We thus see that very opposite situations, in regard to mere elevation,

may both be recommended for orchards; but the latter are the exceptions

rather than the rule, for we can not always count upon the saving

influence of a fog, nor are the modifying effects of a moderate sheet of

water always to be depended upon at the time when most needed. Still, we

may find a few favored spots, where an insular position, in a lacustrine

situation, receives a double influence--acting at both extremities of

the season of vegetation, in quite an opposite way, but in both acting

favorably. In such places we shall discover that the spring opens late,

being retarded by the cold atmosphere flowing over the chilled waters,

that may be even icy, when inland places in the same latitude are

rejoicing in a mild and genial temperature, tempting the expansion of

the flower-buds. Vegetation on an island thus situated is retarded until

all danger of frost has passed, and the air has received the full

benefit of warmth from the water. Then, again, in the autumn, when we

are in danger from the access of an early frost, such as sometimes,

north of latitude forty degrees, destroys the whole crop of corn, almost

universally, over hundreds of miles, these favored spots have really a

warmer atmosphere, from the influence of a great extent of water, that

has enjoyed a summer's sunshine, and which warms the air by giving off

its heat very steadily, but slowly; and besides, as the surface of the

land cools by radiation and condenses the watery vapor, it receives

accessions of temperature that had been locked up, or was insensible in

the vapor. Hence we find that in these places, though the opening of

spring was retarded a month, the approach of winter and autumnal frosts

is warded off for two months, making the season really one month longer

than in the same latitude inland.

It must be confessed, however, that the subject of meteorology is not

fully understood. We have but a glimmering of the light that we hope

is to be shed upon the subject when the deductions from millions of

observations, long continued and systematically conducted, shall have

been wrought out for the benefit of the orchardist and the general

agriculturist.

We also have storms accompanied by a low temperature, passing across

the country, in which, at times, the greatest intensity of cold is at

the southern border. Such a one passed from the west to the east in

January, 1852, in which the mercury, near Marietta, O., sank to thirty

degrees below zero; at Zanesville, O., on the same river, it was

twenty-seven degrees; at Lancaster, O., thirty-two degrees; while at

Cleveland, O., it was only fifteen degrees below, and at Aurora, on

Cayuga Lake, N.Y., influenced by the unfrozen water, its greatest

depression was only four degrees below zero.[20]

ASPECT.--When considering the orchard site, the best _aspect_ of the

ground becomes a matter of interesting inquiry. To all vegetation, the

morning sun is a welcome visitant after the night's repose; for

plants, as well as animals, rest from their functions at night, and

all nature rejoices in the return of day; hence an eastern or a

southeastern exposure is generally preferred, but we find that

practically there is little difference in the different parts of an

orchard that can be fairly referred to this cause. Some planters

prefer a southern slope, thinking that the fullest exposure to the sun

is essential; others select a northern aspect, in the hope that they

may there avoid a too early excitation of vegetable life, and also

that the heats of summer may be thus moderated. In my own opinion, the

aspect is a matter of little consequence to the success of an orchard,

though my predilections are in favor of an easterly exposure. The

danger of a southern aspect in summer, and the advantages of the

northern slope, may, in a great degree, be obtained or obviated by

judicious planting and pruning, as will be set forth in another place.

A theory has been started by those who are opposed to a northerly

slope, that vegetation continues later in the season in such

situations, especially with young trees, and that hence they are not

in so good a condition to resist the access of very severe weather at

the sudden setting in of winter. The hypothesis is not sustained by

long-continued observation, although many facts noted in the autumn

and winter of 1859 induced persons to embrace the theory; these were

particularly the killing of the peach-buds, upon northern slopes, by

the December frosts. There is no evidence that there was any want of

perfect ripening of the wood in these situations; on the contrary, it

is well known that, long before December, the growth of these very

trees had been checked, the wood had been well ripened, and the

foliage had been cast to the ground.

The warmer exposure of a southern slope may, and often does, favor the

premature swelling of the buds and starting of the sap during mild,

pleasant, and bright weather in the winter, and vegetation is often

seriously injured from this cause.

In many parts of the country, it is much more important to consider

the exposure to the prevailing winds of the region, and to select the

site and aspect that shall enjoy the benefit of protection. This, I am

aware, is a proposition that has had opponents; as well as advocates,

in the broad savannas of the West, where, especially, it becomes a

question of the greatest importance. There are benefits as well as

evils attendant upon the motions of the atmosphere. The swaying of the

limbs, when agitated by the breeze, gives them tone and strength, and

may assist in the circulation of the sap within their cells; and the

constant agitation of the atmosphere, commingling the warmer with the

colder portions, will often modify the temperature to such an extent

as to give an immunity from the frost in the open prairie, at the same

moment that the more tranquil air, within a limited clearing of forest

lands, has been cooled down, by radiation, to the frost point. On

every account, therefore, the moderate and reasonable exposure to the

influences of a mobile atmosphere is rather to be courted than

shunned.

The views that have been advanced by the advocates of protection for

orchards on the prairies, have been somewhat modified since they were

first promulgated. We are now told, by those who have opposed

"protection," that narrow timber-belts of evergreens and deciduous

trees, should be planted on the windward sides of orchards, to

moderate, not to cut off, the aerial currents; in this all will agree,

and those who have any sympathy for a tree will surely prefer to have

the blasts, that sweep over miles of open country, somewhat checked

and tempered before reaching either themselves or their orchards. The

testimony as to the effects of cold in sheltered and in exposed

situations, it must be confessed, appears somewhat contradictory; but

this is because we have not all the elements of a complex problem.

WINTER-KILLING.--A most serious evil, both to the nurseryman and

orchardist, is the severe injury sometimes done to the trees by frost.

This is commonly known by the term "winter-killing," which has, at

times, destroyed millions of trees, and thus blighted the hopes of

long-continued labor and large investments of capital. Some

orchardists have been disheartened, and have given up in despair. The

investigation of the causes of this disaster, and the conditions under

which it occurs, will be of great value to future planters; and

though, perhaps, we have not yet at command sufficient data for the

full explanation of the phenomenon, it may be well to look into the

attendant circumstances that have been observed; and as some of the

most important considerations depend upon the soil and exposure, they

may be well introduced in this place.

I have already alluded to the theory, that the north hillsides

maintain a later growth than other situations, and have stated that

the facts do not sustain the position. The warm exposures on southern

slopes and sheltered nooks, are apt to favor the premature starting of

the sap in the mild weather that often occurs during the winter, in

our changeable climate. On the prairies, and on flat lands elsewhere,

an excess of humidity in the soil will contribute to this disaster;

and in such situations we may often observe the most terrible

destruction following a great and sudden change of temperature.

Exposure to long-continued cold, with severe winds, seems to dry up

the juices of the plants, in some instances, and thus effect their

destruction. This, in the far North, is believed to be a frequent

cause of the evil. The condition of the tree upon the access of severe

cold is too important a subject to be lost sight of, and has already

been alluded to.

Of any given variety, the more perfectly dormant the plant, and the

more complete its condition of hybernation, the greater will be its

immunity from this evil. The atmospheric changes and conditions we can

not control, and we can modify them only in a very limited degree, by

hedges, by timber-belts, and by evergreen screens, the value of which

begins to be appreciated. The state of the soil, as to its moisture,

is under our control, and by thorough and surface-drainage, we may

obviate one very important condition that conduces largely to the

injury under consideration--the excess of moisture in and upon the

soil.

The more perfect ripening of the wood, is likewise a matter of great

moment, and this is also subject to our control, particularly in young

trees in the nursery and orchard.

Certain varieties are much more subject to injury from cold than

others. Among these are some of the most thrifty and free growing

sorts. There appears to be an inherent quality of hardiness in others,

that enables them to resist the most trying alternations of

temperature. Why some should be thus hardy, and others tender, we do

not know, but it is not their Northern or Southern origin; some having

the former are most tender. Sad experience has taught us the fact, and

since the dreadful winters of the past decade, in some parts of the

West, the first question asked, respecting a new variety of fruit, is

that regarding its hardiness. Pomological societies have endeavored to

collate the names of the hardy and tender kinds, and have thus, by

their united experience, been enabled to present lists of a few of the

known hardy apples, for the guidance of planters.

SOILS.--It will be proper, in this place, to say something about the

soils best adapted to orcharding. The apple is a gross feeder, but a

good-natured one, and, like a good citizen and a cosmopolite, it

submits to surrounding circumstances. In our own country, it

flourishes alike on the granite hills of New England, or the mountain

ranges stretching thence to the southwest, in the limestone valleys

amid these ridges, on the sandstones and shales that form the

southeastern rim of the great valley of the West, upon the vast drift

formations that overlie the rocks from the tide-waters of the St.

Lawrence to the sources of the Missouri, upon the rich diluvial and

alluvial deposits of our river bottoms, and our vast prairies. I have

said that the apple flourishes _alike_ upon these various soils and

under these so different circumstances; perhaps this expression should

be somewhat modified; there are varieties that appear peculiarly

adapted by their nature for all of these different situations; there

are, perhaps, none that will thrive equally well in all.

The orchardists of each section of the country must ascertain for

themselves what varieties are best adapted to the peculiarities of

their soil and climate; hence, no one region can furnish lists of

varieties to be taken as a guide for the planting of others

differently situated. Hence, too, the importance of local

organizations for pomological study, and the great value of the labors

of those who are engaged in the prosecution of these investigations in

the American Pomological Society, which will, it is fondly hoped,

ultimately give us corrected lists of fruits that are adapted to all

the varying circumstances of soil and climate, in each of the great

geological regions of our country. This has already been proposed by

the excellent general chairman of Fruit Committees, as an important

work for the National Society; and so soon as the subject receives a

fair consideration, its merits will be appreciated, and a union of the

best minds, and the best experience of the pomologists of each

district, will be concentrated upon this labor.

Let me not be misapprehended in the statement, just made, with regard

to the wide distribution of which the apple appears to be capable.

There are soils and situations, in all of the widely-separated regions

alluded to, that are wholly unfitted to orchard culture, upon which it

were folly to plant an apple-tree; and yet, many of those may be

rendered entirely suitable, if subjected to treatment, suggested by

science, and executed by human ingenuity and industry; the missing

element may be supplied, the compactness of the soil may be overcome

by mechanical comminution, and by that effected by aeration; the

excessive moisture may be removed by surface and thorough drainage;

other disqualifications, such as those of situation and climate, may

not be so readily overcome; they have already been alluded to; and

even in them we may hope for improvement with the advance of science.

Different soils may be designated as porous and compact. Leaving out

of view for the present, their chemical composition, let us look to

their mechanical structure. Porous soils are composed of materials

that always allow of the escape of superabundant moisture; they are

generally underlaid by beds of diluvial gravels, or by rocks of a

porous character. Such lands are peculiarly adapted to orchard

planting. The compact soil, on the contrary, is made up of the finest

materials, among which alumina largely predominates. Such are called

clayey soils or clays, and are among the most valuable upon the

surface of the earth, not because alumina is a component of

vegetation, but because the elements associated with it, are all of

them in a state of extreme comminution.

Clays are compact soils, not only by reason of the fineness of their

particles, but because the predominating alumina swells and becomes

pasty when it is wet, and thus prevents the passage of water through

them. On this account, soils that are too compact, especially if they

be underlaid by stiff clay subsoils, are not so well adapted to

orcharding as those that are more porous. This is especially true of

level lands, upon which water accumulates, to the great injury of the

fruit-trees planted upon them; but even in hilly situations, with good

natural surface drainage, the excess of clay is indicated by a

"spouty" condition of the surface. So many varieties succeed in clayey

lands, however, and some are so superior in their products when

planted upon clays, that we need not be discouraged by this apparent

difficulty; it may be overcome by the ingenuity of the skillful

farmer. Thorough or under-drainage will remedy all the evils of clay

soils, and bring out their superior advantages. This will be more

fully explained in another place. Much may be done toward removing the

redundant moisture, even in the flat clay lands of the prairies and

other extended plateaus, by the simple means of ridging up the lands

with the plow. What is familiarly called "back-furrowing" enables the

plowman to raise a ridge upon which to plant his trees, and at the

same time he opens a furrow for the escape of surface water. While a

portion of the redundant moisture is thus removed, another great

object of drainage is not attained: I allude to the aeration of the

soil.

* * * * *

From what has been said upon a previous page, it might be inferred,

that as the apple may be cultivated upon soils of such great diversity

as those that occur over the range of territory indicated, as well as

upon the western coast of this continent, and in the temperate regions

of the Old World, the peculiar soils that are characterized by their

underlying rocks would be equally acceptable, whether these were

granites, shales, sandstones, or limestones. Such is not the fact,

however, and we have found, in this utilitarian age, that geology has

much to do with the planting of an orchard. There are varieties that

succeed better upon one rock than upon another, and there are those

that fail to be remunerative when transplanted to a rock, which to

them is obnoxious, though it may be a very paradise to other

varieties.

* * * * *

These observations are becoming a matter of great importance to

orchardists, and we may hope that the study of this subject will be

developed into some certain data, and that the future discussions of

our pomological societies will furnish reliable information to orchard

planters.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] See Lawrence Young's Experiments, in _Western Horticultural

Review_, Vol. I. page 190, in Report of Kentucky State Fruit Committee

to American Pomological Congress, for 1850.

[20] Western Horticultural Review; also, Statistics of Storm, Jan. 1,

1864.

CHAPTER VII.

PREPARATION OF THE SOIL FOR AN ORCHARD.

DRAINAGE. ITS ADVANTAGES. SURFACE DRAINS. MADE WITH THE PLOW. MAY

BE FOLLOWED BY TILES, OR MOLE PLOW. THOROUGH PLOWING.

TRENCHING. TRENCH PLOWING. SUBSOIL PLOWING. MANURING NOT OFTEN

NEEDED IN A NEW COUNTRY. CHARACTER OF MANURES. LIME, ALKALIES.

CLOVER. HOW CLOVER ACTS. EXHAUSTED FIELDS TO BE IMPROVED BEFORE

PLANTING. DIGGING THE HOLES. DONE WITH THE PLOW. STAKES. THEIR

FUNCTION AND OBJECTS. NOT TO TIE TO. HOW TO TIE A TREE WHEN

NECESSARY. PLANTING. PREPARING THE TREES. TRIMMING, BRANCHES

AND ROOTS. PUDDLING. SET TO THE NORTH OF THE STAKES. DEPTH TO

PLANT. LEANING TREES TO THE SOUTHWEST. SEASON FOR PLANTING.

FALL OR SPRING BANKING UP AFTER FALL PLANTING. MULCHING, ITS

OBJECTS. MATERIAL TO BE USED. CLOVER MULCH.

The more thoroughly the preparation of the soil, the greater will be

the success of the orchardist. Good results, fair crops amply

remunerating all outlay, often follow the most careless or almost

accidental orchard planting; but trees that are properly set, in

well-prepared land, upon a judiciously selected orchard site, and for

a few years subjected to proper culture, are infinitely more

satisfactory in their results, and much more profitable to their

owner.

The importance of drainage can not be too often reiterated, not merely

for the sake of leading away the excess of water that at some seasons

prevails in much of our best lands, but on account of the more

thorough admission of the beneficial air to the soil and the roots;

this, of course, can only be had by thorough under-draining of the

land. Spouty or springy land is not to be selected for an orchard, and

yet we often find spots of this character in fields that we wish to

appropriate to orcharding; these should certainly be drained.

Mere surface drainage may be cheaply effected by the plow, and should

always be done in level lands, especially where the subsoil is compact

and tenacious. The expense of thorough drainage is so great, and the

success of our orchards, as commonly planted, even on ill-prepared

ground, is so generally good, that we can not expect the majority of

farmers to use drain tile at present. Still, the importance of

draining can not be doubted: the best results follow its use, and he

who would reap the best harvests, and attain the highest success, will

underdrain his land. For the most of us, surface drainage alone, is

all that we can do; this should never be neglected, for no crop can be

successful in land that is subject to an occasional drenching with a

surplus of water that stands for days, filling it to the surface,

causing the fermentation and souring of the organic matter it

contains. The fruit tree, certainly, will not thrive in such a

situation, and is as sure to fall into a decline, or consumption, if

condemned to wet feet, as would a delicate girl under similar

exposure.

