Method of Planting.—Plant with a drill that will run about an inch deep, putting the seeds in straight rows, not more than an inch wide, and two and a half feet apart; this will allow the use of a small horse and cultivator, which will destroy nearly all the weeds. Use a potato-fork or hoe, across the rows, among the seedlings, and very little weeding will be necessary. It is not more than one fourth of the ordinary work to keep a nursery clean in this way. Two thirds of those thus planted and cultivated will be large enough for root-grafting the first season, and for cleft-grafting the second. When your seedlings are six inches high, if you thoroughly mulch them with fine straw or manure, you will be troubled with no more weeds, and your trees will get a strong growth.
For root-grafting, pull up those of suitable size very late in the fall, cut off the tops eight inches from the root, and pack in boxes, in moist sand, and keep in a cellar that does not freeze; graft in winter, and repack them in the boxes with moist sand, sawdust, or moss, and keep them until time to transplant in spring. They should not be wet, but only slightly moist. In the spring, plant them in rows three feet apart, and ten inches in the row. The second year, if they are not wanted in market, they should be taken up and reset, in rows four feet apart, and two feet in the row. Cut off the ends of large roots, to encourage the growth of numerous fibrous roots. Large nursery-trees, that have not been transplanted, are of little value for the orchard, being nearly destitute of fibrous roots. But large trees, even of bearing size, when transplanted in the orchard, do quite as well as small ones, provided they have been several times transplanted in the nursery. This produces many fibrous roots, upon which the health and life of the tree depend.
In many regions, great care must be taken to prevent destruction of young trees by snow-drifts. This is done by selecting locations, and by constructing or removing fences, to allow the snow to blow off; treading it down as it falls is also very useful, both in protecting the trees from breaking down by the settling of drifts in a thaw, and from the depredations of mice under the snow.
Trees should be taken up from the nursery with the least possible injury to the roots. Do not leave them exposed to the air for an hour, not even in a cloudy day. It is an easy matter to cover the roots with mats, straw, or earth. Protect also from frosts; many trees are ruined by exposure to air and frost, of which the nurseryman is very careful in all other respects. For transportation, they should be closely packed in moist straw, and wound in straw or mats, firmly tied and kept moist. Trees, cared for and packed in this way, may be transported thousands of miles, and kept for two months, without injury.
More attention to the cultivation of nuts, would add materially to our domestic luxuries. There are so many nuts in market, that are the spontaneous productions of other countries, or raised where labor is cheap, that we can not afford to raise them as an article of commerce. But a few trees of the various kinds, would be a great addition to every country residence. We could always be certain that our nuts were fresh and good. A small piece of ground devoted to nuts, and occupied by fowls, would be pleasant and profitable. English walnuts do well here. We have varieties of hickory nuts, native in this country, which, to our taste, are not surpassed by any other. Chestnuts are easily grown here (see our directions elsewhere in this volume). Butternuts, filberts, peanuts (growing in the ground like potatoes), and even our little forest beechnuts, are easily raised.
The dwarf chestnut of the Middle and Southern states is decidedly ornamental in a fruit garden. Its qualities are in all respects like the common chestnut, only the fruit is but half the size, and the tree grows from five to ten feet high. In all our landscape gardens, and in all places where we retain forest trees for ornamental purposes, it is better to cultivate trees that will bear good nuts. The varieties of nut-bearing trees, interspersed with evergreens, make a beautiful appearance.
Raising oak-timber, on a large scale, will soon be demanded in this country. In some sections we have immense quantities of native oaks; but they are fast disappearing, and the present expense of transporting the timber, to places where it is needed, is much greater than would be the cost of raising it. A million of acres of oaks ought to be planted within the next five years. A crop of white oak, of only twenty-five years' growth, would be very valuable; and twenty-five or fifty acres, of forty years' growth, would be worth a handsome fortune, especially in the West. On all the bluffs in the West they grow well, and on the prairies they will do even better, after they have been cultivated a few years. The application of a little common salt on rich alluvial soils, is a great advantage in growing timber.
Preserve acorns in moist sand during winter, and plant in the spring, in rows six feet apart, to give opportunity for other crops among them for a year or two, to encourage good cultivation. Plant a foot apart in the row, that, in thinning out, good straight trees may be left; at three or four years old, thin to four feet in the rows; afterward, only remove as appears absolutely necessary. Trim straight and smooth. The question of transplanting is important. Shall we plant thick, as in a nursery, and then transplant, or shall we plant where they are to grow? In fruit-trees, the object is to get a low, full, and spreading top, of horizontal branches, that will bear much fruit. This is eminently promoted by transplanting, root-pruning, and heading-in. But in raising timber, the object is to get trees of long, straight bodies, with the fewest possible low branches. Such are the native trees of the forest. This is best promoted by planting thick, never transplanting, and keeping all the lower limbs well trimmed off. These directions are for raising timber on good tillable land. Such groves may be good for pastures, and for poultry-yards, for a long time. Beside this, we have large areas of rough land, that will not soon be brought into cultivation for other purposes. Fine timber may be grown on such land, with no care but trimming.
This is one of the great staple agricultural products of all regions, sufficiently moist and cool for their successful growth. Oatmeal makes the most wholesome bread ever eaten by man. For all horses, except those having the heaves, oats are the best grain; to such horses they should never be fed—corn, soaked or ground, is best. They are valuable for all domestic animals and fowls.
Varieties.—These are numerous. Those called side-oats yield the largest crops: but of these there are several varieties. The genuine Siberian oats are tall, heavy, dark-colored side-oats, the most productive of any known. Swedish oats, and other new varieties, are coming into notice; most of these are the Siberian, under other names, and perhaps slightly modified by location and culture. The barley-oats, Scotch oats, and those usually cultivated, will yield only about two thirds as much per acre as the true Siberian; the same difference is apparent in the growth of straw. Oats will produce something on poor land, with bad tillage, but repay thorough fertilization and tillage as well as most other crops. Enrich the land, work it deep and thoroughly, and roll after harrowing. Moist, cool situations are much preferable for oats: hence, success in warm climates depends upon very early sowing. Oats sowed as late as the first of July, in latitude forty-two and further north, will mature; yet, all late oats, even with large straw and handsome heads, will be found to be only from one half to two thirds filled in proportion to the lateness of sowing. The entire profits of an oat-crop depend upon early sowing.
