•NRLF

312 100

The Gift of Beatrix Farrand

to the General Library
University of California, Berkeley

REEF

POINT
GARDENS
LIBRARY

DWARF FRUIT TREES

OTHER BOOKS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR

LANDSCAPE GARDENING
PLUMS AND PLUM CULTURE

FRUIT HARVESTING, STOR-
ING, MARKETING

SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY

DWARF CHERRY TREE
Two years planted

DWARF
FRUIT TREES

THEIR PROPAGATION, PRUNING, AND
GENERAL MANAGEMENT, ADAPTED
TO THE UNITED STATES AND
CANADA : : : : : :

By
F. A. WAUGH

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
1920

COPYRIC-HT. 1906

BY ORANGE JUDD COMPANY

Printed in U. S. A.

Add to lib;

PREFACE ""gg*

LIBRARY

THE commercial interests have so continuously and
completely held the horticultural stage in America dur-
ing the last two decades that it has been impossible
for amateur horticulture to get in a word edgewise.
Any public speaker or writer has had to talk about
several acres at a time or he would not be listened to.
He has been obliged to insist that his scheme would
pay on a commercial scale before anyone would hear,
much less consider, what he had to tell.

But now a change is coming. Different conditions
are already upon us. A thousand signs indicate the
new era. With hundreds — yes thousands — of men
and women now horticulture is an avocation, a pas-
time. They grow trees largely for the pleasure of it;
and their gardens are built amidst surroundings which
would make commercial pomology laugh at itself.

And so I undertake to offer the first American fruit
book in a quarter century which can boldly declare
its independence of the professional element in fruit
growing. I am confident that dwarf fruit trees have
some commercial possibilities, but they are of far
greater importance to the small householder, the owner

392

viii PREFACE

of the private "estate," the village dweller, the subur-
banite and the commuter.

In other words, while I hope that all good people
will be interested in dwarf fruit trees and that some
of them will share the enthusiasm of which this book
is begotten, I do not want anyone to think that I
have issued any guaranty, expressed or implied, that
dwarf trees will open a paying commercial enterprise.
Because the argument that a thing pays has been so
long the only recommendation offered for any horti-
cultural scheme, many persons have formed the habit
of assuming that every sort of praise stands on this
one foundation.

F. A. WAUGH.

Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1906.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE v

I. General Considerations *

II. Advantages and Disadvantages 8

III. Propagation 22

IV. Pruning 33

V. Special Forms 4*

VI. General Management 51

VII. Dwarf Apples 63

VIII. Dwarf Pears 76

IX. Dwarf Peaches . . 83

X. Dwarf Plums 9°

XI. Bush Fruits 99

XII. Fruit Trees in Pots 106

XIII. Personalia 112

Index I2.5

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Dwarf Cherry Tree Frontispiece

FIG. PAGE

1 Dwarf Apple Trees in Western New York .... 3

2 Trained Cordon Apple Trees 5

3 Bismarck Apple 7

4 Pear Tree Trained as an Espalier g

5 Bush Apple Tree n

6 Plums as Upright Cordons 17

7 Paradise Apple Stocks in Early Spring 25

8 The Western Sand Cherry 30

9 Upright Cordon Plum 31

10 Bush Apple 34

11 Bush Apple, Three Years Old, Before Pruning . . 37

12 Bush Apple, Same Tree, After Pruning 37

13 Cordon Pears Before Pruning 39

14 Cordon Pears After Pruning 39

15 Pears in Double U Form 43

16 Pears in U Form 4-5

17 Apricots in U Form 47

18 Pear in Espalier 48

19 Old Espalier Pears on Farm House Wall .... 49

20 Horizontal Cordon Apple and Other Dwarf Trees . 52

21 Design for a Back Yard Fruit Garden 53

22 Dwarf Fruit Garden 55

23 Fruit Gardening and Landscape Gardening Combined 59

24 A Fruit Garden Containing Many Dwarf Trees . . 61

25 Dwarf Apples on Prof. L. H. Bailey's Farm, New York 65

xi

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE

c6 Upright Cordon Apples 67

27 Horizontal Cordon Apple Trees 71

28 Young Orchard of Dwarf Pear in Western New York 76

29 Dwarf Pear in the Old and Profitable ' Yeomans

Orchard, New York 77

30 Orchard of Dwarf Duchess Pear, Lockport N. Y. . 79

31 Pyramid Pears in a German Orchard 80

32 Dwarf Peach in Nursery 84

33 Espalier Peach, Hartford, Conn 85

34 Peach in Fan Espalier on Wall — England .... 87

35 Peach Trees Trained Under Glass 88

36 Plum Trees Trained as Upright Cordons .... 91

37 Burbank Plums on Upright Cordons Trained to Trellis 95

38 Currants as Fan Espaliers on Trellis 100

39 Gooseberry Fan Espalier 102

40 Tree Form Gooseberry 104

41 A Fruiting Peach in Pot 108

42 A Fig Tree in a Pot no

43 Dwarf Pear 117

44 Chenango Apples in Prof. L. H. Bailey's Orchard . 121

DWARF FRUIT TREES

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

A DWARF fruit tree is simply one which does not
reach full size. It is not so large as it might be ex-
pected to be. It is smaller than a normal tree of the
same variety and age.

There are indeed some trees which are normally
dwarf, so to speak. They never reach a considerable
size. They are smaller than other better known and
related species. For example, the species Primus pu-
mila besscyi is sometimes called the dwarf sand cherry,
simply because it is always notably smaller than re-
lated species. The Paradise apple is spoken of as a
dwarf because it never attains the stature which other
apples attain.

But in the technical sense, as the term is used by
nurserymen and pomologists, a dwarf tree is one
which is made, by some artificial means, to grow
smaller than normal trees of the same variety.

These artificial means used for making dwarf trees
are chiefly three: (i) propagation on dwarfing stocks,

2 DWARF FRUIT TREES

(2) repressive pruning, and (3) training to some pre-
scribed form.

DWARFING STOCKS

The most common and important means of secur-
ing dwarf trees is that of propagating them on dwarf-
ing stocks. These are simply such roots as make a
slower and weaker growth than the trees from which
cions are taken. This will be understood better from
a concrete example. The quince tree normally grows
slower than the pear, and usually reaches about half
the size at maturity. Now pear cions will unite read-
ily with quince roots and will grow in good health
for many years. But when a pear tree is thus de-
pendent for daily food on a quince root it fares like
Oliver Twist. It never gets enough. It is always
starved. It makes considerably less annual growth,
and never (or at least seldom) reaches the size which
it might have reached if it had been growing on a
pear root.

This is, somewhat roughly stated, the whole theory
of dwarfing fruit trees by grafting them on slow-
growing stocks. The tree top is always under-nour-
ished and thus restrained in its ambitious orowth of
branches, as seen in Fig. i

While the tree is made thus smaller by being grafted
on a restraining root, it is not affected in its other
characteristics. At least theoretically it is not. It
still bears the same kind of fruit and foliage. Bart-
lett pear trees budded on quince roots yield fruit true
to name. The pears are still Bartletts, and can not
be told from those grown on an ordinary tree. Some-

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 3

times the fruit from • dwarf trees seems to be better
colored or better flavored than that from standard
trees ; but such differences are very delicate and usu-
ally receive slight thought.

FIG. I — DWARF APPLE TREES IN WESTERN NEW YORK

Dwarf fruit trees have not been very largely grown
in America, but have been much more widely used in
Europe. This statement holds good either for com-
mercial plantations or for private fruit gardens. They
are coming into more common use in this country

4 DWARF FRUIT TREES

because, in both market orchards and amateur gardens,
our pomology is coming to be somewhat more like
that of Europe. Our conditions are approaching those
of the Old World, even though they will always be
very different from those of Europe in horticultural
matters.

Dwarf fruit trees are particularly valuable in small
gardens; and small gardens are becoming constantly
more popular among our urban, and especially our
suburban, population. This matter is discussed more
fully in another chapter. Fruit of finer quality can
be grown on dwarf trees, as a general rule, than can
usually be grown on standard trees. Every year there
are more people in America who are willing to take
any necessary pains to secure fruit of extra quality.
This remark applies particularly to amateur fruit
growers and to owners of private estates who grow
fruit for their own tables, but it is no less true of a
certain class of fruit buyers, especially in the richer
cities. Although $3 a barrel is still a high price for
ordinary good apples, sales of fancy apples at $3 a
dozen fruits are by no means infrequent in the city
markets every winter.

In this respect also we are approaching European
conditions. In the markets of the continental capi-
tals in particular fancy fruits are frequently sold at
prices which seem almost incredible to an American.
Single apples sometimes bring 50 cents to a dollar,
and peaches an equal price. Just recently a story has
been going the 'rounds of the newspapers that the
caterer for the Czar's table sometimes pays as high
as $15 apiece for peaches for the royal table. Here-

6 DWARF FRUIT TREES

upon a solemn American editor remarked that if the
whole royal family should live upon nothing but
peaches it would still be cheaper than carrying on the
Japanese war.

Now if there is anywhere within reach a market
for apples or peaches at $3 a dozen specimens — and
there unquestionably is — then it will pay to grow
fancy fruits with special care to meet this demand.
This kind of fruit can be grown better upon dwarf
trees than upon standards in many cases, if not in
most. At least such is the conviction of the present
writer. Moreover this has been the experience in the
old country.

With such facts in view there seems to be a
possible future for dwarf fruit trees, even for com-
mercial purposes. Their present utility in amateur
gardens and on wealthy private estates can not be
questioned. These various amateur and commercial
adaptations of dwarf trees will have to be more care-
fully analyzed and discussed in a future chapter, and
the subject may therefore be dropped for the present.

FIG. 3 — BISMARCK APPLE, FIRST YEAR PLANTED
22 inches high : bearing 4 fruits

II

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

IT is a good prejudice which expects every man
who writes anything to be enthusiastic over his sub-
ject. Such enthusiasm doubtless leads a writer many
times to over-state his case, and to claim more than
the calm judgment of the multitude will ratify. And
on the other hand, readers usually tacitly discount
the statements of any man who writes about any
matter in which he is plainly interested. The present
writer knows that he is also under the ban, and that
the reader firmly expects him to claim more for dwarf
fruit trees than their merits will fairly warrant. This
expectation the writer hopes to disappoint. It will
be enough to set down here the obvious advantages
and disadvantages which the horticulturist will meet
in handling dwarf fruit trees. These statements are
mostly of matters of common experience and they
need no coloring to make them serve their present
purpose.

We may fairly set down the following good points
standing more or less generally to the credit of dwarf
fruit trees:

i. Early bearing. — This is a sufficiently obvious ad-
vantage. The Alexander apple will bear the second
year,, .after planting when grown as a dwarf, while
it tj|guife six to ten years to come into bearing as a
standard. This habit of early bearing proves valuable

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 9

in many ways. It encourages men to plant trees. The
disinclination of old men to plant trees rests upon
the slenderness of the chance that they will ever gather
of the fruit. But a man may plant dwarf trees when-
ever his expectation of life is two years or more.

&

FIG. 4 — PEAR TREE, TRAINED AS AN ESPALIER

Such trees would serve octogenarians, consumptives
and those sentenced to be hanged for murder.

Early bearing — to return to the subject — makes
dwarf trees valuable to that large and unfortunately
growing class of citizens wrho rent the premises where
they live. They do not expect to stay more than five

IO DWARF FRUIT TREES

or six years in any one place. In that length of time
ordinary trees would not begin to yield any fruit.
But with dwarf trees there is excellent probability
of seeing something ripen. Then again early bearing
is a great advantage when one is testing new or old
varieties. It is a great advantage when a commercial
orchard is designed and when dwarf trees are used
for fillers as explained below. ,

2. Small size. — The very smallness of the dwarf
trees has many advantages in it. The trees are easier
to reach and to care for. They are easier to prune and
to spray. This facility in spraying is what has chiefly
recommended smaller fruit trees to commercial fruit
growers in recent years. Particularly in those places
where the San Jose scale is a perennial problem a
very large tree becomes an impossibility, and the
smaller the trees can be the better it suits.

The small size of dwarf trees permits the planting
of larger numbers on a given area. This is specially
worth while to the amateur who has a small gar-
den where only three or four standard trees could
grow, but where he can comfortably handle forty or
fifty dwarfs. Yet it is also worth the consideration
of the commercial fruit grower who is trying to earn
a profit on expensive land. If he can increase the
number of bearing trees on each acre, especially
during the early years of establishing his orchard, it
almost certainly means increased income.

3. High quality. — It is not perfectly certain that
every kind of fruit can be produced in higher quality
on dwarf trees than on standards, but such is the gen-
eral rule. This is notably true of certain pears, as

FIG. 5— BUSH APPLE TREE, THREE YEARS PLANTED

12 DWARF FRUIT TREES

Buerre Giffard and Doyenne du Cornice, and it is
generally the case with all apples that can be success-
fully grown on Paradise roots. One can secure size,
color, flavor and finish on an Alexander or a Ribston
Pippin, for example, which can never be secured on
a standard tree. One who has not seen this thing
done will hardly understand it; those who have will
not need more argument. Such plums as we have
fruited on dwarf trees have shown similar improvement
in quality, being always distinctly superior to the
same varieties grown on standard trees. The signifi-
cance of these facts will appear at once to any one
familiar with the course of the fruit markets in Amer-
ica. There are greater rewards awaiting the fruit
grower who can produce fruit of superior quality than
the one who succeeds merely in increasing the quan-
tity of his output.

SPECIAL USES FOR DWARF TREES

These various items of advantage recommend dwarf
fruit trees for several specific purposes, some of which
are worth pointing out in detail.

I. For suburban places. — A large and increasing
percentage of our population now lives the suburban
life — in that zone where city and country meet. They
have small tracts of land, which, however, they too
often lease instead of owning. On these they do
more or less gardening, — usually more, in proportion
to the size of their holdings. For them dwarf fruit
trees are a precious boon. It is possible to plant three
hundred to five hundred dwarf fruit trees on a quarter
of an acre, where less than a dozen standard trees

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 13

would flourish. This gives the opportunity to experi-
ment with all sorts and varieties of fruits, a privilege
very dear to the heart of the commuter. The dwarf
fruit trees also work more readily into a scheme of
more or less ornamental gardening, where fruits are
combined with vegetables and flowers. Especially if
some sort of formal gardening is attempted, the cor-
dons, espaliers and pyramids exactly suit the de-
mands. Then the fact, already mentioned, that the
dwarf trees come into bearing much sooner, is a
consideration of the highest value to the suburban
gardener. He fully expects to move from one home
to another at least once in ten years, if not once in five.
With the best of intentions and the most favorable
of opportunities he can hardly expect to settle down
anywhere for life. The suburbs themselves change
too rapidly for that; and the place which today is
away off in the country may be all covered with fac-
tories five years from now. It is terribly discourag-
ing, under such circumstances, to plant a tree knowing
that ten years must pass before any considerable fruit-
age can be expected from it. It is altogether another
feeling with which one plants a tree which promises
fruit within two or three years.

