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Home Vegetable Gardening

F >> F. F. Rockwell >> Home Vegetable Gardening




In the winter section, Baldwin, which is too well known to need
describing, is the leading commercial variety in many apple districts,
and it is a good variety for home growing on account of its hardiness
and good cooking and keeping qualities; but for the home orchard, it is
far surpassed in quality by several others. In northern sections, down
to the corn line, Northern Spy is a great favorite. It is a large,
roundish apple, with thin, tender, glossy skin, light to deep carmine
over light yellow, and an excellent keeper. In sections to which it is
adapted it is a particularly vigorous, compact, upright grower.
Jonathan is another splendid sort, with a wider range of conditions
favorable for growth. It is, however, not a strong-growing tree and is
somewhat uncertain in maturing its fruit, which is a bright, clear red
of distinctive flavor. It likes a soil with more clay than do most
apples. In the Middle West and Middle South, Grimes (Golden) has made a
great local reputation in many sections, although in others it has not
done well at all.

The Spitzenberg (Esopus) is very near the top of the list of all late
eating-apples, being at its prime about December. It is another
handsome yellow-covered red apple, with flesh slightly yellowish, but
very good to the taste. The tree, unfortunately, is not a robust
grower, being especially weak in its earlier stages, but with good
cultivation it will not fail to reward the grower for any extra care it
may have required.

These, and the other notable varieties, which there is not room here to
describe, make up the following list, from which the planter should
select according to locality:

_Earliest or Summer:_--Early Harvest, Yellow Transparent, Red
Astrachan, Benoni (new), Chenango, Sweet Bough, Williams' Favorite,
Early Strawberry, Livland Raspberry.

_Early Autumn:_--Alexander, Duchess, Porter, Gravenstein, McIntosh
Red.

_Late Autumn:_--Jefferies, Fameuse (Snow), Maiden's Blush,
Wealthy, Fall Pippin, Pound Sweet, Twenty Ounce, Cox Orange,
Hubbardston.

_Winter:_--Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Northwestern Greening,
Jonathan, Northern Spy, Yellow, Swaar, Delicious, Wagener, King,
Esopus, Spitzenberg, Yellow Bellflower, Winter Banana, Seek-no-further,
Talman Sweet, Roxbury Russett, King David, Stayman's Winesap, Wolf
River.


PEARS

Pears are more particular than apples in the matter of being adapted to
sections and soils. Submit your list to your State Experiment Station
before ordering trees. Many of the standard sorts may be had where a
low-growing, spreading tree is desired (for instance, quince-stock
pears might be used to change places with the plums). Varieties
suitable for this method are listed below. They are given approximately
in the order of the ripening:

Wilder: Early August, medium in size, light yellow, excellent quality.
Does not rot at the core, as so many early pears are liable to do.

Margaret: Oblong, greenish, yellow to dull red.

Clapp Favorite: Very large, yellow pear. A great bearer and good
keeper--where the children cannot get at it.

Howell: A little later than the foregoing; large, bright yellow,
strong-growing tree and big bearer.

Duchesse d'Angouleme: Large greenish yellow, sometimes reaching huge
size; will average better than three-quarters of a pound. The quality,
despite its size, is splendid.

Seckel: Small in size, but renowned for exquisite flavor--being
probably the most universally admired of all.

Beurre Superfine: October, medium size, excellent quality.

Bartlett: The best known of all pears, and a universal favorite.
Succeeds in nearly all sections.

Anjou: One of the best keepers, and very productive. One of the best in
flavor, rich and vinous.

For trees of the standard type the following are worthy of note:

Congress (Souvenir du C.): A very large summer sort. Handsome.

Belle Lucrative: September to October.

Winter Nelis: Medium size, but of excellent quality and the longest
keeper.

Kieffer: Very popular for its productiveness, strength of growth and
exceptional quality of fruit for canning and preserving. Large fruit,
if kept thinned. Should have a place in every home garden.

Josephine de Malines: Not a great yielder but
of the very highest quality, being of the finest texture
and tempting aroma.


PEACHES

Success with peaches also will depend largely upon getting varieties
adapted to climate. The white-fleshed type is the hardiest and best for
eating; and the free-stones are for most purposes, especially in the
home garden, more desirable than the "clings."

Greensboro is the best early variety. Crawford is a universal favorite
and goes well over a wide range of soil and climate. Champion is one of
the best quality peaches and exceptionally hardy. Elberta, Ray, and
Hague are other excellent sorts. Mayflower is the earliest sort yet
introduced.


