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Sand Mulching of Orchard Trees.
In The Prairie Farmer I notice the interesting note of "O." of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., on the apparent benefit resulting from sand and manure mulching of pear trees.
In the very near future I expect to see much of this kind of work done by commercial orchardists. Already we have many trees in Iowa mulched with sand.
I wish now to draw attention to the fact that on the rich black prairie soils west of Saratov—about five hundred miles southeast of Moscow—every tree in the profitable commercial orchards is mulched with pure river sand. The crown of the tree when planted is placed about six inches lower than usual with us in a sort of basin, about sixteen feet across. This basin is then filled in with sand so that in the center, where the tree stands, it is three or four inches higher than the general level of the soil. The spaces between these slight depressions filled with sand are seeded down to grass, which is not cut, but at time of fruit gathering is flattened by brushing to make a soft bed for the dropping fruit and for a winter mulch.
The close observer will not fail to notice good reasons for this treatment. (1.) The sand mulch maintains an even temperature and moisture of the surface roots and soil and prevents a rapid evaporation of the moisture coming up by capillary attraction from the sub soil.
(2.) The soil under the sand will not freeze as deeply as on exposed surfaces, and we were told that it would not freeze as deeply by two feet or more as under the tramped grass in the interspaces.
(3.) With the light colored sand about the trees, and grass between, the lower beds of air among the trees would not be as hot by several degrees as the exposed surface, even when the soil was light colored clay.
(4.) A bed of sand around the trunks of the trees will close in with the movement of the top by the summer and autumn winds, thus avoiding the serious damage often resulting from the swaying of the trunk making an opening in the soil for water to settle and freeze.
Still another use is made of this sand in very dry seasons, which as with us would often fail to carry the fruit to perfection. On the upper side of large commercial orchards, large cisterns are constructed which are filled by a small steam pump. When it is decided that watering is needed the sand is drawn out, making a sort of circus ring around the trees which is run full of water by putting on an extra length of V spouting for each tree. When one row is finished the conductors are passed over to next row as needed. To water an orchard of 1,200 trees—after the handy fixtures are once provided—seems but a small task. After the water settles away, the sand is returned to its place.
In the Province of Saratov we saw orchards with and without the sand, and with and without the watering. We did not need to ask if the systematic management paid. The great crops of smooth apples and pears, and the long lived and perfect trees on the mulched and watered orchards told the whole story of the needs of trees planted on black soil on an open plain subject to extreme variations as to moisture and temperature of air and soil.
J. L. Budd.
Iowa Agricultural College.
Pear Blight.—No. 2.
The mere "experience" of an individual, whether as a doctor of medicine, horticulture, or agriculture—however extensive, is comparatively worthless. Indeed the million "demonstrate it to be mischievous, judging from the success of quacks and empyrics as to money. An unlimited number of facts and certificates prove nothing, either as to cause or remedy."
Sir Isaac Newton's corpuscular theory "explained all the phenomena of light, except one," and he actually assumed, for it "fits." Nevertheless it will ever remain the most thinkable mode of teaching the laws of light, and it is not probable that any more than this will ever be accomplished as to any natural science—if that can be called science about which we must admit that "it is not so; but it is as if it were so."
Of more than 300 "Osband Summer" which I grafted on the Anger quince successfully, one remains, and this one was transplanted after they had fruited in a clay soil, to the same sort of soil between "the old standard" and a stable, both of which have occupied the same locality and within twenty yards, during much more than fifty years of my own observation—this "Osband Summer" flourishes. It has borne fruit in its present site, but grew so rapidly last year that the blossoms aborted thus illustrating the large proportion of vital force necessary to the production of fruit, as the site has a perennial supply of manure from the old stable. A number of standard trees, of the same variety, developed beautifully until they attained twenty or thirty feet, but then succumbed to the blight, after the first effort at fruiting. So also the Beurre Clairgean etc., etc. Their exposure to the same influences, and their growth during several years did not occasion the blight, but the debility which must inevitably attend fruiting seems the most prolific cause.
