UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA

Ai

LOS ANGELES
LIBRARY

BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT
GROWING

Other Books by the Same Author

LANDSCAPE GARDENING

PLUMS AND PLUM CULTURE

FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING

SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY

DWARF FRUIT TREES

THE AMERICAN APPLE ORCHARD

THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL

Beginners' Guide
to Fruit Growing

A Simple Statement of the Elementary
Practices of Propagation, Planting, Cul-
ture, Fertilization, Pruning, Spraying, etc.

By

F. A. WAUGH

Amply Illustrated

*t>RA*NGE* JUDD COMPANV"

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co., Limited
1913

Copyright, 1912

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

All rights reserved

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND

Printed in U. S. A.

SB

5

TO THE MEMORY OF

JUDGE FRED WELLHOUSF

"THE APPLE KING OF KANSAS"

ONE OF MY EARLIEST FRIENDS ANI>

ADVISORS IN THE FIELD OF

HORTICULTURE

PREFACE

THIS little book is written for the one who does
not know. The man who has already arrived may
think it hardly worth while, but I ask him to re-
member that the simplest questions are the ones
oftenest asked, and that the beginners are the ones
who oftenest need help. I trust no one will be-
grudge the excellent company of novices even so
small a help as that which is here most humbly
offered by their friend and well wisher,

F. A. WAUGFL
Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1912.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PROPAGATION —

CHAPTER II
PLANTING

CHAPTER III
MANAGEMENT — 39

CHAPTER IV
PRUNING 58

CHAPTER V
SPRAYING

CHAPTER VI
THE VARIOUS FRUITS __ 96

CHAPTER VII
RENOVATION 109

PROPAGATION

PRACTICALLY all fruit trees used in gardens or
orchards are propagated* by grafting or by bud-
ding. This work is usually done by the nursery-
man, who sells the trees at an age of one or two
years. As a rule, subject only to rare exceptions,
this is the best plan. The professional nursery-
man, with his experience and with suitable soil, can
grow better trees and grow them cheaper than can
any ordinary farmer, gardener or fruit grower.
Nevertheless there are a good many persons who

FIG. 1. — GRAFTING KNIFE

like to grow their own young trees, even at a slight
extra expense, and such persons ought always to
have the privilege. Every gardener and fruit
grower, moreover, ought to understand the proc-
esses of budding and grafting, if only for fun or
self-protection.

A few fruits, indeed, may be grown from cuttings,
without grafting. These are mostly not tree fruits,
but such things as currants, grapes, etc. A few
varieties of pears and still fewer of plums are suc-
cessfully grown from cuttings in the far southern

*See The Propagation of Plants, by A. S. Fuller. Orange
Judd Co., New York.

2 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

states, but these cases hardly form a sufficient ex-
ception to prove the rule.

Among old orchards a) e a few also planted with
seedling (ungrafted) trees. In early days there was
some excuse — though rarely adequate excuse — for
using these seedlings. Today there is no reason
whatever for planting anything but grafted trees
anywhere in America that a garden can be made
or a farm opened up. When grafted or budded trees
can be bought at 15 to 35 cents each, now the almost
universal range of price, no man can afford to use
seedlings.

ROOT-GRAFTING

One of the commonest ways of propagating
nursery trees is by root-grafting. As this applies
principally to the apple, it may be described as
practiced with that fruit.

The apple stocks are grown from seeds saved
from the cider mills. These seeds come largely
from the New England states, especially Vermont
and New Hampshire. The stocks are largely grown
in a few restricted localities. At one year old these
seedlings are dug, graded and sold to the nursery-
men, who use them both in budding and grafting.
Considerable quantities of similar seedling stocks
are now being imported annually from France.
These are known simply as French stocks, but they
are not 'essentially different from the American stocks.

The amateur who wishes to do a little budding
or grafting for himself should imitate the average
nurseryman in buying his stocks ready grown. Of
course, anyone can sow apple seeds in his own
garden and can grow apple stocks just as easily as

PROPAGATION 3

he can grow cabbage ; but the men who are spend-
ing a lifetime in this highly specialized branch of
horticulture can evidently do the thing to better
advantage.

For root-grafting the roots should be secured
in November or early December. The cions,
chosen from reliable trees of the desired varieties,
should be cut about the same time. In cool, moist
storage these cions will keep for two or
three months without damage. They
should be clean, straight shoots of one-
year-old wood only, firm and well
matured.

The cion may be united with the
stock by any one of several methods of
grafting. The two members may be
simply slanted off — the stock at its
upper end, the cion at its lower end —
with a clean cut, and the two pieces
spliced together and tied with soft cloth
or grafting twine. (Figure 2.) This is
what is known as a splice-graft.
FIG. 2 fhe usual method, however, is the whip-

SPLICE-GRAFT .. ' , . ' . . \

graft, or tongue-graft, which is simply
an improvement in .splicing, whereby the two parts hold
together more firmly and more quickly grow together
when stored or planted. The graftsman takes the cion
in his left hand and with a sharp knife cuts the
slanting lower end, just as in splice-grafting. Then,
reversing the cion, he cuts a thin tongue, as shown
in the illustration (Figure 3). The important con-
sideration here, is to cut, not split, the wood, leav-
ing a strong stiff tongue, which will tightly grip
the similar tongue on the stock. The stock is cut
in precisely the same way.

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

i

Cion and stock should each have a length of 3 to
6 inches, 4 inches being customary. A fair seedling
apple root will cut into two pieces, and a good one
into three pieces, and each piece may be used as the
stock on which to start a new apple tree. The
graft is then known as a piece-root graft. Or the
entire root of the apple seedling may be used in
one piece, one seedling root to each apple tree

propagated. This is what

is known as the whole-
root graft. Great advan-
tages have sometimes been
claimed, but never proved,
for the whole-root graft.

The customary working
method is to cut and pre-
pare several cions, theft to
prepare several stocks, then
to fit cions and stocks to-
gether, tying each graft
firmly with soft twine. A
particularly fancy job is
done by dipping the joints in
soft grafting wax. The

grafts are now completed and should be tied up in small
bundles, about 50 to each bundle, and packed in saw-
dust. The sawdust should be slightly moistened and
the boxes containing the grafts should be stored in a
cool cellar, preferably safe from severe freezing. If the
grafts are correctly made and packed before Christmas,
they will heal before planting time in the spring.
Stock and cion will be found firmly grown together
when the boxes are brought into the field in early
April for planting.

At potato-planting time in the spring, or per-

FIG. 2 a — WHIP-GRAFTING

PROPAGATION

haps a week earlier, the grafts should be set in a
clean, thoroughly tilled garden spot. Mellow, warm,
well-drained soil with an abundance of plant food
is essential. The garden line is stretched across
the plot, a trench is opened out 8 to 12 inches deep,

a

FIG. 3 — WHIP-GRAFT

and the grafts set against the straight side of this
furrow. They should be set 8 inches apart, and
covered with soil nearly to the tops of the cions,
leaving, say, two buds projecting. The soil should
be firmly packed around them. Thereafter they
are to be hoed and tended like any other crop. Such
grafts are usually ready for transplanting to the
orchard after two years' growth ; but fertile soil and
good care will give trees heavy enough for use in
one year.

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

SIDE-GRAFTING

Another good method sometimes employed, espe-
cially with plums, is side-grafting. There are some
variations of this method, but the one herewith
described is as good as any — perhaps the best.

The stocks are not dug, but are grafted in the
rows where they are grown. This item is especially
applicable to plum grafting, for one can nearly
always grow his own plum stocks as well as to buy

FIG. 4 — SIDE-GRAFT

them. The work may be done in the autumn or
very early in the spring. Cions are secured and
kept just as for whip-grafting. When the graft is
to be made, however, the cion is cut to a long, thin
wedge at its lower end. The stock is cut with
a slanting stroke downward, as near the surface of
the ground as practicable, the left hand of the
graftsman grasping the stem of the young seedling
tree and bending it slightly away from the cut.
The wedged end of the cion is then inserted in this

PROPAGATION

slit, then the seedling, being released, springs back
into position securely pinching and holding the
cion. For greater security the graft may be wound
with soft cloth or grafting twine.

The cions on these grafts should begin to make
strong growth by the middle or last of May. As
soon as this stage is reached the seedling stocks
should be cut off with a pair of strong shears just

above the point of

union. At the same
time it will be well to
cut any bandages or
ties which were put on
when the grafts were
set.

THE NURSE-GRAFT

Of the hundreds of
methods of grafting
one other may be men-
tioned, more as a sam-
ple of such methods
than for general recom-
mendation. Nevertheless, the nurse-graft is a practical
working method, and as good as any. In some cases it
may have practical advantages. The method consists
essentially in supplying a cutting with a root which
acts as nurse. The form of making cut and union
is exactly the reverse of that just described in side-
grafting. The cion, which should be relatively
long, say 12 inches, is given an upward cut near
its middle, as shown in Figure 5. The piece of
root which forms the stock or nurse is cut to a
long wedge at its upper end. This wedge is in-

FIG. 5 — THE NURSE-GRAFT

8 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

serted in the incision in the cion. The graft may
then be tied with grafting twine, but in many cases
this extra care will be found unnecessary. This
method has sometimes been rather imaginatively
called the "foster-mother graft." It is useful espe-
cially for those varieties which root readily from
the cions. At the end of the first year's growth,
then, the little stock may be removed, leaving an
own-rooted tree, free from all foreign influences of
a strange stock. In some cases this is considered
advantageous.

BUDDING

Budding accomplishes the same ends as whip-
grafting, but in a very different manner. It has
advantages and disadvantages. As a rule it is prac-
ticed with the stone fruits generally, the reason
being that the wood of these fruits is so soft and
brittle that it cannot be cut in the forms required
for grafting. Budding is also used largely on apple
and pear trees. Some nurserymen prefer budding;
others think grafting serves them better. The
nurserymen of the eastern states usually propagate
apples by budding; those of the central-western
states mostly prefer the method of root-grafting.

Just here we may answer a common question as
to the comparative value of the results. Sometimes
a nurseryman will claim great advantages for his
trees because they are budded rather than grafted ;
at other times men will claim the precedence for
grafted trees ; frequently special claims are put
forth for trees propagated by some special method —
perhaps some mysterious secret method. It is
proper to treat all such claims either as pure bosh

PROPAGATION 9

or deliberate fraud. The fact is, that good clean
nursery trees of the same size, weight and develop-
ment are all worth precisely the same without
reference to the methods whereby they were propa-
gated. The particular method of budding or graft-
ing is not worth a picayune to the thousand.

As budding is more extensively prac-
ticed with the peach than with any other
fruit, we may most easily describe the
method used in that work. The modifica-
tions of method required in budding
apples, pears or plums are mostly unim-
portant, and would occur to any novice
who might try to make the application for
himself.

The stocks are grown in place, in the
rows where they are to be budded. The
peach pits are planted in these rows in
early .spring, and by the time they are
required in the last half of August, the
young seedlings should have a height of FIG. 6
3 to 4 feet, and a diameter at the ground B"°™£G
of YT. to -;4 inches.

Budding time runs from the first of August to the
first of October, depending partly on the growth,
but chiefly on the condition of the stocks as deter-
mined by the conditions of weather. The regular
test is made by observing whether the bark slips.
The bark on the stock should peel or slip easily, just
as it must on willow shoots when willow whistles
have to be made. The stocks are then put in readi-
ness by mild pruning, the lower branches, to a
height of a foot, from the ground, being rubbed or
cut off. This must not be done, however, till the
hour when the buds are to be set.

io BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

The cions are cut as "budding sticks" from relia-
ble fruiting trees of the variety which is to be repro-
duced. A budding stick is a shoot of the current
year's growth, usually 12 to 18 inches in length, and
having at the base the diameter of a small lead
pencil. From this the blades of the leaves are

FIG. 7 — POCKET BUDDING KNIFE

clipped immediately when the stick is taken from
the parent tree. The petioles or stems of the leaves
are left, however, and serve a very useful purpose
in setting the buds. (See Figure 6.)

The operator should be supplied with a regular
budding knife ( Figure 7 or 8) . Kneeling beside the row
of stocks, he begins by cutting a T-shaped incision
through the bark of the stock, preferably on the
shady north side, and as near the surface of the

FIG. 8 — RIGID BUDDING KNIFE

ground as he can conveniently work. The two lips
of this incision should peel up smoothly from the
wood beneath, so as to allow the easy insertion of
the bud. The cion consists of a single bud cut
shield-shape, as shown in Figure 9. This little
shield is slipped downward in the opening made by
the peeled-up bark on the stock, and is then tied
in place with a soft strip of raffia. The tying is
usually done by a boy or other laborer whose time
is cheaper than that of a good budder.

PROPAGATION

I I

These ties must be examined from time to time,
and should be removed as soon as the buds "take."
Within about a month, if not removed, they will
begin to choke the stocks which continue to ex-
pand in diameter rapidly at this season. The tie is
cut by running a sharp knife longitudinally up the
stem of the stock on the side opposite the bud.

The buds should grow fast to the stocks within
two to four weeks, but should remain dormant
through the first winter.
They should start into
growth the following spring.
As soon as their growth is
assured the stocks should
be smoothly cut off about
an inch above the growing
bud. Care is required
throughout the first year to
protect the nursling bud
from the encroachments of
the stock. Very often other
buds start into growth from
the stock and would soon
smother the strange bud so
carefully grafted in. Of
course, all such seedling shoots must be promptly
rubbed off.

Budded peach trees should always be trans-
planted to their permanent positions in garden or
orchard after the buds have grown one year. Strong
growing varieties of plums and cherries should also
be transplanted at one year old. Budded apples on
good soil are best transplanted at one year from the
bud, though the commoner practice is to grow them
in the nursery rows to the age of two years. Like-

no. 9 — SHIELD BUDDING

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

wise pears are usually grown two years in the nurs-
ery, but strong-growing varieties, like Kieffer, on
good land will reach such a size the first season as
to make transplanting advisable.

CLEFT-GRAFTING

While budding and whip-grafting are usually
used in the propagation of trees in the nursery,
cleft-grafting has its common
application in the reworking of
old trees in the orchard. If old
pear trees, apple trees, or plum
trees are bearing unknown or
undesirable varieties of fruit
they may be changed by graft-
ing to any other variety de-
sired. This is sometimes called
top-grafting, as the work is
done in the tops of the trees
instead of on the roots.

This top-grafting is done in
early spring, the earlier the
better. The last half of
March offers the best oppor-
portunity, and the work runs grave danger
of failure if delayed until the buds start on the
trees. Cions for top-grafting are cut late in the fall
before heavy freezing. They should be securely
labeled with the names of varieties and stored in a
cool dark cellar. When grafting time arrives prep-
arations begin by making up a batch of grafting
wax. Every true and tried graftsman has his own
pet formula for this mixture, but the following
recipes will serve as a basis for the work of begin-
ners:

FIG. 10 — CLEFT-GRAFT-
ING

PROPAGATION 13

GRAFTING WAX

Resin 4 pounds
Beeswax i pound
Tallow i pound

Melt these together and pour the material into a
pail of cold water. Then with greased hands pull
the wax like old-fashioned taffy until it is white
and comparatively clear. Slightly more beeswax
in this formula will usually make a smoother work-
ing wax.