Harvest as soon as the grain begins to harden, and the straw to turn yellow. Allowed to get quite ripe, they shell badly, and the straw becomes useless, except for manure. Cut with reaper or cradle, and bind: all grain so cut is more easily handled, thrashed, and fed. Mow no grain that is not so lodged down that a cradle or reaper can not be used. The straw of oats cut quite green is nearly as good as hay.
A valuable garden plant, easily propagated by seeds. It is excellent in cookery, as a sauce. Its ripe seeds, used as coffee, very much resemble the genuine article. The green pods are much used in the West Indies, in soups and pickles. Plant at the usual time of corn-planting, in rows four feet apart, two or three seeds in a place, eight inches apart in the row; leave but one in a place after they get a few inches high, and hoe as peas, and the crop will be abundant.
These are natives of Asia, but have, beyond date, been extensively cultivated in Southern Europe. Olive-oil is an important article of commerce in most countries. Its use in all kinds of cookery, in countries where it flourishes, renders olives as important, to the mass of the people, as cows are in New England. It should be a staple product of the Southern states, to which it is eminently adapted. It is hardy further north than the orange. With protection, it may be cultivated, with the orange and lemon, all over the country. Olive-trees attain a greater age than any other fruit-tree. An Italian olive-plantation, near Terni, is believed to have stood since the days of Pliny. Once set out, the trees require very little attention, and they flourish well on the most rocky lands, that are utterly useless for any other purpose. Calcareous soils are most favorable to their growth. They are propagated by suckers, seeds, or by little eggs that grow on the main stalk, and are easily detached by a knife, and planted as potatoes or corn. Olives will bear at four or five years from the seed; they bear with great regularity, and yield fifteen or twenty pounds of oil per annum to each tree. There are several varieties. Plantations now growing at the South are very promising.
Of this well-known garden vegetable there are quite a number of varieties.
1. The Large Red.—One of the most valuable.
2. The Yellow.—Large and profitable, keeping better than any other.
3. The Silver-skin.—The handsomest variety, excellent for pickling, brings the highest price of all, but is not quite so good a keeper as the red or yellow, and does not yield as well.
4. The White Portugal.—A larger white onion, often taken for the true silver-skin. It is a good variety. The preceding are all raised from the black seed, growing on the top.
5. The Egg Onion.—So called from its size and shape. On good rich soil, the average size may be that of a goose-egg, which it resembles in form. It is of a pale-red color, and more mild in flavor than any other. They are usually raised by sowing the black seed, very thick, to form sets for next year. Those sets, put out early, will form large onions for early market, that will sell more readily than any other offered.
6. The Top Onion.—So called because the seed consists of small onions, growing on the top of the stalks, in place of the black seed of other onions. These are good for early use, grow large, but are poor keepers.
7. The Hill or Potato Onion.—Of these there are several kinds, most of which are unworthy of cultivation. The Large English is the only valuable variety. The small onions, for sets, grow in the ground from the same roots, by the side of the main onion. Some of these grow large enough for cooking. The main onion is the earliest known, grows large, and has a mild, pleasant flavor;—they will mature at a certain season, whatever time you plant them; hence, they must be planted very early to produce a good crop. We have planted them on good ground so late as to get little more than the seed. They are fine for summer and fall use, but keep poorly. The foregoing are all that are necessary. They can all be brought forward by early planting of sets raised the previous season, by sowing the black seed so thick that they can not grow larger than peas, or small cherries.
Good sandy loam and black muck are the best soils for onions. Any good garden soil may be made to produce large crops; good, well rotted stable-manure and leached ashes are the best. The theory of shallow plowing, and treading down onion-beds is incorrect. The roots of onions are numerous and long. The land should be well-manured, double-plowed, and thoroughly pulverized. The only objection to a very mellow onion-bed is the difficulty of getting the seed up: this is obviated by rolling after sowing, which packs the mould around the seed, so as to retain moisture and insure vegetation. Fine manure, mixed in the surface of the soil for onions, is highly beneficial; on no other crop does manure on the surface do so much good. Mulching the whole bed, as soon as the plants are large enough, is in the highest degree beneficial, both in promoting growth, and keeping down weeds. An onion-bed must be made very smooth and level, to favor very early hoeing, without destroying the small plants. All root-crops that come up small, are tended with less than half the expense, if the surface be made very smooth and level. Never divide your onion-ground into small beds, but sow the longest way, in straight narrow rows, eighteen inches apart, for convenience of weeding and hoeing. Cultivate while very young, and work the soil toward the rows, so as to hill up the plants; this should be removed after they begin to form large bulbs. Breaking down the tops to induce them to bottom, is a fallacy: it will lessen the crop. Rich soil, deep plowing, thorough pulverizing, early sowing, and frequent hoeings, will insure success. Our system of double-plowing is the best for this crop. They will do equally well, some say improve, for twenty years on the same bed. Work the tops into the soil where the plants grow. Let the rows be very narrow and very straight, and you will save half the ordinary expense of cultivation.
To gather and preserve well, you should house them when very dry. A day's exposure to a warm autumn sun is very beneficial. Keep them in an open barn or shed until there is danger of frost. A warm, damp cellar always ruins them; keep them through winter in the coolest dry place possible, without severe freezing. Once freezing is not injurious, but frequent freezing and thawing ruins them. They are very finely preserved braided into strings and hung in a cool, dry room.
This name covers a variety of species of the same general habits. It flourishes well on the coast of Florida, and all along the gulf of Mexico. It will stand considerable freezing, if protected from sudden thawing. In southern Europe, they are grown abundantly by being protected by a shed of boards. They may become perfectly hardy, as far north as Philadelphia. And by a thorough system of acclimation, and a little winter protection, they may be grown abundantly, in every state of the Union. The great enemy of the orange-tree is the scaled insect. It has been very destructive in Florida. A certain remedy is said to have been discovered in the camomile. Cultivate the plant under orange-trees, and it will prevent their attacks. The herb hung up in the trees, or the tree and foliage syringed with a decoction of it, will effectually destroy these insects. The orange is long-lived. A tree called "The Grand Bourbon" at Versailles was planted in 1421, and now, being 437 years old, is "one of the largest and finest trees in France." There are several varieties mentioned in the fruit books. The common Sweet Orange, the Maltese, the Blood Red—very fine with red flesh. The Mandarin Orange, an excellent little fruit from China. The St. Michael's is described as the finest of all oranges, and the tree the best bearer. Oranges are propagated by budding, and cultivated much in the same way as the peach.