All the phenomena of pear blight can be accounted for, and we are greatly encouraged in protecting the trees therefrom if, we assume, it is only the result of weakness and deficient vitality; if so, as in epidemics, all the pear trees may be poisoned or ergotized, but only the weakest succumb; and perhaps this debility may be confined to one limb. The practical value of this view is manifest, as it is impracticable to avoid using the same knife, and remove every blighted leaf from the orchard. Moreover, if the limb is a large one, its prompt removal shocks the vitality of the whole tree[1] and thus renders other parts more vulnerable. On the contrary view, the limb may be allowed to drop by natural process, precisely as all trees in a forest shed their lower limbs, leaving hardly a cicatrice or scar, and this may be insured at any season by a cord of hemp twine, firmly bound around the limb. The inevitable strangulation, and the healing of the stump (without the mycelium of fungi which the knife or saw inevitably propagates by exposing a denuded surface, if not more directly) proceed more rapidly than the natural slough of limbs by starvation. Moreover the fruit may mature on such limbs during their strangulation, as this may not be perfected before the subsequent winter.
The next practical result of my view is the fundamental importance of all those means which are calculated to husband the vital force of the tree during its first effort to fruit; one of these is the use of a soil that will not produce more than twenty bushels of corn without manure, thus a large proportion of the setts will be aborted, but one half of what remains should be removed, and subsequently the area beneath the limbs should have a wheelbarrow of good compost.
D. S.
[1] Note.—The shock as to vital force is demonstrated by the fact that when young trees are not trimmed at all their girth increases more rapidly, and they bear fruit sooner. Moreover, when old trees are severely pruned (though not half the proportion of wood is removed) they fail to bear during the next year. I find that a hemp cord about the size of the stem of a tobacco pipe (one-fourth inch diameter) will soon become imbedded in the bark if firmly tied around a limb, and perhaps this size is more efficient than a thicker cord.
The Black Walnut.
The black walnut is without doubt the most valuable tree we have for the rich lands of the "corn belt," West, and one which is very easily grown everywhere if the farmer will only learn how to get it started. How few we see growing on our prairies. Why? Simply because to have it we must grow it from the nuts. It is nearly impossible to transplant black walnut trees of any size and have them live; although it is a fact that whenever a non-professional attempts to grow them from the nuts he is almost sure to fail, it is also a fact that there is no tree that is more easily grown from the seed than this, if we only know how to do it.
It is my purpose in this note to tell how to do it, and also how not to do it.
In the first instance we will suppose a man lives where he can gather the nuts in the woods. When the nuts begin to fall let him plow deeply the plot of ground he wishes to plant and furrow it off three or four inches deep, the distance apart he wishes his rows to be. He will then go to the woods and gather what nuts he wishes to plant, and plant them at once, just as they come from the tree, covering them just out of sight in the furrows. This is all there is of it; simple, is it not? But it will not do to gather a great wagon box full, and let them stand in it until they heat, or to throw them in a great heap on the ground and let them lay there until they heat. It will not do, either, to hull them and let them lay in the sun a week or two, or hull them, dry them and keep them until spring, and then plant; none of these plans will do if you want trees. Of course if the nuts are hulled and planted at once they will grow; but this hulling is entirely unnecessary. Besides, the hulls seem to act as a special manure for the young seedlings, causing them to grow more vigorously.
Next, we will suppose one wishes to plant walnuts where they can not be had from the woods, but must be shipped in. There seems to be only one plan by which this can be done safely every time, which is as follows: Gather the nuts as they fall from the trees—of course when they begin to fall naturally all may be shaken down at once—and spread them not over a foot deep, on the bare ground under the shade of trees. Cover out of sight with straw or leaves, with some sticks to hold in place called a "rot heap;" then after they are frozen and will stay so, they may be shipped in bags, boxes, barrels, or in bulk by the car-load, and then, again, placed in "rot heaps," as above, until so early in the spring as the soil is in workable condition. Then plant as directed in the fall, except the soil should be firmly packed around the nuts. Keep free from weeds by good cultivation, and in due time you will have a splendid grove.