RECIPE NO. 2

Resin 6 pounds

Beeswax i pound

Pure linseed oil i pint

Cook thoroughly. This makes a softer wax,
which can be applied with a stiff paint brush. The
harder wax, about the consistency of chewing gum,
is preferred by most workmen, and is applied with
the bare hands.

Preparation next looks to the grafting tools,
which are as follows: A small sharp saw, a light
wooden mallet, a sharp knife and a special grafting
knife.

Trees for top-grafting may be of almost any age,
from two years old to two hundred. The work is
most commonly done, however, on full-grown trees
of 10 to 50 years of age.

Several.branches are selected for grafting. These
should be sound branches, free from disease, sym-
metrically placed throughout the tree top, and hav-
ing a diameter of 2 to 4 inches. From 4 to 12 such
branches should be used in grafting a tree of mod-
erate size. The branches are sawed off squarely,

14 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

as low down as practicable, care being given to
leave all the stubs about an equal distance from the
center of the tree.

The operator now takes his grafting knife (some-
times called also a grafting chisel) and his light

FIG. 11 — GRAFT AFTER ONE YEAR'S GROWTH

wooden mallet, and splits a stub down the center.
This split should extend from 4 to 6 inches down
the branch. The chisel is withdrawn and its wedge-
shaped portion is inserted in the center of the stub,
so as to open the split about one-half inch.

Meanwhile the cions have been prepared by
cutting them in lengths of 4 inches and trimming
each one to a long, thin wedge at the bottom. This

PROPAGATION 1 5

wedge should also slope slightly sidewise so as to
be a trifle thicker at one side than at the other.
With a cion having a diameter of ^4 to ^ inch the
wedge portion should measure 1^4 inches from heel
to point.

In the opened stub the graftsman now inserts
two of these cions, one at either side, the thicker
edge of the cion to the outer edge of the stub, as
shown in the picture (Figure 10). The wedge is
now withdrawn from the center of the stub, which
will spring shut, pinching and holding the two
cions in place. The graft is now protected by a
•covering of grafting wax, special care being used
to cover the exposed split in the stock and the two
openings along either side of the stub where the
cions are put in.

This completes the graft. A little attention dur-
ing the summer will prevent the growing cions be-
ing choked or shaded to death by shoots which
sometimes spring up from the stubs. Such grafts
will be ready to begin bearing after a growth of
two to six years, the time being rather variable
according to the very diverse circumstances which
arise.

It is usually necessary to go over a tree grafted
in this way, repairing and completing the grafting
the year after the first work is done. Indeed,
many experienced men prefer to regraft a tree in
two or even three annual instalments. After a
year's growth of the grafts, it is proper to prune
out by degrees the old branches representing the
variety formerly borne by the tree. Thus the tree
is changed from one variety to another rather
gradually, the entire change covering a period of
two to six years.

16 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

FIG. 12— REGRAFTED PLUM TREE
INFLUENCE OF STOCK ON CION

The main purpose of graftage is to reproduce a
variety more accurately than it can be reproduced
by seed. A Baldwin apple, or a Green Gage plum,
for instance, will not come true from seed. When,
however, a variety is reproduced by grafting from
cions, the reproduction is sufficiently exact to an-

PROPAGATION I/

swer all purposes. A whole orchard of grafted
Baldwin trees are practically alike, or a whole
block of budded Green Gage plums.

However, this method of reproduction is not ab-
solutely perfect, because the stock on which the
cions are grafted sometimes exerts a perceptible
influence on the tree. These influences, though
comparatively slight, are sometimes of practical im-
portance. They are so curious and interesting that
they have always been given careful study by hor-
ticulturists, who, in fact, have many times over-
emphasized their practical importance. Without
making this mistake of magnifying the influence of
the stock upon the cion, let us look briefly at the
subject to see what these influences are.

The most important one is dwarfing. A small,
slow-growing stock will make the tree smaller than
it would be on a vigorous, fast-growing stock. This
is the method by which dwarf trees are propagated.
The Paradise apple, for example, is a very slow-
growing variety, and a Baldwin cion grafted upon
it will make a comparatively dwarf tree.

The habit of growth is sometimes greatly modi-
fied by the stock. The influence of the stock some-
times makes the tree more spreading, sometimes
more upright. These influences are usually slight
and seldom of any practical importance.

The stock sometimes brings trees into earlier
bearing or, conversely, delays the bearing period.
Dwarf stocks generally make trees bear earlier. In
this instance, the influence has some practical value.

The stock may also influence the period at which
the fruit matures. Varieties grafted on roots or
stems of early ripening sorts will commonly ripen
at an earlier period under such influence. No prac-

i8 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

tical use has ever been made of this. The keeping
quality of fruit is influenced in the same way. If
earlier maturity is forced through the influence of
the stock, this will cause a shorter keeping season.
On the other hand, if a stock tends to give a tree
a later period of maturity, the fruit will keep longer.

The flavor is sometimes influenced by the stock.
A variety grafted on a sweet apple tends to develop
a sweetish flavor.

Color is also modified at times in the same way.
As a rule, of course, color, like flavor, will be modi-
fied in the direction of the same quality in the par-
ent stock. A striped apple grafted on the stock of
a dark red apple will tend to become darker in color.
These influences are sufficient in some cases to
make an important difference in exhibition speci-
mens, but otherwise are of no practical consequence.

We may conclude, then, as we began, that while
these modifications due to the action of the stock
are very interesting, they are usually negligible in
practice, and in general fruit growing no practical
advantage can be taken of them.

STOCKS FOR VARIOUS FRUITS

In the propagation of trees in the nursery, a
primary problem is always to secure suitable stocks.
In some cases they are grown in the garden of the
man who does the budding or grafting, while in
other cases it is better economy to buy them in the
open market.

Apple stocks may be grown in any garden, by
planting apple seeds. The apple seeds should be
taken from cider pomace, washed out, dried, and
kept until the following spring. They are then

PROPAGATION 19

planted like any other garden seeds, in good garden
soil. The strongest of the seedlings may be ready
for budding the first of August. As a rule, they will
need to be grown two years before they are ready
for budding. The large ones should be suitable for
root-grafting at the end of the first year. The
small ones may be transplanted and grown another
year, when they also will be ready for budding or
grafting.

It is generally cheaper and more satisfactory,
however, to buy apple stocks ready grown. They
are extensively cultivated, especially in the neigh-
borhood of Topeka, Kan., where the soil is par-
ticularly suited to the production of long, clean,
straight apple roots. Prices vary considerably in
different years and for different grades. The ex-
treme range is from $i to $10 a thousand. Usually
a few apple stocks can be bought at retail at con-
siderably higher prices from any ordinary nursery-
man. This would be the source of supply for most
amateurs.

At present considerable quantities of so-called
French stocks are also used in this country. These
are very similar to the American stocks. Some
nurserymen consider them stronger and more free
from disease than the American stocks and are
therefore willing to pay higher prices for them.

Dwarf apples are propagated on so-called Para-
dise and Doucin roots. These two varieties are
grown mostly in France, and are propagated by
cuttings or layers instead of by seeds. Their use
in this country is extremely restricted and the ama-
teur will find it difficult to secure Doucin or Para-
dise stocks for his experimental grafting. Some of
the larger American nurseries, however, which do

2O BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

a considerable import business, will usually be able
to supply them.

Pear stocks are grown very much like apples. In
the case of pears, however, the supply is almost
wholly foreign, and a very large majority of the
pear stocks used come from France. They are
handled in the nursery almost precisely like apple
stocks and are budded or root-grafted in the same
way. In recent years, a small supply of pear stocks
has been secured from our southern states by the
propagation of the Chinese hybrid varieties, such as
Kieffer and Garber, which will grow from cuttings
in a favorable soil and climate.

Dwarf pears are propagated on quince roots,
always by budding.

Quinces are budded on quince roots. These
stocks practically all come from Angers, France.
They can, of course, be grown from seed, in the
same manner as apple stocks.

Peaches are nearly always budded on peach seed-
lings. The seed may be secured either from can-
ning factories or from the professional collectors
of "wild peach" seed. These wild or native peaches
are found growing rather freely through the moun-
tains of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Geor-
gia, and are thought to produce a very superior
grade of seedlings for budding. The peach seeds
are secured in the fall and should be buried in a
clean, well-drained soil for the winter. If they
freeze and thaw a few times during the winter it is
a distinct advantage, especially in breaking open
the shells. As soon as the garden soil is dry in the
spring, the seeds are sown in rows 3^ to 4 feet
apart and 6 inches apart in the row. They should
make a growth of 2 to 4 feet by the middle of

PROPAGATION 21

August, at which time they would be ready for
budding. Peach stocks can never be transplanted
without injuring them so seriously as to make them
almost worthless for further use.

Peaches are also sometimes propagated on apri-
cot seedlings, and may be budded on almost any
species or variety of plum seedling. Dwarf peaches
may be produced readily by tliis method of work-
ing on any convenient species of plum. The one
commonly used is the French plum, Pr units ceras-
ifcra; a better dwarfing stock, however, will be
found in the native American plum, Primus amcri-
cana, or the sand cherry, Primus besseyi.

Plums may be budded on almost any kind of
seedling plums. The one commonly used in the
nursery is the French plum, Pruniis ccrasifcra. In
the western states, Primus americana is more com-
monly used and has some advantages. For one
thing, it is hardier. It also has a decided dwarfing
effect, which is often an advantage. The sand
cherry, Primus besseyi, makes an excellent dwarfing
stock for most plums.

Plums are often worked on peach seedlings.
Peach roots are particularly adapted to Japanese
plums, more especially when the orchard is to be
planted on warm, sandy soil.

Cherries are nearly always budded upon cherry
stocks, and these stocks are extensively imported
from Europe, especially from France. In some
cases the seeds are imported and the stocks grown
in this country. These stocks are of two sorts, the
Mazzard and the Mahaleb. As a rule, the Mazzard
stock is recommended as the better one, especially
for the propagation of sweet cherries. The Maha-
leb stock is said to be hardier and easier to work,

22 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

and somewhat better adapted to dwarf-growing
sour cherries. On this account, it is frequently
used.

BUYING NURSERY STOCK

When all has been said about the nursery propa-
gation of stock, and while it is understood that
such work is often intensely interesting to the ama-
teur, and while it is admitted that it may sometimes
be worth while, for special reasons, for the tree
planter, still the large fact remains that nursery
work can be done most economically and most suc-
cessfully by the experienced nurseryman. The
ordinary tree planter will find it is nearly always
best, easiest and cheapest to buy his young trees
of the man who makes propagation a profession.
A few suggestions on the buying of nursery stock
will really be of more practical value than any
amount of instruction in the methods of propagat-
ing nursery trees.

First let us consider the question of locality.
There is a common prejudice in favor of buying
northern grown trees, the theory being that they
are hardier. This theory has no foundation what-
ever in fact. If there is any preference as between
northern and southern grown nursery fruit trees,
then, within reasonable limits, this preference is
all on the side of the southern product. The longer
growing season in the South gives opportunity for
the production of a larger, heavier tree; and this
larger and heavier tree makes the better growth
when it is set in the orchard row.

A similar prejudice exists in favor of buying
locally grown trees, the argument advanced being
that they are better adapted to the local climate and

PROPAGATION 23

will be more likely to succeed in the orchard. This
argument is equally spurious. There is a certain ad-
vantage, however, in dealing with a local nursery-
man ; but this advantage lies in the shorter shipping
distance, the possibility of sometimes visiting the
nursery in person to select the stock, and in the
slightly greater ease of doing business at short
range.

In speaking of nurserymen here we have refer-
ence, of course, to those men who are legitimately
in the business, and in the business to stay. The
common itinerant fruit tree peddler often represents
a doubtful nursery, more commonly no nursery at
all, but rather a jobber who disposes of the culls
turned over to him by men who have too tender a
conscience to sell the stuff themselves. It should
be preached everywhere as a part of the gospel of
horticulture, that nobody should ever patronize the
traveling fruit-tree agent on any account.

It used to be customary to classify fruit trees in
the nursery as first grade, second grade, and third
grade. While this classification is still used to
some extent, it is inexact, difficult to use and gen-
erally unsatisfactory. A better way, and one now
increasingly common, is to grade the trees accord-
ing to their size. Either the height or the diameter
at the soil or both these measures will be given.
Thus a nurseryman will offer Elberta peach trees
in the following grades : 6 feet and up, 5 to 6 feet,
4 to 5 feet, 3 to 4 feet, adding perhaps June buds
1/^2 to 2.^/2 feet. In buying any of these trees, it is
usually best to select the heaviest and largest, or
perhaps as often to take the first grade below the
extreme largest. The very light grades should be
energetically avoided in any event. Where orders

24 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

of considerable size are pending, many good nurs-
erymen are glad to send samples of the trees
quoted, and this is a most excellent precaution on
the part of the buyer.

It is customary, further, for the nurseryman to
represent, and to some extent to guarantee, that the
stock sold shall be clean, straight, well branched
and free from all insects and fungous diseases. The
freedom from insects and fungous diseases is usu-
ally further certified by an inspectors label supplied
with each shipment. While the inspection back of
this certificate may or may not have a salutary in-
fluence, it is an open question whether the label
itself has any value whatever for the tree buyer.

It has been customary in times recently past to
buy all apple trees from the nursery at two years
old. Still earlier in the history of American horti-
culture 3-year-old. 4-year-old and more-year-old
trees were frequently transplanted. The tendency
has been constantly toward the use of younger
trees, and this tendency has been so strong of late
years that today i-year-old apple trees are insisted
on by the majority of the most expert fruit men.
The writer owns to a very emphatic preference for
the i-year tree. It is much more plastic under the
hands of the orchardist, more readily forms a sym-
metrical head, and shows a smaller percentage of
loss in most plantings. Certainly no experienced
tree man would today use apple trees over 2 vears
old.

The same tendency to the use of younger trees
is visible in all other lines of fruit planting. Pear
trees are still usually transplanted at two years of
age, though Kieffer, Le Conte and Garber form dis-
tinct exceptions to this rule, being nearly always

PROPAGATION 25

set out at one year old. But even strong-growing
varieties of the common European pear are now
often sold from the nursery at the end of the first
year's growth.

Peaches should never under any circumstances
be bought from the nursery at a greater age than
one year. On the other hand the so-called "June
buds" of the nurserymen represent only a half-
year's growth. While it may possibly be permis-
sible to use these in case of a great emergency, it
will be better to avoid them whenever the usual
one-year trees can be had.

Plums vary so much in character that it is diffi-
cult to make any rule, except the general one in
favor of young trees. Very slow-growing varieties
may well be left for two years' growth in the nurs-
ery row, while vigorous-growing kinds are better
transplanted at one year old. The Japanese varie-
ties should always be planted out when one year
old.

Even quinces do better if very strong one-year
trees can be used. As the quince is slow growing
by nature, it is hard to get trees heavy enough for
nursery sales at one year except on the best of soil,
and with the best of treatment. But such condi-
tions are precisely those which favor the interest of
the tree buyer, who should always prefer the heavy
one-year-old quince trees when he can get them.

