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THE NEW HORTICULTURE

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

University of British Columbia Library

http://www.archive.org/details/newhorticulturOOstri

H. M. STRINGFELLOW

THE NEW
HORTICULTURE

BY

H. M. STRINGFELLOIV

GALVESTON, TEXAS
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR

i8g6

Copyrighted by

H. M. Stringfki.low

1S96

/IRt. iplcagaiit Iprinterv:

, Bock made l.y J. H..raci,- McFarland Company
Harrisbur^, Pa.

PREFACE.

SEVERAL months ago I contributed to Farm and
RancJi, Dallas, Texas, the fruit-growers' organ
for the Southwest, four articles on the best
form of tree for transplanting, as well as the best
preparation of the ground and after-treatment of the
orchard. To these was added an inquiry into the
causes and prevention of pear and apple blight.
Having received quite a number of requests to em-
body the whole in print, I concluded to do so, and
to add in a narrative sort of way some pages from
my own personal experience of thirty years in fruit
and vegetable growing, the whole of which seems to
conta'n enough new points of interest to justify the
title of "The New Horticulture," and to warrant
laying them before my fellow fruit-growers. While
directly applicable, in some of the details and varie-
ties, to the far South only, many of the suggestions
are of general interest all over the country. There
is no doubt that some of them will meet with decided
opposition, but I feel confident that a fair trial will
in the end prove me right in the main. My object
has been to show that some of the principles of hor-
ticulture to-day are wrong, and also to suggest a
more natural; cheaper and better way to grow good
fruit than the laborious and expensive methods now
in use. While in the analysis of manures and de-
struction of insects we have made good progress,

horticulture has not kept up in the procession with
the other arts and sciences, and a little radical shak-
ing up will at least start a spirit of inquiry and
experiment.

And now, before entering upon my task, I wish
to disclaim any pretensions to a set treatise in reg-
ular form. In view of the general information and
the great number of excellent works on the subiect,
it occurred to me that it would be more interesting
to embody the facts, endorsements of them, and
my own observations, in the form of a rambling sort
of personal history, and to do that it has been most
convenient to use very often the personal pronoun
in the first person, for which I hope my readers
will excuse me.

' H. M. S.

Galveston, Texas,
August I, i8g6.

CONTENTS.

Part I.

CHAPTER I. p,,.
How I Became a Horticulturist 13

CHAPTER H.
Early Experiences and Seed-Beds 16

CHAPTER HI.
Fertilizers — Cotton-Seed Meal 21

CHAPTER IV.
Winter and Early Spring Cultivation 31

CHAPTER V.
Cabbage 35

CHAPTER VI.
Cauliflower 38

CHAPTER VII.
The Tomato 41

CHAPTER VIII.
The Onion 46

CHAPTER IX.
Melons and Cucumbers 49

8 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

CHAPTER X.

Page

The Potato 53

CHAPTER XI.
Celery 56

CHAPTER XH.
Lettuce 57

CHAPTER XHI.
Asparagus 58

CHAPTER XIV.
Cow Peas and Other Vegetables 62

Part IL

CHAPTER I.
The New Dispensation 67

CHAPTER II.
Old Primitive Orchards 70

CHAPTER III.
How I Discovered Close Root-Pruning --IS

CHAPTER IV.
Close Root-Pruning 80

CHAPTER V.

tlooT Pruning — How Demonstrated at Washington. . .go

CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER VI. P^GE

Right and Wronc; Close Root-Pkl ning lOO

CHAPTER Vn.
Best Time and Dkpth to Plant 103

CHAPTER Vni.
Deep Preparation Wrong 106

CHAPTER IX.
Cultivation m

CHAPTER X.
Blight 120

CHAPTER XI.
Blight i^i

CHAPTER XII.
Growing Trees from Bearing Ones 141

CHAPTER XIII.
Propagation in Cuttings ih.6

CHAPTER XIV.
Winter Budding icq

CHAPTER XV.
Grafting : j r^

CHAPTER XVI.
Fruit Changed 1!y Pollination jcc

CHAPTER XVII.
Hybridism r.v Gkafting and Budding . . ; 1-58

lO THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

CHAPTER XVIII. p^GE

Dwarfing Trees on Their Own Roots i66

CHAPTER XIX.
Why Trees in Bottoms Never Drown — Aeration 169

CHAPTER XX.
Wrapping Fruit 173

CHAPTER XXI.
Grapes 176

CHAPTER XXII.
The Apple 181

CHAPTER XXIII.
The Pear 189

CHAPTER XXIV.
The Plum 192

CHAPTER XXV.
The Peach 197

CHAPTER XXVI.
Apricots, Figs, Japan Persimmons and Nuts 199

CHAPTER XXVII.
The Strawberry and Other Berries 202

CHAPTER XXVIII.
Conclusion 209

APPENDIX.

More Light from Experience • 214

PART I

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

CHAPTER I.

How I became a Horticulturist.

IN looking back over the past, nothing strikes one more
forcibly than the fact that most of us are literally crea-
tures of circumstance. The most trivial incidents often
break in upon our plans, changing the whole course of our
lives. Never was there a more complete illustration of
this truth than the apparent accident which drew my atten-
tion to horticulture, and finally resulted in developing a most
intense interest, where before there was complete indiffer-
ence. It is an old saying, that the boy is father of the man,
but in many cases, nothing could be farther from the truth.
I am sure I can, and doubtless many of my readers can, recall
instances among their friends, where the future man or wo-
man has turned out to be absolutely no kin at all to the boy
or girl, in all the peculiarities and traits that went to form the
future character.

My own is a case in point, for as a boy, and in fact up to
a certain day in April, 1866, when a young man, I had not
the remotest idea that an ardent love for every form of horti-
culture was slumbering within, which needed but the slightest
spark to kindle. I cannot recall that the sight of any orchard,
garden or flower, in my whole previous life, ever excited the
slightest desire in me to own or grow one like it, or in any
way to work the ground, my whole attention being entirely
devoted to trading in cotton and real estate, until the morn-
ing alluded to in April. Being an ideal spring day, a part}^
of us concluded to spend a few hours fishing from the wharf
here in Galveston, and, seeing a rusty-looking old chap near

14 THE NEW HORTICULTURE

by me drawing out some fine specimens, while I had no suc-
cess at all, with legs dangling over the wharf's edge I inched
along towards him to try and share his luck. The old man
took it very kindly, and gave me a pleasant "good morning,"
from which we soon got well acquainted, and it needed but
little questioning to draw him out. While proud of his skill as
a fisherman, by which he then made his living, he soon let me
know that he was originally cut out for better things than
that. He told how, many years before, on the classic banks
of the Rhine, in a snug little vine-clad home, his eyes first
saw the light of day, and how as a boy, and then man, he
had helped to terrace the rocky hills, and carry the earth from
below in baskets on his back, to make the beds where grew
the grapes that made the sparkling wines of the Rhine, At
first I was much more interested in fish than grapes, for
while I did know the}' grew on vines, I certainly knew no
more, but as the old fellow rambled on, he finally jumped in
his narrative clear over the ocean and landed at Bolivar
Point, across Galveston Bay, where he went on to tell how
he just missed a fortune in grape-growing by a mere scratch.
It seemed that after a life-time of wandering he had saved up a
little money, and bargained for a few acres of land, but need-
ing his cash to buy his vines, had paid nothing on it. The
vines were planted and growing finely in the spring of '6i,
when, alas for the old man's fortune, the war came on. The
big Yankee ships steamed up and down the coast, and finally
into the harbor, and anchored quite near the Point. Now,
while the old fellow was greatly interested in the grape, it was
not the kind they cultivate aboard a man-of-war, so he aban-
doned the place and moved to Houston. When the war ended,
however, he returned to look at his vineyard, but the fence
was all down and the cattle had trampled his poor vines to
death. Disheartened, and having no money to buy more, he
had moved over to Galveston Island shortly before, and so it
happened we met on that bright April morning. While this
is the outline, he filled in with many interesting incidents,
and none more so than the fabulous profits that could be
made on grapes. I do not remember now the vines he put to

HOW I BECAME A HORTICULTURIST. 1 5

the acre, or the pounds to a vine, or the price per pound,
all oa paper, like many another fruit crop, but I do know
that before he got through with his wild, enthusiastic ha-
rangue he had me so excited over grape-growing that I was
prepared to throw cotton and real estate to the winds and
grow grapes galore. And thus while fishing for trout with
shrimps, I was caught myself, with a bait of grapes. Little
did the old man think that day that, like the Apostles of
old, he had turneei out a " fisher of men." Add what, indeed,
are we all but fishermen, wandering along the stream of
life with rods in hand, and hooks baited for each other ?
Whether it be stocks or bonds, cotton or corn, money or love,
we all have baits out for somebody, in which the hooks are as
carefully concealed as those in the shrimp, and, whether by
accident or design, somebody is always being caught.

Well, the time had passed quickly, though the fishing was
bad, and, after thanking the old man for his pleasant chat, I
bade him good-bye, and never saw him again.

In our journey from the cradle to the grave, our paths
crossed but a single time, and )'et in those few hours he had
completely changed the whole course and future of my life.
On ni}' way home, I stopped in the different book stores to
hunt for lore on the grape, and bought the only two books
they had. These were soon at my fingers' ends, and not sat-
isfied with learning something about grapes, a desire sprang
up to know something about all other fruits and flowers as
well, and everything I could find was read. While now com-
pletely infatuated with horticulture (and it is wonderful how
completely it does capture some people), it is doubtful whether
I would ever have made it a business, unless unfortunate spec-
ulations in cotton and real estate, just prior to the storm and
yellow fever epidemic of '67, had decided the question for me.
Those events left me with no bank account against which to
draw, so I concluded at once to follow my inclinations, and
draw on the sand banks of Galveston Island. Just how those
banks will honor a draft, if properly indorsed with manure and
industry, I leave the old vegetable dealers and residents of
the city, who used to visit my home in the West End, to say.

CHAPTER 11.

Early Experiences and Seed-beds.

I WILL now give a few details of my first experiences in
gardening *f or profit, and will ever look back to those
early days as the very happiest of my life. Imagination,
with her undipped wings, ever bore me up, and hopes flut-
tered around as thick as moths over a cabbage patch. Not
yet had I sounded all the mysterious depths of vegetable
arithmetic, or proved by the double rule of three that if one
lettuce plant will bring two cents, it does not necessaril}' fol-
low that 43,500 on an acre at one foot apart will bring $870.
The doubtful propriety of counting chickens before they are
hatched, with the consequent inconveniences often resulting
therefrom, had not yet impressed itself fully on my confiding
mind. To me the world was a vast stomach of unlimited
capacity, and my mission to help fill it, by the aid of a natural
and considerate disposition on the part of all vegetables to
assist, with a minimum of effort on my part.

Soothed and sustained by these pleasant anticipations,
and in blissful ignorance of the festive bug of high and low
degree, as well as the hilarious moth, ever intent on combin-
ing business with pleasure, as she flits from plant to plant, I
set out in my first attempt on two and a-half acres of nearly
pure sand, in the suburbs of the city of Galveston. This
area was increased in a few years to five acres, on which I
soon had a fine little orange grove coming on, as well as a
small vineyard behind the friendly shelter of oleander and
salt cedar trees, which kept off the blighting salt winds.
Here, by continuous and heavy fertilizing and tireless work,
stimulated by intense love for it, I managed, with the high
prices then and for many years prevailing, to make a very
satisfactory success of market-gardening, even though my
bright anticipations were never realized. Starting absolutely

(16)

EARLY EXPERIENCES AND SEED-BEDS. I7

ignorant of every branch of horticulture, and yet with an
ardent love for it, I have always believed that the fair success
I have made was more due to that ignorance than anything
else. In those days there were very few market-gardeners on
Galveston Island, and those here were exceedingly jealous
of each other, so when I started out and went around for
a little friendly information on various points, I found them
literally a lot of know-nothings. This turned out to be the
very stimulus needed to throw me on my own resources, and
compelled me to inaugurate a thorough system of experiments
for myself. So, getting a very large blank-book, as every-
thing was to be learned, I made it a daily rule for fifteen years
to make full notes of the weather, and enter a complete
statement of all the garden operations performed each day,
which turned out to be a most delightful and instructive task,
for in a few years I could strike an average, and know just
when and how each operation should be performed, and prob-
able results.

Taking Henderson's Market-Gardening as my guide, with
proper allowances for climate, I shall ever feel under obliga-
tions for the valuable information contained therein, espe-
cially his earnest advice as to a free, in fact almost extrava-
gant, use of manure. After thirty years in the garden and
orchard, I attribute whatever measure of success has crowned
my efforts more to an apparently reckless style of fertilizing;
than all else combined. Manure means both water and culti-
vation, for I have often seen excellent crops made, even in
grass and weeds, on very rich ground, while clean culture on
that only half fertilized gave a practical failure. Food in pro-
per proportions, not a glut of any one element, but a fairly
complete manure, and in abundance, is the one absolute
essential for the highest success, in the garden as well as the
orchard. Thirty years ago this necessity for a complete ferti-
lizer was not recognized, and especially the need for potash,
for while its use on onions was generally recommended, the
idea seemed to be prevalent that somehow it suited that crop
better than any other. But while, as I have said, I will always
thank Henderson for his injunctions about manuring, he gave

2 — HOKT.

lO THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

another direction that, as far as I know, is still given in the
books, for which I owe him a most serious grudge. The first
edition of his work, "Gardening for Profit," advised that no
matter how long-stemmed (or legged, as we call it) a plant
may be, to set it down to the bud, and gives apparently a very
good reason, for the North; viz., to protect the stem from
freezing and splitting open. Yet I am confident that no
single piece of general advice ever given has caused and still
continues to cause so much loss of plants as that. While I
can only speak from actual experience here, I am sure, under
general conditions, it must be the same elsewhere. For sev-
eral years I regularly had to grow, for the fall crop of cab-
bage and cauliflower, just three times as many plants as I
needed, for fear of accidents, until I found out the trouble.
For several seasons the plants were set as directed, with the
greatest care, and yet in summer and fall, if the stems hap-
pened to be a little long, let a heavy shower fall just after
they were planted, or if set during rain and the plants were
at all sappy and tender, or even if set after a good rain and
down to the bud, invariably a large proportion would damp-
off. In the face of such a positive direction to set to the
bud, I racked my brain to find out the cause, and have to
admit that, after all, it came by pure chance.

We had, one morning early in September, a splendid rain,
and being cloudy all day, we rushed out about twelve-thou-
sand plants after dinner, and kept it up until dark, and when
we knocked off, I happened to have left over a few plants in
my hand. I stopped at the end of a row, and stooping down,
made shallow holes with the end of my finger, and barely in-
serted the roots as deep as they stood before, leaving the en-
tire stems out. That night another fine rain fell, none too
much, that I could see, and yet, in three days, more than half
my plants had damped off at the ground, while every one of
that handful started off to grow.

I saw at a glance the cause of all my past trouble. Simply
burying the tender stems under the ground. While this is so
fatal here in summer and fall, deep planting is equally unde-
sirable in cool weather, especially in spring, when time is

EAKLV EXPERIENCES AND SEED-BEDS.

19

money. No kind of plants thus set, when the ground is
cold, will strike root quickly, or make much growth until
new roots are emitted near the warm surface. I have re-
peatedly proved a difference of ten days, and several times
much more, in favor of those planted just a shade deeper
than they stood before, and then in a few days either drawing
up the earth or la\-ing the stem flat, if long, and covering
with surface-soil. But take him all in all, Peter Henderson
may well be called the father of modern market-gardening in
this country, and few men ever achieve such signal and well-
deserved success in the business as he.

And now, as a successful seed-bed is the foundation of
all profitable market-gardening, I present a form I hit upoii
from necessity, in 1869, which, though adopted now by many
gardeners in this section, I have never seen described in any
book. I found that the green and bud-worms, grasshoppers,
crickets and flea-beetles were so bad on my cabbage plants
that, failing with sprihkling the plants with foreign substanceg

SEED-BED, WITH MOSQL"ITO-NET COVERING.

to kill or drive them off (poisoning being unknown then), it
struck me that prevention was better than cure. So I made
my seed-beds the second summer like common coldframes,
without the ends, as shown in accompanying illustration :

Set up on edge two lo or 12-inch planks as long as the
bed is to be, and about 5 feet apart. Nail small strips from
one to the other, at intervals of about 2 feet, and at each end

20 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

next to the ground, nail a piece of i x 3-inch plank, to which
the ends of the mosquito-bar are to be tacked. Stretch a
bar over the frame after the seeds are sown and covered.
The shade afforded by the mosquito-bar is just what the
young cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, or other seed requires in
summer, though, if at the South, and more is desired, a light
sprinkling of hay, free from weed seeds, for a few days, will
be sufficient. Water can be applied from the sprinkler on
and through the bar, which is not to be removed, except once
for hand weeding, when the plants are half-grown. This
should always be done in the morning or at mid-day, when
the moths are at rest, never late in the evening. This form
of bed and covering will answer perfectly for all kinds of
flower or vegetable seeds to be planted in warm weather or
when glass is not required, and if carefully done, will afford
perfect protection and give nice, clean plants when the time
comes to set. See that the mosquito-bar fits close all around,
and is free from even a small hole, for the ingenuity and per-
ception of moths is simply wonderful, and they will find the
smallest opening, if one be left.

As, next to good, healthy plants, rich ground is of the
utmost importance, I will discuss the subject of fertilizers in
the following chapter.

CHAPTER III.

Fertilisers — Cotton-seed Meal .

WHILE cotton-seed meal is the cheapest and one of the.
best fertilizers for new soils, or those not too much
exhausted of their potash and phosphoric acid, many
people have bad luck with it from a want of knowledge
as to how to apply it. The trouble has been that it is either
used in the hill or drill, fresh, with the seed, or else planting
is done too soon after appl3'iug it to the ground. It should
always be evenly scattered and well mixed with the soil at
least a month ahead, for it not only heats at first, but also
breeds thousands of little maggots in cool weather, that bore
into seeds of ever)^ kind when they sprout, and often into the
stems of cabbage and other tender plants. In hot summer
and early fall weather, decomposition occurs so quickly that
this never occurs. In a month, however, all fermentation is
over, the maggots are dead, and then cotton-seed meal is the
very best and cheapest of all manures for new land in the
coast country. It costs about $i8 per ton, while bone meal
is $28 to $30, and a ton of it will, the first season, produce
more of a crop than two tons of the bone meal.

The latter is a most excellent fertilizer, and either raw, or,
better still, in the form of super-phosphate, will, in the course
of a few years, when the soil has been partially exhausted of
its soluble phosphoric acid by crops, furnish the best supply
of that element. Bone meal is usually too coarse to allow
of more than a very small per centage becoming available
as plant food the first season, and it is poor economy to bury
so valuable a fertilizer a year or two before it can be used by
plants.

Cotton-seed meal contains about 8 per cent, of ammonia,
13^2 per cent, each of potash and phosphoric acid, and as our
lands are well supplied at first with the two latter, even these

(21)

22 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

small percentages will furnish, for most crops, all the mineral
elements needed for some years.

For berries and tomatoes, more potash will brighten the
color and make firmer the fruit of the first, and render that of
the latter less liable to rot. For these two the New Orleans
complete fertilizer, with some potash, and its nitrogen in the
form of nitrate of soda, gave me excellent results, but for a
cheap and valuable all-round manure for general crops and
fruit trees, cotton-seed meal heads the list for new lands.

That ammonia is the element of all others most needed in
this section was plainly demonstrated by the snow last winter.
While the mineral constituents are fixed in the earth, nitro-
gen in the form of ammonia is continually escaping into the
air by the action of fermentation and decay, and constantly
being returned to the soil in rain and snow. We all know
that no watering wih make plants grow like rain, and the
snow is a still more effective ammonia catcher. The differ-
ence between rain and snow in this respect is that the former,
while it brings down ammonia, also in heavy downpours not
only carries off most of it in floods, but actually washes out
much of this very soluble element from the soil itself. Every-
one has noticed how, after excessive rains, even on the best
drained ground, plants seem to stand still. But that snow
came last winter after a three months' drouth, and was slowly
absorbed by the earth, depositing an equivalent of thousands
of tons of cotton-seed meal, and resulted in crops of all
kinds, even on fresh broken sod, that fairly astonished all the
older settlers. We must not delude ourselves into the belief
that a repetition of such a yield is likely to occur the coming
season on ground poorly prepared. Better trust to thorough
stirring and cultivation, with a judicious application of fertil-
izers for the most valuable crops, than another snowfall from
the clerk of the w^eather I

But while ammonia is most required at first, there comes
the time, in a few ^ears, when lands from which continuous
crops have been taken will require an addition of more of the
mineral elements also. No analysis will tell this as effectively
as the plants themselves. In fact, the great difficulty of

FERTILIZERS COTTON-SEED MEAL. 23

determining the exact amount of plant food in a soluble or
available condition for immediate use, renders all soil analy-
ses of little practical value, as compared with actual experi-
ments that can be made by everyone for himself in a single
season. Whenever the tomato runs to vine and makes little
fruit, it is a plain call for phosphoric acid, or if the fruit rots
at the blossom end, it shows that potash is wanted. If the
strawberry leaves begin to spot considerably, and the lower
ones to dr}' up, or cabbages when half grown burn around the
edges and also dry up or shed their lower leaves, and particu-
larly when the plants assume a pale, yellowish green tinged
with red, after rain or cold, and fail to head well, unless there
is some local cause, such as bad drainage, it may be set down
as certain that potash is required. When this element is
present in abundance, cabbage leaves are always of a rich,
dark green.

But there is no plant that indicates a poverty of potash
in the soil like the watermelon. The saying, "new ground
for watermelons," is as old as the hills. What I have now to
say pertains to all soils, but is particularly applicable to the
sandy land of Bolivar Point and Galveston Island. As
is well known, these are much lighter than the mainland,
and have no clay subsoil, and, consequently, little potash.
The main spring crop for money on these warm, early soils
is the watermelon, and the growers are in tribulation over
the gradual deterioration for several years, and almost fail-
ure last summer, of all the melons on old lands, although
well manured in the hill with rich compost.

The trouble is what may be called the "die back." The
plants generally start well and make a good growth for awhile,
but when the melons begin to set, or perhaps are half-grown,
a shoot on one side will wither away and die. Then another
will go, and if the whole hill does not die out the vines make
poor growth, the melons are small and of very poor quality,
and the roots are alive with a minute little wriggler, known
as the "eel worm." While I never saw a sample of the
Bolivar worm, I recognized in the descriptions of him and
his work, an old acquaintance that I made the third year of

24 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

my gardening experience on Galveston Island, though I never
knew him by that name.

When, in 1868, I first went into the gardening business, I
had but five acres at the corner of Forty-fifth street and Ave-
nue N, and knew absolutely nothing about the business. In
those good old days of little gold but lots of greenbacks,
nothing sold like melons, cabbage and cauliflower. Anything
less than $10 per dozen for good lots of either, if moderately
early, was not thought of, and when a few years later the
price dropped to $4 and $5 per dozen, we all cried out that
we were positively being robbed. Arming myself with Hen-
derson's "Gardening for Profit," I determined to grow noth-
ing but melons in spring, and cabbage and cauliflower in the
fall, at least as long as I could. In May, 1868, I turned my
first acre, breaking that year only one block of two and a-half
acres. After plowing and harrowing several times, the ques-
tion arose as to the best manure for my first venture. I had
studied Henderson until I knew him by heart, and while he
had excellent words for pure bone flour (not coarse meal),
his recommendation of 1,200 pounds per acre of the genuine,
old-time, 12 per cent, ammonia and 25 per cent, phosphoric
acid Peruvian guano, struck my fancy most. When a boy I
had seen spring up, almost as if by magic, most wonderful
crops of wheat from the worn-out fields of old Virginia, when
only a few hundred pounds per acre were applied, and my
expectations were on tiptoe to see what 1,200 pounds would
do. So, without further debate, I ordered my seed from
Henderson, and the $100 gold per ton Chinca Island Peruvian
guano, the supply of which gave out years a^o, from Mapes,
of New York.

In August I measured off an acre that was well prepared,
scattered 1,200 pounds as evenly as I could, harrowed it in,
having already sowed my cabbage seed. Shortly after a
splendid rain fell, and taking advantage of it, about the first
of September I set this acre down with cabbage. Nearly
every plant lived, and though the green worms were bad, the
season was so favorable, and the growth so rapid, that little
damage was done, and in November I began to market a crop

FERTILIZERS COTTON-SEED MEAL. 25

that I never saw equaled but once, and that was in 1876, of
which more anon.

Only the man who has a genuine love for gardening can
appreciate my feelings when I went out, on clear, calm morn-
ings, to watch the first rays of the sun gleam down the long
rows of great plants, with their ten and fifteen-pound heads,
as regular as pig tracks down a lane, and nestling in a wilder-
ness of rich, dark leaves, silvered over with the sparkling dew.
That I had the "world by the tail and a down-hill pull," I felt
sure, and I did for a few years, only to find out later on that
the pull was the other way, and I couldn't let go.

Well, the cabbage was cleared off at the biggest kind of
prices, and the whole block planted down in spring to the
old-time red-seed and white-rind "island" melon, and as an
experiment, for I began experimenting then, and have never
quit to this day, I - manured the balance of the 2^ acres
with barnyard manure in the hills only. While this turned
out to be a first-class experiment, it cost heavily, as the yield
in size and number of melons on the cabbage ground far
exceeded that on the other. This was due to the great
amount of fruit-producing element, phosphoric acid, left over
from the guano on the former. As we all know, that element,
potash and nitrogen, commonly known in the form of ammo-
nia, are the three main constituents of plants, and the only
elements of plant food it ever becomes really necessary to
supply. While lime also enters largely into their composi-
tion, it is found so abundant in all soils except pure sand
that its use, except on ground made over-rich for years with
barnyard manure, is unnecessary. As a corrective of what is
known as humic acid in such soils, it is very valuable, and,
with an application of hardAvood ashes, would regenerate the
flower and vegetable gardens of Galveston City and Island,
many of which have been dosed to death with animal ma-
nures.

While this digression may seem to have no connection
with the eel worm, it has, most intimately, and, to bring it out
more clearly, a few further remarks in the same line are nec-
essary. While ammonia, potash and phosphoric acid, with

26

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

lime, form the bulk of plants as a whole, the three former, to
a large extent, play distinct parts in their development, and
an abundance of all is absolutely necessary to healthy foliage
and full crops of fruit. The office of ammonia is chiefly to
make growth, phosphoric acid to make fruit, while potash
heightens the color and quality of the fruit, and contributes
most largely to the general health of all plants. Just in pro-
portion as one or the other of these elements is lacking in
soils, will there be a deficiency in the corresponding particu-
lar. Everyone has noticed that a heavy dressing of stable
manure, with its ammonia, will make tomatoes, for instance,
run all to vine, and continued applications "burn" anything
it is put around.

Now, at the time I write of, I did not know all this, and
especially the office of and need of potash. Nor, in fact, did
anybody else know it. Peter Henderson and every farmer
knew that the continued use of guano would "burn," barn-
5^ard manure in excess produce club-root, bone meal fail in
its effect if used continuously, stable manure cease to produce
healthy crops if applied in succession on the same ground,
and so on, but the only distinct recognition of the value of
potash as a fertilizer thirty years ago was for onions. All the
writers on gardening invariably noted that onions could be
grown year after year successfully on the same ground, and
farther on the remark always followed : "Ashes are a special
manure for onions."

But to the balance of my story. Year after year, in continu-
ally increasing quantities, I applied first one and then another
of the above manures, except potash, including nitrate of
soda, all abounding in ammonia and phosphoric acid, but,
with the exception of a small amount in stable manure,
entirely deficient in potash. Beginning with the third year,
my cabbage and cauliflower commenced to spot and shed
their lower leaves when half grown, split open and rot in the
stems, the tomatoes went mostly to vine, and the fruit rotted
badly at the blossom end, the melons set less fruit and failed
to grow large, and the vines took the "die back" and eel
worm, an almost microscopic little creature that infests both

FERTILIZERS — COTTON-SEED MEAL. 1^

melon and egg-plant roots in great numbers when grown on
ground deficient in potash, as Galveston Island and Bolivar
sandy soil necessarily become after several crops have been
taken off. On clay soils a year or so of rest, and the plowing
in of peas or grass, will turn loose more potash, but on pure
sandy soils there is little more on hand.

So, there I was, with a good home, then increased to five
acres, and pleasant surroundings, but my ground "played
out." This state of things culminated in 1875, and I was
thinking seriously of hunting some new ground, when one
morning, in passing a powder house, situated near my back
fence, I saw the door open, and looking in found old Colonel
McKeen, then in business on the Strand and agent for a
northern powder company. With him were several gentle-
men, who were discussing the best method of getting rid of
the large lot of damaged powder in the house. The high
water of that year had wet some, and the dampness injured
all of it considerably, and Colonel McKeen was just saying
that the best thing to do was to dump the whole lot into the
gulf. Knowing the composition of powder, and that 75 per
cent, was pure nitrate of potash, the most expensive and valu-
able of fertilizers, I offered at once to save them the drayage,
if they would give it to me. While evidently wondering what
I intended to do with it, they gladly accepted my offer, and
turned me over the keys and about five tons of blasting and
gunpowder.

I had it hauled away at once, and on knocking in the heads
of the kegs found most of it apparently as good as ever.

We prepared about four acres, and in a few days, to the
astonishment of my neighbors, I was sowing powder at the
rate of i^ tons per acre, the costliest, from a money stand-
point, and probably the most excessive application as a fer-
tilizer ever made on ground. Each ton of powder contained
about 800 pounds of ammonia and 700 pounds of pure pot-
ash, and as cotton-seed meal has but 160 pounds of ammonia
and 30 pounds of potash to the ton, it will be seen what a
waste it was. However, as it cost nothing, and was danger-
ous to keep, I put it all on.

28 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

After harrowing in well, the ground was thrown up into
3-foot ridges, and in August the four acres were set with cab-
bage and cauliflower, at the rate of 7,000 to the acre, giving
a total of 28,000 plants. The growth was extraordinary, and
not a spotted leaf or diseased plant in the whole lot, from
first to last. I never before or since saw such heads, and
many of the older members of the Cotton Exchange will
remember, that when they occupied the old building on
Strand, near Twenty-first, I exhibited on their floors, for sev-
eral weeks, in half-barrels, three giant cauliflowers and three
cabbages, taken up with balls of earth, the smallest head of
which, when stripped of the outer leaves, weighed 17 pounds,
and several, both of the cauliflower and cabbage, weighed 20
pounds, and were as large as a half-bushel measure.

The winter was very mild, and the whole crop was sold on
the grounds, netting considerably over $6,000, after which
the four acres were planted to melons, and the crop was equally
fine, and not a sick plant, where the eel worm and "die back"
were plentiful before.

Here, then, was the secret of "played out" and diseased
soil. Simply a want of that great tonic of the vegetable sys-
tem, potash.

I had for years been applying heavy doses of ammonia
and phosphoric acid, while the sandy soil had been drained
of its potash, resulting in diminished and diseased crops.
From then until 1883, when I left the island, I invariably
applied the muriate of potash at first, and after the oil mill
was established, cotton-seed hull ashes, which I got then,
load for load of sand, and though cabbage was planted regu-
larly every year, and twice a spring and fall crop were grown
on the same ground, I was never troubled with diseased cab-
bage or melons again.

Just how potash works I cannot say. Whether it actually
destroys the bacteria of fungous diseases, and such minute
pests as the eel worm, which is exceeding small, or whether
it simply gives health and vigor to the plants themselves,
strengthening and hardening the tissues of both leaves and
roots, and thus enabling them to resist attack, I leave for

FERTILIZERS COTTON-SEED MEAL. 29

Others to determine. The result is what we want, and I am
satisfied that if the island and Bolivar growers, and others
with old soil, will use potash freely, such trouble will not
occur again, here or elsewhere.

If hull ashes, containing 30 per cent, potash, and about 8
per cent, phosphoric acid, could be obtained pure, there is no
better supply, but the mills now have such ready sale for the
hulls that they find it does not longer pay to burn them, and
when they do, it is often in conjunction with coal. But, both
the muriate and sulphate of potash can be obtained from the
German Kali Works, 93 Nassau street. New York, who also
publish a valuable pamphlet on their use, and send it free on
application. Just how little of either will do I cannot say,
as I always applied the ashes freely, but as 50 per cent, of
both muriate and sulphate is pure potash, about 300 or 400
pounds per acre ought to answer. Experiments on a small
scale should be made with from 200 to 500 pounds. The
muriate is mostly used at the North, but our agricultural and
mechanical station, if I remember aright, found the sulphate
to give the best results. It should always be broadcasted as
evenly as possible, and well mixed with the soil. Both the
hull ashes and the chemicals should be used with great care
in the hills with seed. The safe plan would be to scatter
broadcast. Use no animal manure or compost for melons
where plants have shown disease before, but as a starter, a
few handfuls of bone meal, or the New Orleans fertilizer, now
being used largely on the mainland with fine success for
tomatoes and berries, should be worked into the hills, if un-
able to fertilize the whole ground.

And now, in closing my remarks on fertilizers, I would call
attention to the fact that while top-dressing seems to be gen-
erally recommended at the North, and may be useful there,
this practice ruined several crops of vegetables and straw-
berries for me before I found out the danger of it here.
All fertilizers should be applied before the crops are planted,
and thoroughly mixed with the soil, especially in spring and
early summer. I would much rather trust to poor soil than
resort to this method at those seasons. For cabbage and

30 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

cauliflower in fall, it is admissible, if those greedy crops show
the need of it, but it is almost certain ruin to a strawberry
crop in this section. It invariably induces the roots to come
to the surface, and any extreme of either wet or dry will
bring out what is commonly known as "rust." Of course,
these remarks apply to annual crops only, and not to orchards,
which should be fertilized on the surface about the time
growth starts in spring, and not in the fall.

CHAPTER IV.

Winter and Early Spring Cultivation.

THE general directions for cultivating all crops are to stir
the soil repeatedly, which, while excellent advice under
certain conditions and at certain times, is very bad
advice at others. We all know the benefits from such treat-
ment in hot weather, when the little clods and loose soil shade
and keep the earth cool, as well as break the capillary attrac-
tion and retain the moisture. But there are times and places
where this is just what we do not want. All through the
lower Gulf states, where winter gardening is practiced, the
ver}' opposite from the above is the proper treatment, and
thousands of dollars are wasted annually at that season in
worse than useless cultivation. What is sauce for the goose
is also sauce for the gander, and winter cultivation not only
very greatly reduces the temperature of the earth itself, but
after heavy rains the stirred soil, acting like a sponge, retains
more water than is needed, thus reducing the temperature
and checking growth. The toper's theory of drinking whis-
key in summer to keep cool, and in winter to keep warm,
will not work in this case.

The truth is, the same results follow cultivation, both in
summer and winter, and the effect in each is to shade the
ground and prevent the absorption of heat b}^ the surface
during the day, as well as to increase radiation from freshly
stir'-ed ground at night. Every one knows that smooth, firm
ground will heat up much more quickly and intensely in sum-
mer, and should be stirred ; but in winter at the South, and
early spring both South and North, as heat is absolutely nec-
essary to plant growth, and the ground is damp and cold, the
proper thing then is to leave the surface smooth and firm
until later on, when the earth warms up. If some one ob-
jects that plants left thus can get no air to the roots, the

32 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

answer is that air is in no way necessary or beneficial to the
roots of plants or trees, this being another of the ancient fal-
lacies handed down from the past. Nothing is more injurious
to roots than air. Exposed to it, they always suffer at once.
I can say from extensive and repeated practice, that in cool
fall, winter and early spring weather, the less the soil is
stirred about growing plants the better.

Hand picking of weeds around young melons, cucumbers
or other early crops while small will pay well, or if hoed,
simply scrape the surface as lightly as possible. If any one
doubts these facts, let him work a small space deeply in early
spring, and the next sunny day sink a thermometer into it,
and then place it in a hole dug to the same depth on clean,
smooth ground along-side. It is surprising how much warmer
the latter will be, and warmth means growth. After a heavy
rain the difference will be much more marked, when, as noted
above, deep, loose soil retains water and chills the ground.

As illustrating the value of letting well enough alone, a
clipping from a neighboring paper, the Alvin Sun, published
on the 14th of February, 1896, is appended :

" T. M. Savel brought to our office this week a head of cabbage
that measured in circumference 58 inches, and weighed 18 34^ pounds.
It has been growing in the patch all the winter, and the ground was
well fertilized with barnyard manure ; but, strange to say, was never
stirred around it, or the rest of the patch, but once, when young ;
and he has lots more nearly as large."

The knowledge of this truth about cultivation in cool
weather has been worth a great deal of money to me in the
past, as I was thus often able to surprise my first, last and all-
the-time-cultivating neighbors by bringing in the first early
truck. I learnt it, however, as we do most things of value,
by a severe experience, which I will now give.

Soon after I began gardening I had, one spring, a splen-
did stand of cucifmbers and cantaloupes with the third leaf
nicely out. Being very busy, the ground had not been stirred
around them, though the beds were clean. A smart Aleck
came along and insisted that it was a shame to neglect such a
beautiful patch (and they really were fine, the ground being
very rich); so to do the proper thing, I concluded to work

WINTER AND EARLY SPRING CULTIVATION. 33

them myself, for fear my hired man would not do them full
justice. Arming myself with a pronged hoe; I went at it with
a will, and by night had all but one row nicely forked up
quite deeply. While it nearly broke my heart to think that
the poor little plants in that last row had to go neglected
another night, still it could not be helped, as it was actually
too dark to work any longer. But about daylight a heavy
soaking rain fell for two hours, and I lay there thinking how
those plants would grow, and felt more sorry than ever for
those poor little fellows in the packed ground, who got no
working. The sun shone out warm and clear in the morning,
but a cold north wind came up later, and that night the ther-
mometer went to thirty-eight degrees, but no frost. The
ne.xt day was bright and warm, but instead of growing off
rapidly, as I expected they would, the last one of the worked
plants, after turning a sickly yellow for a few days, laid down
and died, while not one of the unworked row was damaged
at all. The result was, that I finally made more clear money
from that one row than all the balance that had to be replanted.

The reason was plain. The deep, loose soil held the cold
water like a sponge around the roots, giving chilly feet, while
the warm sunshine made their heads too hot. That is good
for neither man nor plant, and from that day to this I never
worked another heat-loving plant deeply again in early spring,
and have, moreover, just finished, this 14th day of February,
marketing the last of a crop of very fine lettuce on very rich
ground, that has never had an hour's work since it was
planted, in December.

I append, as bearing on the subject in connection with
trees, as well as vegetables, an extract from Farm and Ranch,
by Mr. H. B. Hillyer, a thoughtful and progressive horticul-
turist of this state, who makes these remarks in a friendly
criticism of an article by me :

***** "But friend Stringfellow's articles have set us all to
thinking, and the oldest will do well to read and ponder them.
Farmers have long known that if you plow to-day a few rows or less
in a corn field, and at night a frost comes on, the corn well plowed
will every stalk be killed, while the unplowed will escape unhurt,
and often does, especially if deeply planted.

3 — HORT.

34 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

"Bat how about an orchard? My soil is light, black prairie,
partly covered with live oak and mesquite. My orchard proper is
young. This is its third year, and hence I am cultivating three rows
of potatoes or corn in the middles. This leaves the trees on the
middle of an eight-foot bed that has not been plowed. The past two
weeks we had two frosts, thermometer barely to thirty-two degrees.
I have thirty varieties of peaches in my orchard. Excepting some
Alexanders next to the cow lot, the fruit is entirely destroyed ; apri-
cots also.

" In one of my chicken yards, which has never been cultivated, I
have five peach trees and plum trees, all in full bloom. I never saw
heavier crops of fruit, and but little damage by frost. If we have
no more frost I will have to unload the trees to fully one-half.
Moreover, these same trees last year bore heavy crops, despite the
cold weather, that destroyed almost the entire fruit crop of all this
section. In my yard I have five peach trees, one Prutius Stmoni, one
quince, three pear trees and several plums not at all injured by the
frost. These all bore heavily last year except the pear and quince,
which are too young yet to bear, and are again full. Two neigh-
bors had plowed their orchards and lost all their fruit ; one neighbor
had not plowed, and his fruit is but little injured.

" Is not this an object lesson well worthy of our serious study ?
From it I would deduce the following rule for cultivation : Never
put a plow into the orchard until all danger of frost is over.

"Now, don't understand me to say that frost or freeze cannot
destroy the fruit on non-cultivated trees, but only that an orchard
freshly plowed is far more susceptible to freeze and frost than un-
plowed soil. My orchard was plowed at least three weeks before the
frost, for the Irish potatoes were just beginning to come up.

"Live, study, learn!"

The true cause of the plowed trees losing their fruit was
the loss of a large quantity of their surface feeding-roots, up-
on which the setting and development of the fruit largely
depend.

CHAPTER V.

Cabbage.

THIS is a most important crop everywhere, and in the
Gulf States the seed for the early fall crop should
be sown in July, in a frame, under a mosquito-bar, as
described elsewhere. After the seeds are planted, the mos-
quito-bar must be stretched very carefully, so as to leave no
possible opening for the moths to creep in, which they will
surely do if given half a chance. Shade the bed with hay or
some covering on top the bar until the plants come up, when
most of it must be removed, leaving just enough to afford a
light shade until the third leaf is out, after which it may all
be removed. The bed should be watered right through the
bar once every day or so, until the plants get strong, and this
can be done with perfect safety any time of the day, even at
noon, though the general but erroneous idea is, that water at
such times will scald the plants. We know that rain often
falls when the sun is shining, or comes out hot a few minutes
after it, and no harm results.

