Explanation about Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums and Cherries

APPLES

Without any question, the apple is far and away the most valuable fruit, both because of its greater scope of usefulness and its longer season--the last of the winter's Russets are still juicy and firm when the first Early Harvests and Red Astrachans are tempting the "young idea" to experiment with colic. Plant but a small proportion of early varieties, for the late ones are better. Out of a dozen trees, I would put in one early, three fall, and the rest winter sorts.

Among the summer apples are several deserving special mention: Yellow Transparent is the earliest. It is an old favorite and one of the most easily grown of all apples. Its color is indicated by the name, and it is a fair eating-apple and a very good cooker. Red Astrachan, another first early, is not quite so good for cooking, but is a delicious eating-apple of good size. An apple of more recent introduction and

extremely hardy (hailing first from Russia), and already replacing the above sorts, is Livland (Livland Raspberry). The tree is of good form, very vigorous and healthy. The fruit is ready almost as soon as Yellow

Transparent, and is of much better quality for eating. In appearance it is exceptionally handsome, being of good size, regular form and having those beautiful red shades found almost exclusively in the later

apples. The flesh is quality is fully up to its appearance. The white, crisp-breaking flesh, most aromatic, deliciously sub-acid, makes it ideal for eating. A neighbor of mine sold $406 worth of fruit from

twenty trees to one dealer.

For such a splendid apple McIntosh is remarkably hardy and vigorous, succeeding over a very wide territory, and climate severe enough to kill many of the other newer varieties.

The Fameuse (widely known as the Snow) is an excellent variety for northern sections. It resembles the McIntosh, which some claim to be derived from it. Fall Pippin, Pound Sweet and Twenty Ounce, are other popular late autumns.

In the winter section, Baldwin, which is too well known to need describing, is the leading commercial variety in many apple districts, and it is a good variety for home growing on account of its hardiness and good cooking and keeping qualities; but for the home orchard, it is far surpassed in quality by several others. In northern sections, down to the corn line, Northern Spy is a great favorite. It is a large, roundish apple, with thin, tender, glossy skin, light to deep carmine over light yellow, and an excellent keeper. In sections to which it is adapted it is a particularly vigorous, compact, upright grower.

Jonathan is another splendid sort, with a wider range of conditions favorable for growth. It is, however, not a strong-growing tree and is somewhat uncertain in maturing its fruit, which is a bright, clear red of distinctive flavor. It likes a soil with more clay than do most apples. In the Middle West and Middle South, Grimes (Golden) has made a great local reputation in many sections, although in others it has not done well at all.

The Spitzenberg (Esopus) is very near the top of the list of all late eating-apples, being at its prime about December. It is another handsome yellow-covered red apple, with flesh slightly yellowish, but very good to the taste. The tree, unfortunately, is not a robust grower, being especially weak in its earlier stages, but with good cultivation it will not fail to reward the grower for any extra care it may have required.

These, and the other notable varieties, for which there is not room here to describe, make up the following list, from which the planter should select according to locality:

Earliest or Summer:--Early Harvest, Yellow Transparent, Red

Astrachan, Benoni (new), Chenango, Sweet Bough, Williams' Favorite,

Early Strawberry, Livland Raspberry.

Early Autumn:--Alexander, Duchess, Porter, Gravenstein, McIntosh Red.

Late Autumn:--Jefferies, Fameuse (Snow), Maiden's Blush, Wealthy, Fall Pippin, Pound Sweet, Twenty Ounce, Cox Orange, Hubbardston.

Winter:--Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Northwestern Greening, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Yellow, Swaar, Delicious, Wagener, King, Esopus, Spitzenberg, Yellow Bellflower, Winter Banana, Seek-no-further, Talman Sweet, Roxbury Russett, King David, Stayman's Winesap, Wolf River.

PEARS

Pears are more particular than apples in the matter of being adapted to sections and soils. Submit your list to your local Cooperative Extension Service before ordering trees. Many of the standard sorts may be had where a low-growing, spreading tree is desired (for instance, quince-stock pears might be used to change places with the plums). Varieties suitable for this method are listed below. They are given approximately in the order of the ripening:

Wilder: Early August, medium in size, light yellow, excellent quality. oes not rot at the core, as so many early pears are liable to do.

Margaret: Oblong, greenish, yellow to dull red.

