The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-05-28
THE ORCHARD.



Advantages Of Planting . Few Fruit Trsss
or Bushes Every Year.
The wisest way appears to be to
plant few fruit trees on commencing
to improve q place, and to continue to
plant few more every year. We may
hope that they will live long and be
productive for several generations. but
we may naturally expect that they will
not reach an advanced age or produce
many crops. If hundred apple, pear
or chOrry trees be planted during the
same year they will all be likely to
come into bearing at about the same
time, and to exhibit signs of disease
and death few years afterward. BY
planting from ten to twenty trees each
year. some will be producing fruit
while others are coming into the COIL
ditiOn for bearing, while still others
will be giving evidence that they are
ready to replenish the wood pile. By
adopting the plan of setting one row Of
trees in an orchard each year, and by
commencing to set them on the side ex-
posed to the prevailing winds, the trees
first planted will afford considerable
protection to those that have recently
been set out. There are other advan-
tages in planting a few fruit trees every
year instead of an entire orchard at the
same time. What are considered the
most hardy, most productive and most
excellent vasieties this year will not be
so considered ten years from now.
New varieties of fruit are constantly
being produced, and the best that arc
planted one year may not be the best
even when they produce their first
crop. By that time we may reasonably
hope that some varieties of pear and
apple may be produced more hardy
and productive than any we have at
present. Still, if all the land farmer
desires to devote to orchard purposes
be occupied by fruit trees he will hesi-
tate about setting out any more. He
will continue to use inferior fruit while
his neighbors are enjoying some that is
vastly superior.
As with large fruits, so with small
fruits, the best plan is to plant ''early
and often" Currant, gOOsebe ry and
raspberry bushes produce the finest
fruit and generally the largest crops
when they are comparatively young.
The old wood is likely to become dis
eased and subject to decay. 1t is often
punctured by bOrers and becomes so
brittle that the stalks anl branches are
broken by the wind, an accumulation
of ice, or the weight of fruit. New
wood, however, is strong. and not
likely to be broken by any of these
causes. After any of these bushes are
three years old they will afford cut
ings or rooted slips, and the best Of
them should be taken off and planted
each year. As one row is declining in
prOductiveness another will be in its
prime, and a third approaching the
condition of bearing. The method of
propagating all these bushes is very
easy and simple. The time required to
set out new row each spring is very
small. The work can be done during
days when it is too wet to attend to or
binary field operations or when the
teams are resting and eating. 1t does
not take long to remove twenty cuttings
and place them in the ground SO that
they will throw out roots. The second
year they will contain several stalks,
and the third they will produce some
fruit that will be of excellent quality.
1t is easy to cultivate the ground be-
tween young berry bushes. but more
difficult to do the work after they be-
come old. The same rule applies to
Strawberries as to berry bushes. A few
choice plants should be raised each
year. They should be transplanted
in the fall or early the next spring. be
kept free from blossoms and runners.
and cultivated with view Of raising
superior fruit the following season.
Fifty strong plants will produce all the
Strawberries an ordinary family will
consume. Chicago Times.