AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
4r 
What to Buy. —Planters make a mistake in prefer¬ 
ring large trees. Overgrown nursery trees are 
usually not worth the cost of freight. Recollect 
that the larger the trees, the more the roots will be 
'injured in taking them up. Many experienced 
planters prefer to set one-year-old trees, and claim 
that they come into bearing nearly as soon as those 
3 or 4 years old, while having control of them from 
the beginning, they can shape them to suit. 
Buying Nursery Stock.— Those who are not in a 
hurry, can purchase root-grafts of apples, and 
pears, and peaches “ in the bud,” i. e., the stocks 
were budded last year, have “taken,” and will 
grow the coming season. Root grafts have the cion 
inserted on the root of a seedling at the “ collar,” 
and are offered by many nurserymen. In these 
forms trees can be bought very cheaply, and as 
they take but little room, the freight on them is 
low. If set in nursery rows, but a small percent¬ 
age will fail. The rows should be wide enough 
apart to work between them with a cultivator, and 
the plants one to two feet in the rows, according to 
the time they are to remain. In this way one can 
get trees very cheaply, and by purchasing a large 
surplus, sell to his neighbors young trees, in a year 
or two, for more than enough to pay for his own. 
Varieties. —In order to aid in a selection, we give 
a list of those varieties of apples, pears, peaches, 
plums, cherries, and quinces, that succeed over a 
wide extent of country, but this is not intended to 
supersede local experience. The varieties of other 
fruits are given under “Fruit Garden.” 
Apples. —Early.—Red Astrachan, Early Harvest, 
Tetofsky, Golden Sweet, Williams’ Favorite.... 
Autumn.—Duchess of Oldenburg, Gravenstein, Jer¬ 
sey Sweet, Porter, Jefferis, Keswick Codlin, Maid¬ 
en’s Blush, Chenango Strawberry... .Winter.—Am. 
Golden Russet, Ben Davis, Bethlehemite, Fameuse, 
Johnathan, Lady, Mother, Red Canada, Wine Sap, 
Bentley’s Sweet, Lady’s Sweet, R. I. Greening. 
Pears. —Early Summer.— Manning’s Elizabeth, 
Doyenne d’Ete, Dearborn’s Seedling_Late Sum¬ 
mer.—Bartlett, Beurre Giffard, Clapp’s Favorite.... 
Autumn.—Belle Lucrative, Beurre d’Anjou, Beurre 
Hardy,Doyenne Boussock, Duchesse d’Angouleme, 
Howell, Seckel, Urbaniste.Winter.—Dana’s 
Hovey, Lawrence, Yicar of Winkfield. For market 
the largest number of trees should be Bartlett. 
Peaches. —Beatrice, Early York, Early Crawford, 
Old Mixon Free, George the 4th, Ward’s Late 
Free, and Smock, would give early and late. 
Plums. —Unless one will work to keep rid of the 
curculio, it is of little use to plant the finer kinds. 
The improved wild sorts give good cooking fruit; 
the true Wild-goose is regarded as the best of these. 
Cherries. —Where the curculio abounds, cherries 
do poorly. The Early Richmond is generally suc¬ 
cessful, and excellent as a cooking fruit. Coe s 
Transparent, Black Tartarian, Belle de Choisy, and 
Louis Phillipe, are amongst the most reliable. 
Quinces.— 1 The Apple, Angers, and Rae’s Seedling 
are all useful and profitable. 
Care of Young Orchards.— Keep out all stray ani¬ 
mals by strong fences and closed gates....Tramp 
the snow hard around the trees, to prevent the 
mice from working.... Sprinkle blood on the trunks 
to keep off rabbits. Trap or shoot rabbits. Where 
there are but a few trees, they may be protected 
from mice and rabbits by putting heavy roofing pa¬ 
per, or a shield of laths or corn-stalks, or old roof¬ 
ing tin, around the base of the trunks. 
Insects. —Much can be done to prevent the ravages 
of tent caterpillars, by cutting off the clusters of 
eggs, which may now be seen glued in a band near 
the ends of the twigs. 
Cions. —Cut them during mild weather, label, and 
store in sawdust or sand in a cool cellar. 