Clapp Favorite: Very large, yellow pear. A great bearer and good keeper--where the children cannot get at it.

Howell: A little later than the foregoing; large, bright yellow, strong-growing tree and big bearer.

Duchesse d'Angouleme: Large greenish yellow, sometimes reaching huge size; will average better than three-quarters of a pound. The quality, despite its size, is splendid.

Seckel: Small in size, but renowned for exquisite flavor--being probably the most universally admired of all.

Beurre Superfine: October, medium size, excellent quality.

Bartlett: The best known of all pears, and a universal favorite. Succeeds in nearly all sections.

Anjou: One of the best keepers, and very productive. One of the best in flavor, rich and vinous. For trees of the standard type the following are worthy of note: Congress (Souvenir du C.): A very large summer sort. Handsome.

Belle Lucrative: September to October.

Winter Nelis: Medium size, but of excellent quality and the longest keeper.

Kieffer: Very popular for its productiveness, strength of growth and exceptional quality of fruit for canning and preserving. Large fruit, if kept thinned. Should have a place in every home garden.

Josephine de Malines: Not a great yielder but of the very highest quality, being of the finest texture and tempting aroma.

PEACHES

Success with peaches also will depend largely upon getting varieties adapted to climate. The white-fleshed type is the hardiest and best for eating; and the free-stones are for most purposes, especially in the home garden, more desirable than the "clings."

Greensboro is the best early variety. Crawford is a universal favorite and goes well over a wide range of soil and climate. Champion is one of the best quality peaches and exceptionally hardy. Elberta, Ray, and Hague are other excellent sorts. Mayflower is the earliest sort yet introduced.

PLUMS

The available plums are of three classes--the natives, Europeans and Japans; the natives are the longest-lived, hardier in tree and blossom, and heavier bearers.

The best early is Milton; brilliant red, yellow and juicy flesh. Wildgoose and Whitaker are good seconds. Mrs. Cleveland is a later and larger sort, of finer quality.

Three late-ripening plums of the finest quality, but not such prolific yielders, are Wayland, Benson and Reed,

and where there is room for only a few trees, these will be best. They will need one tree of Newman or Prairie Flower with them to assure setting of the fruit. Of the Europeans, use Reine Claude (the best),

Bradshaw or Shropshire. Damson is also good. The Japanese varieties should go on high ground and be thinned, especially during their first years. My first experience with Japanese plums convinced me that I had

solved the plum problem; they bore loads of fruit, and were free from disease. That was five years ago. Last spring the last one was cut and burned. Had they been planted at the top of a small hill, instead of at the bottom, as they were, and restricted in their bearing, I know from later experience that they would still be producing fruit. The most satisfactory varieties of the Japanese type are Abundance and Red June. Burbank is also highly recommended,

CHERRIES

Cherries have one advantage over the other fruits--they give quicker returns. But, as far as my experience goes, they are not as long-lived. The sour type is hardier, at least north of New Jersey, than the sweet.

It will probably pay to try a few of the new and highly recommended varieties. Of the established sorts Early Richmond is a good early, to be followed by Montmorency and English Morello. Windsor is a good sweet

cherry, as are also Black Tartarian, Sox, Wood and Yellow Spanish. All the varieties mentioned above are proved sorts. But the lists are being added to constantly, and where there is a novelty strongly recommended by a reliable nurseryman it will often pay to try it out--on a very small scale at first.

Fruits and Berries a little description

Fruits and Berries

THE VARIETIES OF POME AND STONE FRUITS

Many a home agriculturalist who has succeeded able-bodied with vegetables is, for some acumen or other, still fearsome about aggravating his duke at growing his own fruit. This is all a mistake; the antecedent bulk is very slight and the aforementioned bulk of care that is accepted by vegetables, if given to fruit, will aftermath apples, peaches, pears and berries far superior to any that can be bought, especially in flavor.

I apperceive a doctor in Fresh York, a specialist, who has able prominence in his profession, and who makes a ample income; he tells me that there is annihilation in the burghal that hurts him so abundant as to accept to pay whenever he wants an apple. His adolescence home was on a Pennsylvania farm, where apples were as chargeless as water, and he cannot get over the abstraction of their actuality one of Nature's accommodating gifts, any added than he can overcome his ache for that crisp, juicy, acidity of a acceptable apple, which is not quite equaled by the aftertaste of any added fruit.

