AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
177 
Treatment of Strawberries in June. 
Next after clean cultivation, they want water 
or liquid manure. If the soil is a light loam, 
gravelly, or artificially drained, it can hardly 
have too much water. The plants are either in 
full flower, or full of berries ripening from day 
to day, and they need abundant supplies of 
moisture. The days are at their greatest length 
and the sun shines in its greatest splendor.—The 
evaporation in one of these long bright summer 
days is immense, and a drouth just in the crit¬ 
ical time often diminishes the) strawberry crop 
one half or more. Mulching is of great advan¬ 
tage as it retains moisture as well as keeps the 
fruit clean. We can only get the largest ber¬ 
ries with abundant watering. For the flavor we 
are somewhat dependant upon the sunshine. 
So great is the advantage of watering that we 
tliink it would often pay, even in field culture, 
to have an apparatus for the purpose, like the 
water carts for sprinkling city streets. In the 
garden it is entirely practicable, with a garden 
engine, hydropult, or common watering-pot. 
One of the best methods to get plants for a 
new bed is to start them in thumb pots, as early 
in the month as practicable. An old plant is 
surrounded with these pots, and the runners 
strike their roots into them, and form vigorous 
plants, which may be transferred to the new bed 
about the first of August. The roots are per¬ 
fect, and the plants are not put back. Nearly 
a full crop may be expected of such plants the 
first season after the bed is prepared. Of course, 
old plants that are used for propagating, cannot 
be expected to do much else. A few of the 
plants may be struck in four inch pots, and kept 
for the conservatory or parlor in the Winter. 
Both the flowers and the fruit are ornamental. 
The Raspberry. 
Cultivators of limited experience are not so 
generally successful with this fruit, as with the 
strawberry. All the finer varieties are either of 
foreign origin, or seedlings of such sorts. Even 
if not tender or liali hardy, they are certain to 
do much better with a few inches of earth over 
them, during the winter. Though this is very 
little trouble, involving less than a half dollar’s 
expense in an ordinary garden, most people will 
not take it. (After years of trial we have, aban¬ 
doned both the native red and the black. We 
have many sorts, larger and better every way.) 
Others, and they are the great majority, leave 
the canes to take care of themselves. They are 
generally planted by the side of a fence or stone 
wall, where hoeing is inconvenient, if it were 
the policy to practice it. The old canes are not 
removed, the new ones are not thinned,’ and the 
stools all run together; and between the weeds, 
grass, and excessive growth of wood, there is lit¬ 
tle or no fruit, and an utter want of cultivation. 
In other cases the leaves are annually attack¬ 
ed by insects about fruiting time, and the young 
shoots are stunted, and the fruit is imperfect. 
It is a clear case, that we can not have fine rasp¬ 
berries without some trouble—a little of it at 
every season of the year.—Just now, the insects 
must be attended to, or the crop is injured, if 
not ruined for this season and the next. We 
have tried nothing quite equal to whale oil soap 
for all the varieties of worms that attack the 
leaves. It should be applied in a dilute state, 
say four pounds to a barrel of water, or the 
remedy may prove worse than the disease. It 
is best applied with a garden syringe, though a 
watering pot with a fine rose will answer. A 
strong decoction of tobacco is also excellent, 
and will destroy most of these pests. We have 
always found it of great service to water rasp¬ 
berries while fruiting. They will drink in soap¬ 
suds, and all liquid manures as greedily as a 
grape vine, and are as much benefitted by it. 
There are various expedients for supporting 
the canes. Some tie them to a single rod or pole 
driven down by the side of the stool, and where 
the leaves are already out this is the best meth¬ 
od. A better way, earlier in the season, is to tie 
the tops of the canes in adjacent stools together, 
in the form of an arch. This arrangement is 
quite ornamental and is as convenient for pick¬ 
ing as any. But the best arrangement is to tie 
the canes to a wire trellis. Posts of any conve¬ 
nient size, 4 or 5 feet high, are set about 12 feet 
apart, in the row with the stools. Two number 
10 wires are now fastened about 18 inches apart 
on the posts, and the canes are spread out in fan 
shape and tied to the wires. This is ornamental 
and at the same time, gives the plants the most 
am and sunlight. The old canes are to be re¬ 
moved as soon as the bearing is over, and five 
or six only of the new ones left to grow. 
“Espalier” or Wall Training of Emits. 
