Successful fruit culture; a practical guide to the cultivation and propagation of fruits

Preface

During the past ten or fifteen years great progress has been made in the cultivation and care of our hardy fruits and especially in the varieties grown, the methods of packing, shipping and marketing, and during this time few books have been written which have kept up with this progress. This progress and the knowledge of insect and fungous pests and their destruction has been largely recorded in scientific books and papers from the numerous experiment stations, with little from the practical and practicing fruit growers, and there is a growing need of a condensed work giving, in plain language, a summary of the scientific progress made, together with the practice of the most successful fruit growers in various sections of the country. Especially is this information needed that those just starting out in the business of fruit growing, or the village home owner who wishes to grow a small quantity of fruit for family consumption, may find in a condensed form the information necessary for success. It is, therefore, the aim of the author to make a book that is up to date in every particular and to cover the entire practice of fruit growing from the starting of the seed or cutting to the marketing of the fruit, though in many cases works devoted to special fruits may be more complete. It is written from the standpoint of the practical fruit grower who is striving to make his business profitable by growing the best fruit possible and at the least cost.

No attempt is made to describe a large number of varieties, nor many of the numerous methods of training, pruning, cultivating, etc., but to give in plain,

VI PREFACE

practical language descriptions of such varieties as are most in demand in our marketS;, and the methods practiced by the most successful cultivators of many sections of the country; to deal with principles first and with the practice afterward;, for the practice to be successful must be based upon correct principles^ while the practice will always be. varied by the progressive fruit grower according to his immediate conditions and environment. The foundation principles of plant growth and nourishment, however, nuist always remain the same.

No one can foresee what results the changing conditions from year to year of our own country or of those of other countries of the world may bring about in our methods of fruit growing, and the progressive fruit grower must be ready to adapt himself to these conditions or be left behind in the march of competition. The Northern States cannot expect to compete successfully with the more southern of our own States in growing our native fruits out of season, but each section can produce them to such a degree of perfection and put them into the hands of the consumer in such a fresh and attractive condition that there need be little desire on the part of dealers or consumers in any community to send beyond their own limits for their supply of fresh fruit in its season.

We should also make an effort to supply any demand that may come from less favored countries, and, properly managed, this demand for our native fruits should assume very large proportions, but the main effort of the fruit growers, for whom this book is written, should be to supply their own sections with fruit in such an abundance and perfection and at such prices that the inferior products of other sections and other countries cannot secure our markets against the home supply. S. T. Mayiq-ard.

NoRTHBORO, Mass., 1905.

