152 
September, 1891. 
/ OR C H KRD /bnd \ ORRDE N 
September. 
Gathering and Packing Apples. Fall Cultivation 
ami Fall Plowing. Choosing Varieties Wisely. 
Good Hardy Stocks. 
H E principal orchard 
work this month is gath- 
ering the fruit and send- 
ing it to market. Apples 
for shipment should be 
packed in new, clean 
barrels, putting in only 
one variety, for mixed 
apples do not sell so readily. They should 
be pressed in tightly by a barrel handpress 
so that they will not shake about, and none 
but sound apples should be put in. It pays 
better to sort and throw the poor apples 
away than to pack them together. Some- 
times there is sale for a second grade when 
apples are scarce but usually it is better to 
turn them into cider and make vinegar of it. 
Young trees can still be kept clean but 
they should have no extra cultivation to 
stimulate them to fall growth or they would 
probably be injured if the winter should 
prove cold. It is now a good time to get 
ready for fall planting fruit trees of various 
kinds. The ground should be prepared by 
thorough plowing in good season so that it 
will be mellow and easily worked when 
ready to set out trees. It is poor policy to 
wait until ready and then commence to 
plow weedy ground for tree planting. 
Decide upon varieties in advance and 
select but few of them and such as have 
proven profitable in the neighborhood; at 
the north-west only trees that are root- 
grafted on hardy stocks are wanted. And 
if it is desired to grow varieties that are not 
perfectly hardy they will have to be top- 
grafted on the limbs above the forks of the 
stock as that is the only way to grow them 
with success. Many varieties may be thus 
grown that are considered tender quite far 
north. The Hass and Oldenberg are good 
stocks for that purpose and here the Early 
Pennock is one of the very best, far superior 
to either of the above, as they never burst 
or blow over and are borer and wind-proof. 
There is no other for that purpose that we 
know of, so valuable as this. It would pay 
every person here to use it for a stock for 
all varieties of apples and top-graft them. 
We believe it would pay anywhere to grow 
it for stocks where it is hardy, for then one 
might have a regular thrifty orchard with- 
out a blemish or blank. — J. Stayman. 
Orchard Notings. 
Hardy European Cherries and their Classification. 
The Wragy Cherry. Haste in Condemning Hus- 
sian Apples- Bogdanoff a Good Late Keeping 
Variety. Carelessness in Handling Apples for 
Keeping. How lo Keep Apples Successfully. 
Since writing on cherries in the August 
issue of Orchard and Garden, I have come 
cherries, given by the late Mr. Charles Gibb 
in the Eleventh Report of the Montreal 
Horticultural Society, (1885,) which lets in 
considerable light upon the rather confused 
classifications of this fruit by American 
writers. Mr. Gibb says that besides the 
Guignes (Hearts) and Bigarreaus, which 
are not hardy far north, the Dukes and Mo- 
rellos are divided by European authorities 
into the following four groups: 
1. Sweet or Black Dukes or Griottes;— 
acid cherries with dark skin and untinted 
-juice, trees and foliage large, resembling 
sweet cherries; — such as Archduke, May 
Duke, etc. 
2 . Transparents or Red Dukes; — acid, 
with clear skin, untinted flesh, and trees 
and foliage resembling sweet cherries;— 
such as Reine Hortense, Belle de Choisy, etc. 
3. Black Morellos, or Griottes;— acid cher- 
ries, with dark skin and tinted juice; leaves 
small and trees slim, such as Ostheim, 
Brown Brussels, Double Natte, and the Rus- 
sian Vladimer , — and perhaps our Wragg. 
However, Prof. Budd writes me that 
“Vladimer” is a name few a class, rather 
than any particular cherry. The same may 
perhaps be said of “Ostheim.” 
4. Amarelles, Red Morrellos, or Kentish; 
— acid cherries with clear skin and untinted 
juice, and trees like Group 3, such as Schat- 
ten Amarelle, Kentish and Flemish. 