An orchard is a plat of ground, large or small, occupied by trees for the purpose of bearing fruit. The main directions for orchard culture, are given under the respective fruits. Any soil good for vegetables or grains, is suitable for orchards. Any land where excessive moisture will not stand, to the injury of the trees, may be adapted to any of the fruits. Set pears on the heaviest land, peaches on the lightest, and the other fruits on the intermediate qualities. Although peaches will do quite well on light soil, yet they do better on a rich deep loam, or alluvium. When it is desirable to set out an orchard on land originally too wet, a blind ditch must pass under each row, extending out of the orchard, and the place where each tree is to stand, should be raised a foot above the level around it.
The aspect is also important. A southern or eastern exposure is preferable, in all latitudes where the transitions from summer to winter, and from winter to summer are so sudden as to allow but little alternate thawing and freezing. This would therefore be the rule in high latitudes. In climates of long changeable springs, a northern or western exposure is better. Trees may be made to start and blossom later in the spring by snow and ice about them, well pressed down in winter, and covered with straw. This will prevent the first warm weather from starting the leaves and blossoms, and cause them to be a little later, but surer and better.
Subsoiling ground for an orchard, is of great importance. Plant two orchards, one on land that has been subsoiled very deep, and the other upon that plowed in the ordinary way, and for ten years the difference will be discernable, as far as you can distinguish the trees in the two orchards.
Manures of all kinds, are good for orchards, except coarse stable manure, which should be composted. A bushel of fine charcoal, thoroughly mixed in the soil in which you set a fruit-tree, will exert a very beneficial influence, for a dozen years.
Orchards should be cultivated every alternate three successive years, and the rest of the time be kept in grass. Just about the trees, the ground should be kept loose, and free from weeds and grass. This may be done by spading and hoeing, but better by thorough mulching.
Distances apart.—Apples thirty-three feet. Pears twenty feet. Peaches and plums, sixteen feet. Pruning, destroying insects, and all other matters bearing on successful fruit growing, are treated under the several fruits.
Every farmer who can afford to keep two teams, should have a pair of oxen. For many uses on a farm, they are preferable to horses; especially for clearing up new land. Oxen to be most valuable, should be large, well matched, ruly, and not very fat. They should be kept in good heart, by the quality of their food. Fast walking is one of the best qualities in both horses and oxen, for all working purposes, provided they are judiciously used and not overloaded. Well built, strong animals are best for work. Working oxen should be turned out for beef, at eight or nine years old.
To break oxen well, commence when they are very young. Put calves into yokes frequently, until they will readily yield to your wishes. Yoke them often, and tie their tails together to prevent them from turning the yoke and injuring themselves. If left without training, until they are three or four years old, they will improve every opportunity to run away, to the danger and damage of proprietor and driver. It is quite an art to learn oxen to back a load. Place them before a vehicle, in a locality descending in the rear. As it rolls down hill, they will easily learn to follow, backward. Then try them on level ground. Then accustom them to back up hill, and finally to back a load, almost as heavy as they can draw.
Breaking vicious animals is always best done by gentleness. We have known vicious horses whipped severely, and in every way treated harshly, and finally given up as useless. We have seen those same horses, in other hands, brought to be regular, gentle, and safe, as could be desired, by mild means, without a blow or harsh word. Oxen should be driven in a low tone of voice, and without much use of the goad. The usual manner of driving, by whipping and bawling, to the annoyance of the whole neighborhood, and until the driver becomes hoarse with his perpetual screams, is one of the most pernicious habits on a farm. Oxen will grow lazy and insensible under threat, or scream, or goad. Driven in a low tone of voice, without confusion by rapid commands, and no whoa put in, unless you wish them to stand still, oxen may be made more useful on a farm than horses. Their gears are cheap and never in the way. They can draw more and in worse places than horses, and it costs less to keep them. The various methods of drawing with head or horns, in vogue in other countries, need not be discussed here, as the American people will not probably change their yoke and bows for any other method.
Feed oxen, as other animals, regularly, both in time and quantity. Curry them often and thoroughly. It improves their looks, health, and temper, and attaches them to their owner.
This is a hardy biennial, highly prized as a garnish, and as a pot-herb for flavoring soups and boiled dishes. The large-rooted variety is used for the table, as carrots or parsnips. The principal varieties are—the double-curled, the dwarf-curled, the Siberian (single, very hardy, and fine-flavored), the Hamburgh (large-rooted, used as an edible root). The double-curled is well known, easily obtained, and suitable for all purposes. Those who desire the roots instead of parsnips, &c., should cultivate the Hamburgh or large-rooted. It needs the same treatment as beets. Seed should always be of the previous year's growth, or it may not vegetate. It is four or five weeks in coming up, unless it be soaked twelve hours in a little sulphur-water, when it will vegetate in two weeks. By cutting the leaves close, even, and regular, a succession of fine leaves may be had for a whole year from the same plants, when they will go to seed, and new ones should take their place. In cold climates they should be covered in winter with straw or litter. The Siberian is cultivated in the field, sown with grass or the small grains. It is said to prevent the disease called "the rot" in sheep, and is good for surfeited horses. The large-rooted should not be sowed in an excessively rich soil, as it produces an undue proportion of tops.
English authors speak of but one variety of this root in cultivation in England. The French have three—the Coquaine, the Lisbonaise, and the Siam. The first runs down, in rich mellow soil, to the depth of four feet, and grows from six to sixteen inches in circumference; the Lisbonaise is shorter and larger round; the Siam is smaller than the others, of a yellowish color, and of excellent quality. We are not aware that our little hollow-crown carrot, so early and good, is included in the French varieties. We cultivate only the hollow-crown, and a common large variety; both are good for the table, and as food for animals. They need a light, deep, rich soil. A sandy loam is best, as for all roots. Seed kept over one season seldom vegetates. Should be soaked a day or two, and sown in straight rows, covered an inch deep, and the rows slightly rolled. It is much better, with this and the carrot, to sow radish-seed in the same rows. They come up so soon that they protect the parsnips and carrots from too hot a sun while tender, and also serve to mark the rows, so that they may be hoed early, without danger of destroying the young plants. Parsnips may be grown many years on the same bed without deterioration, provided a little decomposed manure or compost be annually added. Fresh manure is good if it be buried a foot deep. The yield will be greater if thinned to eight inches apart. Rows two feet apart, and the plants six inches in the row, are most suitable in field-culture. They will grow till frost comes, and are better for the table, when allowed to stand in the ground through the winter. They may be dug and preserved as other roots. Parsnips contain more sugar than any other edible root, and are therefore worth more per bushel for food. All domestic animals and fowls fatten on them very rapidly, and their flesh is peculiarly pleasant. Fed to cows, they increase the quantity of milk, and impart a beautiful color and agreeable flavor to the butter. It is superior to the beet, that we have so highly recommended elsewhere, in all respects except one—it is less easily tended and harvested. Still, they should be cultivated on every farm where cattle, hogs, or fowls, are kept.
