Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1892 — ORCHARD AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

ORCHARD AND GARDEN.

Setting Out Trees. It was thought best twenty or thirty years ago to set out trees or .groves around orchards, hut we have found out by experience that it was not best, for several reasons. First, they shade the orchard too much, and second, they prevent, too much, the circulation of air among the fruit trees. This causes the fruit to grow small and scarce. Farmers should set out trees of different kinds to shelter, not their orchards, hut their harnyards and their feeding lots, by so doing they could modify the temperature a few degrees and save some feed and prevent a great deal of suffering to stock. Again, farmers on the large prairies of the West and North should set out trees or groves for farm use, for firewood, posts and other purposes. If the people of this generation don’t need it the people of the future generations will, for timber is getting scarce up North in the pineries and other places. A few hints in regard to orchards: A young orchard should be plowed and worked a few years and planted to potatoes or other truck, then seeded to clover, never to timothy, for that makes the ground too soddy and dry. None should use their orchards for pig pens and pasture too much, as it packs or hardens the ground too much around the roots and often causes the trees to die. Better build a chicken house in the orchard and let the chickens pick up the insects. Go Slow. Some of the best fruits we have are those whose merits have been slowly recognized. It is a safe rule to be shy of much lauded new fruits. Even where the eulogium is justified so far as concerns one locality, the fruit may be good for nothing elsewhere. This is the case now with some excellent, well-known kinds, which fail in a few localities, though doing well generally

Frntt Rotes. Potash Is a favorite diet for peaches. The ashes of trees burned for yellows may be safply applied to growing stock. If the trees sent you are somewhat dry do not be too anxious to plant them at once, but bury them in fine moist soil. Have you a definite idea of what sort of a top you want for your young trees? Get it before pruning. Don’t cut haphazard merely for the sake of thinning. Nener buy of a tree peddler unless he can show his authority to represent a responsible nurseryman. The most satisfactory way is to buy of the nurseryman nearest to you if he is reliable. The Moyer gratie is being planted for market extensively in Western New York, where it succeeds admirably. It resembles the Delaware in color and flavor, but has a larger berry and bunch and ripens much earlier. There are in the United States 4,510 nurseries, valued at $41,978,835 and occupying 172,806 acres with an invested capital of $52,425,669. Of the acerage in nurseries 95,054 acres are used in growing trees, plants, shrubs and vines. By the use of a little intelligence and labor, fruits in great variety can be produced on nearly every farm without the outlay of a single cent. It is not .difficult to raise trees and vines of the best kinds from cuttings or by budding or grafting.