Whoever has not practised the close pruning 
and training of fruit trees upon trellises or walls 
shrinks from attempting it, as from a great labor 
likely to be unremunerative. But whoever be¬ 
gins, even in a very humble degree, becomes al¬ 
most uniformly an advocate of the practice. 
The Currant, is probably the easiest of all 
fruits to experiment upon, and from practice 
with it the general principles of close pruning 
may be learned, while the results are most grat¬ 
ifying. Last year George H. Hite, of Morrisania, 
N. Y., placed upon the exhibition tables of the 
Agriculturist, some extraordinary stalks of cur¬ 
rants, and prepared an account of his process, 
which we condense. He fruits his currants on 
single canes, on spurs, which he causes to form of 
nearly uniform strength from the ground to a 
hight of several feet; and thus these long canes 
are perfectly 
clothed with 
large fine fruit. 
In fig. 1 is 
shown a strong 
shoot thrown 
up from the 
ground at the 
root of an old 
bush, or an in¬ 
dependent cane. 
At the end of 
the first season, 
it is cut back one third. If attached to a trellis 
or otherwise made to incline the next spring, the 
buds will all break uniformly from top to bot¬ 
tom. If it stands upright, the sap will flow chief¬ 
ly to the uppermost buds. When the buds 
have grown a few inches, as 
shown at fig. 2, they are 
pinched off to leave spurs 
about an.inch long, as shown 
enlarged in fig. 4. These 
will develop -a rosette of, 
buds at the base of each, 
which are the fruit buds for 
the next season. The terminal bud at the top of 
the cane is left, and will have stretched up¬ 
ward considerably. In the autumn shorten it 
in one fourth of its growth; and the succeed¬ 
Fig. 4. 
ing years still less. The next year the cane will 
bear full, as shown at 3; and if the soil be good, 
and the bush has air and light, the fruit will be 
large and fine. The spurs must be prevented from 
growing long, and they will bear year after year. 
Several such canes may be grown from an old 
foot, while the old bush, by stopping in the 
spurs, will bear much better until the new canes 
are ready for full bearing. Currants may 
be set out about a foot apart, two or three such 
canes grown upon each root, and thus in small 
compass yield an immense quantity of fruit. 
(Fig. 1 is proportionately too long.) 
Apples and Pears may be subjected to very 
similar treatment, being planted close, or further 
apart, according to the system followed or the 
hight to which they are wanted to grow. Fig. 
5 shows an experiment conducted by Mr. F. 
Otto, in our own garden, which promises success. 
Dwarf apples are planted one foot apart, and 
trained to a rod 18 inches above ground. (A wire 
is perhaps preferable). The inclined position 
causes them to break throughout their length 
quite uniformly, and to secure this a greater or 
degree of inclination or curving may be 
given. The spurs if kept closely pinched in, form 
fruit buds. The tops when they have reached 
the hight desired are allowed to branch some¬ 
what, and the branches are inarched or grafted 
together by approach, so that after a few years 
the fruit-bearing hedge thus formed will be 
self supporting and substantial and ornamental. 
Keeping fruit trees under this close control en¬ 
ables us to secure healthy, well developed fruit 
buds on the spurs, and to protect easily the 
tender kinds from frosts. Peaches, plums, ana 
berries, do very well upon walls or trellises. 
Rout the Curculio. 
This enemy of the plum can be routed with¬ 
out the old and laborious process of jarring the 
trees, and gathering the insects upon sheets. 
The following remedy has been several years be¬ 
fore the public, and has the recommendation of 
Mr. Cummings, and some of our best' pomolo- 
gists. The writer has used it with success and 
now feels as sure of the plum crop as of pears. 
To one pound of whale oil soap, add four 
ounces of flowers of sulphur. Mix the mass 
thoroughly with a spatula or knife, and dissolve 
in about twelve gallons of water, stirring it well. 
To one half peck of quick lime, add four gal¬ 
lons of water and stir well together. When 
fully settled, pour off the transparent lime wa¬ 
ter, and add it to the soap mixture. Add to the 
same, also, say four gallons of tolerably strong 
tobacco water. Apply this mixture when thus 
incorporated, with a garden syringe, to your 
plum or other fruit trees, so that the foliage shall 
be well drenched. If no rains succeed for three 
weeks, one application will be sufficient. It 
should be repeated after rains until the stone is 
hardened. When the plum is about the size of a 
pea is the best time to apply it, but it is effectual 
upon all plums not yet stung at any stage of 
their growth. This mixture is good for cherries, 
and all fruits troubled with insects. * 
