The Portland daily press., 1900-03-17
FRUIT VARIETIES FOR HOME usI

The season is near ut hand when tbs
farmer will be making out his order for
nursery stock. So many varieties Of all
kinds Of fruit are offered TO the public by
nursery men or travelling agents, that
1t is quite difficult for one who has not
had considerable experience In fruit
growing to make o proper selection.
But few OF the varieties ars really val
liable. The most Of them will be found
wanting In some respeSts-will prove I'M
productive. or net hardy. or the fruit Of
poor quality. People nowadays ara more
par tlcular sbout quality; and most OF the
varieties Of the best quality are al to be
unprodustive. The varietl to he recon-
mended then should combine these two
fes t1res, good quality with Product We
ness. There are elso many varls ties that
are unreliable; that succeed In ceI { lin
localities and fail everywhere else So
one should select varieties that ere
known to sucoeed In his own locality,
or varieties that generally succeed every
where.
During the Thirty years I have been
growing fruit have tried taIIty live var
istles of apples, and all the leading varie-
ties Of plums, pears. cherries and grapes.
Half Of these varieties found OF little
or no value. II had 10 to DO over again
would include in my selection net more
than one-tbird Of the varie ties that l have
tested. With some kinds Of fruit, like
the apple and pear. there are many good
varieties t, select from; while With othsr
kinds. like the plum, cherry and grape
Of q great many varieties described In
the &c tllogues, there will be found one or
two far superior to the others. OF the
morelloes. or sour cherries, commonly
known as the tame or English cherries.
there IL one variety that for quality, pro-
ducti yeness, beauty, size and hardness,
Is ahead of any other, and that 10 the
Montmorenscy. or the sweet cherries,
the old Blaokheart is the oDy reliable
kind that have tested-all the other var
istlss have proved to be too tender In
this latitude. OF the dukes. the May
Cake is hsriy. good qualit-, and fairly
pfodu tive unusr good cultivation.
The Lombard plums easily hold the
fret place among native plums. While
hardy exceedingly productive. and will
endure neglect better than any other
variety. The Shrip4hire Dams son and
Bradshaw have done fairly we'll with
the, and perhaps might also include the
Ger N an prune.
OF the Japan plums have fruited only
two. The Attendance and Burbank have
proved hardy and enormously produce
lae Ia nrI FL
but the Abundance is large, beautiful,
juicy, sweet and delicious. 5the best var
iety either for canning or eating from
the hand OF any plum. native or foreign,
that have grown. Its only fault Is that
the frui: buds are tender, and sometime
are injured In severe Wintere.
There Is one grape that stands alone as
tho best grape for Maine and that ID the
Green Mountain. 1t Is extremely early,
ripsbinR quit. es carly ag tie Champion
Jonesville, or Cortland, but while These are
Of very poor quality. TIE Grsen Mountain
10 of fineiquslity, sweet. n delicious Ire
Mayor Is about as early. but shy psarer
unless under high cultivation.
There are 50 many odd varieties OF pears
that 1t 10 re thsr difficult to n AXE n selec-
tion. IL had to oonfine Inyfeli to i've
variet!e I should select Doysnne D'kts
ing in the order named. The SICKLE Ia
tae higheft favored Of the lot, with the
Tyson close to it, / include toe Doyeune
DpEts in the list on account of Its sx-
t-eme earliness.
In sslet ting apples for domestic pur-
poses tsere Is also q large number of ex-
cellent varieties to ohoose from. In my
family think perhaps the Rassett, Gar
den Royal, Graveni t9in and Ncl thern
Spy are considered the best. The. Re So tt
closely following the Astracan and early
karly Harvest, are net so sour as thoss
varie tiles, but Is the frat really fine flaw
ored apple to Tipen. The Gfavenfteln IL
q superb cooking apple and when fully
ripe are unsurpassed as an eating apple.
The Spy, grown under proper condit .ons.
IL the bett winter pie have. These
conditions are deep, rich soil with the
I'D severely prunsd to lat In tbs sun to
color the fruit. 1t ought to be btttsr
known that this variety, IN the right
kind Of soil, under high ouitiyst ON Is
far superior to some fruit grown under
neglect.