Manual of Gardening Part 60

The sweet cherries have proved disappointing in many instances from the rotting of the fruit. This may never be entirely avoided, but good cultivation, soil not too rich in nitrogen, attention to spraying, and picking the fruit when dry, will lessen the loss very much. In years of severe rotting the fruit should be picked before it becomes fully ripe, placed in a cool, airy room and allowed to color. It will be nearly as well flavored as if left on the tree; and, as the fungus usually attacks only the ripe fruit, a considerable part of the crop may be saved. Set the trees 25 or 30 ft. apart. Only very well-drained land should be devoted to sweet cherries, preferably one of a somewhat gravelly nature.

Leaf-blight is readily controlled by timely spraying with bordeaux mixture. The curculio or fruit worm may be controlled by jarring, as for plums, or by spraying. The jarring process is seldom employed with cherries for the curculio, inasmuch as the poison spray seems, for some reason, to be particularly effective on these fruits.

_Varieties of cherry._

Of the sour varieties, May Duke (Fig. 36), Richmond, Dyehouse, Montmorency, Ostheim, Hortense (Fig. 34), Late Kentish, Suda, and Morello (English Morello) (Fig. 35) are the most valuable. The following sweet varieties are of value where they succeed: Rockport, (Yellow) Spanish, Elton, (Governor) Wood, Coe, Windsor, (Black) Tartarian, and Downer.

CRANBERRY.--The growing of cranberries in artificial bogs is an American industry. The common large cranberry of markets is also a peculiarly American fruit, since it is unknown in other countries except as the fruit is shipped there.

Cranberries are grown in bogs, which may be flooded. The whole area is kept under water during the winter time, largely to prevent the plants from winter injury by the heaving and freezing and thawing of the bogs.

Flooding is also employed at intervals for the purpose of drowning out insects, mitigating drought, and protecting against frost and fires. The ordinary practice is to choose a bog which has a creek running through it, or through which some creek or ditch may be diverted. At the lower side of the bog flood-gates are provided, so that when the gates are shut, the water backs up and floods the area. It is best that the bog be comparatively flat, so that the water will be of approximately equal depth over the whole area. At the shallowest places the water should stand about a foot above the plants. The water is usually let on the bog early in December and kept on until April or early May. No flooding is done during the rest of the year unless there is some particular occasion therefor.

All the wild and turfy growth should be taken off the bog before the vines are set. This is done either by digging it off and removing it bodily, or by drowning it out by means of a year's flooding. The former method is generally considered to be the better. After the turfy growth is removed, the bog is smoothed, and covered 2 or 3 in. deep with clean sand. The vines are now set, the lower ends of them being shoved through the sand into the richer earth. In order to prevent a too rapid and tangled growth of vine, it is customary to resand the bog every three or four years to a depth of one-fourth or one-half inch. When sanding is not practicable, the vines may be mown off when they become too luxuriant.

The plants for setting are merely cuttings or branches of the vines.

These cuttings may be 5 to 10 inches long. They are inserted into the ground in a hole made by a crowbar or stick. They are usually planted at distances of 12 to 18 inches each way, and the vines are allowed to cover the entire ground as with a mat. In three years a good crop should be secured, if the weeds and wild growth are kept down. A crop ranges between 50 to 100 barrels per acre.

CURRANT.--As the currant is one of the hardiest and most productive of fruits in the North, so is it often neglected, the patch allowed to become foul with gra.s.s, never thinned or trimmed, the worms eating the leaves until, in the course of time, the plants weaken and die. Along the fence is no place to plant currants, or, indeed, any other fruit; plant out in the open, at least 5 feet from anything that will interfere with cultivation.

No fruit crop will respond more readily to good care than the currant.

Clean cultivation and a liberal use of manure or fertilizers will certainly be followed by well-paying crops. One-or two-year-old plants may be set, 4 by 6 feet. Trim the bush by cutting off most of the suckers below the surface of the ground. The currant should have cool moist soil. If the season is dry, a mulch of straw or leaves will a.s.sist the plants to establish themselves.

Currants are easily propagated by mature cuttings of the new or previous year's canes.

The red and white currants bear mostly on two-year-old or older wood. A succession of young shoots should be allowed to grow to take the place of the old bearing wood. Cut out the canes as they grow older. The partial shade afforded by a young orchard suits the currant well, and if the ground is in good condition, no bad results will follow to the orchard, provided the currants are removed before the trees need the entire feeding s.p.a.ce.