Something is said elsewhere about fall planting
versus spring planting of orchards. For fall plant-
ing it is obligatory that the trees be selected and
bought in midsummer or even earlier. But early
buying is a very important matter in any case, and
June or July is never too early to place orders for
trees to be used the following spring. Such orders

26 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

may be delivered from the nursery in late fall, the
trees being heeled in for the winter, or the trees
may be stored in the nurseryman's storage house
and delivered at planting time in the spring. Early
deliveries are to be especially recommended what-
ever may be the planting plans.

II

PLANTING

THE proper distances for planting trees can be
given with some definiteness, for though these dis-
tances are varied considerably by different planters,
experience shows that close planting is disastrous
to the orchard, while too wide planting is a great
waste of space. The optimum distances as given
in the following table should be pretty closely
adhered to.

PLANTING DISTANCES

Mini- Opti- Maxi-
mum mum mum
Standard apples on very

strong soil 35 40 50

Standard apples on me-
dium soil 33 35 40

Dwarf apples on Doucin

stocks 12 i6l/2 24

Dwarf apples on Para-
dise stocks 6 10 15

Standard pears 20 28 30

Dwarf pears 10 12 20

Quinces 6 12 15

Peaches TO 15 20

Plums 15 20 30

Apricots 20 25 30

Sweet cherries 25 30 35

Sour cherries 12 i6*/2 25

28 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

When double planting is practiced as described
below, apples should be set either 16^2 x i6l/2 feet,
to be thinned out to 33 feet, or 20 x 20 feet to be
thinned out to 40 x 40 feet. \Yhen apples are inter-
planted with peaches or dwarf apples the same dis-
tances should be observed. Pears interplanted with
dwarf pears, dwarf apples, sour cherries or plums,
should be placed 25 x 25 feet, with the temporary
trees between, making the original planting i2l/2
x 12^2 feet. In such a plantation, however, every
third longitudinal row of fillers will need to be re-
moved at a comparatively early age so as to allow
the passage of spraying machinery.

The following table shows the number of trees
required to plant an acre when placed at various
distances :

NUMBER OF TREES TO THE ACRE

6x6 feet, 1,210 trees

8x8" 680 "

10 x 10 " 435 "

12 X 12 " 302 "

12Y2 X I2i/>" 2/8 "

15 X 15 " 193 "

16 x 16 170

i6y2 x i6y2 " 1 60 "

20 X 20 " 1 08 "

24 x 24 75

25 x 25 70
3° x 3° 48
33 * 33 40
35 ^ 35 35
40 x 40 27

45 x 45 " 2I "

50 x 50 " 17 "

PLANTING 29

For setting out an interplanted orchard, say ap-
ples filled with peaches, trees 16^2 feet apart, there
will be required 40 apples and 120 peach trees to
each acre. If the trees are to be set 20 x 20 feet the
number of apple trees will be 27, and the number
of peach trees as fillers will be 81.

In order to find the number of trees required to
plant an acre at any other distances, multiply the
distance between trees in one direction by the dis-
tance in the other direction and divide 43,560 by the
product. For example, if it be desired to set a plan-
tation with trees 12 x 32 feet, the required number
would be computed thus :

43,560 -f- (12x32) = 113 trees to each acre

DOUBLE PLANTING AND INTERPLANTING

When a new orchard is set out, say, with apple
trees 40 feet apart, the ground is only partially
occupied. In fact, the trees do not use more than
one-fourth of the ground during the first 10 years
of their growth; for another 10 or 15 years, they
will be using one-half the land, more .or less. O.i
the other hand, if the trees are planted 16 or 20
feet apart, so as to economize space and use the
soil to greater advantage during the early years of
growth, they presently crowd one another and are
greatly damaged by such close planting. These
are very serious situations and practical orchardists
have made considerable effort to meet the difficulty
in various ways, usually by double planting or in-
terplanting.

Double planting consists in putting out the trees
at one-half the required permanent distance; thus,
if it is desired to have the trees stand finally 40 feet

UEGIXXERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

apart, the original planting is made with the trees
20 feet apart. When crowding first begins, alter-
nate rows are removed lengthwise, in one direction.
This gives relief for a considerable time. Later, an-
other portion of the trees is removed, cutting
crosswise of the field. Thus, in two or three sue-

FIG. 13 — A WELL-PLANTED PLUM ORCHARD

cessive thinnings, the orchard is reduced from its
original stand to one-fourth of the original number
of trees.

The system of interplanting is the same as double
planting, except that the temporary trees are of
varieties different from the permanent trees. In the
case of apple orchards, these may be simply earlier-
bearing varieties, or they may be dwarf trees, or
they may be peach trees, or almost any other kind.

Interplanting may, in fact, be reduced to three
fairly distinct types. In the first type, there are

PLANTING 31

two varieties, as two sorts of apples, or two sorts
of pears, both of one kind of fruit placed together.
In practically all cases there will be one-fourth per-
manent trees and three-fourths temporary trees.
The temporary trees should be smaller in habit of
growth and earlier in habit of bearing.

In the second type of interplanting, two different
species or kinds of fruit are used ; usually permanent
apple trees are interplanted with peach or plum,
sometimes with pear, or cherry trees.

The third type consists of a still further filling of
the orchard, in which three different types of fruit
are used. Such a plantation consists of (i) perma-
nent apple trees, (2) temporary fillers, such as pear
or cherry, and (3) underplanted rows of bush
fruits, such as currants or gooseberries. Such
triple-planted plantations are not uncommon nor
always unsuccessful. Strong soils, high feeding,
and constant attention are required to get good re-
sults from such a complicated arrangement.

The advantages of these double-planting and in-
terplanting methods are emphatic. Space is greatly
economized, and as fruit land is often very high
priced, this economy means a good deal in cash.
Fertilizer is also economized to a greater or less ex-
tent. The expenses of cultivation, etc., are also
proportionately reduced. Another advantage of
considerable importance in many cases is that the
interplanted trees and bush fruits come into bearing
earlier than the permanent trees and put the plan-
tation on a remunerative basis much sooner.

There are disadvantages, of course : thickly
planted plantations are difficult to manage, difficult
to cultivate, and especially difficult of access with
spraying machinery. They require much more

32 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

careful attention ; it is a great deal easier to succeed
with one crop growing on a piece of land than with
two or three different crops on the same land, espe-
cially when these different crops have somewhat
different requirements. One of the great objec-
tions to the planting of apples and peaches on the
same land is commonly said to be that they require
different quantities and kinds of fertilizers. While
this objection appears to be rather strained, the
principle on which it is founded is correct. The
chief practical objection in experience arises from
the fact that many planters do not thin out the
orchard soon enough ; the trees are allowed to stand
until they may seriously injure one another. This
is a genuine danger, though it is not the fault of the
system, but is due simply to its misapplication.

LAYING OUT THE LAND

When a piece of ground is nicely prepared and
ready to plant (it should be left with a smooth clean
surface, as a rough surface interferes seriously with
the accuracy of the layout), it should be staked off,
placing a stake at each point where a tree is to be
planted. This should be done as accurately as pos-
sible. While it is doubtless true that trees will
grow as well in crooked rows as in straight ones,
yet the straight rows look a whole lot better and
are actually somewhat easier to cultivate. Anyone
who has sense and self-respect enough to plant
fruit trees at all will certainly want to present the
most orderly and attractive plantation possible. A
surveyor's instrument and a chain will give the
most satisfactory layout if reasonably manipulated.
A simpler way, working without special tools, is

PLANTING 33

to lay one straight row along one side or down the
middle of the tract, straightening it by careful
sighting and spacing the trees accurately by re-
peated measurements. For making these measure-
ments nothing is better than a light wooden pole
carefully cut to the required length.

When the first long row is properly staked out a
cross row should be established at right angles to
it, and this cross row spaced and staked with the
same care. From these 20 rt.

two base lines the remain- POL.E

der of the field may be laid
off rapidly and with very
little trouble, unless indeed
the ground is very rough
and hilly.

The best way to do this
is to take two light poles
cut to the length and the
breadth of the tree spaces,
say 20 feet each if the

trees are to stand 20 x 20 , u

feet, or 20 and 32 feet

respectively if the trees FIG' 14~HOW T0 LAY OFF LAND
are going in at 20 x 32 feet. Place these poles on the
ground as shown in Figure 14 with one pole against
the second tree in the base row and the other ended
against the second tree in the cross row. Then
bring the two free ends of the poles together, and
where they meet at the point, d, is the place for the
next tree. Set a stake here, move the poles for-
ward, using this point, d, as a starting point for the
next measurement, and proceed as before. After
a row of stakes has been set in this way the layout
should be gone over again, carefully sighted, and

34 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

the row perfectly straightened. If each successive
row is carefully aligned in this manner the final
result, except on very hilly ground, will be satisfactory.

PLANTING OUT THE TREES

The job next in order will be to dig the holes.
These will ordinarily be 2 feet in diameter and 16
inches deep, these dimensions varying somewhat
with the size of the trees and the character of the
soil. The harder the soil the larger should the
holes be. In order that the tree when it is planted
may occupy exactly the point established for it in
the setting of the peg it is necessary to have

a b c

FIG. 15 — TREE-PLANTING BOARD

recourse to the planting board or tree-jack. This
simple device, which has been described and illus-
trated a thousand times, is shown once more in
Figure 15. It consists of a light but strong board
about 4 feet long and 4 inches wide, cut with a
notch in either end and with a third notch in the
exact middle.

To use this tree-jack it is laid on the ground with
the middle notch snugly set upon the peg which
marks the position of the prospective tree. Then
two light stakes are driven in the two respective
end notches, after which the jack may be taken to
the next peg and the transaction repeated. After
setting the two pegs for the ends of the planting
board the hole may be dug, the center peg being
taken up and thrown aside. Then when the holes

PLANTING

35

are all ready each tree may be placed precisely in
its correct position by bringing- back the planting
board, replacing it on the two end pegs in its
former position and holding the stem of the little
tree firmly in the center notch while the roots are
covered and trodden in. This simple method is now
almost universally used.

FIG. 16 — USE OF PLANTING BOARD

Each tree should be carefully pruned before
planting. All broken roots and branches should
first be removed. The roots may then be pruned
enough to make them symmetrical. Any long and
straggling roots should be cut off. As a rule tree
planters are too much afraid to cut back the roots
of nursery trees at planting time. The top of each

36 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

tree should be still more severely pruned. The
least that should be done with any ordinary nurs-
ery tree is to cut back the top and all side branches
so as to leave only stubs I to 3 inches in length.
In planting one-year-old trees of most sorts it is
still better to cut off absolutely all branches and
further to cut back the main stem to about the point
where the head is to be formed. Something more
is said about this matter in the chapter on pruning,
but it may be noticed here that the most experi-
enced fruit growers of the present day shorten in
their young trees in this manner very drastically at
planting. Young apple trees are commonly headed
back to straight sticks 18 inches high, peach, plum
and pear trees to 12 inches or even to 6 inches.
With healthy i-year-old trees this practice gives
the very best results.

Some further remarks on the selection of nurs-
ery stock will be found in Chapter I.

FALL VS. SPRING PLANTING

At this point attention should be given to the
common query as to whether fall planting or spring
planting is advisable. In the southern states plant-
ers often secure a convenient compromise of this
question by doing their planting during the winter.
In any latitude where there are frequent periods
during the winter when the ground contains so
little frost that planting may easily be done, the
winter is almost the ideal planting time. In north-
ern climates spring planting is the common prac-
tice, and perhaps the very best general rule is to
set out the young trees at the earliest moment in
the spring, remembering that the land must first

PLANTING 37

be thoroughly prepared. Late spring planting is
not exactly dangerous, but it is more or less risky,
and the later the planting is made the greater is
the risk involved.

On the other hand fall planting has incontestable
advantages. Work is not so rushing and labor can
be managed much more effectively. Trees well
planted in the fall make new roots to a greater or
less extent and are ready for real business at the
first call of spring. The best general statement
that can be made of the case is to say that fall
planting is desirable when all conditions are favor-
able— when good, mature trees can be had, when
the soil is in first-class condition, and when a
workmanlike job can be assured by the planters.
Failing in any of these essential conditions, spring
planting will be safer.

Ill

MANAGEMENT

THE management of an orchard or a fruit garden
consists, of course, of all the processes necessary to
keep the trees and plants in health, to keep them
growing, and to make them fruitful. Certain of
these processes, as pruning and spraying, involve so
many unusual points that we have found it conveni-
ent to treat of them in separate chapters. In the
present chapter we will discuss only cultivation,
the use of cover crops, and fertilizers.

Orchard management is also sometimes made to
include the harvesting, storing and marketing of
the fruit ; but these highly important operations
really belong together and should be separated from
the discussions of fruit growing. They may be
grouped together preferably under the term "com-
mercial pomology," which subject has already been
treated in a book by itself.*

CULTIVATION

There has been a good deal of controversy in
regard to the value of cultivation in orchards. It
may be said, however, without reservation, that the
great weight of authoritv and practice is on the side
of cultivation and against all methods of non-culti-
vation. The practice of growing fruit trees in sod
land without special care, a very common practice,

*\Vangh's Fruit Harvesting, Storing, MarKcting. Orange
Judd Co., New York.

MANAGEMENT 4!

indeed, throughout the country, is wholly indefensi-
ble. It has not a respectable apologist in the field.
Those who dissent from the accepted method of
cultivation usually make a plea for what is known
as the mulch method. This method deserves a brief
examination, though not much more.

It is claimed that trees, apple trees especially,
growing on rich soil of high water-holding capacity,
may be handled more cheaply and easily by leaving
them in sod than by keeping them cultivated. The
land is sown down to blue grass, red top and clover
in the ordinary manner. This grass is cut two or
three times a year and is drawn about the roots of
the fruit trees. In this respect the mulch method is
radically different from the robbery method wherein
the hay is carted to the barn. The mulch men,
moreover, being fruit growers and not live stock
growers, supply their trees with whatever addi-
tional fertilizer may be required ; and in instances
where the method is honestly and intelligently prac-
ticed, such men add more or less mulch to the land
from other sources.

It is claimed that the mulch method is easier and
cheaper than cultivation, that it may be used on
hillsides so steep as to preclude cultivation, and that
it produces fruit of higher color and better keeping
quality than clean culture methods do. The objec-
tions to it are that it induces surface rooting of the
trees, which is dangerous, that it keeps the soil in
a poor physical condition, that it does not use the
fertilizer to so good advantage, and especially that
the grass robs the trees of large quantities of much-
needed water.

As already stated, the best authorities in this
country, both scientific and practical men, almost

42 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

unanimously favor the system of cultivation. The
opinion in favor of cultivation is emphatic so far as
peach and plum trees are concerned ; it is less so
with regard to apples ; and even the most advanced
exponents of culture will admit that pear trees
sometimes need to be checked in growth by having
the land sown down to grass.