So that, whatever the drawbacks to the planting of
dwarfs, they are the salvation of the suburban garden.
For such circumstances they can be freely recom-
mended, without exception or reservation.

2. For orchard fillers. — As commercial orcharding
becomes more refined, under the stress of modern com-
petition, and as good orchard land increases in value,
up to one hundred, two hundred, or even three hun-

14 DWARF FRUIT TREES

dred dollars an acre, new methods must be adopted
with a view to increasing the returns. This oppor-
tunity looms especially large for the first few years
after the establishment of the commercial orchard,
more particularly the apple orchard. When standard
trees are planted thirty-five to the acre, which is now
the usual practice, the land is not more than one-
fourth occupied for the first five years, and not more
than half occupied for the first ten years. Indeed it
is full twenty years from the time of planting before
the thirty-five apple trees will use the whole acre. And
since a good farmer can not afford to let expensive
land lie idle he has before him a very pretty problem
to determine how the space between the standard
trees shall be utilized during the early years of the
orchard's growth.

Several different methods are in vogue for the solu-
tion of this problem; but probably the best one is
that system which supplies fillers or temporary trees
between the standard or permanent ones. In an or-
chard of standard apple trees these fillers may very
properly be dwarf apple trees; or between standard
pears dwarf pears may be planted. If there are thirty-
five standard apple trees to an acre, and if a dwarf
tree is placed half way between each two standards
in every direction, including the diagonal direction,
this will make one hundred and five dwarf trees, or
one hundred and forty trees in all, instead of the
thirty-five trees with which the acre of apple orchard
land is more commonly furnished. The dwarf apple
trees will be bearing good crops at the end of five years
at most; and they can be kept on the land for five

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 15

years longer at the least, before they will begin to
crowd the permanent standards. During these five
years, if the orchard has a paying management at all,
they will easily pay all the expenses of the enterprise,
and should leave a substantial balance of profit.

As this system of filling, or interplanting, commer-
cial orchards is becoming more and more common, the
suitability of dwarf trees, for this purpose, becomes
more generally evident.

3. For school gardens. — Thus far school gardens
in America have been mostly temporary and experi-
mental affairs. But we are already satisfied that they
have come to stay, and that gardening in some form
will be a permanent feature of the curriculum in many
of our best schools. As soon as a school garden be-
comes a permanent institution, with ground of its
own to be held in use year after year, the dependence
on annual crops will give way to the use of various
perennial plants, shrubs and trees.

And among these dwarf fruit trees will naturally
be one of the first introductions. Their small size
adapts them to the school premises, their habit of
early bearing again serves to recommend them most
strikingly, and the special opportunity which they
offer to pupils to observe details of pruning and other
items of tree management, make them almost a first
necessity in the permanent school garden.

4. For covering walls and fences. — There are many
places about every farm, suburban establishment, or
even about many city homes, where back walls and
fences could be put out of sight very agreeably by
almost any sort of foliage. Various ornamental climb-

16 DWARF FRUIT TREES

ers and creepers are in vogue for this service ; but a
certain number of such unattractive walls and fences
could be treated quite as acceptably, from the esthetic
point of view, with trained fruit trees, and the result
would be more satisfactory in some other ways. Ap-
ples or pears trained as cordons or espaliers, or peaches,
nectarines, or cherries in fan forms, will thrive on
almost any brick or wooden wall, except those with
a northern front. It is necessary only to supply a
proper soil, to plant sound trees of proper sorts,
and to give them the prescribed care. The result is
not only a thing of beauty but one of practical utility
as well.

There are many places where the owner of a city
or suburban lot can secure the fun and the substantial
benefits belonging to the fruit grower on land that
would be otherwise wasted, if he will only build a
woven wire fence on the property line between him
and his not-too-agreeable neighbor, using this fence
as a support for a row of cordon plums, pears or apples.
If he has time and inclination to do a little more work
with the trees he can better plant U-form peaches,
nectarines or apricots, or he can grow plums in U-form,
or he can have fan-form cherry trees, or apples or
pears in Verrier-palmettes. One of the most interest-
ing and productive lots in the author's dwarf fruit
garden is a row of plum trees on such a woven wire
trellis. The trees in this row stand two feet apart,
and form a perfect screen. (Fig. 6.) The majority of
the trees which were necessarily taken for planting
this row were not propagated on suitable stocks, and
many varieties were introduced for experimental pur-

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 1 7

poses which were obviously unadapted to this mode
of training, but nevertheless the net result has been
highly satisfactory.

FIG. 6 — PLUMS AS UPRIGHT CORDONS, SET TWO FEET APART

In a very similar manner apple, pear or plum trees
may be trained so as to form an arched arbor way.
In this kind of make-up they present a most agree-

18 DWARF FRUIT TREES

able novelty. An example of this kind of training is
shown in the illustration, page 5. For this purpose
cordon trees are usually best ; though peach or apri-
cot trees in U-form or double U-form will answer
very well. Even apple trees or pears formed as pal-
mettes-Verrier can be carried up over an arched trellis.
Mr. Geo. Bunyard in 'The Fruit Garden" tells of
carrying apple trees up over the slate roof of an out-
building, with marked success. The fruit-bearing
portion of the trees, lying there on the slate roof
beautifully exposed to the sun above, and assisted
by the heat absorbed and radiated by the slate, yielded
large crops of apples of very superior quality.

SOME DISADVANTAGES

There are, of course, some disadvantages in growing
dwarf fruit trees, and these should be examined with
as much care as the advantages. The more important
ones are as follows:

i. Greater expense. — The trees are somewhat harder
to propagate, and therefore cost more. There is no
general demand for them in America, so that they
are carried by only a few nurseries and are not looked
upon as staple goods even with those dealers; and
on this account the price is necessarily increased. Thus
each tree costs more than a similar tree of the same
age and variety propagated in the usual way. But the
greatest increase of expense comes from the fact that
many more trees are required to plant the same area.
There is often an advantage, as already argued, in
planting more trees to the acre, but it costs something
to gain this advantage. An acre of ground can be

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 19

planted with thirty-five standard apple trees set thirty-
five feet apart each way, and these trees will cost,
roughly estimating retail prices at $12 a hundred, $4.20.
To plant an acre to dwarf apple trees, setting them
six feet apart each way, which is about as thick as
these trees should ever be planted, will require 1,210
trees. Estimating the retail price roughly at $15 a
hundred this would make the first cost $181.50 — a
considerably greater initial investment in the orchard.

2. The trees are shorter lived. — This statement is
true for certain kinds of dwarf trees, but not for others.
Certain varieties of pears, for example, which do not
unite well with the quince root, naturally make short
lived trees. On the other hand other varieties of
pears appear to live as long and thrive fully as well
on quince roots as on pear roots. There is a common
belief, especially in England, that apples worked on
French paradise roots are apt to be short-lived. The
nurserymen who hold this belief contend, however,
that the so-called English Paradise, more properly
called Doucin, supplies a stock on which apples will
live to as great an age as on any other stock what-
ever. There is some evidence to show that vigorous
varieties of plums worked on Americana roots or on
dwarf sand cherry are shorter lived xhan the same
varieties on freer growing stocks. In many cases,
however, dwarf trees live as long as standards ; and
in almost all cases they live long enough.

3. They require more care. — This objection stands
particularly against the dwarf trees trained in special
and intricate forms. Such trees undoubtedly do re-
quire more careful attention, more frequent going-

20 DWARF FRUIT TREES

over, and more hand work in the course of the year.
It is probably not true that apples, pears, plums or
peaches in bush or pyramid forms require any more
labor or attention than standard trees to secure equally
good results. On the other hand it must not be for-
gotten, as has already been pointed out, that whatever
care may be required is much more easily given the
dwarf trees than the standards.

4. They are not a commercial success. — This state-
ment, too, though undoubtedly having some truth in
it, can not stand without qualification. It is certainly
true that no one could grow ordinary varieties of
apples, like Baldwin or Ben Davis for instance, on
dwarf trees in competition with men who are growing
the same varieties on standards. It is probably true
that fancy varieties of apples can be grown with profit
on dwarf trees, but even this can not be strongly urged.
So far as apples are concerned the chief value of
dwarf trees for modern commercial enterprises in
America will come through their use as fillers between
rows of standard trees. In the case of pears the
situation is somewhat more favorable to dwarf trees.
There are a number of orchards in this country where
pears have been successfully grown for market, these
many years, on dwarf trees. The famous and every-
where planted Bartlett succeeds admirably on the
quince stock wherever the soil is suited to it. No
successful commercial orchards of dwarf peaches or
plums can be cited in this country, individual trees
of these kinds even being extremly rare ; yet there
is good reason to suppose that under favorable condi-
tions dwarf peaches and plums may have some com-

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 21

mercial value. Such value may be more in the way
of supplementing standard trees than in superseding
them, but it is still worth consideration. So that,
after all, when we say that dwarf fruit trees are not
a commercial success we mean merely that they will
not take the place of standard trees. The large market
orchards must always continue to be made up of stan-
dard trees ; but in their own way the dwarf trees will
find a limited place even in commercial operations,
and this use of them seems destined to be more general
in the future than it has been in the past.

Ill

PROPAGATION

THE propagation of dwarf fruit trees is in some
senses a more critical and interesting problem than the
propagation of ordinary nursery stock. The success-
ful production of a dwarf fruit tree depends primarily
on its propagation. The selection of stocks for dwarf-
ing purposes is necessarily a complicated matter.
Under the terms of the problem it is impossible that
the stock and the cion which are wedded together
should be very closely related. The stock must be
distinctly different and pronouncedly dwarfer in his
habit of growth.

It is not always an easy matter to find a stock
which is thus distinctly different from the tree which
it is desired to grow and which will at the same time
form with it a vigorous and long lived union. It is
necessary further that the propagation can be carried
on with ease and with a fair degree of success in com-
mercial nurseries. If difficult methods of grafting
are required, or if only a small stand of nursery trees
can be secured, the undertaking becomes too expen-
sive from the nurseryman's point of view.

The methods of propagating dwarf trees are for the
most part the same as those used in reproducing the
same kinds of fruit on standard stocks. As a matter
of fact nearly all dwarf trees are propagated by bud-
ding. Apples, pears, and plums can be readily grafted,

PROPAGATION 23

but budding is simpler, speedier, and usually the
cheaper process in the nursery. In the upper Missis-
sippi Valley, where plums are somewhat extensively
worked on Americana plum roots, grafting is rather
common. The side graft and the whip graft are the
forms most used.

The theory of the production of a dwarf fruit tree
by the restraining of its growth has already been
mentioned in another chapter. The dwarf stock
simply supplies less food than is required for the
normal growth of the variety under propagation, and
the tree is, in a sense, starved or stunted into its dwarf
stature.

As the selection of proper stocks — the adaptation
of stock to cion — is one of the fundamental problems
in dwarf fruit growing, we may now address our-
selves to that. We will take up the different classes
of fruit in order.

THE APPLE

Everyone who has observed the wild or native
apples which grow in New England pastures must
frequently have noticed certain dwarf and slow-grow-
ing specimens. It it not difficult to find such which
do not reach a height of five feet in ten years of
unobstructed growth. If the cions of ordinary varie-
ties of apples like Greening and Winesap should be
grafted upon these stocks, the result would be a dwarf
Greening or Winesap. If these dwarf wild apples
could be produced with certainty and at a low price,
they would furnish a source of supply for dwarf apple
stocks.

24 DWARF FRUIV TREES

The Paradise apple so-called (Fig. 7) is simply one
of these dwarf varieties which can be reproduced freely
and cheaply. This reproduction is secured nearly al-
ways by means of mound layerage. As the variety
does not come true to seed, any more than such varie-
ties as King or Hubbardston do, some such method
of propagation is necessary. This Paradise apple is
naturally inclined to stool out somewhat from the
roots. This habit is encouraged by cutting the plants
back to the ground. When the young shoots are
thrown up they are banked up with a hoe or by
plowing furrows up against the rows of plants. The
young shoots then form roots at the base and these
rooted shoots or layers are removed when one year
old. They are then planted in nursery rows in the
spring, where they are usually budded the following
July or August.

These Paradise stocks are largely grown in France.
Practically all the supply comes from that country.
The nurserymen who grow dwarf apple trees in Ame-
rica import their stocks from France during the winter,
plant them in nursery rows early in the spring, bud
the stocks the following July or August, and have
the dwarf apple trees for sale the second year follow-
ing.

This Paradise is the dwarfest stock known for
apples. Its effect on nearly all varieties is very marked,
causing them to form very small trees and to bear
very early. Some of the more vigorous varieties, like
Northern Spy for instance, do not submit kindly to
such treatment. For this, or possibly for more rec-
ondite reasons, a few varieties do not succeed well on

FIG. 7— PARADISE APPLE STOCKS IN EARLY SPRING

26 DWARF FRUIT TREES

Paradise roots. The writer would be glad to give
a list of such varieties which are not adapted to the
Paradise stock, but confesses he is unable to do so.

The Doucin stock is simply another variety of dwarf
apple. It is more vigorous and larger growing than
the Paradise, and, therefore, produces a tree, when
ordinary varieties are grafted upon it, about midway
in size between the ordinary standard apple and the
same variety growing upon Paradise.

This Doucin is sometimes called the English or
Broad-Leaved Paradise, but this name is misleading.
It will be well to remember this in buying stocks or
in buying trees in England. -Dwarf apples are largely
propagated in England, but the trees which are said
to be on Paradise roots are often on Doucin. This
confusion comes about from the Englishman's habit
of calling Doucin the Broad- Leaved Paradise.

The Doucin is perhaps better for the free-growing
bush form trees, especially where excessive dwarfing
is not needed. For orchard planting in the United
States this Doucin stock would be likely to suit many
growers better than Paradise. For trees which are
to be kept within very narrow bounds, or those which
are to be trained in particular forms, the Paradise
stock is better. For all sorts of cordon apple trees,
the Paradise is essential.