The expense of under-draining is the only objection that can possibly

be urged against it; even this is no real objection, for it has been

repeatedly proved that the outlay, whatever it be, insures such

increase of crops as to pay a good interest upon the investment,

except where the natural under-drainage of the soil, by a porous

stratum of rock or gravel, already provides a ready discharge of the

superabundant water. It is thus only a question of the cash capital to

be invested in the business, for most of our orchard sites are of such

a character of soil as to be immensely benefited by the process. With

many of us, in this country, the capital is not to be had, or can not

be spared, to put underground; our means are limited, and we do not

drain our farms, as we should.

Surface drainage may be more cheaply effected, and, on land at all

flat and retentive of moisture, it should never be neglected. It may

be done while preparing the soil for planting--done with the plow. It

has already been premised that the orchard site should be elevated;

such land is generally somewhat undulating; indeed, the flattest field

that should ever be planted, will always present some inequalities of

surface. Let these be noted before laying off the lands for the plow;

calculate to have the furrows cross these inequalities of surface, and

gather the furrows in narrow lands, lapping them together just where

the row of trees is to be placed. This process may be repeated, and

thus quite a ridge will be thrown up for the trees, and a

corresponding depression will be left in the middle of the space

between the rows, which will serve as a gutter to carry off an excess

of surface water; thus, a cheap method of superficial drainage may be

effected by the mere plowing of the land judiciously; and this will be

found of great advantage in level lands with a stiff subsoil. When

such fields are selected for the orchard, this plan should always be

pursued; nor does it preclude the subsequent use of tile, which is the

best draining material, at any period afterward. These gutters being

at a distance from the tree rows, can be deepened, and the tile laid,

without disturbing the roots; or the mole drain plow may be drawn

through these furrows, if the subsoil be of a suitably tenacious

character to admit of the use of this implement.

Very satisfactory preparation of the soil is done with the plow and a

good team; indeed, except for the limited surface of a small fruit

garden, no other and no better implement need be desired. With it we

can produce a very thorough disintegration and perfect subversion of

the soil; these are the objects we have in view. But here we have a

choice of instruments, in which we must be guided by the character of

the soil to be dealt with. If this be shallow, or thin, and underlaid

by a sterile subsoil that would be unfit for the surface, we must plow

more shallow, but there are few sites, in the Western country, where

we do not find a sufficient depth of soil to satisfy the most thorough

plowman, and beneath it a subsoil that will be benefited by aeration,

and which will become good surface soil if subjected to the influences

of the atmosphere.

We have few soils that may not be trenched with the plow or spade to

any depth that is attainable. And here let me explain what is meant by

_trenching_: it is the transposition of two layers of the soil more

thoroughly, and to a greater depth, than is done by simply digging or

plowing, in which a limited amount, only a thin layer of the soil, is

inverted. In trenching with the spade, a narrow strip of land is

excavated across one end of the piece to be trenched, eighteen or

twenty inches wide, and as deep as the spade can take it out at two

diggings. The earth thus removed is thrown aside, to be used at the

end of the work. The trench being now open, a similar space is laid

off, and the surface soil, to the depth of the spade, is dug and

thrown into the bottom of the first trench, after which the subsoil is

dug to the same depth, the length of the space, and thrown on top of

the surface soil that was put into the bottom of the first trench. A

second trench is thus opened, and a third strip being then marked off,

the same processes are continued, until the whole piece is trenched,

when the pile of earth first excavated is brought into requisition to

complete the work, by filling up the last trench. This is common

trenching, which reverses the two layers of soil, and stirs the whole

to the depth of eighteen or twenty inches. It is an expensive

operation, but very desirable in a small fruit-garden--not at all

applicable for extensive orchard planting, though often applied to the

preparation of extensive vineyards.

Trench plowing is conducted upon the same principle, and is done by

using two plows in the same furrow, the first taking off the surface

soil and throwing it into the deep furrow of the second plow, which is

so constructed as to lift the lower soil and throw it high up over the

furrow slice laid by the first, and at the same time, leaving a deep

furrow open behind it to receive the next cut of surface soil. The

two layers are thus inverted and reversed at the same time, and with a

proper plow, the whole soil is finely comminuted and reduced to a

perfect seed-bed, suitable for a garden. To perform this work, the

Double Michigan plow is the favorite implement. It should be properly

constructed, for much depends upon having the plow well made; the

mold-boards should be formed upon the best models for their respective

offices of reversing the surface soil, and of upheaving and

comminuting that which lies below it; and these mold-boards should be

made of steel. Such plows are manufactured at several points, but all

the Double Michigan patterns are not equally good, and some are quite

unsatisfactory.

The Deep Tiller plows will do very good work in certain soils, and may

often be used to advantage in the preparation of the orchard grounds,

either alone, or to follow another plow when trench plowing is

desired, and the trench plow is not at hand. These plows, as made at

Moline, Illinois, are much used, and give great satisfaction in that

State.

Subsoiling is a very useful addendum to deep plowing; its object is to

stir the deep layers of the soil without bringing the earth to the

surface. This aerates and loosens the subsoil, and thus effects the

combined objects of increasing the fertility of the land, of retaining

moisture for the crops, and, to a certain extent, of allowing any

excess of moisture to percolate away. Subsoiling is most efficacious

when combined with draining, but it is of great use without, unless

where permanent water is found near the surface. There is a great

improvement in the subsoil plows. Those first made were provided with

a share on one side, and this wing, as it was called, was tilted up

several inches, thus increasing the draft unnecessarily. We now use a

sharp steel share, of diamond shape, cutting on both edges, right and

left, and very slightly elevated in the centre, only two inches, or

two and a half at the most. If the soil is stirred with this

implement, the hard earth at the bottom of the furrow, made by the

turning plow, is thoroughly broken up, and it does not fall directly

back into its place, but the crumbled portions support one another,

and the furrow appears to be filled with loose earth. The result is

astonishing, when we consider the flat, diamond-shaped plow sole that

has done the work.

The depth to which this implement may be made to disintegrate the

soil, depends upon its strength, the power of the team, and the

character of the subsoil. I have seen it tear up several inches of the

shales and other rocks, and aid in making a good soil of them. I have

seen it sink to the beam in the alluvium of our river bottoms, and I

have seen it almost refuse to do its office in some of the hard white

clay subsoils, when drawn by a heavy team, while in more yielding but

tenacious clays I have seen it trembling under the strain of three

yoke of good cattle, that were scarcely able to pull it through the

adhesive soil.

MANURING.--The importance of the application of manures to the

orchard, as a part of the preparation of the soil, will depend

entirely upon its strength and condition. Trees are great feeders;

they need a reasonably fertile soil, for though their roots run wide

and deep, in search of nourishment, if the necessary food be not in

the soil, they will certainly fail to thrive as they should. The

analysis of the ashes of our fruit trees, which contain the elements

they have derived from the soils on which they grew, enables us to

ascertain what kinds of plant-food should be present in the soil we

are about to use, or what materials we may safely and judiciously add

to it as manures. Lime, and the alkalies, are generally safe and

useful additions, in connection with clover as a green manure; these

may be applied to almost any worn soils with great advantage. Clover

is an invaluable assistant. Its long roots pierce deeply into the

soil, bringing up from below hidden treasures, which are left in the

upper layers, modified by the digestion of the plant, and by new

chemical changes and combinations, rendered fit food for succeeding

crops. The mere disintegration of the soil produced by the roots of

clover, is, in itself, a valuable mechanical preparation, quietly

performed, without plow or team. The clover lea may be limed with

great advantage; an application of twenty-five to fifty bushels of

slacked lime to the acre will improve the growth of clover, and will

exert its appropriate influence upon the soil, with very happy results

for the succeeding crop of orchard trees. Alkalies may be applied, in

the form of wood ashes, either at the preparation of the soil, or at

any subsequent period, as may be found most convenient. Stable manure,

and composts, will seldom be required in lands that have not been

nearly exhausted, and therefore unfit for an orchard. In case it

becomes necessary to use such a field, the manuring should be done all

over the surface, and a crop of clover should be grown and plowed in

before planting the trees; upon no account should fresh stable manure

be brought into immediate contact or close proximity with the roots

of the young tree. If the necessity for planting on such a piece of

land impel immediate action, very thoroughly decomposed composts may

be applied, mixed with the soil about the tree, but successive

applications of manures will be needed over the entire surface, for

the roots are destined to occupy the whole extent of soil between the

trees.

The next step in the preparation is the digging of the holes for

planting the trees. Some persons lay great stress upon the importance

of having these made large and deep, which may be very well in a grass

lawn with a few trees, but it is a very expensive matter for the

orchard of thousands or even of hundreds. The holes should be prepared

as wide as the field, and as deep as the plow can stir it, as already

directed; that is the kind of holes that should be dug; if the land

have been prepared in this manner, the opening of the holes and

planting the orchard, either deep or shallow, becomes a very simple

matter.

Having determined the distance at which the trees shall stand from one

another, and the order or plan of planting, flag poles are to be set

in the line to be occupied by the first row of trees, and a deep

furrow is then opened with a large plow, drawn by a pair of steady

horses. The poles are moved and set for the next row of trees, and so

on, until the whole is laid off, making the furrows as straight as

possible. This done, a single horse with a lighter plow is driven

across these deep furrows at the proper distance, so that the

intersections shall indicate the stations for the trees. Strong

stakes, about four or five feet long, are then driven firmly at these

intersections, and if the marking-out has been well done, they will

range in six directions--N. and S.--E. and W.--N.-E. and S.-W.--N.-W.

and S.-E., or to corresponding points of the compass; for it is not a

matter of much consequence in what direction the rows of trees stand.

The holes are the deep furrows, and tree stations are the spaces

beside the stakes, always maintaining the same relative position

throughout the orchard; the northern side is to be preferred, on

account of the partial shade of the stake. By adopting this plan,

there need be no trouble, as is often experienced, in sighting the

trees to have them straight, for if the stakes have been correctly

placed, the trees will also be right, and will range in every

direction, when planted.

Before dismissing the subject of stakes, let us understand their

object and function: it is not to tie up the trees, and to force them

to attain an erect posture; no, that is not to be effected by staking,

as will be set forth in another place. Rather than tie a tree to a

stake, it were better to cut it down to the ground, and grow it over

again. The real objects of the stakes are, first, to show the planter

where to set a tree; second, to show where the tree has been planted;

third, to indicate to the plowman and to his horse where to exercise

care in passing the infant tree during the first years' culture, for

an intelligent animal will very soon learn what objects it is intended

for him to avoid injuring during his labors in the field; a fourth

function of the stake is to ward off the single-tree which the

careless laborer may allow to strike the tree to its manifest injury,

tearing the bark, and even breaking the stem. The passage of the wagon

through the field will also be directed, by these stakes, to the

interspaces, instead of passing over the trees. Here are reasons

enough for the use of stakes, but tying the trees to them is not among

the number; indeed, it might be called the abuse of the stakes rather

than their use, except in rare cases. Even in the windy prairie

country, no stakes should be used, as supports, in a properly

regulated orchard.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--MANNER OF STAKING A TREE.]

When necessary to support a tree with stakes, after an injury or

accident, the plan of C. Rosenstiel, Freeport, Ill., is the best I

have seen. He adopts it as a means of keeping his trees from being

inclined by the wind. He drives a stake firmly into the ground, about

a foot to the southwest of his tree; a band of rye straw is cast about

the tree a few feet from the ground; the two ends are twisted and

entwined together, forming a stiff rope from the tree to the stake,

about which it is then cast, and the ends are secured with a piece of

twine. By this appliance, the tree is maintained in an erect position

without chafing; it can only yield to the wind by waving to the right

or left; the band, by its tension, prevents it from leaving the stake,

and, by its stiffness, holds it at a proper distance, and prevents its

approach.

PLANTING comes next in order to the marking out, or hole-digging, for

these are synonymous; it should be done as soon as possible after the

plow, on account of the fresh furrow with its mellow soil. It is

really a simple matter and upon this method may be executed with great

rapidity. The trees now receive their necessary trimming, which

consists in a liberal shortening of the branches, a careful inspection

of the roots, and a removal with a sharp knife of such as may have

been bruised or torn, and cutting away any mat of fibres; after this,

they should be puddled, and then carried out to their stations by a

boy. The planter follows; with a bright spade he removes any excess of

soil at the station, scraping away such portions of earth as he may

find in the way of the roots when the tree is placed by the stake. If

the furrow has not been recently made, it will be well always to

remove a portion of the surface, so as to have fresh soil next the

roots. The tree being placed near the stake, the roots are carefully

spread out in their natural direction, and the moist mellow earth is

filled in among them, using the fingers when necessary, and gently

shaking the tree so as to leave no empty cavities among the fibres.

Pretty firm pressure should now be made with the foot, especially upon

the fine earth placed above the ends of the roots; this excludes the

air, by bringing the particles of soil in close proximity to the

roots, ready to receive the new fibres that will soon be emitted from

them. It also secures the tree in its place better than tying to the

stake, for each root acts as a guy rope. In this manner the work may

progress very rapidly, and, at the same time, may be well done. Some

planters always pour a liberal supply of water upon the mellow earth,

instead of pressing it with the foot. This will settle the fine soil

about the roots very effectually; fresh earth should always be thrown

on after the water, to prevent the surface from being caked and

cracked.

The depth at which the tree should be planted is a question of

interest. Most authorities and most successful planters endeavor to

regulate this, so that, when settled, the original collar of the young

tree may be at the surface of the ground; deep planting has few

advocates. The position of the tree as to the points of the compass,

is now believed to be a matter of very little moment, although there

are still those who insist that the north side of the tree in the

nursery row should be made to occupy the same position in the orchard.

With low-headed trees this can make no difference; no others are

recommended; on the contrary, if, unfortunately, none but tall trees

with naked stems can be procured, it is advised to cut them back

severely at planting time, so as to form a new head where wanted.

Those who have not the heart to cut back a fine tree, may attempt and

will sometimes succeed in bringing out branches below, by nicking the

bark with a large sharp pruning-knife, at several points along the

stem, on all sides, but especially to the southwest, where the shelter

of the branches is most needed. This, however, requires us to wait at

least one season, and that the most trying one to the young tree,

during which the naked bark is exposed to the sun and insects; and the

winds may add to the difficulty, by inclining the stem from the

southwest. All this may be avoided by planting trees with low

branches, which are becoming more and more common as their merits are

more highly appreciated. Some of the most judicious planters,

especially in windy districts, have adopted the plan of inclining all

their trees to the southwest at the time of planting, expecting thus

to overcome the difficulty so commonly observed everywhere with tall

trees--their leaning to the northeast, and then becoming scorched and

injured by the frost and sun, and damaged by the borers.

The season for planting is a question of some importance, and must be

settled by the attendant circumstances. Fall planting has many

advocates and many advantages, but the fewest practice it. In the far

north, with a long, trying winter approaching, it can not be

recommended; but, as the spring advances, there is a great press of

work; everything is to be done at once, and all is hurry; hence, for

the milder latitudes, with our charming autumnal weather, comparative

leisure, and the soil in good condition, everything invites us to

plant in the autumn, and with those south of latitude forty degrees,

the planting season will often continue until mid-winter. If we

commence this work before the fall of the leaves, care should be taken

to strip these appendages from the trees in the nursery, before

digging them. Instead of leaving the soil about the tree at or a

little above the general level, it should be heaped up in a little

mound, which will shed off the rains, support the stem, and, to some

extent, protect the roots from frost. This last suggestion is a matter

of much importance, for one of the great advantages of autumnal

planting, depends upon the fact that, except in the most severe

weather, the tree is not dormant--the hybernation is not complete; in

mild weather there is some action in the buds and branches, and

considerable activity exists in the roots; new fibres are emitted,

and, with the first opening of spring, the young tree is ready for

its summer's growth. Such is not the case with trees that have been

badly planted in the fall, in a wet, tenacious soil, where their roots

have been immersed in mud and water for months, and the swaying top

has strained them in every direction. For such a soil, draining is

needed; but, even then, the mound will be of material advantage in

fall planting.

