SB 355. aa University Library

Ni i il i {

Hew Pork
SHtate College of Agriculture

At Cornell University
Dthaca, N. Y.

Librarp

FROITS “~*

‘OR THE HOME GROUNDS
PREPARED BY U.P HEDRICK

»r the American Association of Nurserymen

PRICE, 50 CENTS

gar Name and Address of
Your Nursery Here

Your own nursery “copy” and
announcements on this page

FRUITS FOR THE
HOME GROUNDS

PREPARED BY

U. P. HEDRICK

Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station

FOR THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN

CONTENTS

STIFICATION OF THE Fruit-GARDEN Pe ar a
sy-value of Fruits from America’s Fruit-gardens, 5—Fruits a
ssity of Healthful Living, 5—Orchards as Ornamentals, 6—Sir
> Newton a Wise Man, 6—A Fruit-garden is a Moral Agent, 6—
cational Value of a Fruit-garden, 7.

Surenen FORETHOUGHT .

EW words are needed to tell of the value of fruit as a
food, or to commend the delights of that food when
freshly plucked from nearby trees or plants. The tre-

mendous increase in the use of fruits in America—we are the
fruit-eaters of the world!— makes evident their importance.

However, there is a mistaken impression that it is impos-
sible to raise these delicious fruits on the small home grounds.
It is to make plain the truth that even a little back yard may
provide room for the trees and plants that will bring fruit-
blessings to the home that this pamphlet has been written for
the American Association of Nurserymen.

Making America More Fruitful and More Beautiful. A number of the
leading nurserymen of the country, realizing that success with fruit trees, shrubs,
and flowers depends wholly upon adequate knowledge as to their care on the
part of the planter, have codperated in a campaign to make success for every-
one who plants as certain as it is humanly possible to make it. Therefore the
Nurserymen’s National Service Bureau is glad to endorse the Fruit Book.

1! and Soil §—

8

(Copyright, 1919, by J. Horace McFarland Company. All rights reserved as to contents,
illustrations and translation into any other languaye)

~~ pueray 10 JOqysTou SyeuNyT

Missing Page

CONTENTS

Chapter
V. SMALL Fruits anp SMALL GARDENS Seer
The Back-yard Fruit-garden, 28—Handling the Back Yard, 28—
Dwarf Fruit Trees, 29—Small Fruits, 30—Who Buys the Best, Gives
Care the Best, May Have the Best, 30—Pruning the Grape, 31—Prun-
ing the Bush Fruits, 32—Pruning the Brambles, 32—The Straw-
berry, 33—Autumn-bearing Small Fruits, 33.

VI. Frurr Pests anp ENEMIES

Orchard Enemies Classified, 34—A Pest for Every Fruit, A Spray for
Every Pest, 35—Spraying Schedules for Front-line Enemies, 36—
Spraying Material and Spraying Machinery, 39—Slogans for Fight-
ing Front-line Enemies, 40—Orchard Enemies Are a Filthy Crew, 40.

VII. Tur Art or Prunina iW ences ee gO Lee ga
Definitions, 41—Pruning and Training Distinguished, 41—Pruning
When Setting, 41—The Height of the Head, 41—The Form of the
Top, 42—Too Much Pruning, 42—The Use and Abuse of “Head-
ing-in,” 43—Prune for Wood to Insure Vigor, 43—Pruning for Fruit,
44—Pruning Paraphernalia, 44—Making the Cut, 45—Nature’s
“Balm of Gilead’? Better than Man’s, 45—The Time to Prune,
45—Suckers or Water-sprouts, 45

VIII. Fruits Surraste ror Certain SECTIONS .

Fruit Regions of North America, 46—Pome Fruits, 47—Stone Fruits,
48—Small Fruits, 50.

IX. ConservaTION AND THE HovusEWIFE eee
The Housewife’s Part, 52—Conserving by Storing, 52—Canning, Con-
servation in Excelsis, 53—Drying the Cheapest Method of Conserva-
tion, 54—Preserves, 54—Fruit-juices, 55—A Last Word, 56.

1

Page

28

34

41

46

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

CHAPTER I
THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE FRUIT-GARDEN

He who plants fruits is a friend of man. Whether he plants for
profit in an orchard or for pleasure in a garden, he belongs to the
world’s producers. Small producers as well as large producers may
take just pride in the fruit industry of our great country, for actually
the farmer and the small landholder grow most of America’s enormous
crop of fruits. According to the Thirteenth Census, the value of

all fruits produced in the United States in 1909 was
ey vee of $218,000,000, or one-third the value of the wheat

ruits from :

Aeeesicais crop; and more than one-half of this grand total,
Fruit-gardens the census statistics show, comes from the fruit-

gardens of country and city. We learn that 2,980,000
persons reported bearing trees of the apple alone in 1910. Of other
tree fruits and of small fruits the number is, of course, much greater.

But the money-value of the produce of fruit-gardens cannot be
fully shown in census figures. The supply of food thus produced
for the millions of homes is enormous. In all the world, America
has the greatest plenty. The plots of fruit planted on the farms and
in the gardens of this country constitute a vast food-resource.

Is it wise to plant fruits which do not have as high

Fruits a

Necessity of food-value as cereals, starchy vegetables, and meats?
Healthful Yes, even when the richer foods are in scanty supply,
Living fruit plantations must be maintained, and new

orchards, vineyards, and small-fruit plots must be set with due regard
for the future, for fruits are a necessity as well as a luxury. The
medical authorities of the country so call them. They tell us that
fruits should form a part of the food regimen of every person. The
working efficiency of the whole nation would suffer should there be a
falling off in the supply of fruit.

In view of this necessity for fruit, no landholder is doing his duty
by his land who does not grow fruit for his family’s wants, and he is
doing well by his country when he grows a surplus to sell to less fortunate
neighbors.

5

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

Not infrequently every other ornamental feature of the home-
stead is subordinate to the orchard. Indeed, the orchard is often the
only refuge of the farmer for beauty. The tree
ae cca that produces the most fruit, or even the best fruit,
is not always the most-prized tree, for men love

the sight of fine orchard trees.

Fruit trees should be planted for their beauty. Whether in foliage,
flower, or fruit, an apple, pear, cherry, plum, or peach tree is about
the most direct and energetic effort of Nature to secure physical
loveliness. Fruit trees, in their diversity, offer a wonderful field from
which to select combinations of form and color.

: An apple tree is the tree of all trees under which
Sir Isaac to spend a restful hour. Sir Isaac Newton was a wise
Newton a :

Wise Man man, and he chose an apple tree to sit beneath.

Under the apple tree one may lie, or sit, or swing,
and watch the sky through glimmering leaves and golden, red, or
russet fruit, while the sweet savor of ripening fruits drifts in the air,
and the drowsy hum of wasps and bees soothes mind and soul.
Where better obtain a whiff of happy boyhood than in an orchard?

No work is more healthful
than that with trees, vines,
and bushes; none is fuller
of variety and _ interest.
Every day in the fruit-
garden brings a new surprise
and a new delight.

: The fruit-gar-
A Fruit- den is more

garden is a
Moral Agent than a place to
make money,
means more than home com-
fort and good cheer, is more
than an ornament of the
homestead, more thana pleas-
ant avocation. The fruit-gar-
den, besides all of these, is a
moral agent. Let a man tell
you what governed him in
An apple tree is both beautiful and fruitful laying out and Stowe his,
and may well have a prominent place orchard, and he will give

6

THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE FRUIT-GARDEN

you his autobiography, for he interweaves his tastes, preferences,
and character in an orchard that he plants and tends.
k The life-events of a plant form a most interesting
a a series of chapters. First, the buds begin to swell;
Fruit-garden leaves appear; then the blossoms come; fruit-forma-
tion follows; the fruits pass from greenness to
maturity and decay; leaves drop; wood passes into winter maturity;
the cycle ends, only to begin again. Fruit trees have a place and a
function in education. A school orchard is the place for pupils and
community to learn about fruit products, whenever ground is avail-
able. Fruit trees can be planted about the schoolhouse, or a small
plot can be set aside for the school orchard.

The trees must be cared for by the pupils. The children would
here have a chance to become acquainted with injurious insects and
pests. They could be taught how to fight them. Here, too, the
principles of pruning could be taught. Teaching children to care for
school trees would result in better care of trees in home orchards.
The association with trees begun in childhood will go on throughout
life. The school orchard is a coming factor in agricultural education.

The fruit-garden, then, is justified by what it produces in money
value; because fruits are a necessity of healthful living; for its
ornamental value; a moral agent; and for its educational value.

A few such trees in the home garden save many a dollar 5
7

CHAPTER II
FRUIT-GARDEN FORETHOUGHT

A fruit-garden is a permanent improvement. Its span of life
is as long or longer than that of the person who plants it. An addi-
tion so enduring must be planned. Unless there
There is be forethought, maturing in a ‘plan, all future
Wisdom in ; ; F :
@ Pian efforts may fail. Besides, there is much pleasure in
anticipating and planning; it makes the garden
one’s very own, lifting it from the commonplace of “ready-made”’
articles by which one is often surrounded. ;
About the first thing to decide is the size. Let it
The Size be as large as circumstances will permit, remember-
ing that a small plantation properly planned, well
planted, and kept at all times with a fine finish, is better than a
larger plantation poorly laid out and badly cared for, and the returns
will prove the wisdom of this decision.

TGhabonand In home plantations one must plant the ground he

Soil has. A man who grows fruits for the market must

select his location with-the greatest care, since he
must grow fruit at the lowest cost to meet competition; but for the
home garden the planter must select particular fruits for the ground

me, ay
A a ter at f
. 7 iC tin :

Flowers and fruit combine to make this a self-supporting garden
8

FRUIT-GARDEN FORETHOUGHT

The popular Winesap Apple

he is to use. Some kind of fruit can be grown with pleasure and profit
about every home where anything will grow.

The home garden is largely at the mercy of circumstances, too,
in the matter of soil. But here, happily, Mother Nature can be
improved upon. If the earth’s crust is not all arable soil in a particular
location, soil can be brought, or stone and other impediments can be
removed; if it is poor, it can be enriched.

The ideal site for fruits is one above the surrounding country, so
that both soil and atmospheric drainage are good. The land need not
be rolling if there are lower lands adjacent. The exposure exerts con-
siderable influence on tender fruits. Near a body of water, choose
the exposure toward the water. Between the sides of a lake or
river, choose the side exposed to the prevailing wind. Away from
water, choose a northern exposure for tender fruits.

Experience is a better guide as to what to plant
than volumes of instruction. It is to be presumed
that every man knows what he would like best to
grow; experience alone will teach him whether he can grow it. Lack-
ing experience, a man should get on good terms with his neighbors

9

Choosing
Varieties

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

Every home grounds should have a Peach tree

and find out what succeeds best with them. Before finally choosing
varieties, think twice or thrice, for there is nothing more disturbing
in a fruit plantation than varieties one does not want.

But these generalities do not solve the perennial problem of what
to buy. While agents and catalogues may carefully describe varieties,
often the merits of novelties and standards are sung in the same key,
so that the buyer cannot distinguish between tried and untried sorts.
Here are a few simple guiding rules.

First, decide whether the fruit is to be grown to eat out of hand
or for culinary purposes, or both.

Second, divide varieties to be planted into early, midseason, and
late; or summer, autumn, and winter.

Third, select northern sorts for the North and southern sorts
for the South, as all varieties have limits in latitude, and none will
thrive out of its proper latitude.

Fourth, as each variety of any fruit has a more or less marked
preference for a particular soil, so sorts ought to be chosen for soils,
so far as information makes possible.

10

FRUIT-GARDEN FORETHOUGHT

Fifth, choose varieties that are known to be self-fertile, or, in
choosing self-sterile sorts, make sure that opportunity for inter-
pollination is provided for. The nurseryman must help in this choice,
having the knowledge, and he will gladly use it for the planter.

Sixth, for trying locations, such as niggardly soils or churlish
climates, select the more vigorous varieties that the plant’s internal
push may offset as far as possible unfavorable environment.

Seventh, choose special-purpose rather than general-purpose
varieties.