Labels. —Renew all that are defaced, but do not 
depend upon them ; they are convenient, but a 
permanent record or plan should always be made. 
Books on Orchard and Nursery. —As a work com¬ 
prising all that most farmers would care to know 
about the propagation and management of fruit 
trees, with descriptions of select lists of fruits, we 
especially commend Barry’s “Fruit Garden.” An¬ 
other excellent work of a similar scope, is Thomas’ 
“American Fruit Culturist.” As a work of refer¬ 
ence, containing descriptions of nearly all known 
varieties, Downing’s “ Fruits and Fruit Trees of 
America,” is unrivalled. Warder’s “Am. Pomolo¬ 
gy ” is on apples ; Quinn’s “Pear Culture,” and 
Fulton’s “Peach Culture,” are indispensable to 
those who engage in these fruits as specialties. 
In the Southern States this should be an active 
month in the orchard ; experienced fruit growers 
regard this^as favorable a time to plant trees as 
later. Old orchards are to be invigorated by a shal¬ 
low plowing, and where fertilizers, such as com¬ 
post, or lime, or ashes are needed, apply them now. 
Tlie Fruit Garden. 
The common method of growing the small fruits 
in the kitchen garden, is better than not growing 
them at all, but there are so many reasons why the 
small fruits should be by themselves, that any one 
who can possibly do so, should set apart a piece of 
land for the small fruits. Our remarks on these 
fruits, given under the head of Fruit Garden, ap¬ 
ply to the varieties wherever grown. 
Why Have a Fruit Carden ?—Primarily as a source 
of home enjoyment and health, and secondarily as 
a source of profit. Most of us can recollect when 
a strawberry patch was a rarity, and cultivated 
raspberries and blackberries almost unknown, and 
when even prosperous farmers depended upon the 
pastures and thickets for the few berries they en¬ 
joyed. While the cultivation of small fruits has 
increased most wonderfully, they are by no means 
grown by all who might have them, if they would. 
The most indifferent as to their cultivation, are re¬ 
markably appreciative of the fruits themselves. As 
a matter of profit, they save other food, they save 
health, and they make the young people more con¬ 
tented. Besides these, there is scarcely a locality 
in which a surplus of good fruit will not only sell, 
but sell well. The boys and girls can readily earn 
enough to supply them with books, and their pa¬ 
rents with the American Agriculturist and other pa¬ 
pers besides, and thus pay in a double sense. 
Books. —Barry’s, Thomas’, and Downing’s works, 
referred to under “ Orchard and Nursery,” also in¬ 
clude the small fruits, and there are works especial¬ 
ly devoted to them. Fuller’s “ Small Fruit Cultur¬ 
ist,” and Roe’s “ Manual of Small Fruit Culture,” 
are general works. Fuller’s “Grape Culturist,” 
and his “Strawberry Culturist,” and others, in the 
Publishers’ book list, are special treatises. 
Cranberries do not properly fall under the Orchard 
or the Fruit Garden, they being a special crop, and 
profitable only in peculiar localities. White’s 
“ Cranberry Culturist,” gives the fullest directions, 
and anticipates every inquiry. 
Soil and Manure .—The fruit garden should have 
a rich and well-drained soil, and the spot should be 
selected within easy reach of the house, so that an 
eye can be kept upon trespassers, and the picking 
be readily done by members of the family. Well 
decomposed manure only should be used, and 
abundant materials provided for mulch. In some 
of the Southern States the soil may be made ready, 
and much planting may be done this month, but in 
colder localities this is not praticable until winter 
is over. It is especially desirable that the soil be 
of such a character, and drained if need be, that it 
may be worked very early, as early planting is es¬ 
pecially necessary with some fruits. At present we 
enumerate 'the leading varieties, to aid in making a 
selection preparatory to planting. 
Barberries are seldom cultivated for their fruit, 
except by persons from New England, where they 
often line the roadsides, and are both ornamental 
and productive of handsome very acid fruit, which 
makes excellent preserves. There are several 
species and varieties of barberry, but none superior 
as a fruit to the common Barberry. It makes a very 
neat hedge, and may be used to separate the fruit 
garden from the kitchen or other garden. Readily 
multiplied by cuttings. 