MULCHING is a process about which much has been said and written, but

of which, it is to be feared, very little is known and understood. The

very objects of mulching do not appear to be properly appreciated by

many persons. Its uses are two-fold: primarily, to keep the surface of

the earth moist by preventing evaporation, and to maintain that open,

friable condition we always find in the forest, under the natural

mulching of the leaves. Mulching keeps the earth cooler in summer and

warmer in winter; the first, by shading from the burning rays of the

sun, the second, by protecting from frost; the material itself, and

the confined air among it, being bad conductors of heat. Now, what

material shall we use for producing these results? Almost anything

that will fulfill these indications will answer--either stones, chips,

boards, twigs, saw-dust, tan-bark, weeds, straw, either long or cut,

coarse manure, hay, freshly-cut grass, or, perhaps the very best for

all the purposes of mulching, leaves themselves, except that they are

difficult to retain in their place. A combination of leaves and twigs,

small branches or weeds, may be made to answer a very good purpose,

for winter mulching especially. For summer mulching there is another

material which has been found to answer an admirable purpose, though

not mentioned in the above list; it is mellow earth--yes, mellow earth

admirably fulfills most of the conditions of a good mulching material,

but it must be kept mellow by constant stirring. The air is thus

admitted, and deposits its moisture whenever the earth is cooler than

the atmosphere; the presence of the air among the particles of the

soil makes it a worse conductor of heat than when it is compacted

together.

Mulching the newly-planted trees is a very valuable application,

whether in summer or winter, and should be practiced wherever it is

possible, always remembering that we can not well combine with it

culture, which, for the summer treatment, is most essential to the

successful growth of trees, and in winter we shall present a harbor to

the mice if the mulch be placed too near the tree. He who may have

been induced, by the recommendations of high authority, to plant an

orchard in a stiff blue-grass sod, or who may allow such sod to

surround his trees, in the belief that this constitutes a good mulch,

will be sadly disappointed; for, though the surface is shaded, the

grass will absorb the moisture from the soil at the expense of the

young trees. Clover, on the contrary, makes a denser shade, and

seeking its supplies more deeply, is less injurious, while its

abundant broad foliage attracts ample supplies of dew to irrigate the

soil. In this respect it resembles the Indian corn, which is

considered the best crop to put among young trees, as it produces

shade, attracts the dew, and, more than all, it demands and receives

the thorough culture which the trees also require.

CHAPTER VIII.

SELECTION AND PLANTING.

IMPORTANCE OF JUDICIOUS SELECTION. LARGE TREES NOT DESIRABLE.

THRIFTY YOUNG TREES PREFERRED. REASONS FOR THE PREFERENCE.

ADVANTAGES OF SMALLER TREES. LOW HEADS AND THE PROTECTION BY

LATERAL BRANCHES. PERSONAL INSPECTION AND SELECTION

RECOMMENDED. DIGGING THE TREES. CAREFULLY AVOID MUTILATION OF

THE ROOTS. PUDDLING. TYING AND LABELING. PACKING. AVOID

EXPOSURE TO SUN AND WIND, AND FROST. TREATMENT OF FROZEN TREES

IN COLD WEATHER. HEELING-IN. MULCHING. MAKING RECORD. DRIED

TREES, HOW RESTORED. SEASON FOR PLANTING. BANKING THE TREES.

MULCHING. DISTANCE BETWEEN TREES. DEPENDENT UPON THE HABIT OF

THE VARIETY. ASSORTING THE VARIETIES ACCORDING TO SIZE. CLOSE

PLANTING. COMBINATION PLANTING. DIFFERENT CROPS. APPLES AND

PEACHES, OR CHERRIES. SMALL FRUITS BETWEEN. ORDER OF

PLANTATION. QUINCUNX. ASSORTING VARIETIES. CONVENIENCE IN

HARVESTING TO HAVE EACH KIND GROUPED TOGETHER.

We now come to the consideration of a matter of great importance to

the success of the future orchard--the selection of the plants we are

to set therein. No matter how favorable the site, how good the soil,

nor how thorough the preparations may have been; all may be spoiled by

a bad selection of trees, and subsequent disappointment will be the

consequence.

Formerly, and in some sections of the country even now, very erroneous

notions prevailed upon this subject. Large trees, of several years'

growth in the nursery, were preferred by those who were planting

orchards: trees, ready to bear fruit, were eagerly inquired for, and

preferred; even if they had been crowded together so as to be drawn up

to a great hight without any lateral branches, and had formed their

heads at the hight of seven or eight feet, so as to be out of the way

of browsing by cattle and horses, they were the more admired by the

purchasers. Now-a-days there is a great change in the sentiment of

tree-planters as to the age, size, and shape of the trees that are to

be set out.

Thrifty young trees are preferred to older and larger ones on many

accounts. They are more vigorous and will endure the disturbance of

digging, transportation, and change of locality from the nursery to

the orchard, much better than larger and older trees. They are more

easily dug, and will have a larger proportion of roots removed with

them than those which have stood longer in the nursery-rows, so as to

have pushed their fibres beyond the reach of the spade. Such trees are

more stocky, and are furnished with lateral branches, or they should

be so furnished, but these would be smothered and removed from older

trees in crowded rows, as they are usually found in the nurseries. If

these younger trees be not already furnished with laterals and

elements for the formation of low heads, by the judicious treatment of

the nurserymen who produced them, the orchardist can at least bend

them to his will. He may make of them just what he pleases by his own

manipulations at the time of planting or afterwards, without feeling

that he is sacrificing to his fancy and judgment the growth of two or

three years, by freely using the knife and saw, in the removal of the

surplus and overgrown top, leaving him only a bare and mutilated stock

to set out at the beginning of his orchard.

Another advantage of selecting small trees, especially to those at a

distance from the nursery, is, that they are so much more easily

transported, and freight bills are a serious item in the expense

account of a large orchard plantation--these may be reduced to a

minimum by the selection of small instead of large trees. As to

forming the heads of our trees, if we cannot get the nurserymen to do

this for us, since we are unwilling to remunerate them for the extra

labor, and greater space required to form such stocky specimens as we

prefer, the difficulty is obviated by planting out young trees upon

which we may form the heads where we please.

As already suggested, there is a great revolution going on in the

minds of tree-planters as to the proper age for planting. Instead of

the inquiry for huge and cumbrous, overgrown trees, that had stood

four or five years or more in the nursery, we now find a growing

demand for small, stocky trees, of two or three years, or even less.

Of many thriftily growing kinds, good yearlings are much better for

the orchard than large trees, especially such as have been crowded in

the nursery and are devoid of side branches, and whose tall naked

stems are exposed to the burning heats and blasting cold of their new

homes in the open field, and to the depredations of hosts of insects.

Those purchasers, who seek after the tall trees, with bare stems,

running up like fishing poles, they who desire to buy their trees by

the running yard and to get as great a length as possible for their

money, can be accommodated by the nurseryman, who will produce the

article to order; but such planters will soon find that their orchards

are much less satisfactory than those set with short and stocky trees,

and which have been encouraged to branch out so as to form low heads.

As set forth in the chapter upon _The Nursery_, such trees can be

produced, and they are greatly to be preferred on many accounts, but

their production by the nurserymen must depend upon the intelligence

of the orchardists producing a demand for trees of such a character,

and a willingness on their part to pay the grower a liberal price for

the increased labor and expense, (in space at least), requisite for

their production. This no one should object to, for there is economy

in planting good trees; the successful orchardist will purchase the

best; he will not have the refuse or trash that may be offered him at

a low figure, for he well knows that it is dear at any price.

Where it is practicable and within reach, it is best for the planter

to visit the nursery and make his own selection of the trees,

especially if the demand be for a limited number; but he may generally

depend upon the judgment and honesty of the nurseryman, if he has

given his order distinctly as to the shape of the trees he desires to

purchase. In a common nursery, he will often observe at the ends of

the rows, and where there may have been a gap or break in the

continuous line of any variety, so that the trees are less crowded,

some trees that are better furnished with lateral branches, and are

consequently more stocky than where the rows are crowded. Here he

will be likely to find the specimens that suit his fancy, and he will

mark them for removal.

DIGGING.--At the proper season, and for most kinds this is at the fall

of the leaf, the trees should be dug from the ground. This operation,

as usually and necessarily conducted in large establishments, has to

be done expeditiously and with less care than the amateur will be

disposed to bestow upon this very important operation; and it

sometimes happens that he will offer to pay the nurseryman a bonus for

the privilege of digging his own trees with his own hands.

In performing this operation he will be very careful to avoid

mutilating the roots with the spade, or by using more force than is

absolutely necessary in lifting the loosened tree from its bed after

the roots have been pretty thoroughly liberated from the soil. He will

follow the directions given under this head in the appropriate section

of the chapter on _The Nursery_. The importance of puddling the roots

as soon as the trees are dug, cannot be too forcibly impressed upon

the planter and nurseryman; its value to the trees is so great as a

protection of the tender covering of the roots from exposure to the

blighting influences of light, wind, and frost, that the trifling

labor and expense involved in the operation, should not receive a

moment's consideration.

A puddle hole should be within convenient reach of the nursery-rows

where the digging is in progress, and each sort should be taken to it

as soon as dug. The excavation should be about a foot deep, or more,

for large plants, and as wide as is necessary to receive all the roots

of the trees to be puddled. A plentiful supply of water should be at

hand to put into the hole, and fine dry loamy soil should be sifted

into this, or simply thrown in from the shovel, and thoroughly mixed,

so as to bring the fluid to the consistency of thick cream. Into this

mud the roots are dipped, until every fibre is endued with a coating

of the fine material; the trees then are ready for tying snugly

together, and a little dry dirt may be sprinkled or sifted upon the

roots while they are still wet, so as to give them a further

protection from the elements. They are then securely bound, each kind

by itself, and each carefully labeled, if not already done; and as

soon as all are grouped together, they are ready for transportation to

their new homes. If the distance be short, so that the trees may be

carried on the farm-wagon, no packing is used, unless the weather

proves very inclement, but it is always safer to guard against both

wind and sun, by covering the roots from their influence. For distant

transportation, too much care cannot be taken to have the trees well

packed to protect the roots from drying and freezing.

In our uncertain climate, it not unfrequently happens that we receive

an invoice of trees in the midst of a severe storm of cold, when the

ground is frozen hard, and we have reason to suppose that the roots in

the cases are frozen. This need not discourage nor alarm us, if the

packing be good, for we have only to be patient and allow them time to

thaw out thoroughly in the dark, and we shall find our trees all

right. The packages should be placed at once in a dark cellar, and

allowed to thaw gradually--if no such convenience be at hand, the

boxes may be buried in the soil, or covered heavily with straw or hay,

materials which are generally abundant in a prairie country, where

commodious cellar room is not always at command.

HEELING-IN, as it is called, is a very important operation to be

performed so soon as possible after the receipt of the trees. It

consists in placing the fibrous roots in immediate and close contact

with the fresh and mellow soil, at some point convenient to the future

planting. A ditch is dug with the spade, or a deep furrow is opened

with the plow, in a sheltered, but elevated and dry situation, and in

light mellow soil; into this the trees are placed as fast as they are

removed from the packages, each kind being separated from the next by

a distinct marking stick, and it is well to place the labeled tree

first, as taken from bundles when untied. The trees are inclined at an

angle, generally leaning towards the south, so as to have the stems

shaded by their own branches. They are carefully placed separately and

held in this position by one person, while the fine mellow earth is

thrown upon the roots by another, who should take great care to see

that all the interstices are filled with soil, so as to exclude the

air from the fibres. This is especially necessary where the trees are

to remain in this situation during the winter, when they will be

alternately frozen and thawed. To secure them from injury, the earth

should be banked up against them several inches; and it is well also

to cover this with a heavy coating of leaves or some other mulching

material, if it can be safely used without danger of attracting the

field mice, which might ruin the trees. It is well at once to make a

record of the trees as they stand, so soon as they are heeled-in,

beginning at one end of the ditches or rows, and pursuing a definite

order. This record will prove of great value, and very convenient in

selecting the different kinds at the time of planting, and will enable

us to restore the names in case of accidental loss of labels during

the winter. The heeling-in of trees as they are received is

recommended, even if everything is ready for immediate planting,

unless the number be very small; but if the weather and our

convenience permit us to place them at once in their permanent

stations, the trees need not be heeled-in with so much care as when

they are to remain for a longer period.

It sometimes happens that, from accident, detention by the way, bad

packing, or exposure, we receive our trees in bad condition; they are

dried, and the bark appears to be shriveled and shrunken--they seem to

be dead. Such trees may often be entirely restored by a little care,

and will grow as well as any. The best treatment for such is to bury

them at once. Opening a sufficiently large trench, a layer of trees is

placed flat upon the bottom, fine mellow earth is sifted upon, and

among their roots and branches, another layer of trees is spread down

and covered in the same way, and so on until they are all secured,

when they are left to quietly and slowly absorb the moisture from the

soil. In a few days they will be found to be well plumped, and will

look as fresh as ever, and should be exhumed, trimmed, and planted,

selecting a moist or showery day for the operation.

SEASON FOR PLANTING.--This topic has already been discussed, and the

advantages of fall planting have been presented: but it is well to

bear in mind that there are reasons for preferring the spring, and for

some fruits the latter season is generally preferred.

When planting an orchard in the fall, it has been recommended to raise

an embankment of earth about the stem, for the double purpose of

protecting the roots from the frost, and also of preventing the action

of the wind swaying the tree and straining the roots. A copious

mulching is sometimes applied to keep out the frost, or at least to

prevent the frequent thawing and freezing of the surface in our

variable winters; but whenever loose material is left near the base of

a young tree, we must expect damage from the mice, which are attracted

and sheltered, and may commit sad devastations upon the bark before

spring. The banking and mulching may be combined with advantage, and

with less danger from the mice, which only work under cover and are

often more injurious upon older trees, surrounded with grass and weeds

in neglected orchards, than upon those newly planted and mulched, if a

little care has been taken to remove the straw or tramp it down near

the stem.

DISTANCE.--The distance between the trees is a matter that should be

carefully determined. Their habit should be considered, and their

size, when fully developed, must be studied. Some varieties will be

more crowded at forty feet apart, than others at fourteen. If

possible, the larger and widely spreading sorts should be assorted

and planted by themselves, and the more compact, upright and smaller

ones should be grouped together. It is difficult to do this, however,

for want of the necessary data; we can only make an approximation to

the desired result. Thus, the Yellow Bellflower, Summer Queen, Fall

Pippin, King of Tompkins County, Talman's Sweet, Golden Sweet,

Pennock, Northern Spy, and several others, are of the largest kind of

trees, and may be allowed as much as forty feet of space between them,

while the upright character and moderate growth of the Lady, Bullock's

Pippin, Red June, Benoni, Early Joe, American Summer Pearmain, Summer

Rose, Red Astrachan, and others, of similar habit, would enable us to

crowd them into half as much space without serious injury--and there

are trees of intermediate size and vigor, such as the Winesap, Rambo,

Greening, Russet, Early Harvest, Fall Wine, Autumn Strawberry,

Hubbardston, Jonathan, and a host of others that, at the same ratio,

should have thirty feet spaces between them.

There is also a great diversity of opinion among orchardists as to the

proper allowance of space for each tree, and many western planters are

advocates of close planting of the apple, which I have seen placed as

near as sixteen feet, occupying the whole space in a very few years,

and bearing luxuriantly. The advocates of such crowding urge, that

they protect one another, and that alternate trees can easily be

removed whenever they become too much crowded. In other places, the

old rule, of allowing two rods (33 feet), or even forty feet, between

the trees, is still followed and considered the best.

