168 
October, 1891. 
/ ORCHARD /rnd ' ORR D E N \ 
V^AMAaWv X -.v.- .vVa-. • •• 
sometimes wonder if mine is truly the 
Golden Sweet, as some apples sold here as 
Golden Sweets are so far inferior to it. 
Borers do not seem to he able to kill it, for 
the trunk is riddled with wood pecker 
mines, but the root louse has killed several 
trees on this place. This insect is a great 
pest in the South, and is fought most effec- 
tively with hot soap suds, digging up the 
sprouts about the trees, baring the roots 
somewhat, the upper ones, pouring in the 
hot suds, and covering a wide space under 
the tree with wood ashes. I found last 
winter that the red-spotted lady bug was 
fond of these insects: there would be great 
nests of them under the trees infested with 
root-lice, and watching them from day to 
day, would find them invading the woolley, 
bluish- white nests and destroying them, but 
the egg laid inside the bark of the root is 
beyond their reach. Plant some June Apple 
trees this fall. — L. Greenlee, McDowell 
Co., North Carolina. 
Fall Operations. 
Fall the Best Season for Planting Small Fruits. 
How to Plant in Fall. Manuring Berry Plants. 
Blackcaps should Not he Planted in Fall. Currant 
Cuttings. Bow to Set them Cheaply. 
There is no better time in the whole year 
for setting small fruit plants than autumn. 
We do not even except strawberry plants 
unless it be at the far North. Strawberry 
plants set this month will grow till the ad- 
vent of freezing weather whm they should 
be lightly covered with strawy stable ma- 
nure. Plants so set and well protected 
during winter will start to grow with vigor 
in spring, and the advantage thus gained 
will more than repay for the labor of cover- 
ing in winter. People are apt to forget that 
the strawberry is a very hardy plant and 
that hard freezing does not injure it unless 
the fruit bud is exposed and the plant 
drawn out of the soil by the sun’s rays. 
Plant raspberries, blackberries, currants 
and gooseberries as soon as the leaves have 
fallen and the wood is fully ripe. Make the 
holes sufficiently large to accomodate the 
roots without crowding, fill up the inter- 
stices with fine soil, replace the rest of the 
soil in the hole, tramp well down and top 
off with one or two shovelfuls of well rotted 
manure. Cut back the canes of raspberries 
and blackberries to within six inches of the 
ground. At the approach of freezing 
weather mound up the earth around the 
stems and the job is done. Planted this 
wav in fall they will all start to grow in 
spring much earlier then they could be 
planted at that season or before the ground 
is fit to plough. 
The autumn season also gives us time to 
enrich the plantations with a dressing of 
manure or compost. Apply around the 
canes and bushes covering the surface of 
the ground about the roots liberally. Rough 
barnyard manure may be used for this pur- 
pose. A topdressing of fine compost or 
bone meal may also now be profitably ap- 
plied to the strawberry plantations previous 
to covering for the winter which latter 
operation however should be deferred until 
freezing weather has set in. 
It is not advisable to plant blackcap rasp- 
berries in autumn. Their roots do not fully 
mature until very late in the season and it is 
best not to disturb them at all until spring. 
Currant cu‘tings should be made early in 
the month and planted at once. Take well 
matured wood of this season's growth, cut 
from six to eight inches long and set them 
in rows, in well prepared soil, about four 
inches apart, so that but one bud appears 
above the surface; take pains to pack the 
soil firmly along the rows with the feet, 
and when freezing weather appears cover 
the rows with strawy stable manure or other 
material to prevent the frost heaving them 
out when it leaves the soil. If not con- 
venient to set them out in fall the cuttings 
may be tied in bundles of one hundred each, 
butt ends placed all one way and buried on 
a dry knoll with butts up; cover the surface 
over them with plenty of mulch. It will be 
found much better, however, to plant the 
cuttings out immediately they are made; 
they will then start to grow very early in 
spring and, being already in place, will 
make much stronger plants the first season 
then those set out in spring. The winter 
covering must not be omitted or they will 
surely be heaved out of the soil when the 
frost leaves it in early spring. 
