Home Vegetable Gardening, F. F. Rockwell [popular novels .txt] 📗

most successfully grown on the small place.

 

[Illustration: A suggested arrangement of fruit trees on the small

place.] [ED. Unable to recreate in text format.]

 

The following selections are made with the home fruit garden, not the

commercial orchard, in mind. While they are all “tried and true” sorts,

succeeding generally in the northeast, New England and western fruit

sections, remember that fruits, as a rule, though not so particular as

vegetables about soil, seem much more so about locality. I would

suggest, therefore, submitting your list, before buying, to your State

Experiment Station. You are taxed for its support; get some direct

result from it. There they will be glad to advise you, and are in the

best position to help you get started properly. Above all, do not buy

from the traveling nursery agent, with his grip full of wonderful

lithographs of new and unheard-of novelties. Get the catalogue of

several reliable nurseries, take standard varieties about which you

know, and buy direct. Several years ago I had the opportunity to go

carefully over one of the largest fruit nurseries in the country. Every

care and precaution was taken to grow fine, healthy, young trees. The

president told me that they sold thousands every year to smaller

concerns, to be resold again through field and local agents. Yet they

do an enormous retail business themselves, and of course their own

customers get the best trees.

 

The following are listed, as nearly as I can judge, in the order of

their popularity, but as many of the best are not valuable

commercially, they are little known. Whenever you find a particularly

good apple or pear, try to trace it, and add it to your list.

 

APPLES

 

Without any question, the apple is far and away the most valuable

fruit, both because of its greater scope of usefulness and its longer

season—the last of the winter’s Russets are still juicy and firm when

the first Early Harvests and Red Astrachans are tempting the “young

idea” to experiment with colic. Plant but a small proportion of early

varieties, for the late ones are better. Out of a dozen trees, I would

put in one early, three fall, and the rest winter sorts.

 

Among the summer apples are several deserving special mention: Yellow

Transparent is the earliest. It is an old favorite and one of the most

easily grown of all apples. Its color is indicated by the name, and it

is a fair eating-apple and a very good cooker. Red Astrachan, another

first early, is not quite so good for cooking, but is a delicious

eating-apple of good size. An apple of more recent introduction and

extremely hardy (hailing first from Russia), and already replacing the

above sorts, is Livland (Livland Raspberry). The tree is of good form,

very vigorous and healthy. The fruit is ready almost as soon as Yellow

Transparent, and is of much better quality for eating. In appearance it

is exceptionally handsome, being of good size, regular form and having

those beautiful red shades found almost exclusively in the later

apples. The flesh is quality is fully up to its appearance. The white,

crisp-breaking flesh, most aromatic, deliciously sub-acid, makes it

ideal for eating. A neighbor of mine sold $406 worth of fruit from

twenty trees to one dealer. For such a splendid apple McIntosh is

remarkably hardy and vigorous, succeeding over a very wide territory,

and climate severe enough to kill many of the other newer varieties.

The Fameuse (widely known as the Snow) is an excellent variety for

northern sections. It resembles the McIntosh, which some claim to be

derived from it. Fall Pippin, Pound Sweet and Twenty Ounce, are other

popular late autumns.

 

In the winter section, Baldwin, which is too well known to need

describing, is the leading commercial variety in many apple districts,

and it is a good variety for home growing on account of its hardiness

and good cooking and keeping qualities; but for the home orchard, it is

far surpassed in quality by several others. In northern sections, down

to the corn line, Northern Spy is a great favorite. It is a large,

roundish apple, with thin, tender, glossy skin, light to deep carmine

over light yellow, and an excellent keeper. In sections to which it is

adapted it is a particularly vigorous, compact, upright grower.

Jonathan is another splendid sort, with a wider range of conditions

favorable for growth. It is, however, not a strong-growing tree and is

somewhat uncertain in maturing its fruit, which is a bright, clear red

of distinctive flavor. It likes a soil with more clay than do most

apples. In the Middle West and Middle South, Grimes (Golden) has made a

great local reputation in many sections, although in others it has not

done well at all.

 

The Spitzenberg (Esopus) is very near the top of the list of all late

eating-apples, being at its prime about December. It is another

handsome yellow-covered red apple, with flesh slightly yellowish, but

very good to the taste. The tree, unfortunately, is not a robust

grower, being especially weak in its earlier stages, but with good

cultivation it will not fail to reward the grower for any extra care it

may have required.

 

These, and the other notable varieties, which there is not room here to

describe, make up the following list, from which the planter should

select according to locality:

 

Earliest or Summer:—Early Harvest, Yellow Transparent, Red

Astrachan, Benoni (new), Chenango, Sweet Bough, Williams’ Favorite,

Early Strawberry, Livland Raspberry.