There was an immense crop of walnuts in this district last fall, and thousands of bushels were put up carefully, in this way, all ready for shipment before the weather became warm; many more thousands were planted to grow seedlings from, for, notwithstanding the walnut transplants poorly when of considerable size, the one year seedlings transplant with as little loss as the average trees.
There is no tree better adapted for planting to secure timber claims with than the black walnut, and none more valuable when the timber is grown. For this purpose the land should be plowed deeply, then harrowed to fineness and firmness, and furrowed out in rows four, six, eight, or ten feet apart. The nuts may then be planted as directed. It is best to plant thickly in the rows, then if too thick they can be thinned out, transplanting the thinnings, or selling them to the neighbors. They should be thoroughly cultivated, until large enough to shade the ground, and thinned out as necessary as they grow larger. A walnut grove thoroughly cultivated the first ten years will grow at least twenty feet high, while one not cultivated at all would only grow two to three feet in that time.
D. B. Wier.
Lacon, Ill.
Notes on Current Topics.
ARBOR DAY.
Why can not Illinois have an Arbor Day as well as Nebraska, or any other State. There ought to be ten millions of trees planted the coming spring within its borders—saying nothing of orchard trees—by the roadside, on lawns, for shade, for wind breaks, for shelter, for mechanical purposes, and for climatic amelioration. Nearly all our towns and villages need more trees along the streets or in parks; thousands of our farms are suffering for them; hundreds of cemeteries would be beautified by them, and numberless homes would be rendered more pleasant and homelike by an addition of one, two, or a dozen, to their bleak places. Can not The Prairie Farmer start a boom that will lead to the establishment of an Arbor Day all over the State? Why not? There is yet time.
HOT-BEDS.
For the benefit of those who can not command the usual appliances for hot-beds, I will say that they can be made so as to answer a good purpose very cheaply. Take a nice sunny spot that is covered with a sod, if to be had. Dig off the sod in squares and pile them carefully on the north side and the ends of the pit, to form the sides of the bed, with a proper slope. The soil thrown out from the bottom may be banked up against the sods as a protection. After the bed is finished, the whole may be covered with boards, to turn the water off. These answer in the place of glass frames. As the main use for a hot-bed is to secure bottom heat, very good results can be obtained in these cheaply constructed affairs. After the seeds are up, and when the weather will permit, the boards must be removed to give light and air—but replaced at night and before a rain. Of course, where large quantities of plants are to be grown, of tender as well as hardy sorts, it would be better and safer to go to the expense of board frames and glass for covering.
DON'T DO IT.
Of course, all the peach trees, and many of the other stone fruits, and most of the blackberry and raspberry plants, will show discoloration of wood when the spring opens—so much so that many will pronounce them destroyed, and will proceed to cut them away. Don't do it. Peaches have often been thus injured, and by judicious handling saved to bear crops for years afterward. But they will need to be thoroughly cut back. Trees of six or seven years old I have cut down so as to divest them of nearly all their heads, when those heads seemed badly killed, and had them throw out new heads, that made large growth and bore good crops the following season. Cut them back judiciously, and feed them well, but don't destroy them. And so with the berry plants. Wait and see, before you destroy.
PEARS FROM RUSSIA.
No one who reads Prof. Budd's articles on Russian Pears, can fail to be interested and struck with the prospect of future successful pear culture in the United States. It is highly probable that Russia is yet to give us a class of that fruit that will withstand the rigors of our climate. But how is this to be accomplished? Individual enterprise can, and doubtless will, accomplish much in that direction; but the object seems to me to be of sufficient importance to justify State or National action. The great State of Illinois might possibly add millions to her resources by giving material aid in the furtherance of this purpose—and a liberal expenditure by the General Government, through the Department of Agriculture, or the American Pomological Society, would be more usefully applied than many other large sums annually voted. At all events, another season of fruitage ought not to be allowed to pass without some concerted action for the purpose of testing the question.