The cultivation system is practiced about as fol-
lows : The land is plowed early every spring as soon
as it is dry enough for cultivation. This plowing is
fairly thorough, which does not mean, of course, a
deep and careful turning of the soil as is accom-
plished in the growing of fine market garden crops.
In fact, in many good soils this spring cultivation
is given with the spading harrow rather than
with the plow. The second cultivation will fol-
low about two weeks later, and will be given
either with the disk harrow or the spring-tooth
harrow. If the land is in particularly good con-
dition an even lighter implement may be used, per-
haps the ordinary spike-tooth or smoothing harrow.
Subsequent cultivations will follow at intervals of
10 days to two weeks until the day of sowing the
cover crop. The purpose of these cultivations is
to preserve the light dust mulch over the surface
of the soil. This dust mulch is very useful in pre-
venting the evaporation of moisture. These- later
cultivations can best be given with a light smooth-
ing harrow.

The later cultivations in the orchard, being ap-
plied only to the surface and being accomplished
with the lightest possible tools, may be given very
rapidly. The harrow should be wide and light and
should cover considerable space at each round of
the team. It is possible to buy special orchard tools

MANAGEMENT

43

for work under the trees. An adjustment which is
often applied to disk harrows, spring-tooth harrows
and smoothing harrows is a rigid middle section
inserted so as to extend the two halves of the orig-
inal implement out under the trees while allowing
the horses to walk in the middle of the tree space.
This is illustrated for the disk harrow in Figure 20.
With such modern conveniences as these, it is possi-

FIG. 19 — THE HORSE HOE FOR CLOSE CULTIVATION

ble t<5 give thorough cultivation at low cost and at
the same time to work closely under the branches
of low-headed fruit trees.

THE COVER CROP

The term cover crop is applied to any annual crop
sown between the trees and for their special benefit.
It is usually sown after the regular period of cultiva-
tion, that is, between July 15 and August i, though

44 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO ±-RUIT GROWING

sometimes later. It is allowed to stand on the
ground until the following spring, when the entire
crop is turned under for the benefit of the land
at the time of the spring plowing. In this respect
it is very different from truck crops, which are
sometimes grown between the rows of young trees.

The cover crop is grown only in those orchards
which are cultivated during the early part of the
summer. The seed is usually broadcasted, though
sometimes it is drilled in. The drilling method is
particularly suited to soy beans and cowpeas.

Several distinct services are performed by the
cover crop. The most important are as follows :

(1) The cover crop helps to check the growth of
wood during the late summer. In this way it
prevents the soft autumn growth which sometimes
does not ripen well and is therefore injured by
winter freezing. This autumn check upon wood
growth comes chiefly from the tendency of the
cover crop to take up from the soil a considerable
portion of water which would otherwise go to the
trees. Acting in this way, it may become an actual
detriment to the trees, especially in seasons
when a heavy crop of fruit is to be harvested late
in the fall and after an insufficient rainfall. Under
such circumstances it will be better to delay the
sowing of the cover crop somewhat. In an emer-
gency it might even be wise to cut the cover crop
with a mower, to roll it down with a roller or to
check its growth in some other manner.

(2) The cover crop often saves considerable
amounts of fertilizer. Where soluble fertilizing ele-
ments are left in the soil they are always subject to
loss during fall and spring through being carried
down into the soil. They are dissolved by the rains

MANAGEMENT 45

and drained away out of reach of the trees. When
the cover crop is growing, these fertilizers are tem-
porarily taken up by this cover-crop to be subse-
quently made again available when the cover crop
decays in the soil. This service is particularly well
rendered by such a crop as winter vetch, which
grows nearly all winter.

(3) The cover crop saves erosion of the soil.
Many orchard soils wash badly, especially in early
spring. This difficulty is made one of the chief
arguments against cultivating orchards. The dam-

FIG. 20 — EXTENSION* DISK HARROW

age can be largely avoided by the use of some cover
crop such as winter vetch, which grows at a very
low temperature, and which holds its place through-
out the winter.

(4) The cover crop adds humus or vegetable
matter to the soil. This addition is extremely im-
portant. One of the most serious defects of the
tillage system is that it tends to deplete this supply
of vegetable matter. This tendency may be wholly
corrected by the proper use of cover crops.

46 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

(5) The cover crop may add nitrogen to the soil.
Such leguminous crops as peas, beans, cowpeas, soy-
beans, vetch, alfalfa, and clover collect nitrogen
from the air. This nitrogen finally becomes avail-
able for the use of the trees when the cover crop is
plowed under and rotted. Inasmuch as nitrogen is
the most expensive of the fertilizing elements when
bought in the market, this economy may prove to be
of considerable financial weight.

The choice of a cover crop depends upon many
local conditions. The leguminous crops will be given
preference wherever possible on account of their
ability to supply some nitrogen. There are many
circumstances, however, which lead to the selection
of other kinds of cover crops. It is useless to sow
clover or alfalfa, for instance, on certain soils on
which they will not succeed. It is necessary in
order to get a good stand of clover or of alfalfa or
of any other leguminous crop that the soil shall
be sweet and that it shall be properly inoculated
with the bacteria with which these particular crops
are associated. In many cases it is worth while to
supply the land with lime when cover crops are to
be grown. In some cases an inoculation with bac-
teria will be found worth while. In a good many
cases, however, the fruit grower will have recourse
to other crops, especially buckwheat, which do not
require such special preparations. Buckwheat is,
in fact, one of the best of all cover crops in the
northeastern states, and for several reasons. It may
be successfully grown at a late period, seed can
easily be had at a reasonable price, it makes a good
stand and a heavy crop, it leaves the soil in excellent
physical condition, and it adds a large amount of
humus to the soil.

MANAGEMENT

47

The cover crop should be plowed under as early
in the spring as cultivation can be given in the
orchard. This will be the deepest and most thor-
ough plowing of the year. In fact, in most instances
it will be the only time of the year when the plow

FIG. 21 — COVER CROP OF BUCKWHEAT

will be used in the orchard. The following table
will show the usual

QUANTITY OF SEED TO THE ACRE

Kind of Seed Quantity

Mammoth clover, pounds 12
Common red clover,

pounds i 2

Crimson clover, pounds 15

Alsike clover, pounds 12

Alfalfa, pounds 20

Cowpea. bushels :/^~ 2

Cost
3O-4OC pound

25~35C pound
2O-3OC pound
25~3OC pound
25~3oc pound
$3.oo-$5.oobushel

48 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

Kind of Seed Quantity Cost

Soy bean, bushels iJ/2- 2 $3. oo-$5.oo bushel

Summer vetch, bushels il/2 $3. 5o-$4.oo bushel

Winter vetch, bushel i $6.oo-$7.5o bushel

Canada pea, bushels il/2 $2.oo-$3.oo bushel

Buckwheat, bushel i $i.5o-$2.oo bushel

Rye, bushels il/> $i.5o-$2.oo bushel

Barley, bushels 1^/2-2 $i. 75-^2.50 bushel
Barley and peas, bushel,

each i

THE USE OF FERTILIZERS

There has been a sort of blind assumption preva-
lent among farmers that fruit trees need little or
no fertilizer. Such a misunderstanding- might be
explained if it were localized in the middle west,
where fertilizers are not fashionable, but it is harder
to see why this delusion should wax strongest in
those very regions where the efficacy of fertilizers
is generally unquestioned. The fact is that both
science and experience argue that fruit plantations
need regular and liberal feeding, the same as any
other agricultural crop. If the exact requirements
of fruit trees in this respect are not so well under-
stood as are the requirements of tobacco, for ex-
ample, it is because the subject is really a more
difficult one.

Barnyard manure is the alpha and too often the
omega of farm fertilizers, and is rather frequently
applied to orchards. It is much better than none
at all, and though not well adapted to this purpose,
can be used to advantage in limited amounts. It
contains an excess proportion of nitrogen, which
gives it the effect of producing a rank and excessive
growth of wood, often at the expense of fruit bear-

MANAGEMENT 49

ing. Still the promotion of a more vigorous wood
growth is precisely what is needed in many
orchards, and in such cases barnyard manure might
be the very thing to be prescribed. It has the great
advantage, further, of bringing a considerable sup-
ply of humus or vegetable matter to the soil, and
that is usually an important item. As a rule barn-
yard manure is not an economical fertilizer for fruit
trees except when used in moderate quantities and
in connection with mineral fertilizers bearing phos-
phoric acid and potash. It is better for apples and
plums than for other fruits. It is of doubtful value for
peaches, special cases aside ; while on pears it is
actually dangerous from the fact that the extra
growth it induces is especially liable to attacks of
the pear blight.

Lime, while not considered primarily as a fer-
tilizer, is often very valuable in orchards. Many
otherwise excellent fruit lands are "sour," that is,
the soil has a surplus of acid. This extra acidity is
highly detrimental to the growth of fruit trees, and
should be corrected. The most important correc-
tions are lime, cultivation and drainage. Lime may
be used at the rate of one ton to the acre, sometimes
more, or occasionally less.

Wood ashes are frequently recommended in glow-
ing terms as peculiarly suited to the feeding of fruit
trees. This suitability is more fancied than real.
While they are excellent when properly used and
reinforced with other fertilizers, they are generally
omitted entirely from the orders of well-informed
fruit men. The real reason for this is simply that
the same quantity of good plant food may nearly
always be bought in some other form at a much
lower price. Wood ashes contain chiefly potash

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

and lime. The potash, however, which is the most
valuable part, is exceedingly uncertain in quantity,
so that most buyers feel safer when ordering potash
in the form of muriate or sulphate. Where wood
ashes are cheaply available they may be safely ap-
plied to fruit plantations at the rate of one to two
tons to the acre.

The cheapest commercial source of nitrogen at
present is nitrate of soda. This is especially useful
for newly set trees, which it stimulates to a vigor-

FIG. 22 — TRUCK CROPS ( SQUASH) IX PEACH ORCHARD

ous and healthy growth. In such cases it should
be used at the rate of one ounce to the tree at the
time when growth starts. If more growth is wanted
a similar application should be made about June
first. Other sources of nitrogen are nitrate of
potash, dried blood, tankage and fish scrap, all of
which materials are suitable for use on fruit planta-
tions.

It should be remembered that the office of nitro-
gen always is to promote wood growth and to some

MANAGEMENT 51

extent to delay fruitage. It is needed, therefore,
especially on young trees ; but as old trees also
must be kept in a state of healthy growth, nitrogen
is always required. The nitrogen needs of the tree
may be pretty accurately gauged by the color of the
foliage. If the leaves are large, glossy and dark
green the nitrogen supply is usually sufficient.
When they look yellow, small and thin, it is safe
to investigate both the nitrogen and the water sup-
ply, as the explanation of such symptoms lies usu-
ally in a deficiency of one of these.

Nitrogen is by far the most expensive element in
fertilizers, and is, therefore, always to be econo-
mized in every way. One of the best ways of
economizing nitrogen in orchard management lies
in the growing of nitrogen-gathering cover crops.
(See page 46.)

Potash is the fertilizing element next in impor-
tance, and is thought to be especially valuable in
maturing the crop of fruit. A large percentage of
potash enters into the composition of apple seeds,
peach seeds, etc.

The two forms of potash most commonly bought
in the market are the muriate and the sulphate.
Muriate of potash is largely used and is considered
to be one of the cheapest sources of supply. It has
the defect of being sour and thus increasing the
acidity of the soil. As this condition is especially
objectionable to fruit trees, many orchardists have
discarded the muriate entirely in favor of the sul-
phate. The commercial sulphate is of two kinds,
high grade and low grade, the latter containing a
certain amount of magnesia, which has somewhat
the same effect in the soil as lime — that is, a sweet-
ening effect. Kainit is a cheap potash fertilizer,

52 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

but on account of the relatively small amount of
actual potash contained and of a tendency to acid-
ity it is not now used by the best fruit men in this
country.

Phosphoric acid, in connection with potash, is also
very important in the growing of fruit. This ele-
ment is usually bought either in ground bone or in
so-called acid phosphate. While the latter form is
somewhat cheaper, the former seems to be rather
better adapted to the needs of fruit trees. Another
fertilizer carrying phosphoric acid and now becom-
ing favorably known for use on fruit trees is basic
slag meal (Thomas phosphate powder). While this
fertilizer has not been low enough in price in the
recent past to encourage its use, it seems to give
such decided good results, particularly on sour soils,
that it is being used more and more from year to
year.

FERTILIZERS FOR SPECIAL FRUITS

It is impossible to give exact recipes for the
fertilization of particular fruits, though many people
seem to expect such statements from the chemists.
All that can be done is to offer general suggestions,
and the following fertilizer formulas are to be con-
sidered in that light. These formulas are to be
varied as experience may indicate or local circum-
stances may require. All figures are given as
pounds to the acre, and it is generally understood
that the fertilizers are to be put on after the first
plowing in the spring and cultivated into the soil.

For bearing apple orchards Dr. W. P. Brooks
recommends:*

*See Waugh's American Apple Orchard, p. 97. Orange
Jndd Co.

MANAGEMENT 53

Basic slag meal, 400-500 pounds

Low-grade sulphate of potash, 300 pounds
In years when the orchard is bearing a good crop
there should be added to this allowance 75 to 100
pounds of nitrate of soda.

Another formula, proposed by Geo. D. Leavens,
fertilizer expert, is as follows :

Basic slag meal, 1,500 pounds

High-grade sulphate of potash, 300-500 pounds
Nitrate of soda, 200-400 pounds

This is a much more liberal treatment and is de-
signed for an orchard in full bearing. It is espe-
cially understood further that the nitrate of soda
must be used with great caution.

An old orchard, just being taken up from the sod
and the sod turned under, needs to be handled with
some care. The growth of new wood may have
been very slight in previous years and yet the turn-
ing under and decay of the sod in the soil will result
in furnishing nitrogen sufficient in all probability to
force considerable new growth. Therefore, the ap-
plication of nitrogenous fertilizers should be with-
held in such cases. In other cases, where the new
growth is needed and is not being made, from IOO
to 150 pounds of nitrate of soda to the acre will
generally furnish a sufficient amount of nitrogen.
It is best to be conservative in the application of
nitrate of soda to orchards. A first application of
loo pounds, followed by another supplementary
application, if needed, is probably the wiser course.
Mr. Leavens, who is responsible for these figures,
suggests, also, that the orchard should receive the
first year, if it has had little or no fertilization previ-
ous to this application, 800 to 1000 pounds of basic
slag meal, and 300 to 400 pounds of high-grade

54 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

sulphate of potash. The amount of nitrogen to be
applied will depend entirely upon the growth the
trees are making. If the trees are making a good
growth of new wood, all that can well be ripened,
no nitrogenous fertilizer need be applied.

In subsequent years the application of phosphoric
acid and potash may be reduced somewhat, and 600
to 800 pounds of basic slag meal and 150 to 300
pounds of high-grade sulphate of potash may be
used to the acre, the amount of potash applied de-
pending in a large measure on the character of the
soil. Soils rich in clay furnish naturally more
potash than sandy soils or those commonly known
as loamy soils.

Young trees during the first two years after plant-
ing may be given the following amounts for each
tree:

Nitrate of soda, I ounce

Basic slag meal, IO ounces

Low-grade sulphate, 6 ounces

As the orchard grows these amounts must be
gradually increased. And once more it must be
emphasized that all such recipes are only sugges-
tions and are to be constantly varied according to
local and special conditions. In particular, the fruit
grower should be ready to give additional applica-
tions of nitrate of soda (but not later than June 10)
to such trees as are not making sufficient growth.