A favorite method with some planters of fruits is, to make a

combination of different kinds in the same orchard, so as to have the

whole surface occupied from the first. In this way, by introducing a

temporary crop of another variety which will make speedy returns, and

will soon be ready to come away and make room for the permanent

plantation, the ground may be rendered productive of remunerative

crops from the first. It is a very common plan to combine in this way

the apple and the peach--the latter come into bearing rapidly, and

are generally ready to be removed by the time the apple trees need the

whole space. Alternate rows and alternate trees are usually planted

with peaches, and the small growing cherries, such as the Early May,

often called the Early Richmond, can be planted in the same way. I

have seen a still further combination of fruits made by the

introduction of the raspberry, or even of the blackberry, the currant,

and the gooseberry, in alternate rows, so that, by setting the apple

trees at forty feet, with alternating cherry trees, and the cherry

rows in the middle space, or twenty feet each way from the apple and

cherry rows, and in the intermediate strips of twenty feet the

berries, which were also set between the trees, the whole ground was

laid off in rows of fruit separated by strips of ten feet wide.

Nothing is then needed for the full occupation of the ground, and to

yield a return of fruit the next year, but to plant a single row of

strawberries in each of these ten feet spaces; these, if well treated,

would make four beds in the spaces between every two of the apple tree

rows, or each ten feet, which is nearly half as much as would be

planted in the open field; and these would yield a half crop the next

year after planting, and as much the next season, when they should be

plowed up to give cultivation to the berry bushes that would then also

bear a crop of fruit, and continue to do so until the larger trees

needed the ground for their support. The peaches or cherries would

commence bearing the third or fourth year, and some of the apples

would follow quickly afterward, yielding partial crops. By such a

combination, as has been represented, the land is made to yield a

succession of paying fruit crops from the second year of the

foundation of the orchard.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--DIAGRAM OF PLANTING QUINCUNX.]

The order of planting is a matter of some consequence, and should be

settled upon before commencing the work. The simplest form, and that

most usually adopted, is the square; furrows are drawn across the

field, at whatever distance the plants may be desired to stand, and

crossed by others equally distant and at right angles to the first.

These will, by their intersections, indicate the stations to be

occupied by the trees. Some planters introduce a tree at the centre

point between each four, and this has been called _quincunx_, but

erroneously--for the true _quincunx_ is constituted by one central

tree surrounded by six, and all are equidistant, as illustrated by the

diagram, figure 26. This gives as many trees as possible upon the

ground, all equidistant, at twenty feet apart, or at any other

distance. It will be seen, that, in laying off this ground, whether

with the plow or simply with stakes to indicate the stations which

the trees are to occupy, we may first strike our furrows or set our

sight poles, all in one direction, parallel, and at seventeen feet

four inches apart. Crossing these at right angles, we may draw

parallel furrows every ten feet, and by setting our stakes at each

alternate intersection of these furrows, the proper stations will be

found for planting trees in the true _quincunx_ order, in which every

tree will occupy the corner of an equilateral triangle, and will be

equidistant from six surrounding trees. If any one prefers to dig

holes with the spade, instead of the more economical method proposed,

by using the plow, the stakes may be set in parallel rows, in such a

manner, that in every alternate row the first stakes shall be advanced

one-half of the desired distance from the base line. It will be

desirable in this, as in every other system, to have a measuring-line

at hand to prove the work from time to time, and make corrections;

for, otherwise, the most careful planter will soon get out of range.

When the stakes are set properly, on level ground, they should range

correctly in all directions. If the plantation be upon an uneven or

hilly surface, it will be found almost impossible to lay off the

ground with absolute precision; but this is a matter of very little

consequence, as the growth of the trees will soon conceal any slight

defects, particularly if they be trained with low heads. In the small

fruit garden greater precision is desirable, and should be attempted,

but in the commercial orchard, containing hundreds or thousands of

trees, such exactitude is scarcely attainable if it were desired.

Sometimes the aid of the civil engineer, with his instruments, is

called in by the very precise planter.

CHAPTER IX.

CULTURE, ETC.

THOROUGH CULTURE SHOULD FOLLOW THOROUGH PREPARATION. HOED CROPS

RECOMMENDED. NO WHITE STRAW CROPS, NOR GRASSES ALLOWED. HOW

LONG SHALL WE CULTIVATE THE ORCHARD? LIMITS. THE SPADE AND

FORK, AND MULCHING SUBSTITUTED. HORSE CULTIVATORS NECESSARY IN

LARGE ORCHARDS. THESE SHOULD NOT BE DEEP TILLERS, BUT SHALLOW,

TO AVOID DISTURBING THE ROOTS. SEEDING WITH CLOVER. MULCHING

IMPRACTICABLE ON A LARGE SCALE. CLOVER MULCH. THE MELLOW EARTH

AS A MULCH. PASTURING AN ORCHARD. OBJECTIONS. DAMAGE DONE BY

HORSES AND MULES. BY CATTLE, BY GOATS. SHEEP. THEIR ADVANTAGES.

SWINE AND POULTRY MAY BE ADMITTED. HOW THEY MAY BE USEFUL.

DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS. POULTRY AND CURCULIO.

In a previous chapter, reference has been made to the necessity of

thorough cultivation of the soil among young trees; but the importance

of the proper attention to orchard culture is so great, that it

deserves separate consideration. The thorough preparation of the soil

before committing the roots of our trees to its embraces, which was

fully impressed upon the orchardist, might have induced some to think

that this was to be sufficient for them; but it ought rather to be

inferred that any crop for which these preliminary labors were

recommended, should receive continuous attentions of a similar

character. It is with the desire that these views should obtain, and

to indicate and specify, some of the most suitable modes of procedure,

that the following remarks are presented in this place.

If the ground, which has been appropriated to the orchard, be also

occupied as farming land, as is usually done for a few years after

planting, while the trees are small, it should be exclusively devoted

to hoed crops; by which is meant those that require constant

cultivation and stirring of the soil. Indian corn is a favorite on

account of the thorough culture which is bestowed upon it, but there

are some objectors to its use; by such it is considered too rank a

grower; it is thought to absorb too much of the moisture of the soil,

and too greatly to over-shadow the young trees if they be so small as

has been recommended under the head of _Selection and Planting_. To

this objection, however, it is urged by others that the partial shade

during the latter part of summer is a benefit rather than an injury.

If the stalks be left standing upon the ground during the winter, they

modify the force of the winds, and may even be of benefit, by the

protection they furnish to the stems of the young trees; and when they

fall to the ground, with their abundant foliage, these materials

constitute a winter mulching of considerable value. Even if the fodder

has been cut up, as is usually done by prudent farmers, the shocks

scattered through the fields must exercise a considerable protecting

influence.

Melons, cucumbers, cabbages, potatoes, turnips, and other root crops,

which require frequent cultivation, are preferred by some orchardists,

because of their being lower, and thus they will shade only the

surface of the ground, without affecting the trees themselves. Let it

ever be remembered, particularly in respect to soils that are of poor

or of moderate fertility, that all these crops will remove their full

share of plant-food from the land that we have already appropriated to

another object, and that the main crop which we desire to draw its

sustenance from the earth for a long series of years may thus be

robbed of its proper nourishment. Under such circumstances we must

meet the emergency by applications of fertilizing materials. I am

aware that it may be urged by the theorists of agriculture, that these

crops call upon the soil for different elements, and that, according

to the customary views of the objects attained by a rotation, they may

even be of advantage to those which are to follow. Others will make

the practical observation that the fertilizing materials of common use

in modern agriculture, may so readily be applied to compensate for

these abstractions from the soil, that this is a matter of little

moment, and not worthy of serious consideration. But it should be

observed that, while men will often be induced to apply fertilizers to

the temporary crop, counting upon an immediate return for their

outlay, they seldom feel willing to make any return to the soil in

compensation for what they have already removed from it, and rather

wait until the necessity for such enrichment becomes painfully

apparent in the diminished productiveness of their fields.

Hoed crops, such as those above mentioned, should alone be allowed to

occupy the space between the young trees, and on no account should

any white straw crops, or grasses be introduced, at least for several

years, nor until the orchard shall have become well established. In

many species of fruits, it is undoubtedly better to keep up the

surface cultivation continuously, at least wherever the characters of

the site and soil will permit it; but there are many situations where

the abruptness of the declivities appropriated to fruit-growing, and

often admirably adapted to such purpose, absolutely forbid continued

cultivation. In such places it will be necessary soon to withdraw the

plow, and to depend upon loosening the soil about the trees with the

spade or fork, and upon the mellowing and meliorating effects of

mulching. The expense of all the operations that are performed by

human labor renders them inapplicable, except in small orchards and

gardens; and in all large plantations we must depend upon the common

earth-workers that are drawn by horses. Among these, a preference

should be given to such as stir and pulverize the soil near the

surface only; shallow culture of the upper layers of earth effects the

objects in view better than that which is deeper. The intruding weeds

are subdued and a mellow condition of the earth is the result, while

the roots are not torn and bruised, but are encouraged to turn their

feeding fibres into the stratum of mellow soil above them. When the

trees have become well established, or when the nature of the soil and

the broken character of the surface of the orchard require it, we may

seed down the ground with clover, which is preferred to any of the

grasses: the broad foliage will shade the ground, and may remain on

the surface as a mulch, or be moderately pastured by suitable stock.

Mulching the young orchard has some advantages over cultivation, but

except in the proximity of the salt-marshes of the East, or near the

great straw piles on the vast grain fields of the Western prairies, it

is almost impossible to procure mulching materials for extensive

orchards; so that, unless we consider the clover and other legumes as

a living mulch, or grow such crops upon the land itself, to be used in

this way, we shall be thrown back upon culture of the surface, which,

in the mellow soil thus produced, furnishes a most admirable mulching,

that fills all the indications, at least in the season when it is most

needed. This is a matter of the greatest importance, especially during

the first year after planting, when our trees so imperatively demand

the protection of a mulch; and it is found that when the usual

applications of straw or similar material cannot be obtained, or are

unsuitable for the situation, especial attention to the condition of

the upper layer of earth about the trees is of the greatest

importance; this should be kept thoroughly loosened and finely

disintegrated for the admission of air and moisture.

Mulching, even of an old and apparently exhausted orchard, has been

found to exercise a most happy effect upon its health and

productiveness. Such a one growing upon a tenacious clay, which had

ceased to yield any crops for years, was restored to abundant

fruitfulness by covering the ground with a couple of inches of spent

bark from an adjoining tannery, and similar effects have been produced

by the application of straw, and of the bagasse from sorghum, where

those materials could be procured; but these were necessarily limited

to a small number of trees, and they can never be adopted in the

treatment of large orchards. Fortunately, for us, however, in some

kinds the trees themselves provide us shade for the ground, when they

are properly trained and closely planted, which will prevent the

intrusion of weeds and grasses, and the falling leaves and spray will

also yield a mulching of no mean value. Indeed, the trimmings from the

orchard, as well as the decaying foliage that annually falls to the

ground, belong to the soil, and might be left upon it with great

advantage to keep up its fertility by their decay, and even to

increase it, as they do in the natural forest, were it not for the

slovenly appearance they produce.

Dr. Ward, of New Jersey, has practiced mulching rather extensively,

and with excellent results. He uses salt hay from the marshes; after

plowing the ground in the spring, he applies the mulching in a heavy

layer, which keeps down the weeds, preserves the moisture of the soil,

and exerts a very happy influence upon the trees.

From what has preceded, the reader may infer that the orchard is not

to be used for a pasture field, and yet this is a very common

appropriation of the inclosure that contains our fruit trees--at least

after they have attained sufficient size to be considered out of the

way of serious injury. Let it not be supposed that the indiscriminate

pasturing of an orchard is advocated; on the contrary, it is wholly

deprecated, except as will be indicated below. All stock will trample

and harden the soil. Low-headed trees will be sadly injured by live

stock of all kinds. Horses and mules will often ruin the trees by

destroying the bark, and trimming off the twigs, as high as they can

reach. Horned cattle will browse the spray, and where within reach

they will also break and twist branches of considerable size. Though

much smaller, goats are entirely inadmissable, since they not only

trim off all the foliage within their reach, but they will also

greedily devour the bark from the trees, and thus commit sad havoc

among them. Sheep, on the contrary, may often be introduced into an

orchard with advantage, as they will eat off a great many weeds, and

thus clear the land of such intruders; but they will also spoil

low-headed young trees by eating all the leaves within their reach,

and they should never be allowed access to the orchard in winter, at

least not while there are any trees remaining with smooth bark, as

they will often attack such and strip off all that they can get at:

sheep are often very desirable in cider orchards when used to crop off

the herbage closely, just before the ripening and fall of the fruit.

The only domestic animals which should ever be allowed free range in

the orchard, are swine, and the different sorts of poultry. All of

these will prove really useful in the destruction of vast numbers of

the insects that are particularly injurious to our cultivated fruits,

and which are often enormously multiplied in our old orchards. Swine,

it is true, will sometimes learn to climb small trees that have very

low branches, which they break off in their attempts to help

themselves to the fruit--this has been observed particularly in peach

and cherry orchards. These animals are of use too as earth-workers,

when they have not been mutilated, for with their peculiarly formed

snouts they will turn over a large extent of the surface, while in

pursuit of the larvæ and pupæ of many of the destructive insects, that

in such stages of their existence occupy the soil beneath our fruit

trees; in this manner, swine are valuable adjuvants to the practical

entomologist. The hog is a most useful scavenger, and also a great

economist in the orchard, for, being omnivorous, after feeding upon

the luxuriant herbage of the red clover, he takes his dessert from the

fallen fruit, which, being defective, would otherwise be wasted: but

we must remember that most of these wind-falls are occupied by the

larvæ of insects which are thus put out of the way of doing further

harm, while contributing variety to the porcine diet. The additions of

manure to the soil, which are distributed over the orchard by these

animals, are also found to be of service. Trees, which are frequented

by swine, are generally healthy, and the bitter-rot is reported to

have disappeared from orchards that were badly affected with that

malady before the swine were admitted.

The advantages resulting from keeping both swine and poultry, but

particularly the latter, confined among plum trees, is a matter of

general notoriety; nor need we inquire whether this depends upon the

far-reaching instinct of the insect, which warns her against

depositing her eggs where the progeny must surely be destroyed, or

upon the actual destruction of the larvæ by these animals, to such an

extent as to diminish the number of depredators the following season.

We must not, however, depend upon these and other valuable aids, to

the exclusion of personal efforts, if we desire to secure good crops

of the delicious fruits that usually fall a prey to their attacks.

In conclusion, the orchardist cannot be too strongly impressed with

the importance of cultivating his young trees in the most thorough

manner; nor can he exercise too much care in avoiding injury to the

stems and roots, in practising this constant culture of the soil. In

collections of dwarf fruit trees, he will have less difficulty on this

score, because he will be restricted to hand-labor; but the spade and

fork will be found much more expensive in their use than the plow and

cultivator.

PLOWING UP OLD ORCHARDS.--A question frequently arises as to the best

course to be pursued with an old neglected orchard, which has become

covered with a dense sod of grass, and this often of an inferior

character, and full of disagreeable weeds. Orchards that have been

widely planted, and which have gaps from the decay of trees,

especially when these have been trimmed up with high stems and long

naked branches, do not cast sufficient shade upon the ground to

prevent the growth of grass and weeds. These intruders occupy the

surface soil to the disadvantage of the roots of the fruit trees, and

we may wonderfully improve the health of such orchard by plowing the

ground, and at the same time severely pruning the branches and

cleansing the bark of these old trees. These good results may be

continued by shallow culture of the soil, with suitable applications

of manure where needed. By giving a dose of lime, or of marl, and

ashes, we shall infuse a new life and growth and productiveness that

will astonish and delight us, and reward us for our labors and outlay.

It may be urged as an objection to breaking up the sod, that the most

careful plowman will unavoidably damage some of the roots that

approach the surface, but this is an injury that must be submitted to;

and after all it is not such a serious affair, and is overbalanced by

the advantages of renewing the productiveness of the exhausted

orchard.

CHAPTER X.

PHILOSOPHY OF PRUNING.