PLUMS

The available plums are of three classes--the natives, Europeans and
Japans; the natives are the longest-lived, hardier in tree and blossom,
and heavier bearers.

The best early is Milton; brilliant red, yellow and juicy flesh.
Wildgoose and Whitaker are good seconds. Mrs. Cleveland is a later and
larger sort, of finer quality. Three late-ripening plums of the finest
quality, but not such prolific yielders, are Wayland, Benson and Reed,
and where there is room for only a few trees, these will be best. They
will need one tree of Newman or Prairie Flower with them to assure
setting of the fruit. Of the Europeans, use Reine Claude (the best),
Bradshaw or Shropshire. Damson is also good. The Japanese varieties
should go on high ground and be thinned, especially during their first
years. My first experience with Japanese plums convinced me that I had
solved the plum problem; they bore loads of fruit, and were free from
disease. That was five years ago. Last spring the last one was cut and
burned. Had they been planted at the top of a small hill, instead of at
the bottom, as they were, and restricted in their bearing, I know from
later experience that they would still be producing fruit. The most
satisfactory varieties of the Japanese type are Abundance and Red June.
Burbank is also highly recommended,


CHERRIES

Cherries have one advantage over the other fruits--they give quicker
returns. But, as far as my experience goes, they are not as long-lived.
The sour type is hardier, at least north of New Jersey, than the sweet.
It will probably pay to try a few of the new and highly recommended
varieties. Of the established sorts Early Richmond is a good early, to
be followed by Montmorency and English Morello. Windsor is a good sweet
cherry, as are also Black Tartarian, Sox, Wood and Yellow Spanish.

All the varieties mentioned above are proved
sorts. But the lists are being added to constantly,
and where there is a novelty strongly recommended
by a reliable nurseryman it will often pay to try
it out--on a very small scale at first.




CHAPTER XVI

PLANTING: CULTIVATION: FILLER CROPS


As the pedigree and the quality of the stock you plant will have a
great deal to do with the success or failure of your adventure in
orcharding, even on a very small scale, it is important to get the best
trees you can, anywhere, at any price. But do not jump to the
conclusion that the most costly trees will be the best. From reliable
nurserymen, selling direct by mail, you can get good trees at very
reasonable prices.

As a general thing you will succeed best if you have nothing to do with
the perennial "tree agent." He may represent a good firm; you may get
your trees on time; he may have a novelty as good as the standard
sorts; but you are taking three very great chances in assuming so. But,
leaving these questions aside, there is no particular reason why you
should help pay his traveling expenses and the printing bills for his
lithographs ("made from actual photographs" or "painted from nature,"
of course!) when you can get the best trees to be had,
direct from the soil in which they are grown, at the
lowest prices, by ordering through the mail. Or,
better still, if the nursery is not too far away, take
half a day off and select them in person. If you
want to help the agent along present him with the
amount of his commission, but get your trees direct
from some large reliable nursery.

Well grown nursery stock will stand much abuse,
but it will not be at all improved by it. Do not
let yours stand around in the sun and wind, waiting
until you get a chance to set it out. As soon as you
get it home from the express office, unpack it and
"heel it in," in moist, but not wet, ground; if under
a shed, so much the better. Dig out a narrow trench
and pack it in as thick as it will go, at an angle of
forty-five degrees to the natural position when
growing. So stored, it will keep a long time in
cold weather, only be careful that no rats, mice, or
rabbits reach it.

Do not, however, depend upon this knowledge to
the extent of letting all your preparations for planting
go until your stock is on hand. Be ready to
set it the day it arrives, if possible.


PLANTING

Planting can be done in either spring or fall. As a general rule, north
of Philadelphia and St. Louis, spring planting will be best; south of
that, fall planting. Where there is apt to be severe freezing,
"heaving," caused by the alternate freezing and thawing; injury to the
newly set roots from too severe cold; and, in some western sections,
"sun-scald" of the bark, are three injuries which may result. If trees
are planted in the fall in cold sections, a low mound of earth, six to
twelve inches high, should be left during the winter about each, and
leveled down in the spring. If set in the spring, where hot, dry
weather is apt to follow, they should be thoroughly mulched with
litter, straw or coarse manure, to preserve moisture--care being taken,
however, against field mice and other rodents.