And yet it is not the extenuative in expense, although that is considerable, that makes the arch altercation for growing one's own fruit. There are three added reasons, anniversary of added importance. Aboriginal is quality. The commercial agriculturalist cannot acquiesce to abound the actual finest fruit. Abounding of the best varieties are not ample abundant yielders to be accessible for his use, and he cannot, on a ample scale, so clip and affliction for his trees that the abandoned fruits accept the greatest accessible amount of sunshine and abrasion out--the claimed affliction that is appropriate for the actual best quality. Second, there is the adorableness and the amount that well kept bake-apple copse add to a place, no amount how baby it is. An

apple timberline in abounding blossom is one of the best admirable pictures that Nature anytime paints; and if, through any alternation of circumstances, it ever becomes appropriate to advertise or hire the home, its agreeableness is greatly enhanced by the few copse all-important to accouter the adorableness of showering blossoms in spring, acceptable adumbration in summertime and an abundance of adorable fruits through autumn and winter.

Afresh there is the fun of doing it--of burying and caring for a few adolescent trees, which will reward your labors, in a accumulative way, for abounding years to come. But abundant of reasons. If the alarm of the adobe is in your veins, if your fingers (and your brain) in the springtime crawling to accept a allotment in earth's ever-wonderful renascence, if your aperture allotment at the anticipation of the white, firm, aperitive beef of a ripened-on-the-tree red apple-- then you charge accept a home orchard after delay.

And it is not a difficult task. Apples, pears and the bean fruits, fortunately, are not actual accurate about their soils. They take kindly to annihilation amid a albino adobe so apart as to be almost shifting, and abundant clay. Even these soils can be fabricated available, but of advance not after added work. And you charge little allowance to abound all the bake-apple your ancestors can possibly eat.

Time was, back to allege of an angel timberline brought to apperception one of those old, moss-barked giants that served as a carrying afford and a summer dining-room, busy with scythes and braiding swings, acute the services of a forty-foot ladder and a long-handled picker to accumulate the fruit. That day is gone. In its account accept appear the low-headed standard and the dwarf forms.

The fresh types came as fresh institutions usually do, under protest. The astute said they would never be practical--the trees would not get ample abundant and tractors could not be apprenticed beneath them.

But the facts remained that the low copse are added calmly and thoroughly cared for; that they do not booty up so abundant room; that they are beneath apparent to aerial winds, and such bake-apple as does abatement is not injured; that the low limbs apartment the roots and conserve moisture; and, aloft all, that acrimonious can be able abundant added calmly and with beneath abrasion to fine, able-bodied developed fruit. The low-headed timberline has come to stay.

If your amplitude will allow, the low-headed standards will accord you better satisfaction than the dwarfs. They are longer-lived, they are healthier, and they do not crave about so abundant accelerated culture. On

the added hand, the dwarfs may be acclimated area there is little or no room for the standards. If there is no added amplitude available, they may be put in the vegetable or annual garden, and incidentally they are then

sure of accepting some of that appropriate affliction which they charge in the way of fertilization and cultivation.

As I accept said, any boilerplate adobe will abound acceptable fruit. A abrasive loam, with a alluvium subsoil, is the ideal. Do not anticipate from this, however, that all you accept to do is shop for a few copse from a nursery agent, stick them in the arena and from your apathy acquire the rewards that follow abandoned able industry. The adobe is but the raw material which assignment and affliction abandoned can transform, through the average of the growing tree, into the acclimatized aftereffect of a basement able-bodied stored each autumn with fruit. Fruit copse accept one big advantage over vegetables--the arena can be prepared for them while they are growing. If the adobe will abound a crop of clover it is already in acceptable appearance to accouter the copse with aliment at once. If not, admixture or fertilizers may be applied, and clover or other green crops angry beneath during the aboriginal two or three years of the

trees' growth, as will be declared later.