Some of our strongest nurserymen will likely be moving in the work, but that will not be enough. The propagator of that fruit, however, who will succeed in procuring from the European regions a variety of pears that will fill the bill required by the necessities of our soil and climate, has a fortune at his command.
OLD WINTER
lingers in the lap of spring, truly, this year of grace, 1884. Here it is the 10th of March, and for over one hundred days we have had winter—winter; but very few real mild and bright days, such as we had "when I was a boy." The Mississippi is frozen over still, with no signs of breaking up, and men, women, and children are sighing for sunshine and showers, and daisies and violets. The wood and coal bills have been enormous; the pigs squeal in the open pens, and cattle roam, as usual, shivering in the lanes and along the streets. The song of a robin to-morrow morning would be a joyous sound to hear.[p]
T. G.
Prunings.
Tree-worship among the ancients had a most important influence on the preservation of forests in circumscribed places. Beautiful groves, which would otherwise have been sacrificed on the altar of immediate utility, were preserved by the religious respect for trees.—Milwaukee Sentinel.
F. K. Phœnix. "Small trees have larger roots in proportion, (2) they cost less, (3) expressage of freight is less—expressing small trees is usually cheaper than freighting large ones, and then so much more speedy, (4) less labor handling, digging holes, etc., (5) less exposed to high winds which loosen roots, and kill many transplanted trees, (6) planters can form heads and train them to their own liking, (7) with good care in, say five years, they will overtake the common larger sized trees. Without good care, better not plant any size."
The coming currant is Fay's Prolific. It originated with Lincoln Fay, of Chautauqua county, N. Y. For many years he endeavored to raise a currant that would combine the size of the Cherry currant with the productiveness of the Victoria. To this end he fertilized one with the pollen of the other, and raised some thousands of seedlings, from out of which he selected this as the one that most nearly realized his desires. It is now sixteen years since this seedling was obtained. For some eight or nine years Mr. Fay tested this variety by the side of all the sorts in cultivation, until becoming convinced of its superiority in several particulars over any of these, he planted it extensively for his own marketing.
At a late meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the currant worm came in for a good deal of talk. Mr. Satterthwaite said that hellebore, as we have often printed, was the most effectual "remedy." He mixed it with water and applied it with a brush or whisk of straw. If not washed off by rain for twenty-four hours and used every year, the worms were easily got rid of. Mr. Saunders, Superintendent of the Government Gardens at Washington, and a gentleman thoroughly conversant with every branch of horticulture, said that there was nothing so effectual with insects as London purple, and, though equally poisonous as Paris green, was much cheaper. Tobacco stems and refuse have also been found of great value in fruit culture. Pyrethrum, he said, would also kill all sorts of leaf-eating insects; it is now largely cultivated in California, and is hardy at least as far north as Washington.
Josiah Hoopes in New York Tribune: In Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where, literally, no pears have been grown of late years, the Kieffer is doing well. I know of no fruit so variable. I ate specimens last season finely flavored and delicious; again when they were weak and watery. This fruit needs thinning on the trees and careful ripening in the house. Don't understand me to say that Kieffer is "best of all." But here it is the most profitable for market that I know of, as this is not a pear country, as are portions of New York State. As we go further south the Kieffer seems to improve, and I think Mr. Berckmans, of Georgia, will give it a good name with him. Yes, the Kieffer will command a higher price in Philadelphia than any other pear, and we think some people there know what good fruit is. Don't imagine I have any axe on the grindstone in this matter; pecuniarily the Kieffer is no more to me than the Bartlett or dozens of other varieties.
Some New Plants.
ABUTILON THOMSONII PLENA.