Eighth, try a few novelties. Novelty, in horticulture, is the great
parent of pleasure.

Ninth, if spraying is impossible, select varieties immune to the
most destructive pests. Thus, the Baldwin and Winesap are free
from. apple-blight; apple-scab seldom attacks Ben Davis; pear-
blight does little damage to Kieffer and Seckel; Early Crawford
is nearly free from peach-leaf curl; San José scale never attacks
the Montmorency cherry and seldom the Bradshaw plum. Lists of
varieties immune to the various pests can be had from state experi-
ment stations, and most nurserymen also are well informed.

i When the bud is in the bough and the leaf is in the
Buying bud it is difficult to tell a good tree from a poor one.
Dependable ee ee
Trees ree-buying is a

case of “‘trust me
not at all or all in all.” The
greatest assurance for depend-
able trees, then, is the dependable
nurseryman. Still, trees have
certain earmarks that commend
them or condemn them to good
gardeners.

Thus, a short, stocky plant
is usually better than a tall,
spindling one. A tree with many
branches is better than one with
a few branches. Plants with
much-branched roots are better
than those with a scanty root-
system. A tree with smooth,
bright bark is better than one |
with rough, dull bark. Neither Good trees as they come from the nursery

11

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

does one want a dingy, bruised, unhappy waif of a tree—these are
the plants that make the scapegoats of the orchard. Be it remem-
bered, however, that there is great variation in varieties of any
fruit in all of these characters. Some good trees are never “slick.”
Who ever saw a straight, handsome young tree of Rhode Island
Greening apple?

The age and the size of the trees are matters of prime importance.
Here the nurseryman’s advice, if one is inexperienced, should be
taken. Long dealings have taught nurserymen what age and size of
trees succeed best in the varied soil and climatic conditions of the
location to which they cater, and, since sales depend on satisfaction,
a reputable nurseryman’s information is usually reliable.

It is well for the buyer to ask for trees of average size and those
typical of the variety, remembering that mere size, big or little,
is not a good measure by which the value of a tree may be gauged.
Two-year-old plants of the tree fruits, the peach and the plum
in the South excepted, are usually better than one-year-olds.
One-year-old peach, bush, and vine plants are the accepted rule,
though two-year-old bush and vine fruits are sometimes better.
Plants older than two years, as a rule, must be handled by specialists;
unskilled growers planting old trees usually perform a burial rite
or, at the very least, sign a death warrant. Specialists to grow and
specialists to replant, however, often achieve signal success in hand-
ling trees of even fruiting age.

True-to-name variety and good-name nurseryman go together.
A good reputation is
a nurseryman’s _ best
asset; it cannot be
bought and is acquired
only by years of honest
endeavor to grow and
sell good trees. Bearing
these facts in mind, the
fruit - grower can see
that his best safeguard
in securing the best trees
true to name is in deal-
ing with dependable and
well-known — nursery-
Abundance Plums men.

FRUIT-GARDEN FORETHOUGHT

Every cultivated plant is infested by insects and infected by
diseases. The strong arm of the law, federal and state, controls the
distribution of nursery stock attacked by insect or fungus parasites
so that the buyer
may expect his trees
to come to him from
any part of the country
free from pests.

A generation ago
it was good advice to
tell buyers that trees
grown near home
were to be preferred.
Now, with quick trans-
portation, much better
storage facilities, and
improved methods of
handling, trees may be
shipped long distances
with little or no detri-
ment to their welfare. Mere distance, therefore, is not important.
The following simple rules for handling fruit trees as
they come from the nurseryman are themselves the
fruit of long experience and ought to be observed.
The trees must be unpacked without delay. If possible they
should be planted at once; otherwise they must be “heeled-in.”’
Heeling-in is temporary planting, and consists of a short transplanta-
tion, the shorter the better, in a trench wide enough and deep enough
to receive the roots of the thickly set plants. If a long delay threatens,
slope the trench to the south and cover not only the roots but about
half of the bodies of the trees. Commonsense makes plain the neces-
sity of keeping the roots completely covered from sun and wind.

Sometimes plants come almost hopelessly dried out. One can
often successfully play providence to these dead trees and bring
them to life by burying, root and branch, in damp earth for a week or
ten days; and their eventual prosperity may be the better assured by
pruning more severely than is suggested in Chapter VII.

“<
Cy.

fruit trees on their arrival

Care of
Young Plants

13

CHAPTER III
ORCHARD AND PLANTING PLANS

We are not yet ready to plant the orchard. A wood is a maze;
an orchard is a plan. There must be a plan if the owner is to get the
most out of his land. Now getting the most out of
Getting the the land may mean getting the most on the land.
ey of In other words, the planter must plan to make use
of every foot of land throughout the life of the
plantation. The home planter must make use of the spaces between
the plants he wishes to be permanent. How? There are two ways:
He may use fillers; or, he may plant a two-storied garden.
A filler is a temporary plant set among permanent
Fillers plants. A good filler is an early bearing variety of
the same fruit or of a shorter-lived species. Wealthy
or Wagener are admirable filler varieties to set among other apples
because they are both early in bearing and short-lived. Or peaches,
cherries, quinces, or brambles or
bush fruits may be set in the
apple orchard. Again, bush-fruits
or brambles may be set in the
peach or cherry orchard. Many
set dwarf apples or pears between
standard apples and pears. These
dwarfs come into bearing earlier
than standard trees, may be set
much closer, thus giving an
opportunity for more varieties,
and the product is often rather
better.

Here is the rub with fillers—
sooner or later they must come
out. One learns to love a goodly
tree, especially of one’s own
planting, and to lift the axe
against it, our affections mean-
while clinging to it, is a species
|} of murder that few can prac-
“Fillers” or a “two-storied” garden lice. When permanents and

14

ORCHARD AND PLANTING PLANS

fillers interlock their boughs, the axe of the woodman must lay
the fillers low.
‘A MPioceterted?® A “two-storied”’ garden? Yes, fruits above and vege-
Ganden tables beneath. The plan is perfectly feasible when
space is scanty. There are no objections whatever
to this two-storied garden if the upper story alone is continued when
the trees come into generous bearing. After the trees begin heavy
cropping, the land cannot do duty by both fruit and vegetables.
The fruit trees, it must be remembered, are the aristocrats of the
garden and can appear at their best only after all other cultivated
_ plants are excluded.
There is a feeling that fruits should be planted

diets all only when there is room for an orchard—an acre or
Phites a half-acre at the very least in the clear. Not so,

for one may successfully plant a modest but very
satisfactory plantation on a quarter-acre, or even less. Fruit trees
sometimes make satisfactory lawn ornamentals, and borders of grounds
may well be planted with bush-fruits and the arbor or pergola be
covered with grape-vines. Perhaps there may be room for but one
tree by the pump, or the woodshed, against the barn or garage, or
in a corner of the garden. Plant that one tree, if only as a symbol
of home and good cheer. Plant it for its beauty as well as its fruit.
An orchard plan is almost wholly dependent on
the particular location, hence can be made only

by a man on the

spot. But whatever the loca-
tion, one of three arrangements
of trees is likely to be chosen to ( >

locate the position of the trees |
in the plan. If more than a very
few trees are set, the arrange-

2

°

Planting
Plans

ment is almost always in the
formal figure of a square (or a
slight variant, the rectangle), a
quincunx, or a hexagon.
The simplest and
The Square commonest plan a) a) re)

for an orchard is Fic. 1. Diagram of square planting.

a series of squares, with a tree at The circle shows the spread of the trees

ace and the shaded portion the area supposed
each corner of adjoining squares. (75 ov Sted > PP

15

° ?

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

But in theory, at least, this arrangement of trees is the most
wasteful of land of the several arrangements. Figure | 1s a diagram

of trees planted at the corners of squares, and shows, on paper,
what the theorists call the waste

? Q © land of the arrangement by
squares. But a vigorous tree

LD, fo) searching for sun and food and

gee wy moisture is no respecter of theory
© and sends its branches and roots

o) quickly into the waste areas of
sunlight and soil! Certainly trees

are most conveniently cared for

BAS syeee 2 when planted in squares.
a Q The quincunx is
The Quincunx an arrangement
Q a) 3 whereby five

Fic. 2. Hexagonal planting. The trees trees are used in a figure—four
are equidistant in all directions, forming a at each corner and one in the
nergof equlaeral anglesorsbersgen center of a square. So planted,

nearly twice as many trees as
can be set in squares are put out, but there is just as much waste,
for, as may be seen by analyzing Figure 4, a number of connected
quincunxes form a series of squares running diagonally across the
orchard. As we shall see, the quincunx is usually used only when
the center tree is to be cut out when it begins to interfere with the
growth of the corner trees.
The plan of setting in a six-sided figure, the hexagon,
The Hexagon looks best on paper. In this arrangement, as shown
in Figure 2, all of the trees are the same distance
apart in any direction—distributed evenly over the ground. By
setting the trees the same distance apart, 15 per cent more trees are
used in this arrangement than when put at the corners of squares.

: ; Fillers are used in the square arrangement by plant-
es ae oe ing the early-bearing- sort halfway between the
Figures permanents in each direction. Thus, Greening or

Baldwin might be set 40 feet apart each way, with

Wealthy or Wagener 40 feet apart in one row and 20 feet apart in

the next, giving three times as many fillers as permanents. Figure

3 shows this arrangement. Peaches, of course, might be used as

fillers. In thinning, the alternate diagonal row is usually cut out
16

ORCHARD AND PLANTING PLANS

first, leaving a filler tree in the center of the square, which can
stand some years longer.

The quincunx arrangement offers a very good method of using
apple and peach fillers in a permanent apple orchard. Apple fillers
are set halfway between permanent apples, forming the corners of
squares running diagonally across the orchard. Peaches are set half-
way between the permanent trees on the diagonal rows. When the
trees begin to crowd, the peaches are removed and, a few years later,
the apple fillers. Figure 4 shows this arrangement.

For those who want to get the very most out of a bit of land,
the arrangement of apples and peaches in Figure 5 is recommended.
The permanent apples are set 50 feet apart. Apple fillers are set
halfway between the permanents. Peach trees are set halfway be-
tween the apple trees in the perpendicular rows, with rows of peaches
between the combination rows.

A study of the illustrations and text ‘shows that,
Advantages Of hile the square system is most wasteful of space, it
peer ahs b its orchard operations and is, possibly, best
Arrangements best permits orchard operations and is, possibly, bes
Compared adapted to the use of fillers. Thus, planted in
squares, fillers may be thinned, first to the quincunx
figure and later to squares of permanent trees, giving a gradual
transition from a closely planted
orchard to one with trees far
apart. a " ° 3 ° bg

The quincunx arrangement,
be it at all times remembered, is
but a series of squares thrown
diagonally across the field, and
offers a good method of using a
few fillers in an orchard.

The hexagon carries the palm
of merit in saving space and
hence is most desirable for inten-
sive culture in home gardens.

The choice of arrangement
must depend on the several con- . = be a - 7

oe Fic. 3. Fillers used ‘in the square
ditions of the grower. Cheap arrangement by planting early-bearing
land and abundant land indicate sorts halfway between permanents in
: both directions.
an arrangement in squares; ex- fs) . e
pensive land, small holdings, and Permanente Fillers

17

Oo» 0 *
ee
a
Oe 0
oe.»

&
ey
e
a)

FRUITS FOR THE

HOME GROUNDS

ee G6 4 9 & &

Fic. 4. The Quincunx-filler arrange-
ment. The orchard is planted with per-
manent apple trees, apple fillers, and
peach fillers.

@ Permanent trees Peach fillers
¢ Standard apple fillers

intensive culture indicate hexag-
onal plantings.

Have you seen
Distance Apart

a ihe trees struggling
serigele for for existence in
Existence a forest? There

trees perish by
too great abundance, those
stronger than their neighbors, or
more fortunate in position, sur-
viving by starving out those
about them. There is a struggle
for existence in a thickly planted
orchard, for even if all plants sur-
vive, the individual is squeezed
out of symmetry and robbed of
normal development.
To prevent this is the argument
for generous distance between

plants at first setting, or for using the axe when the process of mutual

suffocation begins in an orchard.