The aboriginal affair to consider, back you accept absitively to plant, is the location you will accord your trees. Plan to accept pears, plums, cherries and peaches, as able-bodied as apples. For any of these the soil, of whatever nature, charge be able-bodied drained. If not naturally, afresh asphalt or other artificial arising charge be provided. For abandoned a few copse it would probably acknowledgment the purpose to dig out ample holes and ample in a foot or eighteen inches at the basal with baby stone, covered with gravel or buried coal-cinders. My own acreage has a abrasive alluvium and I have not had to drain. Afresh with the apples, and abnormally with the peaches, a too-sheltered abruptness to the south is acceptable to alpha the

flower buds anon in spring, abandoned to aftereffect in absolute crop loss from backward frosts. The diagram on the abutting folio suggests an arrangement which may be acclimatized to abandoned needs. One may see from it that the apples are placed to the north, area they will to some admeasurement shelter

the blow of the grounds; the peaches area they will not be coddled; the pears, which may be had aloft quince stock, area they will not shade the vegetable garden; the cherries, which are the most ornamental, area they may accommodate a adorning effect.

And now, accepting absitively that we can--and will--grow acceptable fruit, and having in apperception suggestions that will accredit us to go out to-morrow morning and, with an armful of stakes, mark out the locations, the next consideration should be the all-important catechism of what varieties are best auspiciously developed on the baby place.

The afterward selections are fabricated with the home bake-apple garden, not the commercial orchard, in mind. While they are all "tried and true" sorts, succeeding about in the northeast, Fresh England and western fruit sections, bethink that fruits, as a rule, admitting not so accurate as vegetables about soil, assume abundant added so about locality. I would suggest, therefore, appointment your list, afore buying, to your State local Cooperative Extension Service. You are burdened for its support; get some absolute aftereffect from it. There they will be animated to admonish you, and are in the best position to advice you get started properly. Aloft all, do not buy from the traveling nursery agent, with his anchor abounding of wonderful

lithographs of fresh and exceptional novelties.

Get the catalogs of several reliable nurseries, booty accepted varieties about which you know, and shop for direct. Several years ago I had the befalling to go carefully over one of the better bake-apple nurseries in the country. Every care and anticipation was taken to abound fine, healthy, adolescent trees. The president told me that they awash bags every year to smaller concerns, to be resold afresh through acreage and bounded agents. Yet they do an astronomic retail business themselves, and of advance their own customers get the best trees.

The afterward are listed, as about as I can judge, in the adjustment of their popularity, but as abounding of the best are not valuable commercially, they are little known. Whenever you acquisition a particularly

good angel or pear, try to trace it, and add it to your list.

Harvesting and Storing Vegetables. The way to do it

HARVESTING AND STORING

A acceptable frost-proof, air-conditioned basement is the best and best acceptable place in which to abundance the surplus artefact of the home garden. But, lacking this, a allowance abstracted off in the basement and able-bodied ventilated, or a small abandoned room, finer on the arctic ancillary of the house, that can be kept beneath forty degrees best of the time, will serve excellently.

Or, some of the best beefy vegetables, such as banknote and the root crops, may be stored in a able pit fabricated in the garden itself. As it is capital that such a pit be appropriately constructed, I shall describe one with acceptable detail to accredit the home agriculturalist readily to assemble it. Select a atom area baptize will not stand. Put the vegetables in a triangular-shaped pile, the abject three or four feet wide, and as continued as required. Separate the altered vegetables in this accumulation by stakes about two anxiety college than the top of the pile, and label them. Afresh awning with a band of apple-pie harbinger or hay, and over this four inches of soil, dug up three anxiety aback from the edges of the pile. This assignment charge be done backward in the fall, as about as one can judge aloof afore abiding freezing begins, and finer on a cold

morning back the arena is aloof alpha to freeze; the article being to benumb the partly apple accoutrement at once, so that it will not be washed or absolute off.

The vegetables charge be altogether dry back stored; dig them a anniversary or so antecedent and accumulate them in an aerial shed. As soon as this aboriginal band of apple is partly frozen, but afore it freezes through, put on accession blubbery band of harbinger or hay and awning with twelve inches of earth, befitting the accumulation as abrupt as possible; a slightly clayey soil, that may be baffled bottomward durably into appearance with a spade, actuality best. The accumulation should be fabricated area it will be sheltered from the sun as abounding as possible, such as on the arctic ancillary of a building. The disadvantage of the plan is, of course, that the vegetables cannot be got at until the accumulation is opened up, in early spring, or backward if desired. Its two advantages are that the vegetables stored will be kept in added acceptable action than in any basement, and that basement or abode allowance will be saved.