An ounce of seed will produce about two thousand plants,
but it is well to provide seed enough, in case of failure, and
a new seed-bed should be sown in about two weeks, for fear
of accidents. The plants can always be sold, if not needed.
The ground should be heavily fertilized and well prepared
at least a month ahead, throwing it up in quite high ridges,
which will retain the moisture and allow of knocking off the
tops when ready to plant. I will again repeat, that in all the
level gulf-coast country everything should be planted well up,
for excessive rains are liable to come at any time, and that
means absolute ruin on flat, level ground. The plants can
be set as soon as large enough. If dry at the time of plant-
ing set them shallow, pressing the earth down firmly, so as
to leave a depression into which about a pint of water can be

^35'

36 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

poured, but by no means fill the hole up with soil for several
days, until the plants take root, after which the earth can be
drawn in and around the stems, and damping-off be thus obvi-
ated. Cultivate well during October, but after a good rain
that month, let the ground alone, so that the surface roots can
form and help push the plants along during the many cool
days of fall, as noted elsewhere on winter cultivation.

If the green worms appear, and they surely will, go over
the plants, when the dew is on them, with a powder bellows
with flour and just enough Paris green to color it. If sifted
just before using, the flour will scatter much more readily.
This application will kill the worms, and does no harm, for
all the first leaves of ever}' cabbage are gone long before the
head appears ; besides, the rain will soon wash it off. This
dose may have to be repeated, though usually one good appli-
cation is sufficient for plants on rich ground — and no other
should be used for cabbage — and the plants will grow rapidly
ahead of the worms after cool weather sets in. If, when
headed in November and December, the heads show signs of
bursting, go over and pull gently all such plants until the
strong roots crack, and let them settle back, when growth
will be checked and the head only get the harder.

Seed for the winter crop should be sown in October and
set in November, and if we miss a heavy freeze, as we have
this year, and often do, these plants will make the largest
heads in the year. For spring planting, sow in December, in
cold-frames, to be protected by glass or oiled cloth, and set
the last of January, on well prepared ridges thrown up at
least a month before, so that the ground will be clean and
free from cut-worms. If seeds are sown here in spring, there
is rarely a market for the product, as the gardeners farther
up in the interior plant at that time, and a glut usually fol-
lows. Before leaving this subject, I must call attention to a
very erroneous notion which many growers entertain, and that
is, that if the central, original bud of the plant is eaten out
by a worm or other insect, that plant will not head, a side
shoot being useless for that purpose. Thousands of plants
are annually pulled up after getting a good start, and others

I CABBAGE. 37

put* in their places, by growers ignorant of the fact that one
bud is just as good and sure to head as another, if all but
one shoot is rubbed off.

As to varietiiss, of course locality and soil will decide this
largeh, but the extra early kinds are of no value in the far
South, as the market is well supplied in early fall with north-
ern cabbage. The old Fottler's Brunswick was my favorite
for years. It makes a very large, hard, flat head, but is not
quite as hardy for January weather as the common Flat
Dutch and Drumhead varieties of selected strains. The
Fottler and Earl)' Summer are excellent for spring, though
the latter is hardly large enough for a market cabbage. The
Winnigstadt and other pointed kinds are not popular at the
South, and do not stand the heat in spring as well as the flat
kinds.

CHAPTER VI.

Cauliflower.

SOUTH TEXAS, especially near the coast, is admirably
adapted to this vegetable as a fall crop, but it is entirely
useless to undertake its growth here in spring. No mat-
ter how good the seed or rich the ground, the flowers will be
loose and open, and of small size. The cauliflower likes a
gradually decreasing temperature, as in the fall. It should
be sowed at the same time and treated exactly like cabbage
in every respect, and is quite as easy to grow, except that if
the center bud or heart is destroyed by any insect, the plant
rarely sends up a new one, though occasionally from near the
ground, a new sprout will start, but so late that it pays bet-
ter to pull it up and replant. The most important point for
success, next to very rich ground, is the right variety of seed.
When Henderson first introduced his Snowball cauliflower,
now so well and favorably known, I paid him $io per ounce
for several years, and made big money by it, for the heads
were by far the finest in the market, and brought fancy prices.
As showing the intrinsic value of first-class cauliflower seed,
the Henderson Snowball is still held by that firm at $4 per
ounce, and is cheaper, really, at that than most of the cauli-
flower seed would be as a gift. There is no early variety
equal to it, but there is a large amount of so-called Snowball
seed that is of no value at all.

After setting out as directed for cabbage, the plants should
be well cultivated until half grown and the weather begins to
get cool, after which the ground should not be again dis-
turbed. I state this as an absolute fact, after years of experi-
ments. While cabbage can be preserved through the winter
at the north and put upon the market as demand requires, it
is not so with cauliflower. After heading, it is impossible to
store the crop away long for future use, consequently there

(38)

CAULIFLOWER. 39

should always be a good winter demand for this vegetable up
there, and there is no good reason why the coast country of
Texas should not ship in car-load lots to northern cities at a
fair profit, after their crops are gone. The cauliflower will
stand uninjured a temperature of twenty-five degrees, and
younger plants, not yet showing the flower, a little lower.
When the flower is three or four inches in diameter, several
of the surrounding leaves should be broken down over it to
exclude the light, which turns its creamy color to a dull
yellow.

The ground can scarcely be made too rich for this crop,
and should always contain a full supply of potash and salt.
The latter is a special addition for both cauliflower and cab-
bage, and should never be omitted, for though it does not
seem to stimulate growth at all, it is for certain plants a won-
derful tonic, so to speak. It gives to both the above-men-
tioned ones a rich, dark green color, and also very greatly
thickens the leaves and enables them to stand much more
cold. Cultivating, as I did for many years, ground that was
occasionally partly overflowed by the gulf, I had full oppor-
tunity to study its effects, arid know that salt will render these
plants more hardy as well as healthy. While not a full sub-
stitute with them for potash, it acts very much like it. It will
pay well to apply i,ooo pounds per acre for these crops, while
beets, carrots, ruta-bagas and kohl-rabi are also greatly ben-
efited by its presence in the ground. Tomatoes, melons,
cucumbers, corn, squash and lettuce have no use at all for it.
In applying, mix well with the soil some time before planting,
or it can be top-dressed without damage, after the plants get
well off to growing, and with equally as good effects if rain
falls to carry it in.

In growing cauliflower plants, make a frame with mos-
quito-bar, as for cabbage, but as the seeds are so costly, in-
stead of raking in, it is better to sow in very shallow drills,
or else broadcast rather thinly, to give stout plants, and after
watering, cover lightly by hand with fine soil, and shade.
The seed will not stand quite as deep covering and come well
as cabbage. In this section from the first to the last of July

40 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

is the proper time to sow the seed for the fall crop, but those
who are willing to gamble with the clerk of the weather, can
continue to plant through August and September, and often
win, as was the case this season. However, for the later
plantings, the Italian Autumn Giant varietjs sold by Frot-
scher, of New Orleans, is more hardy, though the flowers are
not so handsome. I have had heads of that variety in Feb-
ruary and March that weighed fifteen to twenty pounds, as
for instance, those exhibited at the Cotton Exchange in this
city. I again repeat, plant this crop on a good, high ridge
in all level locations.

CHAPTER VII.

The Tomato.

TTTHILE the general belief is that the tomato does best
y\/ on only moderately manured land, this depends en-
tirely on what kind of manure is used. My expe-
rience has been that ground can hardly be made too rich in
phosphoric acid and potash, though undoubtedly a surplus
of ammonia will cause the vines to grow too rank and fruit
sparingly, as well as make the tomatoes rot at the blossom
end. And now, a few points to beginners about growing the
plants. While hotbeds are necessary farther north, here a
coldframe is all that is needed. Nothing is gained by sow-
ing the seed before January ist to 15th, as it is always
very risky to set out in the open ground before the loth
to the 2oth of March, and the ground is usually too cold to
stimulate growth if set before. Make a well pulverized,
rich bed, about one foot above the surface, on well drained
ground, and large enough to hold a plank frame of 1x6-
inch stuff 3x6 feet, or the proper size to fit the sash. A
frame of that size will easily hold 3,oco plants from the
seeds, which should be sown quite thickly, then watered
well and covered thinly and evenly by sprinkling soil over
them. Put on the sash, and keep down until the seeds
are up nicely, when the back should be raised slightly every
sunny day, to give air. Now make up a larger bed and frame
at once, to hold what plants it is intended to set outside for
the crop, and be sure to have it on clean ground, free of cut-
worms. Old barnyard manure is excellent to fertilize with,
though fine bone meal is also good. But use no cotton-seed
meal unless applied a month before. Having raked fine and
smooth, lay off rows both ways Avith a long, straight-edged
strip pressed on the soil, and let them be about four or five
inches apart each way. This will, afford room enough, if sash

(41)

43

THE NEW HORIICULTURE.

are scarce, provided the plants have the buds nipped out
when five or six inches high, which should always be done
to make them stocky. Afterwards, as they grow larger, it is
well to clip off some of the older leaves, which will give more
air and room. After the lines are drawn, set a plant at each
intersection, and be sure to have the rows straight and at
equal distances apart, so when the plants are nearly ready to
go out, a large case or butcher knife can be drawn deeply
from one side of the frame to the other each way between the
rows. This is to be done a week before planting in the open
ground, and a good watering given just after. The effect of
this will be to start a multitude of fine, hair roots in the squares
whereon stand the plants. In three days run the knife again,
and in a few days more the front board of the frame can be
taken out and a sharp spade run under the plants about
three inches deep, when they will come up with nice, firm
balls of earth, and hardly know they were moved.

In preparing the ground for the crop, it should always be
plowed in the fall, if possible, and kept clean through the
winter in this warm climate, where the cut-worm moths are
often active even then, and are sure to lay their eggs near the
young weeds and grass if the ground is foul. Then in Janu-
ary scatter about 600 pounds of cotton-seed hull ashes, 30 per
cent, potash, and the same quantity of ammoniated super-
phosphate, broadcast, per acre. This should be plowed in,
throwing the ground up into five-feet beds, with a deep furrow
between. Along in the bottoms and on the sides of the fur-
rows a second dressing of the phosphate must be scattered,
and then the beds plowed back as deeply as possible on these
furrows, and a light harrow passed once over each bed to
smooth it down. The ground is now ready for the plants,
which should be set about the middle of March, three feet
apart in the rows and but little deeper than before. Water-
ing is not necessary for plants grown as directed, at the time
of planting, unless the ground is very dry, which will never
be the case if prepared ahead, as advised. But if the weather
continues dry, a moderate watering a week after planting,
with five pounds nitrate of soda to fifty gallons of water, will

THE TOMATO. 43

Start a rapid growth. When the plants begin to bloom, run
around them lightly with the plow, throwing the entire bed
up a second time, leaving a high, warm ridge, perfectly
drained, upon which the fruit can lie without rotting. One
hoeing around the plants, and one or two cultivatings, will
make the crop, running the plow or sweep in the furrows
after each one to open it out clean.

And here, as elsewhere through this book, I must urge all
growers in the level coast country of Texas to plant all crops
on well raised beds or ridges. While on high, rolling land
flat culture may do, I believe that for early spring planting all
through this coast country, the ridge system is the safest and
best. While the general impression is that plants on a level
will stand drouth the best, I have found scarcely any differ-
ence on rich ground, even in dry spells, but if heavy rains
occur, flat planting simply means ruin. The hot sun on a
saturated, loose, flat soil, even for a few hours, will furnish the
conditions for the development of rust or burning, as well as
rot in the fruit. On high, broad beds, as herein advised,
staking of the plants is not necessary, as the surface quickly
dries off after rains, and very few of the tomatoes that rest
upon the ground will rot. I made a fair trial of growing to
a single stake and stem, with pinching back of laterals, but
growth here is so rapid and strong on rich ground, that the
method involves too much labor, nor is there any material
advantage in earliness. I omitted to say that after the plants
are set out, if the stems are a little long it is a good plan to
peg them down, all one way, with two cross sticks, to prevent
damage from whipping winds. This is excellent for egg-
plants, also, which and sweet peppers should be grown from
the seed and treated in the frames just as the tomatoes were.
If a freeze seems inevitable after the plants are set out, take
a spade full of pulverized surface soil and gently slide it on
the plants from the bottom of the stem up, pressing the plants
down, and if too large to cover entirely, and the exposed tops
are killed, cut them off at orce, remove the covering of earth,
and the plants will quickly renew themselves.

The only insect that troubles tomatoes in this section is

44 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

the Spanish tiy or bhster beetle, the boll worm, so destructive
in Mississippi and elsewhere, not yet having done serious
damage. About the last of May, the time the Spanish fly
may be looked for, it is well to go over the patch early every
morning, as they invariably fly at night, and always settle in
a bunch over a few plants at first. They can then be easily
driven into the furrows and covered with earth by the spade
and tramped ; or, if two teaspoonfuls of Paris green are well
stirred in a bucket of water and sprayed over the few affected
plants, most of the flies will eat and die.

As to picking, packing, etc., it is hardly necessary to say
more than that it always pays to put good, sound fruit of uni-
form size and ripeness in the same box, and except very early,
ship only first-class fruit.

I will now close my remarks on the tomato with an account
of a most remarkable instance of the effects of electricity on
vegetable life, a parallel to which I have never heard or read
of. As the electricity could not have acted directly on the
tomato plants, seeing that those on the opposite side of a
fence were unhurt, there is only one solution, viz., the almost
instantaneous generation of millions of bacteria in the sap
and leaves of the plants, somewhat similar to blight in the
pear. The effect of such an excessive application of ammonia
to the soil, and so little phosphoric acid and potash in pro-
portion, was evidently to produce a peculiar sensitive, per-
haps attenuated, so to say, state of the sap, upon which the
electricity acted as a disorganizer, by furnishing the proper
conditions for the rapid development of the tomato bacteria,
just as a sudden lowering of the temperature in the winter,
when the sap happens to be in motion, affords the most fa-
vorable conditions for those of the pear. But to the facts.
A few years after embarking in the business, and the first
time I ever used cotton seed as a fertilizer, having bought ten
tons of damaged whole seed very cheap, and ignorant of the
true principles of fertilizing, I undertook to grow an acre of
tomatoes, to which I had applied three tons of whole seed
and plowed them in well. The plants made a most phenom-
enal growth, running and climbing all over each other, more

THE TOMATO.

45

like vines than bushes, until they formed a tangled mass sev-
eral feet deep, to my astonishment and disgust. I do not
remember of gathering as much as a dozen bushels of fruit
from the whole acre, the plants bloomingly profusely, but
dropping them as fast as they formed. About the time the
few that did set began to ripen, the severest thunder storm
I ever witnessed passed over Galveston Island, several
houses near by being struck, and two persons killed a short
distance away, by the lightning. The whole air was filled for
a short time with a sulphurous smell, and after a tremendous
down-pour of an hour, a yellow deposit greatly resembling
sulphur appeared in many places on the ground. The
tomato patch was just in front of my house, and as soon as
the rain ceased, though the lightning was still vivid, I
opened the door and looked out. I was at once struck with
the peculiar and slightly ashy hue that the plants all had, and
walked over for a closer examination. To my amazement,
while I stood there looking intently at the leaves, I saw them
slowly turning to a dark gray, and gradually twist and curl
until the whole ground was visible, when before the storm, it
was totally hidden by the luxuriant mass of green. This
transformation occupied about a quarter of an hour, at the
end of which time it was complete. The next day the sun
came out hot, and by night every plant was dead, and the
stems brown. But the strangest thing was, that immediately
adjoining my patch, and just over a fence, my father-in-law
also had half an acre of tomatoes, the ground having been
fertilized the year before, but not at all that season. The
vines had made an ordinary, healthy growth, were loaded with
fruit, and showed not a sign of damage.

Is it not probable that a great deal of the rust, blight
and fungoid disease that attack farm and field crops, as well
as fruits and vegetables, is due to intensified electrical con-
ditions?

CHAPTER VIII.

Ihe Onion.

THE cultivation of this popular vegetable differs consider-
ably in the various sections of the country, and I will
only undertake to describe the methods best adapted to
the gulf coast country, extending around to Florida. As for
everything else, it is well to apply manure freely for onions,
and especially the elements of phosphoric acid and potash,
for it is a crop that requires a good deal of painstaking labor,
and it will not do to run the risk of failure. Tens of thou-
sands of bushels are annually grown around New Orleans, where
they mature, as they do here, at the best time to strike a good
northern market in spring. The variety used there almost
exclusively is the Creole, which has been grown time out of
mind, and has proved the best there as well as here. Both the
Red and White Bermuda are good, but do not keep or ship
near as well as the Creole. The Prize Taker has also given
very fine onions this season, and is well worthy of further trial.
The seeds are best sown in this section from the ist of
October to the 15th of November, in well manured beds,
which should be made up some time ahead, and raked over
several times after showers, to kill the weed seeds. If much
ground is to be planted, it is best to prepare a large bed.
The seeds should be sown rather shallow, and covered by
hand with soil, which, after being watered well, must be
shaded with moss from the woods or clean old hay, free from
weed seeds. In four or five days they will come up, when the
covering must be removed at once. Nothing more is neces-
sary, except to keep clean until the plants are large enough
to be set out. The ground, as well as the seed-bed, should
have been prepared a month or so ahead, for it happens oc-
casionally that heavy rains occur in the fall, and it is impos-
sible to prepare the land. This, in fact, applies to all fall and

(46J

THE ONION. 47

winter crops where land is at all level, and I will again re-
peat, that it is best, by far, to plant all crops, at this season
especially, on good, high beds and ridges. Never risk any-
thing flat, for growth has to be made during the short, cool
winter days, and the plants require all the heat they can get.

Onion beds here are generally made about four feet wide,
and the rows across the beds about one foot apart, as this is
most convenient for setting from each side. The plants are
set when about the size of a quill, and should have half the
tops sheared off before digging, and all the roots cut back to
one-half inch or less. A crop thus treated, especially if the
sets are rather large, will do far better than when planted
with long roots. About four inches apart in the rows is a
good distance.

By this method of onion growing, a world of work in
weeding and thinning is saved, for two acres can be set and
worked, where one could be grown from seed and thinned.
Just who originated this method of growing onions in the
Gulf States, nobody can now remember, as it has been the
common, in fact the only, plan since long before the war.
In January, 1863, I remember well seeing five acres thus
planted in this county, at Lamarque, which made an immense
crop, for which, rumor had it, the owner received ^5,000, as
there were no onions in this country at that time. And yet,
in the face of this well-known fact in the South, an author of
New York a few years ago came out with his new discovery
in onion growing, and has published a pamphlet, with these
directions as new, that have been practiced here for thirty
years to my certain knowledge !

As to cultivation of the onion, as long as the ground is
clean, the less the better in winter. The onion makes roots
close to the top of the ground as it grows larger, and deep
working is very injurious. As noted elsewhere, a clean,
smooth surface in winter absorbs far more heat than one that
is cultivated, and heat is the all-important thing. I saw
to-day, the 24th of February, while on a visit to Hitch-
cock, a most beautiful and vigorous field of onions, that have
never had a moment's work since shortly after they were

40 THE NEW HORTICULIURE.

set out last fall. Of course, it will be hard to make the ma-
jority of my readers in other sections swallow this doctrine
just yet, but if they will only give it a fair trial in the South
during winter, and in early spring at the North, they will find
it true. This whole method of transplanting onions, it must
be remembered, is only adapted to winter culture here, our
climate being entirely too hot to make a success of it in
spring, though it seems to be perfectly successful at that sea-
son everywhere at the North. For those who have extra clean
ground, however, and are willing to give extra pains and
work, I am bound to say the old plan, from seed, will nearly
always make much the earliest and largest onions, and sev-
eral good growers here are adopting it. By sowing moder-
ately thin with a seed drill, on very rich soil, there is no doubt
that fully double the number of bushels can be grown on the
same area as by the transplanting method, for on such soils
I have seen onions develop to full market size, when they
were so close as to look as if they were piled upon one an-
other. Every one should try a small planting, at least, from
seed, as the onion is a sure money crop here.

For the interior of Texas, where the winters are consider-
ably colder than on the coast, I know of several growers who
make large crops of fine onions every year by sowing the seed
thickly in rows about a foot apart, in March or early in April,
in rather poor soil. When the tops die down then pull up
and hang in a cool, dry place in sacks, or spread out under a
house, but keep dry. Prepare and manure the ground
thoroughly in September, and plant the sets in October, as
directed above for plants here, and about the first of May the
crop will mature fine, large onions. The Silver King thus
treated will grow to a very large size, and perhaps the
Prize Taker would give equally good results. This method
could be practiced with equal success with the Creole variety
here, I presume, unless the plants should shoot to seed in.
spring more readily.

CHAPTER IX.

Melons and Cucumbers.

AS thousands of acres are annually devoted to these
plants, and as the profits largely depend on the earli-
ness of the crop, any method by which an increased
earliness can be economically secured is well worthy the at-
tention of growers. While the common plan of boxes and
glass answers well, boxes are not only clumsy to handle and
pack away every year, but the cost of material, labor and
handling is quite an item. Many years ago, realizing these
facts, I hit upon a plan that answers much better than the
wooden box. The glass, once bought, if carefully handled,
will last a long time. The accompaning cut, page 50, shows
how it is done. A 10 x 12 glass is large enough, and a pattern
box 4 inches deep and 7x9 inches, is made of dressed lumber,
the smooth side being out, to prevent soil from adhering.
This has neither top or bottom, and after ridges about three
feet wide have been thrown up at the proper distances, and
smoothed off ready for the seed, the frame is placed on the
center, the damp soil drawn up around it to the top and well
pressed by hand, leaving a hollow hill four inches deep and
about four inches wide on top all around from the edge of
the box to where it slopes down. After firming well on top
with a smooth piece of plank, so that the hill will not settle
or run after heavy rains, lift the frame out and the ground is
ready for the seeds, which are to be planted rather shallow in
the bottom. A pane of 10 x 12 glass is then laid over the
hole, resting on the surface of the hole or future hill. By
gently pressing the glass down the air can be entirely exclu-
ded, and seed can be thus planted long before the usual time.
They come up very quickly, and incur no danger from cut-
worms or other insects, or from a freeze, as the natural
warmth of the earth will always carry melon or cucumber

4— HORT. (4C)i

50

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

Box pyame. ready for use.

Melon Box, with glass covrr.
EARTH OR MKLoN BOX. See page 49.

MELONS AND CUCUMBERS. 5I

plants through any cold spell, even one that would kill plants
in a box with glass on it, for it can never be made air-tight,
like the earth box. After the seeds come up, the glass should
be drawn down half way in good weather, until the third
leaf is out, to prevent running up ; then thin out to a stand,
to prevent crowding. In all cold, chilly and rainy weather
keep the glass down tight, and never leave a crack at night.
When all danger is over and the vines crowd the hole, level
down and stick the pane of glass slanting over the plants on
the north side. This will entirely break any ordinary frost.

As to the proper fertilizing for melons, I have alluded to it,
and especially the need for potash, in my powder article on
cabbage. Bone meal, or a good complete fertilizer, will give,
with plent)' of potash, a much sweeter and better netted
cantalope than barnyard manure or cotton-seed meal, and
mature the crop earlier. I have never seen any mention
made of the fact that a free use of ammonia will cause canta-
lopes to become smooth and net poorly, but it is a fact that
it does have that effect, as well as to make the quality very
much inferior, and also causes them to split open more
easily at the blossom end. I have time and again tested the
effect of pinching the ends to increase earliness and produc-
tiveness, but with no adequate advantage.

While the watermelon is not liable to rot on the under
side in wet seasons, thousands of cantalopes are lost from this
cause, even in seasons of ordinary moisture. It is always
best, when the fruit is about half grown or larger, to go over
and pick the melons out of the little nests they make them-
selves by settling after rain, and place them on the firm
ground nearby, but always with the same side exposed to the
sun, as the skin quickly blisters in hot weather if the tender
under side is turned up. The great enemies of melons and
cucumbers are lice, and they are so difficult to kill, and spread
so rapidly, that the best plan by all odds is to keep a sharp
lookout, and remove promptly every affected plant. Whale-
oil soap, as well as the kerosene emulsion, will kill them
while the plants are young, but I never knew them to fail
to come back later on the same plant. Prompt removal is by

52 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

far the safer plan. For market, especially distant ones, it
will not pay to grow large cantalopes. The small, solid, well-
netted ones sell for as much and weigh far less. Remember
that it is useless to try to grow good crops of either canta-
lopes or watermelons year after year on the same ground,
unless potash in some form is liberally supplied each crop,
and a good supply of vegetable matter turned under. Potash
is the element in new ground that makes it so well adapted
to melons, and it must be supplied, and if freely, then melons
can be grown year after year with perfect success, the oft-
quoted and common notion to the contrary notwithstanding.

CHAPTER X.

The Potato.

SINCE the introduction of the Triumph potato, with its
peculiarity of making a good fail crop from home-grown
spring seed, the Irish potato is likely to come more
prominently to the front as a money crop in the far South.
One drawback heretofore has been, that it required a consid-
erable outlay for the seed every year. Now, experience
shows that we can grow our own seed in the fall, and v/hen
planted in spring, even the smallest sized tubers will yield
more potatoes by far than the old northern varieties. While
I am a crank on potash for most things, I am bound to admit
tliat additional applications of it have shown no appreciable
effect on Irish potatoes here. Evidently the coast countrj' of
Texas has potash enough to satisfy this crop for some years.
The very best yield I ever had was from my orchard ground
at Hitchcock the first year, to which one ton per acre of cot-
ton-seed meal was applied broadcast in November, the ground
plowed a second time in February, and planted about the 15th.
That was a remarkable yield, and not a very good season
either, as it turned out very dry toward the end. But, as
elsewhere remarked, manure is water and tillage, for very
rich ground will nearly always make a good crop v/ith little
of either.

As to the best time to plant, it is all a gamble. This
season the early January settings came through all right.
Last year they were killed and rotted. If we grow our own
seed, however, every one should risk a barrel or two early,
on good, high ground, and as the tops push through, draw
the soil up several times to keep them well under. Then,
if a freeze does come, and the patch is gone over promptly
the next morning, and the plants are cut off an inch under
the surface, they will quickly come again. If left, however,

53)

34 I'HE NEW HORTICULTURE.

the frosted sap will rot the stems down to the sets, and often
the set itself. The Triumph outyields all other potatoes
here, and every one should grow at least enough for his own
use. The only trouble with fall planting is the risk of drouth.
The seed should be laid away thinly in a cool place to sprout,
and by August will be ready if the ground is in good order.
They should go into the ground in August, and the man who
has a good windmill and well is sure of a crop. There is not
the slightest doubt that the Michel strawberry, treated as de-
scribed elsewhere, and the Triumph potato in the fall, would
both yield an absolutely certain and highly remunerative crop
to any one who will furnish a reasonable supply of water for
irrigation. As a preventive to scab, one ounce of corrosive
sublimate dissolved in about five gallons of warer, and the
potatoes immersed for two hours, is recommended, though I
have never tried it.

The culture of the sweet potato is so well known that
little need be said except as to fertilizing and the potato
worm. While ordinary soil will make a fair crop, no vege-
table appreciates rich ground more highly. During my last
year at Hitchcock I opened three experimental furrows, and
used equal quantities of cotton-seed hull ashes and cotton-
seed meal and the New Orleans ammoniated phosphate, put-
ting each by itself in the bottoms of the furrows, and stirring
well with a bull tongue, after which high ndges were bedded
up on them. This is all-important for the sweet potato; no
matter how dry the weather, ridge up high, for the feeding
roots run very deep. The result of the above experiment was
to prove that potash and phosphoric acid are the special fer-
tilizers for sweet potatoes, the row with the hull ashes, con-
taining 8 per cent, phosphoric acid and 30 per cent, potash,
not only producing the most but the largest tubers, though
both the other fertilizers gave an excellent yield. The meal
on new land is hard to beat. Next, as a preventive to the
worm that bores into the potatoes when grown, the best plan
is to set the vines quite deep, and after every rain sprinkle a
little air-slacked lime over each hill, immediately around the
stem of the vines where they enter the ground. All moths

THE POTATO. 55

have a dread of lime, and will not lay their eggs near it, and,
as is well known, this moth lays hers just at the surface, the
young worms afterwards boring into and down through the
stems to the tubers below. But while the worm does a great
deal of injury, the growers themselves are responsible for
much more every year by not digging their crops in the month
of October, which is usually dry. Dug that month, potatoes
will keep better than after the vines are killed by frost, and
all risk of rotting from the heavy, cold rains of November is
avoided. The present crop was almost entirely lost in the
ground from rot, caused by the heavy rains of that month.
As the method of banking is so well known, if is not neces-
sary to allude to it here.

CHAPTER XL

Celery.

IN mild seasons like the present, celery can be grown to as
great perfection in the coast country of Texas and the
Gulf States as anywhere in the world, and to-day, the
25th of February, the Galveston Nervs was presented with a
lot that measured 34 inches in length, perfectly bleached
and of most excellent quality. Its culture here is just as
elsewhere, only the seed should be well shaded if sown in Au-
gust, when some persons plant, though September is a better
month, and from then on to December seed may be sown, and
will make finely in spring. It will greatly facilitate the com-
ing up of the earlier plantings if the seeds are soaked in
water a few hours, and then put up in a cloth with a few
handfuls of soil, to sprout for a week. The late sowings must
be made in coldframes, and carefully protected in severe
weather, which sometimes occurs here, and does serious dam-
age to mature crops also. The latter can be perfectly pro-
tected by going to the small expense of 8 or lo-inch planks,
to be laid flat on top of the rows in case of a freeze, after
the plants have had their last hilling. However, the young
and half-grown ones, where exposed, even if cut down to the
ground, will shoot out quickly again, and make fine celery in
the end. In earthing up, it is necessary to be careful, and
never handle the plants when they are wet with dew or rain,
else they are likely to take the rust, which is about the only
enemy the crop has here. Of course, rich ground is just as
important for this as other crops. Close planting each way is
not suited here, as it would require flat culture, and the plants
could not be protected from the cold, as can that grown in
rows by the old method. Settings may be made all through
the fall and winter, and prices are always good for this crop,
as it stands shipping well.

(56)

CHAPTER XII.

Lettuce.

THIS vegetable can be grown in great perfection here in
the fall, and many seasons all through the winter and
spring. But it is almost useless to sow the seed before
the first of September for fall planting, as the green worms
are very troublesome on a crop set out earlier, and the plants
are almost sure to run to seed before heading. The seed for
earliest sowing should be mixed with a little earth and tied
up in a rag to sprout, after being well dampened. As soon
as signs of sprouting show, scatter soil and seed over the bed
and water in with a sprinkler, after which cover lightly with
fine soil and put down the mosquito-bar over the frame,
which should be made just as for cabbage. However, as the
ants often carry off lettuce seed very rapidly, it is well to
sow a few handfuls of fine grits, sifted bran or meal, as a bait,
over the bed, before putting on the bar. Be sure to make it
fit very close all around, for if there is the slightest open-
ing, the moths will find it and get in. Seed can be sown all
through the fall in the gulf coast country, but when planted
in December and January, it should be well protected in case
of a freeze. The most profitable crop is the one thus treated
and planted out the last of January for the upper country
markets, and even for points beyond Texas. The best pre-
ventive against the green worm in fall, I omitted to state, is
air-slaked lime, dusted occasionally over the plants after set-
ting in the field. This worm, however, disappears after
November.

The old Royal Cabbage lettuce is about the best variety.

(57)

CHAPTER XIII.

/isparagus.

WHILE this is one of the most important and profitable
crops at the North, it has been greatly neglected by
southern truckers. But I believe it is destined in the
near future to be the principal vegetable grown for shipping
from the far South during the season of its maturity, seeing
that it comes in just with the early strawberry crop, and con-
tinues right along with it in Florida, Texas and Louisiana.
The great value of asparagus to this whole strawberry section
is that it can be utilized to divide car loads with the berries,
and thus prevent throwing a whole car load of the latter on
any one market at the same time. While not so popular at
the South as in the North, yet our home markets have never
yet been even half-way supplied, and there is no reasonable
fear that there will for many years be a glut of this delicious
vegetable anywhere. That it can be successfully grown here
has been fully demonstated time and again, and a really
excellent article has been on the market in Galveston the
present season, while it is well-known that the common wild
asparagus grows everywhere in South Texas with the per-
sistency and vigor of a weed. The only fault so far found
with this vegetable, as grown in the gulf coast region, is its
failure to develop shoots of the thickness and size they attain
farther north. This probably comes more from a lack of plenty
of salt and a sufficient quantity of manure, as well as deep,
loose soil, than anything else. While I have never grown
any, I have taken the trouble to look into the subject with
care, and will sum up my conclusions from the experience of
others. In France, where they grow it to great perfection,
the earth is scraped away every fall from the crowns, in order
to expose them to freezing, while in America, at the North,
the almost universal custom is to protect them by a heavy

(58)

ASPARAGUS. 59

mulch of manure, both claiming that their respective methods
make the largest stalks ; and it must be remembered with
this crop that both its eating and market value increase very
rapidly with the size and beauty of the individual shoots.
The French plant the roots about two feet apart each way,
and rather shallow, on deeply dug and very rich ground.
They then manure heavily and repeatedly, to furnish a loose
surface soil, to force an abnormally large, quick growth.
Americans recommend planting the crowns six inches deep to
escape drought, and both parties are very particular to advise
the old fallacy of spreading out the roots. This may be one
of the causes of its failure to make as large shoots here as
elsewhere, for it has enormous roots, and if all have been
spread out as directed, there is little wonder if the plants
lacked vigor enough to develop strong, thick stems. By all
means root-prune this plant very closely, for it is a difficult
thing to kill if you try ; but it must have deep, strong roots
and plenty of moisture to sustain the forced growth that is
demanded of it. Both nations agree that any good garden
soil will do, but it must be light and loamy on top for at least
six or eight inches, to allow the shoots to push readily through,
and also to facilitate breaking off from the crowns. It is
claimed that cutting injures other young shoots often, and
also leaves a short stump, from which smaller sprouts spring
and exhaust the plant. In gathering, the loose soil is gently
drawn away and the shoot selected, bent over and broken
squarely off from the crown. The hole is filled with a move-
ment of the hand, and so on over the patch. Many, how-
ever, still adhere to the old plan of cutting. Both nations
are fully agreed on the importance of perfect drainage, the
crop maturing, as it does so earl}^ while the ground is cold ;
therefore well drained soil is a necessity for rapid growth.
Both also agree on a deep, rich plant-bed, down below the
crown. On high, well drained upland, it would be best,
they say, to plow very deep, manure heavily, and apply at
least three tons of salt per acie, in addition to other manures.
It must be remembered that this is a saline plant, and per-
fectly at home along the sea coast marshes. As to distance,

6o THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

as noted above, in France they set from two to three feet
apart each way. In California and other parts of this coun-
try, they prefer to make the rows from four to six feet apart
and plant about sixteen inches in the rows, thus leaving room
enough to cultivate other crops between for a year or two, un-
til the plants require all the ground. The surface is kept
level during the summer, but just before growth starts in
spring a good-sized ridge or mound of soft earth is thrown or
drawn up over the crowns to furnish the necessary depth of
loose soil for bleaching the shoots, which is to be drawn down
level again after the crop is marketed.

If it be proposed to save time, one or two-year-old plants
can be bought, the Conover Colossal and the newer Palmetto
seeming to be the favorite kinds, the latter claiming to be
somewhat the earlier variety. If one is willing to wait, four
pounds of seed will grow plants enough for an acre, and the
plants are easily raised. As for the immediate level coast
country between Galveston and Houston, I would recommend,
in addition to the above suggestions, that beds twelve feet
wide be thrown up finally, with wide and deep furrows or
paths between, and see that these open into a free outlet for
perfect drainage. It will be necessary to complete the work
with the spade, so as to make the beds sufficiently high.
There is no danger of hurting an asparagus plant seriously
with drouth, for its roots will easily penetrate to permanent
moisture. The nearness of that to the surface here makes
ours a natural asparagus country. The beds will then hold
two rows at six feet apart, with plants sixteen inches in the
rows, and should be planted not deeper than five inches below
the surface, in a shallow furrow, to be left open until they
become well established and growing freely, when the ground
should be leveled. Perhaps if the twelve-feet bed is ^uU
high and well drained, they might be set the five inches depth
on the level at once, though the growth would be slower at
first. The distance of six feet between the rows will afford
abundant earth for placing loosely over the crowns every
spring for bleaching. It would be an excellent plan to pre-
pare the ground for strawberries, thoroughly fertilizing and

ASPARAGUS. 6l

mulching the entire beds in the summer, and set with straw-
berries in September, leaving the two asparagus lines or rows
vacant until winter or spring, when convenient to plant them.
This would necessitate the application of salt, the first year
or two, only on the asparagus rows, or until they required the
whole ground. The vegetable crop could by this plan be
brought to marketing condition at little or no extra expense,
for full crops of berries could be grown. After the asparagus
came into full bearing the expense would be very light, as
the tops shade the ground all the summer, and could be
mowed off every fall and thrown for bedding in the cow lot to
make manure. I omitted to say, that the heavy mulching of
the berries the first two years would render the whole surface
of the beds light and loose, for after-covering of the aspara-
gus crowns.

This plant is exceedingly long-lived, and the beds would
last almost a life-time with proper after care and fertilizing,
especially the latter, for it seems to be a perfect gourmand
after food. I hope the gulf-coast growers especially will in-
vestigate this subject fully, for I am sure it is one of the keys to
the future prosperity of this immediate section. The demand
seems unlimited for a good article, and it is such a perfect
shipper — just pack in boxes, as for beans — the product being
sold everywhere by weight, and at lo cents per pound, the
minimum price I have seen quoted anywhere. It has no
enemies, and is never hurt by frost. Reduce, then, the berry
acreage very largely, and devote some of it to this vegetable,
and with a moderate supply also of lettuce, radishes, beets,
etc. There would then be no necessity for shipping straight
cars of berries, and dozens of towns would be able to handle
a well-mixed car, where one can now use a car of any one
article straight.

CHAPTER XIV.

Cow Peas ami other yegetables.

EGG-PLANTS and sweet peppers should be treated just
as tomatoes, and like them, must, in this section, be
protected from the ravages of the Spanish f]y by Paris
green, and the few plants pulled up that were treated. Snap
beans are also a good crop generally, both spring and fall, but
as the rabbits are very fond of their leaves, the vines must be
lightly sprayed with water that has had a small quantity of
coal or gas tar mixed with it, and then strained out. A rab-
bit will touch nothing that has a trace of that smell about it.
It is almost useless here to sow beans before the first of
March, if then, as the spring winds whip the vines to pieces.
Green peas are nearly always hardy through the winter, espe-
cially if not in bearing when a freeze comes. Their main
enemy is the black-bird, who is particularly fond of them, and
must be driven off with a gun. Beets, carrots, spinach and
other vegetables are so well understood that comment is not
necessary.

A book treating of crops for the South and soil improve-
ment would be incomplete without a full mention of that
wonderful plant, the southern cow pea. An experience of
many years' use has convinced me and all who have tried it
of its great value. Every waste place on the farm or in the
garden which needs enriching should every season be covered
with its luxuriant foliage and penetrated by its deep, far-reach-
ing roots. The old idea was to plow the vines under gre':;n,
and I practised it for several years, but soon found out that it
was a much better plan to let them mature and die on the
ground, and then turn them under in the fall. Such treat-
ment will nearly always cure the dead or alkali spots, as well
as those where plants turn yellow, that occur at intervals,
particularly in the coast country of Texas. The penetrating

(62)

cow PEAS AND OTHER VEGETABLES. 63

power of a cow pea root is astonishing, and they will so com-
pletely break up and fill such spots with the decaying vege-
table matter of their roots, as well as leaves, and shade them
from the sun, that if a good growth of vines can only be had
the spots will disappear entirely. It will stand any amount
of drouth and heat, and can be planted any time after the
ground gets warm, all along through the season, if rain
enough falls to bring up the seed. In many parts of the
South the roots of the cow pea are affected with what are
known as nematode galls or knots, which in fact are so com-
mon in all soils deficient in potash, that the general opinion
seems to be that they are a natural condition of the plant,
and aid in some way in storing up nitrogen. But this is cer-
tainly a mistaken idea, as far as the naturalness of galls on
cow pea roots in good land is concerned. I have grown cow
peas for the vegetable matter, on land well supplied with
potash, for over thirty years in this section, and have never
seen a nematode gall on a single plant, nor do I believe that
they ever will be seen on new land, or where the soil is well
supplied with potash. The conditions for their development
are excessive moisture on a soil deficient in potash, and as
all old soils are in that fix from exhaustion, especially in the
southern states, these nematode galls are almost universal,
and have come to be considered a natural development of the
plant. But as I said above, this is a mistake, as any one can
prove by planting them where potash has been applied. The
nematode galls are simply a disease, but may be a beneficial
one, for aught I know.

I

PART 11

5— HORT.