Every fruit-grower knows that

the trees on the outside of his orchard produce most and best fruit
because they get the most air, sunshine, wind, moisture, and food.
Planting distances vary much with many conditions, as fruit,

variety, soil, climate, method of pruning, and so on.

The following

table shows average planting distances for the commonest fruits:

Apples .

Apples, Dwarf, on Paradise stocks .
Apples, Dwarf, on Doucin stocks.
Pears. ee ;
Pears, Dwarf .

Plums .

Peaches

Cherries

Apricots.

Nectarines .

Quinces

Grapes .

Currants .

Gooseberries. . . .
Raspberries, Black.

Raspberries, Red. .

Blackberries

18

Distances Apart for Planting Fruits
. 30 to 50 feet each way.
. 10 to 16 feet each way.
. 12 to 25 feet each way.
. 20 to 30 feet each way.
. 10 to 15 feet each way.
. 16 to 20 feet each way.
. 16 to 20 feet each way.
. 16 to 25 feet each way.
. 16 to 20 feet each way.
. 16 to 20 feet each way.

8 to 14 feet each way.
8 to 12 feet each way.
4 by 5 feet.

4 by 5 feet.

3 by 6 feet.

3 by 5 feet.

1 by 7 to 6 by 8 feet.

ORCHARD

AND PLANTING PLANS

An orderly man will have no
botchwork in aligning and spac-
ing-his trees. A
crooked row is a
sign of a sloven.
To keep rows perfectly in line
requires but a good eye, a little
mechanical skill, and a suff-
cient amount of patience; lacking
these a man should employ a
surveyor.

The measuring-wire is the
best method of keeping rows
straight in a small plantation. It
may vary in length from 200 to
300 feet. The best wire is made
of annealed steel, about an eighth
of an inch in diameter. This
wire is marked throughout its
length by patches of solder, indi-
cating the distances between
plants.

In planting in hexagons, lay

Laying Out
the Orchard

®@
Pea
,
,
ie:
SS
-
-
@

oa
-
oa
-
,
s
x

Fic. 5. Hexagonal-filler arrangement.
Intensive use of fillers—320 trees, 80
apples and 240 peach or other stone-
fruits.

®& Permanent trees OpPeach fillers

O Extra peach fillers

r Apple fillers

off the base-lines as for squares,

and then use an equilateral triangle of wire, the dimensions equal to
the distances between trees, being guided for the first rows by a line
of stakes. An iron ring at each angle of the triangle, to drop over
stakes, is helpful in this device. It is easy to locate a tree in the center
of a square, for planting in the quincunx arrangement.

19

CHAPTER IV
CARETAKING

Fruit-growing is a ceaseless task; orchards begin to “go bad” as

soon as their owners settle down to self-satisfied complacency. Season
in and season out, trees must feel the gardener’s caretaking touch;
they seem able to recognize it. This caretaking begins at the very
start in the preparation of the land.
Soil is immortal. The earth changes, but soil
endures to serve generation after generation. Soil,
therefore, should have all the care its owner can
lavish on it. Care consists in plowing, harrowing, cultivating, spad-
ing, hoeing, raking, and smoothing. Preparing land for fruits may
require all of these operations—the more the better if the land is to
yield its best. Underdrainage must be provided if the soil is wet.

A good orchard soil is well supplied with what we call organic
matter, meaning that which is in a condition to be absorbed—as
manure, rotting leaves or vegetable refuse and the like. A soil with-
out organic matter is but a skeleton,—dead, inert, and lifeless,—and
trees will not grow in the framework of a soil. Green crops or manures
must be turned under to put flesh on the soil-skeleton.

The orchard is to stand a generation or two. It might well, then,
be put in training for the long service it is to render. The crops for
a few years preceding planting ought to be such as will enrich it and
leave it in the best of tilth. Vegetables are the best preparatory crops.
“A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which
is planted,” is good Biblical advice on planting.
For parts of the cold North the best time to plant
trees is early spring, when sun and showers arouse
the spirit of growth. At this time nutritive solutions proceed quickly
and unerringly to their pre-appointed places, and the trees begin at once
the double task of making fresh roots and opening dormant leaves.
Fall planting puts forward the work when all is favorable, but wet
falls and cold winters sometimes cause serious losses, in northern
climates at least. Yet in the “Sunny South,” the easy fall, preceding
a milder winter, affords excellent opportunity for suecessful planting.
Tt is “a safe bet,” to consult a reliable nurseryman in any neighbor-
hood; it is his business to be right. Spring or fall, the soil should be
reasonably dry, warm, and mellow when the work is done, Late-set

20

Preparing
the Land

To Everything
There is
a Season

CARETAKING

plants need special care lest they suffer from the summer droughts
which annually parch the land.

If the land is properly prepared and the trees are
Planting in good condition, planting is easily, quickly, and

safely accomplished. There is no need of such putter-
ing over-niceties as laying out the roots to preserve the fibers, and
inserting the plant in a gingerly fashion to make sure that it stands
in its new abode as it stood in the old. On the other hand, to slap
the plants in hit-or-miss, burying some roots and leaving others
exposed, is courting failure.

The holes should be large enough and deep enough

pee toes e to hold the roots without undue crowding. It is
the Oreantd unimportant to make them larger, for, if the land

has been
well prepared, the hole is
really as large as the
orchard. Deep holes are
often a menace to plants,
becoming a tub into
which water pours and
stands about the roots.
The practice of dig-
ging holes in a leisure
time, that all may be
ready when the plants
arrive, is a bad one.
Dormant plants strike
root best in freshly
turned, moist, and newly
dug earth, which can be
then well firmed about
the roots when the tree is
planted. It is good prac-
tice, however, to throw
the surface soil to one
side, and the subsoil to
another, so that the moist
and most active top soil
may be put nearest to Ried ns ie
the roots. Don’t be afraid of making the hole too large
21

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GARDEN

The plants are set in the soil about as deep as they stood in the

nursery, though in light, hungry, or thirsty soils the roots should go

a little deeper and in very heavy soils not quite so

Setting deep. Deep planting is a more common mistake than

shallow planting, for roots, under most conditions,

stand exposure better than over-deep planting, going down being more

natural than coming up for a root seeking a place to its liking. The

soil must be packed firmly about newly set plants, which is best done

by tramping. Zeal in tramping diminishes as the hole is filled, leaving
the top soil loose with a dust-mulch to prevent evaporation.

The reward of forethought in planting the home orchard

Watering at planting-time is necessary only when the land is
parched by drought, or in regions where it must be irrigated. When
necessary, water must be used liberally—a gallon or two to a plant.
In place of watering many prefer to puddle the roots by dipping them
in thin mud and planting with the mud adhering. In either watering
or puddling the surface soil must be left loose and soft.

Newly set plants are seldom in need of outside nourishment.
To put rank manure or strong fertilizers about the roots of young
trees is inviting plant infanticide. If soil is to be enriched at plant-
ing-time, the fertilizer should be spread on the surface, to be culti-
vated in or to have its food elements leach down as rains fall.

Q Q

CARETAKING

Now comes the vexed problem of pruning the young plant. This
is taken up in full in Chapter VII on pruning.

c During their tender nonage, the time between setting

are of the “ie ;
Young Plants and the first fruiting, all plants must have a little
special care. Young trees badly stunted at this time

seldom recover. Fortunately, any departure from good health is’
easily told in young plants, for the color of the leaves is as accurate
an index of health and vigor as the color of the tongue or the beat of
the pulse is in man. A change from the luxuriant green of thrifty
plant-foliage to the yellow hue, showing that the leaf-green is not
functioning properly, is suggestive of ill-health.

Cultivation must be intensive, insects and fungi must be warded
off, mechanical injuries avoided, and the plants that refuse to grow
must be marked for discard. The summer care of the orchard the
second and third season does not differ materially from that of
the first, although there may be a little let-up in watchfulness.

A catch-crop is a crop grown between the rows of
another crop for profit from the produce. A cover-
crop is a temporary crop grown to protect the soil
or to enrich it when plowed under. Both catch-crops and cover-crops
hold an important place in growing an orchard, whether large or small.

In the home fruit-garden some sort of catch-crop is almost certain
to be planted each year until the trees come into bearing. Any and
all vegetables may be grown among the young trees without detri-
ment to them and to the end that the kitchen is well supplied with
garden produce. Raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants,
and strawberries may all be interplanted with trees in the home
orchard. Be it remembered, however, that land, to do duty by the
two crops, must be both good and well fertilized, and that the care
of both crops must be of the best.

There is no doubt of the value of the cover-crop in the orchard,
when opportunity permits its planting. In home orchards, however,
catch-crops of vegetables are so commonly grown that it is seldom
that a cover-crop can be planted in time to be of any use. When land
is vacant by the middle of the summer, some cover-crop ought to be
planted to be turned under the next spring. This procedure will keep
the land in better tilth, enrich it, and make it more easily worked.

Clover, vetch, oats, rape, rye, or buckwheat, all make good cover-
crops. The seed must be sown in July or early August, the quantity
being the same as when grown as a farm crop. The weather-map

23

Catch-crops and
Cover-crops

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

must be watched at sowing-time to make sure of a moist seed-bed.
Whatever the crop, it should be plowed or dug under in the fall or
early spring, and under no circumstances be permitted to stand late in
the spring to rob the trees of food and moisture.

2

Clean cultivation produces a large crop

The importance of cultivating the orchard is better
realized when one considers the functions of that
operation. The benefits derived from stirring the
soil may be grouped under three heads: First, the physical condition
of the land is improved because the soil is made finer, giving greater
feeding surface to the plants; the depth of the soil is increased, thus
enlarging the root-run of the plant; and the soil is made warmer and
drier in the spring, when plant activities begin. Second, tillage con-
serves moisture by checking evaporation and by increasing the
capacity of the soil to hold water. Third, tillage makes dormant plant-
food available by decomposing organic matter, by promoting nitrifica-
tion, and by making coarse soils finer.

An altogether secondary effect is the killing of weeds; but he
is a sloven indeed who will permit weeds to disfigure the home orchard.
The working necessary to secure the first-named conditions of the
orchard will take care of the weeds.

It is true that very often the owner of the home orchard wants
his trees in grass that he may better enjoy living under them, and
he may not care to cultivate his small plantings. Almost every
24

The Functions
of Cultivation

CARETAKING

fruit may be made to thrive in sod if special care is given. The
grass in these orchards should be kept closely mown and used as a
mulch about the trees. Commercial fertilizers, as well as a mulch, are
absolutely necessary to sod-mulched trees, nitrogen in particular be-
ing required. The man who keeps his trees in sod must not expect as
large a return of fruit, but, to offset this, it is usually better colored.

There are several reliable guides to tell when trees
ah eit need to be cultivated. The usual guide is the crop of
or Cultivating Weeds, but the man who waits until weeds force him

to till is not doing his duty by his trees. The
amount of moisture in the soil is a better guide. When soils become
dry they need to be tilled. The physical condition of the land is
another guide. Stir when the crust needs breaking and when there
are clods to be pulverized.

Tillage should begin in early spring, when the land must be broken
with a plow or deep-working harrow. This first operation is followed
with a smoothing harrow, cultivator, or weeder, and tillage then pro-
ceeds at such intervals as conditions dictate, seldom less than once
a fortnight, until time to sow
the cover-crop in midsummer. A
heavy rain should always be fol-
lowed by cultivation, to prevent
the formation of a soil-crust! He
tills twice who tills quickly.

The depth to stir is governed
by the nature of the soil and the
season. Heavy soils need deep
stirring; light soils, shallow stir-
ring. In wet weather, till deeply;
in dry weather, lightly. In some
regions plowing and tilling may
be made a splendid means of
combating insects and fungi, and
this regulates the depth to till.

The time and the season to
stop tillage depends on the local-
ity, the season, and the fruit.
Generally, it may be said that
cultivation should cease before
fruits begin to attain full size Early Richmond Cherries, half size

25

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

and take on the color of maturity. For a mixed orchard in the
North this is usually between the middle of July and the first of
August—earlier the farther south. When fruiting plants are making
a rank growth they do not need to be cultivated as late or as fre-
quently as when making smaller growth. Cover-crop seed is covered
the last time the orchard is gone over with the cultivator.