This grouping is pretty clear; yet some 
cherries are still difficult to classify, and 
there has been, no doubt, a good deal of in- 
tercrossing between the groups, both in 
Europe and America. Some apply the 
term “Griotte” to all Dukes and Morellos, 
and others only to Group 3, the Black Mo- 
rellos. This is the group of greatest 
promise for the far north; and a noted in- 
stance is, I think, to be found in the Wragg, 
a precocious and prolific bearer of a very 
fine cherry, pretty ripe the first of August 
in northern Vermont, but hanging to the 
tree, growing and getting richer for some 
time longer. I should, with my present 
knowledge, plant the Wragg in preference 
to any of the black Griottes, — i. e. dark Mo- 
rellos with colored juice. By the way, can 
some reader give a full history of the 
Wragg? It is not yet in any of the books. 
Those nurserymen who have been in such 
a flaming hurry to declare that no winter 
apples can be found among the Russians 
will surely have to take a back seat. Sever- 
al such have already been identified, and 
some of these will keep well with even the 
careless handling generally accorded to our 
American fruit. Bogdanoff is one of these. 
I have fruited it two years, and find it to 
keep until spring, easily. I have before 
given some description of it in O. & G., but 
I will here add some facts in regard to it 
from an account given of it by Charles 
Gibb, soon after his return from his first 
trip to Russia. The trees I have in bearing 
were furnished me by Prof. Budd. Mr. 
Gibb says: “This is an apple which has been 
grown upon the Bagdanoff estates, near 
ies. There were about 300 trees in the or- 
chard we visited. It is a stout, upright 
grower. [And, it may be added, a very 
branchy grower while young, requiring 
much attention to avoid a crowded head.] 
Taking an average of years, the Antonovka 
produces more fruit per tre§, but it does 
not keep so long. A large number of va- 
rieties have been tried, yet, next to Anto- 
novka, they consider it the most profitable 
winter apple. As a late keeping apple for 
home use they much prefer it to any other. 
The fruit is large, and in form, size and 
striping much like our St. Lawrence. As a 
long-keeping apple of fine quality, I have 
every hope of this being a very valuable 
variety.” 
I have before referred to the very careless 
and ignorant practices of the majority of a 
our fruit growers in the handling of apples 
for winter use. In the first place they are 
almost universally gathered too late. I 
make it a rule to begin gathering as soon as 
the seeds are fairly colored; and I have now 
just noted for the first time, in Mr. Gibb’s 
account of Russian orchard practice, that 
such is the practice in Russia. “How an 
apple keeps depends very largely upon how 
it is kept. The Russians handle their fruit, 
pack it and keep it, with more care than 
we do. If allowed to ripen upon the tree it 
has a richer flavor, but then it will not keep. 
When we arrived at Saratof, Sept. 11, the 
apples were all packed and shipped to Mos- 
cow. At Terla, on Sept. 18, Antonovka was 
in huge piles in the orchard, covered with 
basswood bark matting.” 
But early picking is not all, nor yet half 
the battle. As rapidly as possible after 
picking, the fruit should (after sorting) be 
carefully conveyed to a deep, cool, well 
ventilated cellar. By opening the cellar 
windows during cold nights, and keeping -a 
them shut at all other times, the tempera- 
ture can be kept very low; and the cellar 
should not be permanently closed so long 
as it is safe to do otherwise, which is until 
water will slightly freeze there. Cellars not 
under buildings are preferable, but these 
must be deep, ceiled overhead and floored 
above, the intermediate spaces being filled 
with sawdust, moss, or some equally good 
non-conductor. Over all should lie a roofed 
store room, with an air lock stairway and 
passage into the cellar, so that fruit can be 
taken out when desired during the winter. 
Following this method a good many of the 
fine late fall apples grown in our northern 
tier of states, and in Canada, are easily kept 
until the rush of such fruit is over, and can 
then be sold at a good price before the later 
winter apples are fit for eating. Maine 
grown Gravensteins can be found in the 
Boston market far into winter in perfect 
condition, and this method is capable 0(4 
considerable expansion, w herever there is a 
fair amount of real winter weather. Early 
picking, careful handling and a low and 
even temperature are the essentials of suc- 
cess. Of course none but perfect fruit 
should be stored.— T. H. Hoskins. 
upon a description of the h rdier European I Kursk, (Russia,) probably for two centur- 
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