THE PEAR

Dwarf pears are always propagated on quince roots.
Any kind of a quince may be used as a stock for pears,
but the one commonly employed by nurserymen is the
Angers quince, named after Angers, France, from

PROPAGATION 2?

which place the supply largely comes. Almost all
the quince stocks used by nurserymen in America are
imported from France. As in dealing with apple
stocks, the importation is made during the winter, the
stocks are planted in nursery rows in the early spring,
and are usually budded in July or August of the same
year.

A few varieties of pears do not make good unions
with the quince. In some cases this antipathy is over-
come by the expedient of double- working. The quince
root is first budded with some variety which unites
\vell with it. After this pear cion has grown one year,
the refractory variety is budded upon this pear shoot.
The complete tree, when it leaves the nursery, con-
sists of three pieces, — a quince root below, a pear
top above, and a short section of only one or two
inches in length of some other variety of pear which
simply holds together the two essential parts of the
tree.

This practise of double-working is sometimes under-
taken with other kinds of fruit for special purposes.
There are no other cases, however, in which it be-
comes a generally recognized commercial practise.

THE PEACH

The peach is dwarfed by budding it upon almost any
kind of a plum root, especially upon the smaller grow-
ing species of plums. The stock most used is the
ordinary Myrobalan plum. This is simply because
the Myrobalan stock is commoner and cheaper. The
St. Julien plum probably furnishes a better dwarfing

28 DWARF FRUIT TREES

stock for peaches, but it is more expensive and harder
to work.

The Americana plum, now somewhat largely grown
for stocks in the States of the upper Mississippi valley,
furnishes a good dwarfing stock for the peach. Ac-
cording to the writer's experience the Americana stock
gives better results with peaches than either Myrobalan
or St. Julien. It should be observed that this stock
requires budding rather early in the season.

The dwarf sand cherry, which is further discussed
below under plums, also makes a good stock for
peaches. As this stock is very dwarf, it produces the
smallest possible peach tree. The peach cion rapidly
overgrows the stock and the tree can hardly be ex-
pected to be long lived. The growth is very vigorous
and satisfactory during early years, however. I have
not had an opportunity to determine how long peaches
will live and thrive on this stock.

Nectarines can be grown in dwarf form in exactly
the same manner employed for peaches.

THE PLUM

In all the old books it is said that dwarf plum trees
are secured by working on Myrobalan stocks. This
statement is hardly true according to our present
standards, and is certainly far from satisfactory. This
rule came into vogue at the time when only large
growing Domestica plums were propagated in this
country and the stocks used were mostly either "horse
plums" or Myrobalan. The Myrobalan stock does
give a somewhat smaller tree than the old fashioned
horse plums; but this Myrobalan stock has been for

PROPAGATION 29

many years the one principally used for propagating
all kinds of plums in America. It has come to be
looked upon as -a standard rather than a dwarf stock.
When we think of dwarf trees, therefore, we expect
.to see something smaller than what will grow under
ordinary circumstances on a Myrobalan root.

The Americana plum, already mentioned, is a first-
rate stock in nearly all respects except that it can not
be bought so cheaply as the Myrobalan. It is now
grown to a considerable extent by nurserymen in
Minnesota, Iowa and the neighboring States. If
grafted, or budded early, all varieties of plums take
well upon it. The trees on Americana roots make
a good growth in the nursery and are easily trans-
planted. The tree produced on this stock is only
moderately dwarf. Still this dwarfing effect is always
well marked, this result being shown by the over-
growing of the cion. The top thus appears to out-
grow the root, and such trees are apt to blow over
during wind storms. Suitable precautions should be
taken to guard against damage of this sort.

Prof. A. T. Erwin of Iowa writes on this subject
as follows:

"Regarding the Americana as a plum stock, I would
state that we are using it by the thousands out here;
in fact, have about quit using anything else. As a
stock for the European and Japanese sorts, it does
dwarf them, and the cion tends to outgrow the stock
at the point of union, causing an enlargement.. The
union is also not very congenial, and they frequently
break off on account of high winds. However, in my

DWARF FRUIT TREES

experience and observation, this is not the case when
the Americana is used as a stock for Americana
varieties. It does not dwarf the trees seriously and

the union is splendid. It
is by all odds the best
stock we have for plums,
and since we do not
grow anything but Amer-
icana varieties, it works
first rate. It does* tend
to sprout some, though
there is little trouble in
this regard after the
trees come into bearing."

The sand cherry seems
to be the dwarfing stock
par excellence for the
plum. This sand cherry
is a heterogeneous spe-
cies, or as some botanists
think, is three species,
ranging throughout the
Northern States from
Maine to Colorado. The
narrow leaf upright form
growing about five feet

tall, known as Prunus pumila, is found along the
Atlantic coast. The broad leafed dwarfer form known
as Prunus pumila besseyi or P. besseyi, is found in
the Western States. Another rarer form of more ir-

FIG. 8
•THE WESTERN SAND CHERRY

Prunus pumila besseyi

'ROPAGATION

regular growth known as Pruuus pumila cuneata, or
as P. cuneata, is found in the North Central States.

All of these different forms may be used for prop-
agating plums or
peaches. The western
form (P. besseyi) (Fig.
8) is in some respects
the best, producing the
dwarfest and apparently
the best trees. In our
experience, however,
nearly all varieties of
plums and peaches give
a better stand of trees
when budded on P. pu-
mila. Primus cuneata is
inferior to the others.

The eastern form, P.
pumila, has another ad-
vantage from the stand-
point of the nurseryman
in that it is more easily
propagated from cut-
tings. For the most part
the western sand cherry
is propagated from seed.
Both forms can be prop-
agated from layers.

NURSERY MANAGEMENT

Dwarf trees are managed in the nursery very much
the same as standards of the same varieties. There
are no special points to be observed except in the

FIG. 9— UPRIGHT CORDON PLUM
With buds set into the naked trunk

32 DWARF FRUIT TREES

formation of the tops. Western New York nursery-
men, who now grow the principal supply of dwarf
apple and pear trees, have the custom of forming their
nursery stock with high heads. That is, the heads
are formed at a height of eighteen inches to three
feet from the ground. In this matter the pattern is
taken after the usual style of standard trees. This
is quite wrong. Of course, .some planters might like
to have dwarf trees with trunks two or three feet tall,
but the best form has a much shorter stem. At any
rate the buyer of dwarf trees ought to be at liberty
to form the head within three or four inches of the
ground if he so desires. This becomes very difficult
if the tree is once pruned up to a height of two or
three feet.

In order that the planter may reach his own ideal
perfectly in this matter, it is sometimes necessary to
buy one year old trees, what the English nurserymen
call maidens. This, of course, enables the tree planter
to form the head wherever he desires.

IV
PRUNING DWARF FRUIT TREES

THE pruning of dwarf fruit trees is a matter of the
greatest consequence, for on proper pruning depend
both the form and the productivity of the trees. Some
of the details of management will be explained in the
succeeding chapters, dealing with the particular kinds
of fruits, but a few general statements should be set
down here.

1. The trees are severely headed in. This applies
more particularly to bush and pyramid forms. By the
term "heading in" we refer to the shortening of the
leaders. Such shortening is usually given at the
spring pruning, while the trees are dormant. The
leaders may be headed in at times, however, during
the latter part of the growing season, in July. Such
stopping of growing leaders will be practised more
often on young trees just coming into bearing than
on old trees. (Fig. 10). Constant heading back of
some sort, however, is required in nearly all cases, if
the tree is to be retained in its dwarf form. The mis-
take has often been made of thinking that a tree
propagated on a dwarf root would take care of itself.

2. Summer pruning is essential. In most Amer-
ican orchard practise one annual pruning (some-
times one pruning every five years!) is considered
sufficient, and systematic summer pruning is seldom
or never given. Now summer pruning tends much

33

FIG. 10 — BUSH APPLE, THREE YEARS OLD
Showing strong leaders formed during the summer

PRUNING DWARF FRUIT TREES 35

more to repress the growth of a tree than winter
pruning does. In fact, heavy winter pruning leads
rather to increased vegetative vigor. Aside from any
special system of pruning, therefore, this rule is to
be remembered, that summer pruning is desirable, on
general principles, for dwarf fruit trees.

3. Side shoots usually need pinching during the
growing season. Leaders are more frequently allowed
to grow unchecked throughout the season, or are
stopped only late in their period of development. In
the pomaceous fruits, which form distinct fruit spurs,
the checking of these side shoots helps toward the
production of fruit buds. As long as every bud is
allowed to push out into a strong shoot no fruit spurs
can become established. Thus the summer pinching
of the side shoots on apples and pears has the pur-
pose of encouraging the formation of fruit spurs. On
peach and plum trees equally distinct fruit spurs do
not form; but if the side shoots are allowed to push
forth unrestricted they are apt to choke one another.
There will be too many of them, they will not get light
enough, their growth will be weak and sappy, and they
will not form fruit buds. Good fruit buds on a peach
tree, for example, form on strong, clean, healthy shoots
of this year's growth for next year's crop of fruit. It
is seen, therefore, that in nearly all sorts of dwarf fruit
trees the summer pruning is especially directed to the
suppression or regulation of the growth of side shoots.

This part of the treatment becomes of prime im-
portance in dealing with cordons and espaliers.

4. The control of the fruit spurs or of the side
shoots here contemplated requires that the trees be

36 DWARF FRUIT TREES

gone ovei more than once during the growing season.
In fact, four successive examinations of the tree are
usually required. Old trees can sometimes be man-
aged with two or three, but young ones, on the other
hand, will sometimes require six or more. Of course,
there are usually only a few shoots that need attention
at each succeeding visit, and the work can be very
rapidly performed. The first pruning, or pinching,
falls about three weeks after the trees have started
into growth. The next one comes ten days later, the
next one ten days later again, and the fourth pruning
two weeks after the third. From this time onward the
intervals lengthen. These specifications, of course,
are only approximate and suggestive. Some judg-
ment is required to select just the proper moment for
pinching back a shoot and even more to select the
time for a general summer priming. Those trees
which enjoy the sympathetic presence of the gardener
every day are sure to fare best. The bulk of this
pruning can be done with the thumb nail and fore-
finger, but I find a light pair of pruning scissors
pleasanter to work with.

5. Root pruning is sometimes advisable. Since the
whole program is arranged to check the growth of
the dwarf tree, root pruning would naturally fit well
with the other practises recommended. Root pruning
checks the growth of a tree about as positively as
any treatment that can be devised. When dwarf pear
or apple trees seem to be making too much wood
growth and not enough fruit, they can be taken up,
as for transplanting, during the dormant season and
set right back into place. This digging up and re-

f 2
o

38 DWARF FRUIT TREES

planting is always accompanied by some cutting of
roots. The whole root system is disturbed and has to
re-establish itself before the top vegetates very strongly
once more. Such root pruning ought to be done late
in the fall. It is a special practice, suited to re-
fractory cases, and the gardener is not recommended
to indulge in it too freely.

6. A certain equilibrium between vegetative growth
and fruit bearing should be established at the earliest
possible moment, and should be maintained thereafter.
Of course, some such equilibrium is sought in the
management of a standard tree; but it is secured
earlier in the life of the dwarf tree and should be
much more accurately maintained. The tree must
make a certain amount of growth each year, but this
must be only enough to keep it in good health, and
to furnish foliage enough to mature the fruit. Beyond
this wood growth the tree should bear a certain
amount of fruit every year, for annual bearing is not
only an ideal but a rule in the management of dwarf
trees. This equilibrium once established must be
maintained not by haphazard pruning, but by some
suitable system. If there is the proper balance between
summer pruning and winter pruning, combined with
proper control of cultivation and fertilization, then
the balance between vegetation and fruitage can be
kept up. It is a delicate business, like courting two
girls at once, but it can be carried out successfully.

7. The training of trees into mathematical forms
is largely a mechanical process. For the most part
the trees are shaped while they are growing. The
young shoots are twisted and bent to the desired

§ I
§ o-

Tl

4O DWARF FRUIT TREES

positions, and are tied into place until the stems be-
come hardened. There are many clever little tricks
for expediting this sort of work and for making the
results more sure, but a rehearsal of them here would
be tedious. The most important rule to remember is
that constant attention must be given the shoots while
they are growing. Mistakes are corrected with diffi-
culty after an undesirable form has been allowed to
harden.

SPECIAL FORMS FOR TRAINED TREES

WE have already explained the connection between
dwarf trees and the practise of training them in
special forms. It is true that this practise looks child-
ish to American eyes. It seems to be only a kind of
play, and a rather juvenile sport at that. Never-
theless we should understand that in some parts of
the world it is a real and profitable commercial under-
taking. We should consider also that in other places,
where fruit of very high quality is better appreciated,
perhaps, than it is in America, the extra trouble is
thought to be worth while for the superior quality
which it g;ves the fruit. As this matter is coming to
be of more importance in America also, and as the
interest in amateur fruit growing is enormously in-
creasing, we may fairly begin to talk about these
methods.

The formation of trees into bushes and pyramids,
by means of systematic pruning according to a def-
inite plan, as explained in the succeeding chapters,
while apparently simpler and more reasonable to our
American eyes, it is still a method of training the tree.
The fruiting branches are placed at definite points
and the fruit spurs are encouraged to grow in regular
succession. It is not a very great step from this to
a distribution of the branches into a more precise form.

42 DWARF FRUIT TREES

The different forms which are used most commonly
are named and classified in the following outline:

^. — Forms of three dimensions:

a. Vase or bush

b. Pyramid

c. Winged pyramid, etc.
B. — Forms of two dimensions:

a. Various espaliers

b. Palmette-Verrier

c. Fans or Fan-espaliers

d. U-form and double U-form
C. — Trained to a single stem:

a. Upright cordon

b. Oblique cordon

c. Horizontal cordon

(with one arm)
(with two arms)

d. Serpentine cordon, etc.

Among the forms of three dimensions none is of
much practical importance besides the pyramid and
bush or vase form. These are sufficiently explained
in the chapters on pears and apples. Here we need
only to define them. The pyramid tree is one which
has a straight central stem with branches radiating
therefrom. It is especially adapted to upright grow-
ing varieties of pears. The bush or vase form has
several main arms or branches, all standing out from
approximately the same point and growing upward
/ .at a more or less acute angle, thus forming roughly
a vase. The secondary branches put out from these,
bearing fruiting wood, as the gardener may order.

