By P.H. FOSTER.
In the first place, if you contemplate appropriating a portion of your
land for the raising of fruits, you should have the orchard so situated
that no large animals can run at large on the grounds. Prepare your soil
in the most thorough manner; underdrain, if necessary, to carry off
surplus water; dig deep, large holes; fill in the bottom with debris;
in the very bottom put a few leaves, clam and oyster shells, etc., then
sods; above and below the roots put a good garden or field soil; do not
give the trees fresh manure at the time of setting, but the following
fall manure highly with any kind on top of the ground; dig it in the
following spring; keep the soil frequently worked during the summer,
and, if convenient, mulch with hay, straw, or leaves.
Now you are on the road to progress, provided you have made no mistake
in the selection of your trees. The purposes for which you intend your
fruit is highly important. You should well consider at the outset if
for family or market use. This is a business which requires a long look
ahead, for it is said, "He who plants pears looks ahead for his heirs."
Caution should be used in procuring your stock; little should be planted
that is not fairly tested on the Island, purchased of parties who can be
fully relied upon to give you what you want. Do not buy your stock of
parties who carry labels in their pockets to make to order what you want
out of the same bundle of trees.
Now, having your trees set out in a proper manner, of such varieties
as you desire, the next important step is to bring the trees into
usefulness. My plan is to use bone--fine bone--very freely about every
three years. Another important matter is that of trimming. "Fire
purifies," and the knife regulates the grand balance or equilibrium
between roots and tops. In most cases the top outgrows the roots, the
consequence of which is an ultimate weakness of the tree. It is thrown
into excessive fruiting, disease, and premature decay. To avoid this
result, use the knife when required. Thin out the inside branches when
small, and if the tree does not make a satisfactory growth, cut back
half way to the ground.
We will suppose that you have got your trees growing nicely, and they
have begun to bear fruit. There are other important steps to be taken,
which will be of little cost to you. Provide a wind-break for the
orchard. Evergreens answer the purpose, being a protection against the
wind. Having this matter attended to, there are other enemies with which
we must contend. I refer to the apple and peach tree borers. The former
will live in the tree for three years, if unmolested; the latter, one
year only. They are very easily destroyed by looking over the trees and
taking them out with a knife; or maybe prevented from touching the trees
by wrapping a piece of felt paper, 8 inches wide, around the tree near
the ground, the bottom being covered with dirt and the top tied tightly
above. The pear is not generally disturbed by these insects--only the
apple, peach, and quince. We have another insect very destructive to the
plum, peach, cherry, and apple--the _curcutio_, or plum weavel. This
season for the first time in twenty years we have gathered a small
crop of that very desirable plum, the Purple Favorite. We simply threw
air-slaked lime over the trees nearly every morning for from four to six
weeks, from the time the tree was out of bloom. Peach trees should be
treated in the same manner. Another method of fighting this insect is to
spread a sheet under the tree, and with a blow jar off the little Turk
and secure him on the sheet. But I consider the lime procedure the less
trouble and more effective. The tent caterpillar, which is easily seen,
should be destroyed at once. We have yet another insect to contend with
which infests the apple and pear, commonly called the Coddling Moth,
and the larva, the apple-worm (_Garpocapsa pomonella_). The loss by the
ravaaes of this insect alone to the fruit growers of the United States
fan hardly be estimated, as in many cases the whole crop is rendered
worthless. Such a vast destruction of two of the most valuable fruits
the world produces should stimulate scientists in this age of progress
to discover an effectual remedy against such a gigantic evil.
I have never yet discovered nor tried an effectual remedy against this
insect. The nearest I have approached his extermination is in the
following manner: After it has entered the fruit and accomplished its
damage, the time arrives when it has to leave the fruit and hide itself
in a quiet, secure position to undergo the transition from the larva to
the pupa state, which requires, in the early part of the season, eight
or ten days; after this time the miller is hatched and is again ready to
besiege the fruit with its sting. The insect, being two-brooded in this
climate at least, if not disturbed, has an aggregating force to do
mischief the second time. The progeny for the succeeding year have alone
to depend on the security of this second generation of larvæ. As they
may often be found in bark of apple trees during winter, my plan of
destruction is, about the first of July to take woolen rags long enough
to wrap around the trees, and say four inches wide. Each week I look
over the trees, and destroy the worms secreted under the rags and
wherever I find them until the fruit is off the trees. I have all the
green fruit, of every kind, carefully picked up as soon as it falls,
thereby destroying many of the curculio as well as the apple-worms.
One word upon the grape--the insect part of the question. The
_Phylloxera vastatrix_, or grape-vine louse, is already at work on Long
Island. It is found very difficult to raise many of our fine, new grapes
with us in consequence of the depredations of this very minute insect,
it being almost too small to be seen by the naked eye. There has lately
been discovered a remedy which is entirely chemical and as yet but
little disseminated. Very soon, no doubt, a discovery will be made that
will stay the progress of this destructive enemy.
We should plant aplenty of cherry and small fruit trees to yield feed
for birds. In return they will assist us in our efforts to preserve a
bountiful supply of this health producing element.
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