PRUNING, NATURE'S. WE PRUNE, FIRST, FOR SHAPE AND COMELINESS;

SECOND, FOR FRUIT. PRUNING YOUNG TREES IN THE NURSERY. RULES

FOR. SEASON FOR. PRUNING FOR FRUIT IS TO BE DONE CHIEFLY IN

SUMMER. THINNING OUT. SHORTENING-IN. ROOT PRUNING. PHILOSOPHY

OF. ADVANTAGES OF. CHARACTER OF ROOTS PRODUCED BY IT. IN THE

VINE. SEVERE IN WINTER TO PRODUCE WOOD AND DIMINISH BLOSSOMS.

ADAPT TO VARIETIES. IN SUMMER TO DIMINISH EXCESSIVE FRUITAGE,

AND TO DIRECT SAP INTO NEW CANES. TRIMMING IN GARDENESQUE,

REQUIRING A CORRECT EYE AND GOOD TASTE. PRUNING SHOULD BE

CONDUCTED UPON TRULY PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES, OR NOT AT ALL.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED IN THOSE WHO PRUNE. THE OPERATION

SELDOM WELL PERFORMED. PRUNING OF THE GRAPE, SHORT AND LONG.

REASONS FOR AND OBJECTIONS TO EACH. SEASONS FOR PRUNING THE

VINE.

Pruning is one of the most important operations that we perform upon

plants,--especially woody plants. Pruning, in some sort, has to be

performed at all periods of their existence and growth, and upon all

plants, from the noble forest tree, or the fruit trees of the orchard,

of whatever kind, to the humble bushes and brambles that yield us

their abundant and most welcome fruits: the trailing vine that adorns

our arbors and covers our trellises with its rich and tempting

clusters of grapes, also needs to be pruned. Many herbaceous plants

are also submitted to judicious pruning, and yield in consequence an

increased product of fruit. Our ornamental gardeners and plant-growers

practice pruning most admirably upon their house-plants, and by their

successful practice, they produce the most wonderful effects, which

are manifested in the vigor, thrift, symmetry, and blossoming of their

specimens.

And yet, when we come to travel about the country, and to see the

shrubberies, the parks, the orchards, fruit-gardens, and vineyards, as

they are, we shall be struck with the great amount of ignorance or

neglect manifested by what we everywhere behold! Still more shall we

be surprised, when we hear nurserymen and orchardists, men who have

had opportunities for extended observation, and those too, who are

considered successful cultivators, advocate the idea that trees should

not be pruned at all. An apology may be found for them in the many

instances of bad pruning that may frequently be met with. They may say

that no pruning is better than such mutilation, and with some

varieties of fruit, they may have a show of reason on their side, as

there are many sorts that will very naturally produce an open head,

every where provided with abundant fruit-spurs, which are the great

desiderata of the fruit-grower.

We prune our plants for the most opposite purposes; we prune to make

them assume some desired form, we prune to produce symmetry, and we

prune to torture them as much as possible from their natural habit.

Again, we prune to make them grow vigorously, and we perform other

pruning operations, in order to dwarf and stunt our specimens, and to

make them as diminutive as possible. The experienced orchardist will

tell you to prune a barren but thrifty tree, in order to make it

productive of fruit; and he will also tell you to _prune_ one that has

expended all its energies in fruit-bearing, and appears likely to

exhaust itself to its own destruction. Upon very high authority,

supported by universal and annual practice, the vine dresser will tell

you to prune your vine in order to make it fruitful; the same

authority will advise you to prune in such a manner as to prevent an

over-production--and he will insist that you shall prune again during

the season of growth, to promote the same objects.

Thus it appears that the ends to be attained by this important

operation are exceedingly diverse, and apparently contradictory: nor

is it any wonder that the novice should feel bewildered in the midst

of directions so opposite, nor even that those who have grown gray in

the orchard, should have arrived at the strange conclusions just

mentioned, _not to prune at all_. And yet, notwithstanding these

apparent contradictions, there is a reason for each of these various

modes, as well as for the different seasons that have been recommended

for performing the several operations of pruning.

It may be said that in natural trees, whether standing alone in the

midst of a prairie, thinly grouped in the "opening," or crowded

together in the dense forest, we may behold the most perfect models of

beauty and fruitfulness; yet these have never been subjected to the

action of the knife, the saw, nor the hatchet. True, and yet they

have all been pruned by _nature_. She prunes and trains magnificently,

and gives us the finest models for imitation, whether for park

scenery, as in the lone tree of the prairie, or in the scattered

groups of the island groves that are so often seen in the broad

savannas of the West, or in forests of noble shafts, gazed at with

admiration, then felled by the ruthless ax, and converted to man's

economic uses. She also shows us the pattern in the dense pineries,

and other timber tracts of our country. All these have been pruned

into their present condition by the hand of nature. In the single

specimen, free access of air and light have enabled it to assume its

full proportions, developing itself on every side, and giving us the

grand and beautiful object we behold. The winds have tossed the

branches and some have been broken, the lower ones have quietly and

gradually yielded to the smothering influence of those above them,

which, in turn, have swept downward toward the ground. In the groves,

the scattering trees have for a while enjoyed the same opportunities

for development; but at length their branches have met together, and

interlocked in friendly embrace. Those that were nearest the ground

had already begun to suffer from the denser canopy above them but the

great sturdy boughs that had shot upward so as to form a part of the

crown, were able to retain their vantage ground, and continue as

important members of the trees. In these illustrations, we have seen

more of nature's training than of her pruning; but it must be

remembered that training is one of the objects, and indeed, a leading

element of pruning, and is very properly a matter for our

consideration.

In the dense primeval forest we see nature's pruning exhibited upon a

grand and perfect scale; tall, straight, and noble trunks rise

majestically on every hand; not a twig nor limb breaks the symmetry of

the gradually tapering shafts, that are clothed in bark which does not

indicate that they had ever been furnished with branches; and yet they

have borne branches from their base to their summit, and nature has so

neatly removed them that we cannot detect the marks of her

pruning-saw. How this has been effected, may be seen in any dense

thicket of young forest growth. It is simply a smothering of the lower

branches by those next above them, which has destroyed their vitality,

and their decay has soon followed; while a new growth of branches at a

higher point, in turn, performs the same office of destruction upon

those next below them. As there is no outlet for the wood-growth but

in an upward direction, upwards they must needs go, and as there is no

light nor air for lateral branches under such a canopy of shade, death

and decay ensue, and down they perforce must come.

If it be asked why we prune at all, it may be answered in general

terms that in the orchard, our objects in performing this operation,

are two-fold.

1st--We prune for shape and comeliness, and for the removal of dead

and dying branches, in aid of nature, but working in sympathy with

her.

2d--We prune for the sake of inducing fruitfulness.

Let us consider some of the principles that are to guide us in these

operations.

The first object, that of producing the desired shape of the future

tree, is chiefly done upon the young subject, even in the

nursery-row. The judicious pruner, being well aware of the upward

tendency of young growth, and that this is increased by the crowded

condition of the trees in the nursery square, seeks to overcome the

evil by proper pruning. If the growth be altogether upward, with no

side branches the first season, the stem will be slender, often so

much so as to bend over with its own weight. The wise nurseryman

carefully avoids disturbing the leaves or lateral branches, well

knowing their importance in forming the woody trunk. At the proper

season he trims his trees down, instead of trimming them up--this he

does by heading them back to the hight at which he desires them to

form their branches--at the same time, he shortens in the laterals;

his object in both instances being to check the upward tendency of

growth by removing the strong terminal buds, which would naturally

have formed the new shoots the coming season. The result of this

treatment is to call into action several buds at the upper part of the

stock. These are to form the arms of the tree, and hence a very

important part of the pruning and training of the plant is thus

performed at once by this simple operation of heading-back the young

nursery tree. But further attention is needed, as these arms develop

themselves during the next season of growth; they should not be too

numerous, nor too much crowded together; they should not be too nearly

matched in strength, and one should be kept as a leader, stronger than

the rest. Never allow two shoots to remain contending for the mastery;

one of them should be subordinated by cutting, breaking, or twisting,

as soon as it is observed; for how beautifully developed, a tree grown

in this way, may appear when well balanced, there is always danger of

its splitting down when heavily laden with fruit. This very common

error of our orchards used to be quaintly illustrated by a dear old

friend on the prairies of Illinois, who cited the advice of a Scotch

jockey to whom he had applied for counsel in the purchase of a piece

of horse-flesh. "Ne'er buy a horse whose twa fore-legs cum oot frae ae

hole," said he, and Mr. W. Stewart applied the same principle to his

young fruit trees, by never allowing them to have two equal leaders,

branching from one point. It is also important to have the lateral

branches regularly distributed on different sides.

The precise point or elevation point at which this heading-back should

be done, will depend very much upon the object of the cultivator, and

whether he desires to produce a high or a low head, a standard, half

standard, or a dwarf, or conical tree--such as are often called

pyramids. He will study the wants and fancies of his customers in this

matter, but we of the West, have learned the importance for us, at

least, of _trimming our trees down_, and not trimming them up, as is

often done by those who anticipate plowing and planting crops under

the shade of their orchards. The proper point for forming the branches

to make the head, will very much depend, however, upon the habit of

the variety; whether it be drooping, spreading, or upright. The former

will require the branches to be started at a higher point. The proper

season for performing this kind of pruning is in the early spring, or

after the severe frosts of winter have passed; and with some kinds of

orchard trees, it may be done at the time of transplanting them, when

they need a severe pruning.

The second object of pruning being done with a view to the production

of fruitfulness in the tree, is to be practised chiefly in the summer.

At the same time, or during the growing season, much may be done to

advantage, both in thinning-out and shortening-in such parts of the

tree, as may need these plans of treatment. Various methods are

pursued to produce fruitfulness, all of them depending upon the fact

that this condition arises from the natural habit of a tree to make

its wood-growth freely for a series of years. After it has built up a

complicated structure of limbs and branches, with some consequent

obstruction to the flow of sap, depending upon the hardening of the

woody tissues, and the tortuous course of its circulation, it then

appears to have reached its maturity, or its fruit-bearing condition.

It then ceases to make such free wood-growth, and prepares a set of

buds, which develop flowers and fruit.

Now this period of growth and unfruitfulness may continue for a longer

or shorter time in different varieties of fruits; and the shortening

of this, is the great object of summer pruning, and of other methods

of producing fruitfulness that may be classed under this second head

of the objects of pruning.

To appreciate their importance and the mode in which the effect is

produced, we must ever bear in mind the two great acts of vegetable

life, that of wood-growth or growth by extension, and the wonderful

morphological change of this growth into flowers and fruit. These are,

in some sense, antagonistic. The first is essential to the production

of timber, to the building up of the tree, and should be encouraged to

do its work undisturbed, up to a certain point, that we may have a

substantial frame-work by which our fruits can be supported. The

latter, however, is the ultimate desideratum with fruit-growers, and

in our impatience to reap a quick reward, we often resort to measures

that tend to curtail the usefulness, size, and beauty, as well as the

permanence of our trees. This is an illustration of the axiom, that

whatever threatens the vitality of a plant, tends to make it fruitful;

it calls into activity the instinctive effort to perpetuate the

species by the production of seed, that may be separated from the

parent, and establish a separate and independent existence, to take

the place of that, the life of which is threatened.

Summer pruning and pinching interferes with the growth by extension,

and threatens the very life of the tree; the entire removal of all new

shoots and their foliage, and the removal of the successive attempts

by the tree at their reproduction, will cause its death in a little

while. Their partial abstraction, as practiced in summer pruning and

pinching, being an attack of the same kind, results in the formation

of fruit-buds. The operations of budding and grafting upon an

uncongenial stock, interrupting the circulation by ringing, by

ligatures, by hacking, twisting, and bending downward, all tend to

check the growth by extension, and are attended by similar results,

since they are antagonistic to the mere production of wood.

Shortening-in the branches of some species, which form their

fruit-buds upon the shoots of the current year, has the effect to give

them a fuller development, if performed during the summer, but if

deferred until the following spring, it will have the directly

opposite result, and will cause the production of woody shoots at the

expense of the fruit.

The season for pruning has been made the subject of much discussion,

and different periods have been very confidently advised by different

authorities, from which it may safely be inferred that all are

somewhat right, or may be supported by good reasons. This refers of

course to pruning in its general sense, of trimming, and applies to

the removal of limbs of greater or less size. We always desire to

avoid the removal of large limbs, and should endeavor to provide

against the necessity of such removal, by trimming our orchards

sufficiently when they are young, and while the branches are small;

but when such removal becomes absolutely necessary, it should be

performed late in the autumn, when vegetation is at rest, because it

is found that such large wounds, which cannot be soon healed over by

the new growth, will at this season dry in, and resist the action of

the elements better than if the section had been made when the wood

was full of sap in active circulation.

Early spring is a favorite period for pruning, chiefly because it is

comparatively a period of leisure; the weather is less inclement than

in winter, and the absence of foliage affords us an opportunity to see

our work and to anticipate its effects upon the tree. So soon as the

buds begin to swell and the foliage to expand, pruning should be

arrested, unless in small trees, because the sap is in active motion,

and the material called _cambium_ is not yet developed, hence the

wounds will bleed, and are not so readily healed over; besides, the

bark at this season is very readily separated from the wood, and bad

wounds are thus frequently produced by the pruner, which may seriously

damage the tree. Then follows a period when pruning had better be

suspended until the time that the trees have completed their growth by

extension, and formed the terminal bud at the ends of their shoots.

The date cannot be given, but it is sufficiently indicated by this

mark in nature's calendar; the formation and full development of the

terminal bud, and by the copious deposits of woody matter throughout

the tree. The annual layer of fibres is then being produced, and the

tissues are in the formative stage; the tree now possesses within its

own organism the best of all plasters to cure and cover the wounds

made by the saw and knife, now the tree possesses the true _vis

medicatrix naturæ_ in the highest degree.

A few intelligent nurserymen have learned this very important lesson,

and have applied it in the preparation of their trees, for the

exposure incident to their removal from the nursery to the orchard. A

very few practice it systematically; I knew one, (alas, for the

lamented Beeler, of Indiana), who acted upon the suggestion made to

him by observations and experiments in vegetable physiology. He left

the side branches, though subordinated by shortening when necessary,

in order to give stocky stems to his trees, and then removed them with

the knife during the summer before they were to be sold and planted,

instead of waiting until they were dug and sent to the packing house

in the fall or spring. The result was, that while his stems were stout

and stocky, they were also smooth, the wounds neatly healed over with

new bark, instead of being open from the fresh cuts and liable to

crack or bleed, as they would have done had this pruning been deferred

until after digging, either in the fall or spring. This may be

considered a small matter, but it is an illustration of the principle

involved in selecting the period for pruning.

For the removal of small limbs from young trees, hardly any time can

come amiss--better to do it out of season than to neglect it, and it

is a good rule to have a sharp pruning knife always at hand when

passing through our young orchards. There is but one time when pruning

is absolutely interdicted, and that is when the wood is frozen. When

so circumstanced, it should never be cut nor disturbed in any

manner--not even to gratify your best friend, by helping him to a few

grafts from your proved tree of some coveted variety. Let him wait for

a thaw, or go away without the grafts, rather than commit such an

outrage upon your tree: as to approach it with a knife when frozen.

While considering the question of the proper season for pruning, there

is one axiom of great importance which should be firmly impressed upon

the mind of the orchardist. Much will depend upon which of the two

leading objects, above indicated, he may have in view--vigor of growth

and symmetry of form, or simply fruitfulness, as the result of his

labors in pruning his trees. Pruning at one season will induce the

former result, at a different period of the year the same work will

conduce to the latter; hence the postulate _Prune in winter for wood;

in summer for fruit_.

CHAPTER XI.

THINNING.

PROFUSION OF FRUIT-BUDS. WISE PROVISION AGAINST ACCIDENTS. PERIOD

OF MATURITY OF PLANTS. MORPHOLOGY. THE YOUNG PLANT GROWS BY

DEVELOPMENT OF STEM AND BRANCHES. LEAF BUDS ALL POINTED. THE

PERIOD OF ADOLESCENCE VARIES. THE CENTURY PLANT. A DEFINITE

PERIOD FOR EACH VARIETY. HOW DIMINISHED OR EXTENDED. STARVING.