Young peach trees may receive the same rations
suggested above for young apple trees, but usually
it will be wise to give a second ounce of nitrate of
soda to each tree a month after the first applica-
tion. In some cases the young peach tree can use
advantageously one-half pound of nitrate. This

MANAGEMENT 55

amount will be not at all excessive during the sec-
ond and subsequent summers.

When the peach tree comes into bearing it re-
quires theoretically a little less phosphoric acid and
a little more potash than does the apple, although
where vigorous growth and sound wood are desired
it is wise to use phosphoric acid liberally. Mr.
George D. Leavens recommends from 500 to 800

FIG. 23 — AN EXAMPLE OF GOOD TILLAGE

pounds to the acre each year of basic slag meal, and
200 to 400 pounds of high-grade sulphate of potash.
If sufficient growth of new wood is not being made
TOO pounds of nitrate of soda to the acre will gen-
erally prove sufficient. It is assumed that the grow-
ing of cover crops and plowing under, together with
tillage until midsummer, will be followed as a mat-
ter of course.

In case the peach trees for any reason are badly
impoverished from over-bearing due to neglect to

56 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

thin, or have suffered from extremes of weather, it
is very frequently helpful to make a light applica-
tion of nitrate of potash, provided this material is
in the market at a price at which it can be obtained
for fertilizing purposes. For such work the so-
called crude saltpeter, imported from Calcutta, is
the best. It generally tests about 94% pure and
carries the equivalent of about 14% ammonia, and
44 to 45% of actual potash. Even so light an appli-
cation of this material as one pound to every five or
six trees frequently results in enormous benefit.

If we put this in the form of a general recipe, sub-
ject to the important qualifications already men-
tioned, we may say that the annual application re-
quired by an acre of bearing peach orchard
would be :

Nitrate of soda, 50-100 pounds

Basic slag meal, 500-800 pounds

High-grade sulphate of potash, 200-400 pounds

In dealing with pears it is always to be remem-
bered that special care is required in the use of
nitrogen. This element must be given in relatively
small quantities to avoid the production of a soft
rapid growth of wood. As a somewhat rough esti-
mate of average needs, we may propose the follow-
ing formula for pears :

Basic slag meal, 500-800 pounds

High-grade sulphate of potash, 300-500 pounds

To this there may be added small quantities of
nitrogenous fertilizers, such as dried blood, when-
ever the foliage shows yellow and the trees are
clearly not making sufficient growth.

In dealing with plums we have several very differ-
ent species of fruits, which should be separated into

MANAGEMENT 57

at least two particular groups for purposes of prac-
tical management. The Japanese plums should be
managed like peaches, while the European (domes-
tlca) varieties need a form of treatment more like
pears. They will stand rather more nitrogen than
pears, but the potash and phosphoric acid require-
ments are very much the same. This may be ex-
pressed roughly in the following formula :

Nitrate of soda, 50-100 pounds

Basic slag meal, 400-800 pounds

High-grade sulphate of potash, 300-500 pounds

No one knows enough of the peculiar needs of
quinces to justify a special formula. Quinces may
be treated generally after the manner of dwarf
apples.

Apricots and nectarines should be treated the
same as peaches.

IV

PRUNING

FRUIT trees will grow and bear without pruning.
Among fruit growers there is a considerable party
working on a policy of no pruning. Nevertheless,
the large majority of practical and scientific men
recognize the necessity of pruning of some sort and
for all kinds of fruit trees. The argument sometimes
advanced that pruning is unnatural and, therefore,
necessarily wrong, is particularly worthless. All
methods of agriculture and horticulture are unnat-
ural. All our work with plants is based on interfer-
ence with nature's methods. Only the savage who
gathers his fruits from wild trees and vines follows
the scheme of nature unrestrained.

The methods used in pruning are very diverse and
are too little understood. Here we find probably
the weakest point in American fruit growing.
While almost any kind of pruning will keep the
trees alive and secure an occasional crop, there are
very few men who have a true system of pruning
which reaches definite results in the most direct
and certain fashion.

PURPOSES OF PRUNING

Pruning is practiced upon fruit trees for a great
many different purposes, the most important of
which are as follows :

To shape the tree. Especially during the first
years after planting, the tree requires constant care
in order to train it to the best possible form.

PRUNING

59

To restrict the growth. But even old trees have to
be regulated as to form. The growth must be
restricted. Otherwise they grow out of reach. In

FIG. 24— PLUM TREE WELL FORMED

old neglected orchards one will always find trees so
tall that they cannot be sprayed to advantage nor
the fruit harvested economically. In modern close-
planted orchards, also, it is important to restrict

60 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

the lateral spread of trees in order that the day of
cutting out crowding trees may be delayed as long
as possible.

To keep the heads open. Many varieties of trees
form so much wood that their heads are closed to
air and sunlight. Fruit is borne only on the tops
and sides. Varieties with this tendency must be
opened out with the pruning knife, so as to let in
sun and air.

To encourage new growth. While pruning is ap-
plied to trees which grow too much, it may be used
also to correct the opposite tendency. Old trees
which, through general neglect, have ceased to make
reasonable growth, may be helped by severe cutting
back.

To regulate fruit bearing. Proper pruning will
serve either to encourage trees toward earlier or
heavier bearing, or, differently applied, will serve
to check a tendency toward overbearing.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

These very diverse objects are not accomplished,
of course, without recourse to equally diverse
methods of pruning. Let us look, therefore, at some
of the principles on which these various methods are
founded.

First, we should notice that the tendency toward
wood growth and the tendency toward fruit bear-
ing are to some extent antagonistic. During youth
the tree grows rapidly, but bears no fruit ; but when
old age comes on there may be heavy crops of fruit,
while the tree makes very scant growth. Through-
out the life of the tree, moreover, any treatment
which checks wood growth influences the tree

toward fruiting, and any treatment which promotes
the growth of wood is pretty sure to check the
formation of fruit buds.

Next we must remember that pruning done dur-
ing the dormant season is generally followed by a
stronger growth upon the remaining parts of the

FIG. 25 — GOOD LOW-HEADED APPLE

62 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

tree. On the other hand, if pruning is done when
the tree is in full growth, as in June, the growth of
the tree is correspondingly checked.

These considerations raise the question of sum-
mer pruning. Can pruning, then, be done in the
summer as well as in winter and spring? As a
matter of fact, for certain purposes it can be done
much better. Summer pruning is a practice by no
means sufficiently understood by American fruit
growers, and still less sufficiently practiced. We
may accept it as a fact that at least one-half the
pruning of fruit trees now given in winter and early
spring could much better be given in June. In
shaping young trees summer pruning and pinching
is much more effective than winter pruning; and in
the management of old trees summer pruning has
the great advantage that it is not so much followed
by a troublesome growth of suckers. Summer
pruning comes into play in inducing trees of five to
ten years' growth to come earlier into bearing.

There are other practical advantages in summer
pruning, such as the fact that small wounds then
heal more readily ; or that the operator has a better
chance to judge the growth of the tree and to locate
dead branches ; or, finally, that the labor is more
easily performed than during the winter season.

THE TIME TO PRUNE

The question of the best season for pruning has
always had a lively argumentative interest among
fruit men, but the annual debates on the matter have
been more valuable as an intellectual entertain-
ment than as a settlement of horticultural practices.
The old saying, that "the time to prune is when the

PRUNING

saw is sharp," has a good deal of force, and means
that the season of pruning is not of vital importance.
Aside from the summer (June) pruning discussed
above, most work of this sort is done in early
spring, or, in regions further south, at any time dur-
ing the winter when field work is practicable. There
are some real reasons for doing this spring pruning
as early as possible after heavy freezing weather
is over. First of all, the
rush of spring work is
thereby avoided ; second,
the wounds heal more
easily; and third, the
wounds are not so apt to
bleed.

Another favorite matter
of argument is the method
of cutting the stub. Some
pruners claim that any
large branch should be cut
just outside the collar or
raised ring of bark which
surrounds the base. Others
say that it should be cut

back as closely as possible to the parent branch. This
question is really of small import. The stub should be
cut close, smooth and clean, but in case only of
the renovation of old and neglected orchards, or re-
pairing trees broken by accident, is the cutting of
large limbs really excusable. An orchard properly
pruned from the beginning will not require such
drastic surgery.

PAINTING WOUNDS

When large limbs are cut away the wounds

FIG. 26 — PROPERLY HEAL-
ING WOUND

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

should be painted over with some composition for
their protection. Many different mixtures have been
recommended, but in actual practice nothing is bet-
ter than plain white lead paint. A small amount of
paris green or other coloring matter may be added

FIG. 27 — TWO-YEAR-OLD PEACH, BUSH FORM

to the white lead merely to give the wounds a more
agreeable coloring. A considerable number of glar-
ing white spots in a tree do not look well, but aside
from the shock to the observer's esthetic sensibili-
ties the white color does no harm.

PRUNING 65

PRUNING FOR PLANTING

Pruning- begins with the first day of a tree's ex-
istence in the orchard. The trees as they come from
the nursery should be pruned before they are
planted. This preparation for planting is described
in its proper place (page 35), but one of the steps
now taken has a very important bearing on the
future pruning and development of the tree. This
refers to the height at which the head is to be
formed.

Some orchard men prefer high-headed trees, and
cases have been known in which this has been inter-
preted to mean apple trees with trunks 9 feet, bare
up to the first branches. It may be said with the
utmost certainty that practical orchard men every-
where in America nowadays prefer trees with much
lower heads than those in vogue a few years ago.
Peaches are almost headed down to the ground,
the trees being formed as bushes, and without any
free trunks. Plums and cherries also are often
pruned in this bush form, and even apples are some-
times managed in the same manner. An apple
tree with a clear trunk four feet high would now
be called a high-headed tree, and 2.l/2 to 3 feet
would be nearer the average of modern good prac-
tice.

This low heading has many very substantial ad-
vantages. The low-headed trees are much stronger.
As they are also less exposed to such damage, they
suffer much less by breakage from winds, sleet and
overbearing. The trees can probably be brought
earlier into bearing; and though this point is by
no means proved, it seems that this difference may
be as much as three to five vears in favor of the

66 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

low-headed tree. The lower tree, of course, can be
pruned and sprayed more economically and more
efficiently; and there is a similar advantage in
harvesting the fruit.

The one objection everywhere made against low-
headed trees is that the low heads are said to in-
terfere with the cultivation. The best answer to

FIG. 28 — LOW-HEADED PEACH

this objection is simply that it is not so. It is a
most curious fact that the strongest exponents of
thorough tillage in orchards are the very men who
also urge low heading, while the men who practice
high heading are the ones who make hay in their
orchards.

With these ideas in mind the planter will head
back his nursery trees at planting time to about the
height where he wants the tops to form. Modern

PRUNING 67

good practice, as nearly as it can be stated, is shown
in the following table :

HEIGHT FOR HEADING YOUNG TREES

Inches

Kind of Fruit
Standard apple
Dwarf apple . .

Pear

Dwarf pear . . .
Peach
Plum .
Quince

FIG. 29 — HIGH-HEADED PEACH

Clean vigorous one-year-old trees (which are
best) should be headed to one clean straight stub.
Two-year-old apple or pear trees should have the
side branches cut to spurs of one to three inches.

68 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING
SHAPING THE TREE

The tree now starts upon the critical period of its
first year's growth. If the man or the woman hav-
ing it in charge wishes to give the very best possi-

FIG. 30— JAPANESE PLUM READY TO PRUNE

ble care there will be a good deal of very light
but genuinely useful pruning to be done during
May, June and July of this initial year. Such

PRUNING

pruning can mostly be done with thumb and finger.
The work consists chiefly in removing shoots
which start at undesirable points. Attention at this
time will enable the operator to form a symmetrical

i

FIG. 31— JAPANESE PLUM PRUNED

and nicely balanced head better than at any subse-
quent period.

"Whether this baby pruning is given or not, the
young trees should be gone over carefully with
sharp hand shears early the following spring. At

7O BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

this time the young head is shaped, and if the sum-
mer pruning has been omitted, this spring shaping
is of exceptional seriousness. Useless branches are
cut away and then four or five strong branches are
chosen to be the framework of the future tree.
These should be as evenly balanced as possible.
Instead of all coming out at the same height from
the ground, they should start from different levels,
as far as possible.

The extent to which these main branches are
now to be cut back is a grave question. Practice
varies considerably. But even the radical men who
believe in a policy of no pruning for bearing trees
generally believe that it is best to shorten this first
year's growth severely at the first spring pruning.
As nearly as this can be stated in a general rule
we may say that it is best to cut off one-half to
two-thirds the previous year's growth, leaving stubs
6 to 14 inches long.

From these a large number of secondary shoots
will promptly appear, of which we shall eventually
wish to preserve two or three to each stub. If we
can afford to give the time and attention once more
during June and July, the summer will be the best
season for managing this part of the tree's develop-
ment. Otherwise the tree will need another
smoothing up with the hand shears early the second
spring.

GENERAL METHODS

Here a division of practice begins to appear very
clearly on the pomological horizon. One party be-
lieves in letting the trees pretty much alone, except
for such thinning out, removal of interfering
branches, and other minor corrections as are ob-

viously required. The heading- back of the year-
old shoots which are to remain is especially omitted.
Hereafter the tree is allowed to grow without
heading back. The other party believes in an-
nual heading- back with a view to forming more
compact heads and with the idea that the formation
of the heads can be more strictly controlled. It is
only fair to say that in the
present state of our porno-
logical knowledge a positive
decision cannot be given in
favor of either method.
Some men succeed by one
method, others by the other.

During the succeeding
early years of growth in the
orchard this procedure con-
tinues. The heads will be
kept open and clean under
any method of management,
while the men who believe
in heading back their trees
will continue their annual
heading in, and the men who
believe in allowing free and
unrestricted growth will
omit that portion of the annual pruning exercise.

When the trees come into bearing the treatment
necessarily changes to some extent. The problems
of forming the head of the tree have now been
largely passed by and the leading problem now is
the reproduction of an abundance of healthy fruit-
ing wood. The men who have practiced the head-
ing-in system should now, to be consistent, remove
a certain portion of the top of each tree every year,

FIG. 32 — QUINCE READY
TO PRUNE

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

cutting out wood wherever it can best be spared, so
as to permit the growth of an equal quantity of
virgin wood. The men whose trees have been left
largely to their own devices during their formative
years will naturally continue to let the trees have
their own way. And, so far as anyone can prophesy,
both men will reap reasonable harvests of fruit.
Both sets of men will practice enough pruning to

. -, cut out dead and diseased

and broken branches or
those which are rubbing or
interfering with one another.
This kind of pruning is
chiefly an exercise of good
practical horse sense. In so
far as it is a scientific prob-
lem, involving the applica-
tion of principles of plant
physiology, nobody knows
enough about it to give any-
one else any directions. It is
greatly to be hoped that the
time may soon come when
we shall have a logical and
scientifically founded system
of pruning adapted to
American requirements ; but

we may as well confess that for the present our knowl-
edge of these matters is lamentably crude and inade-
quate.