1

CHAPTER I.

The New Dispensation.

IN presenting the second part of this volume to the atten-
^ tion of the fruit-growing pubhc, I do it witli a feeling of
confidence that the time is ripe for a new dispensation of
horticultural truths, and while they may, with their novelty,
startle from their sleepy routine many of the high priests who
minister around the altars throughout the country, the kindly
reception awarded them in this section is an earnest of their
general adoption everywhere in the near future. The public
now demand the best of fruit, and they want it cheap. The
day of high prices has probably gone forever, and it is a
doubtful question whether fruit-growing, with the short-lived,
unproductive, diseased and insect-ridden trees of to-day, and
their uncertain crops, now pays. To practice the most ad-
vanced methods (taught by Mr. J. H. Hale, for instance, on
peaches, and by others on tipples, pears, etc.) requires an
expenditure that is often not even covered by the receipts.
The amount of nurturing, or "doping," as the turfmen call
it on their horses, in the way of cultivation, pruning, thin-
ning, fertilizing and spraying, to make pay an orchard grown
from three or four-year-old, long, fibrous-rooted trees, is
appalling, and when we contrast it with the certain, cheap
and easy-going style in which the twenty-year-old Rambo
apple tree, mentioned in the last chapter of this volume,
brings in the dollars, we may well cry, "Hasten the good
time when all fruits can be thus grown !" That is the mis-
sion of this gospel of the "New Horticulture" I now advo-
cate, which, though nominally new, is really as old as the
morn in spring in the long, long ago, ages before Eve plucked
and Adam ate the apple, when the warm sunbeams kissed the
dew from the first modestly opening fruit blooms, whenever
that was. Its principles, from which we have now wandered

167)

68

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

SO far, to our great loss, are identical with those practiced
from the beginning by wise Mother Nature. With lavish
hand she scattered the seed that fell upon the solid earth,
and produced trees after their kind, from which, down through
the puzzling maze of ages of evolution and the survival of
the fittest, where her original forests stand, she now presents
to our admiring gaze majestic evidences of her skill. To illus-
trate those principles is the main object of this book. Plain
as they are, I stumbled over them for years, like the rest
of the horticultural world, blind to the patent fact that in all
their pecvdiarities of growth and treatment, both fruit and
forest trees are the same. They are both the result of specific
conditions and surroundings. No fostering hand of man^
with friendly cultivator, spade or plow, was present during
the millions of years of their evolution, to kindly aid in their
struggles with climatic adversities the sturdy monarchs of
the forest, which from the frigid to the torrid zone, in slowly
changing cycles of climate, have crowned the rocky hills and
mountains and covered the broad valleys with their sheltering
boughs. So they have, through succeeding generations,
adapted themselves perfectly to their environments by the
survival of the fittest, and from age to age found in the firm,
unbroken virgin soil, with no disturbance of their surface
roots, the conditions best suited to their perfect development.
The same law applies to fruit trees as well.

Perhaps, if our horticultural scientists had their way, and
through successive generations of like-minded descendants,
could but grow fruit trees for a million or so years more, con-
tinuously from long-rooted ones, on ground subsoiled and
deeply pulverized, they might ultimately, like nature, evolve
a race of trees that would prefer and thrive best on such a
soil, and fruit perhaps as well as Mr. Pierce's Rambo apple
tree, alluded to hereafter, or live as long as the old Seckel or
Sudduth pear. But the trees we now have to deal with
retain too much of the perversity of their wild parents not to
kick at such treatment. The experiments recounted later on,
of Mr. Patterson and the squirrels, and the stunted pear trees
in my Hitchcock orchard, on a muck bed, with two feet of

THE NEW DISPENSAl ION. 69

rich surface soil beneath them, prove this beyond all doubt.
Seeing, then, that they foolishly reject our efforts in their be-
half, why not, as it costs so much less, and the trees produce
so much more and finer fruit, indulge them in their long-time
preferences. However, before entering my plea for this
course, I will in a short digression make some remarks : ist,
on the old primitive orchards of our forefathers ; and, also,
2d, give a short account of how I happened to hit upon the
great fundamental principle of all entirely succcessful horti-
culture, that the nearer we can bring a transplanted tree to
the form of a seed, the better it will be for the tree, as will
be seen by the following recent extract from Farm and Ranch:

While viewing the path of the recent tornado that swept
through the city of Sherman, Texas, destroying scores of precious
lives and happy homes, I noticed the effect of the force on the trees.
Some trees were uprooted, some snapped off above ground, some
stripped of limbs and bark and others were twisted into splinters.
One large post oak, about two feet in diameter, was splintered and
twisted like a huge rope. A large apple orchard was uprooted, and
I searched in vain for a tap-root on any of those apple trees. They
had the appearance of being planted with long roots and tramped
into a small hole, with the point of the roots near the surface where
they remained and continued to grow. The soil was rich, sandy loam
on deep, rich, moist clay. The forest trees were large and strong, and
most of them refused to be uprooted and were snapped off. Had
these trees been planted so as to induce the growth of strong tap-
roots, evidently they would have been larger, stronger, healthier and
more fruitful. — E. W. Kirkpatrick.

CHAPTER II.

Old Primitive Orchards.

THERE is no more interesting subject for investigation,
nor one that has puzzled observers more completely,
than why we are unable now to grow as healthy, long-
lived and productive fruit trees as our forefathers. Many
and various have been the theories advanced, but the most
general one seems to be that in the early settlement of the
country the vast forest area had a mysterious and potent in-
fluence on climate and tree diseases, and that the gradual
clearing of the land has, somehow or other, changed condi-
tions so radically that fruit trees in general, and certain
varieties in particular, no longer succeed as they formally did.
Where once in the eastern states the apple and the pear
attained the giant proportions of forest trees, now. as a
rule, they crouch and cower in valley and on hill, their
puny, stunted, blighting offspring a pitiful burlesque, in
many instances, of their grand old sires.

I came across a statement a few days ago, that in 1721, a
small " settlement of forty families near Boston made three
thousand barrels of cider, and another New England village
of two hundred families made ten thousand barrels." Pre-
sumably they reserved fruit enough for all domestic uses,
fresh and dried, and this vast amount of cider was simply
from the surplus fruit. Remembering that those were days
of small family orchards, not of thousands of acres like we
now plant, can we anywhere find a parallel in productiveness
to-day? The trees that gave those enormous yields were
presumably either seedlings, root grafts or grown from small
one-year maiden trees, with few roots when set, except the
tap, and those doubtless cut off not far below the surface.
The nurseryman, with his large, fine, three and four-year-old,
long, fibrous-rooted trees, like those now sold, had not yet

(70]

OLD PRIMITIVE ORCHARDS. 71

appeared upon the stage to captivate those rustic growers
with visions of early fruit. And while on its face there may
seem to be some show of reason in this theory of climatic
change as the cause for all this acknowledged inferiority and
decay, yet when examined in the cold light of statistical
climatology and actual experience, it crumbles, a baseless
fabric, to the ground. The records, from the earliest times,
show no material change in average temperature or rainfall
between then and now, and we still have, here and there, all
over the country, strong, vigorous and productive old seed-
ling trees, like the Sudduth pear in Illinois, and the Arkansas
Mammoth Black-Twig apple, which show beyond all doubt
that in certain places, and under certain conditions, it is still
possible to grow apple and pear trees fit companions to those
of long ago, and which tower among the fruit trees of to-day,
like Saul among his brethren, head and shoulders above them
all. These hale old mementos of by-gone days are living
witnesses against the theory of climatic change, for C. M.
Stark, of Missouri, in American Garden of January, says:
"The original Mammoth Black-Twig apple tree is still stand-
ing near Rhea's Mill, in Washington county, Arkansas, and
bearing fruit, and at the recent meeting of the State Horti-
cultural Society of that state, at Fayettville, there was an ex-
hibit of apples from this tree labeled, 'M. B.-Twig, from the
original tree, sixty-five years old, two feet eight inches in
diameter 2]4 feet above the ground.'" And yet, just across
the state line in Kansas, the well-known king of apple grow-
ers, Mr. Frank Wellhouse, the owner of 1,200 acres of trees,
plants sixteen feet apart in the rows, because in twelve or
fifteen years he finds that his long-rooted, well sprayed and
cultivated trees, standing on thoroughly prepared ground,
cease to pay.

These being some of the facts in the case, what is the true
answer to the New York Legislature's call last year for infor-
mation as to the acknowledged decadence of modern orchards,
especially the apple? It will not do to talk apologetically, in
explanation of repeated crop failures, about the great number
of fungous enemies, late frosts, dry seasons, chilling winds

1

72 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

and cold, wet weather at blooming time, as if all those con-
ditions did not prevail in the "Auld Lang Syne" as well as
now. Hear wliat Mr. S. F. Alberger, in a recent issue of the
Orange Judd Farmer, has to say about the conduct now of
some of these old-time apple trees : "The apple trees that
pay best now in Western New York are from sixty to one
hundred years old. I think it is because their branches sel-
dom intersect, and their roots run deep into the soil, and dur-
ing our customary dry fall weather, supply to the fruit buds
not only moisture, but the kind and quality of food neces-
sary to give them the vital power required to perfect the fer-
tilization of the flowers and the setting of the fruit the next
spring. I think the lack of vital force in the buds is one
great fault in our commercial orchards of to-day. In many
of these orchards, if the trees are dug up, it will frequently
be found that they have no tap-roots at all, but the roots
start out at almost right angles, and in some cases are
found, at fifteen to twenty feet from the trees, to be only six
inches or a foot below the surface. Some of these trees
showed decay at the center of the trunk ; in three cases,
where the trees had been grafted, it could be seen between
the layers of yearly growth from six to twelve years after
planting, but the trunks of a twenty-two-year-old seedling and
several seventy-five-year-old seedlings that were limb-grafted
do not indicate any decay. Does the insertion of the graft
or scion into the crown cause this delay ?"

Verily, Mr. Alberger is hitting very close to the truth, in
his diagnosis of the commercial orchards of the present day,
grown from large, fibrous and long-rooted trees. But to an-
swer the interrogatory of the New York Legislature more fully
as to this well-known decadence, let us go back to the time,
several hundred years ago, when there were no orchards in
America. When the Mayflower glided alongside of Ply-
mouth Rock, folded to rest her white wings, that for many a
long, weary day and night had breasted the Atlantic's gales,
and from her deck the Pilgrims stepped in search of new
homes, we know that they brought seeds, including fruits of
various kinds, and when settled, from time to time imported

OLD PRIMIIIVE ORCHARDS. 73

more. But for many years, in fact generations, compelled,
as they were, to battle with the elements and Indians, and
clear forests, little attention could have been paid to fruit-
growing, except in a small way for individual use, and every
one doubtless propagated for himself, by the old and well-
known method of root-grafting, or from seed, where the trees
were to stand. It is a fair presumption, indeed, that anything
like a commercial nursery was then unknown, friends and
neighbors performing such kindly offices as budding and graft-
ing for each other without pay. This continued, doubtless,
for many generations. In fact, up to the beginning of the
present century there were practically no nurseries at all, and
the institutions of this description that are so common now
all over the country really date back scarcely more than fifty
or seventy-five }ears. But as more and more attention was
given to fruit culture, naturally people here and there would
grow trees for sale, and many seasons would doubtless have
an over-supply. Not wishing to lose them, these would be
transplanted once or more, to check growth and keep them
from getting too large, and intending purchasers, seeing such
big, fine stock, in their desire and haste for immediate bear-
ing, and encouraged by the honest but mistaken nurseryman,
would naturally purchase these large trees, in preference to
the small ones ; and, indeed, if treated right, a two or three-
year-old tree, or even one five or six years old is equally as
good, and will fruit sooner than a younger one. But the
trouble was, then as now, that right treatment was not under-
stood, and in order to preserve a large part of the handsome
tops, which the customers of course desired, the nurseryman
naturally advised retaining as much as possible of the long
and fibrous roots, the result of transplanting once or more.
And thus it gradually came about, that there grew up an aris-
tocracy of root, and when dug and graded in the fall, the
value and price of the stock was largely determined, just
as it is now, by the size and quantity of the roots. I
doubt, indeed, whether there is to-day (February 8, 1896) a
nurseryman in the whole country who has not numbers of
fine trees of all varieties that by accident have been dug

74 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

with short roots, for which he will cheerfully take half price.
But to return to our immediate forefathers and their doings
in the fields of horticulture. Naturally, in very dry seasons
or in case of neglected trees, set with large tops, the tangled
mass of feeble, fibrous roots would fail to take hold in the
soil, and, exhausted by evaporation from the tops, would die.
Then at once went up the cry, "More root!" Why not?
Taught to believe that roots were absolutely necessary, nat-
urally the planter would conclude, the more the better, just as
is taught in all the books to-day ; and indeed, so firmly is it
fi.xed in the minds of many of our most eminent fruit grow-
ers that, though earnestly requested to do so, they will not
even plant a single close root-pruned tree as an experiment.
This has for several years been my general experience, in try-
ing to inaugurate this all-important reform. And yet it is
absolutely the foundation of all permanent success in the
orchards of the future. We have now got to a point where a
small one-year tree is considered worthless, and it is well-
nigh impossible to sell a tree that has not been transplanted
once, and oftener twice, to give it plenty of roots, and when
such trees are planted, with all their matted fibrous roots, the
doom of that orchard is sealed, whether it be with blight and
scab in the pear and apple, yellows in the peach, or black-
knot and root-tumor in the plum and peach. Such orchards
are bound to fail earl}-, become diseased, and die. And so, in
tracing the probable course and progress of horticulture in
this country from the earliest times down until now, we find
that of necessity, commencing with seedlings and root-grafts
(practically my method), its whole history has been a descent
from health, longevity and productiveness in the beginning,
as history and tradition both prove, down to disease, early
decay and unfruitfulness at the present time, and in an exact
and direct ratio to the increased quantity of roots left on,
and age of the tref;s when set. The older the tree and the
more root, the worse for the tree ever afterwards. Just how
I happened to discover this important truth will be told in
the next chapter.

CHAPTER III.

How I Discovered Close Root-Pruning.

AS this principle of horticulture is absolutely the most
important, without a single exception, in the whole
science, and the foundation of all permanent success,
it is most astonishing that men have stumbled over it almost
daily from the beginning, and never realized its value. The
ordinary root-graft has been the most common form of prop-
agation for most fruit trees for time out of mind, and every
nurseryman knows what superior trees can be thus grown in
a single season. And 3et it has never occurred to any one to
say : If a small piece of root will make such a fine tree, why
will not the same principle apply the second or any other
year afterward ? Just how the value of this method did first
present itself to me is as follows : Nobody here having any
faith in the success of my venture of pear planting, I found
it impossible at first to sell but few of the trees I had grown
from cuttings, but having hopes that the astonishing vigor
and thrift of my orchard would start a demand, I dug the
young trees for several years, and transplanted to keep them
from getting too large, as they surely would, judging from the
way the orchard was doing. So we opened wide furrows and,
spreading out the pear tree roots evenly, according to the
universal directions, covered them nicely and firmed the
ground well. Being an old market-gardener, though a new
nurser\man, and a believer in manure, as already shown, I
gave the rows of young trees a good dressing of cotton-seed
meal, and with fair cultivation, at the end of the year I had
no cause for complaint, as they all did well. But even that
early I had caught on to the fact that, for some une.xplained
reason, the cuttings planted at the same time as the rooted
trees alwa\s averaged much better. Moreover, another great
point in their favor was, that when we came to pack the few

^75)

76 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

trees 1 did sell, being green at the business I found a world of
trouble to make the clumsy, flat-rooted ones from the young
trees agree with one another and lie comfortably in the same
bundle. Having been planted with quite long ones, they were
entirely lateral-rooted when dug. But the trees grown from
cuttings, while they gave us a world of trouble to get out
with the regulation amount and length of root, when we
came to pack, were regular daisies — roots all long, deep and
straight, and as easy to pack as sardines in a box. The
third year I had extraordinary luck, and grew about seven
thousand trees from cuttings. Having again sold only about
two thousand, I found quite a job on my hands late in spring,
as we had waited, hoping some purchaser Would come along.
But he did not, so we had to tackle the transplanting job
again, and at the same time look forward to next year's pack-
ing of those roots, if sales turned out good. I remember well
standing before the row where the trees were all nicely heeled
in, with the buds ready to leaf out, and my only help, Frank,
a colored boy, at my side, who had just as little fancy as I for
the job. After holding a council of war for awhile as to the
best and easiest way to get all those roots under ground, and
Frank had actually gone down once with the plow and was
coming back on the furrow, throwing the dirt out, the idea
occurred all at once in the form of a self question. Some-
thing seemed to say : "If those trees grew so well with no
root at all, what's the matter with cutting them all off, and
letting them try it over again?" No sooner thought than
settled. Frank was within fifty feet of me coming back, and
when he got there I astonished him by saying: "Now go
back and throw the furrow together again," and told him of
my idea. Without a moment's hesitation that colored boy,
Frank Bell, caught on to the whole thing, saying, "Good,"
and started back on the row. And yet I have been writing
and urging fruit-growers for the last eight years just to
try the method, even on a single tree; but so thoroughly
had the long-root idea incorporated itself into the mental
machinery of most of them, that until the last year or two it
has been in vain. 1 laid the whole subject in a most exhaust-

HOW 1 DISCOVERED CLOSE ROOl-I'RUNING.

77

ive article before the American Pomological Society five \ears
ago, at Washington, which, if it was ever read, certainly pro-
duced no other result except perhaps to stamp me as a wild
and woolly Texas crank!

But to return to my story. We pitched in, and in short
order had the whole
five thousand trees
reduced back to cut-
tings again, at least
in appearance, for
we did not stop at
any half-way close-
pruning, like thou-
sands will who try it
with fear and doubt.
We both agreed that
it was a plain case
of no need for root
at all, and off they
came, as close to the
ends as we could cut
them, for our inten-
tion was simply to
stick them back in
the rows as cuttings,
after reducing the
tops to one foot.
And we treated the
whole five thousand
just that way. If
a single tree died, I
never saw it, and by
fall those rows pre-
sented a picture of
vigorous and even
growth, many trees
being eight to ten feet high, like the tree I hold in my hand in
the illustration, though the root-pruned tree in the other hand

TREE IN RIGHT HANI5 GROWN IN ONK ^■liAR IROM
ONE LIKE THAT IN LEFT HAND.

yS THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

has twice as much root as those had. But what shall I say
of the great, deep, penetrating roots they had struck ! The
tree I hold shows exactly the character of their root system,
though it has several large roots broken off in digging from
the hard-pan pipe-clay subsoil, and the photograph by no
means does justice to the size of the ends of the roots next
to the floor, which were from the size of a knitting needle to
a wheat-straw, showing plainly they had gone far deeper. In
fact, I am confident that could all of that tree's roots have
been taken up, the extreme length would have been as great
as the top, which had to be bent and broken down for photo-
graphing, and measured eleven feet. I wish particularly to
emphasize the fact that this tree was grown on stiff, black,
waxy soil, broken about four inches deep, having a hard-pan
yellow pipe-clay subsoil, that positively defies a spade. And
yet we find pages in the books about the absolute necessity
for a deeply plowed and subsoiled bed for trees, to enable
their roots to take hold, forgetting that hard and soft are
relative terms, and ground as hard as a rock to us is as soft
as butter to a close root-pruned tree.

But a little more about that lot of trees. By this time
people began to talk and investigate, and wild rumors of fab-
ulous Le Conte pear crops and profits over in Georgia found
their way over here. That fall I sold nearly every tree I
had, and, having found out this easy method of planting, I
hastened to spread the glad tidings, as well as to "butcher"
the tree roots in digging. Frank had a weather eye for an
easy job, and when I said, "Dig with short roots," he was
quick to obey, and we hustled them out in a hurry. But
when I came to deliver, I found that I had made a big mis-
take, for talk as eloquently as I would about the virtue of
short roots, and with the trees in my hands to demonstrate
its truth, I actually had several parties refuse to buy, and had
to guarantee nearly all I did sell to grow. This wound up
my efforts as a close root-pruned tree propagandist for some
time, and while knowing they were worse than useless, to my
great disgust, I was compelled to dig with all the roots pos-
sible. In fact, so disheartening were my efforts for a number

HOW I IMSCOVERED CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING. 79

of years tliat if Prof. T. L. Brunk, then of our Texas A. and
M. College, had not, on a visit of several days to my home,
urged me so earnestly once more to bring the subject before
the public in the Southern Horticultural Journal, of which he
was the editor, and also in Farm and Ranch, it might have
rested until now. He saw the philosoph}' of the whole thing
at a glance when I pointed it out, and showed him the trees,
and afterwards, when connected with the Experiment Station
at Washington, he made the very exhaustive experiments, an
account of which is elsewhere in this volume. Had not per-
sonal and political motives succeeded in ousting him from
Washington shortly afterwards, this most enthusiastic and
progressive master of horticulture would, I feel sure, long
ago have succeeded in demonstrating, in the public position
he held near the capitol, the utility and vast superiority of
the close root-pruning over the long-rooted method.

CHAPTER IV.

Close Root -Pruning.

WITH all our knowledge and progress in the other arts
and sciences, there is abundant evidence to prove that
in the science and practice of horticulture we have
retrograded so far that only last year the legislature of New
York passed a bill appropriating funds and authorizing the
Commissioner of Agriculture to investigate and determine, if
possible, the causes for the widespread decadence of the
orchards in western New York, both in the matter of the de-
creasing health and shortened life of the trees, as well as the
inferior quality and diminished yield of fruit. This investi-
gation is now in progress, and is awakening great interest in
the east. It is a well-known fact that all over the country the
same conditions exist that are complained of in New York.
While last year gave a phenomenal yield of fruit every-
where, it is the first for several years, and not likely to occur
soon again, and it is certain that the sturdy fruit trees which
delighted the eye with their grand proportions, and tickled
the palates of our forefathers with their regular and abundant
crops of fine fruit, are a thing of the past. . Something cer-
tainly is wrong when apple trees cease to be profitable at fif-
teen years of age, and peach trees reach their prime in five and
die in ten or less, as they do nearly everywhere in our culti-
vated orchards, and yet old seedlings in fence corners, chicken
yards, old fields and around the back doors are standing up
cheerily under the weight of twenty or thirt}' years ; and Mr.
Hale himself drew his inspiration, when he embarked in his
successful career of peach growing, from a sixty-year tree,
that stood in a neglected but friendly fence-row on his ances-
tral farm. That there are causes for all this, outside of
diminished fertility, want of care or fancied change of climate,
is certain.

(So)

CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING. 8 1

I will now enumerate the four probable causes which, from
a series of observations and experiments for many years, I am
sure are at the bottom of the trouble, and in so doing, will
confine myself strictly to facts, which anyone can verify for
himself.

1. I claim that the best form of tree for planting is
exactly the opposite of that recommended by all authorities
from time immemorial, inasmuch as the latter departs far-
thest from nature's method of seed, which experience of the
past proves to be the best, and to which I claim my method
is superior. The close root-pruned tree, as shown in the
accompanying cut (page 87), struck several strong penetra-
ting tap-roots, instead of one, like a seedling, and sent them
much deeper, fully ten feet in a single season.

2. I claim that deep preparation of the ground, as now
recommended, is equally far from the truth and nature's
method of a firm, unbroken soil, inasmuch as such deeply
pulverized ground, after excessive rains, even though well
drained, will for several days become a bog, to drown and
scald the young rootlets in summer and freeze them to death
in winter at the North.

3. That all cultivation of trees after several years,
when the feeding roots hunt the surface, is wrong /<?;- se, inas-
much as all trees depend upon these surface roots for the
proper development of the fruit, both as to size and quality,
and any cultivation must necessarily be destructive to them.
Of course, when first planted, the middles can be utilized for
several years without serious injury, for growing crops be-
tween if desired ; but from the very start, except a space
around each tree large enough to prevent damage from the
mowing blade, frequent and close mowing through the grow-
ing season, leaving the clippings on the ground, is the best
plan for all close root-pruned trees, with annual fertilizing to
perfect the crop. But please take notice that I do not rec-
ommend this treatment for poor, handicapped, three and
four-year-old, long, fibrous-rooted trees, if planted as they
come from the nursery.

4. That all fall, winter and spring pruning, until after

6 HOKT.

82 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

the trees are in full growth, is contrary to nature and common
sense, in that it, as well as fall, winter and early spring
stirring of the ground tends to break our trees' rest and
start a premature motion of the sap.

These four fundamental principles of successful horticul-
ture are in perfect accordance with nature and experience, as
demonstrated by all forest trees, as well as old chance seed-
lings of all fruits everywhere, and constitute the "New Hor-
ticulture" I now advocate. To these four points, and my
internal theory of all species of tree bacteria, and the causes
of their development in the forms of yellows, blight, root-
tumor, scab, black-knot, etc., I invite the earnest attention of
fruit-growers everywhere, and a full, exhaustive, friendly crit-
icism. I am wedded to no theory, or bound by no prejudice,
but simply follow where I think truth points her finger.

As to my theory of inherent bacteria, whether it be right
or wrong, it is a matter of small moment, provided I have
shown that a close root-pruned tree, if treated rationally, will
never afford the conditions for the development of any of
those bacterial diseases, and in this I think I have succeeded.
And now to the first cause, which I claim to be a radically
wrong form of tree when set.

The Revolution in Tree Planting. — It is about eight
years since I first announced in Farm and Ranch that the
theory and practice of tree planting, as handed down from
time immemorial, was wrong, and that, instead of the more
roots a tree has when reset the better, the very opposite was
true. I then gave a full history of how I happened to hit
upon this truth, as well as a detailed account of various ex-
periments upon a great many kinds of fruit and shade trees,
that demonstrated beyond all doubt the truth of my state-
ment. I also adduced many isolated facts from the experi-
ence of others going to corroborate my own.

So absurd did the idea of cutting off all the roots of a
tree seem even to very many prominent horticulturists, that
though I then wrote to quite a number all over the country,
the invariable answer was : " While such treatment may suc-
ceed with you, it would be out of the question here." The

CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING. 83

fact is, we inherit our opinions and ideas just as well as the
peculiarities of our bodies, and so true is this that the con-
trary of their beliefs is positively unthinkable to many men.
An instance of this came to me in a letter from one of our
most progressive Texas nurserymen. He wrote: " I have
been practicing close root-pruning with perfect success for
some years, and yet my father, who is seventy years old, and
sees the good results every year, won' t admit them, but persists
in sa3'ing that ' if the roots were not necessary they wouldn't
be put there.' " So firmly, indeed, has this long-root fallacy
become imbedded in the human mind by ages of practice,
that even a man of Chas. Downing's eminence in horticulture
declares in his great work that the "ideal transplanting"
would be to take up a tree with its roots entire. That this
would be absolutely the very worst form, anyone can easily
demonstrate for himself. Let him take, for instance, two
peach or other tree seeds, and plant a few inches apart in,
say a ten-inch pot of good, rich soil. At the end of next
}'ear, let him take them out and carefully shake off all the soil
from the roots, and plant side by side in the open ground.
Let him spread out in a large hole all the roots of one tree,
according to the inherited regulation method, and cut back
all on the other to about one inch, and the top to one foot,
just enough to allow of its being stuck down about six inches,
like a cutting. Treat alike, and in two years the root-pruned
tree will be many times larger than the other. And right
here I wish to say, very particularly, that the great superior-
ity of close root-pruning is not always so apparent the first
year, the tree giving more attention to striking deep roots
than making top. Even for several years, we all know that
trees as ordinarily set do well, but this is due to the fact that
a large amount of root is removed even then. But a com-
parison with these will prove that when the strain of fruit-
bearing comes, the close-pruned tree, with its roots deep and
strong, out of reach of the plow, winter's cold and summer's
heat and drouth, will stand up for many years, giving good
crops, long after the other, with its lateral and surface sys-
tem, has broken down and died. How else are we to

04 iHE NEW HORTICULTURE.

account for the early decadence of our latter-day orchards ?
The planter, in his haste for fruit, demands big trees, with
plenty of roots and top, to support which, and to make them
live, the nurseryman often transplants several times. This
gives a mass of fibrous roots, which will undoubtedly, if the
season is good, make the trees live, but practically dwarfs
them and destroys their future usefulness. While Samson
lost his strength by cutting off his hair, a tree is forever
weakened by leaving its "hair" roots on when set, for it
seems then compelled to re-establish itself by emitting new
fibrous roots entirely from these. This results in a perma-
nently lateral and surface system. Sink a spade around such
a tree a year, or even two, after planting, and a slight pull
will lift it from the ground, but a short root-pruned tree will
resist any effort. The whole theory of the latter method is
simply copying nature. She starts her trees from seed with
neither tops or roots, and universal experience has shown
that these, and trees grown from cuttings (which are prac-
tically seed), if never moved, are the strongest, healthiest,
longest-lived and most productive. The advantages I claim
for this method over the all-important one of giving far
better trees are :

1. An enormous saving to the nurseryman in digging
his stock, which now must be taken up with roots a foot or
more long.

2. An equally great saving in packing. Instead of
great bales of tops, roots, moss, bagging and rope, and the
labor of putting up the same, or large boxes containing thou-
sands of pounds of the same useless dead weight, a thousand
root- and top-pruned trees could be packed in a medium-sized
tight box, with a layer of wet moss in the bottom to main-
tain a moist atmosphere, and shipped with perfect safety
around the world.

3. The saving to the buyer will be even greater. As
an instance, several years ago I ordered five thousand grape
vines from California, and wrote specific directions for root
and top-pruning, as well as packing, and offered to pay for
the extra pruning, the box to be sent by express. The nur-

CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING. 85

seryman, setting aie down for a crank or fool, packed the
vines, top, roots and all, in three immense bales, weighing
1,300 pounds, for which he got a special rate, and yet they
cost me sixty-seven dollars charges. I pruned and packed
them in a single bale weighing 227 pounds, shipping them
250 miles, after which they were set by being simply stuck
down into shallow, pulverized ground and tramped, the whole
operation taking but two days. Every vine grew, and the
next summer, the third year, I expect to ship grapes by the
car load. It would be hard to estimate how many hundreds
of thousands of dollars are annually paid by planters to rail-
roads, in charges on worse than useless tops, roots and
packing.

4. Thousands of dollars will be saved in the plant-
ing. Instead of large holes, and spreading out of roots,
working in the soil by hand, etc., as now practiced, the
planter will prepare his ground, stretch a strong line, with
tags tied at the right intervals, make a small hole with a
dibble a couple of inches in diameter, stick the trees down
the proper distance, and when a row is done turn back and
tramp thoroughly. This is very important.

5. Another most important advantage is, that by this
method we reduce to a minimum the danger of spreading all
kinds of diseases and insect pests, such as eel-worm, root
tumor, scales, root-lice, etc. These are mostly found on
the tops or long roots.

6. It enables the planter to set extra-large trees, which
the nurseryman now has to throw away, and thus obtain
fruit much sooner.

I will now repeat directions for root-pruning. Hold the
tree top down, and cut all roots back to about an inch, slop-
ing the cuts so that when the tree is set the cut surface is
downwards. Experience has shown that the roots are gene-
rally emitted perpendicularly to the plane, or surface of the
cut. This final pruning should be done shortly before plant-
ing, so as to present a fresh surface for the callus to form on.
If trees are to be kept some time, or shipped by a nursery-
man, about two inches of root should be left, the planter to

86 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

cut back as directed when the tree is set. About a foot of
top should be left. More or less makes no difference. If the
tree is well staked, three feet may be left without diminishing
the growth much. I have had six-foot trees, well staked, to
grow finely, but to avoid staking and to secure a new,
straight body, it is best to cut back short. Let all shoots
grow until a foot or so long, when the straightest and best
one should be left and all others rubbed off. I could give
the experience and endorsement of quite a number of orchard-
ists who have practiced this method with uniform success,
but it is necessary to mention only one. Without waiting
for the slow demonstration of experience, he at once put it in
practice on his great nine hundred-acre peach orchard of one
hundred thousand trees, which he was about to plant in
Georgia. I wrote him recently as to how it turned out.
Here is the reply :

Dear Sir : I am glad to state that the close root-pruning, which
was practiced when planting our entire orchard of one hundred thou-
sand trees at Fort Valley, Georgia, proved to be the most successful
operation we ever practiced, less than one-half of one per cent, of
the trees failing to grow, and all making the most vigorous and even
growth I have ever seen in any orchard in America. The orchard is
now three years old, and gave us an enormous crop of fruit this past
season. I am thoroughly in favor of this system of root-pruning.
Yours very truly, J. H. HALE,

And now, in conclusion, in view of the fact that my indi-
vidual efforts for eight years have amounted to practically
nothing, the question is, how to bring about, in the general
handling of trees, this radical but needed reform. I see but
two ways. The first through the medium of the nurseryman
and his catalogue, and the second through the bulletins of
the experiment stations.

Quite a number of nurserymen, some of them the most
extensive in the Union, have written me that they are now
practicing this method exclusively, and with perfect success,
in all their nursery transplanting operations, but they dare
not advise the people to adopt it, for fear of being accused of
trying to induce them to kill their trees, so as to sell them
more next season. Now, let all of them make mention of the
subject in their future catalogues. Next, let the state experi-

CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING.

87

TREE GROWN FROM A ROOT-PR'JNtU
ONE, AT END OF FIRST YEAR.

TREE GROWN FROM A LONG-ROOTED
ONE, AT END OF FIRST YEAR.

,

88 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

ment stations make exhaustive trials on all kinds of trees,
vines and small fruits, planting some with mere stubs of roots,
lialf an inch, and others with five, ten, fifteen and twenty-inch
length, setting enough of each to allow of taking up some
every year to demonstrate at once that beyond a length of one
inch, the quantity and size of the new roots is invariably in
an inverse ratio to the amount of old roots left on. The
more and longer the old, the more lateral and weaker the new
ones. Let them subject trees of different ages and lengths of
tops, up to four or five years or more, to the same treatment,
and the result will be the same. The older close root-pruned,
even with four-foot tops, will, if staked, quickly reestablish
themselves on strong, deep, new roots and make fine trees,
while the same age long-rooted ones will become permanently
surface-rooted and dwarfed forever. But it is much better to
cut back the tops to one foot, and form an entirely new head,
as from a seed.

In planting an orchard of any fruit after this method, I
would most earnestly advise, even on ground thought to be
rich, that each tree be w'ell top-dressed, .after being set, with
cotton-seed meal, well rotted barnyard manure, or other fer-
tilizer, except fresh stable manure, ^ut fiever put manure of
any kind, except plain bone meal, in the hole or around the base of
a close root-pruned tree, and see then that it is well mixed with
the soil. This fertilizing will force a strong initial growth,
and thus induce the trees to strike many and deep, perpen-
dicular roots, and if correctly root-pruned, as shown by the
tree I hold in my left hand in the cut, few or no lateral roots
will be emitted for several years, the trees confining their at-
tention entirely, by instinct, to anchoring themselves deep in
the moist earth, thus enabling them to resist any drouth, and
face unmoved the fiercest storms. No wind can shake or
loosen the hold of a close root-pruned tree, no matter how
high the future head, or long the trunk. Such trees will make,
as they did for Mr. Hale, a perfectly uniform growth, and if
propagated from bearing trees, as all should be, will all come
into bearing at the same time, and mature to full size, with-
out thinning, crops that would paralyze trees planted with

CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING. 89

long roots. Of course, removing some of the smaller fruit
would somewhat increase the size of the balance, but all will
be large, and thinning might be necessary only to keep the
limbs from breaking. Give full distance between the rows of
all close root-pruned fruit trees, and run them north and
south, if practicable. Trees propagated from settled bearing
ones Avill fruit full the third year for peaches, apricots and
plums, and the fourth or fifth year for pears and apples, and
it will be economy to plant in the rows of the latter fruits an
extra tree between, to fruit for five or ten years, until those
hitended to make the permanent orchard require the space.
Air and sunshine are necessities for bright, clean, high-col-
ored fruit, and shade breeds fungi, except on grapes, which
often thrive in it.

I append the following note of comment on the above
article by that prince of careful, painstaking originators,
whose name is known and honored wherever fruit is grown,
Mr. Luther Burbank, to whom I sent a copy last winter:

Santa Rosa, January S, i8g6.
H. M. Stringfellow.

Dear Sir — Thanks for your courtesy in sending me your very val-
uable and thought-suggesting essay. From my own past experience,
I believe you are right. I have used for years a one-inch root and
five-inch scion for root-grafting, and, strange to say, in an experi-
ment ten years ago to test the matter, I used one-inch roots with
five-inch scions, and from the same lot of roots and scions some
three-inch roots and three-inch scions. In the long rows thus under
test, I could see no difference (apple and pear) in the stand, but in
the case of the pears, the shorter roots produced the largest and best
trees. Apples were nearly ahke. I usually cut back very heavily,
but so far have not practiced such heroic treatment as you suggest.
But as I said before, think you are right, and shall test it here. If
it be true, what a grand result your studies have led up to, and in
any case can result only in good !

Sincerely yours,

Luther Burbank.

As corroborative of the great fundamental truth of close
root pruning, thus imitating nature's method of seed, I will
next introduce the exhaustive experiments made and pub-
lished some years ago by Prof. T. L. Brunk.

CHAPTER V.

Root Pruning — How Demonstrated at Washington.

A SYSTEM OF TREATMENT AT TRANSPLANTING WHICH
DISPROVES OLD THEORIES.

BY THOS. L. BRUNK,

Former Professor of Botany and Horticulture, Maryland Agricultural College
and Experiment Station, Mayfair, Cook County, 111.

IT has long been the belief that in removing a tree from
the nursery, the ideal operation would be to save every
root and rootlet intact, that the shock of transplanting
may be reduced to the minimum. Downing states: "A
transplanter should never forget that it is by the delicate and
tender points or extremities of the root that trees take up
their food, and that the chance of complete success is les-
sened by every one of these points that is bruised and de-
stroyed. If we could remove trees with every fiber entire, as
we do a plant in a pot, they would scarcely show any sign of
their change of position. In most cases, especially in that
of trees taken from nurseries, this is, by the operation of
removal, nearly impossible. But, although we may not
hope to get every root entire, we may, with proper care, pre-
serve by far the larger portion of them, and more particu-
larly the small and delicate fibers."

Thomas says : "If a tree could be removed with all its
roots, including the numerous thread-like radicals and all the
spongelets, and placed compactly in the soil, precisely as it
stood before, it would suffer no check in growth. The nearer
we can approach this condition, therefore, the greater will be
our success." — American Fruit Culturist, p. 39.

Numerous citations could be made similar to the above ;
in fact, I do not find that any of our highest authorities vary
from the ideas expressed in them. They all advocate trans-

(90J

ROOT-PRUNING — HOW DEMONSTRATED. gi

planting a tree with as many roots attached as it is practica-
ble to remove with it. It would seem at first that there is
overwhelming evidence against any other course of reasoning
that may be applied to this subject. The roots are the
absorbing organs, which take up from the food-stored soil all
the water and the larger part of the mineral and solid foods
which pnter into the composition of a tree. It seems irre-
futable that if any of the absorbing area is removed, the tree
is thereb}' shortened in its food supply in the same direct pro-
portion. It must be admitted that this is true if done during
the growing season, when the "sap " {protoplasm) of a tree is
in a state of activity ; but is it the case during the period of
rest, when the "sap" is in a thickened, inactive, non-trans-
ferable condition ? It is the conditions a plant takes on dur-
ing its inactive stage that do not seem to have been consid-
ered by our older writers on practical horticulture. Plant
physiologists have understood these conditions well, and
have shown that "sap" does not "go down to the roots" in
fall and return to the parts above ground in spring, as is so
commonly believed. They tell us (and common observation
proves it) that the "sap" toward fall gradually thickens and
ripens as growth above lessens, till finall}^ it becomes com-
pletely immobile; but during this inactive stage it does not
lose its power to return to active life when the warmth of
spring returns.

In this stage of a woody plant, parts of it may be removed
that may become new individuals if placed under proper con-
ditions of heat and moisture. Most of our fruit trees may
be propagated from either cuttings of shoots or of the roots.
If a piece of tree (cutting) will grow without roots, what
must that argue as to the condition and nature of the sap
within such cuttings ? Microscopic sections of such cuttings
show that the young wood cells are stored full of starch and
other concentrated food materials. When spring comes, with
plenty of heat and moisture, this stored food is transformed
into these simpler and more easily transferred food materials
which a plant can use in growth.

This requires but a small amount of water, which is

92 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

readily absorbed through the bark of young shoots and
through the thin walled cells at the cut end. This starts
growth and activity. But before growth can proceed to any
appreciable extent, the cutting must make provision for a
specialized absorbing surface in the soil. This is done by
throwing out at first a set of delicate multiplying cells from
the layer of young, growing and dividing cells just t)eneath
the bark at the lower end. This white ring of protruding
cells is known technically as the "callus." Nurserymen
usually assist cuttings to form this callus early in the season,
and before placing them in the nursery row, so that root
growth may be sure to precede leaf growth', as leaf growth
before the initial steps of root formation take place usually
proves fatal to the cutting.

From this callus the young rootlets proceed rapidly, and
as they operate in an area so near the cutting, it is led with
less effort and more rapidly by a few roots than it could be
by a greater number located farther away. Moreover, it is
learned from a rooted cutting, that it forms a set of roots
that take a direction in the soil similar to those of a seedling
of the same variety ; or, in other words, forms its roots, both
of direction and penetration into the soil, and in a uniform
radiation about the trunk, compatible with its nature and
habits of growth.