These are very important to all who keep domestic animals. The following brief directions for successful pasturing are essential. It is very poor economy to have all your pasture-lands in one field, or to put all your animals together. Pasture fields in rotation, two weeks each, allowing rest and growth for six weeks: first horned cattle, next horses, then sheep. Horses feed closer than cattle, and sheep closer than horses; each also eats something that the others do not relish. Pasturing land with sheep thickens the grass on the ground. For the kinds of grass preferable for pastures, see our article on Grasses. Plaster sown on pastures containing clover, materially increases their growth. A little lime, plaster, and common salt, sown on any pasture, will prove very beneficial. Streams or springs in pastures double their value. The idea that creatures need no water when feeding on green grass is a mistake. Every pasture without a spring or stream should have a well. Cattle in a pasture in warm weather need shade. It is usual to advise the growth of trees in the borders, or scattered over the whole field. Sheds are much better. Trees absorb the moisture, stint the growth of the grass, and injure its quality. A pasture containing many trees is not worth more than half price; it will keep about half as much stock, and keep them poorly. Bushes, which so often occupy pastures, should be grubbed up, and by all means destroyed; so should all thistles, briers, and large weeds. Hogs and geese should be kept in no pastures but their own. Never turn into pastures when the ground is very soft and wet, in the spring; the tread of the creatures will destroy much of the turf. Creatures in pasture should be salted twice a week. The age of grass, to make the best feed for animals, is often mistaken: most suppose that young and tender grass is preferable; this is far from correct. Grass that is headed out, and in which the seed has begun to mature, is far more nutritious, as every farmer can ascertain by easy experiments. Tall grass, approaching maturity, will fatten cattle much faster than the most tender young growth. Pasturing land enriches it. It is well to mow pastures and pasture meadows occasionally, though few meadows and pastures should lie long without plowing. Top-dressings of manure, on all grass-lands, are valuable; better applied in the fall than in the spring; evaporation is less, and it has opportunity to soak into the soil.
These are sown in the field and garden. As a field-crop, peas and oats are sown together, and make good ground or soaked feed for horses, or for fattening animals. Early peas and large marrowfats are frequently sown broadcast on rich, clean land, near large cities, to produce green peas for market. It does not pay as well as to sow in rows three feet apart, and cultivate with a horse. All peas, for picking while green, are more convenient when bushed. They may produce nearly as well when allowed to grow in the natural way, but can not be picked as easily, and the second crop is less, and inferior, from the injury to the vines by the first picking. Early Kent peas (the best early variety) mature so nearly at the same time that the vines may be pulled up at once. All other peas had better be bushed, that they may be easily picked, and that the later ones may mature. Bushes need not be set so close as usual. A good bush, put firmly in the ground, to enable it to resist the wind, once in two and a half feet, is quite sufficient. Those clinging to the bushes will hold up the others. To bush peas in this way is but little work, and pays well. It is often said that stable-manure does no good on pea-ground—-that peas are neither better nor more abundant for its use. We think this utterly a mistake. We have often raised twice the quantity on a row well manured, that grew on another row by its side, where no manure had been applied. If peas be sowed thick on thoroughly-manured land, the crop will be small: it is from this fact that the idea has gained currency. They are generally planted too thick on rich land. Peas planted six inches deep will produce nearly twice as much as those covered but an inch. Plowing in peas and leveling the surface is one of the best methods of planting. To get an early crop in a cold climate, they may be forced in hotbeds, or planted in a warm exposure, very early, and protected by covering, when the weather is cold. At the South, it is best to plant so as to secure a considerable growth in the fall, and protect by covering with straw during cold weather.
The only known remedy for the bugs that are so common in peas, is late sowing. In latitude forty-two, peas sown as late as the 10th of June will have no bugs. Bugs in seed-peas may be killed by putting the peas into hot water for a quarter of a minute; plant immediately, and they will come up sooner and do well. Seed imported from the more northern parts of Canada have no bugs; it is probably owing to the lateness of the season of their growth. But late peas are often much injured by mildew; this is supposed to be caused by too little moisture in the ground, and too much and too cool in the atmosphere, in dew or rain. Liberal watering then would prevent it.
Varieties—are numerous. Two are quite sufficient. Early Kent the earliest we have ever been able to obtain, ripen nearly all at once; moderate bearers, but of the very best quality. This variety of pea is the only garden vegetable with which we are acquainted that produces more and better fruit for being sowed quite thick. The other variety that we recommend is the large Marrowfat. These should not stand nearer together, on rich land, than three or four inches, and always be bushed. There are many other varieties of both late and early peas, but we regard them inferior to these. White's "Gardening for the South" mentions Landreth's Extra Early, Prince Albert, Cedo-Nulli, Fairbank's Champion, Knight's tall Marrow, and New Mammoth. Whoever wishes a greater variety can get any of these under new names. The large blue Imperial is a rich pea, like many of the dwarfs, both of the large and small, but is very unproductive. We advise all to select the best they can find, and plant but two kinds, late and early.
Plant at intervals to get a succession of crops. But very late peas, in our dry climate, amount to but little, without almost daily watering.