PRUNING TOOLS

The principal tools used in pruning are the fol-
lowing:

The hand. Many young shoots can be pinched

FIG. 33 — QUINCE PRUNED

PRUNING 73

out by thumb and fingers ; or when heavier growths
are to be removed, as in summer pruning of peach
trees or Japanese plums, the operator can, by pro-

FIG. 34 HAND SHEARS

tecting himself with a pair of stout canvas gloves,
break out the soft shoots very rapidly and yet
do an excellent sort of work. It hardly needs to

FIG. .>.> — TWO-HAND SHEARS

be remarked that this kind of pruning is the fastest
and by far the cheapest sort that can be done.
The shears. The hand pruning shears are, all things

FIG. 36— POCKET PRUNING KNIFE

considered, the most useful of all pruning tools.
(See Figure 34.) Shears of medium weight are
best for general purposes, though if the fruit grower

74 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

feels like supplying himself with a full equipment,
a set of shears — one pair light, one medium, and one
heavy — will enable him to adapt his tool to the char-
acter of his work. This is a manifest advantage.
The cheapest grades of shears should be avoided.
The two-hand shears (Figure 35) will be found
suitable for rather heavy pruning. While they are
not quite indispensable, they are well worth having.

FIG. 37 — RIGID PRUNING KNIFE

The long-handled, or pole pruner is also a very
valuable tool. This instrument may be had with
poles of various lengths, from 6 to 12 feet.

The knife. Every nurseryman and orchardist is
expected to carry a pruning knife with the typical
curved blade (Figure 36), just to show his mem-
bership in the order. Sometimes the knife comes
in handy on trees, though it is much more fre-

FIG. 38 — PRUNING SAW

quently used for opening sardine cans, paring
horses' hoofs or cutting a chew of tobacco.

The pruning saw is a regular article of com-
merce, though the saws most widely sold for this pur-
pose are too light and are made of very poor materials.
Some pruners prefer one pattern and some another.

PRUNING 75

The hatchet and the ax should never be used for
pruning fruit trees under any circumstances. The
man who is guilty of this solecism should always
be dropped from the horticultural club and good
society generally.

Ladders are required in pruning large trees. The
tree ladders, or fruit-picking ladders, are best. The
peculiarity of these ladders is that they have only
one point at the top instead of the usual two
points. Such ladders can be bought almost any-
where of dealers in agricultural machinery or horti-
cultural supplies, or any handy farm mechanic can
make one for himself.

SPRAYING

BY many persons, spraying is evidently regarded
as the panacea for all the fruit grower's troubles.
It is expected to rid the tree of every insect, to kill
every fungus, to extirpate bacteria, to heal the
wounds left by the whiffletrees, to repair the neglect
of drainage, to offset unfavorable weather and to
abate the taxes. At the very outset of this chapter
we must understand, therefore, that the beneficial
results of spraying are strictly limited to a few
items, and that there are many troubles which can-
not be reached by this means. Furthermore, spray-
ing can be of no possible use in any case unless it be
intelligently done. The work must be given at
exactly the right time, certain remedies must be
applied for specific diseases, and many more small
details must be looked after in -just the correct
fashion, or the whole work will come to naught.

In broad terms, we spray for the suppression of
fungous and insect attacks. The spraying for fungi
is almost wholly preventive — rarely or never cura-
tive. In practical application this means that when
a tree appears to be suffering from the attacks of
any fungus it is already too late to do any effective
spraying. It is also to be noticed that a number of
serious plant diseases are caused by bacteria instead
of by fungi, and that such diseases can very seldom
be checked in the slightest by any kind of spraying.
The deadly pear blight is of this number. Diseases
which can be more or less completely prevented by

SPRAYING 77

spraying are apple scab, apple tree canker, peach
leaf curl and black knot of plum.

BORDEAUX MIXTURE

The standard solution for the prevention of
fungous attacks is the bordeaux mixture composed
of lime and copper sulphate. This is the great and

FIG. 39 — SPRING CAMPAIGN AGAINST SAN JOSE SCALE

original spraying solution, and the one still most
widely used. It is effective in the prevention of
most preventable fungous diseases, particularly the
apple scab. The standard formula is as follows :

Copper sulphate (blue vitriol) 4 pounds
Good stone lime, unslaked, 4 pounds
Water, 50 gallons

The copper sulphate should be separately dis-
solved. The best way to do this is to place it in a

78 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

gunny sack and hang it at the top of a vessel of
water. For the quantities mentioned in the recipe
above, the 4 pounds of copper sulphate should be
dissolved in not more than 20 gallons of water.
The lime should be slaked carefully, using only just
enough water to bring it into solution. After it has
been thoroughly slaked, it may be thinned out.
When both solutions are thus made up, they should
be diluted to 25 gallons each and poured together,
being thoroughly mixed while the pouring is going
on. The mixture, after being strained into the spray
tank, is ready for use.

A common and excellent way of preparing this
mixture for orchard use is to make up two stock
solutions. The copper sulphate solution is made
up by dissolving the sulphate at the rate of one
pound to the gallon of water, and the lime solution
similarly, with one pound of lime to the gallon of
water. If, then, it is required to fill a hundred gal-
lon tank with bordeaux mixture, it is only necessary
to dip out 8 gallons of lime solution, 8 gallons of
copper sulphate solution, and then mix these in the
tank with enough water to make a tankful of
mixture.

The formula given above is standard strength,
but the mixture is often used weaker, especially on
peach and plum trees. Instead of using 4 pounds of
copper sulphate and 4 pounds of lime to 50 gallons
of water, the diluted mixture may contain 100 or
even 150 or 200 gallons of water, making the solu-
tion one-half or one-fourth strength.

It is important in making this solution to have
good, clean, unslaked lime. A slight excess of lime
in the solution is desirable.

The lime-sulphur spray described (page 80) as a

SPRAYING

79

remedy for San Jose scale also has considerable
fungicidal value. It is especially useful in early
spring sprayings on peach trees, at which season it
has measurable efficacy in preventing leaf curl.

FIG. 40 — GRAVITY MIXING OF BORDEAUX MIXTURE
FIGHTING INSECTS

There are two very different types of insects
which require altogether different methods of treat-
ment for their suppression. One class takes its food
by eating the leaves of the trees, the other by
puncturing the bark and sucking the sap. The
former insects may be killed by poisoning the foli-

8o BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

age with paris green, arsenate of lead or other
poisons. The sucking insects, however, cannot be
poisoned by any means, and it is, therefore, neces-
sary to spray them with some caustic or irritating
substance which kills when it touches them.

PARIS GREEN

Among the poisonous sprays paris green is the
best known.. It is applied after mixing I pound of
paris green in 100 to 200 gallons of water. A pound
of lime ought to be added to this mixture, however,
to neutralize free arsenic, which would otherwise
burn the foliage. The paris green can be added
directly to the bordeaux mixture. This is a favor-
ite way of using it.

ARSENATE OF LEAD

Probably the most popular and satisfactory poi-
son used against chewing insects at present is
arsenate of lead. This comes in various forms from
the dealers — usually, however, as a' paste. It is
mixed at the rate of 3 pounds to a barrel of water.
This has the same uses exactly as paris green, but
is safer, as it does not injure the foliage. Further-
more, it has the good quality of holding on to the
foliage. Arsenate of lead may be mixed with bor-
deaux mixture, and in fact this is the customary
way of applying it.

LIME-SULPHUR WASH

This spray solution is used chiefly for killing the
San Jose scale, and has been found on the whole the

SPRAYING

81

most efficient spray for that purpose. The recipe is
as follows :

Fresh stone lime, 16 pounds

Flowers of sulphur, or sulphur flour, 15 pounds
Water, 40 gallons

Flowers of sulphur
usually cost a little
more than the sulphur
flour, but should be
preferred when the so-
lution is to be cooked
over a fire in a kettle.
When the solution can
be cooked with live
steam, which is the bet-
ter way, the cheaper
grades of sulphur are
equally available.

Begin by slaking the
lime in a small amount
of water in a large iron
kettle. Whe-n the slak-
ing lime generates a
considerable amount of
heat, sprinkle the sul-
phur in gradually, thus utilizing the heat of
the lime in cooking the sulphur. At this stage, a
fire should be made under the kettle and the solu-
tion kept up to the boiling point, adding the water a
little at a time. Vigorous boiling should be main-
tained for about an hour, at the end of which time
the solution becomes a dark orange in color and
should have very little sediment at the bottom.
Whether it shows sediment or not, the solution

FIG. 41
BOILING LIME-SULPHUR

82

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

should be strained through a fine strainer into the
spray tank and used while still hot.

The lime-sulphur is used also as a spring spray,
especially on peach trees, for checking leaf curl. For
this purpose it must be greatly diluted. It has such
decided fungicidal value that it is now coming into
use to some extent in treating apple trees for the
prevention of scab. For summer use, on trees in

FIG. 42 — THE REGULAR JOB OF SPRAYIXG

full foliage, the solution need not be applied hot,
although it should always be used when freshly
made. Even standing overnight is likely to result
in considerable deterioration.

There are several forms of ready-made lime-sul-
phur offered on the market ; some of these are fairly
good, but none of them has yet been found equal to
the freshly made solution described above.

SPRAYING 83

SELF-BOILED LIME-SULPHUR

Another method of making the lime-sulphur spray
produces what is called the self-boiled mixture,
which seems to have properties considerably differ-
ent from the mixture described above. This self-
boiled mixture seems to be especially valuable as a
fungicide, particularly on the peach. It controls the
leaf-curl, the brown rot, the scab, and, when arse-
nate of lead is added at the spraying, after the blos-
soming season, the curculio also. The most recent
methods of making this mixture, as worked out by
Scott and Ayres of the United States Department of
Agriculture, are as follows :

The 8-8-50 formula is recommended. This mix-
ture can best be prepared in rather large quantities
— say enough for 200 gallons at a time, making the
formula 32 pounds of lime and 32 pounds of sulphur,
to be cooked with 8 or 10 gallons of water, and then
diluted to 200 gallons.

The lime should be placed in a barrel and enough
water poured on almost to cover it. As soon as the
lime begins to slake the sulphur should be added
after first running it through a sieve to break up the
lumps. The mixture should be constantly stirred
and more water added as needed to form a thick
paste at first, and then gradually a thin paste. The
lime will supply enough heat to boil the mixture
several minutes. As soon as it is well slaked, water
should be added to cool the mixture and prevent
further cooking. It is then ready to be strained into
the spray tank, diluted and applied.

The stage at which cold water should be poured
on to stop the cooking varies with different limes.
Some limes are so sluggish in slaking that it is diffi-

84 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

cult to obtain enough heat from them to cook the
mixture at all, while other limes become intensely
hot on slaking. Care must be taken not to allow
the boiling to proceed too far. If the mixture is
allowed to remain hot 15 or 20 minutes after the
slaking is completed, the sulphur goes into solu-
tion, combining with the lime to form sulphides,
which are injurious to peach foliage. It is very

FIG. 43 — TREES SPRAYED WITH LIME-SULPHUR

important, especially with hot lime, to cool the mix-
ture quickly by adding a few buckets of water as
soon as the lumps of lime have slaked down. The
intense heat, violent boiling, and constant stirring
result in a uniform mixture of finely divided sulphur
and lime, with only a very small percentage of the
sulphur in solution. The mixture should be strained
to take out the coarse particles of lime, but the sul-

SPRAYING 85

phur should be carefully worked through the
strainer.

In using arsenate of lead with this mixture it
should be added at the rate of 2 pounds to 50
gallons.

SOLUBLE OILS

There are now on the market several brands of
so-called soluble or miscible oils, which are exten-
sively used in the campaign against the San Jose
scale. These are simply various products of the
-kerosene industry made up in such a manner that
they mix readily with water. The usual way of
applying these oils is to add one gallon of oil to 15
or 16 gallons of water, stirring the solution vigor-
ously, usually by pumping it back into the barrel. The
solution is then ready for immediate use. It is this
ease of mixing and applying which forms one of the
strong recommendations for this kind of spray. It
gives excellent success in many instances.

KEROSEXE EMULSION

For combating aphis and certain other sucking
insects kerosene emulsion is always recommended,
sometimes used and in rare instances proves effec-
tive. It is made up as follows :

Hard soap, shaved fine, l/2 pound
Water, i gallon

Kerosene, 2 gallons

Dissolve the soap in the water, which should be
boiling; remove from the fire and pour it into the
kerosene while hot. Churn this with a spray pump
till it changes to a creamy, then to a soft butter-like

86 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

mass. Keep this as a stock, and use one part in nine
of water for soft-bodied insects such as plant lice.

DUST SPRAYING

Fungicides and insecticides are sometimes applied
as a dry powder instead of as a liquid spray. In
this case a special blower is used in place of the
regulation pump. The dust method of spraying,
however, is generally regarded as the lazy man's
makeshift, and is not to be adopted where the ordi-
nary methods are available. The dust spray has been
found most useful where water for making solu-
tions is very scarce, or on certain very rough and
rocky lands where the barrel pump could not be car-
ried. Thus, it has happened to be more at home
in the Missouri Ozarks than elsewhere. The fol-
lowing directions are adopted bodily from Missouri :

TO MAKE 70 POUNDS OF STOCK POWDER

4 pounds copper sulphate

4 pounds quicklime

2//2 gallons water in which to dissolve

copper sulphate
2/X> gallons water in which to slake

quicklime
60 pounds air slaked lime thoroughly

sifted

Dissolve the copper sulphate and slake quicklime
separately, each in 2^/2 gallons water. Pour at same
time milk of lime and copper solution into a third
vessel and stir thoroughly. Surplus water is then
strained out and remaining wet material is thor-
oughly mixed with the 60 pounds of air-slaked lime.

SPRAYING

All lumps must be sifted out and the mixture must
be perfectly dry. One pound each of sulphur and
paris green may be added.

SPRAY MACHINERY

A spraying outfit consists essentially of four
parts: (i) a tank or a barrel with some means of
carrying it, (2) a pump, (3) a suitable length of

FIG. 44— CONVENIENT CART OUTFIT

hose, and (4) a nozzle or nozzles. These various
elements are all of them important. They should
be fully understood by the operator, should be care-
fully selected in buying, and should be kept up to
their original efficiency by good care and frequent
inspection.

The tank or the barrel is perhaps the easiest part
to provide to one's satisfaction. Any sound kero-
sene or whiskey barrel may be used, or a good bar-

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

rel bought of the dealers in spray machinery. For
large operations a 2OO-gallon tank will be needed.
This can best be bought direct from the dealers.

The pump is the vital
part of the spray outfit.
It must be strong and
easy working, and all the
working parts must be of
brass. An ordinary iron
pump is quickly ruined
by the corrosive liquids
used in spraying. The
submerged hand pumps
are best for ordinary
work, the double-acting
pump (see Figure 46)
for heavier hand spray-
ing, while the heavy
double-acting pumps go

FIG. 45 — SUBMERGED BARREL
PUMP

with the kerosene power
sprayers.

The hose should be spe-
cially selected for spraying
and should be the best rub-
ber hose, j4 mcri m diam-
eter. Some operators,
however, prefer cheap
cotton hose ^ inch in
diameter.