Well grown currants are a good market- 
able commodity and where one has plenty of 
wood to spare it will pay to use it in grow- 
ing plants which may be sold to the nursery- 
man at wholesale. Where cuttings are thus 
planted largely it will be found a quicker 
and less expensive method to set them as 
follows: On well prepared soil stretch a 
line across it beginning at one end of the 
land. It will require the services of a man 
and a boy to set in this way. Start the row 
by setting the spade at right angles to the 
line, back of the spade outwards, insert it in 
the soil and pull it towards you; this leaves 
a gap or opening the width of the spade. 
The boy works in front of the man with the 
spade and as soon as the opening is made 
inserts three cuttings, one at each end of the 
cut and one in the middle, putting them 
down so that the top hud is at the surface" 
of the soil. The spade is then again in- 
serted in the soil, at right angles to the line, 
about four inches from the first opening 
and another cut made by pushing the spade 
backward or outward and this action closes 
the first opening and pushes the soil close 
up to and about the whole of the cuttings. 
The spade is then withdrawn, the cuttings 
are inserted and the opening closed by 
pushing the spade outward in making the 
next opening; and so on until the row is 
finished; the man with the spade moving 
backwards all the time and the boy follow- 
ing in front of him and inserting the cut- 
tings. Start the next row three and a half 
feet from the first so as to allow of horse 
cultivation. The rows must be covered with 
stable manure or other suitable material in 
winter to pi-event heaving out, as in the 
other method. This a is cheap w r ay of 
growing currants. 
New and Promising Small Fruits. 
[Tbe following extracts are taken from the paper 
upon this subject read by Mr. J. T. Lovett before the 
American Pomological Society at Washington. D. C.. 
on September 22d, 1891. Mr. Lovett having already 
given notes upon New Strawberries in Orchard and 
Garden (July No.) we omit reference to these here-1 
RASPBERRIES. 
Although but few red raspberries of pro- 
nounced merit have appeared of late, there 
are enough black ones to fully supply the 
deficiency. Among those especially worthy 
of note may be mentioned the Kansas and 
Lovett. The former is a blackcap after 
the style of the Gregg — fully equaling it in 
size and ripening a week earlier. It is also 
far more prolific with me, has less bloom 
upon the fruit and is a freer and stronger 
grower. It is said to be much hardier. It 
has been thus far entirely hardy with me; 
but the Gregg is usually hardy also the first 
year of fruiting. 
Palmer is a variety of the Doolittle type. 
It resembles closely the Souhegan or Tyler, 
ripening with it, and I have failed to note 
any property possessed by it wherein it is 
superior to that very valuable sort. These 
remarks apply to the Cromwell and Car- 
man with equal force. 
Progress or Pioneer is an improvement 
upon Souhegan, in some respects, but it is 
not so early by three or four days. The 
fruit is identical in size, appearance and 
quality, but the canes are of much stronger 
growth and yield nearly double the quan- 
tity of fruit upon a given space of land. It 
also possesses the very desirable property 
of adhering firmly to the peduncle when 
fully ripe. 
Older is a variety worthy of more than 
passing notice, being one of the very few 
entirely distinct blackcaps that have ap- 
peared in a long time. In fruit, cane and 
foliage it is so unlike any other variety as 
to be noticeable at a glance. In size it is 
large to very large, rivaling, though not 
equaling, the Gregg, is almost destitute of 
bloom upon the fruit, hence very black, 
and although firm is of superior, rich and 
high quality. In growth of cane and pro- 
ductiveness it may be compared to the Sou- 
hegan. Season, second early, ripening 
with the Ohio, or with third picking of the 
Doolittle class. It seems to possess peculiar 
endurance, suffering less from droughty, 
than others, and always vigorous and free 
from disease. 
Thompson’s Early Prolific is an early 
red variety that has proved superior, all 
things considered, to any I have grown. 
Were the berries larger and canes of strong- 