CROWDING. CUTTING THE ROOTS. OLD OR UNCONGENIAL STOCKS. AT

MATURITY AN ACCUMULATION OF NUTRITIVE MATTER. PRESERVING THE

BALANCE BETWEEN GROWTH AND FRUITAGE. WE DO NOT THIN FRUIT

ENOUGH. TREES EXHAUST THEMSELVES. BIENNIAL BEARERS. ANNUAL

BEARERS DESIRABLE. DISBUDDING. FIELD'S HEDGES OF PEARS. REMOVE

PORTIONS OF FRUIT. CUTTING-IN THE SHOOTS TO REDUCE FRUIT. DR.

HULL AND OTHERS. THINNING THE STRAWBERRY. GOOSEBERRY. GRAPE.

THINNING APPLES BY THRESHING THE TREES. BY SEVERE WINTER

PRUNING.

Every person who has looked at a bearing fruit tree in the winter

season, must have been struck with wonder at the great profusion of

fruit-buds with which it was clothed; they are crowded along the

slender spray of some varieties as thickly as a necklace of beads, or

still more abundantly, like clusters of pearls, they are crowded

together upon the little fruit-spurs. We are inclined to cavil at this

profusion of nature, and to ask why this waste of vegetative effort.

But we may rest assured that it is only another evidence of the

unerring wisdom of Him who doeth all things well.

All blossoming and fruiting is but a changed condition of those buds

that would otherwise have produced leaves and wood-growth. Every tree,

sooner or later, reaches a point which we call its period of maturity,

when some of its buds are thus modified. The same elemental parts are

still present; but those that were arranged for the production of an

elongated shoot, with leaves set around it in some definite manner,

and destined for the formation of woody growth, are now so constituted

as to have a growth of very short extension, and furnished with

modified leaves, so changed, that we scarcely recognize them thus

crowded together upon this shortened and modified axis. We here take

our first lesson in the very interesting study of morphology, or the

science of the changes of form to which the parts of a plant are

subjected, in the production of flowers and fruit, from what were

otherwise the source of shoots and leaves. This will be found one of

the most interesting branches of the study of botany, as it leads us

to the investigation of one of the most beautiful displays of Divine

power, and, like all such studies, gives us more and more elevated

views of the exalted wisdom and benevolence of an All-wise Creator,

who has produced nothing in vain, and who, while creating worlds and

systems of the greatest magnificence, has condescended to prepare the

most tiny flower, and its previous bud, in the most perfect manner.

The study of morphology which gives us such an insight into the

mechanism of the plant, and which leads us into such mazes of wonder

and admiration, cannot now detain us further than to be named and

referred to as the explanation of the formation of what we call fruit

or blossom buds. The reader is referred to the full explanations of

this subject by the famous philosopher and poet, Goethe; or, if more

conveniently accessible, to his English translators, or to the

appropriate chapters in any of the modern text books of botany.

When the plant is young, its chief object is to grow; it must acquire

size and development, to enable it to produce and bear up the enormous

crop it is destined one day to yield. Hence in the early years of a

tree there is none, or very little of this transformation of the buds,

which are all of the pointed character, and when excited into growth,

they all produce shoots and leaves only, which result in the formation

of an increase of the woody fabric, that we call the tree. This period

of adolescence is longer or shorter in different species and

varieties--in some it may extend through many years. Thus, the

American Aloe is called the Century Plant, from the common belief that

it must survive a hundred summers before this stage of maturity and

blossoming is reached; whereas this plant only needs a period of

thirty years or less to produce its blossoms, when it is favorably

situated as to soil and climate.

There is, it is probable, a definite period at which each kind of

plant will have these changes occur in the buds, when they will begin

to flower and to produce fruit. This period may be accelerated or

retarded, to some extent, by human means; for we have observed, that

whatever produces excessive vigor, is attended with the formation of

leaf buds; whereas, all those conditions and circumstances that check

the vigorous growth by extension, provided they do not too greatly

impair the vitality of the plant, will conduce to the formation of

flower-buds.

Some of these conditions consist in starving the tree, or by planting

it in a sterile soil, that has deficient moisture; by severely

crowding the roots, or by cutting them, as in root pruning; in

grafting a portion of the young plant upon an old or an uncongenial

stock, or one that is naturally dwarfish; in ringing the bark; in

frequent transplanting, or in continued summer pinching; in short,

almost any circumstances which appear to threaten the life of the

tree, seem to excite within it an effort for the preservation and

perpetuation of the species, by changing the bud plants, attached to

the parent, into seed plants, that may and will be separated from it

to reach the soil eventually, and there to establish an independent

existence.

As the tree advances in growth, and approaches toward its natural

period of maturity, it is supposed that there is an accumulation of

nutritive matter within it, and at the same time the roots will have

exhausted the soil, to some extent, of the elements that contributed

to the production of wood-growth, and the result is the formation of

flower-buds. Now it becomes a nice matter to preserve the proper

balance between these two systems of growth, the wood producing and

the fruit forming. Two opposite systems of production have become

established in the tree, the one infertile, the other producing the

desired fruits; the one preserving the health and vigor of the tree,

the other tending to preserve the species at the same time that it

satisfies our demands for fruit, but also meanwhile tending to the

destruction of the tree, for all old trees are apt to overbear. Young

trees, on the contrary, in which the vigor of wood-growth remains in

full activity, very often produce fruit-buds and blossoms, but do not

perfect their fruit, which either fails to set, from some imperfection

of the organs of reproduction, or falls prematurely, in consequence of

the wood system absorbing the nutriment, or failing to prepare the

proper juices for their support. Trees, in these different conditions,

require an entirely opposite treatment. The younger need summer

pruning and pinching, to check their too great vigor, and to develop

the laterals or spurs with their blossom buds; the older need winter

pruning, for the double purpose of reducing the amount of fruit, and

also to excite renewed vigor in the production of wood growth that

shall take the place of that which has been removed. This subject will

be more appropriately discussed in another chapter, to which the

reader is referred; while we proceed to the legitimate topic of

thinning fruit.

Thinning fruit is not practiced as it should be, particularly on the

apple; old trees are often too fruitful, so much so as not only to

deteriorate the fruit, but to injure the tree itself. This is so much

the case with certain varieties, as to constitute a serious objection

to planting them; other sorts so exhaust themselves by over-production

in one season, as to be barren, or nearly so, the next year, during

which period of rest they are able to recuperate their energies and to

provide a new set of flower-buds. These are called biennial bearers,

and such are quite numerous in our orchards. Those kinds that are

prone to overbear every year, are often objectionable on account of

the diminished size and inferior character of their fruits, which

result from this cause, particularly when the trees have become old.

The great desideratum, especially with those who object to the trouble

of thinning the fruit, is to find a variety that will produce an even

or well distributed, continuous, and moderate yield--an annual bearer,

that does not exhaust itself by the production of one enormous crop so

as to require it to rest and recuperate. Such varieties are to be

found in our collections, and should be highly prized.

But to return to our topic, the bold method of reducing the crop by

winter pruning, has already been alluded to, and is highly recommended

for such old trees as have ceased producing thrifty shoots of

wood-growth at their tips, and have taken on an excessive tendency to

fruitage. There are other methods of producing this desired effect,

diminishing the amount of fruit when excessive, and thereby greatly

enlarging the size, and improving the flavor of that which is left

behind: some of these will now be mentioned.

DISBUDDING.--One of these consists in the removal of alternate buds,

or even a greater proportion than one half; this may be performed

either in the end of winter or in early spring, or even after the buds

have pushed, still later in the season. This work may be done with the

fingers, a knife, or by using the shears, when the buds are terminal,

as in old bearing apples and pears, or on some cherries. This plan has

been practiced with very good success upon the Duchesse pear, by T.W.

Field, who accidentally had his attention directed to the feasibility

of making this variety very productive. He had observed that certain

trees, which were rubbed so by the cart-wheels as to be stripped of a

portion of their buds in the winter season, instead of being injured

thereby, were more productive than those which retained all of their

abundant spurs and blossoms, and which, nevertheless, often bore

sparsely. Improving upon this hint, he has since planted some such

varieties in close rows or hedges, which he trims annually with the

shears to keep them within bounds, and at the same time to diminish

the amount of blossoms. Disbudding is systematically pursued in the

European fruit-gardens, and we have elaborate directions for the

season and mode of performing the operation, which is extensively

practiced, particularly on the trees that are grown as espaliers, and

those kept in orchard houses. If neglected, the trees become exhausted

by over-production; and the failure of production by the fruit-spurs

which results, causes vacant spaces upon the tree, which are

afterward, with difficulty, restored to a profitable condition.

Another method, and the one usually pursued by those who practice

thinning, is, to go over their trees after blossoming, while the fruit

is still small, and systematically remove such a proportion as they

may deem sufficient to relieve them of the surplus; and while so

doing, they select for removal all the inferior specimens. This is

found to pay very well in the increased size, appearance, and flavor

of those that remain, and is practiced by all good horticulturists.

It is found in some varieties that the thinning may be done when the

fruit has attained to one-half its usual size, so that it may be

marketed, and yet those which are left, will swell out to their full

proportions after this removal, and will realize, when harvested, more

money, and will even be of greater weight than if the whole crop had

been left upon the tree until its natural period of maturity. The

reason is obvious, and depends upon the greater size and fuller

development of the fruit, which remains after thinning.

SUMMER PRUNING has already been alluded to as one of the methods of

producing fruitfulness. When it is here introduced as a means of

thinning the fruit, the recommendation may appear somewhat

paradoxical--yet it is not so. Neither is this cutting a parallel

operation to that in which we seek to check the excessive vigor of

young shoots by pinching and heading-in, with a view to directing the

sap to the lateral buds so as to cause their development for the

formation of fruit-spurs, which will insure a greater production of

fruit: whereas this summer pruning removes a portion of the crop to be

supported by the tree. This plan is most successfully practiced by

judicious orchardists, among whom may be named Dr. Hull, of Alton,

Ill., who has thus treated his peaches, nectarines, and plums. This

process consists in cutting off the ends of the shoots that are laden

with fruit, while these are yet quite small; the superabundance is

thus removed in a great degree by the knife, and the excess of foliage

is also diminished so as to expose the fruit freely to the sun and

air, which insures an increased size and heightened color,

particularly to the peaches and nectarines. The remaining fruit is

also suitably thinned so that no specimens shall crowd one another.

The exact distances between them must be determined by the judgment of

the operator; some have decided that peaches should not be nearer

than nine inches; plums and nectarines may be separated by a smaller

distance; but it is not easy to lay down a precise rule.

Thinning is not often practiced upon the strawberry crop, which

appears able upon suitable soils to produce a great abundance of fine

fruit, but it may be done by the curious, and enormous show specimens,

such as are often exhibited at fairs, are produced by special care and

high manuring, aided greatly by judicious thinning; not only by

cutting back a portion of the crowns, so as to throw the whole force

of the plant into one or two trusses, but still further, by removing

with the scissors a portion of the blossoms or fruit, so that the few

which are left may become enormously distended with the nutriment that

had been stored up in the plant for a much greater number. Some may

consider this one of the tricks of the trade, and so it is when merely

done for the sake of deceiving the public, who are asked to purchase

the variety by the sample of fruit, without detailing the arts by

which the results were accomplished: but there can be no objection

raised against such practices when pursued by the amateur for the sake

of producing unusually large fruits of any variety.

The English pursue a similar method with their show gooseberries; by

means of thinning and high feeding, with great attention to watering,

these fruits are made to assume gigantic proportions that are little

dreamed of by cultivators of the smaller varieties, which are chiefly

grown in this country.

The grape is very prone to over-production, and the crop, as well as

the vine itself, is often much injured by a want of attention to this

particular. So avaricious is man, that few persons will exert the

needed firmness and perseverance to remove the excess which the

beautiful vine annually affords. The result of this neglect is

apparent at the vintage, especially when from any fault of the season,

or from the invasion of insects or of mildew, the foliage may have

been damaged, as it frequently is, to a considerable extent. Then we

find large quantities of the grapes so deficient in color and flavor

as to be worthless; in some varieties whole bunches will hang flaccid,

withered, and insipid--while perhaps a few, more favorably situated,

will have their proper flavor. The grape vine is well called

beautiful, and it is capable of sustaining most wonderful amounts of

fruit; but on young vines, especially, it is very bad policy to allow

of this over-production.

The tendency to fruitage may be met in different ways, a few of which

will now be pointed out, and all planters are urged to observe and to

practice some of these plans for reducing the exuberance of this kind

of fruit. In the first place we practice winter pruning, regardless of

its established and well-known effect of producing an increase of

wood-growth, for this is what we desire to obtain in the vine, on

account of its habit of yielding its fruit on wood of the previous

year's growth; by this means we are able to pursue the renewal system,

which is so generally preferred, and thus we may keep our vines

perpetually clothed with new wood, or canes as they are technically

called. By this winter pruning we can reduce the amount of wood that

is of a bearing character, to any point which may be deemed desirable,

according to the strength and age of the vine, and thus the crop is

thinned by a wholesale process of lopping off the superabundance of

buds, that would have produced an excess of fruit. Another method of

thinning is, to rub out a portion of the shoots, this may be every

alternate branch in close jointed varieties of the vine: this is to be

done soon after the buds have burst, and while the branches are yet

quite small, so that the vital forces may be directed to those that

remain. Wherever double shoots appear, the weaker should always be

removed.

Still another method of reducing the superabundance, remains to be

noticed; this consists in thinning the grapes themselves, the separate

berries, which, in some varieties, are often so crowded upon the

bunch, as to prove a serious injury to one another. In hardy out-door

culture this is seldom practiced, being less necessary than in the

large varieties of foreign grapes that are grown under glass. These

are systematically thinned with the scissors, so that none shall crowd

together; and this process, repeated from time to time, is found to

produce much finer and larger berries and heavier bunches than when

all are left.

A very rude method has sometimes been pursued in thinning the

superabundance of fruit upon apple trees. It appears so very Gothic

that its description may only excite a smile, when it is stated that

it consists in threshing the tree with a long slender pole, by which a

portion of the fruit is cast to the ground. Rude and primitive as this

method may appear, it is surely better than no thinning at all, and is

attended with this good result, for which it deserves some

commendation; the threshing removes portions of the excessive twiggy

spray that always abounds upon such trees as those under

consideration, and thus, in a degree, it prevents the recurrence of so

heavy a crop the following year. Whenever an old orchard has reached

this condition of over-fruitfulness, however, the best method of

thinning is to give a severe winter pruning; removing portions of the

spray and encouraging the free growth of young wood in various parts

of the top, to replace the older portions that were removed.

CHAPTER XII.

RIPENING AND PRESERVING FRUITS.

CHANGES DURING THE PROCESS OF RIPENING. ANNUALS RIPEN THEIR FRUIT

AND DIE. PERENNIALS HAVE AN ACCUMULATION OF STRENGTH. YOUNG

PLANTS OFTEN FAIL TO PERFECT THEIR FRUIT. THE NECESSITY FOR

THINNING. ALTERNATE CROPS OF FRUIT FAVOR THE ACCUMULATION.

CHANGES IN CONDITION OF PERICARP. GREEN FRUITS APPROPRIATE

CARBON. GIVE OFF CARBONIC ACID AS THEY RIPEN. COMPOSITION OF

RIPE SUCCULENT FRUITS. FORMATION OF SUGAR. INFLUENCE OF LIGHT,

OF EXCESSIVE MOISTURE. TESTS OF RIPENESS. CHANGES AFTER

SEPARATION DEPEND UPON OXIDATION. TIME REQUIRED FOR RIPENING.

FROM BLOSSOMING BLOSSOMS RENDERED ABORTIVE BY TOO HIGH

TEMPERATURE. TREES ARE ABORTIVE FROM EXCESSIVE WOOD-GROWTH.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED TO JUDGE OF RIPENESS. PRACTICAL TEST.