The nozzle is of great
importance. While there

FIG. 40— LARGE HAND PUMP

SPRAYING

89

are a great many different makes on the market,
most of them conform to two general types, the
bordeaux and the vermorel (see Figures 47-49).
It may be pointed out that of these two types of
nozzle the vermorel gives the finer spray, while the
bordeaux throws to the greater height. The ver-
morel nozzle should be used by preference wher-
ever the work can be readily reached, as the fine
misty spray is much more
effective in coating the
leaves, while it is at the
same time more economical
of the solution. When the
tops of large trees have
to be reached, however,
it is necessary to use a
nozzle with more squirt
to it. A good practical
arrangement consists in
having two leads of hose
on the spray pump, one
fitted with vermorel nozzles,
the other with the bor-
deaux. Then the man who
handles the bordeaux nozzles will do the work in
the tree tops while his co-workman with the ver-
morel nozzles gives his attention to the lower
branches.

Spraying outfits as a whole may be conveniently
classified into three types, the knapsack sprayer,
the barrel sprayer and the power sprayer. Of these
the knapsack sprayer is not much used nowadays.
Even for small gardens it is unsatisfactory, the
small barrel pumps being as cheap and much more
efficient.

FIG. 47 — NOZZLE OF
DEAUX TYPE

90 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

The barrel outfit (see Figure 45) is the equip-
ment proper for most gardens and small orchards.
The barrel may be bought ready mounted on a spe-
cial truck or carriage ; but as a rule the barrel can
best be purchased separately and carried about the
place in any common wagon.

The large power outfits are very valuable for heavy
work in large orchards. They
are by no means suited to the
accomplishments of the begin-
ner, and so the reader of this
book may properly be referred
to more professional sources
for suggestions on this topic.

THE SPRAYING CAMPAIGN

In order to get the best re-
sults from spraying it is neces-
sary to have a definite program
of operations. A single isolated
FIG. 48 spraying given for some spe-

VERMOREL^TYPE OF cjfic pUrpose may pay jts way>

but it cuts a small and sorry

figure -in the general practice of modern fruit grow-
ing. The general program of work will usually be
outlined somewhat as follows :

i. Midzvinter to March 15. — A thorough application
of lime sulphur or soluble oil for San Jose scale. Of
course, in any orchard where San Jose scale does
not exist, this treatment may be omitted. In
orchards where it does exist annual treatment is
usually necessary, the complete annihilation of these
insects being of so rare occurrence as hardly to need
mention. It is the practice of many good fruit

SPRAYING

growers to use lime-sulphur spray one year and
soluble oil the next. In other cases where the lime-
sulphur is depended upon for its fungicidal proper-
ties, growers prefer to use it every year rather than
to alternate with soluble oil.

2. An early spring treatment with fungicide. — On
apple, pear and plum trees, this usually means a
thorough drenching with plain solution of copper
sulphate, 5 pounds to 50 gallons of water applied
before the buds start.

The lime sulphur spray
has been found decid-
edly better for peach
trees, and in fact this
spray is coming into
use on other fruit also.
The purpose of this
early spring spraying
is to kill the fungus
spores adhering to the
trees. In many or-
chards this is the most
valuable spraying of
the year.

3. In orchards where

a special fight is to be made against fungi, particu-
larly apple and pear scab, another spraying is given
immediately before the blossoms open. In nearly
all cases this treatment will be made with plain bor-
deaux mixture.

4. As soon as the blossoms have fallen from the
trees, operations should be begun for what is actually,
in ordinary practice, the big treatment of the
year's campaign. At this time the trees should be
treated with bordeaux mixture combined with some

FIG. 49 — NOZZLE OF IMPROVED
VERMOREL TYPE

92 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

insect poison, preferably arsenate of lead. Bor-
deaux mixture protects the newly formed leaves
from the attacks and fungi, while the poison pro-
tects the newly formed apples, pears or quinces
from the attacks of the codling moth and the foliage
from the incursions of leaf-eating insects. Under
no circumstances should the spraying be done while
the fruit trees are in blossom. It may injure the
fruit blossoms, and it is almost sure to poison the
bees, which are one of the fruit grower's best
friends.

5. About two weeks later another spraying is due,
this time with bordeaux mixture and poison, or
with weak lime-sulphur and poison.

6. Additional sprayings are usually recommended
up to the middle of July or the first of August, to
be given at intervals of 10 days to two weeks. There
are very few fruit growers, however, who carry out
this complete program, omissions commonly being
made from the foot of this list. Careful experiments
and wide experience have both shown, however,
that four, five and six sprayings may be usually
given at a profit. Each successive spraying will
show a sufficient gain over the previous ones to pay
its cost and leave something for the fruit grower.

Such an outline as that here given can be only
suggestive, of course. Improvements in spray solu-
tions and spraying methods are being made rapidly
year by year, and local conditions of climate often
require important adjustments. Those who are
inexperienced in spraying operations and who can-
not easily come by the personal help of some one
who knows, had better get the latest spray bulletin
from their state experiment station before begin-
ning. Such bulletins are issued in most states, and

SPRAYING

93

have the merit of conveying the latest information
and of suggesting the necessary local adjustments
of practice.

In this connection, speaking both of bulletins and
of the spraying campaign, we may reproduce by
way of illustration the excellent program arranged
by Prof. S. A. Beach for use in Iowa.

SPRAYING CAMPAIGN

WHEN TO SPRAY

WHAT TO SPRAY FOR

1. When the green tips of
the first leaves get as
large as mouse ears.

Apple scab, canker and leaf
spot, bud moths, canker-
worms, case bearers, tent cat-
erpillars, and other leaf-eating
insects. Where apple scab
and insects have not been
abundant or where the trees
have been sprayed during the
dormant season, treatment at
this time may be omitted.

2. Just before the blossoms
open.

Apple scab, canker and leaf
spot. Curculio, and all insects
mentioned in 1. The most
important single treatment
against flic scab.

3. Just as the last of the
apple blossoms are fall-
ing.

Apple scab and other diseases.
Codling moth, curculio and
insects mentioned in 1. Tlie
most important single spray
against the codling moth.

4. From 10 to 20 clays later
than 3.

Apple scab, bitter rot and
other diseases. Insects as
mentioned in 3. Where bitter
rot and blotch are trouble-
some, bordeaux is recom-
mended rather than lime-
sulphur.

5. In late July or early Au-
gust, or about 10 weeks
later than 4.

Bitter rot, scab and other dis-
eases. . Codling moth and
other insects. Very important
in fighting second brood cod-
ling moth.

94 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

SPRAYING CAMPAIGN — Continued

WHEN TO SPRAY

WHAT TO SPRAY FOR

6. From 10 to

20 days after 5.

Where second brood codling
moth is very numerous, arse-
nate of lead should be used
at this time. If bitter rot and
blotch are abundant, use bor-
deaux mixture also.

IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS

Paris green, arsenate of lead and some other
spray materials are poisons. Treat them as such.
Keep them locked up out of the reach of stock, poul-
try and especially children.

Spray intelligently. Be sure of the disease, actual
or threatened, of the remedy and the method of
application.

Spray every year. This is of the utmost impor-
tance. The benefits of spraying last for several
years. So do the results of neglect.

Never spray when the fruit trees are in blossom.
It does no good, it may do harm to the blossoms,
and it is almost sure to poison bees.

Use fresh solutions wherever possible and always
strain them into the tank.

Do not spray immediately after a shower. Much
of the solution will run off.

In general, make the finest spray possible — a mere
mist. Spraying does not take the place of irriga-
tion. It is not even the intention to give the tree
a bath.

But spray all over the tree, trunk, branches and
bottoms of the leaves. Thoroughness is one of the
most important points.

SPRAYING 95

Clean pump and nozzles thoroughly when
through.

Give plenty of pressure on the pump. Hard
pumping with a good pump is what makes the fine
spray. A pressure gauge on the pump should show
60-100 pounds to the square inch.

Get the latest spray bulletin from the state ex-
periment station and follow the directions as well
as you can. When in doubt, ask advice. It costs
nothing and, as Huckleberry Finn said, it is often
worth it.

VI
THE VARIOUS FRUITS

The apple is easily the king of fruits. It is grown
more widely than any other, there are more varie-
ties, it covers a longer season, and it is used in a
greater variety of ways. It is the fruit most exten-
sively cultivated for market.*

In the selection of varieties for planting very
careful attention should be given to questions of
local adaptation — questions which have been sadly
overlooked in recent years in America. Too much
attention is paid to universal favorites, like Baldwin
and Ben Davis, and not enough to those which suc-
ceed splendidly only in restricted neighborhoods,
like Roman Stem, Jeffris and Palmer Greening.
Moreover, in planting a home garden the principles
of selection should be altogether different from
those governing the choice of varieties for a com-
mercial orchard. This distinction is often lost to
sight, though at many points the commercial re-
quirements are directly opposed to the demands of
the family orchard. In order to bring out and em-
phasize this difference it will be well to contrast
these principles of choice in the following table :

*The bulk of recent American literature on apple growing
deals with commercial culture. Those interested in this line
should read The American Apple Orchard by F. A. Waugh,
and American Fruit Culturist by John J. Thomas. The pres-
ent work deals more with amateur fruit growing and presents
the matter in a more elementary form.

THE VARIOUS FRUITS 97

RULES FOR CHOOSING VARIETIES
COMMERCIAL ORCHARDS HOME ORCHARDS

Select a very few varieties. Select many varieties.

Choose standard market Choose family favorites.

sorts

Give only second thought to Put quality first.

quality

Prefer late-keeping winter Provide a succession of

varieties (the old rule, varieties.

subject to exceptions).

Choose only hardy, healthy Stick to some good varieties

sorts. in spite of defects of

tree.

Plant no novelties or oddi- Test occasional promising

ties. novelties, and grow some

sweet apples, crabs, etc.

Having laid it down as a general principle that
a long list of varieties may be grown in the home
orchard, and that personal preference should largely
influence the choice, we have made it exceedingly
difficult to offer a recommended list of varieties.
But as such lists seem to be expected in every work
of this character, the following suggestions are
offered for the use of the beginner who has no
better advice to draw upon :

For Central New England, New York state and
southern Michigan : Benoni, Chenango, Early
Harvest, Garden Royal, Jeffris, Maiden Blush,
Porter, Red Astrachan, Williams Favorite, Yellow
Transparent, Fall Pippin, Gravenstein, Mother,
Duchess of Oldenburg, King, Wealthy, Mclntosh,
Rhode Island Greening, Bailey Sweet, Isham
Sweet, Baldwin, Hubbardston, Westfield Seek-no-
further, Wagener, Sutton.

In northern New England : Northern Spy,
Fameuse, Livland Raspberry and other hardier

98 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

FIG. 50 — HARVESTING THE PEACH CROP

THE VARIOUS FRUITS 99

varieties should be considered. In southern New
England: Grimes Golden, Jonathan and Newtown
Pippin may be successfully grown.

In New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the
higher altitudes of Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia : Early Harvest, Porter, Golden Sweet,
Red Astrachan, Williams Favorite, Yellow Trans-
parent, Primate, Maiden Blush, Rambo, Fall Wine,
Wealthy, Mclntosh, Grimes, Peck Pleasant, Tol-
man Sweet, Hubbardston, Nero, Stayman, Wine-
sap, Newtown (or Albemarle) Pippin, Jonathan,
York Imperial.

For Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky
and Tennessee : Red June, Red Astrachan, Yellow
Transparent, Duchess of Oldenburg, Chenango,
Benoni, Early Joe, Sweet Bough, Early Harvest,
Maiden Blush, Wealthy, Grimes, Bailey Sweet,
Jonathan, Rails, Roman Stem, Winesap, Stayman,
Newtown Pippin, Yates, Ben Davis.

For the South Atlantic states: Early Harvest,
Sweet Bough, Red June, Chenango, Early Joe, Jef-
fris, Maiden Blush, Red Astrachan, Horse, Sum-
mer Rose, White Juneating, Grimes, Jonathan,
Langford, Shockley, Stayman, Romanite, Yates.

For Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and
Iowa: Charlamoff, Longfield, Livland Raspberry,
Duchess of Oldenburg, Switzer, Hibernal, North-
western Greening, St. Lawrence, Wealthy, Malinda,
Milwaukee, Patten.

For Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma :
Yellow Transparent, Red June, Benoni, Chenango,
Maiden Blush, Duchess of Oldenburg, Early Joe,
Dyer, Mclntosh, Wealthy, Grimes, Roman Stem,
Rambo, Jonathan, Ben Davis, Winesap, Stayman,
White Winter Pearmain.

100

BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

For the Pacific Coast region : Early Harvest,
Yellow Transparent, Red Astrachan, Benoni, Gol-
den Sweet, Gravenstein, Fall Pippin, Fameuse,
Mclntosh, Rambo, Baldwin, Esopus Spitzenburg,
Newtown Pippin, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, Yellow
Belleflower, Grimes.

Crab apples are well worth including in every

FIG. 51 — EDGE OF THE HALE CONNECTICUT ORCHARDS

garden of any extent. The varieties almost univer-
sally preferred are Hyslop and Transcendent.

PEACHES

The list of valuable peaches is much shorter than
the apple list, and the local adaptations are much
less important. Elberta is the hardiest and most
prolific yellow peach, but is not of so good quality
as Foster, Early Crawford or Late Crawford. White
peaches of the modern type (Chinese Cling group)

THE VARIOUS FRUITS IOI

are very different from the old-fashioned white
peaches, and represent the acme in peach quality.
Of these Greensboro, Hiley, Waddell, Champion,
Carman and Belle of Georgia offer a splendid selec-
tion. These varieties have the further important
advantage of withstanding the cold of winter and
the late frosts of spring better than almost any
other known sorts.

Other well-known varieties, favorites with some
growers, are Alexander (very early), Chairs (yel-
low midseason), Fitzgerald (extra hardy), Mamie
Ross (early, good quality), Mountain Rose (mid-
season, white, good), Oldmixon (medium late, good
quality), St. John (yellow, fair).

PEARS*

As a rule pears do not succeed well in North
America. There are some local exceptions to this
statement, but in general pears of any sort are a
rarity. The varieties most commonly successful are
Bartlett, Seckel, Bosc, Anjoti, Flemish Beauty,
Lawrence, Sheldon and Winter Nelis. In the cen-
tral and south central states Kieffer is grown much
more extensively than any other variety. It is
hardy and prolific, but very poor in quality except
for canning. Other varieties which are worth plant-
ing in sections where pear culture amounts to any-
thing are Angouleme, Buffum, Clairgeau, Cornice,
Dana's Hovey, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Vicar of
Winkfield.

Pears prefer a rather heavy soil. They should
also receive less cultivation and less nitrogenous

*For a more extended discussion of pears and pear grow-
ing see Pear Culture for Profit, by P. T. Quinn.

IO2 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

fertilizer than apples. Any treatment which serves
to force them into vigorous growth invites the
attacks of pear blight. About the only practical
treatment for this blight is to cut out and burn the
blighted branches.

