Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-06-12


easily. The fruit is SO graceful to the
taste and useful house-keeper that it
should be given fair trial, either in the
garden borders or wherever tree can be
planted 80 as to secure plenty of light
and air. The young trees may be one OF
two years old from the bud, I should pre-
fer the former, if vigorous. Never be
induced to purchase old trees by promises
of speedy fruit. It is quite possib,,s
you may never get any fruit at all from
them worth mentioning. I should allow
a space of from ten to fifteen feet be-
tween the trees when they are planted
together, and I should cut them back so
that they would begin to branch at two
feet from the ground. Long, naked stems
are subject to the gum disease.
In the place of general advice in re-
gard to this fruit shall give the ex-
perience of Mr.. T. s. Force, of New
burgh, who exhibited seventy varieties
at the last annual Orange county fair.
His plum orchard is large poultry
yard containing half an acre, of which
the ground is good loan, resting on a
heavy clay subsoil. He bought treess
but one year from the bud, set them out
in autumn, and cut them back so that
they began to form their heads at two
feet from the ground. He prefers start
ing with strong young plants of this age,
and he did not permit them to bear for
the first three years, his primal aim be-
ing to develope healthy, vigorous tree,
with a round, symmetrical head. Dur
ing this period the ground about them
was kept mellow by good cultivation,
and being rich enough to start with, re-
ceived no fertilizers. It is his belief that
Decentralization tends to cause the dis
ease so we'll known as the black knot,
which has destroyed many orchards in
this vicinity. If the garden has been en-
riched as have directed, the soil will
probably need little if anything from the
stables, and certainly will not if the trees
are grown in poultry-yards. Durin 3
this growing and forming period Mr..
Force gave careful attention to pruning.
Budded are not even, symmetrical
growers, but tend to seed up very few
strong shoots that rob the rest of the
tree of sustenance. OF course these must
be cut we'll back in early spring, or we
have long naked reaches of wood and a
deformed tree. It is far better however,
not to let these rampant shoots grow to
maturity, but pinch them back in early
summer, thus causing them to throw out
side branches. By summer pinching
and rubbing off of tender shoots a tree
can be made to grow in every shape we
desire. When the trees receive no sum-
mer pruning, Mr.. Force advises that the
branches be shortened in at least one
half in the spring, while some shoots are
cut back even more vigorously. At the
age of four or five years, according to the
vigor of the trees, he permits them to
bear. Now cultivation ceases, and the
ground is left to grow hard, but not
weedy or grassy, beneath the boughs.
Every spring, just as the blossoms are
falling, he spreads evenly under the
branches four quarts of salt. While the
trees thrive and grow fruitful with this
fertilizer, the curculio, or plum weevil,
does not appearto find it at all to his taste.
AS result of his methods he has grown
large and profitable crops, and his trees
in the main are kept healthy and vigor-
GUS. His remedy for the black knot is to
cut off and burn the small boughs and
twigs affected. If the disease appears
in the side of limb or In the stem. he
cuts out all trace of it, and paints the
wound with wash of gum shellac and
alcohol.
In cutting out the interfering boughs
do not take off the sharp pointed spurs
which are forming along the branches,
for on these are maturing the fruit buds.