TABLE OP CONTENTS

Chapter I Page

I^-TRODUCTION 1 to 6

CHAPTEE II The Apple 7 to 70

CHAPTEE III The Pear 71 to 77

CHAPTEE lY The Peach 78 to 91

CHAPTEE V The Apricot and Nectarine 92 to 94

CHAPTEE YI The Plum 95 to 103

CHAPTEE VII The Cherry • 103 to 107

CHAPTEE VIII The Quince 108 to 111

CHAPTEE IX The Mulberry 112 to 113

vii

Vm CONTENTS

CHAPTER X

PAGB

The Grape 114 to 129

CHAPTER XI The Blackberry 130 to 138

CHAPTER XII The Raspberry 139 to 146

CHAPTER XIII The Currant and Gooseberry 147 to 152

CHAPTER XIV The Strawberry 153 to 169

CHAPTER XV The Cranberry 170 to 173

CHAPTER XVI The Blueberry and Huckleberry 174 to 175

CHAPTER XVII Sub-Tropical Fruits 176 to 182

CHAPTER XVIII Propagation of Fruit Trees and Plants. 183 to 204

CHAPTER XIX Fruit Under Glass 205 to 219

CHAPTER XX Insect Pests 220 to 249

CHAPTER XXI Fungous Diseases 250 to 265

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGH

1 Perfectly Formed Apple Tree Frontispiece

2 Trench Plow 11

3 Apple Orchard Too Closely Planted 13

4 Apple Tree Perfectly Formed, Low Headed 14

5 Planting Board 15

6 Planting Board in Use 16

7 Tree Properly Pruned for Planting 17

8 Well Formed Tree Twelve Years Old 18

9 Well Formed Tree Twelve Years Old in Bloom 13

10 Methods of 'Heeling-in Trees 20

11 Zinc Tree Label 22

12 Lew Hanging Steel Plow 24

13 Cutaway Wheel Harrow 25

14 Orchard Harrow, California 25

15 Acme Spring Tooth Harrow 26

16 Giape Hoe '. 26

17 Weeder , 27

18 Cover Crop of Canada Peas and Barley 35

19 Apple Tree Pruned Too Severely 37

20 Apple Tree, Lower Branches Pruned 38

21 Apple Tree, Where to Cut Large Branch 38

22 Apple Tree, Pruning Crossing Branches 39

23 Pruning Saw 40

24 Paragon Pruning Saw 40

25 Pruning Hook 41

26 Pruning Shears 42

27 Regrafted Tree 46

28 Cleft Grafting 47

29 The Cion 48

30 Cleft Grafting, Starting and Growth 48

31 Clef c Grafting, Horizontal View 48

32 Cion, Horizontal View 48

33 Crown Grafting 49

34 Cleft Graft with Four Cions 49

35 Orchard Stepladder 59

36 Cornerpieces on Bushel Boxes 61

37 Apples in Bushel Boxes 61

•j8 Screw Apple Press 63

39 Lever Apple Press 64

40 Cold Storage Fruit House • • • 69

41 No. 2 Peach Tree 80

42 No. 1 Peach Tree 80

43a Peach Tree Trimmed to Whip 80

43& Peach Tree Cut Back to Stub 80

ix

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE

44 Peach Tree Before Pruning 82

45 Peach Tree Pruned 83

46 Peach Tree Improved 84

47 Peach Orchard Cultivated 85

48 Peach Orchard Four Years Old 86

49 Peach Orchard in Grass 87

50 Georgia Peach Carrier = 90

51 Fellenberg Plum 99

52 Satsuma Plum 100

53 Hawkeye Plum 101

54 Sweet Cherry Trees 105

55 Sour Cherry Trees 106

56 Low Branching Quince Tree 109

57 Orange Quince 110

58 Rea's Quince 110

59 New American Mulberry 112

60 Downing Mulberry 112

61 Planting Grapevine 116

62 Vineyard with Cover Crop 117

63 Vineyard Without Cover Crop 117

64 Economical Use of Posts 118

65 The Kniffin System of Grape Training 119

66 Method of Bracing End Posts 120

67 Modified Kniffin System of Grape Training 121

68 Grape Picking and Storing Tray 124

69 Implements for Girdling Grapevines 128

70 Blackberries Pruned and Unpruned 132

71 Crosspiece to Blackberry Trellis 134

72 Supports for Blackberries and Raspberries 135

73 Lucretia Dewberry 137

74 Red Raspberry, Field Culture 140

75 Laying Down Raspberry Canes 141

76 Blackcap Raspberry Tips Rooted 143

77 Cherry Currant 149

78 White Imperial Currant 150

79-80 Arrangement of Planting Staminate and Pistillate Varieties 155

81 Plant Set Too Deep 156

82 Plant Set Too Shallow 158

83 Plant Set Just Right 157

84 Diagram of Hedge Row System 157

85 Strawberries in Wide Matted Rows 158

86 Ditch Method of Irrigation 161

87 Staminate Flower of Straw^berry 163

88 Pistillate Flower of Strawberry 164

89 The Marshall Strawberry Carrier 168

90 Large Bell Cranberry 172

91 Orange Tree in Tub 178

92 Bearing Branch of Fig 181

93-94-95 Root Grafting 185

96 Budstick 187

97 Budding Knives 188

ILLUSTRATIONS Xl

PAGE FIG. _

102-103 Nursery Treatment of Young Trees

104 Quince Stool :J^'

105 Grape Cutting

106 Layering the Grapevine ^^^

107 Grafting the Grape

108 Span Roof Curvilinear Fruit House 205

109 Lean-to Fruit House 'A' I'-V"^" 'AL^ic^l

110 Fruit House Wall with Opening into Outside Border. 208

111 Cold Grapery Border ^}^

112 Training the Vine, Third Year ^|»

113 Layering Strawberry Plants in Pots ^i^

114 A Bench of Strawberry Plants for Forcing 218

115 Round-headed Apple Tree Borer ^^4

116 Flat-headed Apple Tree Borer ^^^

