HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 19 ii 
Fruit trees are not very particular about their soil. Anything be¬ 
tween a loose sandy soil and heavy clay serves, if well drained 
much intensive culture. On the other hand, the dwarfs may be 
used where there is little or no room for the standards. If there 
is no other space available, they may be put in the vegetable or 
flower garden and incidentally they are then sure of receiving 
some of that special care which they need in the way of fertiliza¬ 
tion and cultivation. 
As I have said, any average soil will grow good fruit. A 
gravely loam, with a gravel soil, is the ideal. Do not think from 
this, however, that all you have to do is buy a few trees from a 
nursery agent, stick them in the ground and from your negli¬ 
gence reap the rewards that follow only intelligent industry. 
The soil is but the raw material which work and care alone can 
transform, through the medium of the growing tree, into the 
desired result of a cellar well stored each autumn with delicious 
fruit. 
Fruit trees have one big advantage over vegetables — the 
ground can be prepared for them while they are growing. If 
the soil will grow a crop of clover, it is already in good shape 
to furnish the trees with food at once. If not, manure or fer¬ 
tilizers may be applied, and clover or other green crops turned 
under during the first two or three years of the trees’ growth, 
as will be described later. 
The first thing to consider, when you have decided to plant, is 
the location you will give your trees. Plan to have pears, plums, 
cherries and peaches, as well as apples. For any of these the 
soil, of whatever nature, must be well drained. If not natu¬ 
rally, then tile or other artificial drainage must be provided. 
For only a few trees it would probably answer the purpose to 
dig out large holes and fill in a foot or eighteen inches at the 
bottom with small stone, covered with gravel or screened coal 
cinders. My own land has a gravely subsoil and I have not 
had to drain. Then with the apples, and especially with the 
peaches, a too-sheltered slope to the south is likely to start the 
flower buds prematurely in spring, only to result in total crop 
loss from late frosts. The diagram on page 89, suggests an 
arrangement which may be adapted to individual needs. One 
may see from it that the apples are placed to the north, where 
they will to some extent shelter the rest of the grounds; the 
peaches where they will not be coddled; the pears, which may 
be had upon quince stock, where they will not shade the vege¬ 
table garden; the cherries, which are the most ornamental, where 
they may lend a decorative effect. 
And now, having decided that we can — and will—grow good 
fruit, and having in mind suggestions that will enable us to go 
out tomorrow morning and, with an armful of stakes, mark out 
the locations, the next consideration should be the all-important 
question of what varieties are most successfully grown on the 
small place. 
The following selections are made with the home fruit gar¬ 
den, not the commercial orchard, in mind. While they are all 
‘‘tried and true’’ sorts, succeeding generally in the northeast, 
New England and western fruit sections, remember that fruits, 
as a rule, though not so particular about soil as vegetables, seem 
much more so about locality. I would suggest, therefore, sub¬ 
mitting your list, before buying, to your State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. You are taxed for its support: get some direct result 
from it. There they will be glad to advise you, and are in the 
best position to help you get started right. Above all, don’t 
buy from the traveling nursery agent, with his grip full of 
wonderful lithographs of new and unheard-of “novelties.” Get 
the catalogue of several reliable nurseries, take standard va¬ 
rieties about which you know, and buy direct. Several years 
ago I bad the chance to go carefully over one of the largest 
fruit nurseries in the country. Every care and precaution was 
taken to grow fine, healthy, young trees. The president told 
me that they sold thousands every year to smaller concerns, to 
be resold again through field and local agents. Yet they do an 
enormous retail business themselves, and of course their own 
customers get the best trees. 
The following are listed, as nearly as I can judge, in the 
order of their popularity, but as many of the best are not 
valuable commercially, they are little known. Whenever you 
find a particularly good apple or pear, try to trace it, and add 
it to your list. 
APPLES 
Without any question, the apple is far and away the most 
valuable fruit, both because of its greater scope of usefulness 
and its longer season— the last of the winter’s Russets are still 
juicy and firm when the first early harvests and Red Astrachans 
are tempting the “young idea” to experiment with colic. Plant 
but a small proportion of early varieties, for the late ones are 
better. Out of a dozen trees, I would put in one early, three 
fall, and the rest winter sorts. 
Among the summer apples are several deserving special men¬ 
tion : Yellow Trans¬ 
parent is the earli¬ 
est. It is an old fa¬ 
vorite and one of 
the most easily 
grown of all apples. 
Its color is indicat¬ 
ed by the name, and 
it is a fair eatingap- 
ple and a very good 
cooker. Red Astra- 
chan, another first 
early, is not quite so 
good for cooking, 
but is a delicious 
eating apple of 
good size. An ap¬ 
ple of more recent 
introduction and ex¬ 
tremely hardy (bail¬ 
ing first from Rus¬ 
sia), and already 
replacing the above 
sorts, is Livland 
(Livland Rasp¬ 
berry). The tree is 
of good form, very 
vigorous and 
A plum tree in full bearing. Low-headed 
trees have come to stay 
