The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1905-11-29


cherries and other fruits made me
want to buy some of everything 1
read about, and that is pretty nearly
what l did.
l had no definite plan and no idea
how miscellaneous orchard would
lOk: | found out later how it looked
l found among the pears many fas-
cinating descriptions like this: But
terry, melting rich flavor" or another,
''juicy, vinOus, rich, sweet flavor with
blush on one side" and of another,
fine red cheek, handsome, rich, sweet
melting, perfumed flavor" and so on
through list of many varieties.
got enthuSed on the pear question and
bought a few trees of nearly all of
them. l went in on the apples, cher
ries and plums in the same blind way.
In my ignorance and enthusiasm 1
thought they would all grow and pro-
duce ''rOsy checked. sweet favored
fruit like the catalogue description
1 planted some of all the kinds in the
same orchard, and finding that 1 had
bought more trees than 1 had room
for, l planted the surplus cherry and
plum trees i'm a two acre calf lot. 1
cultivated all the trees in the orchard
alike, grew crops between the rows
and kept the land clean of grass and
weeds.
The calf lot was set to Bermuda
grass, but the cherry trees were
scratched around lightly the first
two years. The trees in the orchard
nearly all started off well and the
orchard prospects were bright.
If / had known then what / know
now, many hours of toll and much
would have been
avoided. How much wasted time at
hard work people put in from not
knowing what to do and how to do
it. Truly. wisdom is the greatest of
all possessions, but that is another
matter.
After ten years many of the pear
trees were dead and all the others
were sadly infested with blight, ex-
cept one kind. the description of
which had not been attractive. Its
fruit was described as ''fine size and
good quality and the tree of a ''vig-
orOus constitution Any one who
knows about pears will recognize this |
as the Kieffer. All the Kieffers did
well and bore good crops which sold |
III
| got my eyes opened on the pear
business and cut out all the other
kinds and put Kieffers in their place.
l was likewise disappointed i'm apples;
none gave me any profit, except the
horse. the yellow transparent. and
early harvest. so 1 cut out all the
others and planted more of these
Of the seventy-five cherry trees plant
ed i'm the orchard, all were dead. Or
so, in twelve years. The
cherries and plums planted i'm the
calf lot in Bermuda sod grew to fine
trees and bear large crops every
year. They have not missed a full
crop in ten years, and a big crop of
cherries means money. They can be
sold any day anywhere for a good
price. The calf lot was used as
poultry yard in the spring and early
summer when garden operations were
going on, and to that fact 1 attribute
he absence of plum curculio and the
good crops of plums. 1t is not. with I
II the scope of this article to attempt {
o give advice as to what kinds of
'ruitS to grow or how to manage an I;
richard. nor to discuss the diseases [
md pests affecting fruit trees and l.
ruit This information should be t
,iven by the editors of farm papers S
md the experiment stations. 1t
l do not feel disposed to give ad- d,
ice, for advice is cheap and so many |
Kings have to be considered when f