: In the average orchard, if the land is well drained,
Is z eo well tilled, and well supplied with organic matter
i She from stable-manure or cover-crops, commercial

fertilizers are little needed. The exceptions are
found on sandy and gravelly soils; in soils subject to drought; or on
soils of such shallowness or of such mechanical texture as to limit
the root-range of the plants; or in soils so wet or so dry or so devoid
of humus as to prevent bacteriological activities in the soil. In the
lighter soils of the South, peach trees, for example, are advantaged
by the wise use of commercial fertilizers.

How may a fruit-grower know when his trees need fertilizers?
He may assume that they need no additional plant-food if the plants
are vigorous, grow well, and make a fair amount of new wood each
season. If the plants are not of this healthful condition, the thing to

eg y — as ;
hl: Pg ~ 4 at Re

f 3 ey 3 2 S
When trees are properly grown, the picking may all be done without ladders
26

CARETAKING

do is to look to the drainage, tillage, and health of the trees first,
and to the more expensive and less-certain fertilizers afterward.

As good a commercial fertilizer formula as any for
the average plantation of fruit trees is: 350 pounds
of acid phosphate and 200 pounds of muriate of
potash to the acre, with 500 pounds of dried blood or 350 pounds
of nitrate of soda to supply nitrogen. In lieu of these commercial
fertilizers, and much better, from six to ten tons of well-rotted sta-
ble-manure might be used to the acre.

Commercial fertilizers should be applied in the spring as soon as

the ground can be worked, spreading them about the trees over an
area considerably greater than ‘that covered by the spread of the
branches. The manure should be put on before plowing; the fer-
tilizers immediately after to be harrowed in. If the orchard is being
double-cropped, these quantities of fertilizers must be increased
somewhat to meet the double demand.
Trees It is hard to wait for things to happen in an orchard,
Often Waste and the impatient tyro attempts to push his plants
Their Substance with heavy doses of fertilizer. Reveling in abun-
in Riotous dance, trees so treated delay fruiting still longer and
Living lay waste their powers in luxuriant foliage and lusty
wood. Truth is, the average soil of which home gardens are composed
is a little too rich for most fruits. Putting fertilizer on such soils is
like gilding the rose or throwing perfume on the violet.

“But fertilizers are good for farm crops and vegetables! Why not
fruits?”’ It takes but a few words to answer the question.

Feeding Habits Trees have a preparatory time of several seasons

A Formula for
Fertilizers

of Fruits before fruit-bearing begins; farm and truck crops
Compared with make their growth, bear a crop, and pass away in a
Those of season. Trees begin early in the spring and continue

Farm Crops and ;, grow until late fall, so that fruit, leaf, and wood
Neepiables have a long time to develop; annual and biennial
crops must develop in a much shorter time. The roots of trees run
deeper and spread farther than those of succulent plants. Trees are
very heavy drinkers and transpire water more rapidly than herba-
ceous plants, so that the nutritive soil-solution need not be so
concentrated for fruits as for grains and vegetables.

27

CHAPTER V
SMALL FRUITS AND SMALL GARDENS

All the preceding suggestions relate to orchard practice adapted
to small areas, it is true. They will be of little use to the man whe
has available only the rear of a little slice of land
on which his home stands. Yet a part of a fifty-foot
“estate,” and even a section. of a twenty-foot lot,
can sustain fruit trees and plants that will add to the health and the
happiness of the home-owner. Back-yard fruit-gardens are entirely
worth while, and there ought to be a round million more of them in
this fruit-hungry land.

Can any purchased peach, any shipped-in cluster of grapes, any
market-bought strawberries or currants or blackberries ever have the
flavor and the freshness of the home-grown product, watched to the
moment of ripening, and gloated over with the joy of the grower?
Food and flavor aside, the satisfactions, the fun, of growing one or
two fruit trees to the production stage, or of hand-raising even a dozen
fruit plants, are not computable in money.

Let no one, therefore, with even a few square yards of sun-swept
ground available, miss the peculiar pleasures of home fruit-growing.
Even though the place be rented, it is worth while to plant it, both
for personal benefit and for increasing the fruitfulness of the land.
In the hearing of the writer, a renter once berated himself for his
selfish reluctance to spend a few dollars in fruit-planting the back
yard of his rented property. He “saved’’ the trifle of money, but he
lost all the benefit of fruit and pleasure his ten-year tenancy might
have given him. A wiser and less selfish man, who never hoped to
own, and who had lived a generation of time in a half-dozen rented
homes, said, “I always stick in a peach tree and a grape-vine, and
get some strawberry plants growing, and I’ve never regretted it.”
Hendin the Theoretically, the narrow spaces, the often obtrusive
Back Yard fences, the aspect or the shade, are all against success

with fruits in the smaller home areas. Practically
and actually, astonishing prosperity often occurs to the trees, vines
and plants which grow in un-ideal surroundings, having the advantage
of loving care. These fruit-bearing items become the real friends of
the folks who plant and tend them, and that friendliness is in evidence
in the result.

The Back-yard
Fruit-garden

28

SMALL FRUITS AND SMALL GARDENS

What is set down in these pages as to exposures, soils, fertilization,
and the other details of fruit-growing is the truth, but it is also the
truth that desirable fruit prosperity may occur under conditions
which only approximate to the ideal. The man or woman with but
a small area of land at his command is therefore urged to use it;
going as far as he can toward providing the conditions here set forth.

Always the soil can be deeply dug, and usually some extra fertility
can be supplied. A peach tree must have some sun, but a grape-vine
will get along with less and can be trained up to shade the back door,
if shade there is wanted. The “‘brambles” —raspberries, blackberries
—can be grown almost against a fence. A dozen strawberry plants
can be set in a square yard of space, and if the ground is fertile and
the cultivation is good, the red fruit that ripens will be delightful.
A dwarf pear tree can be caused to produce wonderful fruit in a corner,
and for a little larger area there are fascinating possibilities in
developing other dwarf fruit trees intensively.

é Indeed, the dwarf trees offer much fun and some
Dwarf Fruit : ;
Trees fruit to the possessor of but a restricted area of land.
They are in variety and quality the same as the
standard trees, but being grown on “‘stocks”’ or roots that restrict the
plant-food supplied by the soil, they mature into fruiting at smaller
size and often at an earlier date. They are advised as “‘fillers,” and
for getting a larger variety in a smaller space.

Dwarf fruit trees in a formal planting
29

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

Even the smallest back yard can have a grape-vine

Any garden is “good” for small fruits, and almost any gardener.
Lest some small fruit be left out in planning the garden, all must
be named: the grape is the only vine; gooseberries
Small Fruits and currants constitute the bush-fruits; four distinct
species of raspberries (two reds, a black, and a
purple) and several species each of blackberries and dewberries,
together with the loganberry, make up the “brambles;” the straw-
berry, the only herbaceous fruit, completes the list.
We are told that Nature is chary with her choicest
Who Buys the products, only parting with them at the cost of much
Best, Gives Care, . : Sore rs
the Best, May toil and trouble. She is accused, too, of spreading
Have the Best indifferent things before the eyes of indifferent
mortals, and of reserving her loveliest and best for
the few. These charges are not just as regards fruits. Choicely good
fruits cost no more than poor or mediocre ones, and the labor of
growing good and ordinary is much the same; so that, rich and poor,
great and small, may feast on the loveliest and best.

The best varieties and good care are the fundamentals of success
in growing small fruits. Methods matter less. Small fruits are easy
to manage, and the grower can usually devise methods to suit his
needs. The general instructions given in this primer cover all details
of culture of vine, bush, and brambles, saving one
We come, then, to the pruning of these fruits.

30

that of pruning.

SMALL FRUITS AND SMALL GARDENS

The grape literally “lives by the knife.’ The vine, when set, is
pruned back to a stub of two eyes. Subsequent pruning depends upon
how the vine is to be trained. If two fundamentals
are kept in mind, the grape may be trained much
as the grower wishes. These two fundamentals are:

(1) Grapes are borne only on shoots of the current year’s growth which
spring from canes of the previous year’s growth. (2) Grapes naturally
produce more bunches than will ripen well in proper size of berry and
“bunch and in quality of fruit. Having selected the method of train-
ing on arbor, wall, or trellis, subsequent pruning is as follows: The
spring after setting remove all but the best cane, and cut this back
to three or four buds. The third spring the trunk of the vine should
be established on wire or wall, and the pruner may now lay off per-
manent arms from the main stem to furnish a frame from which
bearing shoots will grow. This third season a few bunches of grapes
may be allowed to mature.

The vine is now established and subsequent pruning consists
almost wholly of a thinning process whereby a certain number of
buds are left for a crop for each season. The number of buds depends
on the vigor of the vine and the variety. For vigorous sorts, as
Concord and Delaware, from twenty to thirty buds must be left
each season. These are divided equally among the bearing canes,
‘which are usually two or four.

The pruner may further specialize by choosing between two
methods of training the annual bearing shoots. These may be trained
upright to wires above the canes from which the shoots spring, or
they may be allowed to droop and hang down, instead’ of being tied
to a support. In either case, it is often necessary to pinch back these
shoots in midsummer to keep them within bounds, to rub off the buds
that start from the main vine, and to remove such shoots as are not
wanted for fruit-bearing.

Pruning the Currants and gooseberries bear fruit on wood that
oe a is two to three years old, after which the next two or

three crops are the best. Pruning consists in keeping
this best bearing wood constantly renewed. The plants must be
kept open, also, that there may be plenty of air and sunshine. Prun-
ing these fruits, then, consists in cutting out each year all wood more
than four or five years old and all of the new growths except those
necessary to replace that which is removed. The bearing wood should
have all the dead and injured parts removed and should be thinned

31

Pruning the
Grape

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

somewhat to let in sunshine necessary to ripen the fruit. The work
is best done in the fall.
All brambles are heavily cut back in planting, not
more than 6 to 10 inches of stem being left. The
smaller and weaker the plant, the more it should be
cut. Brambles are a compromise between a shrub and an herbaceous
plant; that is, the canes have but one fruiting-season. Proper prun-
ing is dependent on this habit—old canes must be cut out as soon as
they have fruited. The work of pruning may be deferred until fall
or winter, but it is better if done as soon as the crop is harvested.
Brambles are all prolific in producing new canes, and these must be
thinned, leaving not more than four or five for the fruiting-season.
These fruiting-canes must be nipped back when they reach the desired
height; that is, they should not be allowed to grow higher and then
be cut back. So checking the growth causes the plants to throw out
vigorous branches near the ground and makes well-balanced bushes.
Red raspberries are an exception and should not be pinched back.
Directions for cultivating strawberries may be summarized as
follows: The ground should be well drained if wet, plowed deeply,
and enriched as for garden crops. The plants may stand as close as
15 inches apart each way, and hill cultivation is preferable. To

Pruning the
Brambles

oA

RAL aah d

; Mee Fat
Set and train the berry plants properly from the beginning—

32

SMALL FRUITS AND SMALL GARDENS

obtain large, highly flavored fruit, pinch off the runners as fast as
they appear, repeating the operation as often as necessary during
the growing season. In the meantime, the ground
The Strawberry should be frequently stirred. Where winter weather
is severe, a covering of leaves, straw, or other litter
is necessary. It should be placed over the plants as soon as the ground
freezes and should be removed in the spring as soon as the plants begin
to grow. Before the plants begin to ripen, the ground should be
mulched with straw to keep the fruit clean and to prevent the ground
from baking. A well-managed bed should give two full crops and
should then be turned under, a new one having been prepared in the
meantime to take its place.
__. The strawberry shows remarkable power to keep pace
Autumn-bearing — . : ;
Small Felts with the human family and adapts itself to human
needs and moods in wonderful ways. Its latest
adaptation is that of autumn-bearing, and he who will may have
strawberries in September and October, as well as June and July.
Autumn-bearing strawberries are planted and cared for as are ordinary
sorts, with the exception that the blossoms that come in the spring
must be removed, and, at the beginning of autumn weather, the plants
must be stimulated into rapid growth by cultivation or irrigation.
A few sorts of raspberries bear a crop in the fall. The best of
these is Ranere or St. Regis. The cultivator can do little to improve
the fall-bearing habit—the variety, not the treatment, is the thing.