Some authorities state that a cutting makes a "duck-
footed" set of roots. Observation over a wide field of cut-
tings, and of latitude and climate in which they have been
grown, to my mind thoroughly disproves any such statement.
I have seen Le Conte pear cuttings grown upon the heaviest
clay subsoils of the coast region, near Galveston, Texas, that
had sent down vertical roots, penetrating the soil over four
feet the first season. Some tests, made in a small way with
nursery trees and stock, gave results conclusive enough to
show that an imjjortant subject had been undertaken, and
that it would justify a test on a larger scale. In April, i8go,
170 Reeves Favorite peach trees, budded on Japan stock,
ninety-five Ben Davis and ninety-five Red Astrachan apple
trees — all budded, maiden trees — were procured for this test.

ROOT-PRUNING HOW DEMONSTRATED. 93

One-third of each of these kinds were root and top-pruned,
leaving only prongs of roots one to three inches long ; one-
third were pruned so that the roots were from five to seven
inches long, and the remaining third were not root-pruned,
except that the ends of badly mutilated roots were removed.
The tops were in every case removed, leaving the apples
about 2^ feet long, peaches twenty inches, and pears about
sixteen inches. No selection was made from the total num-
ber of trees for each lot, except that the poorest rooted ones,
when otherwise of the same vigor, were selected to be
pruned, thus giving a seeming advantage to the unpruned
trees. The pear trees were cut at a point about sixteen
inches from the root, and with special reference to five or six
good buds to be used as the basis of future limb growth.

The trees were all set side by side in a uniform soil, about
six inches deep, in a common plow furrow. Those that were
root-pruned were set with three or four times the speed of
those with a mass of roots, to be carefully placed and
arranged as they were in the nursery. They all received fair
culture, such as would be given by any orchardist, with a com-
mon Iron Age cultivator. Notes were taken several times
during the growing season, and at intervals a few of each set
were taken up and the growth and character of the roots
noted. Photography was freely used to record the features
of growth.

By July II the unpruned peach trees had made consider-
ably more growth than the root-pruned trees. The apples
and pears showed at that time only slight differences of
growth in favor of the unpruned trees. The first few months
the root-pruned trees do not start a very rapid growth, but by
fall overtake or exceed the growth of the un-root-pruned.
We did not lose a single tree from any of the sets.

By fall the unpruned peach trees had made a little more
growth than the root- pruned, but they were not of as even a
growth as the root-pruned.

In case of the pears, the root-pruned were far more uni-
form in growth, and anyone could see that they had outgrown
those that started the season with a full set of roots.

94 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

The apples showed about the same growth in both cases;
no one could have told which was which by fall without the
map. The examinations of the roots during the summer de-
veloped some interesting facts. The first thing noticed on
removing the trees from the soil was that the old roots had
retained all their malformations, twistings and the horizontal
position they had acquired some way in the nursery or in
packing. At least they were just the same as they would
have been if cut by the most careful planters. The several
figures bring out this feature very forcibly. Nearly all the
young feeding roots grew from the tip ends of the old roots,
leaving them bare, even when over a foot long. Only an
occasional new lateral root was found. This threw all the
absorbing surface some distance from the trunk. Plant phy-
siology gives us a general law which states that the farther
sap has to travel, and the more devious its path of transfer
from the root absorbents (root hairs) to the leaves, the less
the growth and vigor of that plant in a given period of time.
Sap is retarded in its circulation, and wood formation cannot
go on as rapidly as in cases where the sap travels short, direct
paths. In all young trees, wood is the first and indispensible
product of growth to form a proper basis for future fruitful-
ness. After a tree is well developed and supplied with
strong, stocky branches, it is then time to retard the sap flow
and cause fruit buds to form.

In the root-pruned trees, the young rootlets sprang as
readily from the large circle of cambium at the ends of the
short root stubs as from the ends of the longer roots. They
came out, too, in greater numbers than on the old roots on
unpruned trees, the raJ:io being about ten to three. These
young roots clustered close about the trunk of the tree, m:tk-
ing the least possible distance for the sap to travel. It
seemed evident, also, that new roots developed much faster
where the sap traveled short distances. The cut ends by fall
had in most cases completely healed over, leaving no place
for rot to start.

Another very important feature in the growth of young
rootlets noted, is that those on the unpruned roots took

KOOr-PKUNING — HOW DEMONSTRATED. 95

about the same direction of growth in tiie soil as the old root
was placed when planted. If horizontal, the young roots
grew off horizontally ; if inclined downward at an angle, the
young roots assumed about the same angle. In the root-
pruned trees the young roots had very little to guide their
growth, leaving them to take such angles as are found in
seedling roots of the same variety. In other words, they
were put into such a condition by a removal of nearly all the
roots back to the collar, that they could take on a new root
system compatible with their nature, needs and seedling
habits of growth. By the old method, an unnatural system
of roots are forced upon a tree. This system of roots is usu-
ally irregular, one-sided and poorly directed in its growth.
Such trees are usually surface-rooted, having but few, if any,
deep, penetrating roots, with which to supply the tree with
an abundance of water. Drouth and deep freezing are agents
that act upon and shorten the lives of such trees.

The newly formed roots on the root-pruned peach trees
were found to penetrate the soil at an average angle of about
forty degrees. Those on unpruned trees were horizontal and
surface-feeding. The pear was about the same as the peach,
with perhaps more that penetrated deeper from the root-
pruned trees. The Ben Davis apple followed its old record
of holding its roots rather close to the surface.

The next season other kinds of trees, and more of peaches
and apples, were added to the experiment, to note the effects
of a different season and to give a wider range to the tests.
Wild Goose and Marianna plums on Marianna roots. Black
Tartarian cherry on Mazzard roots, Mahaleb cherry, Norway
spruce, hemlock, Lawson cypress, altheas, privet and red
cedar were added to the list. By June 23 the peach and
apple trees — root-pruned the same as those of last season —
succeeded about the same as those planted last year. This
season had not been as wet as last, and we had just passed
through a fairly severe drouth. The root-pruned plums are
outgrowing the unpruned. The Black Tartarian cherry trees
are not doing as well. Two have died, and others are not
thriving. This may be due, however, to the wetness of the

96 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

location and the tendenc}' of the soil to bake just where they
stand. Those top-pruned and roots left intact are thriving
best. The Mahaleb trees are doing well.

The Norway spruce trees show but little signs of living
under the treatment. Only one out of three is living, but it
has made a fair growth. Those with roots left on are growing
freely. The hemlocks fared even worse than the Norway
spruce. Two out of three are yet living, but have not grown
any, and dry weather will likely kill them. Of the Lawson
cypress, one is living, but has made very little growth. It
will probably live. Those, however, not pruned at all are
doing very well. Two have made no new growth. There is
very little difference between the two sets of California privet.
Both have thrown out shoots from four to eight inches long,
those with unpruned roots slightly in the lead. The root-
pruned altheas are starting slowly, but none have died or will
likely die. The red cedar {^Juniperus Virginiana) shows no
difference between the two sets. All these trees were set
April 16, 1892. [Entirely too late. — h. m. s.]

This season shows that the root-pruned peach trees set out
last year are equal in growth and size to those unpruned.
The apple trees are equal in size, and the root-pruned pears
are larger than their checks.

Some of the trees planted last year that were taken up
during the fall and winter to be photographed and examined
were root-pruned and set out again last April. They have
thus far made a growth equal to and even greater than a few
that were not root-pruned. This shows the successful growth
of a two-year-old root-pruned tree. This is about the extent
of the evidence thus far gathered from the tests I have made.
As the trees acquire age, they will show, no doubt, other facts
that cannot be presented now, except as observed in orchards
in other parts of the United States, where the root-pruned
trees excel. *

For further evidence on this important and even revolu-
tionary system, I will cite some trials that point very emphati-
cally to the merits of this system.

The honor of first discovering the practicability of this

i

ROOT-PRUNING HOW DEMONSTRATED. 97

method of treating trees, and of recently bringing the system
prominently before the public, is due to Mr. H. M. String-
fellow, of Hitchcock, Texas, near Galveston. Mr. Stringfel-
low is a well-informed gentleman, a college graduate, a care-
ful and close observer of nature, and is an enthusiastic,
sagacious fruit-grower and nurseryman on the coast plains
of Texas. Fourteen years ago he planted a Le Conte and
Kieffer pear orchard, which was pronounced by about sixty
members of the American Horticultural* Society who passed
through it in February, i8go, to be the finest orchard of the
kind they had seen, and probably the finest in America, for
its uniformity of growth and the utility and beauty of its
training. From the first of this orchard enterprise, Mr.
Stringfellow began a study of tree growth, and made many
tests which proved to him that our old methods of trans-
planting and training were very erroneous, and he concluded
that the nearer we can approach to a seedling when our trees
are set, the longer lived, healthier and more productive they
will be.

His tests were all made in the coast regions of Texas,
where pear trees grow freely from cuttings ; and, in fact, cut-
tings of most trees grow easily. But the evidence of others
shows that root-pruning succeeds in various parts of our
country.

Samuel Edwards, of North Peoria, 111., gives an account
in the Fruii- Growers'' Journal, of a lot of three-year-old
assorted trees he bought from a Rochester (N. Y.) nursery-
man, and which were so delayed on the road and so frozen
that the roots were badly damaged. He cut off the tops to
about two feet and the roots close to the bodies, and set
them out as an experiment. He says they all grew finely,
making handsome, fruitful trees.

O. E. Hine, of Vienna, Va., told me that several years
ago he received a number of two-year old silver maple trees,
with badly mutilated roots. He cut away most of the roots,
reduced the tops and planted them. They have proved to
be fine, thrifty trees.

A. W. Harrison, of Alexandria, Va. , tells me that when

7 — HOKT.

98 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

living at Montclair, N. J., he transplanted a number of elm
trees from the forest to his land. He pruned away nearly all
the roots and all the top except a straight pole about eight
feet high. These trees are living to-day, and are fine models
of vigor and beauty.

C. W. Campbell says in the Florida Dispatch and Fruit
Grower of December 31, i8gi : "For a month during our
dryest weather I had been transplanting orange trees, and
will here say that I followed the plan of cutting the roots
short and cutting back the top so severely as to leave but
little of it. As a result, I have never had so good success.
Out of five hundred trees, I will not lose one, though I never
planted when it seemed so unfavorable as last October. In
February, 1886, to save as much top as possible, I dug the
roots as long as I could possibly get them, and out of five
hundred I don't believe there are fifty living to-day, and they
have never made a good growth."

J. H. Hale, of South Glastonbury, Conn., writes me thus:
" You will recollect talking with me at the Pomological Meet-
ing in Washington last September in regard to root-pruning
of peach trees at time of planting. Perhaps it will interest
you to know that in planting an orchard of more than one
hundred thousand trees at Fort Valley, Ga., the past winter,
we root-pruned the whole of them ; and now our orchard
superintendent reports that they are making a wonderful new
growth, and so far, not a missing tree can be found in the
whole hundred thousand."

M. B. Sturgus, of Hanover, Jefferson County, Ind.
(southern part, in Ohio Valley), tells me that he planted an
orchard of peach trees, and the roots of a large part of the
trees were so poor and mutilated that he cut them back
severely. After a year's growth, the root-pruned, to a tree,
were much finer than those not root-pruned.

I have heard of other smaller tests that resulted the same
as those cited above. It is needless, however, to multiply
instances where root-pruning at the time of transplanting has
been successfully tried. The best and most conclusive
evidence is that resulting from a personal trial, and that at

ROOT-PRUNING HOW DEMONSTRATED. QQ

least every grower of trees should make. It should be stated
that it is best to set root-pruned trees in the spring, as they
are more apt to be heaved than other trees if planted in the
fall. In the South they can be set in November to advantage,
as they will callus at once and form roots somewhat during
the late fall and winter.

With all this empirical evidence from the various sections
of our country, and my own experiments, I believe I am safe
in stating that this method of treating trees is destined to
supplant old methods to a large extent, and with a larger
range of species and varieties than has yet been tried, and
that it has a number of important advantages over old
methods which will give a new stimulus to fruit growing,
and result in a new system of training and after-treatment
of orchards.

Note. — See chapter on " Best Time and Depth to Plant Close Root-
pruned Trees." for remarks on Prof. Brunk's article.

CHAPTER VI.

Right and Wrong Close Root-Pruning.

I WISH particularly to call attention to the fact that the
chief object in close root-pruning is to concentrate all
the vital energy of the newly set tree on a limited root-
surface, and compel it to strike several strong, perpendicular
tap-roots, and while doing this, not to allow its attention to be
diverted to forming side or lateral roots at the same time.
By examining the accompanying illustration, Fig. i, it will be
seen that all seedling and transplanted trees should be cut
back close below the collar, and just under the first good side
roots, and not leave any length of the main or tap-root, with
side roots cut back, as in Fig. 2. Such trees will invariably
at once strike a great many lateral and surface roots also,
while the properly root-pruned tree will, the first season, con-
fine itself almost entirely to making strong, deep ones, with
perhaps less top, though the second year will always remedy
that. If the trees should be too large to root-prune with the
shears or knife, saw off the tops to fifteen or eighteen inches,
lay the tree on its side, and saw off all the roots squarely just
below the crown or collar. Trim the sawed edges with a
knife to make them callus more quickly. As stated else-
where, large trees can be treated thus, as six-year-old pear
and grape vines at Hitchcock are now fruiting, that have
renewed their strength like young trees, it being a general
law of nature that once a tree, especially an old one, is taken
from the ground, the old roots are an encumbrance, and its
former strength, vigor and health can only be renewed by
compelling it to re-establish itself, as before, on an entirely
new system.

And now, in answer to many inquiries as to the size of
trees which may be successfully transplanted. If closely
root-pruned, there is scarcely any limit. While universal

(100)

RIGHT AND WRONG CLOSE ROOT-PRUNING.

Id

experience has shown, beyond all doubt, that fruit trees and
grape vines over three or four years of age, if set with long
and fibrous roots, are inferior to smaller ones, the rule by no
means holds good with close root-pruned trees, for a very

Rlljlll Ll-DSK KUO r-l'RUMM-..

\\'Kij.M> CLOSIi RUOT-PRUNI.Nl.

valuable and important point in close root-pruning is, that it
can be utilized to make living fence posts for newly enclosed
farms, fields or orchards. A china, cotton-wood, willow,
hackberry or sycamore, and, I presume other forest trees of

I02 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

large size, even six inches or more in diameter, can be dug,
all the roots cut back close to the body and tops to five or six
feet, and planted quite deep, just like a fence post, well ram-
med, and wire stretched, and every one of the trees named
will grow off quickly and make nice heads by fall, and large
trees the second season. Every orchard should have such a
windbreak around and through it at wide intervals. Not an
evergreen one, to keep off the cold, but a deciduous one, to
break the force of summer and fall winds, that every year
lash thousands of bushels of half grown and also ripe fruit
from the trees. I lost in a single storm, some years ago, over
two thousand bushels of pears, blown down in an hour amd
buried in the mud. The cottonwood is by far the best of all
trees here for such a windbreak, as it grows very tall, and
will stand any storm, if grown from cuttings or root-pruned
trees. If care be taken to select cuttings from male trees,
the nuisance of seed and cotton will be avoided. I had at
Hitchcock two ten-acre orchards of Garber and Le Conte
pears, that were both bisected each way with cottonwood
when the pear trees were set, thus cutting each ten-acre lot
into four blocks of 2^ acres, surrounded now on all sides
with tall trees, that let in the breezes for comfort, but com-
pletely break the force of driving summer winds, that would
blow off the fruit. In fact, to plant an orchard without
proper protection is pure gambling, as the Missouri and
Arkansas growers found out last fall. Car load after car load
of windfall Ben Davis and other apples were shipped here
last October, that had been whipped off by a strong wind
storm that swept those states. While the roots of such a
windbreak would be objectionable on vegetable ground, they
do no harm at all to fruit trees, if occasionally fertilized, as is
clearly shown in my orchards.

CHAPTER VII.

Best Time and Depth to Plant.

I AM afraid that many persons will make the mistake of
planting their close root-pruned trees too deep on level
ground, under the erroneous impression that, having
so little root, such a tree will find it difficult to establish
and sustain itself at first. If they will but reflect that the
root-graft and the cutting, which will strike, have no such
trouble, and that nature plants her seeds upon the bare sur-
face of the firm ground, and trusts to the wind, with leaves
and dust, and the rain, to splash a thin covering around or
over them, they must see that a strong, close root-pruned
young tree, with far more vital energy than a seed, cannot
fail to take care of itself, if set five or six inches deep in soil
at all moist and well firmed. Of course, if it be dry that
depth, the trees must be watered when set. But this applies
to sections of the country favored with a reasonably regular
rainfall, and more particularly to level and only slightly roll-
ing ground. On elevated uplands and hills, the depth should
be increased a little, and all through the dryer, hilly half of
our state, comprising West and Northwest Texas, a depth of
one foot would be none too much. Of course, this would
require a total length of eighteen to twenty-four inches of
tree when set. That deep planting is best all through the
latter portions of the state, with its rocky, limestone subsoils,
was clearly demonstrated by Wm. Cook, of Lampasas, one
of the most successful and observing fruit-growers I ever met.
I camped for a month near his orchard, in the suburbs of
Lampasas, fifteen years ago, and was told by him that the
finest, longest-lived and most productive trees of all kinds he
ever grew were planted two feet deep, right up on the rocky
hillside and top, and that he had practically drilled the holes
out of the almost solid limestone soft rock. A little top soil

(HJ3)

I04

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

was put into the bottoms, trees were set two feet deep, the
holes filled two-thirds with surface soil, and a bucket of water
to each hole, the weather having been dry for a long time.
After the ground had settled, the holes were filled level and
well firmed with the foot. The trees, of all kinds, not only
all grew, but no drouth afterwards even seemed to affect
them. The roots had necessarily been cut back quite short,
though he new nothing of the virtue of the method. Of
course, such treatment would be ruinous on level or moder-
ately rolling ground with a clay subsoil. No amount of rain
can ever water-log the rocky, porous subsoils of West Texas
hills, and trees of all kinds should be planted at least twelve
inches deep or deeper, all through that section. The rich val-
leys should be avoided for fruit, not only because of occa-
sional excessive rains, that for a few days render them a bog,
but worse still, because such locations are so subject to late
spring frosts as to render crops too uncertain.

And now, as to the best time for planting close root-
pruned trees in the southern states. If asked the very best
month, I would say December. The young trees to be
moved have then gone completely to rest, and while the
ground is still warm enough to encourage root action, the air
is not sufficiently warm to stimulate a new growth of leaves
after planting, which often happens to trees moved in Novem-
ber, especially if from a more northern latitude. Still, Jan-
uary is nearly as good a month, and all through February
and March, up to the very starting of the leaves, if the soil
is moist, such trees may be planted with perfect success. But
they will not grow off as rapidly, or make as great a total
growth that season, as those planted earlier. At the North
and in the Middle States, as Prof. T. L. Brunk remarks else-
where in his article, if trees with so little root to hold them
down are set in the fall, especially on deeply pulverized soil
(a worse than useless preparation), there might be danger of
heaving from the action of frost. But that heaving could
easily be obviated by banking the earth up entirely over the
one-foot tops, thus protecting them the first season from the
cold, and mice and rabbits as well. The advent of hot

BEST TIME AND DEPTH TO PLANT. I05

weather is so sudden there that I would earnestly recommend
the fall for planting close root-pruned trees all over the Mid-
dle and Northern States. By spring new roots several inches
long will have been struck, and a much stronger growth
secured the first season. As will be seen from Prof. Brunk's
e.xperiments in Maryland, his trees were all planted, both
fruit and evergreen, on the i6th of April, 1892. That was
entirely too late to get the best result the first season. More-
over, something must have been wrong with the trees or con-
ditions, when the althea failed to start and do well, for it
grows almost anywhere like a weed, from a cutting even.
As to the Norway spruce, hemlock and Lawson cypress,
I know nothing, having never seen them. But I do know
that the oranges both sour, sweet and trifoliate, will all grow
off with the greatest vigor from close top and root-pruned
trees, and thousands of orange trees are being thus treated in
Florida the present season. They may also be thus planted
all through June, July and August with perfect success, if an
additional inch and a few fibrous roots are left on. Last
summer I never lost a single one of fifteen hundred young
trifoliata, planted from seed in February and transplanted
into nursery rows in June, when about six inches high. By
fall some of them were three feet high, all having been root
and top-pruned when set, and firmly tramped. However,
with these and other evergreens each one can experiment for
himself, as soil may have something to do with results.

Having now discussed fully the first cause — viz., long
roots— of the general decadence and unfruitfulness of latter-
day apple and pear orchards, and given a summarj^ of my ex-
perience as to the best methods of treating and planting close
root-pruned trees, I will in the next chapter go on with the
investigation.

CHAPTER VIII.

Deep Preparation Wrong.

AND now to the second cause of deteriorated orchards,
which I claim to be the deep plowing and pulverizing
before planting, either of the whole orchard or of sev-
eral feet where the tree is to stand, in the shape of large
holes. It is, indeed, true that such preparation is necessary
for long, fibrous-rooted trees, such as our nurserymen now
furnish by once or twice transplanting, for such trees invari-
ably re-establish themselves on fibrous roots from the old ones,
being unable to penetrate a firm surface or subsoil. More-
over, such a loose, well pulverized hole, or entire plant-bed,
will undoubtedly enable such trees to take hold and make an
excellent growth, and bear well for some years ; but such
preparation is entirely artificial, opposed to nature, and
infallibly lays the foundation for permature decay and death.
In furnishing the trees described a loose, porous seed-bed,
we induce, in fact compel, them to confine themselves
almost entirely to it. I saw a most remarkable example
of this several years ago, near Seguin, in this state. A most
painstaking fruit-grower had prepared a peach orchard after
this fashion, the trees being trimmed high to allow of cultiva-
tion, and the fourth and fifth year gathered crops of excellent
fruit. In the summer of the sixth a terrible rain and wind
storm swept over that section and laid every single one of
those peach trees flat on the ground, with their roots in the
air. I wish every fruit grower could have seen this orchard,
with its surface and lateral root system scarcely one foot in
depth, having had no hold on the subsoil, excepting through
its fibrous roots. Doubtless many have had such an experi-
ence. But suppose these trees had not fallen? Is it not a fair
presumption that their roots, standing for several days in
almost liquid mud, under a July sun, would have been injured ?

(io6)

DEEP PREPARATION WRONG. IO7

But suppose such an excessive rain had fallen at the North,
and the thermometer had dropped below zero, freezing this
one foot of slush and roots as solid as a rock ? Is there any
wonder that trees exposed to such conditions for a few years,
and, as a rule, allowed to overbear, should soon yield inferior
crops, and die young ? While the peach would suffer most,
no tree can stand such treatment uninjured. So much for
reason and experience against a deeply-stirred surface soil.

Now, let us turn to nature. As I said before, she plants
her trees with neither tops or roots, on the surface of the
firm, unbroken soil, and whether it be an apple or an oak, in
the valleys or on the hills, she grows a tree unequalled by all
the care and skill of man. Who subsoiled and pulverized for
the giant red-woods of California, the towering pines of Ore-
gon and the South, the monster sycamores and cottonvvoods
of the Middle States, or dug wide holes and spread out their
roots, carefully fingering in the top soil, for the grand old
hickories, walnuts, elms and oaks that once crowned New
England's rock-ribbed hills? True, these are forest trees;
but how about the old original Seckel pear, the old apple tree
that shaded Roger Williams' grave, and hundreds of ancient
seedlings, of both fruits, that gave bounteous yield to three
and four generations of the Pilgrims' sons ? So much for
nature's testimony in favor of a firm, unbroken soil.

But while all those trees were seedlings, I claim that the
close root-pruned tree is far better than a seedling. The life
force of a seed, while capable, ultimately, of the grand devel-
opments I have named, is primarily very weak. Who would
suspect that the great Charter Oak lay wrapped in the tiny
acorn, which probably made scarcely a foot of growth the
first year, or that the embryo sycamores and cottonwoods
that tower in the river bottoms of the Middle States once
floated down, almost as light as the air itself, and the first
year made but a few inches of growth? And yet a close root-
pruned Cottonwood tree or a cutting will, in this section, often
grow ten feet high the first year. The potentiality of life in
the root-pruned tree is many times greater than in the seed,
and it has the additional advantage of striking several deep

Io8 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

tap-roots instead of one, at the same time sending them
much deeper than a seedhng will. I have repeatedly dug Le
Conte pear trees thus treated in spring, and by fall found four
feet of almost perpendicular roots, and then left them still
going down. (See the pear tree I hold in my right hand, else-
where. ) I once dug, on the 3rd of July, a spring-set tree,
and broke the roots at three feet below the surface, and this
on unbroken prairie sod, with a so-called hard-pan subsoil,
into which a post hole could not be dug except with a ground
auger ! The grass was killed with a hoe and the ground kept
clean with the same, and top-dressed well with cotton-seed
meal raked in. The top measured four feet when dug. The
penetrating power of tree roots is almost incredible. Nobody
here, on Galveston Island, where ground cisterns are often
used, will dare to plant a willow or china tree anywhere near
one. I saw an instance where a willow had driven its roots
through a twelve-inch brick and mortar wall and filled up the
interior almost entirely. I could fill this entire chapter with
instances of the wonderful penetrating power of root-pruned
trees, to which the firmest soil seems to oppose not the
slightest obstruction, but will cite only one — a Herbemont
grape vine at Hitchcock, grown from a cutting, where it
stood for six years, and of large size. I cut the roots to one-
inch stubs and top to twelve inches, after planting about six
inches deep the second time, in as small a hole as I could
make, in ground never broken, at my back door. It was top-
dressed with bone and ashes, after ramming as tight as a post.
It grew two six-feet canes the first year, bore full the sec-
ond, covered a thirty-feet trellis the third, and now rambles
half over a large cottonwood tree, and has borne annually
immense crops of grapes, with never a spraying or a sign of
disease, while all the cultivated Herbemonts in the neighbor-
hood rot nearly every year. It has had liberal dressings of
bone and ashes for eight years, and been cultivated entirely
with the hoe.

As still further demonstrating the superiority of nature's
method of a firm, unbroken soil for seedling and close root-
pruned trees, I will say that a part of my Kieffer orchard at

DEEP PREPARATION WRONG. IO9

Hitchcock, embracing about one-quarter of an acre, was
originally a pond, which I had filled up fully two feet with
good surface soil before the trees were set. I expected to
see an extraordinary growth on this spot, and was greatly
surprised, at the end of two years, to find them steadily fall-
ing behind the balance, that stood on ground broken only
four or five inches. To remedy this, to me, then, most mys-
terious condition of things, I yearly applied an increased
quantity of fertilizer to this spot, but without avail, and now,
at the end of fourteen years, it is plainly discernible by the
inferior size of the trees that stand upon it.

I will now close this part of my subject with a letter
recently received from Mr. C. B. Patterson, of Payne's
Depot, Scott County, Ky.

Mr. H. M. Stringfellow.

Dear Sir — Having read with great interest your article in Texas
Farm and Ranch on the subject of " A Deep Preparation of the
Ground for Trees Wrong," please allow me to thank you for a per-
fectly clear explanation of a mystery in horticulture that greatly
puzzled my old father, now dead, as well as myself, and all my
neighbors who know the fact. The old man was always a great lover
of trees, and as the black walnut is a natural growth here, wherever
the squirrels hid the nuts in fall, around in the scattering woods, that
stood on his virgin pasture soil, as they often did, he would fence in
the young groves in spots where the trees came up, to protect them
from the stock. In a few years, tall, vigorous, handsome walnut
groves rewarded his care, with no other attention, for the young trees
seemed to laugh at the blue-grass sod. But wishing to extend these
plantings to a place neglected by the squirrels when they hid their
winter store, my father one day announced his intention of beating
them as a tree grower, and accordingly fenced off several acres,
which he had plowed and harrowed several times, and most
thoroughly prepared. When all was ready the places were checked
off, and, like the squirrels, he planted the nuts. They came up
nicely, and had the best of attention for several years, when he
turned them over to the grass as the squirrels' trees were. But all
to no purpose, for from the very first, in spite of all his care, he never
could make his trees grow like theirs, and died in total ignorance as
to how or why they beat him. This was twenty years or more ago,
and the trees are still standing here, to show for themselves, not
more than half as high or large as those planted by the squirrels
on the unbroken virgin sod. It affords me great pleasure to furnish
you this living and unanswerable proof of the correctness of your
position, that for tree seed, and, I presume, your close root-pruned
trees, which you claim to be even superior to seed, a firm, unbrokea

no J HE NEW HORTICULTURE.

soil, like nature chooses, is better than any preparation man can
make. I will further add that about ten years ago I turned out a
part of a cultivated field adjoining that woodland pasture, and the
squirrels have tried their hands on it also, but with no better luck
than my father, for the trees are just as scrubby and inferior to those
alongside in the woods, as were his, and we call them "cornfield"
walnuts, to designate their inferiority.

Yours very truly,

C. B. Patterson.

A few days after receiving this letter, I came across the
following, in the New York Sun, which was so strongly cor-
roborative that I cut ic out :

The finest shipment of walnut for 1895 came from Texas, but as
a rule Indiana walnut is the best. Kentucky has more than any
other state, but it does not average as high as in Indiana. The
largest walnut mill in the world is in Chicago, and it uses about three
thousand car loads a year. Fifty dollars per thousand is about the
average price for the best grade of walnut, and this is all natural
forest if row f/i, what is known as "cornfield" walnut being hard, irregu-
lar, and has more or less windshakes. Figured walnut is very
costly, and is used for veneering. One man in West Virginia owns a
figured tree which cost him one thousand dollars, for which he has
refused three thousand, and asks four thousand, there being over six
thousand feet of lumber in it.

With all this indisputable evidence of the vast superiority
of the firm, solid seed-bed, on which nature plants her trees,
is it possible to resist the conclusion that, while poor, long,
fibrous-rooted trees need soft ground and to be "fed with a
spoon," the sturdy seedling and close root-pruned tree de-
light to overcome the resistance of unbroken ground ?

CHAPTER IX.

Cultivation.

THE following remarks are intended to be of general
application all over the country, but in regard to the
peach, I would especiall}' commend them to our coast
country fruit-growers. If asked the very best location and
treatment for a peach orchard here, I would answer most em-
phatically, one broken just as shallow as possible, and with
root-pruned trees, planted in as small holes as possible, and
rammed tight. Or, better still, the unbroken prairie sod, the
grass being killed for a foot or so where the trees are to stand,
and the whole ground " cultivated " with a mowing machine
often enough to keep the grass down to within four or five
inches at the outside, and better less. Root-pruned trees on
fairly well drained ground, thus treated and fertilized moder-
ately, will live for many years and bear fine crops of large
fruit, while those on deeply stirred soil and annually plowed
will invariably die inside of six years ; at least those set with
long roots will, and very likely the root-pruned also, for the
peach cannot stand a loose surfaced, saturated soil in this
level country.

Having shown, first, that a long and fibrous-rooted is a
radically wrong form of tree for planting ; and secondly, that
large holes and a deeply pulverized soil, in which such trees
are ordinarily set, and which they fill in a few years with the
bulk of their roots, are receptacles for holding the semi-stag-
nant water, often for days, even on well-drained ground, dur-
ing and after continued heavy rains, followed by scalding sun-
shine in summer and also intense cold in winter at the North,
I will now take up the third probable cause of the early de-
cline and death of many latter-day orchards, especially the
peach, and that is, the annual more or less deep plowing to
which nearly all are subjected, all over the country.

(ill )

112 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

The almost universal practice is to plow at least once a
year, and then cultivate more or less deeply until midsummer.
While the trees are young and vigorous, and for the first few
years of bearing, all such orchards give their best results ; but
when once in full bearing, no surface-rooted trees, especially
the peach, such as I am now describing, can stand the drain,
of a continual cutting of their roots and live long, or give
fruit of marketable size unless heavily fertilized every year,
and at least four-fifths of the crop removed by hand, early in
the season. This is the system hitherto adopted by the suc-
cessful peach grower, Mr. Hale, with his orchards grown from
long-rooted trees, and by which method he manages to make
them profitable for ten or twelve years. Having never tested
it myself on close root-pruned trees, I am very curious to see
how it is going to work on that immense orchard in Georgia,
planted after my method and on ground hitherto skimmed
over a few inches deep for corn and cotton, according to the
usual southern style. For the benefit of those who never
read of it, I will say that Mr. Hale, when the cotton was off,
without any hole digging or additional plowing, simply in-
serted a spade about six inches deep where the trees were to
stand, and, pushing the handle back just far enough to allow
of the little one-inch rooted trees being stuck down behind it,
withdrew the spade and pressed the soil back firmly with the
foot. Of course, the short roots must have rested flat on the
so-called hard-pan or subsoil, that from creation's dawn was
never broken. From what I have read, he is now subsoiling
the middles, intends to plow every winter, and cultivate clean
until midsummer, apply free dressings of bone and potash
annually, and thin out the fruit severely by hand. I will
watch the results with a great deal of interest. Ground be-
comes boggy, after excessive rains, only just so deep as it has
been stirred, and it will become so after such rains for many
years, thus greatly increasing the danger of injury to the
roots as the trees on subsoiled ground get older, as well as
rendering it almost impossible to drive wagons over it, if a
prolonged wet spell should occur when the fruit is ripe.
But to proceed with the surface roots of fruit trees, the

CULIIVATION. 113

intimate relation between which and the fruit itself has been
greatly overlooked. Every careful observer must have noticed
that in orchards, even from long-rooted trees, while young
and growing, the fine, delicate little feeding roots do not hunt
the immediate surface like they do when the trees begin to
bear. While the trees have nothing to do but to grow, these
roots seem content to forage around six inches or more under
the surface, and for this reason, plowing and deep cultivation
during that period seems to do no harm, though cultivation
deeper than necessary for killing grass and weeds is of no
actual benefit to the root-pruned trees, nor in fact to any-
other, and may, on ground not perfectly drained, as noted
above, do harm, after excessive rains. I have often wondered
just what the relation was between each leaf and fruit and the
root, and whether the former were not dependent to a certain
extent on the good offices of certain individual roots on the
surface. That in a general way the perfect development of
the fruit does depend largely on these surface roots can easily
be shown, by selecting a row of trees, for instance, in an
apple orchard that has stood several years in sod. Plow one
row five or six inches deep in spring, and cultivate and mow
the others, never letting the grass get over four inches high.
Fertilize neither, and unless apple trees act differently from
peach and pear trees here, the fruit on the mowed land will
be much the finest. As a further test, apply equal quantities
of a good fertilizer to certain trees on the sod and cultivated
ground, and the difference in favor of the sod will be surpris-
ing. But, returning to the exact relation between the leaves
and roots, the diagram on page 114 clearly shows that to a
certain extent and in a general way there is such a correspond-
ing relation. The diagram represents a bed or section in the
Galveston City Park, through which I pass every day on my
way down town. Having no particular use for the scrapings
from the paved streets, the superintendent concluded to fertil-
ize as well as raise the grade of the whole park about one
foot. This bed was selected as the starting point, and load
after load, largely composed of pulverized horse manure, was
dumped and evenly spread about one foot deep and nicely

8— HOKT.

114

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

raked off. A start was then made on the section adjoining on
the left, but before it was completed a very heavy rain fell,
thoroughly saturating the mass and wetting the sod ground
below. In forty-eight hours, and before work was begun
again, every leaf on the liveoak trees in the center began to
turn brown, and in a week were as dry and dead as if they
had been parched. Two cedar trees that stood about four
feet from the edge were affected similarly, one losing all the
foliage and the other about half. But the point to be noticed
is that the two large liveoaks standing at the immediate angle
of the two manured plots lost their leaves in a triangular

This diagram represents a section of the Galveston City Park. The squares represent
trees — i, i, the large liveoaks ; 2, 2, liveoaks ; 3, 3, the cedars mentioned in the text — the
shaded portions representing living foliage, aud the unshaded dead.

shape, just above and corresponding to the shape of the ma-
nured ground below, while all the balance of the foliage on
both trees over the unmanured ground is still fresh and green,
though two months have gone by. An examination of the
ground will be made next spring to see the effect on the roots,
but so far the young twigs seem to be unhurt. A fair pre-
sumption is that only the fine hair roots were hurt or killed by
the ammonia, but the question is, if those had been fruit trees
about to bloom in spring, would not the destruction of five or
six inches of the surface feeding-roots by the plow instead of
by the manure, have so weakened their vitality as to cause a

CULTIVATION. I I5

failure of the fruit to set, or a subsequent shedding if the sea-
son was bad ? Furthermore, suppose a severe drouth fol-
lowed, as often does, would not the loss of those roots not
only interfere greatly with the development of the crop that
remained, but seriously impair the vitality of the trees them-
selves ? In thousands of orchards over the country this pro-
cess is kept up for years, tearing up the roots from spring till
summer, then leaving the trees the balance of the season for
replacing them, only to repeat the operation of destruction
the next spring.

After adopting a form of tree that induces or compels it
to root shallow, allowing it to bear all it will, and furnishing
it no extra supply of food, is there any wonder, after all this,
supplemented by an annual ripping up of the roots them-
selves, that orchards grow prematurely old ? Of course, I
am now writing of the general run of orchards, to which
there are thousands of honorable exceptions all over the
country, both cultivated and in grass, where careful pruning
and thinning of fruit, as well as a free use of manure and
shallow cultivation, have attained the best results for a time;
but the fact still stands that the profitable bearing period of
all fruit trees has been steadily shortening of late years, and
I feel confident that this is largely due to the three causes
now given, aggravated by two others yet to be treated.

I will now briefly allude to a few other benefits from plant-
ing close root-pruned trees of all kinds on ground plowed as
shallow as possible, or better, in virgin sod, if practicable,
and mowing or cultivating shallow immediately around the
trees from the day they are set, and a few years later putting
the whole ground down to some kind of grass, whatever may
be best for different sections, mowing close, at least until the
fruit is gone, and-top dressing annually with some form of
potash and phosphoric acid. Here Bermuda grass would
head the list. I know of peach trees standing where they
came up in this city, in a compact Bermuda sod, that has
been closely cut with a lawn-mower for twelve years, that are
to-day pictures of health and vigor. They have been moder-
ately pruned, have never failed of a heavy crop, have never

Il6 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

been thinned, and yet fruit is always large and fine. From
time to time the lawn has been manured. Trees of this age
that were set with long roots and plowed regularly afterward
can nowhere be shown in this whole section. In fact, six
years is the utmost limit, in this level country, of the latter
treatment, and the fruit is far inferior.

One great advantage of the above general system for all
fruit trees is that no tree trunk will ever sun-scald. This
comes entirely from the inability of a tree grown from long
roots and annually plowed, to supply a free enough flow of
sap, during hot and very dry weather, to prevent stagnation
and scald on the side exposed to the afternoon sun. A close-
pruned tree, with its deeply penetrating roots, will never fail
to do this.

A second advantage is that fruit grown on trees standing
in firm soil, undisturbed, will in rainy seasons be of far better
eating and shipping qualities than that from trees whose roots
are gorged with water, in a deep, loose soil, no matter though
well drained. This I know to be a fact.

A third advantage will be a great increase in the hardiness
of all fruit trees in northern latitudes. I am confident all
varieties, especially the peach, can be grown with perfect
success where now they winter-kill every year.

A fourth advantage is a firm roadway for hauling out the
fruit in wet weather.

A fifth and final advantage is economy. Far superior fruit,
and at a cost of twenty-five cents on the dollar, as compared
with old methods and long-rooted trees.

As going to show that these principles are true, and that
there is an increasing feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction
with present methods and their results as exemplified in the
orchards of to-day, grown, as all of them are, from long-rooted
trees, several years old when set, I will close this part of my
subject with a quotation from the April issue of Green's
Fruit Grower, published at Rochester, in the center of the
great fruit-growing district of Western New York. Mr. P.
C. Rejnolds, a regular contributor, and evidently a horticul-

CULTIVATION. 117

turist of long and wide experience, writing of their present
unproductive apple orchards, says :

" In my earliest recollection, little thought was given to the cul-
ture of the orchard for the orchard's sake. So long as profitable
crops could be grown amoug the trees, the orchard was cultivated.
When cropping ceased to be profitable, cultivation ceased, or if any
was done, it was done by the snouts of swine. And yet I can hardly
recall a season, during the first twenty-five years of my life, that
apples were not abundant. Some seasons, certain favorite varieties,
like Early Harvest, Sweet Bough, Fall Pippin, etc., bore heavier
crops than in others, but they were rarely entirely barren.

" Tlie older members of the Western New York Horticultural
Society will remember how often this subject came up before the
society from twenty to twenty-five years ago. Patrick Barry, John
J. Thomas, Elisha Moody, J. S. Woodward, S. D. Willard, and many
other gentlemen, eminently successful fruit-growers, urged the im-
portance of thorough cultivation and, after the trees should become
so large as to require all the ground, making the growing of annual
crops unprofitable and inconvenient, they would continue culture for
the benefit of trees and fruit. On the other hand. Dr. E. Ware
Sylvester, Henry E. Hooker, Godfrey Zimmerman, James A. Root,
and a few others, insisted that after apple trees have reached bear-
ing age, as much, or more, fruit could be produced by seeding down
to grass as by cultivation, provided no grass was removed from the
orchard, but was mowed and left upon the ground as mulch, or pas-
tured by hogs or sheep. The mooted question was never definitely
settled by the society, but comes up frequently of late years. Both
parties have been able to instance many proofs of their side of the
controversy. From many years of observation among orchardists,
and from my own experience, I have come to the conclusion that
fruitfalness depends more upon several other conditions than upon
cultivation, after the trees have arrived at bearing age.