GATHERING. SOME MATURE ON THE TREE; OTHERS, PLUCKED

PREMATURELY, WILL RIPEN. EFFECTS ON KEEPING QUALITIES. SELECT

FINE WEATHER. HANDLING. PACKING. THE GATHERING BAG. WHY RED

APPLES ARE PREFERRED.

PRESERVATION. LOW TEMPERATURE AND DRYNESS, BUT AVOIDING FROST AND

DESICCATION. COVERING IN PILES. THE RAIL PEN WITH STRAW. THE

CIDER HOUSE. THE CELLAR. PACKING IN BARRELS. SWEATING. WAXY

COATING TO BE PRESERVED. FRUIT-ROOMS. PLANS. NYCE'S PATENT.

RIPENING FRUITS.--Having succeeded in bringing our trees into a

productive condition, we now come to a period of their history which

is possessed of great interest to the orchardist. While he is

contemplating the rich returns for his capital and labor expended upon

the orchard, however, he will find many circumstances in the functions

of his plants that will amply repay him for their careful study. Nor

should he consider these only as matters of philosophical interest,

for they will often lead him into courses of treatment that will

enable him to secure richer returns than he would otherwise attain. A

few of these will be presented in the commencement of this chapter,

nor need any apology be offered for quoting one of the highest

authorities in the language upon this branch of botanical study.

Balfour gives the following account of the changes which occur in the

vegetable economy during the formation and ripening of fruits, under

which term he includes, in botanical language, all seeds, whether the

dry pericarps, or the pulpy drupes, and other appendages, which are

recognized as fruits proper in pomological language.

"While the fruit enlarges, the sap is drawn towards it, and a great

exhaustion of the juices of the plant takes place. In annuals, this

exhaustion is such as to destroy the plants; but if they are prevented

from bearing fruit, they may be made to live for two or more years.

Perennials, by acquiring increased vigor, are able better to bear the

demand made upon them during fruiting. If large and highly flavored

fruit is desired, it is of importance to allow an accumulation of sap

to take place before the plant flowers. When a very young plant is

permitted to blossom, it seldom brings fruit to perfection. When a

plant produces fruit in very large quantities, gardeners are in the

habit of thinning it early, in order that there may be an increased

supply of sap for that which remains. In this way, peaches,

nectarines, apricots, etc., are rendered larger and better flavored.

When the fruiting is checked for one season, there is an accumulation

of nutritive matter which has a beneficial effect upon the subsequent

crop.

"The pericarp is at first of a green color, and performs the same

functions as the other green parts of plants, decomposing carbonic

acid under the agency of light and liberating oxygen. Saussure asserts

that all fruits, in a green state, are adequate to perform this

process of deoxidation. As the pericarp advances to maturity, it

either becomes dry or succulent. In the former case it changes into a

brown or white color, and has a quantity of ligneous matter deposited

in its substance, so as to acquire great hardness, where it is

incapable of performing any process of vegetable life; in the latter

it becomes fleshy in its texture, and assumes various bright tints. In

fleshy fruits, however, there is frequently a deposition of ligneous

cells in the endocarp, forming the stone of the fruit; and even in the

pulpy matter of the sarcocarp, there are found isolated cells of a

similar nature, as in some varieties of pear, where they cause a

peculiar grittiness. The contents of the cells near the outside of

succulent fruits are thickened by exhalation, and a process of

endosmose goes on, by which the thinner contents of the inner cells

pass outward, and thus cause swelling of the fruit. As the fruit

advances to maturity, however, this exhalation diminishes, the water

becoming free and entering into new combinations. In all pulpy fruits,

which are not green, there are changes going on by which carbon is

separated in combination with oxygen.

* * * "Succulent fruits contain a large quantity of water along with

cellulose or lignine, sugar, gummy matter or dextrine, albumen,

coloring matter, various organic acids, as citric, malic and tartaric,

combined with lime and alkaline substances, beside a pulpy gelatinous

matter, which is converted by acids into pectine, whence pectic acid

is formed by the action of albumen. Pectine is soluble in water, and

exists in the pulp of fruits, as apples, gooseberries, currants,

strawberries, etc. Pectic acid is said to consist of C.14, H.3, O.12 +

H.O. It absorbs water, and is changed into a jelly-like matter, hence

its use in making preserves. Each kind of fruit is flavored with a

peculiar aromatic substance. Starch is rarely present in the pericarp

of the fruit, although it occurs commonly in the seed. * * *

"During the ripening much of the water disappears, while the cellulose

or lignine and the dextrine are converted into sugar. Berard is of

opinion that the changes in fruits are caused by the action of the

oxygen of the air. Freney found that fruits, covered with varnish, did

not ripen. As the process of ripening becomes perfected, the acids

combine with alkalies, and thus the acidity of the fruit diminishes,

while its sweetness increases. The formation of sugar is by some

attributed to the action of organic acids on the vegetable

constituents, gum, dextrine, and starch; others think that the

cellulose and lignine are similarly changed, by the action of acids.

The formation of sugar is said to be prevented by watering the tree

with alkaline solutions. * * * In seasons, when there is little sun,

but a great abundance of moisture, succulent fruits become watery and

lose their flavor. The same thing frequently takes place in young

trees with abundance of sap, and in cases where a large supply of

water has been given artificially." Travelers, who have eaten the

magnificent specimens of fruits produced by irrigation, in California,

tell us that they are deficient in flavor, and the same thing is

sometimes observed as a result of an unusually wet season.

"It is not easy in all cases to determine the exact time when the

fruit is ripe. In dry fruits, the period immediately before

dehiscence,[21] is considered as that of maturation; but in pulpy

fruits, there is much uncertainty. It is usual to say that edible

fruits are ripe when their ingredients are in such a state of

combination as to give the most agreeable flavor. After such are ripe,

in the ordinary sense, so as to be capable of being used for food,

they undergo further changes by the oxidation of their tissues, even

after being separated from the plant. In some cases these changes

improve the quality of the fruit, as in the case of the medlar, the

austerity of which is thus still further diminished. In the pear, this

process renders it soft, but still fit for food, while in the apple it

causes a decay which acts injuriously on its qualities. By this

process of oxidation, the whole fruit is ultimately reduced to a

putrescent mass, which probably acts beneficially in promoting the

germination of the seeds when the fruit drops on the ground.

"The periods of time required for ripening the fruit, varies in

different plants. Most fruits ripen within a year from the expansion

of the flower, some come to maturity within a few days, others require

months. Certain plants, as some Coniferæ, require more than a year,

and in the Metrosideros the fruit remains attached to the branch for

several years. The following is a general statement of the usual time

required for the maturation of fruits:--

Grasses and Grains 13 to 15 days.

Raspberry, Strawberry, Cherry 2 months.

Bird-cherry, Lime-tree 3 months.

Roses, White Thorn, Horsechestnut 4 months.

Vine, Pear, Apple, Walnut, Beech, Plum, Nut, Almond 5 to 6 months.

Olive, Savin 7 months.

Colchicum, Mistletoe 8 to 9 months.

Coniferæ 10 to 12 months.

Some Coniferæ, certain Oaks, and Metrosideros above 12 months.

"The ripening of fruits may be accelerated by the application of heat,

the placing of dark-colored bricks below it, and by removing a ring of

bark, so as to lead to an accumulation of sap. It has been observed

that plants, subjected to a high temperature, not unfrequently prove

abortive; this seems to result from the over stimulation, causing the

production of uni-sexual flowers alone. Trees are sometimes made to

produce fruit by checking their roots when too luxuriant, and by

preventing the excessive development of branches."[22] Here we have

the explanation of the processes of root pruning and of summer

pinching, and shortening-in, which have been more extensively

introduced upon another page; as well as the plan for inducing

fruitfulness in such trees as are tardy from excessive wood-growth, by

hacking the bark to interrupt the flow of sap from the buds to the

roots; by this, some of the former are changed to flower-buds.

We may learn to judge of the condition of ripeness of our larger

succulent fruits, such as apples and pears, by a little experience.

When ready to be picked, they will have attained their maximum size,

their color will have changed somewhat from its greenness, and they

will assume a sort of translucency that indicates the approach of

maturity; but the best practical test for the fruit-gatherer, is the

ready separation of the stem from its attachment. In those fruits,

which are suspended by a stem of considerable length, and in which

this organ belongs to the fruit itself, and is intimately connected

with its tissues, we shall find that it will part easily from the

branch at that period of ripeness when it is best to separate it. Such

fruits are often much improved by a continuation of the process of

ripening after they are gathered, but this more properly belongs to

another division of the subject. There is another class of fruits

which are found to attain their greatest excellence and most perfect

ripening upon the tree itself, and these can never be enjoyed

elsewhere in so great perfection as in close proximity to the place of

their production; because, so soon as they are separated from their

connection with the plant, a process of decomposition commences, they

begin to decay, and many of them soon become really unwholesome. Most

of those that are called stone-fruits are of this character, such as

peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries--all of which have

a very transitory period of excellence. The same is still more

remarkably the case with most of the berries, hence all of these

classes of fruits are better adapted to a near than to a distant

market.

With apples and pears, however, the case is quite different. Some of

these, it is true, especially some of the summer varieties, will

attain a perfect state of ripeness while yet attached to the tree, and

some of them will even remain hanging to the twig, until they reach

that condition of over-ripeness in which they lose a portion of their

fine juices and become mealy, or incipient decay may set in, so as to

make them rotten at the core. Hence, in nearly all varieties, it is

found best to pluck the fruit a little prematurely, and we are guided

by the natural indication of the falling of a portion of the crop. By

this means we can, in a degree, control the final ripening of our

fruits; and we have the great advantage of being able to ship them in

a firm condition to distant markets, so as to arrive at the end of a

long journey in prime order; whereas, if thoroughly ripe, they could

only be transported a few miles, and then needing the greatest care in

their handling. Our summer varieties always require to be near their

ultimate ripeness when gathered; for, if plucked too soon, they will

wither, and be worthless. Among these, there are some varieties,

particularly of the apple, which continue ripening for a long period.

In the limited family orchard this quality is a great desideratum in

the summer fruits, but it is quite otherwise in the orchards, which

are planted for profit in the market, because of the increased expense

of gathering only a few at a time repeatedly, instead of clearing the

tree at once. It is also found to be an advantage in shipping, to have

a considerable quantity of a kind to send off at one time.

GATHERING.--We now come to the important matter of harvesting our

crops of fruits that have been the cause of so much care and anxiety,

as well as of pleasure. This will require new considerations as to its

disposition and preservation to the best advantage, and will call for

a discussion of the best modes of packing, storing, ripening, and

transportation to market.

From what has already been said with regard to the process of ripening

of fruits in the natural way upon the tree, it will be understood that

we must gather some kinds before they have reached their perfect

condition of maturity. There is a point at which they have obtained,

from their connection with the parent tree, all the elements that are

necessary to the development of their highest qualities. They may now

be separated, not only with safety, but with decided advantage in many

instances, as they are improved by the further process of maturation

under different circumstances from those supplied by nature, and when

properly treated, they will acquire a much finer condition as to

delicacy and flavor than is ever reached by ripening upon the tree

exposed to the light and air. This, it will be remembered, is not the

case with all fruits; for, as has already been stated, there are those

which must remain upon the tree until they acquire their most perfect

ripeness, and which begin to depreciate in quality so soon as they are

separated from their connection with the fruit-bearing twig. These

need to be at once disposed of, and the consideration of the best

means of transportation, is a question of more importance than any

plans for their temporary preservation. They must be sold or used at

once, and should be handled with the greatest care, packed in suitable

boxes or baskets in the most judicious manner for a good display of

their beauties, for their preservation from bruising and decay, and

for sending them forward to their destination with the least possible

delay: the details of these several parts of the business will be left

for the exercise of the ingenuity of the parties most deeply

interested. In the class of fruits which are so constituted as to bear

and indeed to require picking, before they have reached the period of

perfect ripeness we shall find several particulars that need

consideration. First, it will be found that the proper time for

gathering them varies considerably. Thus, with early apples and pears,

a few days only embrace the best period, during which they may be

gathered without becoming wilted if plucked too soon, or decaying if

left too late. Even with winter fruits, we find that, to have them in

perfection, some varieties require to be gathered much earlier than

the time usually assigned for harvesting the general crop. It is

somewhat singular also, that this course very considerably extends

their time of keeping, and that some of those varieties which would

become dry, mealy, and insipid, early in the winter, if gathered too

late, will remain sound, firm, plump, and juicy, and retain all their

fine flavor through the winter, if they have been taken from the tree

at an earlier period of the season. They must be left upon the tree

until properly developed, however, and then be carefully kept in a

cool apartment.

The usual season for gathering winter fruits is October, before the

access of severe frosts, and at a time when the wood-growth for the

season has been completed, and the foliage is nearly ready to separate

from its attachment to the tree. The fruits will then generally part

readily from the twigs, without either breaking them or rupturing the

fruit-stem, which should always be preserved, and from the apple

especially, it should never be pulled out, as is apt to happen in

certain varieties, when proper care is not exercised in picking them.

Some of the apples that require to be gathered early, are, the Rambo,

Pryor's Red, Hubbardston, Westfield, Rhode Island Greening, several

Russets, and all those which evince a tendency to fall prematurely.

There are others which may be left to a later period with impunity,

some of these will even bear a little freezing without serious damage,

but we should always endeavor to anticipate the exposure of our fruits

to any great depression of temperature while they remain attached to

the trees. An early and severe frost has often proved disastrous to a

fine crop of apples, thus left too long upon the trees.

For all fruits it is essential that the weather should be fine at the

time they are gathered. They should be perfectly dry when plucked, and

they must be handled with the greatest care to avoid bruising in the

slightest degree. Each specimen must be taken separately in the hand

and turned to one side, when, if it do not part readily from the twig,

the thumb and finger must be applied to the stem, to aid the

separation at the proper point; each is then to be placed in a

gathering basket, which should be shallow, and for delicate sorts

should be lined loosely with fresh leaves or with soft moss, or a

little wilted grass. From the baskets, the fruit should be transferred

to its permanent winter quarters, by a careful and judicious hand, who

should select them and reject all that are bruised, specked, or

otherwise defective, and place them on the shelves, or pack them in

the boxes or barrels into which they are placed for preservation, or

transportation to market. In packing, it is best to use no material

but the fruit itself, which should be so closely placed that they

shall not jostle and bruise one another when moved. Some persons use a

bag, slung around the neck, when gathering the fruits from the tree;

into this they are placed as fast as they are plucked, and

successively transferred to the barrels, or poured in piles upon the

ground. With very firm varieties, this may be done without serious

damage, but the bruising that necessarily ensues will be very

prejudicial to all the more delicate fruits, and will materially

depreciate the value of such as are also of a pale color. A want of

care in this matter of handling fruit is, no doubt, the chief reason

for the popular preference of red apples in our markets, since those,

that are well covered with a deep color, do not show the bruises that

are so unseemly upon the fair cheek of the lighter colored varieties.

The modes of keeping winter fruits are exceedingly various, and some

of them are quite primitive. The desiderata are coolness and dryness,

which should not be carried to the extent of freezing, nor of

desiccation. The simplest method is to place the fruit in a pile upon

a dry piece of ground, to cover it thickly with clean dry straw, and,

as the winter approaches, to apply a heavy layer of earth, sufficient

to keep out the frost. Sometimes this is kept from the straw by a

simple roof of boards, which support the earth from pressing upon the

fruit, and leave it in a sort of cave, which can be entered

occasionally during the winter. This plan is only recommended for

those who have no cellars or other suitable apartments, for many

fruits acquire an earthy flavor from this near contact with the soil.

