlier. The Siberian almond, 
which produces its edible nuts in Northern 
Iowa, is just now in Oloom. All the above 
named varieties have proved quite iron- 
clad with me, after six to seven years trial. 
There is a fine Polish pear, (E»ceived, like 
most of the other fruits of Northeastern 
Europe, from Prof. Budd, of Iowa,) which 
has endured the worst winters, and is said 
to closely resemble in fruit the Flemish 
Beauty. It has not yet fruited with me. 
The Sapieganka, said to be Russia's best 
pear, but not hardy in Io \ a, seems likely to 
answer here, though it is not so hardy as 
many others. No American or West Eu- 
ropean pears w ill survive our test winters; 
and the same mav be said of cherries and 
plums. Our whole dependence, therefore, 
for these most desirable fruits is upon the 
Russians; and practically this is almost 
true, even of apples. 
A CHAT ON HARDY APPLES. 
In a new orchard I am planting, to con- 
tain 1000 trees, I shall give preference al- 
most exclusively to Russian varieties; 
though I shall plant a good many Wealthys 
and Scott’s Winters, and have set a row of 
Tetofskys to be top worked with Bethel of 
Vermont, which is a valuable winter apple, 
but as late in coming to bear as Northern 
Spy. I expect to bring it into fruit much 
earlier on Tetofsky, as that has been suc- 
cessfully done with other late fruiting sorts. 
I have been experimenting in my home 
orchard of about 8 acres now for 24 years, 
with the so-called hardy and iron-clad tree 
fruits. I think I must have tested as 
many as 300 varieties in that time, and find 
that I have now' 685 trees, — 582 apple, 33 
pear, 61 plum, 9 cherry. Of the apples 
there are 83 varieties, of which the names 
of 11 are lost, (but probably recoverable 
when in bearing.) There are, besides these, 
100 trees of 54 varieties, — mostly lately re- 
ceived from Prof. Budd, and our lamented 
friend Mr Gibb, of Canada, whose recent 
untimely death in Egypt, on his route home 
from a pomologioal exploration of Northern 
China is a heavy liss to northern pomology. 
Of the remaining 461 trees, embracing 16 
varieties, the list and proportion would not 
be much altered, if I were biginning anew. 
They are as follows: Wealthy 123, Olden- 
burg 84, Scott’s Winter 52, Yellow Trans- 
parent 52. McIntosh Red 19, Switzer 19, 
Tetofsky 20, Magog Red Streak 16, Fameuse 
lO, Fameuse Sucree 6, Prolific Sweeting 9, 
Newport Winter Sweet 5, Antonovka 18, 
Babuschino 6, Longfi- Id 10. From this list 
I would eliminate Fameuse, Fameuse Su- 
cree and McIntosh Red for spotting, unless 
I find that spraying will prevent it. Also 
Tetofsky, except for a stock to hasten tardy 
Uarers, and Magog Red Streak as replaced 
by a better apple in the Wealthy. I would 
add to Longfield and McMahan’s White, as 
very profitable fall apples. As to the new 
Russians not yet fruited, w T hat we are spe- 
cially testing them for is to discover wheth- 
er there are amongst them any winter vari- 
eties more desirable than those we now 
have. It will take several years to deter- 
mine this question. Antonovka is an early 
winter apple of much merit, but not the 
equal of Wealthy in quality. Prof. Budd 
believes that in the 111 varieties not yet 
fruited I shall find a fair share of long keep- 
ers of market value. 
ANNUAL BEARERS. 
There is a good deal said about apples that 
are annual bearers of good crops; but in my 
experience such varieties among apples of 
merit are not many. In my whole orchard 
I have yet found but two sorts that bear a 
full crop every year, — the Cellini and Mc- 
Mahon’s White. I find scatiering trees of 
several kinds which bear on the odd years, 
but these trees are bare on the even years, 
which give us our large crop. — T. H. HOS- 
KINS, Vermont. 