"Now, I would lend all possible encouragement for the feeding-
roots of apple trees to ramify and forage freely in this surface soil,
near enough the surface to be benefited by the heat of the sun and
the vivifying effects of the atmosphere and its fructifying gases. I
would be very careful not to drive those roots to the cold, inert,
sterile subsoil, beyond the reach of the benign influences of that
atmosphere of heat and gases that permeates the surface soil, where
myriads of living organisms, in the humus, carry on the work of
nitrification. Subsequent cultivation would be carried on with the
purpose of avoiding the disturbance of the roots in their best feeding
ground, and keeping the soil pulverized and mellow beyond the roots,
for their future occupancy. I would leave, every year, a considerable
space around every tree bevond that covered by the branches, to be
filled by the season's growth of the roots, upon which I would plant
nothing, for it is very poor policy to place the roots of annuals in
competition with the roots of the trees for the plant-food and moist-
ure of the soil. Hence, every year, the space around the trees,
upon which no annual would be planted, would broaden until but

Il8 THE . NEW HORIICULTUKE.

narrow stripes between the rows of trees would be deeply plowed.
Probably the soil above the roots could then be most economically
kept mellow by means of a cultivator, or of some of the most effec-
tive of modern harrows. When the time arrives that the roots of
the trees nearly fill the soil, and the laud should be entirely devoted
to the trees and fruit, and the growing of temporary crops ceases, the
question presents itself : 'Should the surface be still cultivated, or
should it be seeded down ? ' If seeded to grass, I am quite positive
that no grass, in any form, should be removed from the orchard ; it
should be mowed frequently, and left as a mulch upon the ground, or
it should be pastured closely with sheep or swine. Which of these
species of animals it would be advisable to keep upon the orchard
would depend largely upon the fruit-grower's ability to handle the
animals with most profit. Most men would probably do better with
swine than sheep. There has been less decline in the price of pork,
for several years, than in the price of wool. If sheep were kept,
mutton sheep are preferable. Mr. Woodward and many others claim
that sheep are better gleaners of fallen apples and the insects they
contain than swine.

" Another question of momentous importance in connection with
this subject is : ' Which would best conserve the moisture in the soil,
a mellow surface or a surface covered with grass ? ' Experience
would unhesitatingly say, a mellow surface. Yet, if the grass were
mowed before it blossomed, and left spread upon the ground, as a
mowing-machine leaves it, before the advent of the dry season, the
mulch would afford nearly as much protection to the roots, perhaps
quite as much, as a mulch of mellow soil. I really question whether
it makes a great deal of difference in the productiveness of orchards,
after they have come into bearing, and their roots pretty much fill
the soil, whether the surface is kept mellow by frequent cultivation,
or is seeded to grass and kept mulched, or pastured with sheep or
swine, provided the trees are liberally supplied with plant food. Ac-
cording to my observation for several years, since attention was
called to this question, the most productive old orchards have been
in sod. Whether the sod was an efficient cause of that productive-
ness, or some other causes were dominant, I am unable to say."

H. B. Hillyer, of Belton, Texas, closes a letter on the
subject of "Cultivation of Orchards" as follows :

"But is cultivation of a bearing orchard necessary? May not
Mr. Stringfellow be right? I am leaning to that opinion. I have a
beautiful orchard, thirty varieties of peaches, twenty of plums, twenty
of grapes, twelve of pears, four of apples, five of figs, five of apricots,
two of nectarines, two of blackberries. My orchard is cultivated
nicely. I have some twelve or fourteen peach trees in my yard and
chicken run. These have never been cultivated, but have been sur-
face manured. Last year, on account of severe cold, fruit in all of
this section was almost a failure, was an entire failure in my culti-
vated orchard, while the trees in my yard and chicken run made good
crops, some of them as much as four or five bushels. This season

CULTIVATION. II9

we had two white frosts, most of the Japan plums were killed, all the
apricots are killed, and at least three-fourths of the fruit in the culti-
vated orchard is killed and some trees have no fruit at all, and some
hardy varieties have a fair crop, while all the peach trees in my uncul-
tivated yards are full as they can bear of fruit. This experience of
two years has at least convinced me never again to plow an orchard
until all danger of frost is over.

"My garden is very rich; is spaded every year with a prong
spade. Dirt is not turned over, to avoid injury to the roots as much
as possible. These trees have been carefully pruned ; have been shy
bearers of fine fruit ; are five years old and are badly sun scalded —
will barely live another year.

"A negro man near me had an orchard a few years ago that he
annually planted in corn or cotton ; the trees are all dead, but along
his fence he put out some trees twenty-five years ago. They have
grown in weeds that never have been plowed or hoed or mown down.
These trees are still free from sun scald and bearing good crops of
fine fruit.

' ' What does all this mean ? "

CHAPTER X.

"Blight.

HAVING discussed three of the causes that are at the
bottom of the general complaint of declining orchards
everywhere throughout the eastern half of the United
States, we now come to the fourth ; that is, disease.

In human physiology, the last few years of scientific
research have developed the most wonderful discoveries.
Mysteries that were dark, and problems hidden for ages, are
now made as clear as day by the germ theory of disease in the
human system. And not only are diseases accounted for and
explained on this theory and by actual observations under the
microscope, but also the commonest functions of our bodies,
such as digestion, and other useful fermentations, as those of
yeast, wine, beer, the nitrification of the soil, are all due to
the incubation and multiplication of millions of those myste-
rious little spores, germs, microbes, bacilli, bacteria, etc.,
good, bad and indifferent, that swarm everywhere in the earth,
the air, our bodies, and everything on the earth. These facts
are, of course, known and admitted everywhere, and science
has been and is now devoting all its energies to the discovery
of the laws and conditions which regulate and govern these
infinitesimal creatures in their propagation and relation to
disease in the human system. But, while the majority of
scientists have turned their attention to man and his bacterial
friends and enemies, Professors Burrill, Galloway and others
are giving their best endeavors to the study and elucidation
of the subject in connection with the diseases of plants,
especially the various forms of blight of the apple and pear,
and the yellows in the peach. That these diseases, as well as
root-rot and black-knot of the peach and plum, are due to the
presence in the sap of minute organisms known as bacteria,
seems clearly established, and that probably epidemics, as

(120)

BLIGHT. 121

well as local attacks on trees, occur from a vastly increased
generation of them, brought about by certain favorable con-
ditions. Herein lies the whole problem of bacterial life, both
in man, trees and everything. It is simply a question in both
of conditions. For instance, if yeast be mixed with dough
and placed in a temperature below freezing, the mass will not
rise ; nor if placed at once in a heated stove will it rise. Both
are wrong conditions. Now, let scientists find out for us just
what are the conditions under which these bacteria multiply
so enormously in the sap of trees as to cause the phenomena
we call blight, yellows, etc. With a view to aid in solving
this problem, I present some observations from my own ex-
perience, as well as a few suggestions on the subject.

There are two main points to be considered : i. Where
do the bacteria of blight, for instance, come from ? 2. What
are the conditions most favorable for their propagation in
numbers sufficient to produce the effect called blight ? There
are but three possible answers to the first question. Leaving
out the one-time accepted theory of spontaneous generation,
which science has demonstrated to be false, air sterilized by
heat and kept from contact with the atmosphere showing no
signs of bacterial life so long as thus excluded, the bacteria
of blight come either from the soil, from the air, or they are
indigenous to the sap itself, of course in numbers ordinarily
harmless. That they are taken up by the tree from the soil
has no advocates that I am aware of, the generally accepted
theory being that they are strictly external to the tree, and
make their attack from the outside. Witness the statement
that blight spreads, that the fruit spurs and tender shoots are
most liable to attack, and directions to cut back the affected
parts. Of course, the latter would do no good if the bacteria
were alread}'^ in the sap of the tree. That they are thus in-
digenous to and in the sap of every pear and apple tree now,
and always have been, is the only possible h3pothesis which
will explain all the phenomena of blight. For instance, an
apparently healthy pear tree may be planted miles away from
any other tree, and yet when the proper conditions arise,
which I will presently explain, it will show blight. Are we

122 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

to suppose, on the external theory, that the whole atmosphere
is alive with the bacteria of blight ? Again, as a rule, blight
develops worst on the most vigorous, healthy trees, in clean,
cultivated ground? How shall we account for this, when all
experience with man, animals and trees, under the attacks of
insect pests, goes to show that the strongest and most vigor-
ous always best resist injurious attacks ? Again, why, if the
bacteria of blight are in the air and attack from the outside,
does any tree escape ? All are equally exposed, and the
weakly tree should certainly succumb as readily as the strong.
But the hypothesis that these bacteria are in and a part of all
pear and apple trees in limited numbers, and, under certain
normal conditions play, perhaps, a specific, useful part in the
life and development of the trees, will cover and explain all
the phenomena of blight. A contrary supposition demands
the belief in an actual creation one hundred years or so ago,
when this disease first appeared, else why were pear and
apple trees never attacked before ? Simply because the con-
ditions for their development in destructive numbers had
never been furnished. That the eastern half of the United
States, say from Kansas and Texas to Canada, with its ex-
tremes of wet and dry, heat and cold, often in rapid succes-
sion, present ideal conditions for all bacterial diseases of
trees, there is no doubt, and if there is a region in the world
where they could originate it would be there. I have often
wished that we knew the exact history of the trees upon
which blight originally appeared in New England, from the
time they were planted until the disease broke out. I think,
however, it would read somewhat thus :

The ground was deeply plowed, well pulverized and ma-
nured, or naturally rich, and the trees when set were about
three years old, well provided with long as well as fibrous
roots, which were nicely spread out in large holes. They
were then well cultivated and cared for, especially in the way
of a good plowing every year, until they came into bearing,
the first light crops being very fine, and when loaded down
with their first very heavy crop, all of which the owner left
on, the season turned out very dry. Being largely surface-

BLIGHT. 123

rooted, they made practically no wood growth, having all they
could do to mature the fruit. The owner, seeing the strain
put upon them, concluded to relieve them the next year, and
pruned heavily during the fall or early winter. The weather
subsequently was very mild and open, and having practically
rested during summer from severe drouth and their heavy
load, and stimulated by the removal of a large part of the
tops, the sap began to move freely. Then came a stinging
freeze, perhaps just after a heavy rain, freezing the roots as
well as tops, completely checking the moving sap for a month
or two. That was not a late spring but a late winter freeze,
producing a stagnation, so to speak, of the sap. Had that
freeze occurred after growth had started well no harm might
have occurred, as motion would have been resumed at once,
but standing for a month or more the sap, to use a common
expression, "soured."

Now, there, in that sap, was the ideal condition in which
the hitherto harmless blight bacteria love to revel, run riot,
fondle one another, perhaps, in amorous dalliance, and mul-
tiply by billions. The owner was surprised to see how slow
the leaves were in putting out, the blossoms, if any, having
opened profusely and dropped before a shade of green ap-
peared. When the time came for some of the young pears to
drop from each cluster, they largely refused to do so, but
dried up on the fruit spurs, and turned black. There, before
a leaf or shoot had shown a sign, was the blight, and those
fruit spurs, the tender, vital points of its first development ;
just as the bacilli of consumption, lurking through heredity
for years in the system of an apparently healthy man, if
favoring conditions of development are given, such as ex-
treme overheating, followed by sudden change to wet or cold,
will concentrate upon their favorite point, the lungs, and
multiply rapidly into millions. The former were the condi-
tions for blight, the latter for consumption. Had the trees
or man not furnished them, both might have lived, and died
from other causes.

I will now furnish proofs that will, show beyond all reason-
able doubt — proofs which can be verified by observation and

124 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

experiment — that blight is entirely a matter of conditions of
temperature, moisture and pruning. Also, that all its vary-
ing phases, as well as hitherto unexplained phenomena, can
be completel)' accounted for under the hypothesis of a natural,
or at least present, existence of the germs in limited num-
bers in the sap of all pear trees, which, under certain given
conditions, are capable of multiplying beyond conception,
resulting in what we call "blight." I will show plainly how,
from analogies drawn from the known actions of such organ-
isms in the human system, that bacteria, having once effected
a lodgment or developed in the sap, corresponding to the.
blood in us, of those pear trees in New England, all other
pear trees in the country must almost necessarily now have
some of the bacteria in their sap. I will also make it clear
why this dreaded disease has never prevailed in California, or
but twice to a very limited extent in the whole coast country
of Texas, though pear trees of the old varieties, unproductive
but healthy, have been growing here for twenty-five years. I
think I can also satisfy everyone that the conditions of blight
are so completely under our control that pear orchards may
be planted from henceforth which, like the old original (the
January number of the Horiiculiural Visitor, Kirmundy, 111.,
contains a photograph of this tree) seedling Sudduth pear
tree, now standing near Springfield, 111., ten feet in circum-
ference of trunk, fifty-five feet high and seventy-five years old,
will long outlive the planter. This grand old pear tree, in
perfect health, still bearing enormous crops, a landmark for
all the surrounding country, is a towering monument to the
infinite superiority of nature and her methods. While man,
with his science and his plows, his hoes and his cultivators,
has ripped and torn and scratched the surface of the ground ;
has dug his big holes and spread the roots most carefully by
hand, a single tiny seed was dropped upon the firm but kindly
bosom of the earth, and there to-day stands in silent majesty
this evidence of her skill. Where, now, are the cultivated,
pruned and fertilized pear orchards of that state and the whole
country, upon which untold money and weary days of labor
have been wasted, as well as bright hopes wrecked in those

BLIGHT. 125

seventy-five long years ? But now to my theory of blight, its
cause and prevention, and in certain cases perhaps its cure.

It is well-known that long before bacilli or bacteria were
ever heard of, eminent medical authority had declared that
few, if any, human beings were perfectly healthy, a close
examination always revealing some weak point in every one.
Ifby healthy we mean blood absolutely free from the bacilli
or germs of disease, then we may, in view of the wonderful
revelations of bacteriology, assert with the utmost confidence,
that there is not such a human being on the earth. With all
the various germs of malaria floating in the atmosphere, and
those of every variety of epidemic that at one time or another
has scourged humanity, taken into the blood through the
lungs; the bacilli of typhoid and other malignant fevers intro-
duced into the system through milk and water, and once
there, though never developed in numbers sufficient to pro-
duce specific attacks, still there, for not only our lives, but,
through heredity the lives of our descendants to the remotest
generation, is it credible that there exists to-day a single
absolutely healthy being ? In the blood of every person who
has at any time visited a consumptive friend lurks the dreaded
bacilli of that scourge of the human race, and so with all other
diseases. That in so few instances they show it by an active
outburst is simply due to a want of the proper conditions for
the rapid and infinite multiplication of the germs. Thus we
see that we are carrj'ing around in our blood chained tigers,
so to speak, ready at any moment to devour us, if we slip
their chains by furnishing the conditions for an abnormal
development.

But while all this is true of man, science tells us that it is
partially true of plants also. But thus far science has failed to
determine their relation to plants, or define their exact meth-
ods of attack and development in the sap or blood of the tree.
The general, if not universal hypothesis is, as stated above,
that the bacteria are in the air primarily, and when plants or
trees furnish the proper conditions, the phenomena which we
call blight, for instance, occurs from an external attack. But
reasoning from analogy, is this necessarily so? It is plain

126 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

that there is a most marked similarity between the diseases of
man and trees. We have the quick and fatal work of the
cholera germs duplicated in the blight ; the slow, insidious
method of consumption in the yellows, while the black-knot
and root-rot furnish an excellent counterpart to the various
forms of scrofula.

Now, then, admitting that the germs are already in the
human blood, if we can show how a like condition probably
exists in the sap of all trees, the problem of blight, yellows,
black-knot and root-rot will be solved, provided we can show
how the conditions for their development can be prevented.
However, I do not mean to say that, while the bacteria are
already in the sap, they may not also be in the atmosphere,
and in epidemics of blight or yellows, for instance, very
greatly aggravate the attack.

Now, then, for the proof that all pear trees, for instance,
are probably infected with the bacteria of blight. It will be
no valid objection to say that if so, the microscope would
show it, for the quantity of sap exposed beneath a powerful
instrument is so exceedingly small that while the bacteria in
the sap of a badly diseased tree might be seen, they could
easily exist in that of an apparently healthy tree in numbers
that would escape detection.

Remember, then, that when the first outbreaks of blight
occurred at several points in New England and the eastern
states, and admitting, for argument's sake, that the attacks
were strictly external, fruit culture there, as a science, was far
in advance of the balance of the country, nurseries much
larger, as well as more numerous, and orchards more exten-
sive,we see how easily and rapidly the bacteria of blight must
have spread. Every breeze bore them by millions, not only
in the air, but in the pollen of infected trees, to other trees in
bloom, or dropped them on surfaces cut or wounded by the
hoe or plow. Every insect and bee carried them for miles
around. The busy woodpecker and sapsucker took them on
their bills from diseased trees and drilled them into healthy
ones, whence buds and cuttings carried them to the nurseries.
Once there, dissemination, of course, took a wider range, until

BLIGHT. 127

in a few years the whole East was infected. To prove how
rapidly this can be accomplished, I need only refer to the
recent introduction of the San Jos6 scale into New Jersey, and
elsewhere throughout the country. If a slow traveling fly and
insect could so quickly be scattered far and wide, what shall
we say or how limit the spread of the subtle bacteria ? Of
course, I am presuming that, once in the sap of a tree, they
remained there, often in numbers, perhaps, too limited, or
from want of proper conditions for development, unable to
produce the blight. The eastern states, the nursery grounds
at that time for the whole country, once thoroughly infected,
we see how almost of necessity the bacteria were rapidly
scattered in nursery stock from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
and the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. That this infection did
actually occur all over the eastern half of our country is
proved by continuous developments of blight, from time to
time, in different localities throughout this whole region, fol-
lowing rapidly after its original appearance in the East.

While, then, the presumption of the present existence of
these bacteria in all pear trees is a fair one, it is a known fact
that they do pervade the sap of all pear trees on which the
external evidences of blight have manifested themselves, fruit
growers having been repeatedly warned to cleanse their knives
and shears thoroughly after pruning diseased trees. Now,
then, admitting, as the authorities on this subject do, that the
sap of all such trees does contain the bacteria, the presump-
tion is that they remain there in greater or less numbers, and
the burden of proof is on them to show the contrary.

We come, now, to the vital question : What are the
actual causes of, or rather conditions for, the visible mani-
festations of blight ? I stated in another place that tempera-
ture, moisture, and pruning in certain cases were at the
bottom of it, and foreshadowed in my supposed history of its
original appearance a theory, and the only one that will com-
pletely account for all the phenomena. And right here I
have to make an assertion, positively true, but quite as revo-
lutionary as that regarding the best form of a tree for plant-
ing, which is, that the universal statement that the "best

128 THE. NEW HORTICULTURE.

time to prune a tree is when it is at rest" is exactly the
opposite of the truth, the best time to prune being when the
sap is in motion.

As pointed out all along, there is a close analogy between
man and trees in the matter of diseases, and the same is
equally true as to their physical growth and development.
They both have alternate periods of activity and rest, the lat-
ter following as an apparent necessity from the former.
Man's rest is the half or a portion of every day, and to wake
him up every night at eleven or twelve o'clock and repeat it
several times before day, on the score of hygiene, would be
considered queer treatment. A tree's rest is the half or a
portion of every year, and that is the very treatment we adopt
for our trees. No sooner have the leaves fallen and the trees
settled themselves for a comfortable winter's rest, than many
owners, having leisure at that time, and to save work in
spring, come along with their manure, perhaps, or else plow
the ground, thus making soluble plant food that would have
lain dormant until spring. However dormant trees ma}^
appear, if with our variable climate a prolonged warm spell
occurs, and particularly if the owner prunes considerably at
this same tim.e of leisure, the equilibrium between the tops
and roots being destroyed, there must be more or less motion
of the sap to repair the damage. This plowing, pruning and
cultivating during the winter and early spring are our methods-
of breaking the rest of our trees, and so effectual are they that
the blooms and leaves often start long before they would had
the trees been let alone. But there is a condition, in this va-
riable climate of ours, that greatly increases the danger of this
winter movement of the sap, and that is a prolonged drouth
the preceding spring and summer, which is the almost inial-
lible condition precedent of blight the next year, if followed
by a late winter or early spring freeze.

Remember, now, that rest in trees can be produced by ex-
cessive heat and drouth, as well as excessive cold, for I have
seen orange trees curl and shed their leaves under such con-
ditions in July, and become more dormant than usual in
midwinter here. If pear trees are forced to rest in summer

BLIGHT. 129

from such conditions, and all surface-rooted ones from long-
rooted trees are necessarily compelled to rest, especially if
carrying a heavy crop, then, stimulated by the plowing, fertil-
izing and winter pruning described, if a mild spell occurs any
time in winter, a movement of the sap is sure to take place.
It may not show itself in leaves or blooms, for it does not in
the grape; but the movement will be there, and if that motion
be checked by a freeze, and the sap stagnate or sour, so to^
speak, for a month or more before growth starts again, then
blight is certain to occur. We have furnished, then, the con-
ditions for an abnormal development and propagation by mil-
lions of the bacteria, and I pointed out above the course o£'
that development. The blooms first show it, next the fruit
spurs, then after warm rains and muggy weather later on, the
tender shoots blacken and droop, and the disease spreads to
the limbs around the base of the fruit spurs. Now, then, for
some of the unexplained phenomena of blight.

1. Why do the most vigorous trees in well cultivated
ground suffer oftener than the weakly ones alongside, or iru
grass? Because, given the conditions for blight described^
the vigorous tree will certainly be most susceptible to the
stimulating treatment named, and in addition, the owner is
sure, in his desire to produce a more uniform appearance of
the orchard, to cut back the long canes on it very severely,
while the weakly tree often, in fact generally, escapes the
knife altogether. I years ago treated trees just that way
myself, and know that the sap in a heavily pruned, vigorous
young tree will be in full flow or motion in a warm spell in
winter, when the other is still quite dormant, and fails to fur-
nish the conditions for the bacterial development within.
The germs were in the sap of the weaker one also, but, the
proper conditions not being furnished, failed to develop, just
as in every cholera or yellow fever epidemic, certain persons
escape those diseases, and yet in food, water and air the germs
must have gotten into their blood, if not there before.
Science has yet to determine the exact conditions in man and
trees that govern their development.

2. Why has blight never appeared in California? First,

9— HORT.

130 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

because trees are irrigated there, and, consequently, always
make a normal summer growth ; they never rest entirely at
that season. Secondly, because they are never exposed to
the proper extremes of temperature in winter, the climate be-
ing cool, moist and uniform during that period, and the trees,
having performed their work throughout the long summer,
are content to rest. Having been brought mostly from the
east, the pear trees must necessarily have the blight bacteria
in their sap, but the extremes of heat, drouth, floods and cold
are lacking for their development.

Now, lastly, why did blight break out in my pear orchard
in 1894, after years of bearing, and when a case was never
known in this section before ? But as the experience of this
orchard furnishes an absolute demonstration of my hypothe-
sis that blight bacteria exist at all times in all pear trees, in
perhaps a modified form and subject to certain conditions,
which, being given, they are capable of rapid as well as
almost infinite multiplication, I will defer the discussion of it
until the next chapter, when some experiments in pruning at
different times from spring until summer will also be given,
which go to show beyond all doubt that the proper, and, in
fact, the only time when any tree should be pruned is, though
contrary to general teaching, when the sap is in motion.

CHAPTER XL

Blight.

1WILL now give final and conclusive evidence in favor of
the internal theory of blight, from an experience with
that disease in my well known pear orchard at Hitch-
cock, in 1894. Up to that spring, not a case of blight had
ever been known in the coast country of Texas, and as this
orchard had borne heavy crops for five years none was
expected. It contained 1,250 Le Conte and 250 Kieffer,
standing on thirteen acres of ground, 500 eight, 500 nine and
500 ten years old, and while all had been heavily fertilized
every year, the 500 oldest received per acre one ton of cotton-
seed meal, and 500 pounds of the hull ashes, containing 30
per cent, potash and 8 per cent, phosphoric acid, annually
for five years. The trees bloomed like a snow bank in the
spring of 1893, and set an enormous crop. I knew that the
pears should be thinned, but having had heavy crops of fine
fruit before without it, concluded to break all records and let
them alone. No cotton-seed meal was applied that or the
preceding year, but a double quantity of the hull ashes.

The ground had been in grass and mowed several times
for two years, but knowing that the trees had big work ahead,
ignorantly thinking to help them, the whole orchard was
lightly plowed in March and kept absolutely clean until July.
This was an easy task, for after May no more rain fell for
nearly three months. It may well be imagined what a
strain this put upon the trees, but, ever hoping rain would
come, they were let alone. The 250 oldest Le Conte were
ten years of age, and the heavy fertilizing had produced a
growth that was phenomenal. Many of them measured about
fourteen inches in diameter one foot above ground, were
thirty to thirty-four feet high, the limbs lapping across twenty-
five-feet rows, and a single tree gave twenty-seven 50-pound

(131 )

132 THE NEW HORTICULIURE

boxes of pears. The eight and nine-year trees had received
less than a third as much fertilizer, and were just as small in
proportion, but still fine trees. The total yield was over nine
thousand bushels actually shipped, and good judges estimated
that fully two thousand bushels were knocked down and
bruised in gathering. These facts will be testified to by J. C.
Glover, station agent at Hitchcock, who shipped the fruit.

The summer continued dry, with light showers, until
October, when good rains fell, and in November, being in
the nursery business at that time, I set twenty men to work,
and by the first day of January had largely over one million
cuttings in the ground, all from those trees, and had cut out
heavily besides, to prevent a repetition of such a crop next
year. The fall and winter were very mild, and having rested
so completely all through the summer, by the 17th of Janu-
ary a few stray blossoms were showing, and shoots every-
where were pushing from the cut ends of the canes and limbs,
a very unusual thing. On that day the thermometer fell to
eighteen degrees, completely checking all growth. About
the first of March, instead of leafing out and blooming as
usual, the trees were perfectly dormant, and remained so
until April.

In the meantime, having determined to experiment most
thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture for prevention of what is
known here as " bitter rot," which attacks Kieffer pears, more
or less, every year while ripening, I selected three Kieffer
and also three Le Conte adjoining, and before a bud opened
sprayed them well. This was repeated at short intervals the
whole season, and especially after rains, though the spray
adhered well even then. In fact, those six trees were literally
blue-washed from spring until fall. Though suspecting
nothing, having had absolutely no experience with blight, I
noticed the peculiarity about the failure of the blossoms to
drop promptly, but thought nothing of it, until immediately
after a heavy rain in May, followed by calm, hot weather,
when in a few days everywhere the fruit spurs began to
blacken and the tender tips of the shoots to droop. In a few
weeks the whole orchard showed more or less signs of blight.

BLIGHT. 133

not a single tree escaping, though on many the evidence was
light, and confined to the fruit spurs alone. In spite of it all,
however, they bore a moderate crop, and not a tree died.
This was due entirely to the fact that the natural water level
here is only from four to five feet below the surface, and
consequently the sap kept in motion more during the pre-
ceding drouthy summer than if the water had been twenty
or more feet below.

This explains clearly why blight has never prevailed be-
fore here, as it has not in California, where irrigation does
the same for their trees in summer. Four hundred six-year-
old Garber pear trees alongside of this orchard showed no
signs of the disease, nor did another Le Conte orchard of
one thousand trees, six years old, which I owned, about six
hundred yards distant, having been neither pruned nor
plowed. Moreover, two trees the same age, and set when my
oldest were, which I gave to a neighbor who helped me plant,
both having borne heavy crops, but neither pruned or plowed,
also escaped entirely. The six sprayed trees .blighted quite
as badly as any, and the Kieffer pears showed equal signs of
rot. Now, then, on the external theory, why did those six
trees blight, though completely covered with the most effec-
tive known germicide the whole season, and, as the bacteria
could not have come from the gulf, how did it happen that in
their journey from the blighting districts to the north of us,
they passed over a great number of pear trees fourteen miles
above me at Alvin and other points, without attacking a single
tree ? There is but one intelligent explanation. No other
trees bore as heavily as mine the year before, nor did any
other man commence to prune as early as^I did, or do it as
severely. The preceding drouth and heavy crop, with early
and severe pruning, aided by the freeze of January 17, pro-
duced the conditions in my trees favorable to a greatly in-
creased multiplication of the germs already in the trees, and
the result was what is known as blight. And in passing, I
will say here that thousands of dollars have been wasted in
useless going over and cutting out the affected shoots as they
appear. I tried it most thoroughly on a few trees, and found

134 "T^^ NEW HORTICULTURE.

by fall that there was no difference at all in the actual amount
of pruning done, or in the appearance of the trees alongside
that received but one pruning the next winter, another evi-
dence that the disease i% internal and beyond the control of
the knife.

This theory, also, accounts fully for the well known fact
that blight does not prevail every season, because the proper
conditions of moisture, or rather, lack of it, and temperature,
are not forthcoming, and without these, blight is just as im-
possible as it is to make dough "rise" in an icebox. But on
the external hypothesis, where in these non-blighting seasons
do the bacteria go ? Having now given a reasonable explan-
ation of all the phenomena of blight, it only remains for
those intending to plant pear or apple trees hereafter to fol-
low nature, in order to grow them just as free from blight as
her old seedlings are, in fact, even more so, for a close root-
pruned tree will drive its several tap-roots much deeper into
the moist subsoil than any seedling will. Plow shallow after-
wards for a few years, giving liberal supplies of food on poor
ground, and then let the grass grow, keeping it well mowed
through the growing season. While such trees, if not fertil-
ized or cultivated before growth starts, will stand light winter
pruning while young, perhaps, everywhere, and heavy prun-
ing here, still after bearing a knife should never be applied
until the leaves are out. A tree can be literally cut to pieces
after that, and while active growth continues, with perfect
impunity. I have several times cut both peach and pear to
the ground, and they sprang up with increased vigor, and
everybody knows that the grape is best grafted at that time.
And, by the way, I am satisfied, both from experience and ob-
servation, that fall and early winter plowing and pruning of
grape vines that have been planted with roots spread out lat-
erally are the potent, probably the sole, causes of subsequent
rot in the fruit. The old root-pruned Herbemont at Hitch-
cock, before mentioned, that bears annually such enormous
crops, free from all disease, is strong evidence of this. No
tree or plant will become so completely surface-rooted from
long roots as the vine, and none penetrate more deeply from

BLIGHT. 135

close root and top-pruning. While I have often pruned
single vines after the buds were swollen, and once when break-
ing, and had the sap to flow freely from the cuts for several
days, I never saw the slightest damage from it. Perhaps this
very flow may be a relief to the vine, the sap of which seems
to move in spring with more intense activity than that of any
other plant. Perhaps thus pent up by the dry surfaces from
winter pruning the vines may become gorged or congested,
thereby furnishing the proper conditions for subsequent rot in
the fruit, especially if a late freeze has occurred.

Here is a wide field for experiment, especially with close
root-pruned vines. If pruning can be delayed, as I am sure
it can, as well with vines as trees, until growth actually starts
in spring, it is plain that a crop of fruit will never be lost, as
the terminal buds start first, while those that are to furnish
the fruit are more backward and no risk is ever run of knock-
ing off the shoots in pruning, or, being killed by frost. How-
ever this may be with the grape, it will readily be seen that
by deferring pruning of fruit trees until the fruit has set, in
tact, become well developed, we do away almost entirely with
all necessity for thinning. By removing parts of all the bear-
ing shoots and spurs the crop can be reduced as desired, re-
sultmg in a marked and surprising increase of development
in the remaining fruit in a few days. This I have proved time
and again.

And now, having shown the causes of blight and the meth-
ods for its absolute prevention in all pear orchards planted
hereafter, provided these methods be adopted, the question
naturally arises, What is to be done to prevent blight in
orchards already surface-rooted from planting long-rooted
trees ? The answer is plain. Put them down at once and for
all time to grass, to preserve every root for an emergency of
severe drouth. Often light summer showers will stimulate
growth in such trees where a dry bed of three or four inches
of loose soil would not be wet through. Keep the grass
closely mowed the whole season, and top-dress annually with
free applications of some complete fertilizer or barnyard
manure, to obtain a healthy growth until the trees begin to

136 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

bear. After that apply potash freely, also, to give health to
the trees, as well as color and quality to the fruit. And here
come into play the surface-roots of trees, between which and
the size as well as quality of the fruit there is a most intimate
relation. I am confident that the well known deficiency of
quality in nearly all California fruit is due entirely to the fact
that, under their system of cultivation, no surface roots are
ever allowed to form. In the east it is well known that dry
seasons make good shipping, high-flavored fruit, and yet
there, where they have perfection in climate and water under
control, we find poor quality. Their method is to keep the
plow and cultivator going practically the whole growing sea-
son, compelling the trees to form what may be called surface
roots six inches below the ground. This is entirely artificial
and contrary to nature, for while all young trees root primarily
as deep as they can, a bearing tree has sense enough to know
that its cookshop is on the surface, where air, heat and rain
prepare its food, and having something to do besides grow, it
avails itself of every means to obtain that food. If allowed,
it quickly fills the whole surface with its hungry little feeders.
Cut them as often as you will, if given the slightest chance
back they come again. There is where the value of a firm,
closely mowed surface comes in. The sod protects these
tender rootlets from the summer heat and cold of winter, and
yet if kept mowed, being allowed no evaporating surface,
takes but little food and moisture from them, nor will it hold
surplus water after excessive rains, like loose soil, to scald
and drown them out.

And here I would call particular attention to the fact that
the sod is not really the compact ground it appears to be, as
is evidenced by the fact that after heavy rains the water is
much more rapidly absorbed by grass land than clean com-
pacted ground. The pores, so to speak, of such are run
together and somewhat closed, but the grass roots keep the
soil lighter, and by their decay from time to time afford
minute natural avenues of absorption, which allow the water
to find its way into and through the soil.

Adopt, then, the lawn system for a pear tree now grow-

BLIGHT. 137

ing, and annual fertilizing after growth starts, never putting
a knife to them until after the leaves are out in spring. If
water can be had in addition, that ought to furnish absolute
immunity from blight, for it is simply a question of healthy,
uniform, continuous motion of the sap during the preceding
growing season. The sap must not be allowed to thicken
prematurely and go to rest. Of course, every one knows
that it does not rise or fall, as we commonly express it, but
keeps in motion for a stated period and then rests. Where
water cannot be applied freely in severe spring or early sum-
mer drouth, the next best thing for such trees is to remove a
large part of the fruit and prune heavily. This will stimulate
a movement oj^ the sap. The universal exemption of old seed-
ling pear trees everywhere, and, with the exception given,
the general exemption of this whole coast country, where the
water is at no time lower than four or five feet from the sur-
face, proves that a continuous movement of the sap in sum-
mer has a great deal to do with the absence of blight the
following season. Whether clean culture or sod be adopted,
pear trees should not go completely to rest during the natural
growing period.

And now, in closing the discussion of this important sub-
ject, for a clearer understanding of it and the relation of the
external and internal origin theory to the facts in the case, I
will recapitulate and give a condensed statement of the most
important of them, so that my readers can clearly see that
my internal theory perfectly covers and explains, while the
external theory of attack is at variance with them all.

1. Blight attacks isolated trees, miles away from all other
pear trees. I saw a large bearing Le Conte away up in the
mountains, near Eureka Springs, Ark., thus situated, with
three large dead, blighted limbs in the center, from an attack
the year before, but from indifference on the part of the
owner, never cut out. Is the whole air filled with blight?

2. Though all authorities affirm that such dead wood is
the nidus or harbor for the bacteria, there those three limbs
stood, right among the green leaves, and not a sign of blight
that season.

138 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

3. Weakly growing trees escape, while the vigorous and
strong are often attacked and killed alongside. This is con-
trary to general experience and all analogy in resisting
disease.

4. The attacks are often sporadic, some bearing and some
young trees near by being affected, while others escape.

5. Trees whose limbs and leaves were coated continu-
ously with sulphate of copper, the best known germicide,
from spring till fall, blighted just as badly as those not
treated.

6. Continued cutting out has no preventive effect, nor
does it cause apparently healthy shoots on blighting trees, or
those near by that are cut back, to become diseased at the
cut ends, where sap is exposed to external attack.

7. Blight was never known in Galveston county during
thirty years of pear culture until it appeared in my twelve-
year old orchard in 1894. How did it happen that the bac-
teria, when borne on the breeze or by insects, if thus brought
from the interior blighting districts of the state, passed
through all the pear orchards, many of them in bearing, at
Alvin and Arcadia, without stopping, and settled in my
orchard, within a few miles of the Gulf of Mexico, and fur-
thest removed from the point of infection?

8. A careful inquiry showed that the growing season pre-
ceding a bad blighting one was always dry everywhere, thus
checking normal growth and forcing a long period of un-
natural rest, and that heavily loaded trees, having rested
most completely, were most susceptible to premature motion
of the sap during warm weather in the following winter.

9. A bad blighting season is invariably preceded by a
late winter or early spring freeze which is preceded by
unseasonably warm weather.

10. California, with its equable winter climate, and irriga-
tion to keep up continuous motion of the sap during the
growing season, has little or no blight.

11. While it has been claimed that healthy pear trees

BLIGHT. 139

could be inoculated with blight, facts now strongly prove
that any supposed inoculation must have been simply a local
irritation that could not have resulted in blight. On the ist
of June I steeped blighted leaves, wood and bark in water,
leaving, them four days, until the liquid became dark red.
This was inserted freely into cuts made as for budding, and
the young pear shoots dipped into it. The experiments were
made on a three-year-old Bartlett, a five-year-old Idaho and
an eight-year-old bearing Le Conte. At this time, six weeks
after, there is not the slightest sign of blight on any of the
trees. At my request, Mr. E. W. Kirkpatrick, of McKinney,
in North Texas, and Mr. S. K. Wheeler, of Arcadia, in South
Texas, also vainly attempted to inoculate healthy trees with
blighted sap and bark, not a single case showing the slightest
effect. This demonstrates absolutely that this disease is of
internal origin, and results only when trees are subjected to
the aforementioned conditions. While I have suggested in
this chapter a preventive treatment for trees now growing, it
may be of doubtful value. No surface-rooted trees, like those
in nearly all pear orchards elsewhere, can keep the sap in free
motion during a severe drouth, especially if bearing a crop of
fruit. Even though not pruned or stimulated out of season,
much would depend on the character of the winter and spring.
Having now shown from the foregoing incontrovertible
facts that the bacterial disease of blight is of internal origin,
and the result of certain conditions, the question naturally
arises, May not other forms of bacterial tree diseases, such as
yellows, black-knot, root tumor, etc., be of similar origin?
Reasoning from analogy, we would naturally come to the same
conclusion, nor will any other theory cover the cases. All
such diseases must be the result of inherent weakness aggra-
vated by favoring conditions, and none will deny that the more
vigorous we can make our trees the less liable they will be to
attack. On this principle I have demonstrated that the viru-
lent root tumor of the South can be entirely cured by planting
affected trees in very small holes, after cutting off the roots
very closely and fertilizing them well. One thousand plum
trees thus treated four years ago were examined recently, and

140 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

found to be entirely healthy, and my experience is corrobo-
rated by the following testimony :

Editor Fruit-Growers' Journal:

Your journal has been very interesting for the last few months.
I will give you my experience with Stringfellow root-pruning. In '93
I planted peach seed in a corn field and budded all that came up the
following summer and fall. In '94 I planted about 125 trees where
peach seeds failed to grow. I pruned the roots very close because
they were diseased, and cut down tops to from one to one and a half
feet. After two years' growth the 125 trees are as large as the trees
two years from bud. All that I plant in the future I will prune roots
short.

Leavenworth, Ind. Ciias. Sacksteder.

Editor Farm and Ranch :

I planted an orchard of peach, plum and almonds fifteen years
ago, and was with my boys until about half the trees were set.
Ground is alluvial, with hard clay subsoil. Trees were two years
old. Was careful to have holes dug large, so as to allow of roots
being all spread out. The digging was very hard. Being called
away, the boys set the last half, and "played off " on me. They dug
small holes, cut off the roots and hid them, and to-day the best trees
by far in the orchard are the root-pruned ones. Most of the long-
rooted ones have died, and the balance got the root-rot. I ruined
part of my orchard four years ago by deep plowing and breaking
the roots.

Burnet, Texas. J. J. M. Smith,

CHAPTER XII.

Growing Trees from Bearing Ones.