Blackberries need abundant room; 6 feet apart 
each way at least, and 8 feet is better. The best is 
Kittatinny. Wilson’s Early is early, productive, 
but nek quite so good. Dorchester, one of the 
best, but not productive. The New Rochelle is 
large, showy, but very sour unless dead ripe, and 
is less hardy. The plants are propagated from root- 
cuttings, and wiff bear the next year after planting. 
Currants .—There are many varieties in the cata¬ 
logues, though the desirable ones are few. None are 
superior in flavor to the old Red and White Dutch; 
if these have rich soil, and are well pruned, the 
fruit will be larger and finer than it usually is. The 
Versailles, Red, and White Grape, are larger and 
best for general culture. Black currants are not 
popular in this country, though some value them 
for jam and jelly; the Black Naples is best. 
Easily grown from cuttings. 
Dwarf Trees .—The only large fruits in place in 
the fruit garden, are those which have been grafted 
upon some dwarfing 6toek. Except the pear these 
trees have little practical value. The pear is dwarf¬ 
ed by budding it upon a quince stock. When so 
treated, it bears at an early age, and usually pro¬ 
duces a good crop, for the size of the tree, of large 
and exceedingly fine fruit. Some varieties do not 
succeed on the quince, while with others the fruit 
is greatly improved. There are but few cases in 
which we would advise planting dwarf pears for 
profit, but if one wishes to test many varieties in a 
small space, the dwarfs allow him to do so, and 
they are always beautiful and interesting objects. 
Among those that do so much better on quince 
that they are often planted for profit, are the 
Duchesse d’Angouleme, Beurre d’Anjou, Louise 
Bonne de Jersey, and Howell.... .Dwarf apples, 
grafted on “Paradise” stocks, are charming orna¬ 
ments ; they may be trained as pyramids or bushes, 
and when well filled with large fruit, are a great 
curiosity to those unfamiliar with such things. 
Some of the so-called dwarfs are grafted on “ Dou- 
cin ” stocks, and grow too large for the fruit garden. 
Crapes are among the easiest grown and most 
esteemed among the small fruits; they would be 
more cultivated than they are, were it not for the 
popular notion that great skill is required to prune 
them. By intelligently following a few simple rules, 
which we give at the proper time, any intelligent 
person can do all that the vine requires. The grape¬ 
vine is one of the most tractable of plants ; it may 
be made to fruit within a foot of the ground, at the 
top of a fence, or along the second 6tory of a house ; 
the sides of bams and outbuildings may be covered 
with the foliage and clusters, they may be grown 
on the simplest trellis, or even on a rude pole. 
Most of the popular varieties may be grown from 
cuttings set in the open ground ; the plants at the 
nurseries are very cheap, and there is no reason 
why every farmer’s family, or every family that 
owns an acre of land, or even a village lot, should 
not have all the grapes they can eat. We say to 
everyone who owns land, be it much or little, plant 
one vine, if you can do no more, plant ten if you 
can, and as many more as you have room for, so 
that you and your children can daily have your fill 
during the grape season. 
Varieties of Crapes .—As the Bartlett is the most 
popular and useful among pears, so is the Concord 
among grapes. There are few localities in which it 
will not succeed. It is not of the best quality, but 
whoever has a vine is very sure to have grapes. So 
we say, if but one kind is to be planted, let it be 
the Concord. The Wilder, (Rogers’ No. 4), and 
Barry, (Rogers’ No. 43), have, with us, all the good 
qualities of the Concord, and larger and better 
fruit. The earliest grapes, with us, are the Crevel- 
ing and Eumelan ; not making regular bunches, are 
unsuited for market. Hartford Prolific, not so 
good as these, is early, hardy, and abundant. These 
are black grapes ; the very best hardy black grape, 
we know of, is the Alvey, a poor bunch and poor 
bearer, but we value it beyond all others. Among 
red grapes, Catawba and Iona, where they succeed, 
are among the best. Delaware is very sweet, and 
generally liked, and Lindley and Agawam, (Rogers’ 
9 and 15), are the best of Rogers’ of this color. 
White grapes are more sought after than any others, 
but we have few good ones. The hardiest is Mar¬ 
tha, sickishly sweet and unpleasantly foxy ; Croton 
succeeds in some localities ; Lady and Elvira are of 