—and when they are old and laden with fruit you will be rewarded
33

CHAPTER VI
FRUIT PESTS AND ENEMIES

The proverb, “That evil is half cured whose cause we know,”

furnishes a text for opening the discussion of the pests of the orchard.

The subject is much simplified by a classification

Orchard of orchard insects and diseases. These fall into

Epears three general types—insects, fungous diseases, and
bacterial troubles.

Insects, in their turn, are divided into those which chew and
those which suck. Chewing insects—caterpillars, worms, and beetles
—are killed by poisons taken internally, of which arsenate of lead is
now sovereign of all. Sap-thirsty
insects—the myriads of plant-
lice and scales—are destroyed by
caustic applications, of which
the lime-sulphur mixture is now
most used.

Fungous diseases, more diverse
than the plants they grow on,
for every plant has several or
many, can be but roughly char-
acterized by the damage they
do. Usually a fungous disease
shows in definite spots on leaf,
fruit, or branch. Affected leaves
and fruits often drop from the
tree. Examples are apple-scab,
the leaf-blights, black-knot, the
mildews, and rots. Treatment is
preventive and consists of cover-
ing the plant with some fungi-
cidal mixture which stops the
fungus from obtaining an en-
trance into the tissues of the host
plant. Lime-sulphur and_bor-

A portable knapsack sprayer should be Bietad ian > are the best two
part of the equipment of every home 5
garden. Bacterial diseases are the
34

o

FRO@IT PESTS AND ENEMIES

troubles that wither, shrivel, or dry plants up like so many mum-
mies. Pear-blight, peach-yellows and “little peach,”’ the last two
possibly not bacterial but at least constitutional troubles, are the
best known. These desperate diseases require a desperate cure. The
affected parts of plants must be destroyed to the uttermost. The
lurking principle of death in these troubles may often be kept out
by thorough orchard sanitation.

The destruction and annoyance wrought by insects

eke and fungi are now the chief deterrents to amateur
A Saray for fruit-growing. Literally, there is a pest for every

Every Pest fruit, and for some there are several. Pests are more

troublesome now than ever before, and new ones are
still coming. Yet means have been devised to combat the old-timers,
and as new ones come we learn how best to contend with them.

It is a fact that the result of this intelligent fight against orchard
enemies has given us better fruit than our fathers ever knew. The
spray-pump is a machine-gun, and there is ammunition for every pest.
The advent of sprays for the pests of fruits is due almost wholly to
the splendid efforts of experiment station workers. To the experi-
ment stations the fruit-grower should go, then, for the latest and
best advice on controlling pests. Bulletins, circulars, calendars, and
leaflets describe every known enemy of cultivated plants and give
information for their control; these may be had from a station in every
state. A few pests are cosmopolitan and may be kept under, the

Even on the larger fruit-grounds the portable sprayer has its uses
35

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

country over, by much the same treatment. For these front-line
enemies the following spraying schedules furnish advice for effective
control:

SPRAYING SCHEDULES FOR FRONT-LINE ENEMIES

Sprays for the Apple
1. Dormant spray.
Preferably when buds begin showing green tips.
Lime-sulphur diluted 1 to 9. For scale, blister-mite, and scab.
If aphids are hatching, add a tobacco extract, as in No. 2.

2. Pink spray. ;

When the blossoms first show pink, and flower-clusters are spreading.

Lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 30. For scab or other diseases.

Add tobacco extract (40 per cent nicotine sulphate as “‘Black-leaf 40° commer-
cially), 49 pint to 50 gallons of water (1 tablespoonful to 3 gallons), for red
bugs and aphids.

If leaf-eaters are present, add 3 pounds lead arsenate paste (114 pounds powder)
in 50 gallons of water. (About 1 oz. paste to each gallon of water.)

iS)

. Calyx spray.
Start when two-thirds of the petals are off.
Lead arsenate, as in No. 2, for codling moth, and all eating insects.
Lime-sulphur, as in No. 2, for scab and leaf-spot.
If red bugs or aphids are present, add nicotine as in No. 2.

4. Codling spray.
If necessary, about two weeks after the completion of No. 3.
Lead arsenate and lime-sulphur as in Nos. 2 and 3.
For codling moth, all eating insects, scab, sooty blotch, apple-blotch, and fruit-
spot.

. Late summer spray.
If necessary, about last week in July.
Materials same as in No. 4. For second brood of codling moth, late-feeding
caterpillars, scab, sooty blotch, apple-blotch, and fruit-spot.

or

Sprays for the Pear and the Quince
1. Dormant spray.
Preferably just as buds begin showing green tips.
Lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 9. For scale, blister-mite, scab, and other diseases.
Por pear psylla, apply the spray in a warm period in March or early April.

ro

. Scab, or blossom spray.

Lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 30. For scab, leaf-blight, and leaf-spot. If eating
insects are present, add 3 pounds lead arsenate paste (115 pounds powder)
in 50 gallons of water. (About 1 oz. paste to each gallon of water.)

For pear psylla, add tobacco extract (40 per cent nicotine sulphate), 15 pint to
50 gallons of water. (1 teaspoonful to 115 gallons.) i

3. Calyx spray.

Start when two-thirds of the petals are off.

Lead arsenate in No. 2, for codling moth, leaf-slug, and all eating insects.
Lime-sulphur, as in No. 2, for scab, leaf-spot and leat-blight. :

Tor pear psylla, add tobacco extract as in No. 2. :

36

FRUIT PESTS AND ENEMIES

4. Codling spray.
If necessary, about two weeks after the completion of No. 3.
Lead arsenate and lime-sulphur as in Nos. 2 and 3
For codling moth and all eating insects, scab, black-spot, and black-rot.

5. Late summer spray.
If necessary, about five to six weeks after No. 4.
Materials same as in No. 4. For second brood of codling moth, late-feeding cater-
pillars, scab, black-spot, fruit-spot, and black-rot.

Sprays for the Peach
1. Dormant spray.
In spring, before buds start.
Lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 9. For San José scale and leaf-curl.

2. Curculio spray.
When calyces are dropping.
Lead arsenate: paste, 3 pounds to 50 gallons of water, and 2 pounds lime, slaked
(1 oz. paste to each gallon, and 2 ozs. lime to 3 gallons.)
Add tobacco extract (40 per cent nicotine sulphate), 14 pint to 50 gallons, if
aphids are serious.

LI é

A practical spray outfit for the small orchard or the community club
37

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

3. Brown-rot and scab spray.
If necessary, three to four weeks after No. 2.
Self-boiled lime-sulphur (8-8-50).
If curculio is serious, add 2 to 3 pounds of lead arsenate paste to 50 gallons of
water (up to 1 oz. per gallon of water.)

4. Brown-rot and scab spray. rer
If necessary, about four weeks before fruit ripens.
Self-boiled lime-sulphur (8-8-50).

Sprays for the Plum

1. Dormant spray. ;
Preferably just before buds open.

Lime-sulpaour, diluted 1 to 9. For San José scale.

2. Curculio and brown-rot spray.
Just before blossom buds open.
Bordeaux (3-3-50) or lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 40. _
Add 3 pounds lead arsenate paste (114 pounds powder) to 59 gallons, for curculio.
bud-moth, green fruit-worm, and leaf-roller.
If aphids are serious, add tobacco extract (40 per cent nicotine sulphate), 15 pint
to 50 gallons of water. (1 tablespoonful to 3 gallons.)

8. Curculio and brown-rot spray.
When the calyces are dropping.
Materials and pests same as in No. 2.

4. Brown-rot spray.
If necessary, two weeks after No. 3.
Materials as in No. 2. For brown-rot, leaf-spot, leaf-roller, green fruit-worm, and
aphids, if serious.

Sprays for the Cherry
1. Dormant spray.
Preferably when buds begin bursting.
Lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 9. For scale insects and fungous diseases.
For aphids, add tobacco extract (40 per cent nicotine sulphate), 5 pint to 50 gal-
lons of water. (1 tablespoonful to 3 gallons.)
For tent caterpillar or curculio, add lead arsenate as in No. 2.

2. Curculio spray.
Immediately after petals fall.
Lime-sulphur, diluted 1 to 35, or bordeaux (3-3-50), for leaf-spot and brown-rot.
Add 3 pounds lead arsenate paste (114 pounds powder) to 50 gallons, for curculio
and slugs. (1 oz. paste to each gallon.)
Add tobacco extract as in No. 1, if needed for aphids.

3. Brown-rot spray.
When calyces are dropping.
Materials and pests as in No. 2, and especially for brown-rot and fruit-fly or
maggot.
4. Leaf-spot spray.
Shortly after fruit is picked.
Lime-sulphur or bordeaux as in No. 2, to prevent defoliation by leaf-spot. Repeat
about a month later if this disease is serious.

38

Pir: PESTS AND ENEMIES

Sprays for the Grape

1. Shortly before blossoms open.
Bordeaux mixture (3-3-50), for mildew and black-rot.
Add 3 pounds lead arsenate paste (114 pounds powder) to 50 gallons, if flea-
beetles or curculio are prevalent. (1 oz. paste to each gallon.)

2. Just after fruit is set.
Materials and pests as in No. 1, but especially to control berry-moth larvee and
root-worm beetles.

3. Ten to fourteen days after No. 2.
Materials as in No. 2, for rot mildew, berry-moth, and root-worm.
For leaf-hopper, add tobacco extract (40 per cent nicotine sulphate), 14 pint to
50 gallons (1 teaspoonful to 3 gallons), and apply so as to hit the young before
they can fly.

4. If berry-moth, mildew, or rot is serious, repeat bordeaux and arsenate in two to
three weeks.

Sprays for the Currant and Gooseberry

1. Soon after fruit sets.
Lime-sulphur diluted 1 to 40 and 3 pounds of arsenate of lead paste (114 pounds
powder) in 50 gallons of water (1 oz. to 1 gallon), for currant-worm and fungi.

2. After the fruit has been harvested.
Lime-sulphur as in No. 1, for fungi.

The owner of a home fruit-garden can hardly afford

spraying and __t© Prepare his own spraying material. There are but
Spraying few communities in the country where ready-made
Machinery sprays cannot be purchased better and cheaper than

they can be made in a small way. Methods of using
usually accompany the material. It adds zest to the game, however,
to prepare one’s own material, and those so minded should begin the
season’s campaign during the previous winter by reading the latest
teachings in experiment station literature.

It is well for every grower, no matter how small his plantation,
to own his own spraying machinery. Here is a case, indeed, where
“borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Spraying machinery is
easily got out of gear and needs the particular attention of its owner
to keep it ready for the fray. Pump and accessories must be kept com-
plete, convenient, and clean, that the enemy may be attacked at the
first advance. Handy and efficient spraying machinery is now common
and cheap, and may be purchased from local dealers in nearly all farm-
ing communities. There is no one “best outfit.”

39

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

1. Forewarned is forearmed. The grower must inform himself
in advance as to the enemy he must fight, and be ready for it.

2. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of

Slogans for cure. Most spraying is preventive rather than

ee ee i remedial, so that the grower must take advantage
of time and the enemy.

3. Be a Gideon! The enemy is seldom seen, and his destruction is
taken on faith. Gideon conquered by the might of his faith.

4. Make it hot for the enemy. Start the offensive and keep it.

5. A slacker makes a poor sprayer. All efforts go for naught unless
the job is thoroughly done.

6. Straight shooting is a prime essential in spraying. The part to
be protected must be hit.

7. Exterminate the enemy. Ruthless warfare in an orchard is
not a crime.

8. He sprays twice who sprays quickly. The man who delays it
is at the mercy of the enemy.

9. Be sure of your ammunition. A mistake in ammunition is a
sword in the hands of a
child.

10. Make a sure base for
the attack by studying the
psychology of the enemy. Find
out when and where and how
he is going to attack; you can’t
study him in fighting-time.

