Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1882 — FRUIT TALK AND NOTES. [ARTICLE]

FRUIT TALK AND NOTES.

Peach Facts and Follies—Eraporatio —Paper Bags for Grapes. The curl of the peach leaf is not oaused by an insect, as was long supposed, but by climatic changes, or changes of weather. The Willow Twig is considered one of the most profitable of the apples grown in northern Illinois, better than the Ben Davis. Plumb and cherry trees must be grafted very .early, before the-buds -swell, in order to succeed. Pears and apples oap be delayed longer. The use of ppper bags to protect grape blasters from tot, birds and insects Is growing In favor. But to protect against rot they must be put in Just as soon as the blossoms are gone. They not only protect, but they improve the quality. The feeding roots of a fruit tree are mostly at the ends'of the main roots, and in many oases at a greater distance from the trunk than are the highest branches. ,The moral In manuring is to soatter the manure broadoast, and at least ail far from the tree as the branches reach In a lateral direction. Strong dry wood ashes dashed on the trunk of a fruit tree #i.en wet will aid to dean it of ropgh, bark, and the insects whloh hide under It. Tho next rain will make a sort or lye of it and wash It down, and the trunk can then be eaaily scraped and cleaned. It also kills!nseot eggs,and the ashes on reaohing the earth act as a fertilizer. J Instead of building a mound of earth about jfrAbh trees to keep the borer opt, make an excavation each fall and spring, and dig him out. A collar of felt tied about the butt the ground, oovered below with earth' and waxed or tarred at the top, Would be better than a hfeap of dirt, but neither are half aa good as the thorough u*? of the knife twice a year. tfhe man who relies pr. boiling wafer with which to kill the peach borer shows hto Ignorance of the borer's habi itß. That pestiferous insect is looated buder the bark, and the globing of the e^ r 1 ? nce to b !*t abode by gummy exudations* insures hlifi agalnit all the hot Waster the operator may ehose to apply. • Hot water would cook him if it could reach him, bpt Hsdpn’t, The knife is the only remedy. j A. M. Purdy, widely known as, a fruit grower, near Rochester, N. *., Is so well satisfied with the evaporation of black raapberrlcs for market that he he* set out 60 acres for that special purpose. Of the Gregg variety it takes 8% quarts of greeh fruit to make a pound when evaporated. A bushel of apples makes six pounds of dried fruit. But the business of evaporation threatens to be Injured by crowding a great deal of worthless or Inferior fruit on 4 the market—stuff that cannot be sold as green fruit at any price- > i . The process of fruit evaporation, which now brings so popular a product tomarket.has had to struggle with many difficulties. Charles Alden was tna inventor, some 20 years ago. Speculators bounced upon the machinery, and made the ap; aratus at first cost $3,000. Now it costs about one-sixth much. The process is still a good deal complicated, and in its infancy,but it has been of immense advantage to' the fruit and vegetable interest already, with millions in it for the future. The evaporated article is improved in some respects over its natural condition, some sorts having an increase of glucose.