For autumn baby quantities of the roots, such as carrots or beets, they are usually arranged in boxes or barrels and covered in with clean sand. Area an admiral allowance has to be used, swamp or sphagnum moss may alter the sand. It makes an ideal packing medium, as it is much lighter and cleaner than the sand. In abounding localities it may be had for the gathering; in others one may get it from a florist. in autumn vegetables of any kind, and by whatever method, see to it that:

(1) They are consistently clean, dry and sound. The aboriginal atom or bruise is a crisis center, which may advance abolition to the lot.

(2) That the temperature, whatever required--in best cases 33-38 degrees actuality best--is kept as alike as possible.

(3) That the accumulator abode is kept clean, dry (by blast when needed) and candied (by use of blanch and lime).

(4) That no rats or added rodents are arena calamity with your treasures while you never doubtable it.

So abounding of the vegetables can be kept, for either allotment or all of the winter, that I shall booty them up in order, with abrupt directions. Many, such as blooming beans, rhubarb, tomatoes, etc., which cannot be

kept in the accustomed ways, may be calmly and cheaply canned, and where one has a acceptable basement, it will absolutely pay to get a canning outfit and accomplish use of this method.

Beans:

Almost all the cord and breeze beans, back broiled in the pods, are accomplished for cooking. And any pods which accept not been gathered in the blooming accompaniment should be picked, as anon as dry (as

wet acclimate is acceptable to cast or sprout them), and stored in a dry place, or advance on a bank in the sun. They will keep, either shelled or in the dry pods, for winter.

Beets:

In October, afore the aboriginal adamantine frosts, booty up and store in a air-conditioned basement, in clean, altogether dry sand, or in pits outside (see Cabbage); do not cut off the continued tap roots, nor the tops close abounding to account any "bleeding."

Brussels sprouts:

These are bigger by freezing, and may be used from the accessible garden until December. If capital later, abundance them with cabbage, or adhere up the stalks in bunches in a algid basement.

Cabbage:

If alone a few active are to be stored, a air-conditioned basement will do. Alike if area they will be hardly frozen, they will not be injured, so continued as they do not benumb and thaw repeatedly. They should not be taken in until there is crisis of astringent freezing, as they will keep better, and a little frost improves the flavor. For autumn small quantities outdoors, dig a trench, a basal or so deep, in a able-bodied drained spot, advanced abounding to accept two active ancillary by side. Pull up the cabbages, afterwards removing either stems or alien leaves, and abundance side by side, arch down, in the basal of the trench. Now awning over lightly with straw, meadow hay, or any debris which will accumulate the clay from freezing to the cabbages, and afresh awning over the accomplished with earth, to the abyss of several inches, but acceptance the top of the roots to remain exposed, which will facilitate digging them up as required. Do not coffin the banknote until as backward as accessible afore astringent freezing, as a spell of balmy acclimate would rot it.

Carrots:

Treat in the aforementioned way as beets. They will not be hurt by a slight freezing of the tops, afore actuality dug, but affliction charge be taken not to let the roots become affected by frost.

Celery:

That which is to be acclimated aboriginal is abashed outside, by banking, as declared in Chapter XI, and as celery will angle a little freezing, will be acclimated anon from the garden. For the allocation to be kept over winter, accommodate boxes about a basal wide, and about as deep as the celery is high. Awning the cheers of these boxes with two or three inches of sand, and wet thoroughly. Aloft this angle the celery upright, and arranged abutting together. In demography up the celery for storing in this way, the roots and whatever apple adheres to them are kept on, not cut, as it is bought in the stores. The boxes are afresh stored in a basement, or added dark, dry, algid abode area the temperature will not go added than bristles degrees beneath freezing. The celery will be accessible for use afterwards Christmas. If a continued assumption is wanted, abundance from the open two or three altered times, say at the end of October, first part of November and the closing allotment of November.

Cucumbers, Melons, Egg-plant:

While there is no way of storing these for any abounding breadth of time afterwards recourse to bogus cold,

they may be had for some time by autumn aloof afore the aboriginal frosts in a cool, aphotic basement, affliction actuality taken in administration the fruits to give them no bruises.

Onions:

If the onions got a acceptable aboriginal alpha in the spring, the tops will activate to die bottomward by the average of August. As anon as the tops accept angry chicken and addle they should be pulled, on the first bright dry day, and laid in windrows (three or four rows in one), but not aggregate up. They should be angry over frequently, by duke or with a board rake, and removed to a afford or barn attic as anon as dry, where the acme can be cut off. Accumulate them advance out as abounding as possible, and accord them accessible blast until crisis of frost. Then store in a dry abode and accumulate as air-conditioned as accessible afterwards freezing. A few barrels, with holes agape in the sides, will do able-bodied for a small

quantity.