The flying pyramid or winged pyramid, described
in all European books, is considerably different from

SPECIAL FORMS FOR TRAINED TREES

43

the ordinary pyramid and is more precise in its de-
sign. Usually six arms are brought out at the base
of the tree. These are grown in a direction approxi-
mately horizontal until they reach a convenient length,
— say two to three feet. They are then suddenly bent

FIG. 15 — PEARS IN DOUBLE U-FORM
From I^oebner's " Zwergobstbaume"

upward and inward and are conducted along wires
set for this purpose until they meet in a common point
with the main stem of the tree some four to eight feet
above where the branches put out. There is thus
formed a precise mathematical pyramid, Along these

44 DWARF FRUIT TREES

main arms fruiting spurs are allowed to grow, but
no branches are expected to develop.

Sometimes the flying pyramid is made more elab-
orate by bending the arms into a spiral form. Other
more or less complex modifications are practised to
some extent. All of them are to be regarded merely
as curiosities and as of no practical value.

The various forms of espaliers and fan-shaped trees
have their special and legitimate uses. It may be said
here that the Palmette-Verrier is regarded generally
as being the most successful for the largest number of
varieties of fruits. It is a safe rule also that the
simpler forms are generally the better. With rare
exceptions a tree confined to a moderately small space
is more satisfactory than one trained over a large space.

Great care must be exercised in forming these trees.
If the geometrical style of training is undertaken at
all, it should be carried out with considerable pre-
cision. If one arm happens to be placed a little higher,
or at a little more moderate angle, or otherwise more
favorably than the corresponding arm, it will very
soon divert to its own use the major portion of food
supplied by the top. It will outgrow its mate and
the form which the gardener designed will eventually
be lost. It will be seen at once that this condition
makes the same care and precision necessary in all
forms of training.

The U-form classifies somewhere between the cor-
don and the espalier. It consists of two upright
branches joined to a single trunk below by an arc
of a circle. The fruit is all borne on the two parallel

s 8

I

5

« s

46 DWARF FRUIT TREES

stems which are treated essentially the same as up-
right cordons. (Fig. 17.)

The double U-form is made by growing two U's
from the same tree. The stem is first divided near
the ground into two branches and each of these is
immediately divided into two more. The tree thus
provides four parallel and equally spaced upright and
fruiting stems equal to four upright cordons, except
that they are all supported from a single trunk. The
U- and double U-forms are employed mostly for
plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines.

One occasionally sees much more elaborate schemes
of training than any here mentioned. There are com-
plex geometrical designs, even pictorial figures — birds,
dogs, and beer-steins — and sometimes the initials of
the gardener, or the name of his kingly and imperial
majesty. In every case the method of producing these
forms is practically the same. A frame is built of
wood or wire in the form which it is desired to give
the tree. Branches are developed at suitable points
on the tree and these are tied out while they are grow-
ing to the wooden or metal form. It does not require
any special care or ingenuity to produce the most
elaborate designs in this method. It is essentially a
job of carpentry.

We come now to the cordons. If we take the
simplest form, namely the upright cordon, we have
what we may call a tree of one dimension only. The
upright cordon has nothing but height, eschewing both
breadth and thickness. A cordon is simply a tree
trained to a single stem and this stem may be placed
in any position. The position or direction of the stem

FIG. 17 — APRICOTS IN U-FORM

48

DWARF FRUIT TREES

classifies the cordon. There are, therefore, besides
the upright cordon, others which are oblique, that is,
which make an angle with the horizontal, those which
are horizontal, and those which are bent into various

FIG. l8 — PEAR IN ESPALIER
This tree is carrying over 200 fruits

forms. The serpent form is one of the simplest of
these. This form of cordon is simply bent back and
forth against a trellis forming a series of S's one above
another. The horizontal cordons are of two varieties,
namely one-arm and two-arm forms. It is altogether
a matter of convenience which one of these forms is
chosen.

1

50 DWARF FRUIT TREES

In conclusion it may be pointed out that the slower
growing trees, pears and apples, are the better suited
to the more elaborate forms of training. The more
free and rapid growing species, such as peaches, nec-
tarines, cherries, and Japanese plums, are better man-
aged in somewhat simpler forms, preferably the fan.
Such trees do well, however, in the U-form or double
U-form.

VI
GENERAL MANAGEMENT

THE general management of dwarf trees is naturally
very much like the management of ordinary standard
trees. As dwarf trees are grown more often in
gardens rather than in orchards they will receive
garden treatment. Heavy tools and extensive methods
of culture will hardly find application.

Good soil culture may be regarded as essential.
Whatever some American fruit growers may be say-
ing about the propriety of growing apple orchards in
sod, no one has yet undertaken to adapt the sod
system into the kitchen garden. The close planting
which is customary with dwarf trees makes culture
comparatively difficult, yet not unreasonably so.
Apple and pear trees planted six feet apart each way
can be worked for several years with a single horse
and cultivator. In fact if the trees are kept carefully
headed in, the time need never come when the culti-
vator will have to be abandoned. When cordons or
espaliers are planted in a garden large enough to
warrant horse cultivation under ordinary circumstances
then the rows of trained trees should be set six feet
apart, which will be enough to permit the continued
use of the horse and cultivator between the rows.

However, the horse cultivator is certain to be def-
initely crowded out of some dwarf fruit gardens.
Many of the men who have greatest reason for grow-

51

^

GENERAL MANAGEMENT 53

ing dwarf fruit trees are those whose backyard gardens
were never large enough to justify the presence of a

ooooooo
ooooooo

ooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooocbooo

ooooooo

FIG. 21 — DESIGN FOR A BACK YARD FRUIT GARDEN 5<D FT. SQUARE

North fence (top of map), peach espalier (4); Row i, bush apple (7); Row
2, pyramid pear (7); Row 3, currants and gooseberries (n); Row 4 and 5,
horizontal cordon apples, with grass walk between ; Row 6, raspberry
bushes (7) ; Row 7, strawberries ; Row 8, plums in bush form (7) ; Row 9,
apples in horizontal cordons (4); East fence, apples as upright cordons (31);
West fence, pears in espalier.

horse or horse tools. In such cases the spading fork
and the hand cultivator are the ready and proper
substitutes. Our extensive methods of farming in

54 DWARF FRUIT TREES

America have bred a strong prejudice against all sorts
of hand labor like this, but experience will show that
under some conditions it is quite worth while. A.
very common mistake in all kinds of agriculture is
to allow prejudice to rule experience.

Garden culture means not only good tillage of the
soil, but good treatment in other respects. It means
good feeding and good spraying. As for spraying
we need make only two observations. First, the
treatment to be given is almost precisely the same
as that which is given to standard trees of the same
species; second, the work is much more easily per-
formed because the trees are smaller. If one happens
to have a considerable block of dwarf trees closely
planted. There may be difficulty, it is true, in driving
in with a spray pump. This difficulty is overcome by
having long runs of hose on the spray pump, so that
the cart may stand on the borders of the garden while
the operator carries the nozzle in among the trees.
In case of large plantings of dwarf trees alley-ways
should be left every one hundred feet, or better, every
eighty feet, between the blocks. These alleys will
be useful for other purposes besides spraying.

In the management of a small garden the gardener
is expected to be liberal in his allowance of fertili-
zers. While it is true that dwarf fruit trees should
be liberally fed there is a possibility of overdoing
it. It has already been explained that the dwarfing
of the tree depends in a certain way on its well-regu-
lated starvation. If the tree top could get all the
food which its nature calls for it would not be dwarfed.
The rule in feeding dwarf fruit trees therefore should

FIG. 22 — DWARF FRUIT GARDEN III BY 144 FEET
From I^ucas' Handbuch des Obstbaues

56 DWARF FRUIT TREES

be to give enough fertilizer to keep them in perfect
health and in good growing condition, but not enough
to force unnecessary growth. Fertilizer rich in nitro-
gen should be especially avoided, and, as the object in
view is to secure an early maturity of the tree and to
produce fruit always in preference to wood, a larger
proportion of potash would naturally be substituted
for the diminished proportion of nitrogen. Of course
the amounts and proportions of the different elements
(nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid) to be applied
will vary greatly with different conditions, — with. the
nature of the soil, the age of the trees, etc. As a sort
of standard we may say that under normal conditions
of good soil with dwarf apple and pear trees in bearing
there should be given annually for each acre :

400 pounds ground bone
400 pounds muriate of potash
100 pounds Peruvian guano

Peaches and plums require more nitrogen during
early growth, and more potash when in full bearing.
For a new plantation of these trees the following
amounts should be given annually for each acre :

300 pounds ground bone
400 pounds muriate of potash
150 pounds nitrate of soda

For peach and plum trees in bearing, the following
formula may be suggested :

400 pounds ground bone
500 pounds muriate of potash
100 pounds Peruvian guano

Inasmuch as many owners of dwarf fruit trees will

GENERAL MANAGEMENT 57

have so much less than an acre for treatment it will
be best to repeat these formulas, reducing them to a
smaller unit. Making this reduction somewhat freely,
in order to avoid long and useless decimals, we may
compute the quantity needed annually for each one
hundred square feet of land as follows:

FOR APPLES AND PEARS IN BEARING

I pound ground bone
I pound muriate of potash
34 pound Peruvian guano

FOR PEACHES AND PLUMS NEWLY PLANTED

y± pound ground bone

i pound muriate of potash
Y% pound nitrate of soda

FOR PEACHES AND PLUMS IN BEARING

l/4 pound Peruvian guano
1^4 pound muriate of potash
i pound ground bone

Cherries should be treated like plums ; gooseberries,
currants, and most other fruits, like apples.

In the home of dwarf tree culture, that is, in Europe,
trained trees are extensively grown upon walls. The
gardeners utilize for this purpose not only the walls
of stables and outbuildings, and of the enclosed gar-
dens, but long ranges of brick are built for the special
and exclusive purpose of accommodating fruit trees.
In southern Germany, in Switzerland, in Belgium, in
France, and especially in the neighborhood of Paris,
there are hundreds of miles of these walls. The walls
may run north and south or east and west. Both
sides of the walls are used, even when one side faces
the north. Currants and gooseberries are expected to

58 DWARF FRUIT TREES

thrive on north walls. West walls are considered espe-
cially favorable for pears and plums. The walls are
nearly always built of brick. They should have a
height of ten to fourteen feet. Each wall usually has
a coping at the top with a projection of ten to eighteen
inches, which sheds the rain, protecting both the wall
and the fruit trees. Where extreme pains are spent
on the culture of fancy table fruits there are curtains
hung from rods along the outer edge of these copings,
and the curtains are drawn to protect ripening fruit
from too hot sunshine, or to protect the blossoms in
the spring season from late frosts.

Brick walls, with all their appurtenances, are less
important in America than in Europe and the advan-
tages to be expected from this particular method of
culture are decidedly less. Walls would more proba-
bly be useful for peaches and nectarines in northern
latitudes than for any other fruits.

Cordons and espaliers require some sort of sup-
port, however, and where walls are not used trellises
are necessary. These may be of wood or wire. There
is a belief current that the wooden trellises are better
because they reflect less heat, but wire is so much
cheaper and more durable that it will usually be chosen.

Five or six wires are needed to make a good trellis
for upright cordons. These should be placed twelve
to fourteen inches apart, with the lowest wire thirty
inches from the ground. All wires should be tight,
and to this end stout, well-set posts are necessary.
The wires should be loosened in the autumn, before
freezing weather begins, and should be tightened again
in the spring.

FIG. 23 — FRUIT GARDENING AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING COMBINED

From Ideas' Handbuch des Obstbaues

The entire planting, exclusive of the borders, is made up of fruit tree*
and bushes. Dimensions, 752 x 1,362 feet.

6O DWARF FRUIT TREES

For espaliers the woven wire fences are better. In
fact, the woven wire fencing is excellent for all sorts
of fruit trellises. Poultry netting makes a cheap and
convenient trellis, but it is neither so strong nor so
durable as the better grades of woven wire fencing.
On the whole it is very poor economy to buy a cheap
trellis or to put it up on poor posts.

These trellises will need to be comparatively high.
Nothing less than eight feet will be satisfactory, and
for upright cordons a trellis ten to fifteen feet high
will be much better. Of course, this entire height is
not needed the first year, but upright cordon apples
will cover a. twelve foot trellis in five years. Peaches
or Japanese plums will cover the same trellis in three
years.

In the selection of varieties for growing in a garden
of dwarf fruit trees the horticulturist will naturally
be guided by principles altogether different from
those which control him in the selection of varieties
for a commercial orchard. He must, of course, con-
sider which varieties are best adapted to the special
stocks on which they have to be propagated. He must
also bear in rnind that certain varieties are better
adapted than others for the special forms in which
he may wish to train his dwarf trees. Beyond all
this lies the great consideration that in the very large
majority of cases dwarf fruit trees are grown to secure
fancy fruit, not to produce a large quantity for a
general market. All varieties of inferior quality would
therefore be eliminated from consideration at the be-
ginning, no matter how productive they might be,
nor how famous for other things.

-JOH fe ^ ~ "- "•- _ "~^ ' _ _'.__,

25 50 100 15

FIG. 24 — A FRUIT GARDEN CONTAINING MANY DWARF TREES
A. is the entrance ; B, well or cistern ; C, space to turn a horse and cart.
From P. Carry's "Fruit Garden"

62 DWARF FRUIT TREES

Varieties of specially good flavor would be given
special thought, even though they might lack in hardi-
ness or productivity. The special favorites of the
man who owns the garden should be chosen, no
matter whether they are popular or not. Then for
similar reasons a comparatively long list of varieties
will be chosen instead of the very short list always
held to by the commercial grower. From first to last
one should remember that the growing of dwarf fruit
trees is essentially the enterprise of an amateur, not
of a man who grows fruit for money.

VII

DWARF APPLES

DWARF apples are the most interesting and valuable
of dwarf fruits. We have become so thoroughly ac-
customed to the standard apple tree in this country,
however, and it so fully meets all the apparent re-
quirements, that there seems to be no call for dwarf
apples. Nevertheless dwarf trees have some real ad-
vantages under certain circumstances. Some of these
have already been pointed out in the general discus-
sion in previous chapters, and some of them will bear
reiteration here. Where so much interest is taken
in apple culture as in America, the advantage which
dwarf trees offer for the rapid testing of new varieties
cannot be overlooked. Still more important is the
value of the dwarf trees in producing extra fancy
specimens. Thus in growing very fine apples for ex-
hibition or for a particularly fastidious market, one
would naturally choose the dwarf trees.

Inasmuch as dwarf trees are recommended chiefly
to the amateur and are grown generally less for cash
profit than for other considerations, the great and ob-
vious advantages of standard trees quickly disappear.
For men who like to play at fruit growing, nothing
can equal a selection of apple trees on Paradise stocks.
They are the most engaging of all dwarf trees, in fact
of all fruit trees whatsoever.

