The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-30
Fruit Rotation.

The present scarcity of fruit should
stimulate the nurserymen and horticult-
urlsts in general into more vigorous
efforts 10 promote the disposition of the
farmers generally to review their orch
ards and to enlarge the small fruit gar
dens, that better supplies may be avail
able, The consumption of fruit is en-
tlrely Inadequate for the maintenance Of
the health of the people, and economy is
always in favor of the fruit when home
grown and accessible 10 the markets and
immediate demands of consumers. Upon
the subject OF fruit rotation, writer in
the Nebraska Farmer says: Crop rotation
has become quite essential TO agriculture
in order TO keep up the fertility of
the soil, but very few seem to consider il
necessary to extend this same plan to the
fruit trees, vines and shrubs. Neverthe-
less, it is pretty well known now that the
continuous growing of any one crop of
fruits in one place tends TO concentrate all
of the blights, diseases and fungi that in
jure our plants. Often the only way to
destroy these diseases is TO kill off all the
plants and trees and to burn root and
branch. By transferring the orchard to
another part of the farm we can often OBJ
tain better results than If we devoted all
of our time to spraying and picking on
lhlCCNtu leaves. we RGutfdllN StlGGL ble
best soil for potatoes and wish to grow
them there continually, but in time blight
aud rot make it impossible and we have
to move the potato field. The same is true
with onions, sweet potatoes, cabbages
and other vegetables. Now the same holds
exactly true with raspberries, blackber-
ries, currants and other plants. We can
IN some instances keep down the diseases
by continuous spraying, but in time the
Il IL,
wet season is sure to make the fungi get
the better Of us. Our strawberry beds
should be changed every few years, and
placed in new localities where diseases
will not make their life preCarious.
Raspberry vines, currants, and goose
berry bushes cannot be moved so easily,
but new orchards have TO be planted
every year or SO, and the new ones should
be planted as far from the OLD as possible
Even in the apple and pear orchard some
thing in this line can be done. Old Or
chards as a rule suffer more from blight
than young ones, and grubs and other in
sects increase rapidly in numbers. If the
new orchards are planted right along
side of them they are infested with the
insects and diseases early in their life
Grape vines require a change probably
more than any other fruits. and every
new vineyard planted should be sepa-
IdbGQ lEOnl GIlt OiAl Oubos IL bllb ldtlu Is
planted with other crops for couple of
seasons the germs of the diseases will get
out of the soil pretty well. We can
ward off diseases fairly well with
spraying, and it is right that this
should be kept up persistently, but with
the present increase of insects and dis
eases in old orchards the future must
bring about such changes that it will be
absolutely necessary to adopt a system of
rotation in our fruit crops the same as
now practiced with other crops. 1t is
also a question to be considered whether
such change would make vast differ
ence in the self-prod We
know the rotation for field crops makes
the soil richer, and improves it so that
the crops are larger and better. Do not
all fruit trees, plants and vines draw
from the soil certain elements which must
be supplied in the cheapest way by ro-
tatiOn2