A currant patch should continue in good bearing for 10 to 20 years, if properly handled. One very important point is to keep the old, weak canes cut out, and a succession of two to four new ones coming from the root each year.

To combat the currant worm, spray thoroughly with Paris green to kill the first brood, just as soon as holes can be seen in the lower leaves --usually before the plants are in bloom. For the second brood, if it appear, spray with white h.e.l.lebore (p. 203). For borers, cut out and burn the affected canes.

_Varieties of currants._

In most sections the Red Dutch will be found to be the most satisfactory variety, as the plants are much less injured by borers than are Cherry (Plate XXIII), Fay, and Versailles, which are larger and better varieties, and are to be preferred in sections where the borers are not troublesome. Victoria is a valuable market sort where borers are numerous, as it is little injured by them. The same is also true of (Prince) Albert, which is little attacked by currant worms and is particularly valuable as a late sort. White Dutch and White Grape are valuable light-colored varieties, and (Black) Naples as a variety for jelly. London (London Market) is also proving to be satisfactory in some sections.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 276. Lucretia dewberry.]

DEWBERRY.--The dewberry may be called an early trailing blackberry.

The culture is very simple. Support should be given to the canes, as they are very slender and rank growers. A wire trellis or large-meshed fence-wire answers admirably; or (and this is the better general method) they may be tied to stakes. The fruits are large and showy, which, combined with their earliness, makes them desirable; but they are usually deficient in flavor. The Lucretia (Fig. 276) is the leading variety.

Lay the canes on the ground in winter. In the spring tie all the canes from each plant to a stake. After fruiting, cut the old canes and burn them (as for blackberries). In the meantime, the young canes (for next year's fruiting) are growing. These may be tied up as they grow, to be out of the way of the cultivator. Dewberries are one to two weeks earlier than blackberries.

FIG.--The fig is little grown in the East except as a curiosity, but on the Pacific coast it has gained considerable prominence as an orchard fruit. Figs will stand considerable frost, and seedling or inferior varieties grow out-of-doors without protection as far north as Virginia. Many of the varieties fruit on young sprouts, and, inasmuch as the roots will stand considerable cold, these varieties will often give a few figs in the northern states. Figs have been fruited in the open ground in Michigan. In regions having ten degrees of frost, the fig should be laid down in winter. For this purpose the plants are pruned to branch from the ground, and the soft tops are bent to the surface and covered with earth. In commercial cultivation, fig trees grow large, and they stand 18 to 25 feet apart; but in gardens where they are to be bent over, they are to be kept as bushes.

Adriatic is the most commonly grown white fig. Among the other varieties are California Black or Mission Fig, Brown Ischia, Brown Turkey, White Ischia, and Celeste (Celestial).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 277. One of the English-American gooseberries.]

GOOSEBERRY.--The gooseberry differs little from the currant in its requirements as to soil, pruning, and general care. The plants should be set 3 to 4 feet apart; rows 5 to 7 feet apart. Select a rich, rather moist soil. The tops need no winter protection. If mildew and worms are to be kept in check, spraying must be begun with the very first sign of trouble and be thoroughly done.

The propagation of the gooseberry is similar to that of the currant, although the practice of earthing up a whole plant, causing every branch thus covered to throw out roots, is practiced with the European varieties. The rooted branches are cut off the following spring and planted in nursery rows or sometimes directly in the field. In order to succeed with this method, the plant should have been cut back to the ground so that all the shoots are yearling.

Since the advent of the practice of spraying with fungicides to prevent mildew, the culture of the gooseberry has increased. There is now no reason why, with a little care, good crops of many of the best English varieties may not be grown.

A large part of the gooseberry crop is picked green for culinary purposes. Several of the English varieties and their derivatives have proved of value, having larger fruits than the natives (Fig. 277).

_Varieties of gooseberries._

For ordinary use the Downing can generally be recommended. It is hardy, productive, of fair size, and greenish white in color. Houghton is even more hardy and productive, but the fruit is rather small and of a dark red color. Among the varieties of European origin that can be successfully grown, if the mildew can be prevented, are Industry, Triumph, Keepsake, Lancashire Lad, and Golden Prolific. Among other varieties that are promising are Champion, Columbus, Chautauqua, and Josselyn (Red Jacket).

GRAPE.--One of the surest of fruit crops is the grape, a crop each year being reasonably certain after the third year from the time of setting the vines; and the good amateur kinds are numerous.

The grape does well on any soil that is under good cultivation and well drained. A soil with considerable clay is better under these circ.u.mstances than a light, sandy loam. The exposure should be to the sun; and the place should admit of cultivation on all sides.