The general matter of selecting stocks has been

64 DWARF FRUIT TREES

refe. red to under the head of propagation, but the
statement should be repeated here that the French
Paradise stock is preferable for very dwarf garden
trees, and is almost necessary for cordons and espaliers,
while the Doucin (sometimes called the English or
broad-leaved Paradise) may be chosen where only
a moderate amount of dwarfing is desired. Some of
the most expert apple growers of North America are
beginning to think that the Doucin may be required
for the commercial orchards in the future, when spray-
ing for the San Jose scale becomes an established
routine and smaller trees are an accepted necessity.

Dwarf apple trees may be cultivated in nearly all
the artificial forms ever given to fruit trees. Un-
doubtedly the simplest is the bush or vase form. This
requires less care and attention and probably gives
as much fruit to the same area as any other. The
pyramid form is somewhat difficult to produce. It
can be secured successfully only with the varieties
which have a tendency to grow strong, straight
branches, as for instance Sutton, Gravenstein and
Northern Spy. On the whole the pyramid is not to
be recommended for dwarf apples.

Apples succeed very well as upright cordons and
in all the simpler modifications of this form. As these
trees can be planted very close together — as close as
fifteen inches certainly — thus occupying very little
room, a large number of them can be planted in very
limited areas of the city lot or backyard. They are
especially adapted to stand on the property line where
they seem to use no space whatever, and where in
fact they do occupy space which otherwise would be

DWARF APPLES 65

lost. The upright cordon can be bent into the form of
an arch in order to make delightful arbors along the
walks. The illustration, Fig. 2, shows a good ex-
ample of this sort.

Nearly all varieties of apples — indeed all as far
as I know — succeed in this form. The trees are not

FIG. 25 — DWARF APPLES ON PROF. L. H. BAILEY'S FARM, NEW YORK

very long-lived, however. That is they cannot be
maintained in good presentable form and prolific bear-
ing indefinitely, because it is difficult to reproduce
the fruit spurs on the lower part of the stem. Never-
theless the trees are inexpensive and can be cheaply
replaced. As they come into bearing the first or
second year after planting, this task of replacing worn-

66 DWARF FRUIT TREES

out trees is a small one. Very fine specimens of fruit
can be produced on these upright cordons. Indeed this
form is superior to the bush form in this respect.

The apple is the best of all trees for horizontal cor-
dons. In this form it becomes the most entertaining
plaything in the garden, as well as one of the most
rewarding trees in its product of fruit. Either the
single arm or the double arm cordon can be used with
success. These horizontal cordons are naturally used
along the borders of walks, flower beds or plots de-
voted to vegetables. They may sometimes be used
along foundations of buildings, where it is not desired
to grow upright cordons or espaliers against the walls.
The fruit produced by horizontal cordons is probably
superior in size, color and finish to that produced on
any other form of tree. In climates where the sum-
mer's heat and sunshine are apt to be meager, this
advantage of the horizontal cordon will be compara-
tively greater. Conversely it will be less in places
where sunshine and heat are very abundant during
the summer. It is probably true that on the plains of
Arizona and Texas the horizontal cordon will not be
a brilliant success.

Dwarf apples need practically the same care and
cultivation, aside from pruning, as standard apples.
The soil should be cultivated during the early part
of the summer and allowed to rest during the latter
part of the year. Cover crops may be sown during
June or July, according to the .custom practised in the
usual orchard management; but the advantages of
a cover crop in a small garden are less material than
in a large commercial orchard.

FIG. 26 — UPRIGHT CORDON APPLES
18 inches apart ; in author's garden

68 DWARF FRUIT TREES

The formation of the tree is discussed under another
head. It remains to be said only that careful and
intelligent pruning are required to keep any dwarf
apple tree to its work. The more complicated and
the more restricted the form of the tree, the more
careful and continuous must be this pruning. The
general system may be outlined in comparatively few
words, and may be explained in its simplest form as
applied to the treatment of a horizontal cordon. Each
horizontal cordon, perfectly formed and full grown,
should have fruit spurs throughout its horizontal
length, which may be from three to fifteen feet. The
upright portion of the trunk, from the point where
the graft is set to the angle made by the bending down
of the stem, should be kept clean and bare. Constant
care is required to remove the sprouts from this por-
tion of the tree, especially such as come up from the
stock. At the further end of the horizontal portion
there should be one, two, or three strong shoots
allowed to push forth each year. These may be
called leaders. They represent the principal wood
growth in each tree. They draw up the sap from the
roots, their leaves elaborate this sap, and from them
the digested material is sent back for the support of
the tree and the ripening of the fruit. They are al-
lowed to take an upright or nearly upright position
and their growth is encouraged. On all other por-
tions of the tree growth is sternly restricted, when
not altogether repressed.

There is a constant tendency for strong shoots to
start into growth all along the horizontal part of the
stem and especially near the bend. If any of these

DWARF APPLES 69

shoots are allowed to make headway, the form of
the tree is spoiled. Even if they are cut out after a
year's growth, thus retaining somewhat the form of
the tree, the fruit spurs are thereby lost. It is the busi-
ness of the fruit grower, therefore, to pinch back these
shoots which start along the horizontal stem, and
this pinching is done at a comparatively early stage
of their growth. Usually the first pinching should be
given when the stems have grown long enough so
as to have seven or eight leaves. These shoots are then
cut or pinched back to three leaves. If the tree is in
good vigorous condition, these shoots will soon start
into growth once more. Again they have to be
pinched. This time the pinching comes a little earlier,
taking the shoot when it reaches only about five
leaves and the pinching is still more severe. The
shoots may start into growth a third time or even a
fourth time, but each time they are pinched back
sooner and more severely than before. In most cases
two or three pinchings will suffice. These constant
repressions of growth tend to secure the formation
of fruit spurs and fruit buds along the horizontal
trunk of the tree.

Some slight modifications of the plan here out-
lined will develop themselves in experience. In par-
ticular it will be found that different varieties require
slightly different handling. Some form fruit spurs
more readily than others. With certain varieties it
is very difficult to repress the rampant habit of growth
and to secure a proper formation of fruit buds. These
differences, however, are of minor importance as
compared with the general management of the tree.

7O DWARF FRUIT TREES

The system just outlined has in view the summer
pruning of the horizontal cordon apple. The upright
cordon is pruned in almost exactly the same manner.
Various forms of espaliers are handled in much the
same way. Strong shoots or leaders are allowed to
grow at the ends of the main branches to keep up a
proper circulation and elaboration of sap, while the
growth of fruit spurs is encouraged along the sides
of the stems by frequent and regular pruning.

In a somewhat less precise manner the same system
of pruning can be applied to bush and pyramid forms.
Each bush, for instance, is made up of a certain
number of fruiting branches. The fruit is borne on
spurs on the sides of these branches, while the woody
growth is made by the leaders appearing at the ends
of these branches. These leaders are annually cut
back and the constant formation of fruit spurs is
encouraged by pinching whatever shoots are on the
sides of the main stems.

It will be seen that the whole business of pruning
falls into two general categories, viz., winter pruning
and summer pruning. The winter or spring pruning
is given any time after the stress of winter is over
and before the sap starts running in the spring. This
is the time when the ordinary fruit trees are customa-
rily pruned. The work at this season consists chiefly
in cutting back leaders. These are pruned off short,
that is the whole stem is taken off down to within
two or three buds of where it started growth the
previous year. In some cases it is worth while to
cut even further back, going into wood two or three
years old. At this spring pruning the defective or

DWARF APPLES 71

diseased branches are of course removed wherever
they are found. Cases requiring such treatment al-
ways occur even on the best trained cordons and
espaliers. Whenever it becomes necessary an entire
branch, sometimes composing half the tree, is taken

r*3R>

FIG. 27 — HORIZONTAL CORDON APPLE TREES

out. Usually such branches can be replaced without
great loss of time.

After this winter or spring pruning comes the
summer pruning which has been outlined above. This
usually begins May 15-25, and continues until July
25-31, differing, of course, in different latitudes.

72 DWARF FRUIT TREES

Practically all varieties of apples can be grown as
dwarfs, though some succeed on Paradise roots better
than others. Some varieties also are better adapted
for special forms, as for cordons, than are others.
Such requirements are not very strict, and a careful
gardener can grow practically anything he wants to.
Patrick Barry, in his "Fruit Garden," recommends
'/twenty very large and beautiful sorts for dwarfs,"
having in mind American conditions, and especially
his own experience in Rochester, N. Y. His list is
as follows:

Red Astrachan Porter

Large Sweet Bough Menagere

Primate Red Bietigheimer

Beauty of Kent Bailey Sweet

Alexander Canada Reinette

Duchess of Oldenburg Northern Spy

Fall Pippin Mother

Williams' Favorite King of Tompkins County

Gravenstein Twenty Ounce

Hawthornden Wagener

Maiden's Blush

In Europe, where greater attention has been paid
to these matters, the opinion has settled down to a
comparatively limited number. For example, Mr.
George Bunyard in 'The Fruit Garden" recommends
the following varieties for cordons:

Mr. Gladstone . . . Aug. Mother Oct.

Devonshire Quarrenden Aug. Calville Rouge Precoce . Oct.

James Grieve . . . Sept. Cox's Orange Pippin

Wealthy Oct. Oct., Feb.

Margil Oct. St. Edmund's Pippin . Nov.

King of Pippins . . Oct. Ross Nonpareil . . Nov.

DWARF APPLES

73

Duchess of Oldenburg . Aug.
Pott's Seedling . . Sept.
Lord Grosvenor . . Sept.
Adams' Pearmain . Dec.
Hubbard's Pearmain . Dec.
Allington Pippin . Nov., Feb.
Scarlet Nonpareil . Jan., Feb.
Norman's Pippin . . Jan.
Lord Burghley . . . Feb.
Duke of Devonshire . Feb.
Rosemary Russet . . Feb.
Sturmer Pippin . Very late
Allen's Everlasting Very late

Fearn's Pippin . Very late
Lord Derby . . . Nov.

Bismarck Dec.

Lane's Prince Albert

Jan., March

Lord Suffield . . Sept.
Grenadier . . Sept., Oct.
Golden Spire . Sept., Oct.
Seaton House . Sept., Oct.
Sandringham . . . Feb.
Alfriston . . Feb., March
Calville Malingre Feb to Mch.
Calville Rouge Feb. to Mch.

The same authority recommends the following
varieties to be grown on Paradise stocks as bushes :

Beauty of Bath . July, Aug.
Red Quarrenden . July, Aug.
Lady Sudeley . . . Sept.
Worcester Pearmain

Sept., Oct.

Yellow Angestrie . . Sept.
Duchess' Favorite

Sept. to Oct.

King of the Pippins . Oct.
Early White Transparent J'ly.
Lord Suffield . Aug., Sept.
Pott's Seedling . Aug., Sept.
Lord Grosvenor . Aug., Sept.
Early Julien . Aug., Sept.
Ecklinville Seedling

Sept., Oct.

Grenadier . . Sept., Oct.
Stirling Castle . Sept., Oct.

Golden Spire . Sept., Oct.
Cox's Orange Pippin

Nov., Feb.

Beauty of Barnack . Nov.
Allington Pippin . Dec., Feb.
Gascoigne's Scarlet . Dec.
Christmas Pearmain . Dec.
Winter Quarrenden . Dec.
Baumann's Reinette . Jan.
Lord Derby . Oct., Nov.
Stone's Apple . Oct., Nov.
Tower of Glamis . Oct., Nov.
Warner's King . Oct., Nov.
Bismarck . . . Oct., Nov.
Lane's Prince Albert

Dec, Mch.

Bramley's Seedling Dec., Mch.
Newton Wonder Dec., Mch.

DWARF FRUIT TREES

Max Loebener in his book on dwarf fruits recom-
mends the following varieties for dwarf apples:

Belle de Boskoop Nov., Ma>
Virginia Rose . . . Aug.
Red Peach Summer Apple

Aug., Sept-
Lord Sumeld
Cellini . .
Alexander

Gravenstein

Red Astrachan . July, Aug.
Yellow Transparent

Aug., Sept.

Charlamowsky . Aug., Sept.
Transparent de Croncels

Sept., Oct.

Prince Apple . Sept., Jan.
Danzig . . . Oct., Dec.
Dean's Codlin . Oct. to Feb.
Landbury Reinette Nov., Feb.
Cox's Orange . Nov. to Mch.
Requires good soil
Winter Gold Pearmain

Nov., March

Ribston Pippin . Nov., April

Good warm soil

Canada Reinette . Nov., April

Hardy

Inasmuch as the advantages of the dwarf trees
apply especially to the growing of fine fruit, only the
better varieties should generally be propagated in this
way. On this basis, therefore, rather than on the
basis of adaptation learned from experience, the fol-
lowing varieties may be suggested among the well
known American sorts for growing in dwarf form:

Aug., Oct.
Sept., Nov.
Oct., Dec.
Oct. to Jan.
For moist soils, bears late
Yellow Richard . Nov., Dec.
Bismarck . . . Nov., Feb.
Yellow Bellflower

Nov. to April
Requires good position
Baumann's Reinette

Dec., May

Baldwin

Esopus

Mother

Williams' Favorite

Sutton

King

Northern Spy

Grimes

Winesap

Yellow Transparent

Mclntosh

Red Astrachan

Alexander

Wolf River

Ribston Pippin

Wealthy

Wagener

DWARF APPLES 75

Of course, one propagating dwarf apples would
always select his own favorites. It should be noticed
that in the list given above are some varieties which
are notable for beauty of appearance rather than
for superior quality. They are recommended on the
former consideration. Certain varieties in the list,
for instance Alexander, are known to succeed es-
pecially well as dwarfs.

VIII
DWARF PEARS

PEARS are the fruit most largely grown in dwarf
form in America. There are a few well established
and successful commercial orchards of pears, especially
in western New York and Michigan. The pear is

FIG. 28 — YOUNG ORCHARD OF DWARF PEARS IN WESTERN
NEW YORK

the fruit most assiduously cultivated in dwarf and
trained forms in Europe. At the same time it is the
one with which I confess I have had the least satis-
faction. This is perhaps because I have always ex-

76

DWARF PEARS

77

perimented in a country where pears do not naturally
succeed, and because, further, my fancies have run
more to other kinds of fruit.

It is probably true that the pear is improved more

FIG. 29 — DWARF PEARS IN THE OLD AND PROFITABLE YEOMANS
ORCHARD, NEW YORK

in quality than any other fruit by being grown in
dwarf form and trained as cordons and espaliers on
a suitable frame or wall. This is emphatically true in
cold and inclement climates, where indeed some of

78 DWARF FRUIT TREES

the best varieties of pears will not succeed at all
unless given this advantage. A west wall is recom-
mended as giving the very finest results. It should
be noted, however, that some varieties do better on
walls than others. Those which grow vigorously in
bush, pyramid, or standard forms receive compara-
tively less benefit from wall training.