Insects and
Orchard

: fungi thrive in
Enemies Are fal 1 filthy
a Filthy Crew oul anc thy

orchards. To

keep pests under, the grower
must keep his grounds clean—
free from weeds and dead,
diseased, infested and in-
fected paris of plants. Indeed,
many pests can be kept under
only by orchard sanitation, as,

ete en the dreaded peach-yellows,
Get the kind of sprayer to fit your necds and Pear-blight, and several insects

make spraying easy and effective of the grape and apple.

LO

CHAPTER VII
THE ART OF PRUNING

What is pruning? Why prune? The answer is that pruning is the

removal of a part of a plant which is superfluous. The art, by the

way, is an adaptation from Nature, who is a most

Definitions pitiless pruner, as dead and dying wood in every tree
and shrub proclaims. :

Taking a lesson from Nature, we can best make plain why trees
must be pruned. Buds, twigs, and branches grow in such abundance
in unpruned vegetation that they crowd, choke, and kill one another,
only those stronger than the rest, or more fortunate in position,
surviving. An unpruned orchard is full of dead or dying branches
vainly stretching toward the light.

i Two quite distinct ends are obtained by pruning—
Pruning to increase productiveness, and to increase the size
and Training ; aeig es .
Distinguished and quality of the crop—this is pruning proper.

Plants are also pruned to make them well-propor-

tioned and to give them such form that they may be easily managed
in the orchard; this is training.
When the tree is ready to plant, it is necessary to
cut away part of the branches to enable the injured
root-system to supply the remaining branches with
water. The less the roots are injured the less the top need be cut
away. Many make a mistake by cutting back all of the branches.

Stop a moment and think. The top buds on a branch develop
soonest and produce the largest leaves. Now a newly set tree will
grow best if it can develop a large leaf-surface before dry, hot weather
setsin. Therefore, instead of shortening in all branches, cut away some
of the branches entirely. The tree so pruned will start growth and
acquire vigor more quickly, and a better top can be formed.

The peach is an exception, and young peach trees must have
their branches cut back to two or three buds. Of course, too, very
long branches of any fruit may be better cut back to reduce the tree
to symmetrical or manageable shape.

The Heicht of A decisive choice must be made at the very start as
the Head to the height of the head. Shall the tree be low- or
high-headed? The choice should usually be for a low-
headed tree, for the reason that such a tree is more easily sprayed and

41

Pruning
When Setting

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

pruned; the fruit is more readily thinned and harvested; crop and
tree are less subject to injury by wind; the trunk is less liable to
injury by sun-scald, winter-killing, and parasites; the top is more
quickly formed, and the low-headed tree soonest bears fruit.

By low-headed is meant a distance from earth to the first limb
of from 1 to 2 feet. The peach may be headed at a lower distance;
the plum, pear, and cherry somewhat higher; while the apple should
approach the upper limit. _

Two types of top are open to choice—the vase-form
a of and the globe-form. In the vase-form the frame-
work of the tree consists of a short trunk surmounted
by four or five main branches ascending obliquely. In the globe-
form the trunk is continued above the branches, forming the center of
the tree. There are several modifications of each of these. In most
climates the open-headed, vase-formed tree is best for the peach, and
the close-centered, two-story tree is best for all other fruits. What-
ever the form, the lowest branches should be longest, so that the
greatest possible leaf-surface will be exposed to the sun and light.

For several years after planting, the peach alone
Too Much : :
Pruning excepted, fruit trees need to be pruned only to train
the tree. Just how much to prune young trees
depends upon the fruit, the variety, the soil, and the climate. Fruit-
growers, as a rule, prune trees
far too much, thereby increas-
ing the growth of wood and
of leaf-surface and delaying
the fruiting of the plant. If
trees were originally well
selected, all that is needed
is to remove an occasional
branch which starts out in
the wrong place—the sooner
done the better—and to take
out dead, injured, or crossed
limbs. The peach, some
plums, and some pears may
need heading-in, and a weak
or sickly tree may require
somewhat more severe prun-
ing.

THE ART OF PRUNING

A plant is ‘‘headed-in” when the terminal growths of its branches
are taken off. Heading-in makes the top of a tree thicker and
broader. In American climates this form of prun-
ing is practised only with peaches and some plums,
and is but little needed with other fruits.

Peaches and some plums bear fruit on the wood
of the past season. The crop is borne progressively away from the
trunk. It is necessary to head-in these fruits to keep the bearing
wood near the trunk. Apples, pears, most plums, and cherries are
borne on spurs from wood two or more years old and, therefore,
with these, heading-in need not be a regular practice.

Te fee Wood tala the top of a tree contains dead or dying
to Insure Vigor ranches, or when the seasonal growth is short and
scant, it may be taken for granted that the tree
lacks vigor or, in old trees, is passing into decrepitude. Such trees.
may be rejuvenated by judicious pruning. In professional terms, they _
must be “pruned for wood.” Such pruning consists in cutting back a
considerable number of branches and in wholly removing others.

Pruning to increase vigor is based upon the fact that the develop-
ment of leaves and shoots—vegetative activity—is dependent upon a
constant supply of the soluble nutriment—the sap. Therefore, when
the size of the tree-top is diminished, the remainder grows more.

When trees are enfeebled by age, injured by insects or fungi,
or neglected in any way, there is
nothing that will more quickly
stimulate them and renew their
youthful vigor than conservative
surgery. Such pruning should
usually be extended over two or
more years.

In pruning for wood, the fol-
lowing rules must invariably be
observed:

Weak-growing varieties should
be pruned generously; strong-
growing kinds, lightly.

Varieties which branch freely
need little pruning; those having
unbranching limbs should be =:
pruned closely. Be sure to have good pruning tools

43,

The Use and
Abuse of
‘‘Heading-in”

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

In cool, damp climates, trees run to wood and need little pruning;
in hot, dry climates, they need much pruning.

Rich, deep soils favor growth; prune trees in such soils lightly,

so that growth is not stimulated excessively. In shallow, sandy soils,
trees produce short shoots; the wood should be closely cut.
A barren tree can sometimes be made to bear fruit by
proper pruning. Not infrequently barrenness is
caused by over-manuring or over-stimulation of some
kind, because of which the number of shoots and leaves are greatly
increased, but flower-buds do not form. This over-production of wood
and leaf can sometimes be stopped by breaking or cutting off the
greater portion of the season’s growth in late summer.

Summer-pruning must be done when the elongation of shoots has
ceased for the season. If the tree is pruned too early the shoots cut
back start growth and the operation has been useless. On the other
hand, if the pruning is done too late there is not sufficient time to
enable the food material to accumulate for the proper production of
fruit-buds.

In America’s inequable climate it is very difficult to practise

summer-pruning successfully, and it is probably best, instead of cut-
ting off the ends of the young shoots, to break them off and let them
hang, cutting them in the winter.
A knife, a saw, and a pair of shears is the smallest
possible equipment for tree-fruits, and to these must
be added ladders for large trees. The cutting edges
of all tools must be keen, so as to leave a clean, smooth cut that will
heal quickly. Only a sloven will prune with a rusty tool.

Pruning
for Fruit

Pruning
Paraphernalia

Newly set. 2-year Same Apple tree Newly set Peach Same Peach pruned.
Apple ready to be pruned ready to be Prune 1-year Apple
pruned pruned same way

A

rHrE ART OF PRUNING

The cut should always be made parallel with the main branch
or trunk and as close to it as possible. A stub, even a short one,
delays healing and leaves a place for rot-fungi. An
Making the Cut elementary rule of pruning is that the cut should
be made just beyond a healthy lateral branch.
Large branches must be removed with exceeding care to avoid
splitting or stripping the bark from the remaining parts, leaving bad
wounds that can never heal. To prevent such a calamity, make an
undercut a few inches out from the main cut, and then cut above;
this leaves a stub which can then be removed, sawing close to the
trunk without fear of disaster to the tree.
Professional pruners make a great ado about salving

Nature’s “Balm the wounds of pruned trees, for which purpose each

7 ”
ole has a particular “Balm of Gilead” to his fancy. At the
Man’s New York Agricultural Experiment Station as many

of these salves, ointments, paints, and waxes, as
could be collected were tried for a period of years on the apple, and
lo, Dame Nature’s balm was better than any of man’s—wounds
untreated healed more quickly and smoothly than any that were
treated! If wounds, however, are larger than three inches in diameter,
there is a danger-spot in the center of the wound where decay often
sets in. It suffices to cover this spot with a good lead paint, keeping
the paint at least half an inch from the outer edge.
The Time Pruning is often left to “time and chance,”’ but there
to Prune is a best time, which is late winter before the sap
flows. The objection to early winter-pruning is that
there may be injury to the tissues near the wound from cold or
from checking. The objection to late spring pruning is the loss of
sap, and because the sap, in running down the bark, keeps it wet and
sticky, making a suitable place for the spores of various rot-fungi.
When a tree on the decline is severely pruned, a
growth of long, vertical, nearly leafless shoots often
follows. Such shoots may also arise from over-manur-
ing or other causes which upset the equilibrium of the tree. These are
suckers, or water-sprouts, and since the sparseness of foliage prevents
the shoots from elaborating food, they appropriate it from the parts
upon which they grow. Suckers are, therefore, robbers, true parasites,
and should be removed whenever and wherever found.

Suckers or
Water-sprouts

45

CHAPTER VIII

FRUITS SUITABLE FOR CERTAIN SECTIONS

The attempt is made to put here in a few pages, by abbreviations,
what, if written in full, would fill a sizable book. The plan is so
simple that it needs no explanation except as to abbreviations and an
outline of the fruit-regions of the territory embraced.

No sensible person will look upon such a list as infallible, and
all will, the writer is certain, take the recommendations of varieties
for regions as merely suggestive, to be qualified by opinions and
experiences of fruit-growers and particularly in consultation with
capable nurserymen within the regions.

FRUIT-REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA

For the purposes of this booklet, North America has been broadly
divided into six great regions as follows:

District No. 1, Northeastern America; No. 2, Southeastern America; No. 3,
North Mississippi Valley; No. 4, South Mississippi Valley; No. 5, Northwestern
America; No. 6, Southwestern America.

We repeat that consultation with the nurservman and fruit-
grower is the commonsense procedure.

Every home garden should have them as good
46

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS

Form: ¢, conical; cp, compressed; h, heart-shaped; 0, ovate; ob, oblate; obl, oblong; ovr
oval; r, round; p, pyriform; obt, obtuse; obo, obovate. Color: a, amber; b, blushed; bl, black;
c, crimson; d, dark; g, green; 0, orange; p, pale; pu, purple; r, red; ru, russet; s, striped; w
white; y, yellow; v, very. Size: 1, large; m, medium; v, very; s, small. Quality: b, best; 2
good; P: poor; v, very. Adhesion—(stone-fruits): c, cling; f, free; sc, semicling. Season: e,
early; 2 late; m, medium; vy, very. Flavor: a, acid; su, subacid; s, sweet; r, rich; v, very;
m, medium.

Recommendations.—V arieties that will succeed in a given district are indicated by
an asterisk (*); varieties highly recommended, by two asterisks (**).