The trees may either be set in their permanent positions as soon as
bought, or grown in "nursery rows" by the purchaser for one or two
years after being purchased. In the former case, it will be the best
policy to get the strongest, straightest two-year stock you can find,
even if they cost ten or fifteen cents apiece more than the "mediums."
The former method is the usual one, but the latter has so many
advantages that I give it the emphasis of a separate paragraph, and
urge every prospective planter to consider it carefully.

In the first place, then, you get your trees a little cheaper. If you
purchase for nursery row planting, six-foot to seven-foot two-year-old
apple trees, of the standard sorts, should cost you about thirty cents
each; one-year "buds," six feet and branched, five to ten cents less.
This gain, however, is not an important one--there are four others,
each of which makes it worth while to give the method a trial. First,
the trees being all together, and in a convenient place, the chances
are a hundred to one that you will give them better attention in the
way of spraying, pruning and cultivating--all extremely important in
the first year's growth. Second, with the year gained for extra
preparation of the soil where they are to be placed permanently, you
can make conditions just right for them to take hold at once and thrive
as they could not do otherwise. Third, the shock of transplanting will
be much less than when they are shipped from a distance--they will have
made an additional growth of dense, short roots and they will have
become acclimated. Fourth, you will not have wasted space and time with
any backward black sheep among the lot, as these should be discarded at
the second planting. And then there is one further reason,
psychological perhaps, but none the less important; you will watch
these little trees, which are largely the result of your own labor and
care, when set in their permanent positions, much more carefully than
you would those direct from the nursery. I know, both from experience
and observation, how many thrifty young trees in the home orchard are
done to an untimely death by children, careless workmen, and other
animals.

So if you can put a twelve-month curb on your impatience, get one-year
trees and set them out in a straight row right in your vegetable garden
where they will take up very little room. Keep them cultivated just as
thoroughly as the rest of your growing things. Melons, or beans, or
almost any low-growing vegetable can be grown close beside them.

If you want your garden to pay for your whole lot of fruit trees this
season dig up a hole about three feet in diameter wherever a tree is to
"go permanently." Cut the sod up fine and work in four or five good
forkfuls of well rotted manure, and on these places, when it is warm
enough, plant a hill of lima pole-beans-the new sort named Giant-podded
Pole Lima is the best I have yet seen. Place a stout pole, eight to ten
feet high, firmly in each hole. Good lima beans are always in demand,
and bring high prices.

Let us suppose that your trees are at hand, either direct from the
nursery or growing in the garden. You have selected, if possible, a
moist, gravelly loam on a slope or slight elevation, where it is
naturally and perfectly drained. Good soil drainage is imperative.
Coarse gravel in the bottom of the planting hole will help out
temporarily. If the land is in clover sod, it will have the ideal
preparation, especially if you can grow a patch of potatoes or corn on
it one year, while your trees are getting further growth. In such land
the holes will not have to be prepared. If, however, you are not
fortunate enough to be able to devote such a space to fruit trees, and
in order to have them at all must place them along your wall or
scattered through the grounds, you can still give them an excellent
start by enriching the soil in spots beforehand, as suggested above in
growing lima beans. In the event of finding even this last way
inapplicable to your land, the following method will make success
certain: Dig out holes three to six feet in diameter (if the soil is
very hard, the larger dimension), and twelve to eighteen inches deep.
Mix thoroughly with the excavated soil a good barrowful of the oldest,
finest manure you can get, combined with about one-fourth or one-fifth
its weight of South Carolina rock (or acid phosphate, if you cannot get
the rock). It is a good plan to compost the manure and rock in advance,
or use the rock as an absorbent in the stable. Fill in the hole again,
leaving room in the center to set the tree without bending or cramping
any roots. Where any of these are injured or bruised, cut them off
clean at the injured spot with a sharp knife. Shorten any that are long
and straggling about one-third to one-half their length. Properly grown
stock should not be in any such condition.

Remember that a well planted tree will give more fruit in the first ten
years than three trees carelessly put in. Get the tree so that it will
be one to three inches deeper in the soil than when growing in the nursery.
Work the soil in firmly about the roots with the fingers or a blunt wooden
"tamper"; do not be afraid to use your feet. When the roots are well
covered, firm the tree in by putting all your weight upon the soil
around it. See that it is planted straight, and if the "whip," or small
trunk, is not straight stake it, and tie it with rye straw, raffia or
strips of old cloth-never string or wire. If the soil is very dry, water
the root copiously while planting until the soil is about half filled in,
never on the surface, as that is likely to cause a crust to form and
keep out the air so necessary to healthy growth.