The pear is the best of all trees for training in
pyramid form. Sometimes very tall slim pyramids
are made, becoming almost pillars of foliage and fruit
in their old age. These may be in fact upright cor-
dons which are trained with strong stems and allowed
to support themselves without a trellis. Some of the
less upright growing varieties are difficult to form
into pyramids, and such may be pruned in the ordi-
nary bush or vase form. In growing dwarf pears
commercially, as is sometimes done, it is probably
best to give most varieties the bush form. The pyra-
mid is rather harder to maintain.

The pear succeeds well as a cordon tree. Perhaps
the best form is the oblique cordon, one placed at
an angle of about forty-five degrees with the horizon.
The upright and horizontal cordons may also be used,
though neither of these forms is specially well adapted
to pears.

All of the better types of espaliers are suited to
pear trees. Probably the Palmette-Verrier is the
best, although the old fashioned espaliers are often
used. The U-form and the double U-form also suc-
ceed if well built.

The pruning of the pear tree is substantially the
same as that of the apple. Where pear blight is a

DWARF PEARS

79

factor in the problem, due allowance must be made
for it. It sometimes happens that entire branches or
arms have to be cut away on account of blighting.
The system of pruning therefore should furnish a

FIG. 30 — ORCHARD OF DWARF DUCHESS PEARS, LOCKPORT, N. Y.

means of renewing such members promptly when
necessity requires.

The quince root prefers a fairly heavy and even
moist soil. A heavy clay loam is best, although a

8o

DWARF FRUIT TREES

strong clay will answer. Light sandy soils or loose
gravelly soils will not give such good results. On the
other hand any clay soil which holds water to a
considerable extent will answer. As these are the
requirements for quince roots, they become also the
requirements for dwarf pears. Any attempt to grow

FIG. 31 — PYRAMID PEARS IN A GERMAN ORCHARD

dwarf pears on a light loose soil is almost certain
to prove a failure.

It is often said that dwarf pears should be planted
deep in the ground when they are set out. The rule
is to put them deep enough so that the bud union
will be buried beneath the surface of the soil. With
such treatment the pear itself often throws out roots
and eventually establishes a feeding system of its
own, becoming independent of the quince stock. It

DWARF PEARS 8 1

is then no longer a dwarf tree except by the authority
of the pruning knife. It is probably true that many
varieties of dwarf pears are longer lived when treated
in this way. In planting, therefore, it becomes a
question whether one desires chiefly a long-lived tree
or a strictly dwarf one. The ease with which dwarf
trees are replaced makes longevity a less important
factor than in commercial orchards of standard trees.

Of course, it is understood that if the dwarfest
form is to be maintained, the tree must be planted high
enough to leave the union out of the ground, thus pre-
venting the pear from throwing out roots of its own.

The varieties principally grown in this country as
dwarfs are Angouleme, Bartlett, Anjou, and Louise
Bonne.

In European nurseries the list of pears propagated
on quince roots is much larger. The following varieties
are recommended for England by Mr. Owen Thomas,
and are said to be particularly good for training on
walls :

Buerre Giffard La France

Clapp's Favorite Buerre d' Anjou

Jargonelle Buerre de Jonghe

Williams' (Bartlett) Doyenne d'Alenqon

Buerre d'Amanlis Glou Morceau

Fondante d'Automne Marie Benoist

Triomphe de Vienne Winter Nelis

Buerre Bosc Buerre Diel

Buerre Hardy Xouvelle Fulvie

Buerre Brown Buerre Sterckmans

Comte de Lamy Easter Buerre

Louise Bonne de Jersey Le Lectier

Pitmaston Duchess Olivier d'e Serres

82 DWARF FRUIT TREES

Seckel Passe Crassane

Conference Ne Plus Meuris

Doyenne du Cornice Bergamotte Esperen

Marie Louise Buerre Ranee

Thompson's Josephine de Malines
Duchesse d'Angouleme

IX
DWARF PEACHES

THE peach as a dwarf tree is almost unknown in
America. It is not very often grown as a dwarf
even in Europe, except when it is trained on walls or
grown in houses. The species, however, is easily
dwarfed and makes a good tree in various forms when
well propagated. The methods by which dwarf
peaches are propagated are fully described in the
chapter devoted to that subject.

Peach trees growing on plum stocks and formed
in vases or bushes make excellent garden trees. Nat-
urally they should be headed low, best within three
to six inches of the ground. They then make fine,
regular, well balanced tops which are easily kept
opened out in the desired vase form. Such trees
usually come into bearing one or two years earlier
than those propagated and trained in the usual way.
In a country like New England where peach growing
is largely a system of gambling against cold weather,
and where the business largely resolves itself into a
race for getting a crop before the trees freeze back,
the smaller stature and the earlier bearing of the
dwarf ttree are obvious advantages. It has not yet
been shown that this may be turned to account on
a commercial scale, but there seem to be possibilities
in it. In case the peach grower undertakes the method
of laying down his peach trees and covering them

84

DWARF FRUIT TREES

during the winter to save them from freezing, the
smaller growth of the dwarf trees would prove a
decided advantage. This method of handling peach
trees has proved a practical success under certain
conditions.

The peach does not succeed as a cordon. The

FIG. 32 — DWARF PEACH IN NURSERY
Headed back and formed into bushes

nearest that this form can be successfully approached
is the U-form. The double U-form is probably even
better. The fan form of training is the best of all
methods of training for the peach. The tree makes
wood so rapidly that considerable space has to be

DWARF PEACHES 85

provided for the annual growth. The fan form being
less definite in its makeup can be more readily adapted
to the exigencies of rapid growth and severe cutting
out.
On account of its more vigorous growth the peach

FIG. 33 — ESPALIER PEACH, HARTFORD, CONN.

demands even more drastic pruning than that already
described for apples and pears. The method of manag-
ing a peach tree, however, differs in some details.
There is not such a distinct establishment of leaders
at the end of the shoot; and since the peach never
forms fruit spurs like those of the apple, the pruning
of the fruit-bearing wood is necessarily different. The

86 DWARF FRUIT TREES

best fruit buds are formed on the strong clean shoots
of the current season's growth. These must be allowed
to grow far enough and vigorously enough to ripen
good fruit buds. If they make too much growth,
however, the side buds start secondary branches and
the fruiting prospects are reduced. The management
of the tree must be such as to keep this growth of
new wood in just the proper balance.

In order to carry out the idea thus outlined, an
early spring pruning is given while the trees are
dormant, and several successive primings are ad-
ministered during the growing season. At the spring
pruning a considerable amount of wood is cut out
from all portions of the tree, the amount thus removed
being much greater than that from the pear or apple
trees at the same season. The old decrepit and
diseased branches are taken first for removal, and then
one year old wood is cut back where necessary, so
as to leave two or three buds at the base of each
branch.

The first summer pruning is given about May I5th
to 2Oth, after the growth has well begun. A vigorous
tree will start more shoots than there is room for,
and these are thinned out until all have sufficient
space. A few of the most vigorous ones are pinched
back at this time. One week to ten days later the
trees are gone over again, at which time the principal
pinching back is done. The shoots which are making
too much growth, especially on the interior of the tree
or on the main arms, are stopped. A third pruning
is given about June first, and consists chiefly in re-
moving weak shoots or those which are crowding one

DWARF PEACHES

8.7

another, and cutting back those which are growing
too far.

The peach usually requires a comparatively light
soil and a warm exposure. The plum root upon which
a dwarf peach is budded will usually succeed in a

FIG. 34— PEACH IN FAN ESPALIER ON WALL, ENGLAND

considerably heavier soil, and the method of budding
on plum is therefore sometimes practised with the
specific object of adapting the peach tree to heavier
soils. Inasmuch as various kinds of plums succeed
in all soils on which any crop can be grown, from
light sand to heavy clay, it is not difficult to meet
any reasonable requirements in this respect.

88

DWARF FRUIT TREES

All varieties of peaches and nectarines seem to
succeed equally well as dwarfs. Those varieties which
are grown as dwarfs in Europe are naturally the ones
which are favorites there. In this country the favorite
varieties are almost altogether different and we would

FIG. 35 — PEACH TREES TRAINED UNDER GLASS

expect to choose such sorts as Late Crawford, Foster,
Old Mixon, Belle of Georgia, Champion, Waddell.
and other choice American varieties for our use.

The nectarine is in large favor in Europe and is
much more extensively grown than in America. The
merits of this fruit seem to have been strangely over-
looked in this country. When nectarines are properly

DWARF PEACHES . 89

grown under glass, they are one of the most delicious
and beautiful fruits known in this world of limitations
and disappointments. The nectarine is a fruit which
will in general bear more extensive cultivation in
America and which is to be especially recommended
for dwarf fruit gardens. This is not to say that it
should supersede the peach, or even that it should
take equal prominence, but simply that it should be
well represented in every selection of fruits for an
amateur's collection.

X
DWARF PLUMS

MOST amateur and professional fruit growers are
less interested in plums than in other tree fruits. Per-
haps I am prejudiced, but I feel that this is not fair
to the plum. Plums yield some profit when rightly
cultivated commercially, and no end of satisfaction
when cultivated for the gardener's own entertainment.
The large assortment of varieties which one may
secure is in itself a claim to interest, and a source
of much delight to the collector. The fact that
different types of plums furnish fruit of very di-
verse characters makes the collection more valuable
from every standpoint. So far as the writer knows
dwarf plums have seldom been grown to any extent
in America. They certainly have no present claim
based on experience for recognition in commercial
orchards. Nevertheless they have possibilities even
for the growing of market fruit, and for cultivation in
the garden, dwarf trees are altogether worth while.

In the chapter on propagation, reference has been
made to the stocks used for plums and that subject
need not be discussed here.

When plum trees have been secured budded on
suitable dwarfing stocks, as, for example, Americana
or sand cherry, they may be trained in a variety of
ways. Probably the ordinary bush form is the best.
Most varieties of plums do not form either a satis-

90

FIG. 36— PLUM TREES TRAINED AS UPRIGHT CORDONS

92 DWARF FRUIT TREES

factory pyramid or a strictly vase form. Some of the
better growing Japanese varieties of plums approach
the latter form fairly well. Red June, Satsuma, and
Chabot may be mentioned as particular examples.
With such varieties a true vase form can be main-
tained as well as with peaches. In dealing with a
majority of varieties, however, a simple bush-like head
without a mathematically constructed frame work is
about the best that can be secured. In most cases the
head should be formed low, preferably not more than
six inches from the ground. Still considerable lati-
tude has to be allowed the gardener's fancy in deal-
ing with dwarf trees, and the writer can easily imag-
ine a garden design which would require trees to be
high headed. It would be practicable and excusable
in some cases to form heads four, five, or even six
feet from the ground. This is often done in England
and Germany with all sorts of fruit trees, this form
being referred to as a "standard."

A head can be secured at almost any point on a
plum tree of good growth, by heading back at the
desired height. Four to six branches should be allowed
to grow the first year and in course of time these will
be increased to eight, twelve, or even more. That is,
there will be this number of what we might call main
branches because they are all of approximately equal
importance.

At the end of the first year after the tree has been
headed back the main branches, which have now
formed, are to be cut back in turn. With all strong-
growing varieties it is best to remove from one half
to two-thirds of the annual growth from these main

DWARF PLUMS 93

branches, if the tree is to be restricted to a com-
paratively narrow spread. A considerable number of
strong shoots will put forth the next year. These
should be thinned out as soon as they start to a number
approximately twice that of the main arms. These
new branches should be distributed as symmetrically
as possible. The tree top is now formed and sub-
sequent pruning" consists essentially of a severe head-
ing in during the latter part of the dormant season,
that is, about March, followed by two, three, or four
summer prunings somewhat after the manner described
for the peach. At the time of these summer prunings
the young growing shoots should be thinned out
enough to prevent any choking of the tree top and
should be headed in wherever it is necessary to re-
tain the symmetrical growth.

The manner of forming the fruit buds or spurs is
so diverse in the different kinds of plums that no
general rule can be given for encouraging them. Close
observation of each variety will soon enable the gar-
dener to direct his pruning in such a way as to assist
in this important process of fruit bud formation. In
a rough general way it may be said that the Domes-
tica and Americana varieties of plums form distinct
fruit spurs along the sides of one and two year old
branches, and that, for the encouragement of these,
considerable light should be admitted and the growth
of the interior shoots rather rigidly checked. The
Japanese and Hortulana varieties on the other hand
fruit best from very short spurs or clusters of buds
which form along from the strong one and two year

94 DWARF FRUIT TREES

old branches. The main object, therefore, with these
latter varieties is to maintain a succession of clean,
sound, well matured shoots. This is done by a mod-
erate thinning of the main shoots early in the year,
resulting in the forcing of those which are left. These
strong growing shoots are checked late in the summer
in order that they may ripen up thoroughly, but the
pinching which is done to this end is delayed long
enough so that the pinched shoots will not start into
growth again. Moreover, this pinching is done well
out to the ends of the shoots.

Certain varieties of plums succeed fairly well as
vertical cordons. The varieties least adapted to this
purpose are the Hortulana offspring and their hybrids
and a few of the rank-growing Japanese, like Hale and
October Purple. In the dwarf tree garden at the
Massachusetts Agricultural College the writer has a
row of plum trees containing a large assortment of
varieties and species. These trees were picked out
at random from various sources and very few of them
were propagated on dwarfing stocks. On this ac-
count the trees were set two feet apart, which is more
than is usually recommended for upright cordons.
They have now been growing three years, and they
furnish much interesting testimony regarding the
feasibility of growing plums in this form. Contrary
to expectation such varieties as Red June, Abundance,
and Burbank have done well under this treatment.
These varieties all fruited the next year- after planting.
Some varieties of the Domestica group are bearing
the third year after planting, which is unusually early.

FIG. 37 — BURBANK PLUMS ON UPRIGHT CORDONS TRAINED TG>
TRELLIS

9P DWARF FRUIT TREES

All of them seem to be fairly well adapted to this
method of treatment. Varieties like Wildgoose and
Wayland, and such hybrids as Gonzales, Waugh and
Red May, can hardly be controlled in the restricted
space allowed them in a row of vertical cordons.
They give very little promise of success. It is prob-
able that all these varieties would make a better
showing if they were propagated on some such stock
as sand cherry.