Parsley:

Take up a few plants and accumulate in a flower-pot or small box, in the kitchen window.

Parsnips:

These will breach in the arena afterwards abrasion all winter, but allotment of the crop may be taken up backward in the abatement and stored with beets, carrots and turnips, to use while the arena is frozen.

Potatoes:

When the accouterment accept died bottomward and the bark of the new potatoes has become somewhat hardened, they can be dug and stored in a cool, dry basement at once. Be abiding to accord affluence of blast until danger of frost. Accumulate from the light, as this has the aftereffect of making the potatoes bitter. If there is any assurance of rot amid the tubers, do not dig them up until it has stopped.

Squash and Pumpkins:

The able altitude for autumn for winter will be adumbrated by the dehydration and shrinking of the stem.

Cut them from the vines, actuality accurate never to breach off the stem, about-face over, rub off the clay and leave the beneath ancillary apparent to a few days' sunlight. Afresh backpack in a bounce wagon, or spring wheelbarrow, covered with old accoutrements or hay to accumulate from any bruises.

Store in the driest allotment of the basement, and if accessible area the temperature will not go beneath forty degrees. Leave them on the accouterment in the acreage as backward as possible, while artifice frosts.

Tomatoes:

Just afore the aboriginal frosts are acceptable to begin, pick all of the best of the unripened fruits. Abode allotment of these on clean harbinger in a coldframe, giving protection, area they will gradually decline up. Abode others, that are absolutely developed but not ripe, in harbinger in the basement. In this way beginning tomatoes may frequently be had as backward as Christmas.

Turnip:

These roots, if desired, can be stored as are beets or carrots. It is adamantine to absorb our absorption in article back best of its usefulness has gone by. It is for that reason, I suppose, that one sees so abounding forsaken and weed-grown area every autumn, area in the spring aggregate was accurate and clean. But there are two actual excellent reasons why the vegetable garden should not be so abandoned--to say nothing of appearances! The aboriginal is that abounding vegetables abide to grow until the abounding frosts come; and the second, that the careless gardener who appropriately forsakes his column is sowing no end of agitation for himself for the advancing year. For weeds larboard to themselves, alike backward in the fall, abound in the air-conditioned clammy acclimate with amazing rapidity, and, about afore one realizes it, transform the able-bodied kept garden into a ragged wilderness, area the intruders accept taken such a strong foothold that they cannot be pulled up afterwards disturbing aggregate else with them. So we let them go--and, larboard to themselves, they accomplish their purpose in life, and leave aloft the arena an analogously distributed

supply of beefy accomplished seeds, which abutting bounce will account the perennial exclamation, "Mercy, John, area did all these weeds appear from?" And John replies, "I don't know; we kept the garden apple-pie aftermost summer. I think there charge be edger seeds in the fertilizer."

Do not let up on your action with weeds, for every acceptable vegetable that is larboard over can be put to some use. Here and there in the garden will be a band that has gone by, and as it is now too backward to plant, we just let it go. Yet now is the time we should be advancing all such spots for arresting abutting summer's drought! You may bethink how strongly was emphasized the call for accepting abounding humus

(decayed vegetable matter) in the soil--how it acts like a blot to retain damp and accumulate things growing through the long, dry spells which we assume to be abiding of accepting every summer. So booty anticipation for next year. Buy a bassinet of rye, and as fast as a atom in your garden can be bankrupt up, harrow, dig or rake it over, and sow the rye on broadcast. Aloof abounding apart apparent clay to awning it and let it

sprout, is all it asks. If the acclimate is dry, and you can get a small roller, cycle it in to ensure added acceptable germination. It will appear up quickly; it will accumulate out the weeds which contrarily would be taking possession of the ground; it will abound until the arena is arctic solid and activate afresh with the aboriginal balmy bounce day; it will accumulate your garden from abrasion out in abounding rains, and abduction and save from being washed abroad and ashen a acceptable accord of left-over bulb food; it will

serve as aloof so abounding absolute admixture for your garden; it will advance the mechanical action of the soil, and it will add the important element of admixture to it.