Prune back the "leader" of the tree-the top above the first lateral
branches, about one-half. Peach trees should be cut back more severely.
Further information in regard to pruning, and the different needs of
the various fruits in regard to this important matter, will be given in
the next chapter.


SETTING

Standard apple trees, fully grown, will require thirty to forty-five
feet of space between them each way. It takes, however, ten or twelve
years after the trees are set before all of this space is needed. A
system of "fillers," or inter-planting, has come into use as a result
of this, which will give at least one hundred per cent, more fruit for
the first ten years. Small-growing standards, standard varieties on
dwarf stock, and also peaches, are used for this purpose in commercial
orchards. But the principle may be applied with equally good results to
the home orchard, or even to the planting of a few scattered trees. The
standard dwarfs give good satisfaction as permanent fillers. Where
space is very limited, or the fruit must go into the garden, they may
be used in place of the standard sorts altogether. The dwarf trees are,
as a rule, not so long-lived as the standards, and to do their best,
need more care in fertilizing and manuring; but the fruit is just as
good; just as much, or more, can be grown on the same area; and the
trees come into bearing two to three years sooner. They cost less to
begin with and are also easier to care for, in spraying and pruning and
in picking the fruit.


CULTIVATION

The home orchard, to give the very finest quality of fruit, must be
given careful and thorough cultivation. In the case of scattered trees,
where it is not practicable to use a horse, this can be given by
working a space four to six feet wide about each tree. Every spring the
soil should be loosened up, with the cultivator or fork, as the case
may be, and kept stirred during the early part of the summer. Unless
the soil is rich, a fertilizer, high in potash and not too high in
nitrogen, should be given in the spring. Manure and phosphate rock, as
suggested above, is as good as any. In case the foliage is not a deep
healthy green, apply a few handfuls of nitrate of soda, working it into
the soil just before a rain, around each tree.

About August 1st the cultivation should be discontinued, and some
"cover crop" sown. Buckwheat and crimson clover is a good combination;
as the former makes a rapid growth it will form, if rolled down just as
the apples are ripening, a soft cushion upon which the windfalls may
drop without injury, and will furnish enough protection to the crimson
clover to carry it through most winters, even in cold climates.

In addition to the filler crops, where the ground is to be cultivated
by horse, potatoes may be grown between the rows of trees; or fine
hills of melons or squash may be grown around scattered trees, thus,
incidentally, saving a great deal of space in the vegetable garden. Or
why not grow a few extra fancy strawberries in the well cultivated
spots about these trees? Neither they nor the trees want the ground too
rich, especially in nitrogen, and conditions suiting the one would be
just right for the others.

It may seem to the beginner that fruit-growing, with all these things
to keep in mind, is a difficult task. But it is not. I think I am
perfectly safe in saying that the rewards from nothing else he can
plant and care for are as certain, and surely none are more
satisfactory. If you cannot persuade yourself to try fruit on any
larger plan, at least order half a dozen dwarf trees (they will cost
about twenty cents apiece, and can be had by mail). They will prove
about the best paying investment you ever made.




CHAPTER XVII

PRUNING, SPRAYING, HARVESTING


The day has gone, probably forever, when setting out fruit trees and
giving them occasional cultivation, "plowing up the orchard" once in
several years, would produce fruit. Apples and pears and peaches have
occupied no preferred position against the general invasion of the
realm of horticulture by insect and fungous enemies. The fruits have,
indeed, suffered more than most plants. Nevertheless there is this
encouraging fact: that, though the fruits may have been severely
attacked, the means we now have of fighting fruit-tree enemies, if
thoroughly used, as a rule are more certain of accomplishing their
purpose, and keeping the enemies completely at bay, than are similar
weapons in any other line of horticultural work.

With fruit trees, as with vegetables and flowers, the most important
precaution to be taken against insects and disease is to _have them
in a healthy, thriving, growing condition_. It is a part of Nature's
law of the survival of the fittest that any backward or weakling plant
or tree seems to fall first prey to the ravages of destructive forces.

For these reasons the double necessity of maintaining at all times good
fertilization and thorough cultivation will be seen. In addition to
these two factors, careful attention in the matter of pruning is
essential in keeping the trees in a healthy, robust condition. As
explained in a previous chapter, the trees should be started right by
pruning the first season to the open-head or vase shape, which
furnishes the maximum of light and air to all parts of the tree. Three
or four main branches should form the basis of the head, care being
taken not to have them start from directly opposite points on the
trunk, thus forming a crotch and leaving the tree liable to splitting
from winds or excessive crops. If the tree is once started right,
further pruning will give little trouble. Cut out limbs which cross, or
are likely to rub against each other, or that are too close together;
and also any that are broken, decayed, or injured in any way. For trees
thus given proper attention from the start, a short jackknife will be
the only pruning instrument required.