WHILE here and there over the country a few nursery-
men recognize the advantage of propagating their
stock from bearing trees, and advertise the fact in
their catalogues, the great majority of propagators and buyers
pay no attention at all to this important subject. There is
not the slightest doubt that a tree grown either from a cut-
ting, as the Le Conte and Kieffer are here, taken from a bear-
ing tree, or one propagated by budding or grafting from such
bearing tree, will fruit three or four years, often six or seven,
before one grown from a young tree that has for a number of
generations been grown from young ones that have never
fruited. I drew attention to this important point five years
ago in our local papers, and proved it beyond all doubt, by
my own experience and that of quite a number of growers
elsewhere. Since then I have been watching and experiment-
ing in this line, and find that the fruit-bearing principle is
carried just as fully by the bud as by the graft and cutting.
Four 3'ears ago I gave a friend a seedling from a Kieffer pear
tree, wFiich bloomed the third year and bore the fourth. The
second year of that seedling's hfe I took some buds from it
and top-budded a young Garber pear tree in an orchard of
three hundred of that variety and, just like the parent tree,
the growth from those buds bloomed the third year, and bore
fruit the fourth, though not a single Garber out of the whole
lot showed even a blossom. Here is absolute demonstration
of the fact that even the bud from a bearing tree will carry
the early fruiting capacity' in it. Again, a year ago in the
spring, I took buds from an old, bearing orange tree, and put
them into nine Trifoliata orange trees only two years old,
here in Galveston, and now, March 6th, eight out of the nine,
having made a good growth last season, are coming into full

(141)

142 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

bloom, though I do not expect them to set the fruit. Ordi-
narily an orange from seed or from a young non-bearing tree
takes eight or nine years to bear. Still another instance
stands near my home in Galveston. J. C. Trube has two
vigorous young Le Conte pear trees, now four years old.
They bore quite a number of pears the second and third
years, were full the fourth, and are now again white with blos-
soms. Another friend, C. C. Petitt, told me recently that
Le Conte pear trees I sold him seven years ago, which he
planted at Dickinson, have bloomed but sparingly, but that
others I sold him two years ago are white with blooms. The
first lot were taken from my orchard before a large part of it
began to bear, or before I knew anything of these facts, but
the last, now in bloom, were propagated from the bearing
trees.

But it is useless to multiply instances which have been
furnished me regarding the various fruits, all pointing the
same way. While a single remove, or even a second one,
from a bearing tree might not affect the time of bearing
much, trees grown repeatedly and for years from young trees
in nursery rows will certainly be much later in coming into
bearing. This accounts fully for the fact that there are a
great number of pear trees in this section now six, seven and
eight years old that have borne little or no fruit, and pear as
well as apple trees all over the country which have behaved
the same way. The pear and apple are particularly affected
thus, and, being naturally slow to bear, no cions or buds
for propagation should ever be taken from young trees in
nursery rows, or from other than healthy trees, that have
come into full bearing. It is a great injustice to purchasers
to thus keep them waiting for, fruit years after the time when
trees should bear. Every pear or apple tree grown from a
settled bearing tree will bear full the fourth or fifth year at
farthest.

I will close this subject with several quotations, the first
from an unnamed correspondent of The Rural New- Yorker,
the second from Prof. L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, and the
others bv the parties whose names are signed, all going to

GROWING TREES FROM BEARING ONES. I43

show the vast importance of propagating from the healthiest
and most productive bearing trees, and never from trees in
nursery, except new varieties, bearing wood of which cannot
be had.

Twenty-two years ago I set an orchard of i8o trees — one hun-
dred Baldwin, forty Rhode Island Greening, and forty Northern Spy,
the three most profitable apples, as I thought, to be set at that time.
After the orchard had been set five or six years, I concluded to
change the tops of the Northern Spy to Baldwin, as the Northern
Spy did not do very well about here at that time. Having a few
older Baldwin trees which were bearing fine crops of fruit, 1 selected
scions from them, and soon had the tops changed.

The result was that these trees commenced bearing five or bix
years sooner, have always borne double the quantity, and of bettef
quality, than the trees that were budded to Baldwin at the nursery,
and set at the same time, under the same conditions. While all are
now fine, healthy trees, those that were budded to Baldwin at the
nursery make the most wood growth, and the branches are longer
and more reedy. I have also noticed that, while these trees seemed
to have as much bloom, they would not perfect more than half as
much fruit as those with the changed tops. Who will tell the reason
of this ? — The Rural New- Yorker.

It is probable that many trees fail to bear because propagated
from unproductive trees. We know that no two trees in any orchard
are alike, either in the amount of fruit which they bear or in their
vigor and habit of growth. Some are uniformly productive, and some
are uniformly unproductive. We know, too, that scions or buds tend
to reproduce the character of the tree from which they are taken. A
gardener would never think of taking cuttings from a rose bush or
chrysanthemum or carnation which does not bear flowers. Why
should a fruit-grower take scions from a tree which he knows to be
unprofitable ?

The indiscriminate cutting of scions is too clumsy and inexact a
practice for these days, when we are trying to introduce scientific
methods into our farming. I am convinced that some trees cannot
be made to bear by any amount of treatment. They are not the
bearing kind. It is not every mare which will breed or every hen
which will lay a hatfull of eggs.

In my own practice, I am buying the best nursery-grown stock of
apples (mostly Spy), and am top-grafting them with scions from trees
which please me, and which I know to have been productive during
many years. Time will discover if the effort is worth the while, but
unless all analogies fail the outcome must be to my profit. — L. H.
Bailey.

My Dear Sir — I have your letter of the seventh on my return
from the North, and beg to say I have read with great interest Mr.
H. M. Stringfellow's letter in the Alvin Sun, which was enclosed in
your letter.

144 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

I have fought Mr. S.'s battle here in California. I know he is
right. I have seen the same practice which he narrates applied to
the olive, and only six berries were produced from an orchard of over
thirteen hundred trees, after the most diligent and careful cultivation
for six years, while cuttings which I planted at the same time (taken
from old bearing trees) all bore fruit the third year. One tree bore
eleven gallons the fourth year, and I have had trees bear twenty-three
gallons the fifth year and a barrel the sixth year. The difference be-
tween an orchard of thirteen hundred trees bearing six olives the
sixth year and a single tree of the same age bearing a barrel, thirty-one
gallons, of fruit, is worth noticing, and demands investigation. And
yet, right here in Southern California, with all these facts before
them, there are nurserymen who still persist in planting cuttings from
trees which are now forty or fifty years old, which trees never pro-
duced a hatfull of olives, which trees should bear one hundred gal-
lons at a crop.

I never plant a cutting from any tree which has not produced
fruit, and I am perfectly willing to take cuttings from the oldest bear-
ing tree in the country. I am ready to guarantee every tree I sell to
bear fruit if planted here. I will guarantee 75 per cent, to bear the
third year and every tree to bear the fourth year.

Very truly,

Frank A. Kimball.

It often happens that when apple trees or an apple orchard has
arrived at bearing age, from ten to fifteen years (according to va-
riety) (?), while making a good growth of wood every year, they may
fail to form fruit buds and bear fruit. In many instances trees have
reached the age of twenty years or more, healthy, vigorous trees,
that have not produced fruit enough to pay for the first cost of tree
and transportation. Now there are a good many who would be glad
to know if there are any means by which such trees can be made to
bear. It is a well known law of vegetation that a rapid-growing tree
or plant is inclined to make wood buds rather than fruit buds, and
that sap has a strong tendency to flow into terminal buds rather than
into side buds. It is a prevailing opinion of experienced horticultur-
ists that any check of growth has the effect to promote the growth of
fruit buds — reproductive organs. I have known instances where
flourishing young orchards, that had always been under cultivation,
and formed no fruit buds but annually a rank growth of wood, have
been seeded down to grass, and fruitfulness followed in two or thiee
years. The owners believed that the sod checked the too rampant
growth of wood and induced the growth of fruit buds. Possibly
they were right. Again, pear growers are well aware that, to make
rapid growing pear trees fruitful, it is necessary to shorten-in every
year's growth to promote the formation of fruit buds. This fact is
so well known as to be unquestioned by well informed pear growers.
Why may not the same methods be applied to apple trees ? I know
that it would be a tedious operation to go all over the top of a large
apple tree and shorten-in the previous year's growth, but, if it would
cause a barren tree to become fruitful, it would be labor well ex-

GROWING TREES FROM BEARING ONES. I45

pended. I am well aware that many other causes have conspired, of
late years, to prevent apple trees with an abundance of fruit buds
from producing and mituring fruits — such as cold; protracted rains
when m blossom, preventing poUenation ; severe frosts while in bloom
or afterwards ; fungus on young fruit, or on fruit stems or on the
leaves ; but, when no bloom appears and no fruit buds are found, it is
in vain that we look for fruit. The shortening-in process would not
be necessary every year. If practical once or twice, it might throw
the trees into fruitfulness, and then the check upon growth caused by
bearing fruit might promote the formation of fruit buds. — P. C.
Reynolds, in Green's Frutt- Grower.

The unfruitfulness Mr. Reynolds here alludes to is plainly
the result of propagating from non-bearing or unproductive
trees. Instead of the "many other causes" why trees with
an abundance of fruit buds fail to bear, if he had laid the
trouble to the annual destruction of their surface roots by
the plow and cultivator, upon which roots all trees depend
for the setting of their fruit, he would have hit the nail on the
head. Everj' fruit-grower can find evidence of this around
him. and the experience of others elsewhere in this book con-
firms it. While it is a fact that evaporation is less from a
cultivated surface than one in a close-mowed sod, a fair test
with a seedling or a root-pruned tree will demonstrate in
every case that this loss of moisture is far over-balanced by
the service rendered the tree by its unbroken surface roots.
The superiority of all forest, shade and nut trees, as well as
seedling fruit trees, in uncultivated ground proves this. But
here let me again impress upon my readers that in all I have
to say about non-cultivation and close mowing around fruit
trees, reference is made solely to those grown from seed where
they stand, or to close root-pruned ones. While it will cause
surface-rooted trees to frequently shed their fruit, and will
ultimately shorten their lives, cultivation for them is a neces-
sary evil.

10— HORT.

CHAPTER XIII.

Propagation by Cuttings.

WHILE a great variety of other trees and plants grow
well from cuttings at the North, here, in South
Texas, we find the conditions so favorable that the
Le Conte, Garber and Kieffer pears also grow more or less
freely from cuttings. But having from the beginning kept
up my habit of experimenting, some years ago, after losing
most of our cutting crops several times, either from too much
or too little rain in the winter, I concluded to try early fall
planting. So, beginning about the first of August, I stripped
the leaves from the young pear canes as soon as cut off, and
every Saturday planted one hundred cuttings. I kept this up
until December, and found, to my surprise, that of those set
between the 15th of September aud the 15th of October, if
the ground was reasonably moist, or if well watered, fully 90
per cent, grew, and for the last three years I practised this
method with perfect success. I have had them to grow six
inches before cold weather, if the fall was seasonable. The
philosophy of it is, that at that time the wood is mature and
the ground still warm, while the gradually decreasing tem-
perature gives a cool atmosphere or head. In fact, in early
fall the earth is a natural hotbed, and grape cuttings, as well
as pear and many other trees, will also root well. I see no
reason why the same conditions should not prevail about the
first of August at the North.

I will now give a method for the rapid making of cuttings
and scions, which will prove very valuable to nurserymen.
Figure i in the cut (page 147), represents the end of the
handle of the machine, with a thin, sharp cutting blade at 7,
all made in one piece and with the end of the blade fastened
by a bolt, on which it works, to a standard (3), which is made
of ^-inch thick and 2-inch wide sheet iron. Figure 2 repre-

(146)

PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS.

147

sents a similar but double standard, bolted together at top
and bottom, just wide enough apart to allow the handle of
the knife to work easily between. Figure 4 represents a
piece of 2X lo-inch plank, with a similar piece on the opposite
side, between which the double standard (2) is bolted. These
two sides meet closely beneath the knife blade, so as to fur-
nish a support for it when pressed through the bundle of cut-
tings, which are to be inserted at 9, in the curve. There is
an iron stop at 8, between the double standards, just low
enough to allow the blade to enter the crack at 9 about
i^-inch. In order to regulate the length of cuttings, a piece

CUTTING MACHINE.

of I X 14-plank one foot long must be nailed on edge against
and to the base along at 10 and opposite the knife, against
which the feeder pushes the ends of the cutting wood.
Eight inches is long enough for any cutting. Have the blade
made of good steel, thin and smooth, and keep it sharp. To
operate to the best advantage, four men are required, though
two can work it. But, with one man on a stool at the handle,
another to assort the wood, so as to have the buds all the
same way and ends together, a third to receive and feed, and
a fourth to hold the ends about to be cut, and when cut lay
carefully in flat baskets or boxes with hoop handles, this
machine will make more cuttings in a day than twenty men,
and of as good quality. Any slight bruising of the edges or
sides of the cuttings does no damage, as anyone can prove
by making a small lot with a sharp hatchet ; they will

148 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

grow just as readily as if made with the sharpest knife. I
have used, for years, a pair of No. 4 sHding pruning shears for
cuttings, simply bolting the handle with the curved jaw down
fiat on the 2-inch plank ; but last year, on retiring from busi-
ness, I told my friend, F. W. Malley, who was just starting,
of this method, and suggested that he rig up something
larger, and the machine here represented is the result of his
ingenuity. There is no patent on it, and we present it to all
who choose to make and use it.

In planting, always set cuttings perpendicular, and not
slanting, as is often directed, under a mistaken idea that they
root better thus. There is no difference in the rooting, but a
slanting cutting makes a crooked and unsalable tree. All
cuttings should also be made with a square cross cut, as they
strike better that way, and make a much more evenly-bal-
anced system of roots, than from a sloping cut. A large
pile of cutting wood should be collected before going to
work, and it will greatly facilitate matters if, in picking or
gathering it up in the orchard, all the buds or ends are kept
one way.

While on the subject of bruising roots or ends of cuttings,
to prove that all the injunctions about making smooth cuts of
either is humbug, one only has to dig a tree with the spade
and heel it in a few weeks, to see that roots strike from the
rough cut ends just as freely as if made with a sharp knife.
The main point in growing cuttings in the early fall is to
plant a little deeper than in winter or spring. Eight inches
is about the best length of cuttings, and six inches put under
the ground for early fall planting, but in winter and spring
thousands of cuttings are annually lost from being planted
too deep. It is always best to plant on a good ridge every-
where in winter, for the ground is dryer and warms up more
quickly, and three or four inches is deep enough, and, if the
ground remains very wet, a cutting inserted only two inches
will nearly always grow. If the ground is a little dry it is a
good plan to pass over and press firmly, next to the rows,
with the foot. I did it always, unless the soil was too wet.

Now, in view of what is said elsewhere on pruning pear

PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS.

149

trees, of course judgment must be used in the quantity of
pruning done to each tree. While no amount here in Sep-
tember or early in October will do any harm to bearing trees,
it will be safer to let them alone after that time, though it
is hard to hurt young pear trees in this section with pruning
at any time, as the water is so near the surface, and the dow
of sap is never entirely suspended in summer. I have pruned
severely at all times, and never saw any damage except after
that heavy crop, dry summer and severe early winter prun-
ing, in '93. At the North, however, where blight is so much
more prevalent, I would never prune a pear or apple tree
until the leaves were all out in spring. The Cape Jessamine
is also largely grown here from cuttings, and under proper
conditions the cuttings root with scarcely a failure. [une is
the best month to plant, or just after the spring bloom is
gone. Make the cuttings about eight inches long, leaving
one or two leaves on the upper end of each. Bury in shal-
low trenches, running east and west, and incline a 12-inch
plank over the trench, supported on slanting stubs driven
into the ground. This will keep the evening sun ofi and
should be left until fall, when every one will be rooted il :he
ground has been kept moist all the time. They can be ouried
quite thickly and still root well, after which set in nursery
rows, removing nearly all the root, and they will make tine
bushes the next season. Roses can also be rooted very
readily the same way, and doubtless many other evergreen
plants. The Cape Jessamine will also root with great cer-
tainty if the leaves are all stripped off and the cuttings made
about six inches long, and planted the last of February or
in March.

CHAPTER XIV.

Winter Budding.

WHILE summer budding is one of the most common
forms of tree propagation, a friend of mine, a most
progressive horticulturist, James Hancock, of Bee-
ville, Texas, has been for some time practicing a different
method with perfect success in winter and early spring, before
the sap begins to move or the bark will separate from the
wood. I also tried this method in February and later with
perfect success. He advises cutting off a little of the wood
with bark from the stock, though I tried some with bark alone
and all took. The accompanying cut (see next page) will illus-
trate how it is done. Insert the knife into the limb or stock,
just as if a bud was to be cut and draw it downward an inch or
less, pressing the cut bark back a little to keep it open. (See
Fig. 2, on limb.) The bud is then slipped down next to the
cut surface to the bottom. It is best to make the bud fully as
long or a little longer than the cut on the limb, and let the up-
per end lap a little. The flap is then pressed back, and tied
firmly, as in budding, completely covering the bud itself. Of
course, the leaf stalk must be cut off close, just at the bud, so
the flap will fit tight. Buds can be put in thus all winter, and
especially in early spring, and not one in a hundred will fail.
This method is especially valuable for budding large trees and
limbs, instead of top-grafting, which is far more work, and
less certain to succeed. An orchard can be cut back and very
quickly changed into another variety of fruit at any point
above the ground desired, provided the bark on the limbs is
smooth enough to bud.

The past spring, just before the leaves pushed, but when
the buds were swollen, I saw five hundred four-year-old
peach trees thus treated by top-budding without a single fail-
ure. Five and six buds were quickly put into the main limbs

(150)

WINTER BUDDING.

151

\viNiL.;i uudui.no.

152 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

on each tree, which were at once cut back to within a foot of
the buds. These buds have now (May 5) made shoots three
feet long. Whether this is absolutely necessary to arrest the
movement of the sap, Mr. Hancock has never tested by leav-
ing the limb entire, but as there is practically no movement
in winter it would seem not. There would be no objection to
cutting back in a cold climate, except dying off of limbs so
cut in case of a freeze after the sap began to move from such
severe pruning. Of course, after the buds have started well,
the limbs should be sawed off with a sloping cut close above
the buds, though the bud in the cut was not so treated.
Enough shoots of the stock should be allowed to grow below
to keep the tree healthy, which could be cut away later in the
season or the following year. This method may be very valu-
able to the orange growers of Florida in the ordinary propa-
gation of trees, as budding by the common method often fails.
It will also be exceedingly valuable for turning large trees of
pecans and other nuts into the finer kinds, and must entirely
supersede all orchard top-grafting, which, from the liability
of the scion to dry out, is a very uncertain as well as trouble-
some process, while this is quick, easy and certain. More-
over, why could it not be used by nurserymen for budding
during winter stocks that could not be dormant budded in
the fall before? Or perhaps after the bark ceases to slip in
the fall the work could be continued by this method then.
Mr. Hancock has not found it as convenient or successful
during the ordinary budding season as the common method,
nor has he ever tried it during the winter before February
here, but has had uniform success. At the North, perhaps
just when the buds begin to swell would be an excellent
time, and for the next month.

CHAPTER XV.

Grafthig.

WHILE all the various forms of ordinary grafting are
well understood, and need no description, there is
a form practiced by my friend, E. W. Kirkpatrick,
of Mc Kinney, Texas, an old nurseryman and fruit-grower,
that is so simple and uniformly successful with all kinds of
trees and vines, that it deserves to be more widely known.

SCION AND STOCK COMBINED.

As seen from the illustration, if the stock to be grafted is
growing in the ground, cut off the top as for saddle grafting,
but with one of the sloping cuts about twice as long as the
other, as shown. Then make an incision into the side of the
scion, which should be five or six inches long, about one-third

(153)

154

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

of the length from the top, and, inserting the lower end of
the scion, sharpened as shown, into the ground, fit the cut
place on to the stock, placing the long side of the cut surface
of the stock next to the scion. Bring the edges together on
one side, press the scion down firmly, and no tying will be
necessary, but bank the moist earth well over the union, and
pack. The scion then becomes practically a cutting as well as
a graft, and generally takes root from the lower end, as well
as unites with the stock. This method is equally suited for
house grafting, if tied to keep the stock and scion together
until planted.

Another method, particularly well adapted to the vine, and
a modification of cleft grafting, that rarely fails of success on
the grape, done either in winter, spring, or after the vine is
in full growth, provided the scions have been kept dormant.
Select a smooth place on the vine near or just under the
ground, and make a downward sloping cut, one-third or one-
half through the stock, according to
size, as shown in ' the illustration. A
well-ripened scion with one or two buds
is then cut as for cleft grafting, except
that the cuts, are made sloping, so as to
bring one side of the scion to an edge,
which is to be inserted in the side cut of
the stock, so as to bring the face or
broad side of the scion flush
and even with one edge of
the cut in the stock. A few
wraps of strong string will
bring the surfaces on small
stocks closer together, but
large stocks will bind the scion
tight enough. Cover the whole
scion with moist earth until

StDE GRAFTING.

growth starts, when the top should be cut away. I omitted
to say that from the middle of September to the middle of
October here, perhaps August at the North, is an excellent
time to graft all kinds of trees, with scarcely a failure.

CHAPTER XVI.

Fruit Changed by Pollination.

THE almost universally accepted idea is, that the charac-
teristics of fruit are never affected or changed by polli-
nation the same season. And yet there is nothing more
certain than that the contrary is true, and I intend to demon-
strate it this season to competent witnesses. I will now give
several instances. The first will be an arbor of six Niagara
and six Lindley grape vines here in Galveston, owned by Col.
S. T. Fontaine. The vines are four years old, and bore a
very heavy crop last year, all of which was white except a few
stray pink bunches, but not a single genuine Lindley-colored
bunch. The Lindley bore the first year and the Niagara did
not, and every grape was of the natural red color, but when
dominated by the Niagara pollen, the second year, all but a
few were white. The second instance of this came under my
observation for several years in the yard of N. N. John, of
this city, where the Niagara again dominated and changed
the Jefferson to white. The third instance was on my own
grounds at Hitchcock, where a black grape, the Holmes,
grafted on Golden Chasselas, with a shoot of the latter
allowed to grow and fruit also, was dominated by the Chas-
selas, and the fruit of the Holmes turned to a pale pink. A
fourth instance is the following, clipped from a recent issue
of The Rural New- Yorker :

" Some years ago D. S. Marvin, of Watertown, N. Y., set out a
Brighton layer, from a dry clay knoll, among some Delawares, where
the soil was made moist by slop water. This vine no longer bears
Brighton grapes, but the fruit is red, ripening a week later tlian
Brighton. The skin is thicker, and these grapes now keep as well as
Catawbas, not deteriorating after picking, like the Brighton, but re-
maining firm, with much sprighthness and substance. The leaf is
stronger and thicker and the notches less coarse."

But the grape is not the only fruit thus affected. There

(155)

156 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

stands in Mr. Joe Marcos' yard, on firm, unbroken soil, a
seedling tree that for several years bore freestone peaches,
which I know to be a fact, having eaten of them. A second
seedling came up near by a few years later, and when it bore
it proved to be a cling. Ever since then its pollen has domi-
nated, and both trees have borne clingstone fruit. Another
instance is an orange tree that stands in Capt. W. Dugat's
yard, in Beeville, Texas, which bore for some years a very
thin-skinned orange with few seeds. Later on a sour orange
close by began to bear, the fruit being very thick-skinned and
full of seeds. The skin of the first became coarse, also, and
the number of seeds increased, while the flavor deteriorated
greatly. A final instance is from a letter of inquiry printed
in the April issue of Green's Fruit- Groiver :

Mr. Chas. a. Green : I have one grape trellis 208 feet long,
and a few vines of Brighton, Green Mountain, Wyoming Red and
Moyer; perhaps two of each variety, the larger number of Mooi"e's
Early and Diamond ; there are two vines of F. B. Hayes ; these two
do not ripen quite as early as what we have called the Diamond.
The Diamond, on the side of my house, is greenish white, with a very
slight golden color. The Diamonds on the trellis are a dark amber
or light maroon in color, about the same color of your Moyer grape —
a little lighter in color. The vines on the house grow about the
same, and appear to be the same in wood and leaf. Is it caused by
the grapes mixing with the Moore's Early when in bloom ?

I have three apple trees ; two of them are Talman Sweets,
one is Hubbardston Non-Such. The Hubbardston is planted half
way between and the limbs interlace. This year the Hubbardston
cannot be told from one of the Talman Sweets. One of the Sweets
is large and flattish in form. The other is round and slightly conical.
I have shown the apples to some of my friends — one to J. P. Went-
worth, of the City Council. When you cut the Sweets they turn a
yellowish color. The other, the Hubbardston, is sound, and tastes
more like the Hubbardston. From the outside we could not tell them
apart. Even the line on one side is there. Is it caused by the pollen
getting mixed ? I have one or two apples of the Talman and Hub-
bard in my cellar. Now, what I want most is, to know what the
grapes are. Are they Diamonds or Brightons ? I bought them for
Diamonds. Respectfully yours,

H. A. Channell, Maine.

Reply : While I cannot say positively in regard to your individual
case, I am certain that varieties of fruits are changed in appearance,
size and quality by the influences of surrounding blossoms. Where
an Early Harvest apple tree threw its branches into the tree of a

FRUIT CHANGED BV POLLINATION. 157-

winter apple tree I have seen Early Harvest apples growing on
branches of the winter apple, which were not grafted there. There
are many strange things in nature, which are not as yet understood
by any one. — C. A. Green.

While this action of pollen is rare, still it does happen,
and it would be well to look out for such effects in planting
orchards where varieties of the apples named are used.
Especially should care be taken to keep the Lindley and Jef-
ferson away from the Niagara grape vine, if it be desired to
maintain the red color. Of course, some of our latter-day
authorities^ rooted and grounded in the wisdom of the past^
will scout these facts, and show just as conclusively by argu-
ment that the thing cannot be true, as they did about my
close root-pruning method, five or six years ago.

CHAPTER XVII.

Hybridism by Grafting and "Budding.

WHILE it is known that hybrids have been formed by
grafting as well as by crossing through the pollen, it
is considered so rare that very little attention has
been paid to the subject, and the general opinion among a
large majority of fruit-growers is that such a thing is impos-
sible. Chas. Downing, on page 4, paragraph 4, of his work
on fruits, makes the following interesting remarks on the
subject :

" But there is still another reason for this habit, so perplexing to
the novice, who, having tasted a luscious fruit, plants, watches, and
rears its seedHng, to find it, perhaps, wholly different in most
respects. This is the influence of gf^fUng. Among the great
number of seedhng fruits produced in the United States, there is
found occasionally a variety, perhaps a plum or a peach, which will
nearly always reproduce itself from seed. From some fortunate
circumstances in its origin, unknown to us, this sort, in becoming im-
proved, still retains strongly this habit of the natural or wild form,
and the seeds produce the same. We can call to mind several
examples of this : fine fruit trees whose seeds have established the
reputation in the neighborhood of fidelity to the sort. But when a
g>aft is taken from one of these trees, and placed upon another
stock, this grafted tree is found to lose its singular power of pro-
ducing the same by seed. The stock exercises some as yet unex-
plained power in dissolving the strong natural habit of the variety,
and becomes, like its fellows, subject to the laws of its artificial life.''

In a marginal note the editor comments on the above, and
clearly expresses the general belief of to-day, that the stock
has no effect on the seed of fruit grown on the scions. He
says :

" The doctrine here advanced has, perhaps, no foundation in fact,
nor has there been any test made that, to our knowledge, would
controvert it. Observation of many years, however, leads to the
belief that the mere engrafting a variety upon another stock in no
way affects its habit or capacity for reproducing itself just the same
as it would if retained upon its parent root."

The unifornil}' negative opinion as to graft or bud hybrid-

(■58)

HYBRIDISM BY GRAFTING AND BUDDING. I59

ism has, doubtless, arisen from the great difficulty, in fact
impossibility heretofore, of obtaining definite proofs of such
hybridism in the resulting products between individuals of
the same species. The different varieties of apples, pears,
peaches and plums have leaves resembling each other suffi-
ciently closely to prevent any cross from a stock and scion
showing with marked distinctness in the product of the seed.
But in the instance I will presently offer, we have two kinds
of the same species so entirely distinct in every point that
when grafted, or rather top-budded, one upon the other, and
the seed of the scion planted, we are able to detect in the
product the distinct peculiarities of both so plainly that the
conclusion as to a genuine hybridism seems irresistible.
And why, indeed, should there be such incredulity or doubt
as to not only the possibility of such a result, but even the
probability of an actual cross in every case of trees grown
from seed taken from grafted or budded trees of the same
species ? Remembering that the stock is the actual provider
and dispenser of all the plant-food received by the scion, and
that general experience has shown that certain stocks do give
additional vigor to other weakly growers, as a Delaware
grafted on a Niagara grape vine, and also add size to the
berry, as alwavs results from such a union, I see no physio-
logical reason for doubting that the stock must, of necessity,
stamp some of its characteristics on the seed also. It is
freely admitted that vigor, longevity and productiveness, as
well as size of fruit, can be imparted by the stock to the scion ;
and yet, when asked to go to the logical conclusion, and add,
"affect the seed also," a prompt negative is given. May not
the overlooking of this important fact be the reason why,
considering the vast number of seedlings of every kind that
have been grown and tested, the number of meritorious
varieties of recent years that are equal to the older sorts is so
small? The really valuable varieties can almost be counted
on the two hands. Now, why this great scarcity of improved
kinds from so many millions of seeds? Is there any reason-
able explanation, except that we start out with a "degen-
erate" as one of the parents of our seed? For instance, in

l6o THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

our efforts to originate new varieties, do we not select our
seed from perhaps a Bartlett pear, an Elberta peach, or a
Baldwin apple, grafted or budded on some common, scrub
seedling stock, and then are greatly surprised to find the
children inferior to the parents? I will now give a plain case
of stock and scion hybridism which is of peculiar interest,
because it furnishes an almost perfect demonstration of this
most important principle, which, if true in this instance,
ought to hold equally good with all other fruits.

About seven years ago, in my first experiments with the
Satsuma orange, I found that a temperature of eighteeu
degrees killed it to the ground, though it had been falsely
claimed to have stood a temperature of twelve degrees in
California. Having about five hundred Trifoliata stocks,
which I had planted for budding before I found this out, and
finding the Satsuma too tender when grafted low down in the
ground, the idea occurred to me that, as the Trifoliata was
perfectly hardy, a deciduous orange, and went to rest more
completely and remained so later than the Satsuma, if the
buds were inserted about two feet above ground, perhaps the
tops would be unable to stimulate a movement of the sap in
the body so early as if budded near the ground. If it could
not, then the Satsuma would be more hardy than when
grafted low down ; for the whole question of the hardiness of
orange trees in winter here is the condition of the sap. So,
acting on this notion, I top-budded the whole lot except four,
which I budded as low down as possible for trial. The buds
all made a good growth the next season, but in the following
January, quite a severe freeze occurred, and in a few days the
four low-budded trees showed severe damage, and in a week
were all dead, while not a shoot on the top-budded trees was
hurt. Overjoyed at this, the whole lot was taken up care-
fully with small balls of earth, and set out in a grove to fruit,
where they remained, grew finely for four years, until killed,
and bore quite a number of oranges. When the fruit was
ripe, being too few to sell, we ate them, and nearly all had
seed, some oranges having as many as three, though it is well
known that the fruit from low-grafted trees is practically

HYBRIDISM liY GRAFTING AND BUDDING. l6r

seedless. Here, then, was a decided change and influence of
the stock on the Satsuma, both in hardiness and the putting
of seed into the fruit, where few were ever seen before.
While I had paid no attention to this subject, these facts sug-
gested the probability of obtaining a genuine hybrid thus, so
some of the seeds were saved and planted. When they were
up a foot or so high, I had a visit from a scientific and prom-
inent fruit grower of Texas, and on taking him, with great
pride, to see my pets, and explaining the facts, he laughed
heartily at my enthusiasm, and said the whole idea of their
being hybrids was absurd. I then pointed out, that while alt
were plainly sweet oranges, from the peculiarities of the
leaves, yet nearly all were more or less thorny, some as much
so as the Trifoliata, while the Satsuma has no thorns at all.
Moreover, a sign of the Trifoliata leaf was plainly visible on
several trees. But all to no purpose ; and in answer to my
direct question. What sort of fruit I would get, he replied
confidently, "Satsuma." Having sold my place shortly
after, these seedlings were moved, and last year stood a tem-
perature of ten degrees, all other sweet orange trees being
killed, and I feel confident, unless the trees happened to be
in a peculiarly dormant condition, that they will prove hardy
here, and perhaps over the whole lower part of Texas, show-
ing plainly that they are true hybrids of the Satsuma and the
entirely hardy Trifoliata. Just what the fruit will be, of
course, nothing can be known yet, but there is no reason why
some of the oranges will not be sweet. Of course, if they
are, and they continue to prove hardy, it will work a revolu-
tion in orange growing ; for by the same method hybrids can
be obtained between any of the finer and larger sweet
oranges and the Trifoliata, and thus many new and hardy
varieties can be grown with perfect success all through the
Gulf States generally; and by repeated crosses on Trifoliata
the hardiness in the end can be increased, until varieties may
be originated that will stand the climate even of the whole
South.

The accompanying illustrations (see page 163) will demon-
strate the truth of all I claim. The first shows a branch of

II — HORT.

l62 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

the thorny and very seedy Trifoliata stock, on which, two feet
above the ground, was budded the thornless and seedless Sat-
suma, shown alongside. The result was to put seed into the
fruit of nearly every* Satsuma orange, as well as to increase
the hardiness of that variety, thus top-budded. The seeds,
■when planted, produced apparently sweet orange trees, as far
as can be judged from the leaves. While some of the
twenty-seven trees are entirely thornless like the Satsuma,
others have thorns of varying lengths, from very short to
very long, as shown in the second illustration (which is a
photograph of four shoots from among the twenty-seven
seedlings); and one tree. No. i, actually intermits its thorns,
just as grape vines do their tendrils, there being three inter-
missions, as shown at the bottom, middle and top, and two
thorns between. Moreover, those twent3'-seven seedlings
have stood a temperature without injury of ten degrees, a
degree of cold that no common orange has ever survived. I
wish to call particular attention to the leaves designated with
a ring, showing plain markings, in their round and split ends,
of the Trifoliata leaf, and especially to the small leaf of the
liybrid marked 5, which is identical in shape with a part of a
leaf of the Trifoliata also marked 5.

Of course, the most interesting and conclusive part of
this experiment has yet to come, in the shape of the fruit.
Whether some of these seedlings will take after one parent
and some the other, or whether all will be moderately sour
and require another cross, for instance with the seedless
Navel, is an important question. But, applying this principle
to all other kinds of fruits, why may it not be equally true
also? I now have experiments under way to find out whether
any fruit tree put upon its own roots, like the Trifoliata, by
the method of Japan or saddle grafting, shown elsewhere,
and then cutting away the stock after the cion has struck root
on itself, will not reproduce itself to a great extent from seed
at first, and perfectly in a few)ears, when planted apart from
other trees of the same species. How far the principle of
heredity will affect the fruit, or how long, remains to be seen.
I think we may reasonably conclude that an Elberta peach.

HYBRIDIZING BY GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 163

sCHtS 1-kOM loLR Ol- 1 V.li.ST'V-LL.VE.N IIVBRIU i-El-DLl.NtS. iEE TAOKS 16O-162.

164 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

for instance, on its own roots as a stock, and top-budded
with another valuable variety, will give better fruit from the
seed than if that variet}' had been grown on an inferior seed-
ling stock.

This opens a new and wide field for experiment and im-
provement, especially of our earlier varieties, on the point of
size. Of course, experiments must be conducted at a reason-
able distance from the pollen of other trees, or selected
branches protected from foreign pollination, when a true
hybrid is desired. If this principle of graft and bud hybrid-
ism be true, and the facts point strongly that way, it will
afford for the ordinary fruit-grower an easy and certain
method of experimenting with all kinds of fruit, and will
add greatly to his interest in horticulture, as well as result in
new and improved varieties. My efforts are now being
directed not only toward originating hardy sweet oranges,
but also larger and finer peaches than will now bear well this
far South. With that view I have now growing for stock, on
their own roots, the Elberta, Mamie Ross, Sneed and
Triumph, none of which are productive here, and have top-
budded them with Waldo, Angel and Imperial, all of the
oriental type, and exceedingly productive and of excellent
quality, though the fruit is almost too small for market. As
the latter bloom long before the former Persian varieties, it
has been impossible heretofore to cross* them by the pollen.
The same difficulty lies with the Trifoliata and common sweet
oranges, the latter all blooming first. I herewith append a
statement from Mr. E. P. Stiles, editor of the Horticultural
Gleaner, published at Austin, which bears on this subject :

Dear Sir — I have a very fine seedling peach, which I have been
fruiting for many years, using until lately common seedlings indis-
criminately for stocks. I have noticed a very great variation in the
conduct of this peach on different stocks, both in vigor and produc-
tiveness, as well as size and appearance of the fruit. By chance I
propagated several trees on Mountain Rose seedlings, and found
them so superior on that stock that I am now using it exclusively, and
find that it continues to maintain its superiority. This difference in
the fruit is not due to any local causes, tests having been made to
determine that point. Referring to the subject of graft hybrids, on
which you are experimenting, I must say that I can see no reason

HYBRIDISM BY GRAFTING AND BUDDING. 165

why the Mountain Rose should not affect the seed of my peach as
well as other points. Truly, E. P. Stii.es,

I will now conclude this subject with a short letter from
Prof. W. F. Massey, of the North Carolina Experiment Sta-
tion, to whom I sent leaves and copies of the accompanying
photographs (see page 163), with the simple statement chat
the four branches were from trees grown from Satsuma
oranges, and that I believed they were hybrids of that orange
and the Trifoliata. Wishing him to be totally unbiassed in
his judgment, I did not state just how they were grown, and
asked his opinion on the bare facts. I knew that he had been
experimenting \vith both of these oranges, and felt sure that
he would give me a clear and impartial opinion, which he
did, and which goes far to confirm me in my own view :

N. C. Agricultural Experiment Station,
Horticultural Division, Raleigh, N. Q,., Jiitte g, i8g6.

W. F. Massey, Horticulturist.
H. M. Stringfellovv, Galveston, Texas:

Dear Sir — Yours of the 2d came to hand in due time, and would
have had earlier attention but for the press of work just at com-
mencement time. I am now much interested in the cross-bred
plants, and believe you have a hybrid, or more than one. Will be
glad to test them for you here. Yours truly,

W. F. Massey.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Dwarfing Trees on Their Own Roots.

A ND now, a few suggestions on the dwarfing of trees on
L\ their own roots, after the Japanese method, whereby
"*" those people were able to exhibit forest trees at the

World's Fair over two hundred years old and only two and
three feet high. The principle of the whole process is just
what Charles Downing says would be "ideal transplanting,"
namely, to move with roots entire. Doubtless they do this
repeatedly, leaving all the tops on ; also withholding food
and water except enough to keep the tree fairly alive until
completely dwarfed ; then from generation to generation plant-
ing the seed of the dwarfed tree, whatever it may be. Such
trees are doubtless the result of many hundreds of years of
selection and propagation, handed down as heirlooms. But at
the same time it is almost incredible how completely even a
vigorous tree like the Cottonwood may be dwarfed by a single
transplanting with very long roots. To illustrate, I will state
that fourteen years ago, when I moved to Hitchcock and
planted my orchard, I had such confidence in its success that,
wishing to break the force of the strong south winds and
keep the fruit from being blown off, I planted a row of Cot-
tonwood cuttings along the south and long side. About six
inches of soil from a shallow ditch was thrown up under the
lower wire of the fence, and cuttings planted forty feet apart
in the loose soil, the lower ends resting on the unbroken top
soil below. My intention was to alternate with sycamore be-
tween, but this was never done. Now the limbs of most of
them are lapping between, and they tower fully seventy-five
feet or more in the air, and several of them are two feet in
diameter two feet above ground. This applies generally to
all but two. One is about one foot in diameter and thirty-five
to forty feet high, and the other about six inches and twenty-

(i66)

DWARFING TREES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS. 167

five feet high. Being alongside of the road, the whole row
has been kept perfectly clean on one side all the time, and
half the row, including the two latter, have had constant
clean culture on both sides, being in the center of an avenue.
None have ever been plowed. The two smaller trees, more-
over, have had annual dressings of cotton-seed meal and
ashes to make them grow, and the smallest has had several
dressings of thirty pounds of the meal. Now, if I had not
posted my readers half-way already, I would wager that not
one could tell the reason of this wonderful disparity in
size. Perhaps they will not believe me when I tell them, but
it was simply a case of too much root. The first year those
two cuttings failed to grow and, as the others had all done
well, I concluded to plant two extra fine trees in extra fine
style, and make them keep up with the procession. So I went
over to Lamarque, where some young trees were growing,
and, selecting two, cut back the bodies, that were two and
one-half to three inches in diameter, to six feet, and proceded
to dig. Like most people now, I had unlimited faith in the
efficacy of long roots, and started the first at six feet from the
tree. We all worked manfully spading out the soil, to pre-
serve every root that was possible, and we finally got that
tree out in fine shape, leaving a twelve-foot hole and the bot-
tom well watered with sweat. This is now the smaller of the
two. But, finding the job more than we bargained for, we
compromised on a three-foot root system for the other, and
soon had it out also. I forgot to say that the trees had both
been transplanted once before, and had what I thought was a
most beautiful lot of roots. Well, on reaching home, being
all tired out and not wishing to slight the work, the replant-
ing was put of until the next day, when we went at it afresh,
and at last finished just the nicest transplanting job ever
done, the holes being nearly two feet deep, top soil thrown to
one side, carefully beat up and pulverized before filling in to
one foot, then more fine soil hauled and worked in carefully
among the roots, after the most approved fashion now laid
down in all the books. The work at last completed, I called
my wife to see what a beautiful job we had made, with the

l68 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

nice clean stems as straight as an arrow. While I had no
fear of their not keeping ahead of the balance of the row,
about four feet high and as large as my thumb, still, when I
came to fertilize all, I gave these two a double dose of cotton-
seed meal. Well, to cut the story short, in spite of all I
could do in the way of annual fertilizing and absolutely clean
culture, from that time until a year ago, when my health
failed from overwork and I sold the place, the figures given
above tell the tale of too much root. The tree that had six
feet of root is half the size of the one that had three, and the
latter is less than half the size of the balance of the row
that had no roots at all. But both of the smaller trees are
of nice shape, perfectly healthy, and the smallest a real
beaut}', and from it I took the hint as to how the Japanese
worked the dwarfing trick. Those who wish to try it might
start Avith, say, a live oak acorn or other tree seed in a small
pot of sand or poor soil. At the end of the season shift to a
size or two larger, shaking off all the soil and leaving on all
the roots and top. This alone would dwarf it greatly, but if
repeated the second year much more so. How often this
transplanting with roots and tops entire would be necessary
e.xperience alone could demonstrate. Now the question is,
could this be utilized for dwarfing apples, pears, cherries,
■etc., in small areas where desirable, and the trees maintain
their health? Judging from the health of the small cotton-
wood described above, I believe it could, providing the trees
■were never pruned when at rest, and the roots never dis-
turbed. Any two or three-year apple or other tree can
certainly be permanently dwarfed by a single transplanting,
if taken up with several feet of root and reset with a large
part of the top, taking care to spread the roots out laterally,
as directed in the books.