117 Oyster Shell Bark Louse ^|o

118 Tent Caterpillar ^^'

119 San Jose Scale »

120 Canker Worm ^qo

121 Apple Aphis ^^^

122 Codlin Moth • 2S4

123 Apple Maggot

124 Woolly Aphis ^^^

125 Pear Psylla 2qq

126 Plum Curculio ^

127 Curculio Catcher ^*"

128 Rose Bug or Chafer |*^

129 Currant Worm ^ ?

130 Currant Eggs on Leaf -**

131 Currant Worms Eating Leaves ^*o

132 May Beetle ^*'

133 Strawberry Crown Borer

Introduction

The importance of the fruit industry to the people of the United States presents several phases, among which are the value of fruit as a promoter of health, its value as a luxury and its importance as a money crop.

AS A PROMOTER OF HEALTH

In this way I consider fruit as of by far greater value to man than in any other. Our country is in a remarkably prosperous condition and our people can very easily obtain the food materials necessary to the formation of muscle, bone and fat, and it has been the tendency of a large majority of them to be satisfied with meat, bread, pastry and numerous condiments without an adequate supply of vegetables and fruit.

Fruit is generally looked upon as a luxury, but when properly considered it is a necessity, an aid to the proper utilization of the heavier food materials and for invigorating the various organs of the body so that they may best meet the demands made upon them and properly store up materials for repairing all wastes resulting from bodily efforts.

That fresh, ripe fruit, in moderate quantities, does enable the system to utilize other food materials taken into it for nourishment, and causes all of the organs to act with more vigor, needs no extended discussion here. Our people should use more fruit, and they would find it profitable to do so, from many points of view, and much cheaper than doctor's bills.

2 SUCCESSFUL FKUIT CULTUEE

AS A LUXURY

From the above point of view fruit is an indispensable article of food. Fresh ripe fruit is always acceptable with meals, or for the midday lunch it is far more refreshing than any fermented beverage and more nutritious than the choicest pastry or confectionery. What a variety of delicious dishes can be prepared from fresh fruit or from the dried or canned product that keeps in a perfect condition so long after its natural season. What fond recollections often in later years linger around the old home where an abundance of fruit was the lot of youth now grown gray in the service of mankind. What a source of pleasure and refreshment to the laboring mechanic or tiller of the soil after a long day's toil in the summer or autumn or during the cold days of winter, and yet how few of our laboring people can enjoy more than a small fraction of the fruit needed for health and enjoyment.

AS A MONEY CROP

Some idea of the importance of the fruit crops of the United States may be obtained when we consider the extent of land occupied by some of our fruits, although accurate statistics are not available for all kinds of fruits, and the immense quantity of fruit produced for our own consumption aad for shipping to other countries. The census of 1900 gives the number of apple trees of bearing age in the United States, 201,794,764, and the crop of apples produced 175,397,- 636 bushels; the number of peach trees 99,919,428, with a crop of 15,433,601 bushels; the number of grapevines over 200,000,000, while the grape crop was over 1,200,000,000 pounds.

Statistics of acreage and products of the other hardy fruits to be found are so unsatisfactory that they

INTRODUCTION 3

are not given, but we know that in many localities the number of bushels of small fruits far exceeds the yield of the large fruits, and that they are more or less grown for home consumption on at least a majority of the farm homes of the country, and in most of the home gardens in villages where there is sufficient land.

In the extreme Southern States and on the Pacific slope we find large areas planted with oranges, lemons, pineapples, raisin grapes, prunes, and it is claimed that in Florida and California there are orange trees enough planted to produce more than 10,000,000 boxes of fruit annually, while on the Pacific slope so many prunes are produced (600,000,000 pounds reported as the crop of 1904) and those of such fine quality as to reduce the importation of prunes from Southern Europe to a mere nominal quantity. Within the past few years the planting of fruit trees and vines has increased very rapidly in all sections of the country, except possibly in New England, so that we have some of the largest orchards in the world in our midst.