FIG. 52 — PROFITABLE DWARF PEARS IX WESTERN XEW YORK
PLUMS*

So .many different varieties and species of plums
are in cultivation in America that it is hard to make

*Those who wish to pay particular attention to the cultiva-
tion of plums should consult Wattgh's Plums and Plum Cul-
ture, published by Oranpre Tudd Co., New York.

THE VARIOUS FRUITS 103

any recommendations in a general work like the
present. The principal groups of varieties are as
follows :

The European plums, derived from the botanical
species, Primus domestica, and numbering such
diverse varieties as Green Gage, Fellemberg, Lom-
bard, Coe's Golden Drop, Magnum Bonum or Yel-
low Egg, and many others of considerable value.
These are grown successfully on the Pacific coast,
where many of them are known as prunes, and in
Michigan, New York and New England. Else-
where they are generally a highly qualified success.

The Damsons. These are small, mostly blue
plums, very sour. They are hardy and prolific, and
many housewives have a great predilection for them
in the making of preserves. There is usually a good
demand for them in the market. They succeed in
the same territory as the European plums men-
tioned above, but may be grown fairly well also in
Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illi-
nois, and Indiana. The best varieties are Shrop-
shire, Cluster and French Damson.

The Japanese plums have become very popular,
especially in the eastern, central and southern
states. They come quickly into bearing, are very
prolific and are not generally subject to serious dis-
eases. The best varieties are Red June (on account
of its earliness rather than for quality), Abundance,
Burbank, and Satsuma (with red flesh).

Native plums of several different species are
worth cultivating in the garden, especially in the
Gulf and Mississippi Valley states. In these sec-
tions the nurserymen propagate for sale many ex-
cellent varieties, of which the best known are Wild-

104 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

THE VARIOUS FRUITS IO5

goose, Milton, Newman, DeSoto, Hawkeye, Sur-
prise, Weaver.

Hybrid plums of many different varieties have
been introduced of late years, some of which are
decidedly promising, especially for use in southern
central states. As a mere suggestion, we may name
Gonzales, Excelsior, Golden, and Wickson.

CHERRIES

The cherries may be separated into two broad
groups, the sweet cherries and the sour varieties.
The former varieties are comparatively difficult of
cultivation and succeed only in restricted localities
in New York state, neighboring states and on the
Pacific coast. The sour cherries on the other hand
are very hardy and thrive throughout the northern
states very generally.

The favorite sweet cherries are Black Heart,
Downer, Elton, Napoleon, Oxheart, Yellow Span-
ish, Black Tartarian, Windsor and Governor Wood.

The best sour cherries are Montmorency, May
Duke, Morello, Richmond and certain Russian sorts
of rather uncertain nomenclature.

In California the apricot succeeds admirably. The
tree grows well in most of the northern and central
states, but is very uncertain in fruiting. Nowhere
can it be called satisfactory, much less indispensable.
The best-known varieties are Alexander, Blenheim,
Early Golden, Harris, Moorpark.

NECTARINES

The nectarine strongly resembles the peach, the

io6 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

FIG. 54 — EARLY RICHMOND CHERRY IN ELOOM

THE VARIOUS FRUITS

107

characteristic feature being that the fruit of the
nectarine is smooth like a plum instead of being
covered with a fuzz like the peach. Nectarines are
rather widely grown in Europe and deserve more
attention in America. They may be propagated
and cultivated exactly like peaches. Leading varie-
ties are Downton and Early Violet.

FIG. 55 — APRICOTS GROWN IN MASSACHUSETTS
QUINCES*

The quince is of easy cultivation, thriving in
almost any soil and climate adapted to the apple.
The leading varieties are Champion, Orange, Rea
and Bourgeat.

*The only special work on this fruit is Quince Culture by
W. W. Meech.

VII
RENOVATION

The problem which the beginner in fruit growing
has to face is not always that of planting a young
orchard. Indeed, when one is seeking out a piece
of land with a view to embarking upon the fascinat-
ing field of pomology, he nearly always prefers to
select a farm which already has some apple trees
on it. Nine times out of ten these are old trees
and in a certain stage of neglect and disrepair. The
renovation of these old orchards is a rather common
practice and probably always will be. It is interest-
ing and in some cases profitable.

IS IT WORTH WHILE?

The question whether it is to be profitable or not
can be answered with some reasonable certainty in
advance. The answer will depend upon the condi-
tion of the trees and upon the methods adopted for
their recovery. As regards the condition of the
trees, there are four things to be noticed in particu-
lar. These are: (i) the age and kind of the trees,
(2) the stand, (3) varieties, (4) scale, canker and
other diseases.

If the trees are very old and decrepit, there is,
of course, no use in trying to rejuvenate them. As
a rule, trees more than 50 years old are likely to be
beyond profitable recovery, though this age limit
varies widely. If the trees have several sound
limbs and are making 2 or 3 inches growth each

109

no BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

year, they may be considered in sufficiently good
condition for treatment. On the other hand, if the
tops are mostly dead, if there are heavy limbs
broken down, and if there are large rotten cavities,

FIG. 57 — OLD TREE BEFORE RENOVATION

the trees will probably cost more than they are
worth before they can be brought back to useful
lives.

The stand of trees should be fairly uniform and
complete. If the orchard has been depleted by any

KEN OVATION

III

cause until there are less than 20 trees to the acre,
it may be considered doubtful expediency to at-
tempt a renovation. This will depend naturally
more or less upon the value of the land. Cheap or
waste land might be left to support 10 or 15 trees

FIG. 58 — SAME TREE FIRST SUMMER AFTER TREATMENT

to the acre, but good land which can be brought
under cultivation had better be restored to the plow
by complete clearing unless it can show at least
a half a stand of trees.

The varieties should be worth while. It is only
a waste of money to save a tree which will bear

BEGIN.NERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

nothing but worthless fruit after it has been reno-
vated. Of course, any healthy tree, no matter how
worthless the fruit is ordinarily, may be grafted to

FIG. 59 — SAME TREE AFTER TWO YEARi

any desirable variety, and this regrafting of unde-
sirable tops to better varieties is often an impor-
tant item in the whole program of renovation. At
the same time this grafting is hard work and pre-

RENOVATION 1 13

sents some risks and difficulties, so that the orchard
must otherwise be much better in order to justify
the undertaking.

It is important also to observe the extent to which
an orchard is attacked by insects and diseases. The
most important of these enemies and the ones most
commonly found in neglected orchards are San
Jose scale, oyster shell louse and apple tree canker.
All of these can b.e overcome, but to get rid of them
requires labor and expense. Therefore, they offer
an objection to undertaking the renovation of any
orchard, and in case of doubt may turn the decision
against the attempt.

HOW THE WORK IS DONE

The work of renovating an old orchard consists
in a series of operations which must all be brought
together in effective array in order to secure success.
The most important of these operations, named ap-
proximately in the order in which they are under-
taken, are (i) pruning, (2) scraping, (3) grafting.
(4) spraying, (5) plowing, (6) fertilization, (7)
cover cropping, (8) systematic good management.
Let us look at these in more detail.

In most cases the renovation of an old orchard
begins with pruning. This pruning is commonly
done in early spring, viz., between February 15 and
April 15. It would be a decided advantage if a
considerable portion of this pruning were under-
taken in June or July. In any case it will be best
to carry out the work in two or three installments.
At the first pruning only the largest broken limbs
are to be removed, along with the wood which is
actually dead. After them there may be taken out

114 BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

interfering branches and those which render the
tree unsymmetrical.

On most old trees an important part of the prun-
ing consists in shortening in the heads. In order
to get nearer to the base of operations, and espe-
cially to bring the tree down within the range of
the spraying machine, fairly extensive heading-in is
often necessary. This part of the work in particular
should be accomplished with care and circumspec-
tion, and should be distributed over two or three
years if possible.

At the first attack upon the problem the trunk
and main branches of the trees should be scraped

FIG. 60 — TREE SCRAPER

clean. This work is done with a dull knife or an
old hoe or with a special tree scraper, which may be
bought from any dealer for 25 or 30 cents. The
removal of the old broken bark, all of which should
be put on the bonfire and burned, gets rid of a large
storehouse of fungus spores. This old bark is the
favorite lodging place of all kinds of orchard pests.
When it is removed such insects and fungi are not
only killed in the process, but their hiding place is
removed for the future.

If the trees are to be regrafted to new varieties
this work will accompany the original spring prun-
ing and scraping. The work should be done in early
spring, as already described on page 12. Many

RENOVATION 115

practical fruit men consider it an advantage to dis-
tribute this part of the work over two or three
years rather than to do it all at once. As the graft-
ing itself requires the removal of a certain number
of branches, it should be done before the pruning
in order that the graftsman may intelligently choose
the positions for his grafts.

FIG. 61 — OLD TREE MODERATELY HEADED BACK

Oyster-shell louse and San Jose scale should also
be attacked at the time the campaign is opened.
They should receive thorough spraying early dur-
ing the first spring. Probably the best all-round
treatment for these insects will be the thorough
application of lime-sulphur wash, which should be

n6 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

put on as warm as possible. Canker will be taken
care of more effectively by the spring applications
of bordeaux mixture which are to follow.

CULTIVATION

Practically all neglected orchards stand in sod
land and in practically all cases one of the first and
most important steps in their conversion to a useful
life consists in plowing the soil. This is an under-
taking for a man of patient and forbearing temper.
The renovator should also have a quiet and steady
team. A well-trained team of oxen is particularly
useful in this sort of salvage. A strictly fancy job
of plowing must not be expected at this time. "While
the plow need not go down very deep, it should
go as deep as the strength of the oxen and the driv-
er's Christian principles will justify. Inevitably a
number of large tree roots will be encountered. In
some cases the plowman may cut his way through
these with an ax ; and unless a large amount of
this chopping is done near the main trunks of the
trees no damage whatever will result. In fact, this
sort of root pruning, within moderate limits, must
be considered a direct advantage in the line of the
main undertaking.

FERTILIZERS

All neglected orchards are suffering for want of
plant food and their recovery will require the adop-
tion of a rational system of fertilization. At the
beginning the amounts of fertilizers applied should
be relatively small, however. In fact, upon good
land it may be a question whether it is not better

RENOVATION 1 1/

to omit all fertilizers during the first two years of
the renovation work. The stirring of the soil will
liberate additional plant food and the pruning of the
trees will itself start up an unusual amount of
growth. If large amounts of fertilizers are added
at the same time, especially barnyard manure or
other forms of nitrogen, the trees may easily be
forced into a too vigorous growth. Still, some fer-

ric. 62 — A BALDWIN" ORCHARD SUCCESSFULLY REXOVATED

tilizers will be required. The plan of feeding this
plant food to the trees should be mapped out on the
basis of the needs of a full-grown orchard and the
trees should be brought up gradually to this allow-
ance.

The cover cropping will follow in the routine of
orchard management, as already described on page
43. The cover crop will be especially valuable in
bringing the soil into a good physical condition and
in adding the supply of humus which is apt to be

n8 BEGINNERS' GUIDE TO FRUIT GROWING

deficient in neglected orchards. Buckwheat is prob-
ably one of the very best crops for use under these
circumstances.

General good management must replace general
neglect all along the line in accomplishing what we
have here in view. This will mean cultivation of
the soil throughout the summer, and a regular cam-
paign of spring and summer spraying. In fact, this
is the essence of the whole method ; namely, that all
these various lines of work shall be applied at once
and in organized co-operation. Attempts at reno-
vating old orchards often fail, but the reason is that
some one has a notion that the whole thing can be
accomplished by grafting or by spraying, or by
some other one or two partial reforms. In most
cases it is not worth while to undertake any one
of these unless the whole scheme is to be put
through vigorously and systematically to the end.

When such a campaign is intelligently carried
out, however, upon trees whkh have a reasonable
hope of life, the results are often surprisingly good.
Hundreds of cases are known where such old
orchards have been brought to a highly profitable
condition. This usually requires two to five years.
Commonly the results begin to show in a small crop
of fruit the second or the third year. From that
time forward the crop should increase in quantity
and improve in quality.

INDEX

Page

Page

Age of nursery trees

... 24

Kerosene emulsion

85

Apple fertilizers

... 52

Apple stocks
Apricots

. ..2, 18
... 105

Laying out an orchard

32

Arsenate of lead

5

Lime-sulphur solution

49
80

Barnyard manure

. 43

... 77

Management

39

Budding

... 8

Minor crops

43

Budding knife

... 10

Mulch method

41

Budding season

... 9

Budding stick

9

Nectarines

.. 105

Budding versus grafting
Buying nursery stock

8
... 22

New England varieties
Nitrate of soda

97
50

Central states varieties

. 99

Cherries
Cherry stocks
Cleft-grafting
Cover-crop seed
Cover crops
Cultivation

... 105
21
... 12

47
... 117
.39, 116

Nurse-graft
Nursery grades
Nursery inspection
Nursery stock
Nurserymen

7
23
24
22
23

Cuttings

1

Pacific Coast varieties

100

Double planting
Doucin stocks

..28,29
... 19

Painting wounds
Paradise stocks

63
19

Dust spraying
Dwarf apples
Dwarf pears
Dwarfing

... 86
... 19
... 20
... 17

Paris green
Peach budding
Peach stocks
Peaches
Pear fertilizers

80
9
20
100
56

Fall versus spring planting. . . .
Fertilizers
Fertilizers for special fruits..

. 36
4i, 116

... 52

Pear stocks
Pears
Phosphoric acid

20
.. 101
52

"Foster mother" graft
French apple stocks

8
... 19

Planting board
Planting distances

34
27

General management
Grading stock
Grafting knife

... 118

... 23
1

Planting trees
Plum fertilizers
Plum stocks

34
56
21

Grafting tools

... 13

Potash

51

Guarantees

,'.'.', 24

Principles of pruning
Propagation

60

Heading in old trees
Height for heading trees
High heads versus low heads.

... 114
... 67
... 65

Pruning
Pruning at planting time. . . .
Pruning knife
Pruning methods

58
65
73
70

Pruning saw

74

Influence of stock on cion

... 16

Pruning shears

73

Insects, how to fight

... 79

Pruning tools

72

Inspection

... 24

Pumps

88

Interplanting

... 29

Purposes of pruning

58

120

Page

Pagt

Quince stocks
Quinces

. 20
. 107

Spraying
Spraying campaign

... 76
... 90

Renovation of orchards

. 109

Spraying suggestions
Stock and cion

.. 94

16

Root-grafting

. 2

Stocks for various fruits.

18

Rules for choosing varieties

. 97

.62 113

System of cultivation

.. 42

Scraping trunks

. 114

Season for pruning
Secret methods
Seedling trees

, 62
. 8
. 2

Tongue-graft
Top-grafting

3
... 12

Self-boiled lime sulphur
Shaping the tree

83
. 63

Varieties of fruits

... 96

Side-graft

. 6

Soluble oils

. 85

When to spray

... 90

Splice-graft

. 3

Whip-graft

... 3

Spray machinery

. 87

... 49

JuL

This book is DUE on the last date stamped below

X

25195?

Form L-9-15w-ll,'27

S3
355

".v.Fb VIail£±L_=-

E.eginners1 guide

to frui1T~growing^

6ft

2.55

V554-

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILIT'

?r,rT,,

<•>" ' of C.1LIFORN-,

1111

iiiiiH

mm

i