Plums are seldom — almost never — propagated as
horizontal cordons. I have never yet undertaken it
myself, but propose to do so at the first opportunity
and with some expectation of moderate success with
certain varieties. The slow growing sorts like Green,
Gage, Italian Prune, and Agen seem to offer special
promise.

In the form of espaliers plums are often trained
against walls. Indeed this is the favorite way of
producing fancy plums in England, and the same
practise prevails to a considerable extent on the con-
tinent of Europe. In this country walls are not re-
quired, and in most cases would be of no advantage.
Where it is desired to cover back fences or sides of
buildings, however, plum trees in espalier form can
be confidently recommended. The Domestica varie-
ties of highest quality such as Bavay, Jefferson, Vic-
toria, Pond, Bradshaw, and Coe's Golden Drop would
have first choice. The Japanese varieties can also
be grown on trellises or walls, but the freer forms,
such as the fan espalier used for the peach, are better
suited to their habits of growth.

DWARF PLUMS 97

The following varieties of plums can be recom-
mended for dwarf bush forms:

Green Gage Bavay (Reine Claude)

Jefferson McLaughlin

Bradshaw Pond

Agen Bleeker

Grand Duke Italian Prune

Cluster Damson (or other Damsons)

Such varieties of the Japanese class as Abundance,
Chabot, Red June, Satsuma, Burbank may be grown
on dwarf stocks in bush forms, but they are not al-
together satisfactory. There are two objections
against them : ( i ) It is difficult to keep them in re-
stricted bounds, such a result being dependent on con-
stant and severe heading in. (2) They overgrow the
dwarf stocks very strongly and thus do not have a
very firm hold on the ground. They are apt to blow
over or break off after a few years, unless carefully
staked up.

The following varieties can be recommended for
upright cordons, in which form they will give moderate
success if properly managed :

Coe's Golden Drop Bradshaw

Agen Bavay

Victoria Lombard

Grand Duke Chabot

Abundance Cheney

Burbank Aubert (Yellow Egg or Mag-
num Bonum)

Also most of the clean-growing Americana varieties
such as Smith, Terry, Stoddard, etc.

9& DWARF FRUIT TREES

Mr. Owen Thomas recommends for growing on
walls in England the following varieties :

Green Gage Brahy's Green Gage

Brandy Gage Bryanstone Gage

Denniston's Superb Gage Oullin's Golden Gage

Comte d'Athem's Gage Golden Transparent Gage

Transparent Gage Reine Claude de Bavay

Transparent Late Gage Coe's Golden Drop

Jefferson Kirke's Blue

Reine Claude Violette Washington

XI
BUSH FRUITS

THE bush fruits, so far as I know, are never culti-
vated as dwarfs. To speak more exactly I should
say that no dwarf stock is ever used to reduce the
size to which the plants grow. On the other hand, bush
fruits are often systematically pruned back in order
to restrict their size, and are sometimes trained in
elaborate forms as dwarf fruit trees are. To this
extent they are managed in the same way and might
properly be treated in the same general category.
What is more to our purpose, they are almost always
included in the plan of any private fruit garden on
a restricted area, such as we have had chiefly in view
in this discussion of dwarf fruit trees. These reasons
make it appropriate, if not indeed essential, that
something should be said regarding, these fruits, here.

All bush fruits can be grown in -such forms as cor-
dons, espaliers, etc. Anything of this s|xrt which the
gardener wishes can become a part of his^ garden of
little trees. Gooseberries and currants offer*ethe most
entertainment and remuneration when subjected to
special priming and training, and indeed they should
not be omitted from any garden scheme of this kind.
Raspberries-axe- less amenable. to this kind of educa-
tion and should be introduced with some care. Black-
berries are necessarily difficult to handle and no
very complicated schemes of pruning and training

99

I

d

E

BUSH FRUITS IOI

can be successfully applied to them. Such other fruits
as Loganberries, strawberry-raspberries, June berries,
etc., may be introduced "at the owner's risk." Any
of them will submit to a certain amount of correction
with the pruning knife, and may add to the variety
of fruits grown in the amateur's garden. Of course,
it is distinctly understood that these special methods
of treatment are not commercially recommended for
any of the bush fruits in America.

Probably the most interesting and practical way
for handling gooseberries and currants in dwarf fruit
gardens is the form known as standards. This form
consists of a small round fruiting top of almost any
desired variety grafted high upon a straight clean
trunk or stem. This stem may have any convenient
height from two to ten feet, the most common and
practical height being about four feet. The stock
used is the flowering currant, Ribes aurenm, which
forms a sufficiently strong and upright growth for
this purpose. Nevertheless it is almost always neces-
sary to support these standards with a convenient stake
apiece. For the present these standard gooseberries
and currants can be obtained only of the European
nurserymen. At least the writer knows of no one
who propagates them in America. There are several
importers, however, who make a business of supply-
ing European stock and who are always glad to im-
port these on order.

The finer varieties are especially chosen for grow-
ing as standards. This applies particularly to goose-
berries, which are more widely grown and which are
more highly prized in Europe than in this country.

BUSH FRUITS 103

The varieties grown in Europe are usually finer table
fruits than the American varieties. It is generally un-
derstood that the finest fruits for eating fresh out of
hand are secured from the standard gooseberries.

Gooseberries and currants are also adapted easily
to the espalier form. The most elaborate palmettes
and other geometrical designs can be worked out.
Nevertheless the simplest and most practical form for
trained gooseberries and currants is the fan shape. If
a suitable trellis is provided, the vines may be easily
tied out upon it in very attractive fan forms and these
are found to be quite satisfactory, both as regards
their looks and their product of fruit. They are also
easily sprayed, which is a consideration worth mention-
ing when one has to fight the currant worm. In gen-
eral, it is best in our latitude to run these espaliers
north and south, because they receive too much sun
when the trellis runs east and west. This rule, how-
ever, is not absolute.

Probably the most convenient and practical way for
growing these fruits in the dwarf tree garden is to
plant standards at regular intervals in a row, say
six feet apart, and to plant a certain number of fan
shaped bushes between each pair of standards in the
row. If these standards were six feet apart, two
plants for fan training would be enough between each
pair. The top of the trellis on which the fan forms
are tied, would not be above four feet high, better
only three. The heads of the standards then rise well
above the top of the trellis. This furnishes some sup-
port for the stem of the standard and economizes

104

DWARF FRUIT TREES

space. Economy of space is one of the first principles
of this style of gardening.

No list need be given here of the varieties of goose-
berries and currants to be recommended for this class

FIG. 40— TREE FORM GOOSEBERRY

of planting. It may be said that any of the favorite
varieties of currants grown in this country, as for
example, Fay, Victoria, Red Versailles, etc., may be
chosen, and that these are indeed the varieties usually
preferred in Europe. With respect to gooseberries it

BUSH FRUITS 105

may be remarked that the English, French, and Ger-
man varieties are mostly very different from those
grown in America, and that while they have some
shortcomings in our climate, they are for the most
part to be recommended for the purposes which we
here have in view.

XII
FRUIT TREES IN POTS

THOSE who are used to seeing large fruit trees in
orchard plantations where each specimen has 1,000
to 2,000 square feet of space, with unlimited op-
portunities downward, find a fruit tree in a pot a
curiosity. It seems remarkable to see a tree in vigor-
ous health and bearing fruit with less than one
cubic foot of soil. Nevertheless this method of hand-
ling fruit trees is entirely practicable. In some places
it is practised extensively in an amateur way, and oc-
casionally reaches almost commercial proportions. For
those who grow fruit trees for recreation there could
hardly be a more interesting experiment.

The pots mostly used are the nine, ten, eleven and
twelve inch standard earthenware pots. With most
trees it is best to begin with small sizes and gradually
shift forward to the larger ones. A bearing tree
may be maintained for several years in a twelve inch
pot or even in a ten inch size. Sometimes wooden
tubs are substituted for pots. These look better, but
are not so good in any other way.

Trees may be grown in pots out of doors, although
there is no particular advantage in doing this. If such
practise is undertaken the pots should be plunged
their full depth in good garden soil. Perfect drainage
should be secured by having some broken brick or
coarse cinders underneath.

106

FRUIT TREES IN POTS IO/

Usually potted trees are grown under glass. They
are kept in a cool greenhouse, that is one with little
heat. Sometimes they are without artificial heat.
In fact this is probably the best way. The houses
which are purposely constructed for fruit trees may
have a single line of pipe if this is convenient, so that
the chill may be taken off the air in severe cold
weather. To reach anything like real success, houses
must be devoted exclusively to fruit trees. Occa-
sionally trees may be grown with other plants, as in
cold graperies, but the results are not the best and
often come very close to failure.

In building houses for fruit trees exclusively, the
even span construction is nearly always used. Houses
eighteen or twenty feet wide, and five feet high at
the eaves, will answer the purpose very well. The
leading greenhouse designers are prepared to furnish
plans for such houses and it is usually best to follow
the advice of their -experts.

All kinds of fruit trees can be grown in pots. This
includes apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, and
cherries. Those which give the best returns are
plums and nectarines. Apples in pots are very inter-
esting and furnish a superior quality of fruit when
grown under glass. Apples, plums and nectarines
take a finer finish and a higher flavor when grown
in this way than when grown in any other.

All fruit trees to be grown in pots should be prop-
agated on the dwarfest of dwarfing stocks. This
means practically that apples should be on Paradise,
pears on quince, peaches and nectarines on sand cherry,

DWARF FRUIT TREES

plum on sand cherry or St. Julien plum, and cherries
on Mahaleb.

The trees should be potted in good rich soil, pref-

FIG. 41 — A FRUITING PEACH IN POT

erably the best garden loam. This should have
enough sand and gravel in it to insure good drainage.
A considerable amount of drainage material should

FRUIT TREES IN POTS 109

be placed in the bottom of each pot. The trees should
be repotted in fresh soil annually in October or No-
vember.

Trees in pots require liberal feeding. Besides being
given well enriched earth at the time of repotting, they
should be supplied from time to time with small
amounts of fertilizer. Good soluble chemical fertili-
zers can be applied either dry or dissolved. A good
formula is one part nitrate of soda, two parts of
muriate of potash, two parts of high grade phosphoric
acid. A very little sprinkling, say a tablespoonful,
of this can be given on each pot once a month during
the growing season which lasts roughly from Decem-
ber to May. In place of this, or alternately with this,
moderate waterings with liquid manure may also be
given. These small doses of food are especially use-
ful at the time when the fruit is forming on the trees.

The trees are usually brought into the house at
the time of potting, say November I. If early fruit
is desired, they are kept in a house with some heat.
It is necessary only that the temperature should be
kept constantly and safely above the freezing point.
Rapid forcing with a high temperature is not desirable
and is hardly possible. If kept simply above the
freezing point, these trees will start into growth in
January. They can then be kept somewhat warmer
during February, the heat being slightly increased in
March. Peaches and nectarines will stand fairly
high temperatures after the fruit is well set and espe-
cially toward ripening time. By this method of mild
forcing, plums, peaches, and nectarines can be brought
into fruit as early as the latter part of May.

no

DWARF FRUIT . TREES

The main crop of potted fruits, however, need not
be expected until June or July ; that is not very much
in advance of the outdoor crop. The object of grow-
ing fruit under glass is not so much to force it ahead

FIG. 42 — A FIG TREE IN A POT

of season as it is to improve the quality. Trees which
are to be kept in a cool house without heat need no
particular attention except to see that they are watered
occasionally and that some plant food is given after
growth begins. Even if the temperature goes down
considerably below freezing during the winter months

FRUIT TREES IN POTS III

in this cold house where the potted fruit trees are, no
damage need be expected.

Of course, special care will be given to prevent
damage from attacks of fungi or insects which occa-
sionally become troublesome in the houses. The small
size of these trees makes such work comparatively
easy.

The methods of pruning are the same as those rec-
ommended for pyramid and bush form trees. These
forms are the most practical for pot culture, though
pot trees are occasionally trained in cordon forms.

XIII
PERSONALIA

MANY persons have a strong prejudice in favor of
the concrete. On general principles they object to
generalities. They choose rather the specific case.
Personal experience, they say, means more to them
than theory, even though the theory be the sublimation
of all experience. For the benefit of such people I
am going to set down an account of some of my own
attempts at growing dwarf fruit trees, and to that I
will add brief opinions and experiences of some friends
of mine.

The first dwarf fruit tree that I ever saw, so far as
I remember, was in the grounds of the Kansas State
Agricultural College when I was a student there. This
tree was an apple, on Paradise stock, and at two years
after planting it bore six or eight very fine Yellow
Transparent apples. It was one of several dwarf
apples planted by Professor E. A. Popenoe, but the
other trees did not much attract my attention. This
particular specimen had a straight, clean trunk of about
thirty inches, after the absurd style of heading dwarf
apples practised in most American nurseries. But
the crown was full and symmetrical, and the fruit was
incomparable. That particular tree has always been
a sort of ideal and inspiration to me.

Later, when I planted an orchard in Oklahoma, I
put in some dwarf trees, particularly pears, but I did

112

PERSONALIA 113

not stay there long enough to see what came of them.

The next fruit garden in which I became interested
was in Vermont. This had in it some dwarf pear
trees, dwarf apples and dwarf plums, and my own
personal experience had fairly begun. The dwarf ap-
ples proved to be an almost complete failure, for rea-
sons which I can not now satisfactorily explain. A
few years later I planted a few dwarf apple trees in
another Vermont garden, where they did reasonably
well. But, at any rate, the whole undertaking was un-
satisfactory, for it did not give me a vital understand-
ing of the trees. I never got onto terms of real
personal goodfellowship with them ; and until a gard-
ener does that his work is some sort of a failure.

The dwarf pears did somewhat better. They seemed
to understand their business, and they kept about it
without much attention from me. I never cared much
for pears, anyway.

But the plums were the brilliant success, at least
with reference to my own interior personal experience.
Every plum tree meant something to me. A stub of
a root and two scrawny plum branches would at any
time arouse my imagination like the circus posters'
appeal to a boy. In this Vermont garden which I
adopted when it was about four years old, there were
various plum trees, mostly of domestica varieties,
growing on Americana roots. They had come from the
Iowa State College, where they had been educated that
way. They had been given those Americana roots, not
primarily to dwarf them, but to insure them against
damage from the cold winters. The tops had not been
cut back, and the whole treatment was just such as

114 DWARF FRUIT TREES

would have been applied to standards. Later I saw
the bad results of this treatment, for several of the trees
blew over in high winds. From subsequent experience
I feel sure that if they had been headed low at first,
if they had been kept closely headed back and other-
wise handled like real dwarfs, they would have lived
to a greater age and would have made everybody hap-
pier.