This native of Persia is one of the most healthy and universally-favorite fruits. In its native state, it was hardly suitable for eating, resembling an almond more than our present fine peaches. Perhaps no other fruit exhibits so wide a difference in the products of seeds from the same tree. All the fine varieties are what we call chance products of seeds, not one out of a thousand of which deserved further cultivation. The prevailing opinion is, that planting the seeds is not a certain method of propagating a given variety; hence the general practice of budding (which see). Others assert that there are permanent varieties, that usually produce the same from the seed, when not allowed to mix in the blossoms. Some prefer to raise the trees for their peach-orchards from seed, thinking them longer-lived and more healthy. Whole peaches planted when taken from the tree, or the pits planted before having become dry, are said to be much more certain to produce the same fruit. We know an instance in which the fruit of an early Crawford peach, thus planted, could not be distinguished from those that grew on a budded tree in the same orchard. One of the difficulties in reproducing the same from seed, is the great difficulty in getting the seed of any variety pure. We everywhere have so many varieties of fruit-trees in the same orchard, that the seeds of no one can be pure; they mix in the blossoms. On this account, the surest method of perpetuating a variety is by budding. This tree is of rapid growth, often bearing the third year from the seed, and producing abundantly the fifth. The peach-tree is often called thrifty when its growth is very luxuriant, but tender and unhealthy, perishing in the following winter. A moderate, steady, hardy growth is most profitable. The following directions, though brief, are complete:—
Raising Seedlings.—Dry the pits in the shade; put them away till the last of winter; then soak them two days in water, and spread them on some place in the garden where water will not stand, and cover them an inch deep with wet sand, and leave them to freeze. When about time to plant them (which is early corn-planting time), take them up and select all those that are opened by the frost, and that are beginning to germinate, and plant in rows four feet apart and one foot in the row. These will grow and be ready for budding considerably earlier than those not opened by frost. Crack the others on a wooden block, by striking their side-edge with a hammer; you thus avoid injury to the germ that is endangered by striking the end. Plant these in rows like the others, but only six inches apart in the row, as they will not all germinate. Plant them on rich soil covering an inch or two deep. Keep them clear of weeds, and they will be ready for budding from August 15th to September 10th, according to latitude or season. In a dry season, when everything matures early, budding must not be deferred as long as in a wet season.
For full directions for budding, see our article on that subject.
Transplanting.—Perhaps no other fruit-tree suffers so much from transplanting when too large. This should always be done, after one year's growth, from the bud. The best time for transplanting is the spring in northern latitudes subject to hard frosts, and in autumn in warmer climates.
Soil and Location.—All intelligent fruit-growers are aware that these exert a great influence upon the size, quality, and quantity, of all varieties of fruits. An accurate description of a variety in one climate will not always identify it in another. Some few varieties are nearly permanent and universal, but most are adapted to particular localities, and need a process of acclimation to adapt them to other soils and situations. Light sandy soils are usually regarded best for the peach: it is only so because nineteen out of twenty cultivators will not take pains to suitably prepare other soils. Some of the best peaches we have ever seen grew on the richest Illinois prairie, and others on the limestone bluffs of the Ohio river. Thorough drainage is indispensable for the peach, on all but very light, porous soils: with such drainage, peaches will do best on soil best adapted to growing corn and potatoes. Bones, bonedust, lime, ashes, stable-manure, and charcoal, are the best applications to the soil of a peach-orchard. Whoever grows peaches should put at least half a bushel of fine charcoal in the earth in which he sets each tree. Mix it well with the soil, and the tree will grow better, and the fruit be larger and finer, for a dozen years. Any good soil, well drained and manured with these articles, will produce great crops of peaches. For the location of peach-orchards, see our general remarks on "Location of Fruit-trees." But we would repeat here the direction to choose a northern exposure, in climates subject to late frosts. Elevations are always favorable, as are also the shores of all bodies of water. In our remarks on location, we have shown by facts the great value of hills, so high as to be useless for any other purpose. Between Pittsburgh and the mouth of the Ohio river, there are enough high elevations, now useless, to supply all the cities within fifty miles of the rivers, down to New Orleans, with the best of peaches every year. In no year will they ever be cut off by frost on those hills. Warm exposures, with a little winter protection, will secure good peaches in climates not adapted to them. In some parts of France, they grow large quantities for market by training them against walls, where they do not flourish in the open field. By this practice, and by enclosures and acclimation, the growth of this excellent fruit may be extended to the coldest parts of the United States.
Transplanting—should be performed with care, as in the case of all other fruit-trees. Every injured root should be cut off smooth from the under side, slanting out from the tree. Leave the roots, as nearly as possible, in the position in which they were before. Set the tree an inch lower than it stood in the nursery; it saves the danger of the roots getting uncovered, and of too strong action of the atmosphere on the roots, in a soil so loose. The opposite is often recommended, viz., to allow the tree in its new location to stand an inch or two higher than before; but we are sure, from repeated trials, that it is wrong. Shake the fine earth as closely around the roots as possible, mulch well, and pour on a pailful of tepid water, if it be rather a dry time, and the tree will be sure to live and make a good growth the first year. When a peach-tree is transplanted, after one year's growth from the bud, it should have the top cut off within eighteen inches or two feet of the ground, and all the limbs cut off at half their length. This will induce the formation of a full, large head. A low, full-branching head is always best on a peach-tree.
Pruning is perhaps the most important matter in successful peach culture. The fruit is borne wholly on wood of the previous year's growth. Hence a tree that has the most of that growth, in a mature state, and properly situated, will bear the most and the finest fruit. A tree left to its natural state, with no pruning but of a few of the lower limbs from the main trunk, will soon exhibit a collection of long naked limbs, without foliage, except near their extremities (see the cut overleaf). In this case fruit will be too thick on what little bearing wood there is, and it should be thinned. But very few cultivators even attend to that. The fruit is consequently small, and it weakens the growth of the young wood above, for next year's fruiting, and thus tree and fruit are perpetually deteriorating.
Observe a shoot of young peachwood, you will see near its base, leaf-buds. On the middle there are many blossom-buds, and on the top, leaf-buds again. The tendency of sap is to the extremity. Hence the upper leaf-buds will put out at once. And for their growth, and the maturity of the excessive fruit on the middle, the power of the sap is so far exhausted, that the leaf-buds at the base do not grow. Hence when the fruit is removed, nothing is left below the terminal shoots, but a bare pole. This is the condition in which we find most peach-trees.
For this there is a certain preventive. It consists in shortening in, by cutting off in the month of September, from a third to a half of the current season's growth. If the top be large, cut off one half the length of the new wood. If it be less vigorous and rank, and you fear you will not have room for a fair crop of peaches, cut off but one third. This heading-in is sometimes recommended to be done in the spring. For forming a head in a young tree the spring is better. But to mature the wood, and increase the quantity, and improve the quality of the fruit, September is much the best.