CHAPTER XIX.

IVhv Trees in Bottoms never Drown — Aeration.

FEW persons, 'Unless they have tested it, have any idea of
that peculiar quality that soils never disturbed deeply
have of holding water on the surface, in ponds, for
instance, for years, and yet immediately after being drained,
if examined, the ground will be found friable and ready for
the plow just beneath. I once undertook to grow carp, and
for two years kept a small pond filled with water ; but find-
ing the venture a failure, and having drained the water off,
the idea occurred to me to examine the bottom at once, and
see how deep the mud was. To my amazement, it was only
about three or four inches deep, and on being scraped away
with a hoe, the bottom was actually ready for the plow. The
few inches of previously stirred surface was mud, but the
balance firm. This peculiarity of unbroken ground not tak-
ing up and holding water in it in a free or mud state is a wise
provision of nature, and accounts for the fact that wild grape
vines and forest trees in river bottoms are often, for weeks,
several feet under water without the slightest harm. Had
such ground been deeply plowed, and especially subsoiled,
trees in such locations would certainly be killed. But never
having been disturbed, the particles of soil are in that pecu-
liar natural relation to each other that, while they readily
admit between them a certain quantity of water, and allow its
passage through to the roots and subsoil, it is impossible to
make such undisturbed ground take more than that specified
amount, and so tree roots under such circumstances are not
by any means standing in mud several feet deep, as many
people ignorantly suppose. While I am sure all my readers
can recall instances in their own knowledge of trees standing
thus in water for weeks in low places, and apparently enjoy-
ing the bath, a most remarkable instance was told me

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170 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

recently by a gentleman, who knows of three pecan trees
that have stood for two years on stiff land in North Texas,
with about one foot of water continuously covering the
whole surface of the ground for several hundred feet. They
bear fine pecans just as regularly as other trees', which fall
upon the water every year and are blown ashore by the wind,
some of which he has thus gathered and eaten. Could that
water be drained off and the earth examined below, it would
be found practically just like any ordinary well-drained land
after rain. Just that wet, and no more. Who doubts the
fate of those trees if the ground had been deeply plowed and
then thus flooded ? But to a limited degree for a few days
after excessive rains, all deeply stirred land is in a condition
of mud, and the fine fibrous feeding roots of all fruit trees on
such ground must necessairly be either scalded and drowned
out, more or less, in summer, or seriously injured by severe
cold after such excessive rains in winter. After being once
disturbed deeply, it requires many years to again compact the
soil and bring it into its original state. This can easily be
proved by examining, after continued rains, trees that were
planted in large, deep holes, though it readily shows for itself
if the rain be accompanied with a strong wind. In such case,
fruit trees six or seven years or more of age are often twisted
or bent half over from working in the soft earth, and some-
times are blown flat. It is true that this is largely due to
long roots when planted, but in any case such a saturated
mud condition of deeply stirred soil cannot but be injurious
to a tree, and is undoubtedly the chief cause of the develop-
ment of the different forms of root tumor and rot now so com-
mon in the South, and doubtless of yellows and black-knot,
as well as other root diseases at the North. Could there be
more convincing proof that the whole theory and practice of
deep plowing and large holes for trees is wrong and contrary
to nature, than the health, vigor and long life of forest as well
as all chance seedling fruit trees on firm unbroken soil?

But, referring again to the pecan tree in water, alluded to
above, do trees need aeration ? While it is undoubtedly of
great service to all soils in their preparation for crops, once

WHY TREES IN BOTTOMS NEVER DROWN AERATION. 171

in the ground there is not the slightest evidence to prove that
the admission of air to the roots of any tree or plant by
ploughing or cultivation is of any real benefit. The facts
now given will show that the theory or belief that, somehow
or other, an extra supply of air over and above that naturally
contained in all firm soils is beneficial to tree roots in cultiva-
tion is a mistake. I had a row of bearing orange trees many
years ago, standing just behind my front fence, in the western
part of the city of Galveston. After the great storm of 1875
a vast amount of sand was washed up from the beach, close
to which my place was situated, and deposited in the street
just outside. By summer the strong sputh winds had blown
the most of it through my picket fence, and banked it up from
three to four feet around the bodies of the orange trees.
Many people thought it would hurt them, but believing to the
contrary, I leveled it all down nicely, leaving the bodies
standing fully three feet in beach sand. On this was spread
a heavy coat of barnyard manure. The next year those trees
made a most remarkably strong growth, and continued to do
well until killed by the freeze of 1886.

Another instance occurred last fall. When passing along
near the sidewalk of a friend in this city, who had a long row
of live oaks five to eight inches in diameter standing on low
ground which he was about to fill up, I saw that he had taken
up about half of the trees, and raised them several feet, as
the sidewalk was being filled in. I told him about my orange
trees, and advised him to treat his oaks the same way. He
did so, filling in with good earth from the mainland. The
result was continued good health, and a fine growth the past
season. While the filling on the public square with strong
manure, as noted elsewhere, was very injurious, any quantity
of soil can be placed around trees with safety, if not actual
benefit.

After all, is not cultivation really only a necessary evil ?
For trees, facts clearly point that way. For certain annual
crops, that grow when the weeds do, it is absolutely neces-
sary to cultivate, to prevent the weeds from appropriating
a large share of plant food and moisture, and also equally

172 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

important to shade the earth around growing plants, and
keep down evaporation. Still, do we not, by inverting the
soil and putting the humus at the bottom instead of the top,
where nature puts it, and also by exposing the pulverized
surface to the leaching of heavy rains, which carry off far
more soluble plant food than is appropriated by the trees,
really do our orchards more harm than good ? We cultivate
and crop our lands until, if no fertilizer is added, they ulti-
mately refuse to produce, and we turn them out as old fields.
Nature then plants them with trees, and not only grows a
vigorous crop from year to year, but rapidly renews the
fertility of the soil itself by depositing vegetable matter on
the surface where, exposed to air, heat and moisture, it is
continually rendering plant food soluble, and returning it to
the storehouse of the earth. Why, if nature can rear an
immense forest growth on impoverished land, and in the
course of time return it to us rich, cannot we grow fruit trees
by the same method ? The leaves, grass clippings, and
annual dying of the surface roots of the sod, leave the
vegetable matter just where the elements can, through its
decomposition, prepare food for the tree roots, to supplement
which I propose an annual top-dressing. And yet, reason-
able and natural as this treatment of an orchard is, men will
theorize about the vast excess of evaporation from a sod sur-
face over a cultivated one, and demonstrate to a certainty
how superior the latter must be; but nature laughs at them,
with her vigorous and productive old seedling trees, in out-
of-the-way places, while everywhere throughout the country,
continually, cultivated trees become diseased early, fail to
bear regular crops, and die young.

CHAPTER XX.

Wrapping Fruit.

WHILE nobody claims that either Le Conte, Kieffer,
or Garber, the only successful pears here, are as
good in quality as some of the old varieties, still, if
properly ripened, they are excellent eating, and both Prof.
Baile)', of Cornell, and the editor of The Rural New- Yorker
(the latter the Kieffer's long-time enemy) pronounced speci-
mens of Kieffer I sent them a few years ago as almost equal
to any pear. There is no question that after a crop or two
of Le Conte have been taken off, and the potash of the soil
somewhat exhausted, that the fruit is liable to rot more
quickly at the core, and also to deteriorate in quality, as well
as hang on less tenaciously. I have noticed these points
particularly. But the most important observation from ex-
perience is, that if taken off just before or when full grown,
and packed in quite tight boxes or barrels, the quality of the
fruit is greatly improved. If, however, it is picked at that
stage before fully developed, and exposed to the air or
wrapped in paper, the fruic not only shrivels in a few days,
but that wrapped in paper will become quite tasteless. It is
certain that besides losing quality, as noted elsewhere,
from the trees not being allowed to form genuine surface
roots, the California fruits shipped east are also greatly
damaged in their eating qualities by being picked immature
and wrapped in paper. When perfectly ripe such effects do
not follow. But fruit at all green, or only partially ripe, as
most of their fruit has to be picked to stand shipment,
certainly loses flavor by the wrapping. I learned this very
important point at a cost of nearly one hundred dollars for
paper, that was bought at the urgent solicitation of my com-
mission merchant in Chicago, who insisted that he could get
twice as much for wrapped pears as for the plain. So I

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174 "^"^ "new horticulture.

bought the paper, when about to ship the first car load of
that phenomenal nine thousand bushel crop, and we wrapped
all but about fifty boxes, which were left unwrapped to test
the quality, as the fruit was not fully mature. On arrival,
and after ripening, he tasted the wrapped and those not, and
at once telegraphed me to wrap no more. He explained by
letter that the wrapped fruit had not only shrivelled slightly,
the dry paper having absorbed the moisture from the imma-
ture fruit, but was also quite insipid, while that in the fifty
boxes not wrapped was of excellent quality. The Kieffer is
also positively damaged in quality by wrapping if not per-
fectly mature. There seems to be something in a confined
atmosphere that greatly improves the quality of both apples
and pears. We can all remember of making, when boys,
apple "dens," or holes in the ground, where, buried in soil
or straw, apples would keep for months, often, and come out
with a most delicious flavor. In fact, I never in my life ate
apples that tasted like those from an apple "den." The
same holds good of Kieffer pears. For years this fruit was
abused for its poor quality and hard and tasteless flesh, by
those who knew not how to ripen it, and still is abused by
some ignorant people, though it can be ripened up to almost
equal Anjou or the best of the older winter varieties. When
the Kieffer was awarded a very high premium at the Cen-
tennial of 1876, I read an account of it and its delicious
flavor as described by Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, who
was a neighbor of old Peter Kieffer, and had often eaten the
fruit as ripened by the old originator. Mr. Meehan went so
far as to say that he felt, after eating one of old man Kieffer's
pears, like never eating any other pear again, for fear of
losing the recollection of its delicious flavor. It was that
extravagent statement that induced me to plant the Kieffer in
1883, and when it came into bearing, like everybody else who
tries to ripen it exposed to the air or on shelves, it proved to
be a great disappointment. By a mere accident I hit upon
what I am sure must have been old Peter's method, yet,
strange to say, he died without telling any body of it, though
he lived long enough to hear its quality condemned. When

WRAPPING KRUIT.

175

once shipping a lot of fruit in October, by oversight a close
bushel box was left nailed up under a bench in the packing
house, and there remained several weeks before being dis-
covered. On opening, the fruit was found to be a beautiful
yellow and of delicious quality, showing that confinement in
its own atmosphere was the secret of making it a most excel-
lent table fruit. After that I had no more trouble about the
quality of Kieffer pears, an experience that has since been
verified by hundreds of others. As the best methods for hand-
ling and shipping fruits are well known, it is useless for me to
more than call attention to the absolute necessity for spring
wagons, even where fruit for distant shipment is only to be
hauled a few hundred yards. Especially are all berries
liable to be jolted and bruised by a springless vehicle in a
very short haul, and the slightest bruise means quick decay.
While it is very doubtful that much ventilation of straw-
berries in cool weather, such as we ship in, is a benefit, there
is no question that all vegetables that are at all liable to heat
should have plenty of air, nor should vegetables or fruits for
long shipment ever be washed or wet, especially strawberries.
For the early February and March crop of the latter it is a
serious question whether a practically tight package would
not be best for them. In distant shipments evaporation is
very great, and the upper tier of boxes, on opening the crate,
always shows a shriveling of the berries and loss of gloss.
The second tier, which is practically tight, shows up bright
and firm. This, however, applies only to ventilated or re-
frigerator cars. When shipped far, in a heated express car,
air would be an absolute necessity.

CHAPTER XXI.

Grapes.

AS TO grapes, and the adaptability of various kinds to
the different sections of the country, it is certain
that the practice of close root-pruning is going to
make some radical changes. As remarked elsewhere, the
grape becomes permanently very surface-rooted when grown
from long-rooted vines, but roots exceedingly deep from a
close root-pruned one. The question is, How far is this go-
ing to influence the behavior of vines in given localities? As,
for instance, it did the old Herbemont on my former Hitch-
cock place. That vine, taken up when six years old, closely
root and top-pruned and replanted, has made an extraordi-
nary growth, and is bearing enormous crops every year. It
is entirely free from all disease, while the same variety, as
ordinarily planted and cultivated, rots in the neighborhood
nearly every year. The general opinion in South Texas has
been, that all the Labrusca and their hybrids are short-lived.
As all those grapes bear very heavily, and are nearly always
allowed to overbear, may it not be that this and long,
fibrous roots are at the bottom of the trouble, if it be true ?
Not caring to retain any of them after a fair test, and finding
them unsuited for distant shipment, owing to early shelling
of the berries, I always threw them out, having so many
experiments on hand. Thus I never kept any of the La-
brusca over four or five years. My tests of the American
varieties included over fifty of the latest and most prominent,
and out of the whole list, I would unhesitatingly select the
Lindley for South Texas, as the very best early light-red
grape, though it does not set its fruit well unless planted
near or alternated in rows with a staminate variety, such as
the Agawam or Salem. The two latter are by far the largest
and best dark-red grapes, while Wilder easily stands at the

(176)

GRAPES. 177

head of the blacks. The Niagara is the very best white or
golden grape, being of larger size and more productive than
Moore's Diamond, as well as a much stronger grower. These
are the cream of all the American grapes, as table grapes, for
South Texas. Of course, in the Gulf Coast and southwest-
ern part of Te.xas, the old Herbemont and Lenoir or Black
Spanish are the standard wine and arbor grapes, though they
are of little value for market. But while all the grapes recom-
mended above are excellent for home use and markets that can
be reached in one day or less, it would be useless to plant
them or any other American grape largely for more distant
shipment. They will all shell off, or drop from the bunch, in
our hot summer weather, after being gathered, at the end of
that time. After July the northern and California grapes
take our markets, and prices rule very low. While some of
the Munson and other American grapes will hang quite late
in the summer, it scarcely pays to leave them, on account of
depredations by the birds, unless constantly watched. For
wine growing, except on a small scale for local markets, we
can never compete with California, as grapes are grown more
cheaply there than here. But while most of the Vinifera are
unsuited to Texas, except the southwestern portion, around
Beeville and near the coast, where they are proving very suc-
cessful, it is highly probable that the Chasselas de Fontaine-
bleu will also prove at home in the eastern coast district,
several vines being now in full bearing on Galveston Island.

Grapes mature very early in the Southwest, the Chasselas
coming in about the 5th of June, and in Galveston county but
a very short time afterwards. Of course, all vines should
be closely root-pruned, set in as small a hole as practicable,
and well rammed. In the matter of training, they are almost
exclusively adopting the California low head, no trellis,
system, in Southwest Texas, and the same plan would
answer well for the Chasselas in the eastern coast region.
But all the American grapes seem to do better on somewhat
longer pruning, though I know of vines that have given good
crops on the above plan. As a rule, perhaps, the renewal
system of several new canes, about three feet long for vines
12— Hort.

178 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

in full bearing, trained fan-shape to a trellis of three wires,
will furnish all the fruit that any vine should carry. I would
earnestly caution against overbearing all through the life of a
grape vine, and especially of young ones the first few
years. This is the cause of the failure and early death of
nine out of ten vines that break down. One good bunch to a
shoot is all that should be left until the vines get strong.

As to fertilizer, bone and potash will supply all the food a
vine requires, and potash is especially important for their
health. Where cotton-seed hull ashes or plenty of wood ashes
can be had, there is nothing better. As to insects, the
most serious enemy to the grape in the South is the leaf
roller; and while he never attacks the smooth, thin leaves of
the Vinifera, he rarely allows the woolly leaves of the
Labrusca or its hybrids to escape. One spraying with Paris
green and a little lime, at the rate of one pound of the green
to one hundred or even one hundred and fifty gallons of lime
water, when the berries are half grown, will be washed off
before the fruit ripens, but will protect entirely until
the fruit has been sold, when another will carry the
vines through the summer. The birds are the only other
enemy, and while there are not so many in Southwest Texas,
they are exceedingly destructive everywhere else throughout
the South. The very best remedy is to pepper them with peas
from a gun, or very fine shot at long range, for a few days,
when the fruit begins to ripen. It is astonishing how quickly
they will communicate the fact when they are struck. Dead
birds, like dead men, tell no tales, but lives ones are quick to
do it. However, it is highly probable that birds attack
grapes much oftener to quench their thirst than to obtain food,
and if shallow vessels of water are placed at intervals
throughout the vineyard, the loss of fruit will be very small.

In marketing the fruit, it should always be gathered in
shallow boxes, with cleats on the ends for handles, so they
can be piled up on each other, in hauling to the packing
house. There it should remain over until the next day, to
allow the stems to wilt, so that the bunches will lose their
rigidity and pack more closely without bruising. All broken,

GRAPES. 179

green or decayed berries should be clipped from the bunches
with sharp-pointed grape scissors. The 5- and 9-pound bas-
kets are the most common packages, but they are not only
more inconvenient for packing in the car, but are too close
for the far South, in hot weather. The square box or crate,
with four 5-pound baskets, such as seems to be in general use
in California, is far better, and they should be well filled, so
the cover will fit tightly, to prevent shaking. The catalogues
will furnish a very extensive list for those who want variety,
even though inferior grapes.

But there is one other grand but neglected old grape for
home use, both for the table and for wine. I allude to the
Scuppernong, which, while it grows everywhere like a weed,
has failed hitherto to set its fruit. The cause is now very
plain. Simply the old trouble of pistillate blooms. Mr. S.
N. Richardson, of Alvin, tells me that he has tried it, and
named a party in Columbia who had the same experience on
a large scale. If the common male Muscadine, which blooms
just when the Scuppermong does, is planted close by, instead
of dropping its fruit, as it always does, the latter will bear
every year, and most profusely. This is a very important
fact, for this famous old southern vine, if trellised, will cover
an acre, and asks no other favors than a good annual dress-
ing of potash in some form, and then to have its roots let
alone. For chicken yard, around back doors, or wherever
shade is desired, it will not only answer that useful purpose,
but also bear loads of delicious grapes for wine or table use.

As to distance for planting, eight feet each way between
the Labrusca varieties will be sufficient, but twelve feet or
more is best for the Herbemont and Lenoir in the immediate
coast coujitry. Around San Antonio and in Southwest
Texas, however, they succeed well stump-pruned, like the
Vinifera in California, but the climate is dryer in that portion
of Texas, and vines are less subject to rot. While clean
cultivation is now the rule, I propose planting a small vine-
yard, as an experiment, with twelve feet between rows and
vines four feet in the rows. After cultivating for a year very
shallow, they will be put down to grass and mowed often

l8o THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

enough to keep it short, and surface roots will not be broken
again. There are many isolated vines thus treated that are
bearing heavy annual crops with no spraying, while plowed
and cultivated vines rot every year. In fertilizing, beware of
cotton-seed meal or other manures rich in ammonia, as that
element is very apt to produce rot in the fruit. A good
annual dressing of some form of potash and phosphoric acid
will make vigorous vines and plenty of fruit.

As to spraying, while some have not found any benefit
from it on fruit trees, there is no doubt that in most sections
of the country it is an absolute necessity for sound grapes,
and while it will not prevent blight on the pear, it does add
greatly to the appearance of the fruit.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Apple.

HAVING spent the last thirty years of my Hfe on the im-
mediate Gulf coast, my experience with apples is nec-
essarily limited, and as a book on horticulture would
not be complete without a notice of this best of all fruits, I
append on that subject a most excellent article from the
Southern States, by Prof. M. B. Hilliard, of the Louisiana Ex-
periment Station. He is known as an authority on horticul-
ture in the far South, and his suggestions are well worth the
careful attention of all fruit growers. There is no doubt that
the apple as a money maker has been very greatly overlooked
in the southern states, even when grown from long-rooted
trees, which in our hot climate tends greatly to dwarf them,
by compelling them to take on a surface system of roots, in-
stead of penetrating deeply, which they would do if their
roots were closely pruned. That this is true is clearly shown
by the two very large apple trees now growing near Hitch-
cock, Galveston Co., on Mr. H. Perthuis' old place. Those
trees were a great puzzle for several years, and induced me
to plant two hundred apple trees at the same time I planted
my pear orchard. While that variety is not suited to this
locality, as far as productiveness is concerned (nor is it prob-
able that any apple would pay on the Gulf coast), still those
two trees clearly show that if planted right, the apple will
make a large tree even here. Those two trees are now about
twenty years old, and their history, as given by Mr. Perthuis,
is as follows :

During a visit to Houston he saw a thrifty young apple
tree in the yard of a friend, and when about to return he cut
off a shoot with the intention of grafting several quince trees
on his place at Hitchcock. On reaching home he cut the
shoot in half and stuck the two pieces into the ground for a

(i8i)

Ib2 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

few days. Being busy, they remained there several weeks,
and when he finally took them up for grafting, he was sur-
prised to find little roots just starting from the lower ends.
He at once set them out about twenty feet apart, where they
took root, made a rapid growth, and long ago their branches
met, the bodies near the ground being over one foot in diam-
eter. While not very productive, owing to the variety not
being adapted this far South, these trees have been models
of health and vigor, though for many years they have stood
in the sod. The two hundred trees I was induced to plant
from the conduct of these two were set with very long roots,
and after growing moderately well for several years, finally
assumed such a dwarf habit, though given the best of culture
and, being between rows of pear trees, that they were dug up
and thrown out. I had then found out the value of root-
pruning, and was not surprised to see perfectly flat, lateral
and surface root systems on them all, not one having struck a
single tap-root. That is plainly the cause of the dwarf habit
all apple trees assume in the far South, and it is possible that
some of the southern winter varieties named in Prof. Hil-
liard's excellent article may be adapted even here, if closely
root pruned when planted. This is one fruit, however, that
should be planted in the valleys all over Texas and the South.
It blooms late, is never caught by frost, and, like the pear,
loves a moist location. It is hard to hurt an apple tree with
water, and its general failure to do well in the far South is
due, next to leaving long roots, more to planting on high,
dry locations than anything else. In the valley near the
Hannah Springs, at Lampasas, are a dozen or more thrifty
apple trees, planted nobody knows just when, and being on
the Springs property, were turned out on the common fifteen
years ago. They have never failed a single crop during that
time, as I was informed by a resident who had known of
them that long, and when I saw them recently, every tree
was overloaded, but looking fresh and green. The remark-
able point about those trees was that not a sign of a worm or
insect could be found upon either fruit or leaves. Unfortu-
nately, while there are plainly six varieties, nobody knows

THE APPLE. 183

what they are, as the fruit is never allowed to get more than
half grown before it is carried off by the public. If the
suitability of the valleys of the interior of Texas for apple
culture is to be judged by the way those trees have done for
many years, certainly the fruit-growers of our state are mak-
ing a great mistake in neglecting to plant extensive orchards
of this staple and most profitable of all fruits on some of the
rich bottom lands now given entirely to corn and cotton.

But whatever our southern brethren do, the fruit-growers
of the apple states will make no mistake to begin now to set
close root-pruned apple trees. The orchards of the last de-
cade or more have all been planted with large, long-rooted
trees, and no amount of cultivation or care will prolong their
usefulness over twelve or fifteen years. It takes but a few
full crops to break down trees the bulk of whose roots are in
the upper twelve inches of the soil, and the man who selects
the best varieties now, root-prunes closely, plants in small
holes, rams tight, cultivates well for a few years, and then
puts down to Bermuda, blue grass, or other sod, and pastures
or mows it, not forgetting to top-dress well around the trees
each year with some good fertilizer, will, if his trees are prop-
agated from productive, bearing ones, begin in four or five
years to reap a rich harvest, and have an orchard that will
long outlive him, and be the safest legacy he can leave his
children. As to all the talk about the old, choice varieties of
winter apples running out, it may be set down as talk and
nothing else. They have been run out by the persistent
persecution they have been subjected to, in the form of trees
used, and the continual cutting of their roots with the plow,
together with overbearing. There is not to-day an apple in
the country that, if put upon a vigorous, healthy, close root-
pruned stock, will not bear as fine fruit as it did the first
crop it ever bore, provided its roots are let alone when the
tree begins to bear.

I would call attention, in the following interesting article,
to a prophecy as to the South, which will hold equally good
for all sections, wherein this eminent horticulturist takes the
same views expressed in this volume : "And in less than a

184 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

quarter of a centur}^ )'ou will find large droves of hogs in
orchards sodded with Kentucky blue grass."

M. B. Milliard in Southern States. '\

A large apple orchard is something very rare in the far South, at
least within the zone of my observations. Of course, my area of
observation did not cover the entire South, and I have not been much
of a traveler for the past fifteen years; but, while there is a tendency
to enlarge, or, rather, to begin apple raising, it is a very recent thing,
very hmited in its belt, and mostly confined to the summer varieties.

There is a good deal of reason for the insignificance of apple
raising South. The fruit raising furore communicated to the South
through the small fruits and plums principally. The last two varie-
ties bear earlier than the apple and outsell it. The small fruits pay
well, yield well, and bear at once, so to speak. Then the apple of
the South (the early varieties) finds all sorts of competition from the
other fruits and from southern and eastern peaches and small fruits —
New Jersey, Delaware, Michigan ; raspberries, strawberries, black-
berries and peaches from Delaware to a long way South. For the
winter apples of the South there is found such a competitor in the
whole apple belt of this continent that the South may be said, at
this time to be not "in it,'' as to raising winter apples, at all.

Another reason why the South is in the business of raising winter
(or fall) varieties of apples in the small way now marking the condi-
tion of affairs, is that the favorite varieties of northern apples will
not succeed South, except with few exceptions. The writer well re-
members how, when a young man, he saw the delicious and superb
winter apples (that succeed so well in New York, New England and
Michigan) on exhibition at an agricultural fair in Dover, Del. The
agent sold trees at a great pace, no doubt. But none of the apples
succeeded in Delaware ; such choice varieties as Baldwin, Spitzen-
berg, Rhode Island Greening, Seekno-Further and others. The
above experiment in Delaware is a type of what the South has expe-
rienced with regard to winter apples, introduced from the North, that
have failed South. The tree pedlar, with his highly-colored plates,
his smooth tongue, and his shameless deception, for all these
years has talked the South into buying varieties of apples that are
failures South. If these northern nurserymen would propagate va-
rieties of apples that would succeed South, and sell them here, there
would not be so much ground for criticism. But their present plan
is as much a fraud as it would be for southern nurserymen to go
North and East and sell to horticulturists there varieties of the fig or
orange, by assuring purchasers that these were hardy and would suc-
ceed there. If the northern horticulturists are less gullible than
those South, that does not alter the principle.

Then, undoubtedly, this prevalent disfavor of the winter apple
•South interferes much with an acquisition or attempt at production
of new varieties. If a person South should discover a new very
early peach, that carried well and was fine in size and color, it would
be a fortune to him. The same principle would apply to a new

THE APPLE. 185

strawberry, in large measure also to a cherry. But to find a new
and great variety of winter apple would be worth nothing, because
there would be no demand for it ; as witness the amazing inconsider-
ation with which the South treated the Shannon apple, that wonder
of Arkansas, which took the premium over all competitors at the
Cotton Centennial here in New Orleans, 1884-85. I remember well
with what exultation I hailed the victory, and said : " Now, we shall
have a new era in apples. We shall soon see the Shannon on sale
here in New Orleans, and measurably disuse this wretched but pop-
ular Ben Davis, and such." And yet I don't suppose you could find
a barrel of Shannons on sale anywhere in any city of the South ;
and I doubt if one southern nurseryman in a hundred propagates it,
or if he does, sells any but the fewest number of the trees. And
another illustration of the comparative disregard is the Johnson, a
seedling originating in Mississippi, with which Dr. H. E. McKay, of
Madison Station, Miss, (the Strawberry King, as he is designated),
took the premium as the best new fall apple at the same great exposi-
tion just mentioned, where the Shannon took its premium. Had two
such apples been discovered North or West, the whole horticultural
world would have been agog, and millions of trees would have been
sold in a very few years. I remember, in Delaware, we horticultur-
ists thought we were getting the Hale's Early peach very cheap at
one dollar a tree, one year old. Look, too, at the Idaho pear, dis-
covered a few years ago, and its price.

1 have mentioned the Shannon and Johnson apples only by way
of illustration. Doubtless there are many others very good. I would
undertake to find on the southern branch of the Illinois Central Rail-
road, in Mississippi and Tennesse, and in Northwest Louisiana, at
least half a dozen new varieties of fall and winter apples — seedlings
that constitute great accessions to the really large list of these apples
that are hardly known to anyone, unpropagated and unappreciated;
I hardly ever fail to discover something new in any trip I make,
because I keep my eyes open. Only a few years ago I discovered
two seedling pears in Louisiana, both fine, one of which, if propa-
gated, would be the greatest accession to the varieties of that fruit
within the last twenty-five years. But I was not situated to push it,
and did not care to " give it away." Why the Secretary of Agricul-
ture does not see his way clear to put some one in the field to discover
new varieties of fruit South is a mystery. Not but that something
has been done, but there is such a broad, rich field totally unex-
plored. The South, for illustration, among her most foreknowing
horticulturists, is yearning to propagate the cherry. And I have been
hunting it for twenty-five years, and have found much which I hope
to give to the readers of the Southern States. But why should this be
left in such a disregarded condition ?

Undoubtedly the South at large could add scores, if not hundreds,
of varieties of choice fall and winter apples to the list in propagation,
if there were a demand. The question is. Will there ever be a de-
mand ? or, rather, the question is. Will the South ever meet the
demand ? For the South consumes really an immense quantity of

l86 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

northern apples. They sell, generally, higher in the South than
oranges. You can buy choice oranges at the fruit stands in New
Orleans at twenty-five cents per dozen, when you must pay fifty or
sixty cents for a like number of choice Newtown Pippins, Bellflower,
or Maiden's Blush. And even the Ben Davis, here as everywhere the
popular variety, outsells choice oranges.

The winter apple. North and West, is a staple ; and I have ob-
served that in Illinois lands where the apple was successful, and the
farms contained good apple orchards, sold for far more money than
ordinary farming lands. The home consumption of the fruit, the
demand for export to Europe, and the southern demand, make the
business profitable, and many new orchards are being planted.

But the South has so many new things pressing her attention for
adoption, that raising winter apples has never come home to the con-
sideration of her horticulturists. We buy northern vinegar made of
chemicals ; northern pickles preserved in it. We have been buying
our pork packed from hogs raised largely in their orchards ; we buy
their cider and champagne cider, and we buy their apples. But it is
quite certain that the immense number of northern and western
emigrants who are moving from their homes to various places
South will not be content to go without apples, when they find they
can raise as good here as in their old homes, and even better, as to
many varieties. And in less than a quarter of a century you will
find large droves of hogs in orchards sodded with Kentucky blue
grass ; the orchards the planting of these northern and western
emigrants. And there will be plenty of home-made apple cider and
home-made cider vinegar, and pickle factories and "apple butter"
will abound, and the ever-present and dyspeptic pie. And, like as
not, Newtown Pippins will be going from Charlestown, S. C, and
Savannah, Ga., to Europe, and the first or early ripe to New York,
Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago ; for I firmly believe that not only
Piedmont, Va., but the mountains of North and South Carolina,
Georgia, East Tennessee and Alabama can raise that celebrated
apple. It is a very shrewd bit of advertising to call it the Albemarle
Pippin in Virginia, and thus commend it to the world as peculiar in
merit in that locality. Georgia is well playing the same game with
the Elberta peach, and Crystal Springs, Miss., with her tomatoes, as
North Carolina had her "golden belt " for her bright tobacco, and
New Jersey, fifty years ago, for her peaches, and Herkimer county.
N. Y., for her cheese, and Orange county. N. Y. , for her " Goshen '
butter. And I am happy to know how the Albemarle Pippin was
exempted by England from the tariff imposed on apples, by special
act of Parliament, and admitted duty free on account of the superior
excellence of that fruit.

I have been greatly impressed with the merits of Mr. James
Blakey's article in the Southern States for August. 1894, on the
"Fruit Industry of Piedmont, Virginia." It is particularly valuable
in the information conveyed to the practical horticulturist, as to
what varieties of apples are successful there. One of the most
dispiriting effects of experimenting in fruit culture is in the losses in
time and money of fruitless experiment.

THE APPLE. 187

Another point of the utmost import is that it demonstrates that
there is a field for the southern apple, which is one of the aims of this
article to show. I firmly believe that the first yield, or early part of
the crop, of the southern apple may find in any year something of a
market North and West, and in failure of the apple crop there a con-
siderable market, and that all the time the South will furnish a
market for southern raised fall and winter apples and largely sup-
plant the apples of these seasons raised North and West, and now
consumed so largely South. I have more than conjecture for this,
because some years ago, while on a tour of investigation in the
mountains of North and South Carolina, I found luscious home-
raised apples selling everywhere, and, my impression is, to the
almost (if not altogether) exclusion of northern apples.

As to summer apples South, one may say that almost everywhere
the favorite northern varieties do well. Certainly as low as (if not
below) latitude 31 degrees, except, perhaps, Western Texas. For
some inexplicable reason, some varieties that do well in one locality
seem not to do at all in other places where they might be expected to
succeed. Thus you will find, for illustration, the Red Astrachan,
Summer Queen, Early Harvest and Red June highly commended
where the Yellow June or Early Strawberry are not.

In the year 1873, Dr. H, A. Swayse, D. Redmond and myself
were sent as delegates from the Louisiana Fruit-Growers' Associa-
tion to the quarter-centennial meeting of the American Pomological
Society, held at Boston, Mass., in September. There we made a
report of the fruits adapted to what we deemed the association or its
territory. It is not necessary to inform the older horticulturists of
the country who Messrs. Swayse and Redmond were. Suffice it to
say that they were practical men, and had a national reputation.
At that date ^ve made this report as to apples : " We would recom-
mend Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, Carolina Red June, Primate,
Garretson's Early, Yellow June, Early Strawberry, Bevan, Golden
Sweet, American Summer Pearmain, Rhodes' Orange, Bruce's
Summer, Yellow Horse, Cane Creek Sweet, Bachelor, Taunton,
Hoover, and Carter."

After years of investigation, over enlarged territory, I added to
these a list in my book ( "The New South," Manufacturer's Record,
1887,) the following list, found on page 281 : "Summer — Striped
June, Sweet Bough, Early Red Margaret, Hames, Carolina Watson,
Family, Julian, Aromatic Cheese, Stanley's Seedling. Autumn —
Bonum, Yopp's Favorite, Pennsylvania Cider, Tuscaloosa Seedling,
Mamma, Philippi, Lawren's Greening, Carter's Blue, Buncombe,
Junaluskee, Maverick Sweet, Yates, Ben Davis, Disharoon, Carolina
Greening. Winter — Ferdinand, Cannon, Pearmain, Oconee Green-
ing. Moultries, Nickajack, Hockett Sweet, Stevenson's Winter,
Holly, Pryor's Red, Stansil. Shockley, Romanite, Santa, Limbertwig.
Cider apples — Dean Crab, Hewes' Virginia Crab.''

Last summer I spent quite a while on the southern branch of the
Illinois Central Railroad, in the great fruit and vegetable centers of
Crystal Springs, Terry, Madison, et al. There I got much informa-

loo THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

tion and had many notes on the apple, which I unfortunately can not
now find, I find allusions by Mr. J. W. Day, a large fruit grower,
to the Buckingham, a seedhng brought by him from Anna, 111.; a
large, flat, red apple, yellow fleshed ; also the Benoni (a summer
variety, red striped), introduced by him, bearing at three years old
from the bud. But of all the surprising information I got on apples
was that from Doctor McKay, the "Strawberry King," already men-
tioned. He told me that the Russet family, in his latitude, Madi-
son, Miss., succeeds better than in latitude 40, especially the Rox-
bury Russet. I confess to having been amazed at this, and it opens
a field to the South that surely some very considerable number of
apple raisers will occupy ere long. Possibly it may not be news to
some southern apple raisers, but it will be to a great many. When
it becomes known generally that the South can raise superb Newton
Pippins and Roxbury Russets, one hardly knows what better can be
said.

As to the Ben Davis in parts of Mississippi (likely elsewhere),
such superb apples can be raised that the average Ben Davis bears
no comparison with it. Here, too, is a field, and the people who
plant large orchards of this variety will take time by the forelock
and do a smart thing. It is the apple of great demand everywhere,
and particularly South. It will be a good deal earlier here than
North and West.

The Red Astrachan, South, is far superior to the fruit in any
other location I have seen.

A very choice apple belt is in the clays of Northwest Louisiana.
And part of Arkansas now is effectively advertised as "The Land of
the Big Red Apple."

Of course, I have omitted a good many varieties of apples that
are successful in many places South, and I have named varieties that
may not succeed in a number of localities. I have aimed mainly to
show that the South is naturally a fine apple country, and that there
is a great future for it. The next quarter of a century will teem with
revelations as to the production of this fruit in the South.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Pear.

THE pear having now established itself as the leading
fruit of the Gulf coast, except that portion devoted to
the orange, and its general management having been
so fully given in horticultural journals, as well as books, little
remains to be said, except to mention the varieties best suited
to the far South. And first, it may be remarked that the
experience of the last few years has quite definitely settled
the question as to the blight ever becoming a cause for alarm
here, if orchards are allowed to take their natural rest during
the winter. That bearing orchards should be neither plowed,
fertilized nor pruned at that time is certain. There is
scarcely a doubt that trees thus treated will remain perma-
nently healthy if not allowed to greatly overbear. It is true
that all the bearing orchards have been grown from more or
less long-rooted trees, but the native vigor of the Chinese
pears is so great, and the water level so near the surface,
that the natural motion of the sap is likely always to be main-
tained during the growing season. This is shown plainly
from the fact that the leaves remain fresh and green on the
trees until December. It is to this fact that this section owes
its remarkable exemption from blight ; for if the trees are not
stimulated during winter, the sap will remain dormant until
the proper time for growth in spring. As to varieties for the
Gulf coast region, it may be well to repeat that the experi-
ence of thirty years has shown that none of the old standard
American or European varieties can be depended on to pro-
duce a paying crop anywhere in the far South. It is true
that isolated trees here and there have given some pears, but
only in small quantities ; nor are the trees sufficiently vigor-
ous in our climate. The Le Conte, Garber and Kieffer,
ripening in succession, are a perfect success everywhere.

(189)

igO THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

The Smith's Hybrid is simply a poor Le Conte. It ripens at
the same time, but rots more quickly at the core, and after
fruiting several years, my trees were top-budded to Garber,
which pear forms a perfect succession to the Le Conte, and
is superior in quality to either it or the Kieffer. It resembles
the latter closely in shape and size, but has the smooth skin
of the Le Conte, and ripens well on or off the tree, never
rotting at the core or suffering from the bitter-rot on the out-
side, as the Kieffer often does. However, with all its good
qualities, it has one most serious fault, and that is, its late-
ness in coming into bearing. This is due, probably, to the
fact that it has been grown so continuously from young trees
that a full crop cannot now be expected on such trees for ten
years or more. But it is of the greatest importance that this
variety should be largely grown as a succession to Le Conte,
when it becomes necessary to can or evaporate our crop. It
ripens at a time that offers a better market for pears than any
period in the year, for the California, Bartlett and Le Conte
are then gone, the Kieffer still green, and the California
varieties on the market are far inferior in quality to it.
Fortunately, we now have a way to bring this variety into
early bearing — by budding it on Le Conte, Kieffer or
young Garber, grown from cuttings. The great difficulty is
to obtain wood from bearing trees. The Kieffer is so well
known that comment is unnecessary, except to warn growers
against allowing it to overbear.