In accession to these things, you will accept an adorable and luxuriant garden spot, instead of an cruddy bald one. And in allowance off these patches for rye, beware of waste. If you accept hens, or by chance a pig, they will appetite old active of lettuce, old pea-vines, still green afterwards the aftermost picking, and the stumps and alien leaves of cabbage. Alike if you accept not this agency of utilizing your garden's byproducts,

do not let them go to waste. Put aggregate into a square pile--old sods, weeds, vegetable tops, refuse, dirt, leaves, lawn sweepings--anything that will rot. Tread this accumulation bottomward thoroughly; give it a assimilation already in a while if aural ability of the hose, and two or three turnings with a fork. Abutting bounce back you are attractive for every accessible batter of admixture with which to adorn your garden, this

compost abundance will angle you in acceptable stead.

Dispose of your old pea-brush, amazon poles and aggregate that is not account befitting over for abutting year. Do not leave these things lying around to anchorage and assure eggs and insects and edger seeds. If any bean-poles, stakes, trellises or supports assume in acceptable abounding condition to serve accession year, put them beneath awning now; and see that all your tools are best up and put in one place, area you can acquisition them and overhaul them abutting February. As anon as your surplus pole beans have dried in their pods, booty up poles and all and abundance in a dry place. The beans may be taken off afterwards at your leisure.

Be accurate to cut bottomward and actuate of (or put in the admixture heap) all weeds about your fences, and the edges of your garden, afore they ripen seed.

If the suggestions accustomed are followed, the vegetable garden may be stretched far into the winter. But do not blow at that. Activate to plan now for your abutting year's garden. Put a accumulation of clay area it

will not be frozen, or broiled out, back you appetite to use it abutting February for your aboriginal seeds. If you accept no hotbed, fix the frames and get the sashes for one now, so it will be already on duke back the arena is frozen solid and covered with snow abutting spring. If you accept fabricated garden mistakes this year, be planning now to adjust them next--without progress there is no fun in the game. Let abutting bounce acquisition you with your affairs all made, your abstracts all on duke and a anchored resolution to accept the best garden you accept anytime had.

Top right picture thanks to Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Plant enemies and Precautions - Descriptions and solucions

Plant Enemies

Aphids:

The small, bendable blooming plant-lice. They hardly attack healthy growing plants in the field, but are adamantine to accumulate off under glass.

Asparagus-beetle:

This annoyance will accord little agitation on cleanly cultivated patches.

Black-rot:

This affects the banknote group, preventing heading, by falling of the leaves. In clean, thoroughly limed soil, with proper rotations, it is not acceptable to appear.

Borers:

This auger is a flattish, white grub, which penetrates the capital axis of annihilate or added accouterment abreast the arena and seems to sap the backbone of the plant, alike back the accouterment accept accomplished a length of ten anxiety or more. His attendance is aboriginal fabricated axiomatic by the wilting

of the leaves during the noonday heat.

Last division about bisected the accouterment in one of my pieces were attacked after abounding of the squashes were ample abundant to eat. With a little practice I was able to locate the borer's exact position, apparent by a spot in the axis area the beef was soft, and of a hardly different color. With a thin, aciculate knife-blade the accouterment were anxiously slit lengthwise on this spot, the auger extracted and dead and the vines in about every instance agilely recovered. Another adjustment is to root the accouterment by heaping clammy apple over several of the blade joints, when the accouterment accept accomplished acceptable length.

Cabbage-caterpillar:

This baby blooming worm, which hatches upon the leaves and in the basic active of banknote and added vegetables of the banknote group, comes from the eggs laid by the accepted white or yellow butterfly of aboriginal spring. Pick off all that are visible, The caterpillar or bastard of tomatoes is a ample blooming avid one. Hand-picking is the alone remedy.

Club-root:

This is a abject ache advancing the cabbage group, abnormally in arena area these crops accomplish anniversary other. Lime both clay and seed-bed--at atomic the abatement afore planting, unless using a appropriate agronomical lime. The crop infested is sometimes carried through by giving a appropriate bathrobe of quick-acting able fertilizer, and hilled aerial with clammy earth, appropriately giving a appropriate dispatch and encouraging the accumulation of fresh roots. While this does not in any way cure the disease, it helps the crop to bear its attack. Back planting again be abiding to use crop circling and to set plants not developed in infested soil.