Such shortening in early in September, directs the sap to maturing the wood, already formed and developing fruit-buds, instead of promoting the growth of an undue quantity of young and tender wood, to be destroyed by the winter, or to hinder the growth of the fruit of the next season. This heading-in process, with these young shoots, is most easily performed with pruning shears, with wooden handles, of a length suited to the height of the tree.
But a work to precede this annual shortening-in, is the original formation of a head to a peach-tree. Take a tree a year old from the bud, and cut it down to within two and a half feet from the ground. Below that numerous strong shoots will come out. Select three vigorous ones and let them grow as they please, carefully pinching off all the rest. In the fall you will have a tree of three good strong branches. In the next spring cut off these three branches, one half. Below these cuts, branches will start freely. Select one vigorous shoot to continue the limb, and another to form a new branch. Check the growth of the shoots below, by cutting off their ends, but do not rub them off, as they will form fruit branches. At the close of the season you will have a tree with six main branches, and some small ones for fruit, on the older wood. Repeat this process the third year, and you have a tree with twelve main branches, and plenty smaller ones for fruit. All these small branches on the old wood, should be shortened in half their length, to cause the leaf-buds near their base to start, so as to produce large numbers of young shoots. Continue this as long as you please, and make just as large a head and just such a form as you may wish, being careful only to control the shape of the top so as to let the sun and air freely into every part.
Trees thus trained may be planted thick enough to allow four hundred to stand on an acre, and will bear an abundance of the finest fruit, and all low enough to be easily picked. This method of training is much better than allowing the tree to shoot out on all sides from the ground: in that case, the branches are apt to split down and perish. This system of heading-in freely every year, preserves the life and health of the tree remarkably. Many of the finest peach-trees in France are from thirty to sixty years old, and some a hundred. We may, in this country, have peach-trees live fifty years, in the most healthy bearing condition. By trimming in this way, and carrying out fully this system, some have thrifty-looking peach-trees, more than a foot in diameter, bearing the very best of fruit. It is sheer neglect that causes our peach-orchards to perish after having borne from three to six years. Let every man who plants a peach-tree remember, that this system of training will make his tree live long, be healthy, grow vigorously, and bear abundantly.
Diseases of peach-trees have been a matter of much speculation. The result is, that the hope of the peach-grower is mainly in preventives.
The Yellows is usually regarded as a disease. Imagination has invented many causes of this evil. Some suppose it to be produced by small insects; others that it is in the seed. Again, it is ascribed to the atmosphere. It has been supposed to be propagated in many ways—by trimming a healthy tree with a knife that had been used on a diseased one; by contagion in the atmostphere, as the measles or small-pox; by impregnation from the pollen, through the agency of winds or bees; by the migration of small insects; or by planting diseased seeds, or budding from diseased trees. This great diversity of opinion leaves room to doubt whether the yellows in peach-trees be a disease at all, or only a symptom of general decay. The symptoms, as given in all the fruit-books, are only such as would be natural from decay and death of the tree, from any cause whatever. This may result from neglect to supply the soil with suitable manures, and to trim trees properly, and especially from over-bearing. This view of the case is more probable, from the fact that none pretend to have found a remedy. All advise to remove the tree thus affected at once, root and branch. We have seen the following treatment of such trees tried with marked success. Cut off a large share of the top, as when you would renew an old, neglected tree; lay the large roots bare, making a sort of basin around the body of the tree, and pour in three pailfuls of boiling water: the tree will start anew and do well. This is an excellent application to an old, failing peach-tree. The sure preventive of the yellows is, planting seeds of healthy trees, budding from the most vigorous, heading-in well, supplying appropriate manures, and general good cultivation.
Curled Leaves is another evil among peach-trees, occurring before the leaves are fully grown, and causing them to fall off after two or three weeks. Other leaves will put out, but the fruit is destroyed, and the general health of the tree injured. Elliott says the curl of the leaf is produced by the punctures of small insects. One kind of curled leaf is, but not this. But we have no doubt that Barry's theory is the correct one, viz., that it is the effect of sudden changes of the weather. We have noticed the curled leaf in orchards where the trees were so close together as to guard each other. On the side where the cold wind struck them, we noticed they were badly affected; while on the warm side, and in the centre where they were protected by the others, they exhibited very few signs of the curl. In western New York, unusual cold east winds always produce the curled leaves, on trees much exposed: hence, the only remedy is the best protection you can give, by location, &c.
Mildew is a minute fungus growing on the ends of tender shoots of certain varieties, checking their growth, and producing other bad effects. Syringe the trees with a weak solution of nitre, one ounce in a gallon of water, which will destroy the fungus and invigorate the tree.
The Borer has been the great enemy of the peach-tree, since about the close of the last century. The female insect, that produces the worms, deposites her eggs under rough bark, near the surface of the ground. This is done mostly in July, but occasionally from June to October. The eggs are laid in small punctures, and covered with a greenish glue; in a few days they come out, a small white worm, and eat through the bark where it is tender, just at, or a little below, the surface of the ground; they eat under the bark, between that and the wood, and, consuming a little of each, they frequently girdle the tree; as they grow larger, they perforate the solid wood; when about a year old, they make a cocoon just below the surface of the ground, change into a chrysalis state, and shortly come out a winged insect, to deposite fresh eggs. But the practical part of all this is the remedy: keep the ground clean around the trees, and rub off frequently all the rough bark; place around each tree half a peck of air-slaked lime, and the borer will not attack it. This should be placed there on the first of May, and be spread over the ground on the first of October; refuse tobacco-stems, from the cigar-makers, or any other offensive substance, as hen-manure, salt and ashes, &c., will answer the same purpose. We should recommend the annual cultivation of a small piece of ground in tobacco, for use around peach-trees. We have found it very successful against the borer, and it is an excellent manure; applied two or three times during the season, it proves a perfect remedy, and is in no way injurious, as an excessive quantity of lime might be.
Leaf Insects.—There are several varieties, which cause the leaves to curl and prematurely fall. This kind of curled leaf differs from the one described as the result of sudden changes and cold wind; that appears general wherever the cold wind strikes the tree, while this only affects a few leaves occasionally, and those surrounded by healthy leaves. The remedy is to syringe them with offensive mixtures, as tobacco-juice, or sprinkle them when wet with fine, air-slaked lime.
