The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-16

CrOp OF fruit the fOllOWlnS season, Ii
planted at the proper distance at first.
But the usual plan is to grow the
plants from the root cuttings in close
rows the first season, and then trans
plant to a permanent location six by
| six feet apart. Tie the canes to stakes,
and pinch the tips when about four
feet long, to cause them to branch.
The dewberry succeeds best when
allowed to trail on the ground.-W. f.
Massey, -HorticuIturjst, ~ @. Erperi-
m1ent Station.
BEST T o CABBAGE HILLS.
Either ashes or bone separately, or
phosphates, such as are to be found IN
the market, make excellent, starters
for cabbage, when we'll mixed in the
hills. I have sometimes put these in
the hills before planting. At other
times, when I had reason to fear that
they would not be sufficiently well
mixed with the soil to prevent killing
the young plants, l have had them
scattered around the plants just before
hoeing them, taking "a to cover the
fertilizer with the earth drawn around
the plants.
During the past season l have tried
a new method, which has afforded me
great satisfaction. I first spread a two
inch layer of fine soil on the shed
floor, which [ moistened we'll with the
sprinkler, and then had two inches of
flour of bone, also we'll sprinkled, and
then finally from to two inches of
unleached wood ashes, which was also
we'll moistened. In this order formed
a heap about three feet high. In about
a fortnight this heap had heated sufi-
GENTLY to dry the moisture, when it
was cut down with a hoe, and all the
dry humps knocked up fine. I used a
closed handful of the mixture in each
cabbage hill before planting.
In all my experience in growing
cabbage, for upwards of thirty years,
I never saw more thrifty plants than
grew over that manure The leaves
were broad and open, with that healthy
green color which delights the farmers
eye, and without that naked stem o n
nection of the leaves with the stem
which c-haracterizes feeble plants. The
caustic potash of the ashes had so acted
on the fine bone as to make it very
much more valuable as a fertilizer.
Though it was not made soluble, yet it
readily became so when in contact
with the soil-AmerjcGn CultiUatOr.
PRESERVATION OF U TREES.
The following abstract of an address
on "Our Apple Trees and their Enc
mics, delivered by Prof. L. II. Bailey
before the New York State Cider and
Cider Vinegar Makers Association, at
Albany, N. Y, January %, 1890, col
tains much valuable information upon
a subject of vital Importance to fruit
growers and cider makers.
The failure of the apple crop in New
York was never so complete as in 1890.
The trees blossomed very full, but the
Ii II " y AAO ppm "CN
exceedingly wet, and mostly cool.
When the orchards were in bloom
unusually heavy rains fell. Shortly
afterwards the blossoms withered and
fell, and the leaves of apples, pears
and ounces began to blight. The
rains were succeeded by drouth, which,
in some sections, became severe. Dur
ing the early part of the season the
blight of the foliage increased, until,
in July, when l inspected the orchards
in Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Ontario
and Cayuga counties, there were thou
sands of acres of apple orchards which
appeared to be dying. In many places
the ounce orchards appeared to- be
scorched, and the foliage of the pears
was speckled. Peaches dropped their
leaves and fruit early in the season.
The blackberries and later r~aspberries,
in some sections, dried up and the
bushes looked unhealthy. 1t is probable
that similar injuries extended, in a
greater or less degree, to all parts of
the State.
1t is almost universal opinion among
growers that the weather is reasonable
for the general failure, particularly in
the case of apples, where failure is the
most complete and disastrous, and
which were just out of the bloom when
a prolonged storm, of unusual severity
and accompanied by lightning, passed
over the country. It has long been
supposed that cold and heavy rain at