POME FRUITS

APPLES
Description District recommendations
Name I m= 5 5 2 g
S a c) a | 3 2 )/1)/2]3)/4)5)]6
a O |-R| @-| a
Alexander. .... .{r-c vl |g-y,r-s| a g m | **]%* | eR]. | eR]
Bailey Sweet .. . . | r-obl-c/1 VI,s vs |vg m | **|* zk |x |x
Baldwin... .. .|r-c m-l}y,rs |su |vg | 1 wok | ok a [x |x
angina... . . . .|ob m_ |y,b msu | vg 1 PAS scala oe
Ben Davis ... . . |r-obl-c/ m-l | y,rs su |g 1 oe bee [ete
Blue Pearmain. . . . |r-c vi ides su |vg 1 ak | ok & | & |x
Bough .... . . .Jobl-c |m-l|g-y s vg e x | * | ex |
Buckingham. . . . .Job-c | m-l|g-y,rs|su_ |vg ml ok 6 '|| Seale
Chenango. ... . .jJobl-c |m_|w,rs |su_ |vg me | **| * x |* |x
Delicious . . . . . .Jobl-c | m-l |y,rs ma |vg 1 ak | kk [oe [oe | ee | ok
Esopus ..... . .|r-obl-c/1 vr su. |vg—b| ml | **| * 4 Pee] ee
Fall Pippin . . . . . |r-obl-ob/ vl |y,g psu |g-vg| m | **/* | ..]* | **] *
Fameuse .... . .|r-ob |m-s|g,y,rs|su |vg-b} me | **|* |* |* | **|..
Gravenstein . . . . .|r-ob |1 yrs |su |ve | m |**]* |* | * | **]
Grmeswcrs)s.. . .|t-ob |m ly rsu |vg—-b] ml | *#]* | * | |]
Jonathan . . ... .|r-obl-c/m_ |y,rs_ |msu|vgb | ml | **|* |* | **| **| **
BAU sae ile we ee 6 | O vs_ |py,b- |su |vg 1 cae Fae
McIntosh. . . . . .{r-ob |m-1|wyyr,c] su |g-vge] ml | **]..| **)* | **]..
Maiden’s Blush . . .|r-ob |m |py,b |su [g se
Northern Spy .. . . |r-ob-c|1 gy,rs|su_ | vg-b| 1 ae[ x |e |e | ee]
Northwestern ... .|r 1 yz su |g ml |* |* | **|* [* |*
Oldenburgh . . .. .|r-ob |m w,y,rs| ba |g me | **| * | *e| * | #E] *
Red Astrachan. . . . |r-c m-l |g,y,7,s] a g-vel e ek | see | ok |e | ee | ok
Red June... .. . Jobl-c _|m-s|y,r,c | msu}g-vg] e see | eae |e | ek | | ek
R.I. Greening. . . . |r-ob-c}1 g-yg |ra |vg ml | #*} * | ee] | AOR)
Rome Beauty .. . . |r-ob-c]1 y,Ts p,su| vg ml | **| * | ek | ee
Stayman’s Winesap . .|ob-c |m-l|gy,rs |rma|vg | 1 * fe, | | eR)
Tobnan.. .-. . . .(|r-e m w,y,b | s vg vl |e] *# [* [* Te | *
Tompkins King . . . |ob-r-c | 1 y,Ts su |vg 1 ee | oe) te
,Wagener ..... .|r-ob |m-l|y,rs |bs |vg | 1 boc edad [a Mtl
Wealthy... ... .|rob |m |w,rs |bsu|vg | m |**/* | **) ** ## | OF
Williams . . .. . .|r-obl-c} m-l | dr su. |vg me | **| ** si eed ls
Winesap..... . .|r-obl-clm = |dr msu | vg a2 oom eave ea ek | | ORE
Wolf River |... .{r-ob-c/vl |g,y,rs|su |g ml | **| * | **] * a +
YellowTransparent . .|r-ob-c|m_ | py su |g-vg| me | **| **| **| * ee
York Imperial . . . .|/r-ob |m-—t|w,cs |su |g-vg| ml * | * ce aca Vie
CRAB APPLES
Florence .... . ./ob m-l |rs a vg | m | **| **/ * | * aie :
Hyslop ...... ./|r-c 1 dr su | g mee * | He e sas
Martha ..... .|/ob m-l |y Lee lovee ce (REE ete eagle
Transcendent ... .|r-obl | m-l|g,y,b su | g me | FR er ee i
Whitney ..... .{r-c 1 y,Ts su | g ml | **|* | #*)* | *

Ask the Nurseryman 47 He knows varieties

POME FRUITS, continued
: PEARS
Description District recommendations
a A
N. fe] 7 2 im]
a E he a ce ese ae ale see e-
& 2 6) ea | 3
Angouleme obt-p | vl g-y,ru | vg ma | ae Pe ifs [ree [ee
Anjou.. obl-p 1 g-y,ru |vg mi |e ego aeecr las
Bartlett . obt-p 1 y,b vg oy |) ee | a ae oe
Bose obl-p 1 y,ru vg—-b| ml | **| * eae id oles
Clairgeau.. ... p 1 y,ru,b |g ml | **| * HES RE |
Clapp’s Favorite . obt-p [1 yr |e mina: | | ee ES be a ee
Comice ... . r-0-p 1 g-y,ru |vg-b} ml | ** Oe re cass tetas
Flemish Beauty obt-p l y,rb ve Te. | PRA | A EO a oie
Garber : r-obt-p | 1 y,ru p m RD og ee
Kieffer T-p m-l| y,ru,b |p TO aah | cere vce
Lawrence obo-p |m y,ru ve-b] 1 KH es ul eal iveace eee eee
Le Conte obl-p 1 y p ml ee bas
Seckel . . T-p s y-g,b,ru| b may eae Py a ae
Sheldon... . » r-obt m-l | g,ru vg-b} ml | ** pe ae
Winter Nelis . . r-obo-p | m-s| y-g,ru_ | vg—-b| 1 i 7K |
QUINCES
Champion . . | obo-p 1 y g 1S ecu cage ae oes
Orange r-ob vl | o-y Verses [eee ee Ee RS ee
STONE FRUITS
APRICOTS
Description District recommendations
a .
Name g é & 3 Bey g
3 7 i) oa ri Us Fa nea fe aed
ee se iS) cs = oa
aq ~~ s
Blenheim ci ob m-l | o-y g-vg| m eK soled
Hemskirke. . r-ob-c] vl | o,rb f |g-vg| ve see: | aa
Moorpark . T vl o,rb f{ |g-vg| m * | x * | ex | xx
Peach . . r-c-oc | vl | y-o vg m | 1... ax | Ok
Royal . . r-ob-c | 1 Y;0,tb| a. ve ve | * | * & | ek | ak
|
CHERRIES, Sweet
Description District recommendations
Name g ‘e; k 2 A
5 s 3 3 g Pe QoS 8e ea Bm et
Bing: sonar s nit vl b ve l * Parrs
Centennial... o-h |} vl fy,r |vg ee eee: * | kek
Early Purple. . r-h | s-m | p-bl|g-ve] ve | * x | ok
Lambert h I pr. |vg ml | * gek | ok
Napoleon h l yr) |g—-vel ms | ee] foo | ack
Republican m-l | b : vl ret le sk | oR
Schmidt's . vl bl vg m *e | ok Kw
Ask the Nurseryman 48 He knows varieties

STONE FRUITS, continued
CHERRIES, Sweet, continued

Description

District recommendations

Name =| © 8 2 5
7 N = =
5 | 8 3 | ‘a¢ | gi1/2}/a}4a}5je
a Sa fee a 7
Spanish . o-h | vl |py,b|vg | me | **| * x |x |x
Tartarian h 1 bl vg—-b| me | **| * * | ek |
Windsor . . h m-l]bl |gog | 1 ak | ok a l* |
Wood . . .|r-h |m-l|y,b |vg me | **| * * | kk | x
CHERRIES, Duke and Sour
Hortense . . r-h {vl [r ve mil. | FF |. all ee
Late Duke. . oh | m-l|r-dr| g-vg} 1 wx | ok | ax |
May Duke r-h | m-l | r—dr] vg e Whe ae
Montmorency r 1 r vg me | **|* |* | * | * | *
Morello . f r-h | m-1/r-bl | g 1 ee | Bek | keto) ae de oe
Ostheim . . o-r |m-l|dr jg m |* |* | **| # |e | #
Philippe . . r m dr |g e vets | | oe le pe
Richmond . r-ob| m ‘|r g e sek | ek | tek | ok | kK |
NECTARINES
Description District recommendations
a
Name eee Se ee ea
5 = 3 BN rg Be a aleet | Bal AOS: 1 6
& 0 S| a 2
So ee
Boston t-ov | 1 yr f g me |-o* * | | ee
Downton r-ov | m g,r f g ve | *].. Salle
Early Newington . : r-ov | l gr c ve |} <6 a + | oF
PEACHES
Alexander . Tr m_ |w,rb s-c |g ve (oe [= [2 |e 1 ae) ee
Beer’s Smock . ov m-l|y,o-rb| f g nde [peer Ee * *
Belle of pes r-ob | m-l|w,rb £ vg e 3k | eK Loan ee
Carman . r 1 Ww 4 he e ST HE ice ee eae
Champion. . r m-l | w,rb f ve me | **|* | * | **|* | *
Crawford’s Early . r-ov | vl |y,rb f vg me | **| * | RHR | ook
Crawford’s Late r-ov | vl |y,rb £ vge-b AE | | RE AR oe
Crosby r m-l |o-y,rb| f g pee ica ee i a ci
Elberta . r-ov | m-vl|y,rb f fag mo | FR a ee ee
Greensboro Tr m_ |y,rb se |g e ished Wega Mee Sided ee ee
Heath . : obl-ov} vl |py,rb | ¢ ve 1 ee | RK |
Lemon Cling . roy {vl idyrb | ¢. [ve my foe [Re | see
Mountain Rose r 1 w,rb f vg me | ** | ** | |
Muir . r-ov | l-vl ly f ve m Py pee OP fee Pat
Oldmixon Free . r-ov |l y-w,rb} f vg m_ | **| * siz] eee ak
Salway r-ob | 1 y,rb £ g 1 sisal Niel ee |e | ee
Smock ov 1 y,o-rb| f g 1 eK | He * |e | *
Stevens . r-ov |m_ |w,rb f g mal | **| * fl Mean Mee
Stump r-ob. | vl w,rb 8 g ml | **| ** ae eae |
Triumph r m-l |o-y,rb| f g e * | % 2 | oe | ok
Tuskena.. r-obl | m y,rb c g m mek |

Many other varieties of the Peach are excellent, and it is always advisable to
ask the Nurseryman to recommend those best adapted to the locality

49

STONE FRUITS, continued

PLUMS
Description District recommendations
e
Name é © 5 2 2 g
es 8 3 3 a 4a 1,/2)3)4 5. | 6
ce y 's) 315] a
Abundance ... . .|r-ov | m-l| o-y,br} ¢ g me: |] aE RAE 8 |
Agen obo m-s | r-p f ve-b| 1 gale ae | ook
Bavay : r-ov |m y-g,r | f b ro 00m ied Mime ca eal
Bradshaw . obo m-! | dpu f g m Ed (eee (Deere aera (ata Id
Burbank r-c m o-y,r | ¢ g Ty | PE eo [PRS ee: [abe ee
De Soto . r-obl | I-vl | r c vg m a a | *
German . Pee ea ons 1 pu f g m 2k
Giant... eo « « TROD [owl de f g m ay
Golden Drop . ov l-vl | ly,r s-c |g m. )*
Green Gage i ov s g-y-g| s-c |b mi |e
Imperial Gage . r-ov }|m y-E f ve-b]| m HK | OK
Italian Prune .. . . | obl-ov}m dpu £ vg 1 bun ee *
Lombard T-OV m-l | r-pu c g me | **/|* | * | **
Pond. . ov vl T-pu > |e Tie | [Ste ere ae KK
Red June ov m pu-r sc |g ve | **|#e)* |e |e | *
Satsuma. . r-c m-l | dr c ve ml | )* * | | ee
Shropshire . . ov s pu c g m mek | ok * ee | &
Washington . . | r-ov | m-l} g-y f vg me | **| * | eR | ee
Wicksons. a0 see |r m I-p vg Tors |e ae | eR | ox
Wild Goose .....({I m £ ec le ta | ae eee
Wolf . bp ee de tee ae NEE m y,rb f£ g m steel aid ccc [ca] (| fe
Yellow Egg ov vl py c vg m_ | ** xk | eK
SMALL FRUITS
Description District recommendations
Name g © 5 2 8
é 3 8 S 3 1 2 3 4 iD. 16
Cc RQ
Gacnapipuapeeneiasan
Briton... . : r-ov |m bl g m |**]..] * | * | * [*
Early Harvest r-obl | s bl ve |e ek | kok ax | ok | oe
Eldorado obl m bl ve |e wer] [oe foe fae |
Brie. ..5 @ + r-obl | m bl g m |* | * xk] oe | &
Kittatinny . r-obl | l-vl | bl ver | aol |) pe | kok | ok
Mersereau . r-obl -vl | bl ve 1 ak | kK x | ok
Loganberry r-obl | 1 pu | vg ois : Ak | ek
Snyder . obl-ov} m-l | bl ve } ml | e*|* | £]* |e |e
DEWBERRIES
Lucretia . obl-ov} vl bl | vg | e sok | tok se] ok | ok
Mayes. . c-OV vl bl vg ve |* | * * x | *
RASPBERRIES, Puce
Columbian . Tr vl | pu g e | | ee] *
Shaffer ; tr-ob | vl | pu g m |**/ *] * | * |e | &
RASPBERRIES, Black
Cumberland r l bl | g m | ee] eR]. ee
Gregg . r-ob | | bl | ¢ m | #*/* | * | ® [eK] x
Kansas r 1 bl | ve | m | **]* | * | * fe | #
Ohio oats r m bl g e ok | ok * * *
Plum Farmer. . r | bl ve | e ax [oR | ok * |x
Ask the Nurseryman 50 Ha noise earnaties