While in remarks elsewhere on the decadence of modern
orchards no reference to the pear in the South was intended,
there is no question that over cropping and non-fertilizing
will quickly reduce the fruit to a very small size, and greatly
weaken the tree. I omitted to allude to one other pear that
is now growing in my former orchard at Hitchcock, which
requires mention only as a warning of its utter worthlessness
for any purpose. It has from time to time been put before
the public as Early Harvest, Jefferson and Lawson-Comet,
but is a fraud under any name. A fourteen-year-old tree that
cost me two dollars has never borne more than a dozen pears
at a time, and never bloomed until it was ten years old.

THE PEAR. igi

though it is one of the most vigorous growers in the orchard,
and now over thirty feet high. It is the earliest and most
beautiful of all pears, ripening about the first of June, but it
rots at the core in a day or so after being gathered, if near
ripe, and in quality is about equal to sawdust. Referring
again to the Garber, and budding from bearing trees, it
would not be advisable to top-bud young two or three-year-
old Le Conte trees in orchard, for the labor of keeping the
Le Conte shoots rubbed off below would be very considerable
for several years. It would be far better to bud within a foot
of the ground, and turn the whole tree into that pear.

Having discussed the growing of cuttings fully in a former
chapter, it is only necessary to say here that it is practically
impossible to grow this pear from cuttings except in the fall,
when, if planted the last of September or early in October,
in the open ground if sufficiently moist, or closely in a bed
and kept watered, 90 per cent, of it, as well as Le Conte and
Kieffer, will root.

' *

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Plum.

UNTIL the introduction of the Japan varieties, the
South, especially the lower portion, bordering on the
Gulf of Mexico, has been altogether dependent upon
the native or Chickasaw varieties for her plums. I began
years ago to test the most prominent sorts, that are so de-
servedly popular in the Middle and Northern States. While
all are reasonably good growers here, they fail entirely in pro-
ductiveness. Occasionally a few fine specimens will reward
one's labor, but nothing more. Of the common sorts, the
Wild Goose, if pollenized with some other kind near by, will
produce good crops, and the Robinson, Indian Chief and
Golden Beauty, a small late plum, are all good bearers also,
though they fall far short of filling the bill as first-class mar-
ket plums. The skin of all is very thin and tender, and they
fall an easy prey to the vigorous attacks of the curculio, un-
less well sprayed with Paris green and lime water, or the lat-
ter alone, scented with a pint to the barrel of gas tar. But
with the introduction of the Japan varieties, a new era has
dawned upon plum culture in the Gulf States. Not only are
the members of this class proving early bearers, and exceed-
ingly productive as a rule, but their skin is thicker and, we
hope, less liable to damage by the curculio. We may, there-
fore, rest assured that at last we shall have, with moderate
spraying, fine, large, handsome market plums, perfectly
adapted to the South. But the all-important and as yet un-
settled problem is, Which are the most valuable varieties?
The pictures and descriptions of all fruits contained therein
are so bewildering in their magnificence, and this class of
plums particularly, that one instinctively wants them all.
The first to flash across the sky of horticulture were the
Abundance and Botan, between wjiich, if there is any real

(192J

THE PLUM. 193

difference, I have never been able to see it, though there is
now a plum called the True Sweet Botan, or Berckmans, that
is somewhat different both in growth and bearing, and, like
the Botan, a most excellent eating fruit. This plum equals
any of the Japan race in quality, though the various catalogues
are annually bringing out something that they claim is better.
One enterprising nurseryman in Louisiana has a genuine rab-
bit's foot for getting all sorts and colors, from snowy whita
to ebony black, fresh by telegraph from Japan, their flavors:,
ranging through such a delicious chord of descriptive adjec-
tives that one wonders that the very angels do not drop their
harps and hie them back to earth. Let them alone ! The-
old Kelsey is undoubtedly a splendid fruit where it succeeds:,r
but it is subject to rot in many places, though neither
here or in Southwest Texas. It is enormously prolific there,
and I saw it in perfection at Beeville, at which place, though
plums and peaches have been grown for many years, I saw
several very old and extensive orchards that were entirely-
exempt from curculio and worms. It is plain that this insect
has no love for a dry, warm climate, as he also ignores West-
ern Texas generally. But in point of production, good size,
solidity and moderate earliness", the Burbank stands far ahead
of all Japan plums, though the fruit has been greatly over-
rated. The quality here is quite poor, unless left on the tree
until perfectly mature, when it is passably good. The Ha-
tankio, or Kerr, is also a good eating plum, but a large five-
year-old tree at Hitchcock lias borne no fruit, the blossoms
dropping every year. The Ogon bore well last year, but the
quality is very poor, as is that of the Satsuma, which, like
the Hatankio, is practically barren. The Red June or Na-
gate, being boomed this season, like the Willard was last, as
the best of all the Japan plums, has failed to bear a plum on
a large five-year-old tree at Hitchcock, for which I paid the
Starks one dollar, nor has it even formed blossom buds. The
Willard is equally worthless here, the trees actually not leaf-
ing out until the first of May. The new Wickson comes
highly recommended, and ought to be valuable, as it is Mr.
Burbank' s pride.

J3 — HORT.

194 1HE NEW HORTICULTURE.

However, while in the beginning of this chapter I ex-
pressed great confidence in the final success of the Japan
plums in the far South, I must admit that the present season
of 'g6 has witnessed a very general and entirely unexplained
failure. This fact is puzzling many who have planted freely,
and others who desire to plant. There has been no frost at
all to damage the blooms, and the Robinson, Wild Goose,
Indian Chief and other Chickasaw varieties are all loaded
down, yet the Japan plums in the same orchards have not
-only cast all or nearly all their fruit, on trees of all ages, from
three to six years, but straggled along for more than a month
in blooming, and to-day, the first of May, blooms are still
opening. There is unquestionably a cause for this queer
conduct, and after studying over it for a month, and with a
full knowledge of the general failure of the Marianua as a
stock for these plums elsewhere, I am of the opinion that
tliis freak is largely due to a decided want of congeniality
between the Japan race and the Marianna stock here also.
While the Marianna has become immensely popular as a
stock for other plums, both because of its vigorous growth
and the fact of striking so readily from cuttings, and never
suckering, and while it may yet, perhaps, be the best of all
stocks at the North, there is indubitable evidence to prove
that the Japan plums are very short-lived when worked upon
it in Texas and the South, and that it will generally kill a
peach at the end of the first and always the second year.
Complaints on this score have been general for some time,
and many nurserymen are abandoning its use altogether, pre-
ferring to work the Japan plums entirely on the peach, which
experience has shown to be particularly adapted to that race.

I was at Hitchcock recently, and saw a six-year-old
Burbank plum tree, one of the four oldest on my former
place, which had recently died without the slightest visible
cause. A careful examination, after being dug up, showed
the roots to have been apparently healthy, with not the
slightest sign of root tumor or rot, and its growth had been
extraordinary, and yet it is now dead, and one of the others
is plainly doomed. I saw the same results the past season at

THE PLUM. 195

Beeville, in Southwest Texas, and only last week in Beau-
mont, on the east, where two orchards on Marianna, seven
years old, had died the past summer. The same experience
has been related by Mr. J. W. Steubenrauch, of Mexia,
Texas, one of the most successful orchardists of North Texas,
and also by several growers in Tyler, the greatest fruit center
in the state, while similar reports come from Louisiana and
east of the Mississippi. It may, therefore, be set down as
proved beyond all doubt that this stock is unsuited and un-
congenial to the Japan race of plums. In a recent letter,
Mr. Luther Burbank tells me that it is also of doubtful value
in California. Several nurserymen of East Texas are now
propagating the Japan plums on the common wild plum of
this state, the Prunus Americana, and claim that it is well
suited to them. I have had some experience with that plum,
and so far it seems to dwarf whatever was put upon it even
more than the Myrobalan. However, as there are a great
number of different seedlings of this species, some differing
considerably from others, they may have one better suited
than mine. I have seen some seedlings in the woods near
Beaumont that suckered badly, though others do not. As it
has been only recently that experience has shown the want of
congeniality of the Marianna and Japan plums, it is doubtful
whether there are trees of the latter race more than five or
six years old on the Americana stock, so it is entirely un-
settled yet how they will ultimately succeed, and assertions
of interested parties must be taken with great caution.
Enough money has been fooled away on the oriental plums
worked on Marianna to make people go very slow with this
new stock. On firm, well-drained ground, fertilized and
regularly mowed, but not plowed, I believe the peach is the
best stock for the Japan plums, unless the Myrobalan is supe-
rior. The latter is almost universally used in California and
France, and is said to be especially adapted for stiff soil and
damp ground, and is entirely successful as a stock in such
locations in California. I have heard no objection to this
stock, except that the Japan plums do not grow as fast on it
as on Marianna. This is no objection at all, if the trees live

ig6 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

and are productive. In fact, a moderate growth is more
likely to be a healthy one.

But, after all, would not all these Japan plums be likely
to succeed just as well on their own roots as on any other
stock? There would be no difficulty in treating them thus
by grafting on the Marianna plum, and then cutting away the
stocks after the scions had taken root at the lower ends.
Some of the Japan plums, particularly the Satsuma, will
sometimes grow quite well from cuttings, and all would likely
root if treated as described in the chapter on grafting. It is
well worth trying, for naturally vigorous trees like these
plums would do best on their own roots. But in the near
future Mr. Luther Burbank promises us a far better stock
than any we now have. He has crossed the Satsuma on other
varieties, and thinks he has something that will fill the long
desired want for a vigorous stock particularly adapted to the
Japan varieties as well as all other plums.

CHAPTER XXV.

T}?e Peach.

FOR some unexplained reason, the Persian strain of
peaches, so successful elsewhere over the United States,
is a total failure in lower South Texas, and especially
along the coast. The trees grow well, but are all very back-
ward in starting off in spring, and form but few fruit buds.
I do not know of a single productive tree of any of these
varieties in this whole section. A fine, large Elberta, on Mr.
I. Aiken's grounds at Hitchcock, now six years old, has
never borne over a dozen peaches at a crop, and has not that
many on the tree the present season. However, though we
may not grow the Persian varieties successfully, still we are
not without kinds that will afford a succession, if not of extra
large peaches, still most excellent ones in quality, and unsur-
passed in productiveness and regularity of bearing. I allude
to the Waldo, Angel, Imperial and Climax, of the Peen-to
and Honey strains. Those are all freestones. The Triena is
a red-fleshed cling, about the same size as the above, and the
best clingstone of those strains. While the catalogues con-
tain an additional list of a great number of these hybrids,
they are all practically identical with the above or inferior to
them, and ripen precisely at the same time. It is claimed
that the Jewell is about a week earlier than Waldo, but
proved no earlier with me, and has the bad fault of blooming
several weeks ahead of the Waldo. The above are all of tlie
Chinese Peen-to and Honey types. In addition to them,
recent experiments have shown that several Chinese hybrids
are also very productive in the Gulf region. The Chinese
Free, Thurber and Family Favorite are the cream of this type,
and will furnish the best and largest peaches yet found that
bear well this far South. Though the season has been ex-
ceedingly dry, these varieties were heavily loaded with large

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I go THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

fruit of most excellent flavor. There is, perhaps, no coun-
try in the world where a peach crop can be counted on
with more certainty than on the above varieties here. The
warm Gulf breeze beats back the early fall northers, and our
peach trees hold their leaves until late in fall ; in fact, often
almost until Christmas. This causes them to rest late enough
in spring, if not winter-pruned, to nearly always miss the
killing late frosts, so fatal further up the country. It is true
that the Waldo and Angel, which bloom first, sometimes get
caught, but they have the remarkable faculty of holding back
enough buds, with almost human sagacity, to furnish a full
crop, even if the first blooms are killed. This peculiarit}',
with their good eating and shipping qualities and small pits,
makes them not only very desirable for home use, but should
make them profitable as a market crop when the interior
peaches are killed. The so-called Spanish peaches, Gal-
veston, Onderdonk, Carpenter, Florida Crawford, Countess
Victoria, and others, are really nothing more than common
seedlings of more than ordinary merit, but not profitable for
any except a nearby market. They lack color, nor are all of
that list good bearers here, and all are late. I omitted to say
that the Dwarf Japan Blood has proved of no value, having
been unproductive now for four years.

As stated elsewhere, the peach must have dry feet and a
firm soil, both top and bottom, for health and long life here.
There is no place for a close root-pruned peach orchard like
a rolling, well drained, virgin prairie sod, with close mowing
during the growing season. But not for trees set with long
roots. By imitating nature, and planting close root-pruned
trees, practically seed, on ground like she selects, perhaps
even the dread yellows will never appear, and peaches
may be grown at the far North with good success, where now
they either die of the above disease or winter-kill every year.
The curculio and common cotton-boll worm are the only
serious enemies to the fruit here, and the best preventive I
have ever tried is a thorough spraying with weak whitewash,
with a little gas tar added to make it smell. This appeals to
both sight and smell, and has given me sound fruit.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Apricots, Figs, Japan Persimmons, and Nuts.

EXPERIENCE in South Texas with several Florida varie-
ties and a large number of the old standard kinds has,
up to the present time, failed to develop a single pro-
ductive apricot. They all grow well and bloom profusely,
ttut fail to set their fruit. Recent experiments, however,
with the old Royal, at Arcadia, lead to the hope that it may
bear, for it set some fruit the present season, which unfortu-
natel}' a severe wind thrashed off.

Figs. — This popular fruit should be in every man's yard
in abundance, both for himself and for his poultry, and,
being exceedingly surface-rooted naturally, should always be
grown from a cutting or very close root-pruned tree. But,
except for very nearby markets, it is almost useless to grow
figs in quantity. A large preserving establishment was
started in New Orleans a few years ago, and a very consider-
able quantity of the fruit put up, but experience soon showed
that the preserves were of such an exceedingly sweet and
cloying quality that very few could be eaten at once, and the
demand has been very small. The plant suspended opera-
tions a year ago, and is now idle. The fig thrives far better
in a firm, packed, undisturbed soil, like a back or chicken
yard, than when plowed and cultivated. The little Celeste or
Sugar is much the most hardy and popular kind, and if
trained up as a standard will make a very large and hand-
some shade tree.

Japan Persimmons. — A few years ago it was impossible to
sell the fruit of this tree, or even give it away. Dr. Pearle,
of Houston, planted quite an orchard twelve or fifteen years
ago, and when the trees came into bearing, I happened to visit
the place in the fall, and found a large lot of the fruit on
hand, for which there was positively no demand. Since then^

(199)

200 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

however, the public taste has been gradually educated up to
a moderate demand, and possibly in a few years they will be
very popular. Some varieties are much more hardy than
others. I had one sent to me under the name of Hyakume
that was killed by a freeze at Hitchcock, while another longer
and more pointed kind has never been hurt. I know trees of
this variety in Beaumont that have borne enormously for
iifteen years, though I do not know the name. Experience
lias shown that all persimmon trees, as well as pecans, are
peculiarly adapted to close root-pruning, and make enormous,
deep, strong roots the first year. If set in early winter and
■well tramped, both will grow freely, even from the tops of
trees cut just at or even a little above where the first or
upper roots of the seedling are emitted, and will make an
astonishing growth the first season. For propagating both
persimmons and pecans on large trees, winter budding, as
described elsewhere, will be found to be particularly adapted,
and much easier and more certain than grafting.

Nuts. — For Texas the pecan, of course, ranks first in im-
portance, and doubtless the exaggerated estimates of the
"value of a pecan grove as a source of profit have led quite a
number of persons to embark in this business, who will be
disappointed. While this fine nut generally finds a market
at some price, still the vast number of wild bearing trees, the
crops of which are free and gathered by cheap labor, at a
time when little else can be done, will always depress prices.
In some seasons, like the last, values have been so low in
many localities, that thousands of pounds have been left for
the hogs to eat or to rot on the ground. The common seed-
ling pecan cannot possibly pay as an investment, for even
from the best seed inferior and male or unproductive kinds
spring. But those who will plant the nuts on firm ground,
and then, when two years old, graft, or better still, winter-
bud, as described elsewhere, using wood or buds from full
bearing trees of the largest thin-shelled varieties, will very
likely find a good market for a long time. As to enemies, the
frost occasionally blights the blossoms, and the tent caterpil-
lar very frequently strips the leaves from the trees. But, of

APRICOTS, FIGS, JAPAN PERSIMMONS AND NUTS. 20I

course, the enterprising grower could easily combat the latter
by spraying.

The English walnut is another nut that ought to succeed
here, but we have no trees, as yet, over five years old, and
they have borne nothing so far. The chief enemy of this nut
is the fiat-headed cottonwood borer, but a good coat of white-
wash on the trunks every winter will entirely deter the moth
from laying her eggs on this and all other trees. Of course,
only nuts or close root-pruned trees should be planted, and
on firm ground. The Japan walnut, however, is a very early
bearer, even from the nut, and in five years will make quite a
large tree, and bear full crops. The nuts seem to reproduce
quite true, and this tree also has been proved to take most
kindly to root-pruning. It is almost entirely free from all
insect pests, will likely attain a very large size ultimately,
and make a most ornamental shade tree. But the nuts, being
small and hard shelled, will have little or no market value.

The Japan chestnut has so far failed to set its fruit when
grown from the seed. It is a very vigorous tree, but drops
its blossoms every year here. The almond has not had the
attention it deserves in Texas, but full experiments are being
made, though its value is very doubtful anywhere in the
state, as it blooms very early. The hickory nut and black
walnut would not pay for the nuts, but the man who will
plant a walnut grove from seed, on firm virgin soil, like the
squirrels do, if he has the ground to spare, will, in the end,
have a most profitable investment anywhere. But "culti-
vate" all nut trees when old enough to bear with a mowing
machine, for every farmer knows that as soon as pecan trees
are enclosed in cultivated fields and plowed, they cease to
bear. They bloom freely, but the destruction of their surface
roots causes them nearly always to shed.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Strawberry and Other Berries.

THIS is by far the most profitable early spring crop for
the lower Gulf States, and especially the coast country
of Texas, where conditions of climate and transporta-
tion are so favorable, and where, unlike sections farther
North, a full crop can be grown the following season from
summer or fall planting. In choosing a location for straw-
berries, always select the stiffest and strongest soil, the black,
waxy and yellow clay land being ideal ground for this crop.
Actual experience has shown, that this is one of the few
plants that will do as well or even better here, manured in
the drill, as presently described. Its natural tendency is to
form surface roots, and they should by all means be drawn or
tempted to go down. Broadcast fertilizing mixes the manure
both at the top and bottom and, though it may look unreason-
able, burying the manure in the drill under the plants will
always make the largest fruit. So, instead of scattering the
manure, whatever it may be, broadcast, first break the whole
ground as deeply as possible, and harrow thoroughly until
well pulverized, after which open furrows about two and one-
half or three feet apart by running the plow each way.
Along in this strew the fertilizer, and be sure to put enough.
About half as much will do on the heavy black land, though
it is hard to err in putting on plenty everywhere. If barn-
yard manure is used, and there is no better if enough can be
had, fill the bottoms of the furrows several inches deep.
Then run a bull tongue up and down, thoroughly stirring and
mixing it all. Next, throw the earth back on the furrows
from each side by splitting out the middles, quite deep. Do
not be afraid to leave the ridges well up. After smoothing
off the tops to about a foot wide with a rake, cover the whole
surface, ridges and furrows, quite deeply and evenly with hay

(202)

THE STRAWBERRY AND OTHER BERRIES. 203

or Straw, strewing it directly from the wagon, which can be
run down between the rows. Spread the mulch thick enough
to be at least two or three inches deep after settling. Do this
in July or August, so as to catch the summer rains and have
moist ground for planting in September and October. I ha'>'e
the present season made careful notes, in many fields, of re-
sults from different dates of planting, and find without excep-
tion, that plants set in those two months not only grow by
February quite as large as the two-year-old ones, but produce
just as many and larger berries. The difference in size of
fruit from the two ages alongside was in every instance very
remarkable in favor of the fall-set plants. The great trouble
is that frequently in the fall the weather is so hot and dry
that it is very difficult to make plants live when set. This
comes entirely from a too high temperature of the soil, which
is entirely obviated by mulching as directed. Thousands of
plants are annually sacrificed in August and September, from
ignorance that unless set with a ball of earth at that time, the
earth if clean, is too liot for the plants to take root. But if
mulched in July or August, and a good rain falls to wet the
earth well, it will remain cool and moist the whole fall.

When ready to set, cut all roots back to about one inch,
open a small hole in the mulch and insert the roots, fan-
shape, straight down at least fifteen inches apart. Never
spread out the roots of any tree or plant, as this induces a super-
ficial system. After setting, pull the straw or hay lightly over
the plant, as a shade, and go on to the next. Treated thus,
and allowed to grow right up through the mulch, a stand can
always be secured with good, strong plants, a month or more
in advance of those who undertake to plant on clean, unpro-
tected ground. Another great advantage of this method is,
that if the mulch has been put on evenly and of moderate
thickness, no further work will be required until the crop is
gone except, perhaps, the pulling up of a few stray weeds
that force themselves up through the mulch in spring. But,
even if this fall mulching be not practiced, no one should
ever neglect this vitally important operation at some time
before the fruit ripens. Sandy, dirty berries are now the

204 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

rule, and not the exception, at several points, which has re-
sulted in giving this season's crop a depreciated value of
from 25 to 50 per cent, lower than it would have brought had
mulching been general. It is hard to understand why other-
wise enterprising growers will persist, from year to year, in
flooding the markets with such fruit. They not only hurt
themselves, but also all other growers who do mulch, for
when prices come down for sandy fruit, the clean has to suf-
fer likewise. The matted-row system is another mistake of
many growers, and is responsible for this, as it is really im-
possible to properly mulch plants thus grown. That system
is admirably adapted to the North, where the entire tops of
the plants are winter-killed, and when growth starts in spring
the blooms come early, before the foliage grows too large, so
as to shade the fruit too much, as it will here. Strawberries
grown in the shade will not ship well, being not only soft, but
of inferior quality. The sun should be able to strike all
around every plant, and the berries will then be firm and
bright. On no crop can be seen more plainly the effect of
liberal and judicious fertilizing than on this. Heavy applica-
tions of cotton-seed meal, or any fertilizer rich in ammonia
alone, will always produce a rank growth of vine, susceptible
to the "rust," and soft, insipid fruit. Plenty of potash,
and especially phosphoric acid, are absolute necessities for
firm, high-colored, well-flavored berries. P'or those who in-
tend to make this a business, it is a matter of the first im-
portance to provide a full supply of new plants every year,
and a bed of sufficient size, rich and convenient to water,
should be set with plants about three feet apart, in February
or March, for runners. If shaded somewhat by a light frame
and brush after June, very little or no water at all will be re-
quired until August, v-/hen it should be supplied, if dry, to
compel the plants to throw out new and strong roots, for re-
planting in September and October.

As to marketing, nothing need be said, except that many
growers will persist every year in shipping half-ripe fruit, to
the great depreciation of their crop later on. Prices have
now come down to hard-pan, the public is yearly growing

THE STRAWHERRY AND OTHER BERRIES. 205

more critical in its demand for quality in all fruits, and it is
the height of folly for berry growers, when the season is cool
and there is no danger of the fruit spoiling, to try to force
half-ripe, pale and sandy berries on the market. I kept close
watch on the reports from the large cities this season, and
saw repeated complaints on this subject. The Florida
growers do not do it, and their fruit has steadily maintained
a good price in New York, and has been invariably quoted in
St. Louis and Chicago, the present season, at more than
double the price of Te.xas berries. The strawberry in the
South is subject to but one disease — the "rust," already al-
luded to — a bacterial one, due to conditions of extreme and
sudden variations of temperature and moisture. While the
Michel has been most seriously affected by this disease every-
where the present season, the old reliable Nunan has not
shown a sign of it, though grown amongst and alongside, and
its plants have averaged double the size of the Michel. As
to varieties, the latter should be entirely discarded for out-
side planting, though, as shown farther on, it can be grown
with great profit under cover. A very careful examination of
many strawberry fields by Mr. E. W. Kirkpatrick, an old
berry grower of North Texas, the present season of '96, con-
vinced him that the Nunan and Cloud Seedling are by far
the best varieties for South Texas. The latter is a pistillate,
and requires every third row to be planted with Nunan
which has a perfect flower. The Smeltzer is also an excel-
lent shipping variety, but the fruit is inferior to the Nunan
in qualit}' and color.

.\nd now, I would urge all growers to make an experiment
with the Michel, on a small scale, at least, under plank and
oiled cloth covering. While this is an extra-large, earl}', and
really good eating berry, when the weather becomes warm
and dry it is not a long-distance shipper, and has the very
serious fault, for open air culture, of beginning to fruit in the
fall and early winter. Ordinarily those crops are ruined by a
freeze, and the plants have had their work for nothing, be-
sides being damaged by the checking of their sap when in
motion, which is probably the prime cause for the general

2o6

'JHE NEW HORTICULTURE.

epidemic of rust on them this spring. It will be remembered
that we had early and repeated frosts and light ice, several
times last fall, a very unusual thing at that season, and the
Michel plants were in full growth. The question is, Can we
not utilize this quality of early fall and winter bearing ? I
would suggest, on a high location, that a bed about eight feet
wide be thrown up well with a plow, after being thoroughly

STRAWBERRY BED, UNCOVERED.

fertilized. On top of this place an ordinary coldframe five
feet wide, made of i x lo or 12-inch plank for sides, con-
nected by strips about two feet apart, cut rounding, as shown
in the illustration, to support the oiled cloth and shed the
rain. After stretching common white cotton cloth of a good
grade, to make it last it should be thoroughly oiled with a

STRAWBERRY BED, COVERED.

paint brush, or the cloth might be dipped in the linseed oil
and wrung out, and then stretched to dry on the bed. I
have used such a covering for tomatoes, and found it will
protect from a freeze much better than the ordinary frost-
proof cloth sold, or even than glass sash. Of course, the
main point is to keep out a freeze. We have an ordinary^
temperature warm enough in winter to perfectly mature

THE STRAWBERRY AND OTHER BERRIES. 207

berries in the open air, but one, or at most two, cold spells
every year spoil the crop. No other variety will fruit early
and out of season, like the Michel, which makes it an ideal
plant for this purpose. I know of no crop that will pay like
it, if treated as suggested, and I predict that in a few years
every enterprising grower will have one or more beds thus
treated, for success then is absolutely certain and good prices
assured. A crop thus grown must of necessity be limited,
and with two markets like Houston and Galveston at hand,
an over-production of fine, ripe fruit would be impossible.
But the balance of the state would be ready to take any sur-
plus. Berries like the Michel, grown on rich ground and
with plenty of room, and protection from cold and beating
rains, would color up handsomely, and always bring a fine
price. The people who buy at that season have the money,
and will pay well for a first-class article. Of course, a con-
tingency of dry weather must be provided against for best
results, and if unable to afford a small windmill, a good hand
force-pump, with ordinary well, will furnish abundant water.
Our wells are always full in winter. It would be well to
water entirely from below, to prevent wetting the fruit.

When preparing the bed, lay a row of common one-inch
drain tiles, one foot long, the full length of it and about eight
inches beneath the surface. Cover the tiles with an inch of
shell, gravel, sawdust or hay, in order to keep the soil from
finding its way between the joints and into the tiles. Or, in-
stead of tiles, two pieces of i x 3 heart pine, nailed together
like a gutter, and the edges notched at intervals of six inches,
to allow a free escape of the water. This should be inverted,
and laid upon a six-inch plank, at the depth named, and the
end next the well, whether tiles or plank, connected by hose
to the pump. The fruit when ripe need never be wet, which
would greatly improve its appearance and shipping qualities.
The plants should be set not less than fifteen inches apart
each way, and the bed even'y mulched before putting them
out. A strawberry bed of Michel thus treated would be ab-
solutely sure for a paying crop, and the yield from November
to March alone would be somethins wonderful. The cover-

2o8 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

ing (see cut, page 206), which, by the way, should be nailed
fast on one side, and the other tacked to long one-inch cur-
tain-rods, and fixed so as to lap and roll back in all ordinary
weather, could be removed the last of March and packed
away for the next season, and the plank likewise, and both
would answer for a long time.

If northern growers can afford expensive houses, and
steam heating to grow cucumbers, lettuce, etc., by the acre,
surely it will pay to spend the small amount of money re-
quired here to grow a much more valuable product like the
strawberry, and put it on the market during the winter
months.

Blackberries. — Like the strawberry, the dewberry and
blackberry are perfectly at home around the Gulf coasts, and
in fact all over the South, though many varieties of the latter
are so subject to rust that it pays best to confine ourselves
entirely to varieties like the Dallas. The Mayes or Austin
Hybrid dewberry and Early Trinity blackberry are new and
very promising varieties, that are well worthy of a trial. As
these berries are all rank growers, and sucker very badly in
our long, warm summers, it is all-important to give plenty of
room between the rows, to permit the free use of the plow.
Eight feet between the rows is none too much. As soon as
the fruit is gone, the old canes should be cut out at once, or
by winter they will become so tangled with the new growth
that their removal is very difficult and troublesome. A good
dressing of bone meal or phosphate will greatly improve the
size of the berries.

The raspberr}', gooseberry and currant find the far South
too warm for their perfect development, and these fruits are
of no value there, though some of the black-cap raspberries
are cultivated to a limited extent in the upper portions of
Texas.

I omitted to note above that the strawberry beds should
run north and south, to allow all the plants to have at least
half a day of sun.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Conclusion.

i ND now, in closing this little volume on vegetables and
_\ trees, their management and diseases, I wish to say
'^ that I am well aware that it invites and will receive

contempt from some, and perhaps sharp criticism from
others. When, years ago, I first announced the facts in
regard to close root-pruning, quite a number of horticultur-
ists assailed me promptly, both in Texas and other states,
and by argument proved conclusively to their own satisfac-
tion that the thing could not be true — and many, doubtless,
think so yet. But the root-pruned tree has come at last, and
to stay. Still, so slow, indeed, are men to lay aside old
prejudices and adopt new methods, that years may pass
before the hoary old fallacies of big holes, deep prepara-
tion, fall and winter plowing and pruning, as well as expen-
sive summer cultivation, are laid away to rest in the museum
of antiquated and mistaken ideas, alongside the notion that
the sun went around the world. They have caused not only
a waste of much money but a world of useless labor, as well
as bitter disappointment and blighted hopes, and to-day, on
hill and in dale, scattered everywhere, stunted, sickly and
dying fruit trees bear evidence of their deadly work. How-
ever, though reform has always been slow, and though the Pil-
grim Progress has ever had to travel rough and thorny paths,
wade through the mire of captious criticism, climb with
toiling step and slow the steep and rugged sides of great
Mountain Doubt, and ever and anon strike down with the club
of Fact the lusty giants Conservatism and Authority that block
his way — yet in the end he always gets there just the same,
and waves his banner from the mountain top. And so, some
time in the coming century, the mowing machine will replace
the cultivator and the plow. Our close root-pruned trees

f 209 I

2IO 'IHE NEW HOkTICULTURE.

will Stand on well-kept lawns, or in pastured lots, where,
yearly fed with proper food and sprayed, their sturdy limbs,
clothed with dark foliage of healthy green, will bend beneath
their loads of perfect fruit, while yellows, blight, root-tumor
and black-knot will be but ugly recollections of the past.
That with rational, natural treatment all this is possible, will
be seen from the two following quotations from the January
issue of Green' s Fruit- Grower, published in the heart of the
great fruit belt of Western New York. Mr. L. B. Pierce,
writing of the "Summer Rambo" apple, says:

We have a tree standing over the south kitchen door that is about
twenty years old, from a root-graft, and spreads forty feet, and is
thirty feet high. Last year it was the only one on the place that
bore apples smooth and large enough to use. This tree bore about
three bushels, and furnished pie timber for about two months. The
entire apple crop on four hundred other trees [presumably long-
rooted, etc. — H. M. s.] was less than a bushel. This year this tree
is bending beneath its load of fruit, and about the middle of August
I was obliged to pick a part to relieve the burden. The apples were
at that date as large as Baldwins and partially colored, and sold
readily at twenty cents a peck. The tree should be planted in a
sheltered place and the ground strewed with straw, as the apples
ripen gradually, and, being large and heavy, drop and bruise.

The editor, Mr. Chas. E. Green, in another place, writes:

I know of a Baldwin apple tree located at the rear of the kitchen,
near the house drain, where its roots received weekly ablutions from
the wash tubs. I do not dare to state the annual yield of this tree,
for it was beyond belief [probably another root-graft or seedling —
H. M. s.]. I have two apple trees in Rochester near an (51d hen-house,
on the rich soil of which the roots feed ; also two located near my
stable. These trees seldom fail to bear crops of fine fruit, though
the soil is not cultivated.

Presumably all the latter trees were seedlings, as people
do not set two apple trees in a place as were those near the
hen-house — or usually plant two near a stable. I leave these
nats for my long root, big hole, deep plowing, summer culti-
vating readers to crack.

Duplicates of such root-graft or seedling trees are stand-
ing all over the country. Will not some advocate of the
above-named methods explain fully, and give us the whys
and wherefores of the strange fact that everywhere, the world
over, fruit trees show such partiality for houses?

CO.N"CLUSION. 211

I have introduced the accompanying cut (page 212) of a
one-year apple tree, grown from a root-graft last season, and
although the engraving from the photograph shows only a
small portion of the roots, it will be seen that they are all
strong and perpendicular, and probably penetrated in one
season deeper than the top is high. But are there any other
causes for the phenomenal success of this representative
apple tree, standing on hard, uncultivated ground ? I will
here quote an extract from a critic of mine in Texas Farm and
Ranch, who undertook to answer this question, and suggests
that, first, "the soil near a dwelling is likely to be rich, deep
and full of vegetable matter;" and secondly, that "the noise,
smoke and smell of a human habitation tend to drive harmful
insects from nearby fruit trees." Possibly some one may add
that the slops and wash-water from the kitchen played an im-
portant part. As to the first statement, is it a fact that such
was likely true? I see no reason why, but if so, what part
would so small and circumscribed an area play in developing
the last full crop on a tree with a forty-feet diameter of head
and lateral feeding roots, certainly covering, at a small esti-
mate, one hundred feet in diameter? I have traced oak roots,
in a field near a wood, that far in a single direction, and
found them still travelling. His second statement is abso-
lutely unfounded in fact, for we all know that screens are
everywhere a necessity to keep out the swarms of beetles,
candle-bugs and moths of every kind that, drawn by the lights,
flock to our houses after dark. The live oaks here in Galves-
ton are much worse eaten by the canker worms near the
electric lights than farther awa}*. Thirdly, as to the wash-
water and kitchen slops, in this day of cleanliness and sewer
drains, it is hardly likely that Mr. Pierce allows such things
to be thrown around his house, and if he did, as the tree stood
at the back door, its feeding roots were far removed, and
v/ould receive small benefit from such applications near the
trunk.

But let us e.xamine a little farther into the facts concern-
ing this apple tree. It is not only of remarkable size for its
age and neglect, but seems ordinarily to bear enormous crops,

THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

ROOT-GRAFT— NATl'RAL SIZK

A PI'I.E TREE ONK YEAR OLD, FROM
ROOT-GRAFT.

CONCLUSION.

213

and the fruit, thougli immature and only partially colored,
was, without thinning, as " large as Baldwins," and Mr. Pierce
suggests a sheltered place to protect its wonderful crops, and
also a mulch of straw to save the "large and heavy apples"
from bruising when they fall. Remembering that results
come only from adequate causes, and not by chance, is there
any adequate cause for the regular and abundant crops on
this tree, except that it had struck its several tap-roots, as
shown in the cut (page 212), deep down to permanent moist-
ure, and that its surface roots were left entirely undisturbed ?
I earnestly invite a calm, unprejudiced consideration of
the various facts and suggestions contained in this little
book, which, though opposed to the current opinion sof the
day, are founded on the bed-rock of nature's teachings.
There is not a single really important operation of our
modern orchards, starting with the form of tree, character of
ground preparation, planting of the tree, and its after-treat-
ment, all through its poor, persecuted life, that is not a plain
violation of nature's methods, by which she grows trees so
far superior to ours that any but a blind man must stand
abashed at the comparison.

APPENDIX.

More Light from Experience.

SINCE the foregoing went to press I have had an oppor-
tunity of conversing with a friend of Mr. J. H. Hale who
had just returned from a visit to Mr. Hale's famous close
root-pruned Georgia peach orchard, which last (the third)
year bore an enormous crop, and set as fine a one the present
season. But the ever- watchful curculio was on hand, and,
after the peaches that were stung had dropped or had been
removed by hand and destroyed, the actual yield from one
hundred thousand trees was only fifty-two car loads of fruit,
or a half-bushel per tree at five hundred crates to the car. An
orchard of eleven hundred acres near by, from which no
affected fruit was destroyed, gave a return of only eighteen
car loads. Mr. Hale waged a vigorous war from the start,
going over his orchard repeatedly, picking up the fallen fruit,
and taking from the trees that which showed signs of disease.
He has also kept the entire orchard continually cultivated,
with the determination to allow the curculio no food when
they first hatch out, and thus, if possible, to exterminate
them. But I fear this Napoleon of horticulture will meet his
Waterloo in Georgia. Such absolutely clean culture will not
only be enormously expensive, but actually impracticable in
many seasons. Let a continued rainy spell of several weeks
occur, and the grass will get too large to handle with the cul-
tivator, and must be plowed ; and nine hundred acres means
a great deal of work and expense. How much more econom-
ical to put the whole down to sod, and pasture with sheep,
or hogs with rings in their noses to prevent rooting, and thus
save all labor except an occasional mowing of weeds. The
animals would eat the fallen fruit, as well as keep the grass
down, and Mr. Hale could raise mutton, wool or pork as well

(214)

MORK LIGHT FROM EXPERIENCE. 215

as peaches, and much finer ones from those deeply rooted
trees, with their surface roots undisturbed, than he will ever
grow with all his expensive cultivation. In fact, no other
kind of large commercial peach growing can now be made to
pay. Even were spraying a complete success, the expense
of it and of clean culture, with other outlays, and the fre-
quent failures from frost, superinduced by the destruction of
surface roots, thus weakening the vitality of the trees at the
time of setting, will leave little or no profit. The only labor
really necessary in a peach orchard, as outlined above, ex-
cept gathering the fruit, would be that of shortening-in the
ends of all shoots after the fruit was as large as marbles, if
the trees were overloaded, and giving an annual free ap-
plication of fertilizer when growth starts in the spring. I
would here repeat that I know of peach trees from seed, now
fourteen years old, in close mowed Bermuda sod, that are in
perfect health, and bear annual crops of fine fruit, while cul-
tivated trees of that age can nowhere be found here.

But while the curculio and the frost make the southern
peach grower's life a burden, the northern grower is not with-
out his troubles. I append an extract from the July 30th
issue of Cultivator and Country Getitieman :

Peaches in Delaware. — The article reprinted by you July 23,
p. 575, from a New York paper, in regard to "Delaware peaches,"
savors of an effort by interested parties to bear down the prices of
that fruit. It is a fact that the winter and spring were favorable to
the production of a good peach crop, and that the orchards set un-
usually fall is also true ; but that potent causes have intervened to
curtail the early promise of a phenomenal yield is also true. In a
large measure the "June drop'' has decimated the crop, and much
more than forstalled any necessity of thinning ; and within the past
six weeks the disease known as the " yellows " has invaded orcliards
heretofore exempt from its ravages, and curtailed the crop to the
extent of one-quarter or one-third of what was promised. Heretofore
the disease has been rather confined to the northern part of the
state, where the production of peaches has become practically a
nullity ; but this season it has made gigantic strides southward, and
the " center of the peach belt " is only the center of the region remain-
ing comparatively unaffected by this plague. With the failure of the
Jersey crop and that of the further north regions, tliere is no reason
to believe tfiere will be anywhere near enough to glut the market,
and no reason for crying down prices. The question of peach rais-
ing on this peninsula is only a question as to whether the peach " yel-

2l6 THE NEW HORTICULTURE.

lows '" will ever be brought under control, and stamped out. If it is
not, the industry is doomed — for orchards are being destroyed this
year by its ravages as never before ; and the yield, instead of being
g, 000,000 baskets, will not be 50 per cent, of it. — L. M., Kent Co.,
Dt/., July 24, i8g6.

Here we find the "yellows" and the "June drop" put-
ting in their work on the long-rooted and cultivated trees.
But did anybody ever hear of "yellows" or the "June drop"
bothering seedling peach trees around the house, in the
chicken yard, in the fence corners, or any place, where the
plow could not reach them? In fact, do not even the cur-
culio give such trees the go-by? As to "3'ellows," deep
preparation of the ground, making a boggy root-bed, surface-
rooted trees,- continual yearly or even more frequent cutting
of the roots, winter or earl}' spring pruning, fertilizing and
plowing, resulting in a premature movement of the sap and
subsequent freezing, will easily account for that disease.
But it will disappear as soon as growers treat their trees
rationally, just as pear and apple blight will. I have proved
that blight is not contagious, and that healthy trees cannot
be inoculated with it, and have no doubt that it will not only
be equally impossible to communicate " 3'ellows " that way to
a close root-pruned peach tree in sod or firm ground, but that
young trees already affected, if thus set and treated, and
top-dressed freelj'- with potash, will recover at once. Those,
and doubtless all bacterial tree diseases, are the effect of
wrong treatment, resulting in favorable conditions for their
development, as shown in the chapters on blight.

THE END.

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