Another primitive plan, and one which is well adapted to the

preservation of cider apples, and might be used for the keeping of

those needed for stock feeding, is to build a rail-pen, four square,

like a field corn-crib, into which the fruit is put upon straw, and a

lining of the same material is placed at the sides and upon the top,

which may also be sheltered with boards to shed off the rain. In our

mild winters, many varieties of fruits can be sufficiently well

preserved in this manner for the purposes mentioned. In a proper

establishment for cider-making, large bins and rooms are provided

within the building, which afford sufficient protection from the

frost, so that cider-making may be carried on during the winter; and

in well arranged farm-steads, the feeding barns should be provided

with suitable compartments for the safe storage of fruits or roots,

that are to be fed to the stock during the inclement season, when they

are so much needed.

All farm-houses should be provided with good deep and dry cellars,

which will prove the best place for the storage of fruits. These may

be placed in bins, or, still better, upon shelves, as it is not

desirable to have too great a bulk together. When but one, or at most,

but two layers of fruit are deposited upon each shelf, and when each

of these is placed at a sufficient distance from those above or below

it, the whole may be easily inspected from time to time, and defective

specimens can be removed without disturbing the rest. These shelves

should be made of narrow strips, separated from one another by a space

that will admit of thorough ventilation. The whole apartment devoted

to fruit, should be kept cool and dark, and free from moisture or

dampness.

Many large orchardists prefer to select their fruit from the picking

baskets, and pack at once in new barrels, which are made for this

special purpose, and are not so tight as those used for flour. In

packing these, it is desirable to place the fruit carefully in layers,

filling the space completely as the work proceeds, putting each

specimen down by hand, and when the vessel is filled to about an inch

above the chine, the heads are put on, a follower placed upon them,

and the whole brought under the pressure of a lever, which forces the

mass together so that there shall be no possibility of motion among

the fruit. It is better that the outer layers should be somewhat

indented by the barrel heads, than that the whole should be spoiled by

the bruising that would follow from loose packing. These barrels are

often left under the trees for some time, or they may be placed under

an open shed for protection, prior to transportation. It is a common

practice, before barreling, to deposit the fruit in piles as it is

gathered, giving it only a covering of straw to allow it to throw off

a part of its moisture, a process generally termed sweating. Now it

cannot be gainsaid that there may be an escape of the fluids by

transpiration through the pores of the skin, and we know that there is

a loss of weight and even of plumpness, in many varieties, by exposure

in a dry atmosphere; but the excessive moisture observed upon the

surface of fruits that have been exposed to a low temperature, when

they are brought into a warmer apartment, is unquestionably the simple

precipitation of atmospheric moisture, and entirely independent of the

juices of the fruit itself. The advantages of this method of treatment

are, that more time is given for the careful selection of the fruits

before placing them in the barrels, and a better opportunity for

selection, and the rejection from the packages of all those which are

in any way defective. The disadvantages are the increased labor and

the greater amount of handling to which the fruits are subjected. The

surface of our seed-fruits, (_pepins_), is endued with a peculiar

coating of a waxy nature, which is of great value for their

preservation, and should not be removed, hence the less fruit is

handled, the better it will keep, and it should never be rubbed nor

wiped; if too wet, or "sweating," it should be exposed to a dry

atmosphere, until the surplus moisture shall have quietly evaporated

before it is transferred or handled.

It is often observed of particular varieties that they are more prone

to wilt than other kinds: this is particularly the case with Russet

apples, and is believed to result from a deficiency of this protecting

outer covering or waxy exudation, which appears most plentiful in

those that retain their plumpness.

In packing for market, besides the directions already given as to

prevent motion, it is very desirable to have the packages, of whatever

form, whether boxes or barrels, of a neat appearance and uniform full

size. The fruits should be well selected, and of a like average

quality throughout, and not fixed up for market with the best only at

the ends or sides that are to be first opened, while the inferior

fruit is concealed within. Honesty is the best policy everywhere, and

dealers soon learn to discriminate in favor of the brands of honest

packers. It is believed that any orchardists, who will take pains in

the selection of their fruits, and in the excellence and honest

measure of their packages, will soon establish a reputation that will

be of great value to them in their future offerings.

FRUIT-ROOMS.--For those who wish to reap the highest rewards and the

greatest profits from a near and convenient market, as well as those

who desire to preserve their fruits, prolong their enjoyment of them,

and to bring them to the highest perfection, the fruit-room or

fruit-house becomes indispensable. These should be so constructed as

to meet the required conditions of an equable and cool temperature,

with darkness, and a sufficient amount of dryness to insure freedom

from mold and damp. To avoid the precipitation of atmospheric

moisture, the apartment should be tight, and seldom opened,

particularly in damp weather. To absorb the exhalations from the fruit

itself, and that emitted from the burning candle or the breathing of

the visitor, the introduction of certain chemical absorbents has been

suggested; among these, freshly burned lime has been recommended and

used, but Mr. Du Breuil advises the introduction of dry chloride of

calcium, which has so great an affinity for moisture as to absorb it

completely from the atmosphere. This is the material used by B.M.

Nyce, of Cleveland, Ohio, in his patent fruit preserving

establishments; and this mode of preserving a dry atmosphere is a

leading, and indeed, the chief feature and element of his success.

In the construction of fruit-houses, the fluctuations of the outer

atmospheric temperature must be guarded against by making double

walls, and by filling the spaces with non-conducting materials. The

floors and the ceiling should be similarly arranged--unless where the

cooling is effected by a layer of ice above the fruit-room, when the

ceiling should be metallic, so as to enable the caloric to be rapidly

abstracted from the space below. The house, patented by Prof. Nyce, is

essentially a large refrigerator, with the ice at the top, and

provided with absorbents for removing from the air the moisture it has

received from the fruit. Its construction will be understood from the

accompanying diagrams and description. The lettering of similar parts

is the same in all three diagrams; the description is that of the

inventor.

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--NYCE'S FRUIT PRESERVING HOUSE. (CROSS

SECTION.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 28.--NYCE'S FRUIT PRESERVING HOUSE.

(LONGITUDINAL SECTION.)]

(_A_) Foundation walls. The ground floor is leveled off, and made

solid, and even with the foundation walls. (_B_) A covering of _tar_

and _pitch_, one-half inch thick, put over the ground and foundation

walls, to prevent the entrance of moisture. The tar and pitch should

be mixed so as to be only moderately hardened by the temperature of

the ground. (_D_) The filling between the walls is composed of short

dry shavings, chaff, or other poor conductors, 3-½ feet thick, on the

bottom and sides. (_C_) Joist for plank floor, 3-½ feet above the

ground. The floor is made level throughout. (_F_) Chloride of calcium,

or _dried waste-bittern_, from salt works, spread on every part of the

floor of the preserving room, to absorb moisture. (_I I_) Air-tight

casings, made of common sheet-iron, No. 26; the edges thickly

painted, and nailed to upright studding. The outer casing in some

houses is made of brick. The inside of the brick wall is covered with

roofing cement, or pitch, or some other air-tight coating. (_K K_)

doors 6 or 8 inches thick, filled with chaff or shavings, and fitted

tightly to the door-frames, by listing or cloth nailed over thin

layers of cotton. (_X_) The ice-chamber. (_L_) Joists to support the

ice floor, resting 2 inches on the posts at _Q_. (_N_) Iron bars, 1-¼

inches wide, and ¼ inch thick, gained ½ inch into the joists, and

placed crosswise to them. A bar must always be put directly under the

seams and rivets. Three bars are enough to be under a sheet 30 inches

wide. (_M_) The galvanized-iron ice floor, No. 18 or 20; the edges

joined with rivets not more than 1 inch apart, and very carefully

soldered. The ice floor is put on the edges of the iron bars so as to

expose every part of its surface, on which ice directly rests, to the

air of the room below. (_S_) Sides of ice room made of upright

planks. Better have it lined with zinc or galvanized-iron, inside of

the plank. Scantling, 2 by 6 inches, are placed on the ice, 4 feet

apart, made even with the ice. Wide plank (_P_) are placed loose

across the scanting, the edges as close as may be put together, to

prevent the filling falling on the ice. Saw-dust, 6 inches thick, is

placed on the plank (_P_). Shavings are not compact enough on the top

to keep the air from the ice. (_O_) A discharge pipe to conduct the

water from the ice. (_W_) An ante-room with an ice-water trough,

(_Y_), in which canned fruit is kept, in large stone crocks, for

retailing by small measure.

[Illustration: Fig. 29.--NYCE'S FRUIT PRESERVING HOUSE. (GROUND

PLAN.)]

The following estimates are given by the inventor, for a house, with

room 15 ft. square, 8 ft. high, 22 ft. square on outside, with

capacity for holding 500 bushels. The cost would be about as follows:

Common iron, at 7-½ cts. per lb., cost in the house $210 00

Galvanized iron, No. 26, at 20 cts. per lb. 105 00

Galvanized iron, No. 20, at 18 cts. per lb. 80 00

Whole cost, probably 800 00

The frame and roof being simple, their cost need not exceed that of

similar structures.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Bursting open of the pods, or of the hulls of nuts.

[22] Balfour's Manual.

CHAPTER XIV.

INSECTS.

When the preparation of this work was undertaken, the author desired

to make it as perfect as possible in all its parts. He very soon

discovered, from his own observations in the orchard, that one of the

greatest difficulties we all have to contend against in fruit-growing,

was the ravages committed upon our fruits and fruit-trees by hosts of

noxious insects.

Here then was a new branch of investigation, a new field of study to

be entered. He was not an entomologist, nor could he gain any

assistance from his friends who were such, because, though they were

scientific, and able to assist him in names and descriptions of the

insects presented, still they were not _practical entomologists_;

their knowledge of these creatures was purely scientific, and while

they could descant learnedly upon the systems set up by the great

masters of the science, for the most perfect classification of

insects, they could render us practical men but little aid in

combatting our insect foes. Great assistance they have rendered,

however, in providing names for all these wonderful creatures, in

describing their habits and their economy, and in assigning them

places in the beautiful classification that has been provided for

them.

On turning from men to books, but little more assistance or

encouragement was met with; these too would only give the names, the

places, and the descriptions, in the most approved language of the

science, but they are not attractive nor intelligible to the

unlearned. Any person can soon acquire the language of the science,

with a little study, but these scientific books do not give us

directions how to rid ourselves of the pests.

Among the books that are accessible and that are adapted to the

general reader, and to the student of practical entomology, two were

found of eminent utility as far as they went. These are the excellent

reports to the Massachusetts and the New York Agricultural Societies,

by Messrs. Harris and Fitch, which are clothed in popular language,

and which treat particularly of the insects injurious to vegetation,

and they put us in the way of combating our foes. The former, which

has been reprinted and illustrated in beautiful style, is worthy of a

place in every farmer's library, and will prove a valuable aid in the

study: the latter is printed in connection with the Society's reports.

To both of these, the author acknowledges his indebtedness, and from

both has he drawn liberally.

Other popular treatises, though attractive, have proved of very little

practical value, and the student will find even the reports above

referred to imperfect, as they were prepared for a limited region,

and do not mention several insects that are common in other parts of

the country than the States for which these reports were prepared. It

were much to be desired, that every State Society would have similar

reports, respecting the insects, peculiar to its state.

Thus the author found himself compelled to investigate this broad

field of study for himself--it became necessary to grasp the elements

of the classification, and to go into the field and the orchard, to

use his eyes, and to observe for himself. This was a labor of time,

and required considerable effort; but it brought its own reward in the

pleasure attendant upon this delightful study. At the same time there

was great satisfaction in the thought that all these facts, gathered

from the works of men of science, confirmed by personal observation,

and rendered useful and applicable in practice by his fellow laborers

in the garden and orchard, would be a valuable contribution to them,

and would constitute a useful portion of the _American Pomology_ he

was then preparing.

Unfortunately for himself, he has discovered that his collections, in

this department, covered several hundred pages of manuscript, and

that, if printed, they would render his volume too cumbrous. Upon

consulting with his publishers, it was concluded best to lay the

matter aside, for the present at least, and to prepare anew a brief

account of some of the insects most injurious to the orchard, with

short suggestions as to the best methods of combating their ravages.

This conclusion has been the more readily yielded to, because the

public now have a medium of communication with the scientific

entomologists, which well supplies the great want we had begun to

experience. I refer to a monthly publication, issued by the

Entomological Society of Philadelphia, in which the questions, that

are constantly occurring to farmers, are answered in the most simple,

clear, and satisfactory manner.[23] Besides this, we find in our best

agricultural journals, a page or a column, devoted to the

consideration of insects injurious to vegetation.[24]

For the sake of convenience and system, these notes will be presented

in the order of the approved classification of insects. Omitting

further introduction or discourse upon the wonderful instincts and

habits of insects, and explanation of their metamorphoses and the

principles of classification, and confessing my poor qualification for

the task, let us proceed at once to the catalogue.

=COLEOPTERA.=--BEETLES.

In this class of insects we find both, friends and foes. The former

assist us by their voracious appetites, that can only be satisfied

with gourmandizing upon other insects, particularly the juicy bodies

of their larvæ. The latter embrace some of our most troublesome pests,

especially as they consume vegetable matters, in the perfect as well

as in the larval condition, and in both stages are exceedingly

voracious. Moreover, they generally commit their depredations under

cover, or at night. Some live in the soil and consume the roots of our

plants, and others mine their way into the solid wood of the stems of

our finest trees; while some only affect the twigs and smaller

branches, and others devour the foliage, flowers, and fruits. A few of

the most familiar and troublesome of these will now be introduced; and

allusion will also be made to some of those which befriend us by their

destruction of other insects.

=Saperda bivittata.= (_Say._)--The Apple Tree Borer.--This is a

nocturnal insect, which has been found very destructive to our

orchards. The female deposits one egg in a place, generally low down

on the stem of the tree; this hatches, and enters the tissues of the

bark, where it feeds for a time, a footless grub. As it grows, it

burrows deeper, and upward, until it reaches the sap wood, upon which

it feeds. When half grown, it burrows still deeper, and upwards into

the heart of the tree, and then outward through the sap wood to the

bark, but retires again toward the centre, as to a place of safety, to

undergo its transformation, after packing the hole with shreds of wood

and with its castings to make its retreat secure. In the spring, the

perfect insect opens its way outward, and emerges to the light of day.

REMEDY.--Observe the bark of young trees very closely during the

summer, to discover the castings that are ejected; notice the

discolored or depressed portions of bark, and cut into them to find

and destroy the worm--if it has penetrated the solid wood, pursue it

with a piece of stout but flexible wire.

PREVENTIVES.--Alkaline washes have been highly recommended, as a means

of driving away the mother beetle; soft soap may be used, and a

portion of soft or hard soap, placed in the forks of the branches,

will dissolve with the rains, and wash down on the bark. These

applications, to be efficacious, should be made in May or June. In

August, the bark should be examined, and when the worms are cut out,

the soap suds may be injected with advantage, especially if the larvæ

have not been reached. Birds should be encouraged, particularly the

Picæ tribe, which destroy many grubs of the wood-boring insects.

=Chrysobothris femorata=, or the Thick-legged Buprestris, is another

kind of apple-tree borer, very common in some parts of the West. The

perfect insect may be seen running up and down the stems of our trees,

in June and July. It is a blackish beetle, about half an inch long.

The hole, bored by the grub, is flat, and not cylindrical like that of

the _Saperda_. This beetle attacks the stem higher up than the

_Saperda_, but burrows under the bark, and then sinks into the wood

much in the same way.

REMEDIES and PREVENTIVES are similar to those above mentioned. Seek

for the young worms in their shallow burrows in August, before they

have gone deeply into the tree.

=Dicerca divaricata=, (_Say._), or the Cherry-tree Borer, is similar

in its habit of boring in the sap wood under the bark, and may be

combated in the same way. The perfect insect appears in June and July.

=Prenocerus supernotatus=, or the American Currant Borer, feeds upon

the pith of the stalk. The larva is a small, white grub, which changes

into a slender, long-horned beetle; black, edged with chestnut-brown.

The wing covers are marked with two small grey dots, anteriorly, and a

crescent-shaped one behind the middle.

It is very injurious to the currant bushes in many parts of the

country, and constitutes a serious obstacle to growing the plants to

a single stem, tree fashion. In the bush form of this plant, the

constant reproduction of new shoots compensates for the destruction

caused by the borer.