The case of the old orchard is more difficult. Cutting out too many of
the old, large limbs at one time is sure to give a severe shock to the
vitality of the tree. A better plan is, first, to cut off _close_
all suckers and all small new-growth limbs, except a few of the most
promising, which may be left to be developed into large limbs; and then
as these new limbs grow on, gradually to cut out, using a fine-tooth
saw and painting the exposed surfaces, the surplus old wood. Apples
will need more pruning than the other fruits. Pears and cherries need
the least; cutting back the ends of limbs enough to keep the trees in
good form, with the removal of an occasional branch for the purpose of
letting in light and air, is all the pruning they will require. Of
course trees growing on rich ground, and well cultivated, will require
more cutting back than those growing under poorer conditions. A further
purpose of pruning is to effect indirectly a thinning of the fruit, so
that what is grown will be larger and more valuable, and also that the
trees may not become exhausted by a few exceptionally heavy crops. On
trees that have been neglected and growing slowly the bark sometimes
becomes hard and set. In such cases it will prove beneficial to scrape
the bark and give a wash applied with an old broom. Whitewash is good
for this purpose, but soda or lye answers the same purpose and is less
disagreeably conspicuous. Slitting the bark of trunks and the largest
limbs is sometimes resorted to, care being taken to cut through the
bark only; but such practice is objectionable because it leaves ready
access to some forms of fungous disease and to borers.

Where extra fine specimens of fruit are desired, thinning is practiced.
It helps also to prevent the tree from being overtaxed by excessive
crops. But where pruning is thoroughly done this trouble is usually
avoided. Peaches and Japan plums are especially benefited by thinning,
as they have a great tendency to overbear. The spread of fruit
diseases, especially rot in the fruit itself, is also to some extent
checked.

Of fruit-tree enemies there are some large sorts which may do great
damage in short order--rabbits and field mice. They may be kept away by
mechanical protection, such as wire, or by heaping the earth up to a
height of twelve inches about the tree trunk. Or they may be caught
with poisoned baits, such as boiled grain in which a little Rough on
Rats or similar poison has been mixed. The former method for the small
home garden is little trouble, safer to Fido and Tabby, and the most
reliable in effect.

Insects and scale diseases are not so easily managed; and that brings
us to the question of spraying and of sprays.

For large orchards the spray must, of course, be applied with powerful
and expensive machinery. For the small fruit garden a much simpler and
very moderate priced apparatus may be acquired. The most practical of
these is the brass-tank compressed-air sprayer, with extension rod and
mist-spray nozzle. Or one of the knapsack sprayers may be used. Either
of these will be of great assistance not only with the fruit trees, but
everywhere in the garden. With care they will last a good many years.
Whatever type you get, be sure to get a brass machine; as cheaper ones,
made of other metal, quickly corrode from contact with the strong
poisons used.


APPLE ENEMIES

The insects most commonly attacking the apple are the codlin-moth,
tent-caterpillar, canker-worm and borer. The codlin-moth lays its eggs
on the fruit about the time of the falling of the blossoms, and the
larvae when hatched eat into the young fruit and cause the ordinary
wormy apples and pears. Owing to these facts, it is too late to reach
the trouble by spraying after the calyx closes on the growing fruit.
Keep close watch and spray immediately upon the fall of the blossoms,
and repeat the spraying a week or so (not more than two) later. For
spray use Paris green at the rate of 1 lb., or arsenate of lead (paste
or powder, less of the latter: see accompanying directions) at the rate
of 4 lbs. to 100 gallons of water, being careful to have a thorough
mixture. During July, tie strips of burlap or old bags around the
trunks, and every week or so destroy all caterpillars caught in these
traps. The tent-caterpillar may be destroyed while in the egg state, as
these are plainly visible around the smaller twigs in circular,
brownish masses. (See illustration.) Upon hatching, also, the nests are
obtrusively visible and may be wiped out with a swab of old bag, or
burned with a kerosene torch. Be sure to apply this treatment before
the caterpillar begins to leave the nest. The treatment recommended for
codlin-moths is also effective for the tent-caterpillar.

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