Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-08-17
THE ORCHARD


Advantages of Planting FGw Fruit Trees
or Bushes Every Year.
The Wiscst way appears to be 10
plant few fruit trees on commencing
to improve place, and to continue to
plant few more every year We may
hope that they will lie long and be
productive for several generations, hut
we may naturally expect that they will
not reach an advanced age or produce
many crops. If a hundred apple, pear
or cherry 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 con-
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 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 varieties this year will not be
so considered ten years from now.
New varieties of fruit are constantly
being produced, and the best that are
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 ut
present. Still, if all the land q 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, gooseberry 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 SC
brittle that the stalks and branches are
broken by the wind, an accumulation
of ice, or the weight of fruit. New
wood, however, is strong, and moi
likely to be broken by any of these
causes. After any of these bushes art
three years old they will afford cut
tings or rooted slips, and the best o.
them should be taken off and planted
each year. AS one row is declining ir
productiveness another will be in it:
prime, and third approaching the
condition Of bearing. The method o.
propagating all these bushes is very
easy and simple. The time required tc
set out new row each spring is very
small. The work can be done during
days when il is too wet to attend to or
dinary 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 tina
they will throw out roots. The secont
year they will contain several stalks
and the third they will produce somt
fruit that will be of excellent quality
1t is easy to cultivate the ground be
, tween young berry bushes, but mor'
difficult TO do the work after they be
! come old. The same rule applies t.
Strawberries as to berry bushes. A few
, choice plants should be raised cacl
, year. They should bo transplantet
J in the fall or early the next spring, b.
kept free from blossoms and runners
and cultivated with view of raisin,
, superior fruit the following season
| Fifty strong plants will produce all tn
strawberries an ordinary family vii
consume. - Chicago Times.