It is one of the peculiarities of plant culture, that after a certain number of years of cultivation, any plant having the properties of sporting freely, that is, changing greatly from the original wild character of the plant, will become double. In most cases it first arises from seed, but with the plant under notice it appears that it was what is called a bud variation, that is, that from some freak of a particular branch of a plant of the well-known A. Thomsonii, the ordinary single flowers were found to be double. This happening on a plant under the eye of a professional florist was taken off the plant and rooted, and at once became its established character. This phenomena of variation being "fixed" by separate propagation, is by no means rare, and not a few of our choice fruits, flowers, and vegetables had their origin by the same means. It remains to be seen whether in this case it will be of much value except as a curiosity, it having precisely the same leaf markings as the original, which are a very distinct yellow mottling of the leaf in a field of green, and for which the plant is valuable alone, the flowers being quite of a secondary character. The flowers are said to be perfectly double, resembling in form a double hollyhock, color deep orange, shaded and streaked with crimson. This is the first year it has been sent out, and we shall not be surprised if it is soon followed by others, for usually, when the "double" condition of things has arrived no one has a monopoly of the curiosity.
ALTERNANTHERA AUREA NANA.
This is a charming new plant of decided merit to the carpet style of bedding or edging, being very compact in growth, easily kept to a line of the finest character, and producing what is of great importance in the summer, a line of golden yellow. At times the old kind, A. aurea, would come very good, but more often it had far too much of a green shade to furnish the contrast sought after, and, as a result, failed to bring out the effect the planter studied to produce. It is a fitting companion to A. amabilis, A. paronychioides, and A. versicolor, and will be hailed with delight by our park florists and other scientific planters.
BOUVARDIA THOMAS MEEHAN.
Here we have a double scarlet bouvardia from the same raisers, Nanz and Neuner, that astonished the floral world a few years back, with the double white B. Alfred Neuner. This new addition, unlike the old, which was another "bud variation," was secured by a cross between the old B. leiantha, scarlet with a single flower, and Alfred Neuner, double white. If this is the real origin of the kind, which we somewhat doubt, for if our theory is correct, that a certain amount of cultivation predisposes to double variation, then it is not necessary to cross the double, which in fact can not be done with a perfectly double flower—the organs of fructification being wanting with that of a single and seed-producing kind, to account for the origin of a new double.
As is well known the old leiantha is one of the best scarlets yet, and this new candidate for favor is said to unite the brilliant color and profuse blooming qualities of the old favorite B. leiantha with the perfect double flowers of B. Alfred Neuner.
There are now of this class of plants the three colors—white, scarlet, and pink—in double as well as single; for instance, a pink President Garfield sported from and was "fixed" from the white A. Neuner, a year or two ago.
STATICE SUWOROWII REGAL.
In this we have a right regal plant. We first heard of it from the German catalogues, early in the past winter. This plant is now offered for sale by the florists of this country. Its description from the catalogues is as follows: "One of the finest novelties in the list of showy annuals lately introduced. Its branching flower spikes, of a very bright rose, with a crimson shade, appear successively from ten to fifteen on each plant, and measure, each, fully fifteen to eighteen inches in height[q], and from one-half to one inch in breadth; the foliage, laying flat on the ground, is comparatively small, and completely hidden by the numerous flower spikes, each leaf being five inches long, and from one-half to two inches broad, undulated and glaucous. It is constantly in bloom during the summer and autumn, and when in full bloom is a truly magnificent sight, being one mass of flowers." This class of plants are great favorites, and we should judge by the colored flowers and description that this variety is a decided novelty.
TEA ROSES, WHITE BON SILENE.
This is another new aspirant for favor, and comes out with the high sounding character of being in a white what the old Bon Silene is as a red winter tea rose. The description from the catalogue is: "The buds are larger and more double than its parent (the red B. S.) and will produce more flower buds than any other white rose in cultivation."
It was raised by Francis Morat, of Louisville, Ky., four years ago; it is also a "sport," and from the old B. silene. Should it retain the good flowering qualities, fragrance, and substance of the original kind, with a pure white bud, it will very soon work its way into popular favor. Usually a white variation has not the vitality that its colored progenitor had, so that we say, wait and see.
Edgar Sanders.