Varieties.—Their name is legion, and they are rapidly increasing, and their synonyms multiplying. A singular fact, in most of our fruit-books, is a minute description of useless kinds, and such descriptions of those that they call good, as not one in ten thousand cultivators will ever try to master—they are worse than useless, except to an occasional amateur cultivator.
Elliott, in his fruit-book, divides peaches into three classes: the first is for general cultivation; under this class he describes thirty-one varieties, with ninety-eight synonyms. His second class is for amateur cultivators, and includes sixty-nine varieties, with eighty-four synonyms. His third class, which he says are unworthy of further cultivation, describes fifty-four varieties, with seventy-seven synonyms. Cole gives sixty-five varieties, minutely described, and many of them pronounced worthless. In Hooker's Western Fruit-Book, we have some eighty varieties, only a few of which are regarded worthy of cultivation. Downing gives us one hundred and thirty-three varieties, with about four hundred synonyms. In all these works the descriptions are minute. The varieties of serrated leaves, the glandless, and some having globose glands on the leaves, and others with reniform glands. Then we have the color of the fruit in the shade and in the sun, which will, of course, vary with every degree of sun or shade. We submit the opinion that those books would have possessed much more value, had they only described the best mode of cultivating peaches, without having mentioned a single variety, thus leaving each cultivator to select the best he could find. Had they given a plain description of ten, or certainly of not more than fifteen varieties, those books would have been far more valuable for the people. We give a small list, including all we think it best to cultivate. Perhaps confining our selection to half a dozen varieties would be a further improvement:—
1. The first of all peaches is Crawford's Early. This is an early, sure, and great bearer, of the most beautiful, large fruit;—a good-flavored, juicy peach, though not the very richest. It is, on the whole, the very best peach in all parts of the country. Time, from July 15th to September 1st. Freestone.
2. Crawford's Late is very large and handsome; uniformly productive, though not nearly so good a bearer as Crawford's Early. Ripens last of September and in October. Fair quality, and always handsome; freestone; excellent for market.
3. Columbia.—Origin, New Jersey. It is a thoroughly-tested variety, raised and described by Mr. Cox, who wrote one of the earliest and best American fruit-books. Fine specimens were exhibited in 1856, grown in Covington, Ky. Excellent in all parts of the United States. Freestone.
4. George the Fourth.—A large, delicious, freestone peach, an American seedling from Mr. Gill, Broad street, New York. The National Pomological Society have decided the tree to be so healthy and productive as to adapt it to all localities in this country. It has twenty-five synonyms.
5. Early York.—Freestone; the best, and first really good, early peach. Time July at Cincinnati, and August at Cleveland. Time of ripening of all varieties varies with latitude, location, and season.
6. Grass Mignonne.—A foreign variety, a great favorite in France, in the time of Louis XIV. Very rich freestone, flourishing in all climates from Boston south. The high repute in which it has long been held is seen in its thirty synonyms. One of the best, when you can obtain the genuine. Time, August.
7. Honest John.—A large, beautiful, delicious, freestone variety. Highly prized as a late peach, maturing from the middle to the last of October. Indispensable in even a small selection.
8. Malacatune.—A very popular American freestone peach, derived from a Spanish, and is the parent of the Crawford peaches, both early and late.
9. Morris White.—Everywhere well known; a good bearer; best for preserving at the North; a good dessert peach South.
10. Morris Red Rare-ripe.—A favorite, freestone, July peach. The tree is healthy and a great bearer.
11. Old Mixon.—Should be found in all gardens and orchards; it is of excellent quality and ripens at a time when few good peaches are to be had; it endures spring-frosts better than any other variety; profitable.
12. Old Mixon Cling.—One of the most delicious early clingstones. Deserves a place in all gardens.
13. Monstrous Cling.—Not the best quality, but profitable for market on account of its great size.
14. Heath Cling.—Very good South and West. Wrapped in paper and laid in a cool room, it will keep longer than any other variety. Tree hardy and often produces when others fail. Excellent for preserving, and when quite ripe, is superior as a dessert fruit.
15. Blood Cling.—A well-known peach, excellent for pickling and preserving. It sometimes measures twelve inches in circumference. The old French Blood Cling is smaller. Many of these varieties will be found under other names. You will have to depend upon your nursery-man to give you the best he has, and be careful to bud from any choice variety you may happen to taste. Difficulties and disappointments will always attend efforts to get desired varieties.
The pear is a native of Europe and Asia, and, in its natural state, is quite as unfit for the table as the crab-apple. Cultivation has given it a degree of excellence that places it in the first rank among dessert-fruits. No other American fruit commands so high a price. New varieties are obtained by seedlings, and are propagated by grafting and budding: the latter is generally preferred. Root-grafting of pears is to be avoided; the trees will be less vigorous and healthy. The difficulty of raising pear-seedlings has induced an extensive use of suckers, to the great injury of pear-culture. Fruit-growers are nearly unanimous in discarding suckers as stocks for grafting. The difficulty in raising seedling pear-trees is the failure of the seeds to vegetate. A remedy for this is, never to allow the seeds to become dry, after being taken from the fruit, until they are planted. Keep them in moist sand until time to plant them in the spring, or plant as soon as taken from the fruit. The spring is the best time for planting, as the ground can be put in better condition, rendering after-culture much more easy. The pear will succeed well on any good soil, well supplied with suitable fertilizers. The best manures for the pear are, lime in small quantities, wood-ashes, bones, potash dissolved, and applied in rotten wood, leaves, and muck, with a little stable-manure and iron-filings—iron is very essential in the soil for the pear-tree. In all soils moderately supplied with these articles, all pear-trees grafted on seedling-stocks, and those that flourish on the foreign quince, will do well. A good yellow loam is most natural; light sandy or gravelly land is unfavorable. It is better to cart two or three loads of suitable soil for each tree on such land. The practice of budding or grafting on apple-stocks, on crab-apples, and on the mountain-ash, should be utterly discarded. For producing early fruit, quince-stocks and root-pruning are recommended.
