The best soil for the apple is a dry loamy, rich soil, with a light clay subsoil that the roots can easily penetrate to a considerable depth; with an easterly or southern exposure. The best fertilizers are barnyard manure, lime and bone-dust. Care should be taken to apply the manure generally over the surface.
The best varieties for cultivation are the following, which ripen in succession: the Early Harvest; Red Astrachan; Summer Rose; American Summer Pearmain; Large Early Bough; Gravenstein; Maiden's Blush; Fall Pippin; Smokehouse; Rambo; Esopus; Spitzenberg; Boston Russet; Rhode Island Greening; Baldwin; Wine-sap.
The apple-tree is subject to several diseases. The best preventive of them is heading low, so that the trunk of the tree will be shaded from the hot sun, and washing the tree occasionally with soap-suds--a pint of soft soap to a gallon of water.
The best soil for the pear is a moderately heavy sandy, and dry soil, with a sub-soil of light clay which is easily penetrated by the roots to a great depth, a moderate portion of iron in the soil is desirable. the best situation is an undulating eastern or southern exposure. The best fertilizers, as in the case of the apple, are barn-yeard manure, lime, and bone-dust. Iron cinders are a good application when there is a deficiency of that element in the soil.
The most desirable varieties for general culture as standards to ripen in succession are as follows:
Doyenne d'Ete; Bloodgood; Dearborn's Seedling; Beurre Giffard; Bartlett; Sickel; Tyson; Howell; Belle Lucrative; Buffum; Blemish Beauty; Beurre Bose; Doyenne Boussock; Beurre d'Anjou; Sheldon; Beurre Clairgeau; Lawrence.
The best varieties for dwarf pears, on quince stocks, are Beurre d'Anjou; Duchesse d'Angouleme; Glou Morceau; Vicar of Wakefield.
The most serious disease of the pear is the blight. The remedy is, to cut the blight off well down into the second wood.
The soil most suitable for the peach-tree is a dry, light, sandy, undulating soil. with a light clay subsoil, and an eastern or southern exposure. The best fertilizer for the peach is Peruvian guano. Among the best varieties to ripen in succession are, of clearstones, The Early York, Early Tillitson; George The Fourth; Oldmixon Freestone; Columbian; Crawford's Late. Of clingstones, Large White; Oldmixon Cling; Heath.
The principal diseases of the peach are the yellows, and worms which prey upon the crown roots near the surface of the ground. The most effectual preventive for the yellows is, to be careful to act healthy trees, and to plant them well above The surface of the ground, by throwing up ridges with The plough, say fifteen or twenty feet apart, then plant the tree on the ridge, also making a slight mound to cover the roots. If the tree shows signs of weakness, dig the earth well from the crown roots, scrape the worms away if any, and then sprinkle in the hole around the roots a handful or two of guano, and fill it up with earth. Worms may be prevented, also, by coating the bark of each tree, for three or four inches next to the ground, with coal or gas tar; which will not allow The parent insect to deposit its eggs. Only a short distance must be so coated, as to cover the whole trunk would kill the tree. A kind of coat made of the gas-soaked felt used for roofs will answer the same purpose.
All orchard trees require good cultivation, but especially the peach. Ashes are said by some to be a good addition to its manure.
The plum-tree is hardy, and requires but little attention, it bears abundantly, and may be considered a sure crop when the soil suits. The best for it is a stiff clay, which is not suitable to the habits of the curculio, the great enemy of the plum.
The best varieties are, the Green Gage, Purple Gage, and Prince's Yellow Gage.
For the cultivated blackberry the soil should be rich, dry, and mellow. Barn-yard manure and bone dust are its best fertilizers; it is a good plan to mix them with half-rotten straw, or some such thing. They should be planted three feet apart in The rows; the rows being six feet asunder. The most approved variety is the Lawton or Rochelle, its fruit is very large, beautiful, and luscious, when allowed to become fully ripe on the bush. The dr. Warder, Dorchester and Marshall Winder varieties are also very fine. Immense numbers of cultivated blackberries are now sold annually in the markets of our cities.
The best soil for the raspberry is a rich, light, deep soil. Plant them in rows six feet apart and three feet asunder in the row. It is well occasionally to throw up the earth around them so as to protect the roots which keep near the surface from The hot sun. The most desirable varieties are, the American Black; Hudson River Antwerp; Improved American Black; Brinckle's Orange.
For this fruit the most suitable soil is light and sandy. It may be enriched by ashes, bone, barnyard manure, etc. The plants should be set one foot apart, in rows two feet from each other. Put in the young plants from the middle of August to the middle of September. Keep the ground mellow and tree from weeds. In the following spring manure and hoe the ground well, to keep it moist and free from weeds. With such care a quart of fruit has sometimes been picked from one plant, the next season after planting. Some cultivators prefer to cut off all the blossoms the first spring, so as to strengthen the plants for growth. The best varieties of strawberry are, Wilson's Albany; Hovey's Seedling; Triomphe de Gand; Bartlett; McAvoy's Superior.
This is a hardy trailing shrub, growing wild in many parts of the country. It is easily cultivated and when once established in the soil requires very little attention; it produces large crops, and the fruit commands high prices. The best soil is that of swampy, saucy meadows or bogs, which are unfit for any other purpose. This fruit is well worthy of the attention of any one who has wet, swampy land. It will flourish from Maine to middle Virginia.
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