In Missouri, Kansas and some of the other Middle Western States, may be found apple orchards of thousands of acres in extent; on the Pacific slope the prune growing industry is assuming immense proportions, and it is said that the grape growing section or belt between Lake Erie on the north and Lake Chautauqua on the south is the largest in the world. Yet, notwithstanding this immense increase in planting, the demand for our fruit products keeps pace with the supply, prices are sustained, our people are not supplied with nearly the quantity of fresh fruit that they need for health and comfort, and with our rapid growth in wealth and population we must expect equally rapid increase in the demand for choice fruit.

Foreign markets, too, are demanding the products of our orchards and if properly managed this demand should be sufficient to largely taJie the surplus that our own population does not consume. In a single year we exported over 3,395,000 barrels of apples to Europe (largely, or almost wholly to England), and a demand for other fruits in large quantities will no doubt arise whenever we can deliver them to these markets in a satisfactory condition. The great progress being made in methods of preservation and shipping fresh fruits will, no doubt, soon solve this important problem, when we can hope to ship successfully to European markets our oranges, grapes, pears, plums and even peaches.

Within the past few years a large demand has arisen for our evaporated fruits in foreign markets, and the fact that in this condition these products can be kept for an almost indefinite time, occupy the least possible space and can be shipped to the remotest markets of the world must lead in the future to their largo consumption. In 1897 30,883,921 pounds of evaporated apple was exported from the United States to foreign countries.

The business of utilizing the products of our orchards and gardens by evaporation and canning, while in its infancy, has reached large proportions, especially in seasons of abundance, where the supply can thus be carried over to seasons of scarcity, but is destined to become a far greater factor in the future of fruit growing. The immense wastes of our orchards during the summer and autumn, when fruit perishes very quickly, may be in this way saved. It is said that over 600 carloads of evaporated apple were shipped from one county in New York State in the season of 1894, and other sections are rapidly increasing in this method of utilizing the poorer grades of apples. The city of Boston in one season consumed over 1,000,000 pounds of evaporated apple and more than the same number of gallons of canned apple. The surplus and

INTRODUCTION 5

especially the more perishable grades of all kinds of fruits may be utilized, either in the canned or evaporated condition, which must be kept out of the markets, or low prices of all grades will rule.

THE COST OF PRODUCTION

The cost of production of any article, whether it be from the factory or a crop grown in the field, is a very important factor, and while, with the products of the factory, the cost of production has been wonderfully reduced, the cost of the fruit crop or other farm and garden crops has not been materially reduced, owing to the high price of labor and the difficulty of applying labor saving machinery. It may be said in this connection, however, that the price of farm and garden crops, and especially the fruit crops, has not been reduced very materially, and to the intelligent fruit grower, who applies good business principles to his work, who uses the best labor saving devices for reducing the cost and improvement of his product and who looks to the details of the production and the sale of his crops as closely as does the successful merchant or manufacturer, there is almost a certain promise of financial success.

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF SUCCESS IN FRUIT GROWING

The rapid increase of the country in population and wealth must lead to a proportionate increase in the demand for native fruit, provided the growers are wise and produce attractive fruit of fine quality. Good fruit of any kind, well grown, and put up in an attractive manner, will increase the demand and price for that kind of fruit, while poor fruit will not only decrease the demand and also the price of that particular grade, but more or less of all other grades.

We may give this, therefore, as a rule or axiom in fruit growing: "That the more choice fruit of any hind the people have, the more they want, while the more poor fruit put upon the market the less the demand." Of course the prices, other things being equal, will depend largely upon the supply and demand, yet the sales are more or less well founded upon the above facts. The problem, then, that confronts the fruit grower of to-day is ''how to grow good fruit, how to grow it cheaply, how to attract buyers, and how to utilize all of the products/' In the future chapters of this book it will be my aim to keep these points always in mind, to present the latest and most practical thoughts, and to show what methods progressive and successful fruit growers are following, what varieties they are growing and how they conduct their business.