For planting, 1-or 2-year-old vines should be used, being set either in the fall or early spring. At planting, the vine is cut back to 3 or 4 eyes, and the roots are well shortened in. The hole in which the plant is to be set should be large enough to allow a full spreading of the roots. If the season should be dry, a mulch of coa.r.s.e litter may be spread around the vine. If all the buds start, the strongest one or two may be allowed to grow. The canes arising from these buds should be staked and allowed to grow through the season; or in large plantations the first-year canes may be allowed to lie on the ground.

The second year one cane should be cut back to the same number of eyes as the first year. After growth begins in the spring, two of the strongest buds should be allowed to remain. These two canes now arising may be grown to a single stake through the second summer, or they may be spread horizontally on a trellis. These are the canes that form the permanent arms or parts of the vine. From them start the upright shoots which, in succeeding years, are to bear the fruits.

In order to understand the pruning of grapes, the operator must fully grasp this principle: _Fruit is borne on wood of the present season, which arises from wood of the previous season._ To ill.u.s.trate: A growing shoot, or cane, of 1909 makes buds. In 1910 a shoot arises from each bud; and near the base of these shoots the grapes are borne (1 to 4 cl.u.s.ters on each). While every bud on the 1909 shoot may produce shoots or canes in 1910, only the strongest of these new canes will bear fruit.

The skilled grape-grower can tell by the looks of his cane (as he prunes it in winter) which buds will give rise to the grape-producing wood the following season. The larger and stronger buds usually give best results; but if the cane itself is very big and stout, or if it is very weak and slender, he does not expect good results from any of its buds.

A hard, well-ripened cane the diameter of a man's little finger is the ideal size.

Another principle to be mastered is this: _A vine should bear only a limited number of cl.u.s.ters,_--say from 30 to 80. A shoot bears cl.u.s.ters near its base; beyond these cl.u.s.ters the shoot grows on into a long, leafy cane. An average of two cl.u.s.ters may be reckoned to a shoot. If the vine is strong enough to bear 60 cl.u.s.ters, 30 good buds must be left at the pruning (which is done from December to late February).

The essential operation of pruning a grape vine, therefore, is each year to cut back a limited number of good canes to a few buds, and to cut off entirely all the remaining canes or wood of the previous season's growth. If a cane is cut back to 2 or 3 buds, the stub-like part which remains is called a spur. Present systems, however, cut each cane back to 8 or 10 buds (on strong varieties), and 3 or 4 canes are left,--all radiating from near the head or trunk of the vine. The top of the vine does not grow bigger from year to year, after it has once covered the trellis, but is cut back to practically the same number of buds each year. Since these buds are on new wood, it is evident that they are each year farther and farther removed from the head of the vine. In order to obviate this difficulty, new canes are taken out each year or two from near the head of the vine, and the 2-year-or 3-year-old wood is cut away.

The training of grapes is a different matter. A dozen different systems of training may be practiced on the same trellis and from the same style of pruning,--for training is only the disposition or arrangement of the parts.

On arbors, it is best to carry one permanent arm or trunk from each root over the framework to the peak. Each year the canes are cut back to short spurs (of 2 or 3 buds) along the sides of this trunk.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 278 Bag ready to be applied.]

Grapes are set from 6 to 8 feet apart in rows which are 8 to 10 feet apart. A trellis made of 2 or 3 wires is the best support. Slat trellises catch too much wind and blow down. Avoid stimulating manures.

In very cold climates, the vines may be taken off the trellis in early winter and laid on the ground and lightly covered with earth. Along the boundaries of home lots, where grapes are often planted, little is to be expected in the way of fruit because the ground is not well tilled.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 279 The second stage in adjusting the bag.]

The grape is subject to many insects and diseases, some of which are very destructive. The black-rot is the most usual trouble. See p. 209.

To produce bunches of high quality and free from rot and frost injury, grapes are sometimes bagged. When the grapes are about half grown, the bunch is covered with a grocer's manila bag. The bags remain until the fruit is ripe. The grapes usually mature earlier in the bags. The top of the bag is split, and the flaps are secured over the branch with a pin; Figs. 278, 279, 280 explain the operation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 280 The bagging complete.]

In all the above discussion, the so-called native grapes alone are considered. In California, the European or vinifera types are grown, the requirements of which are radically different from those of the eastern kinds.

[Ill.u.s.tration XXII. Wall-training of a pear tree.]

_Varieties of grapes._