 

Early Autumn:—Alexander, Duchess, Porter, Gravenstein, McIntosh

Red.

 

Late Autumn:—Jefferies, Fameuse (Snow), Maiden’s Blush,

Wealthy, Fall Pippin, Pound Sweet, Twenty Ounce, Cox Orange,

Hubbardston.

 

Winter:—Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Northwestern Greening,

Jonathan, Northern Spy, Yellow, Swaar, Delicious, Wagener, King,

Esopus, Spitzenberg, Yellow Bellflower, Winter Banana, Seek-no-further,

Talman Sweet, Roxbury Russett, King David, Stayman’s Winesap, Wolf

River.

 

PEARS

 

Pears are more particular than apples in the matter of being adapted to

sections and soils. Submit your list to your State Experiment Station

before ordering trees. Many of the standard sorts may be had where a

low-growing, spreading tree is desired (for instance, quince-stock

pears might be used to change places with the plums). Varieties

suitable for this method are listed below. They are given approximately

in the order of the ripening:

 

Wilder: Early August, medium in size, light yellow, excellent quality.

Does not rot at the core, as so many early pears are liable to do.

 

Margaret: Oblong, greenish, yellow to dull red.

 

Clapp Favorite: Very large, yellow pear. A great bearer and good

keeper—where the children cannot get at it.

 

Howell: A little later than the foregoing; large, bright yellow,

strong-growing tree and big bearer.

 

Duchesse d’Angouleme: Large greenish yellow, sometimes reaching huge

size; will average better than three-quarters of a pound. The quality,

despite its size, is splendid.

 

Seckel: Small in size, but renowned for exquisite flavor—being

probably the most universally admired of all.

 

Beurre Superfine: October, medium size, excellent quality.

 

Bartlett: The best known of all pears, and a universal favorite.

Succeeds in nearly all sections.

 

Anjou: One of the best keepers, and very productive. One of the best in

flavor, rich and vinous.

 

For trees of the standard type the following are worthy of note:

 

Congress (Souvenir du C.): A very large summer sort. Handsome.

 

Belle Lucrative: September to October.

 

Winter Nelis: Medium size, but of excellent quality and the longest

keeper.

 

Kieffer: Very popular for its productiveness, strength of growth and

exceptional quality of fruit for canning and preserving. Large fruit,

if kept thinned. Should have a place in every home garden.

 

Josephine de Malines: Not a great yielder but

of the very highest quality, being of the finest texture

and tempting aroma.

 

PEACHES

 

Success with peaches also will depend largely upon getting varieties

adapted to climate. The white-fleshed type is the hardiest and best for

eating; and the free-stones are for most purposes, especially in the

home garden, more desirable than the “clings.”

 

Greensboro is the best early variety. Crawford is a universal favorite

and goes well over a wide range of soil and climate. Champion is one of

the best quality peaches and exceptionally hardy. Elberta, Ray, and

Hague are other excellent sorts. Mayflower is the earliest sort yet

introduced.

 

PLUMS

 

The available plums are of three classes—the natives, Europeans and

Japans; the natives are the longest-lived, hardier in tree and blossom,

and heavier bearers.

 

The best early is Milton; brilliant red, yellow and juicy flesh.

Wildgoose and Whitaker are good seconds. Mrs. Cleveland is a later and

larger sort, of finer quality. Three late-ripening plums of the finest

quality, but not such prolific yielders, are Wayland, Benson and Reed,

and where there is room for only a few trees, these will be best. They

will need one tree of Newman or Prairie Flower with them to assure

setting of the fruit. Of the Europeans, use Reine Claude (the best),

Bradshaw or Shropshire. Damson is also good. The Japanese varieties

should go on high ground and be thinned, especially during their first

years. My first experience with Japanese plums convinced me that I had

solved the plum problem; they bore loads of fruit, and were free from

disease. That was five years ago. Last spring the last one was cut and

burned. Had they been planted at the top of a small hill, instead of at

the bottom, as they were, and restricted in their bearing, I know from

later experience that they would still be producing fruit. The most

satisfactory varieties of the Japanese type are Abundance and Red June.

Burbank is also highly recommended,

 

CHERRIES

 

Cherries have one advantage over the other fruits—they give quicker

returns. But, as far as my experience goes, they are not as long-lived.

The sour type is hardier, at least north of New Jersey, than the sweet.

It will probably pay to try a few of the new and highly recommended

varieties. Of the established sorts Early Richmond is a good early, to

be followed by Montmorency and English Morello. Windsor is a good sweet

cherry, as are also Black Tartarian, Sox, Wood and Yellow Spanish.

 

All the varieties mentioned above are proved

sorts. But the lists are being added to constantly,

and where there is a novelty strongly recommended

by a reliable nurseryman it will often pay to try

it out—on a very small scale at first.