Setting out pear-trees properly is of very great importance. The requisites are, to have the ground in good condition, from manure on the crop of the last season, and thoroughly subsoiled and drained. Pear-trees delight in rather heavy land, if it be well drained; but water, standing in the soil about them, is utterly ruinous. Pear-trees, well transplanted on moderately rich land, well subsoiled and well drained, will almost always succeed. By observing the following brief directions, any cultivator may have just such shaped tops on his pear-trees as he desires. Cut short any shoots that are too vigorous, that those around them may get their share of the sap, and thus be enabled to make a proportionate growth. After trees have come into bearing, symmetry in the form of their heads may be promoted by pinching off all the fruit on the weak branches, and allowing all on the strong ones to mature.
Those two simple methods, removing the fruit from too vigorous shoots, and cutting in others, half or two-thirds their length, will enable one to form just such heads as he pleases, and will prove the best preventives of diseases.
Diseases.—There are many insects that infest pear-orchards, in the same manner as they do apples, and are to be destroyed in the same way. The slugs on the leaves are often quite annoying. These are worms, nearly half an inch long, olive-colored, and tapering from head to tail, like a tadpole. Ashes or quicklime, sprinkled over the leaves when they are wet with dew or rain, is an effectual remedy.
Insect-Blight.—This has been confounded with the frozen-sap blight, though they are very different. In early summer, when the shoots are in most vigorous growth, you will notice that the leaves on the ends of branches turn brown, and very soon die and become black. This is caused by a worm from an egg, deposited just behind or below a bud, by an insect. The egg hatches, and the worm perforates the bark into the wood, and commits his depredations there, preventing the healthy flow of the sap, which kills the twig above. Soon after the shoot dies, the worm comes out in the form of a winged insect, and seeks a location to deposite its eggs, preparatory to new depredations. The remedy is to cut off the shoots affected at once, and burn them. The insect-blight does not affect the tree far below the location of the worm. Watch your trees closely, and cut off all affected parts as soon as they appear, and burn them immediately, and you will soon destroy all the insects. But very soon after the appearance of the blight they leave the limb; hence a little delay will render your efforts useless. These insects often commit the same depredations on apple and quince-trees. We had an orchard in Ohio seriously affected by them. We know no remedy but destruction as above.
The Frozen-Sap Blight is a much more serious difficulty. Its nature and origin are now pretty well settled. In every tree there are two currents of sap: one passes up through the outer wood, to be digested by the leaves; the other passing down in the inner bark, deposites new wood, to increase the size of the tree. Now, in a late growth of this kind of wood, the process is rapidly going on, at the approach of cold weather, and the descending sap is suddenly frozen, in this tender bark and growing wood. This sudden freezing poisons the sap, and renders the tree diseased. The blight will show itself, in its worst form, in the most rapid growing season of early summer, though the disease commenced with the severe frosts of the previous autumn. Its presence may be known by a thick, clammy sap, that will exude in winter or spring pruning, and in the discoloration of the inner bark and peth of the branches. On limbs badly affected on one side, the bark will turn black and shrivel up. But its effects in the death of the branches only occur when the growth of the tree demands the rapid descent of the sap: then the poisoned sap which was arrested the previous fall, in its downward passage, is diluted and sent through the tree; and when it is abundant, the whole tree is poisoned and destroyed in a few days; in others more slightly affected, it only destroys a limb or a small portion of the top. Another effect of this fall-freezing of sap and growing wood, is to rupture the sap-vessels, and thus prevent the inner bark from performing its functions. This theory is so well established, that an intelligent observer can predict, in the fall, a blight-season the following summer. If the summer be cool, and the fall warm and damp, closed by sudden cold, the blight will be troublesome the next season, because the plentiful downward flow of sap, and rapid growth of wood, were arrested by sudden freezing. If the summer is favorable, and the wood matures well before cold weather, the blight will not appear. This is of the utmost practical moment to the pear-culturist. Anything in soil, situation, or pruning, that favors early maturity of wood, will serve as a preventive of blight; hence, cool, moist situations are not favorable in climates subject to sudden and severe cold weather in autumn. Root-pruning and heading-in, which always induce early maturity of wood, are of vast importance; they will, almost always, prevent frozen-sap blight. If, in spite of you, your pear-trees will make a late luxuriant growth, cut off one half of the most vigorous shoots before hard freezing, and you will check the flow of sap, by removing the leaves and shoots that control it, and save your trees. If blight makes its appearance, cut off at once all the parts affected. The effects will be visible in the wood and inner bark, far below the external apparent injury. Remove the whole injured part, or it will poison the rest of the tree. When this frozen sap is extensive, it poisons and destroys the whole tree; when slight, the tree often wholly recovers. If a spot of black, shrivelled bark appears, shave it off, deep enough to remove the affected parts, and cover the wound with grafting-wax. Remove all affected limbs. These are the only remedies. But the practice of pruning both roots and branches will prove a certain preventive. A tree growing in grass, where it grows more slowly, and matures earlier in the season, will escape this blight; while one growing in very rich garden soil, and continuing to grow until cold weather, will suffer severely. The effects on orchards, in different soils and localities everywhere, confirm this theory. A little care then will prevent this evil, which has sometimes been so great as to discourage attempts at raising pears. In some localities, some of the finer varieties of pears, as the virgalieu, are ruined by cracking on the trees before ripening. Applications of ashes, salt, charcoal, iron-filings, and clay on light lands, will remedy this evil.
Distances apart.—All fruit-trees had better occupy as little ground as is consistent with a healthy vigorous growth. They are manured and well cultivated, at a much less expense. The trees protect each other against inclement weather. The fruit is more easily harvested. And it is a great saving of land, as nothing else can be profitably grown in an orchard of large fruit-trees. The two kinds of pear-trees, dwarf and standard, may be planted together closely and be profitable for early and abundant bearing. The plan given on the next page of a pear-orchard, recommended in Cole's Fruit Book, is the best we have seen.
In the plan the trees on pear-stocks, designed for standards, occupy the large black spots where the lines intersect. They are thirty-three feet apart. The small spots indicate the position of dwarf-trees on quince stocks. Of these there are three on each square rod. An acre then would have forty standard trees, and four hundred and eighty dwarfs. The latter will come into early bearing, and be profitable, long before the former will produce any fruit. This will induce and repay thorough cultivation. They should be headed in, and finally removed, as the standards need more room. One acre carefully cultivated in this way, will afford an income sufficient for the support of a small family.