Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-01-11

week. For a detailed program, see
last weeks addition of The SATURDAY,
News.D
Fruit growing in this county is
slowly increasing. Fruit was a good
crop here the past summer, especially
apples and plums. The Duchess, An
ism, Florence Crab, Whitney and
Greenwood set twice as many apples
as they could carry out but many of
them dropped from the trees while
small; more than enough stayed on
the trees to ripen, Patten, Greening
and Wealthy bore fairly well, Hiber-
nal a light crop, Charlamoff and Mar
tina, very few, and Virginia a light
bearer.
The bad blighters | have cut out all
except two Strawberry Grabs which
stand neal Hibernal and Virginia.
Neither seemed to catch the blight
so l let them stand. A year ago last
summer they nearly blighted to
death, but last summer there
a very little blight and they made
a vigorous growth of new limbs and
bore some fruit.
The cooling moth has not been bad
here. l did not find a wormy apple in
my orchard last fall but in some
places in trees not sprayed there were
some wormy apples.
OF plums, the Uteca, n Of the
Hansen native plums, takes the lead
in bearing heavy and a good size for
so heavily laden with fruit. But we
had plenty of moisture, having nine
inches Of rainfall in August, just when
the plums wanted the most water.
The Uteca was not the only native
Hansen plum that bore heavily. The
| Wastea, Zekanta, and a number of
others that were sent out by num-
bers instead of names, were a close
second to the Uteca. Then the Han
sen hybrid plums are great bearers.
DC uAla ShSilS SlOoSCS usually COIu-
mence bearing the next year after set
ting out. The Opata, Sapa, Ezeptan
and Sansota, I think are the best.
The plum hybrids, that is, the ma
tive plum and tame plum crosses, the
Hanska, a cross of the native plum
and apricot, take the lead. There are
some of the crosses not quite hardy
enough to stand some of our Dakota
winters, for instance, the Okiga, Sku-
va. Tokeya, and a few others.
/ have have one hundred and TWEEN
ty-six Hansen plum trees from the
state experimental farm. There are
now sixty live trees, but that sixty
have o than paid for the whole lot
already. Last fall / sold thirty dol
lars worth.
h reminds me of my first plum
trees in 1884. i sent an order to Mr..
Dart, at Owatonna, Mimi, for some
apple trees and three plum trees at
75c each. When they arrived the
plum trees were little one year
sprouts. 1t looked like a big price to
pay for those little things, but | set
them out and they all lived and grew
fine. In two or three years they com
menced bearing and they bore every
year. A few years later l picked five
pecks from n tree which I sold for
soc a peck. That n tree more than
paid for the three. 1t will pay I'd
raise fruit here in this part of South
Dakota.
Currants have hot done as well
here the past few years as formerly.
The borers have been quite bad on
them. / saw in the Minnesota State
horticultural reports that wood or
coal ashes put around the bushes
would prevent the borers working on
them. They enter the stalk near the
ground and work UP in the center of
the stem. I think / will try it for /
know ashes make a good mulch to
hold moisture in the ground.
The Sunbeam raspberry, where
planted and taken care of, is doing
fine and very profitable crop to
raise, II left to grow up thick with
sprouts and weeds they are worthless
and If they bear at all 1T will be only
q few small berries. II they are
planted IN rows Ave feet apart and
three Of four feet apart in the row,
allowing four or I'VE sprouts to the
hill sround kept perfectly clean
Tith GOOD sharp hoe and made very
rich, then q Will have large berries
and lots Of them.