SMALL FRUITS, continued

Description District recommendations
Name Fy oe Bu ae 8
5 a 3 g g i 2 3 4 5 6
& o e BD
RASPBERRIES, Red
Cuthbert rect mal or | veh ma: 6] eR ae es eb See
June r-e | 1 r | ve |e |e] ee] e | # ]* | ®
Loudon . r-c |m-l] r g m |**|* | #] #]* | *
Marlboro r-c | 1 r g m | ** feof ae ae
CURRANTS
Cherry r vl dr |g m | **| * | ee] | ee]
Diploma . r vl r g m | **| * |e] | RR]
Fay. . 5 r vl r zg m ax | ok | ek | **| &
Perfection . r vl r b Tia paste ont ea i
Red Cross . . T vl r ve-b| m | **| * | * | * | ee] #
Red Dutch . . r m-l|r vg mo [| * | FR RL oe |
White Grape . r l w veb | m | **| * | * | * | * | #*
Wilder. . 5 r vl |y-wleg m |**| *]* |#* |* | *
GOOSEBERRIES
Chautauqua r,obl | 1 y-w |vge—-b] m | **]..]* | # | * | *
Downing. . Ov m-l| pg |g m | **| * | **) * | * | *
Industry ou r-ov |vl |dr |vg ef RR) RoR AE Poe |e
Pearl r m | g-w|vg-b| m | ** ba Be *
Poorman. . a 2 oe ie Be Boils
Whitesmith r-ov | l-vl| y-wlg e | ** bales
GRAPES

Alexandria . . obl vl |y-w] vg | 1 ek) Gee
Black Hamburg T-0 vl |bl veg | m pili
Black Morocco Oo vl | bl ve | l sie Wie
Black Prince to) ml | bl vg | e os Pee Ohta as
Brighton r 1 r vg e ae) eR) | KL KR |
Campbell r 1 bl Wes Wes.) | RIE RE ORE Rs
Catawba r 1 r-pu| vg | vl | **| * x |x | *
Concord Tr m-l | bl g m | **| ee] | ek | see |
Cornichon . obl | vl | bl ve | 1 a OE ee
Delaware % s r b mo. [OAR Re | eae | ee |
Diamond r 1 g-w| ve | m |**/* |* | * | * | *
Emperor obl vl r zg 1 * | oe
Flame Tokay r-0 vl |r ve | m ek | ek
Gordo Blanco r vl |w ve | m ne *e
James . . r vl jbl vg | vl cas (ee
Janesville r m bl gp |e Pe erga esl bere | ea (Beery
Lindley T-0 m r ve}: | PRE Ee es
Malaga oO vl Iw vg | m = *%
Memory .. obl ml | br g m ial re
Mish fo) 1 bl Z ve iia sal ake
Mission r ml | bl g mm) ce| et esl seule
Moore .. r vl | bl g e [RPE Pee ee)
Niagara . o-r 1 pg ve | m_ | #R] ee] | Fee) ek |
Peru 3 Fy vl |y-g | ve | e elt. haere oem
Scuppernong r vl | pe g m oa Pa a o
Sultana fo) m y vg m Ke
Sultanina fo s-m|w-y | vg | e * | RK
Sweetwater r m-l | w ve e Sood cea
Vergennes . fo) l r yee | ame RR ae ee ee
Winchell r m |w vg | e psi [egal (ascsai cant asses [il
Worden . r if bl ve | em] **) #e] * | *K) HK)
Zinfandel bl g m * | eK
Ask the Nurseryman 51 He knows varieties

CHAPTER IX
CONSERVATION AND THE HOUSEWIFE

To get the most out of the home fruit-garden, the housewife

must promote the good works of the husband by generous use of
fruit throughout the year for the family good. Pro-
duction and conservation are being preached every-
where. To do his duty by his family and his country,
the man who owns land must produce, and the housewife, to do her
home and civic duty, must preserve.
The preferred use for any fruit is to eat it as Nature
produced it, unsullied by the arts of man. Now, for-
tunately, greenness, maturity, and decay grade so
slowly and insensibly into each other that some fruits may be kept
months without deterioration, and, quite to the contrary, improve
by the keeping.

The ideal method of keeping apples and pears is to put them in
cold-storage, bringing them out as needed. So kept, apples and pears
are as fresh and delectable, for the most part, the winter through as
when they naturally come to maturity. Few, however, have cold-
storage facilities and must rely on common storage.

Common storage for winter varieties of apples and pears is simple
if a few requirements can be met. These are, that the fruit be kept
in a cool place, neither too wet nor too dry, where it cannot absorb
odors from vegetables or other products. The ideal temperature
is just above the freezing-point, but these fruits may be kept long and
well in cellars where the temperature occasionally goes up even to
45° or 50° Fahr. Windows that can be opened and closed, as occasion
requires, help wonderfully in controlling the temperature. The
moisture can be controlled by having a dirt-floor or by occasionally
sprinkling a cement floor. In such a cellar, fruit may be stored
unwrapped. More often, however, each apple or pear will better be
wrapped with paper to conserve moisture, which, at the same time,
keeps out odors and prevents the spread of decay.

In any case, the safest procedure is to wrap choice fruit in news-
paper and pack in barrels, boxes, baskets, or bins. In a very dry
room it pays to line the boxes and barrels with paper and to keep
them tightly covered. Pears are preferably stored in shallow trays
or drawers. Late-ripening grapes, by the way, protected as described

The House-
wife’s Part

Conserving
by Storing

xs)

5g

v

CONSERVATION AND THE HOUSEWIFE

above and put in shallow receptacles, may easily be kept until mid-
winter. It is useless to store bruised, diseased, decayed, or over-ripe
fruit, thus courting failure. : ;
Canning is the simplest of operations. It consists in
keeping a food-product airtight after the bacteria
have been destroyed by heat. Modern methods
make canning so easy that children can foods, as
children’s canning clubs the country over attest. Fruits, in particular,
are easily canned, every fruit of the orchard being suitable. Principally,
the fruit is canned either by the open-kettle or the cold-pack methods.

In the open-kettle method the product to be canned is cooked in
an open kettle and then put into sterilized jars and sealed. All fruits
may be socanned. The jars, and also the rubbers and covers, must be
sterilized by boiling for ten minutes, before the fruit is put in them.
Usually, the fruit is cooked in a sugar syrup of varying sweetness.
This is the old-fashioned method, known by every housewife.

The cold-pack
method consists in
packing the raw or
blanched product into
the jar, surrounding the
material with liquid,
and cooking in boiling
water. It is, on the
whole, the more satis-
factory method, because
it saves time and labor,
and because either fruit,
vegetables, or meat keep
indefinitely if sufficient
time is given to the pro-
cessing. A wash-boiler,
or a deep pan with a
tightly fitting cover,
makes a good home-
made canner, if a rack
is used to prevent the
jars from resting on
the bottom. There are
excellent commercial Kieffer Pear

53

Canning —
Conservation
in Excelsis

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

outfits now available. Fruits canned by the cold-
pack method are usually packed with syrup, but
hot water alone may be used and the sugar added
when the fruit is served.

This is the cheap and easy way

Drying 3 :
the Cheapest : oe sr a ser ri
Method ne home truit-garden, for dry-

of Conservation ing requires neither sugar, spice,

nor special containers; the pro-
duct is condensed, thereby saving storage-space;
and it may be kept indefinitely.

Fruits are easily dried in four ways: In the
sun; by artificial heat in an oven or dryer; by
an air-current made by an electric fan; or by com-
bining any of these methods.

In dry, hot weather, sun-drying is cheapest
and easiest. The prepared fruit is spread on wire
or netting trays, covered with netting to protect
them from insects, and exposed to the sun in
open air.

In cloudy weather, artificial heat must be
used in oven or dryer. Full directions for use
come with the commercial dryers. In the kitchen,
the prepared fruit is kept in a warm oven, on
platter or pan, with the oven-door open for
thorough ventilation; or the drying process may
be started in the oven and completed in the sun.

The following rules must be observed in dry-
ing: 1. Use the best material. 2. Work as rapidly
as is consistent with good results. 3. Slice large
fruits to get large drying surfaces. 4. Do not
overheat in oven or dryer—the heat should never

54

CONSERVATION AND THE HOUSEWIFE

exceed 140° Fahr. 5. Stir frequently to insure
even drying. 6. Keep the fruit free from dust
and insects. 7. Bring sun-dried fruit indoors at
night to avoid dampness. 8. Dry thoroughly be-
fore storing and so prevent molds.

How preserve? Before me lies a
Preserves treatise giving, 1,001 recipes for

preserving fruits. Bulletins, cir-
culars, magazines, newspapers, and demonstra-
tion schools vie in giving recipes. All who will may
learn how to preserve—even in the manner of
the old days and with the old-time flavors. We
urge that the times are now propitious for a
groaning pantry of jams, jellies, fruit-butters,
fruit-pickles, fruit-juices, marmalades, shrubs,
compotes, ratafias, spiced fruits, and candied
fruits.

A long-neglected resource of the
Fruit-juices fruit-grower is just coming into its

own—unfermented fruit -juices.
Cider, it is true, has been a drink for the thirsty
of all ages. And what drink goes better on a cold
winter’s night?

Much of the fruit that is lost each year
through inability to make use of it at once may
be saved by making wholesome, pleasant fruit-
juices. These juices can be used as daily drinks, in
sickness, convalescence, and in many ways in the
preparation of foods and ices. Moreover, fruit-
juices are true liquid foods, second only to milk.

Making fruit-juices is as simple as canning.
As in canning, a sterilized product is hermetically

55

FRUITS FOR THE HOME GROUNDS

sealed in a sterilized container. Juices, however, can be satisfactorily
sterilized without boiling, a temperature of 200° Fahr., or a little
less, sufficing. Boiling, it is well to remember, impairs the flavor.
Methods of expressing the juice and sterilizing juice and container
are varied, but all are simple. Observing the principles set down
above, any ingenious person can devise methods and expect success.

A LAST WORD

The fruit-grower may escape from many pitfalls and avoid
many quagmires by keeping in touch with his state experiment
station. The true fruit-grower, too, must have books—not one, but
many—for he must see his orchard through many eyes. He must have,
too, illustrated catalogues of nurserymen, and makers of horticul-
tural implements.

Another last word! The fruit-garden must never be finished. To
change and plant and plan constitute the chief delights of garden-
ing. “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive,” says
Stevenson. Traveling hopefully in an unfinished orchard is better
than arriving, no matter how happily one arrives. Even frustrated
hope and brave failure have their rewards. But away with failure!
The hopeful traveler ever leans to the sunny side.

Thas little treatise has been prepared for the Ameri-

can Association of Nurserymen by an impartial fruit

authority. The suggestions given are from long expe-

rience, and they may be used best when consultation
also is had with a capable nurseryman.

56

Your own nursery “copy” and
announcements on this page

Your own nursery “copy” and
announcements on this page

~ Gaylamount
Pamphlet
Binder
Gaylord Bros., Inc. ‘
Syracuse. N.Y. ;

T.M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. !