At this time also I began, on a somewhat compre-
hensive plan, the propagation of plums on all sorts
of stocks, including Americana, Wayland seedlings,
Miner root cuttings and sand cherry, all more or
less efficient dwarfing stocks. By this time I was into
it head over ears, as far as the plums were concerned.

This having been the largest chapter in my per-
sonal pomological experience, I suppose it ought to
form the largest portion of this chapter in the book;
but my plum work and my experiments in propagation
have been so often and so fully reported elsewhere
that it would be a vain repetition to go over them
again now. They are all written down in the proper
places where they may be consulted by the enthusiastic
or ill-advised student.

And then I came to Massachusetts ; and here the
first project, almost, to which my hand was turned
was the installation of a garden of dwarf fruit trees.
From the following memorandum of the trees growing
in this garden any reader may surmise the enjoyment
I have found in it. There is one row of dwarf plum
trees set six feet apart and trained, rather unsatisfac-
torily, into bush form. The trees, were many of them too
large when they came from France, and, though I cut

PERSONALIA 115

them back severely, they did not form such low bushy
heads as my ideal species. They are on St. Julien
roots, which serve the purposes in hand fairly well.
Though the trees had a hard trip across the water only
one out of forty-six has died in three years. Unfortu-
nately these trees have not yet borne fruit, — not one
of them. Next year many of them will bear. Earlier
fruitage can certainly be secured on sand cherry stocks
and under other methods of training.

Besides the bush plums, the garden contains a row
of upright cordons. Most of these were not propa-
gated on dwarf stocks at all, and were not expected
to suffer any such drastic training as I have put upon
them. They were taken from the college nursery and
from the nurseries of several of my correspondents,
just wherever I could find the varieties I wanted, and
without reference to the stocks on which they were
growing. A few are on Americana stocks, several are
on peach roots (of all things), and probably a major-
ity are growing on the usual Myrobalan roots. These
trees are planted two feet apart in the row and are
tied up to a trellis of chicken wire. There are about
thirty varieties in the row, numbering most of the
different botanical types more frequently cultivated in
Xor.th America. Many of the varieties are totally and
very obviously unsuited to this method of treatment,
and presently I will replace them with more amenable
varieties. But many of the varieties have fruited, espe-
cially the Japanese kinds, and some of them, like Bur-
bank, have proved most unexpectedly docile. Alto-
gether this row of unsuitably propagated and unsuit-
ably selected varieties of plum trees has been one of

116 DWARF FRUIT TREES

the most interesting, instructive and entertaining ele-
ments in my dwarf fruit garden.

Next there comes a trellis bearing some espaliers,
including plums, pears, apples, peaches and cherries;
but these have been recently planted, and as yet they
have done nothing worth relating.

There is one row of twenty-three dwarf pears,
mostly trained in pyramid form. These have not done
well, but the reason is not far to seek. The soil is
light and full of gravel, and quite unsuited to pear
or quince. Pears never thrive on it. Several of the
trees are bearing a crop this year, but some of the
trees are also dead, and the whole row looks like the
finish of a bargain sale on the remnant ribbon counter.

The row of upright cordon pears is a trifle better,
but that is only an accident, I think. The varieties
which are growing there seem to be rather better
adapted to withstand the unpropitious surroundings.
These trees also are bearing.

When we come to the two rows of horizontal cor-
don apples, though, the real fun has begun. Nearly
all these trees are in bearing, and a few of them have
borne every year since they were planted out. They
are set only three feet apart in the row, which is not
enough ; and they suffered terribly the first year from
a midsummer attack of aphides ; and the pruning was
neglected to allow them to recover from that scourge,
so that the form was somewhat injured; but they have
never ceased to be a joy to me and a wonderment to
visitors. They are mostly of European varieties, but
Bismarck is the showiest and most fruitful one in the
collection, though far from the best to eat.

PERSONALIA

117

" Then there are standard gooseberries and currants,
of which there is little to be said. They haven't been
there long, but they are at home and are going to stay.

FIG. 43 — DWARF PEAR IN PYRAMID FORM
Two years planted ; author's garden

Next year I am going to put in some gooseberries and
currants in espalier form.

Very few persons know what a medlar is. For the
benefit of the ignorant and to increase the kaleido-

Il8 DWARF FRUIT TREES

scopic effect on my fruit garden, I have some medlar
trees, — Hollandische Monstrose, — which I bought of
Louis Spath, Baumschulenweg, Berlin.

A wire trellis, built much like a grape trellis, only
higher, carries the row of upright cordon apples.
Some of these bore fruit the first year they were
planted, and there has been a fair sprinkling of fruit
every year since then. This has been one of the most
satisfactory lots in the make-up.

There are two rows containing forty-six bush-form
apples on paradise roots set six feet apart. Some of
these have borne every year since planting out, many
cf them showing a good crop this year. Again Bis-
marck is the most fruitful, but the least pleasing to
eat. Alexander has made a good record, and ttw
year Calville d'Automne shows a very pretty crop. It
is customary with visitors, especially those already in-
terested in fruit-growing and those of a practical turn
of mind, to depart with the judgment that "all those
other schemes are curious and interesting, but the
bush form apple trees look the most like business."
I think so too. In fact my experience with dwarf ap-
ples might be summarized by saying, "bush trees for
business, cordons for fun."

One row of peach trees on St. Julien plum roots set
fruit buds in abundance the first year, but they were
killed by the freeze of the following winter. The sec-
ond year the experience was the same, except that the
tops froze with the fruit buds. New tops were grown
at once, however, and the following year nearly every
tree bore a small crop of fruit. Dwarf peach trees
are worth while.

PERSONALIA IIQ

This garden has also a row of cherry trees, includ-
ing Morello, Richmond and Montmorency ; but these
trees were set the second year of the garden making
and have borne only a small crop of sample cherries.

The last planting in this garden consists of one row
of nectarines, twenty-two trees.

This little garden, containing considerably less than
a quarter of an acre of land, has now growing upon
it 548 fruit trees of the kinds named. And I am not
yet done planting. There are various other things that
I want to put in, — quinces, apricots, and perhaps rasp-
berries, dewberries, and other bush fruits. In fact,
I should like to make it a "Paradise" like good old
Gerarde's or Dodoens', in which all the fruits "good
for food or physic" might be brought together and
represented in a little space.

It would be quite wrong to close this experience
meeting without giving the observations and quoting
the opinions of some other and better men. Patrick
Barry, in his delightful "Fruit Garden," recorded his
belief that dwarf fruit trees were well worth while.
"The apple," said he, "worked on the Paradise, makes
a beautiful little dwarf bush. We know of nothing
more interesting in the fruit garden than a row or
little square of these miniature fruit trees. They begin
to bear the third year from the bud, and the same va-
riety is always larger and finer on them than on stand-
ards." Speaking of pears, he said: "On the quince
stock the trees bear much earlier, are more prolific,
more manageable, and consequently preferable for
small gardens."

The late Mr. E. G. Lodeman, who wrote the most

120 DWARF FRUIT TREES

comprehensive American monograph on dwarf apples,
concluded his essay rather pessimistically in these
words: "From all the evidence which I have been
able to collect, therefore, I cannot advise the planting
of dwarf apple trees for commercial rewards, but it
seems to me, nevertheless, that they are worth exper-
imenting with for this purpose." Mr. Lodeman re-
corded and endorsed the common opinion "that apples
grown on dwarf trees are handsomer and of better
quality than those grown upon standards" ; but he
did not seem to consider that fact of much importance.

Those who are acquainted at the Lazy Club in Cor-
nell University, and especially those who know Baili-
wick, have heard of Professor L. H. Bailey's dwarf
apples. (Fig. 44.) These were planted six or eight
years ago, and most of them are now in bearing. There
are a good many different varieties, nearly all French.
My understanding of the scheme is that it was as
much as half intended to be a commercial venture;
but up to the present time little else but confusion and
fun have been gathered with the fruit from those dwarf
apple trees. When last I asked the proprietor for
his experience with dwarf apples he said that he was
having a lot of experience, only he didn't know what
it was.

Dwarf pears have been planted frequently, especially
in Western New York and Michigan. I asked Pro-
fessor S. A. Beach for his observations of them, to
which he replied: "With regard to dwarf pears I will
say that the variety which is most generally grown in
commercial orchards is Bartlett. Almost without ex-
ception this is grown as a standard. Other important

g I

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a i
2 &

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O -
•n w"

S y

gl

122 DWARF FRUIT TREES

commercial varieties are Seckel, Bosc and Winter
Nelis. All these are generally grown as standards.
The variety commonly grown as dwarf is Angouleme.
A few fruit growers of my acquaintance are making
some money from orchards of dwarf Angouleme. The
other varieties which are often propagated on dwarf
stock as Clairgeau, Anjou and so forth, are seldom
profitable. In fact I have heard it stated that outside
of Ellwanger and Barry's orchard there is not a profit-
able orchard of Anjou in this State. From these state-
ments I wish you to derive the conclusion that in New
York State under present conditions there is little en-
couragement for planting dwarf pears commercially."

Mr. E. W. Wood, for many years chairman of the
fruit committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, says that "under the right conditions the dwarf
pear tree is a necessity for commercial pear growing.
The growers in Revere and Cambridge would feel
they could not get along without the dwarf trees.
Putting the pear on the quince stock does not change
the wants of the roots of the latter, and it is no use
setting them on a light, dry soil, as the roots being
confined to a small area of unsuitable soil, will make
a feeble growth and finally die outright; or, if in an
exposed situation, blow over. Most all the varieties
may be grown as dwarfs. The Angouleme and Clair-
geau, both good market varieties, cannot be success-
fully grown in any other way."

Recently Mr, M. B. Waite has written me the let-
ter quoted below, giving some conclusions from his
experience with dwarf pears in Anne Arundel County,
Maryland. He says:

PERSONALIA 123

"I planted out 1,000 dwarf pear trees nine years
ago. They were largely Duchess (Angouleme), but
there are some Manning, Howell, Anjou, Louise
Bonne and Lawrence. I have not been entirely satis-
fied with the results. We have not had the proper
quantity of fruit. There has been some fruit every
year since the fourth year, and two years ago there
was quite a good crop, but nothing to compare with
the yield per acre of Kieffer, LeConte and Garber, for
instance. Of course, these are higher-priced fruit and
large yields are not required for good returns. Only
the Duchess and Manning, however, have produced
sufficient to pay at all, and the orchard has not as
yet really paid financially. We have a nice crop this
year, however, more than the total yield up to this
season, and perhaps from now on we may win out.
My dwarf pears are on a soil too dry and sandy for
the best results, and I think we are at Washington
pretty near the southern limit, at least at low altitudes.
In the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina they
can be grown further southward. They require a
moist, preferably clay-loam soil even in their naturally
favored districts, such as New England, New York
and Michigan, but such a soil is still more desirable
when rather too far south for their normal range. They
require high culture, manuring and fertilizing, and
thorough pruning and spraying in any locality, and
these requirements are still more exacting in Mary-
land. A slight neglect in cultivation, pruning or spray-
ing in one season results in a mass of blooms the next
spring, but little or no fruit set. Of course, this ex-
tra attention which has to be devoted to dwarf pears

124 DWARF FRUIT TREES

as compared with Oriental pears, peaches, apples, etc.,
to be profitable should result in larger yields, but
does not usually do so in this latitude. On the other
hand, we may say in favor of the dwarf pear that the
quince root is a healthy, reliable root for the pear tree ;
that the trees attain their seasonal growth early, and
therefore are not as susceptible to pear blight as stand-
ard pears. Furthermore, they are more easily sprayed,
pruned, and otherwise handled than the high stand-
ard trees."

My friend, Mr. J. W. Kerr, of the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, who owns one of the oldest and most pic-
turesque orchards of dwarf pears I ever saw, says that
Angouleme (Duchess) is the only variety that pays
for growing in that form.

Thus the experience of many men in many parts
of America sums up as we began. The conclusion of
the whole matter seems to be about this : Dwarf fruit
trees have not yet played any prominent role in Ameri-
can commercial horticulture ; but they have been profit-
able in a few special cases, and the probability seems
strong almost to the point of certainty that, with the
development, refinement and specialization of our com-
mercial fruit growing, a wider field of usefulness will
be opened for dwarf trees. In the realm of amateur1
fruit growing, an the other hand, — a realm now daily
widening, — dwarf fruit trees are of capital importance.
The owners and renters of small grounds, the culti-
vators of little gardens — the great majority of Ameri-
can home-makers, in fact, — will find in them an un-
failing source of pleasure, inspiration, and even of
profit.

INDEX

PAGE

Advantages of dwacf trees ... 8

.Apple, propagation of 23

Apples 63

Apples, recommended varieties 72

Bailey, H., quoted 120

Barry's "Fruit Garden". ... 119

Bismarck apple 7

Boundary fences 16

Bush fruits 99

Commercial value 20

Cordon trees 46

Currants lot

Definition of dwarf tree .... I
Designs for fruit gardens

53- 55, 59. 61

Disadvantages of dwarf trees . 18

Double-working 27

Doucin apple 26

Dwarf tree, definition i

Early bearing 8

Erwin, A. T., quoted 29

Expense of dwarf trees .... 18

Fertilizers 54

Fillers in orchards 13

Forms for trees 41

Gooseberries 101

Heading young trees 32

Houses for dwarf fruits .... 107

J. W. Kerr, quoted 124

Lodeman, E. G., quoted .... 119

Longevity of dwarf trees. ... 19

Management of dwarf trees . . 51

Management of trees in pots. . 109

PAGE

Nectarine, propagation of ... 28

Nursery management 31

Paradise apple 24

Peach, propagation of 27

Peaches 83

Pear, propagation of 26

Pears 76

Pears, recommended varieties . 81

Personalia U2

Pinching 35

Plum, propagation of 28

Plums 9°

Plums, recommended varieties 97

Pots for fruit trees 106

Propagation 22

Pruning apple trees 68

Pruning dwarf trees 33

Pruning peach trees 86

Pruning plum trees 92

Pyramid tree 42

Quality of fruit 10

Root pruning 36

Sand cherry 3°

San Jose scale 10

School gardens 15

Selection of varieties 60

Suburban places 12

Tillage 54

Training in special forms ... 33

Trellises for trees 58

V-form trees 44

Uses for dwarf trees 12

Waite, M. B.. quoted 122

Walls and fences 15

Walls for dwarf trees 57

Wood, E. W., quoted 122

125

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