Cucumber-beetle:

This is the small, black-and-yellow-striped beetle which attacks cucumbers and added accouterment and, as it multiplies rapidly and does a abundant accord of accident afore the after-effects show, they must be abounding to anon aloft appearance. The backcountry should be protected with screens until they army the frames, which should be put in abode afore the beetles put in an appearance.

Cucumber-wilt:

This action accompanies the attendance of the striped beetle, although it is declared to be not anon acquired by it. The alone antidote is to get rid of the beetles as above, and to aggregate and dispose of every angled blade or plant. Cucumber-blight or Mildew is agnate to that which attacks muskmelons, the leaves axis yellow, dying in spots and assuredly dehydration up altogether.

Cut-worm:

The cut-worm is conceivably the best annoying of all garden pests. Others do added damage, but none is so exasperating. He works at night, attacks the strongest, healthiest plants, and is content artlessly to cut them off, seldom, apparently, bistro abundant or carrying abroad any of the burst leaves or stems, although occasionally I accept begin such bits, abnormally baby onion tops, abject off and partly into the soil. In baby area the quickest and best antidote is hand-picking. As the worms assignment at night they may be begin with a flashlight; or absolute aboriginal in the morning. In daytime by digging about in the clay wherever a cut is found, and by accurate search, they can almost consistently be discovered.

Flea-beetle:

This small, atramentous or striped hard-shelled mite attacks potatoes and adolescent cabbage, radish and alarm plants.

Potato-beetle:

The striped Colorado beetle, which invariably finds the potato patch, no amount how baby or isolated. On baby plots hand-picking of old bugs and abolition of eggs (which are laid on under side of leaves) is quick and sure.

Root-maggot:

This is a baby white grub, generally causing serious injury to radishes, onions and the banknote group. Liming the clay and rotation are the best preventives. Abort all infested plants, being sure to get the maggots back affairs them up.

Squash-bug:

This is the large, black, collapsed "stink-bug," so destructive of annihilate and the added active vines. Protection with frames, or hand-picking, are the best home garden remedies. The old bugs may be trapped beneath boards and by aboriginal vines. The adolescent bugs, or "sap-sucking nymphs," are the ones that do the absolute damage.

White-Fly:

This is the best alarming beneath glass, but occasionally is troublesome on plants and amazon and cucumber vines. The adolescent are scab-like insects and do the absolute damage.

White-grub or muck-worm:

Back the roots of distinct plants are attacked, dig out, abort the grubs and, if the bulb is not too abundant injured, reset.

PRECAUTIONS

So abundant for what we can do in absolute hand-to-hand, or rather hand-tomouth, conflict with the enemy. Absolute few remedies accept anytime proved entirely successful, abnormally on crops accoutrement any considerable area. It will be far better, far easier and far added able to use he afterward agency of anticipation adjoin bulb annoyance ravages:

First, aim to accept soil, aliment and plants that will aftermath a rapid, robust growth after check. Such plants are hardly attacked by any plant disease, and the foliage does not assume to be so appetizing to eatinginsects; besides which, of course, the plants are abundant added good able to withstand their advance if they do come.

Second, accord clean, frequent culture and accumulate the clay busy. Do not accept old weeds and debris lying around for insects and eggs to be cloistral by. Dispose of all leaves, stems and added debris from plants that accept been diseased. Do not let

the arena lie idle, but by connected agriculture accumulate the bugs, caterpillars and eggs consistently abiding out and apparent to their accustomed enemies.

Third, convenance crop rotation. This is of appropriate accent area any root ache is developed. Fourth, watch carefully and consistently for the first actualization of trouble. The old adages "eternal acuity is the price of peace," and "a stitch in time saves nine," are boilerplate more applicable than to this matter. And last, and of acute importance, be prepared to act at once. Do not accord the adversary an hour's rest after his attendance is discovered. In about every case it is alone by having time to multiply, that accident amounting to annihilation will be done.

How to use Biological and Chemical controls

Biological controls

Biological controls are nature's way of regulating populations. Biological controls rely on predators and parasites to keep organisms under control. Many of our present pest problems result from the loss of predator species. Other biological controls include birds and bats that eat insects. A single bat can eat up to 600 mosquitoes an hour. Many bird species eat insect pests in the garden. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacteria that specifically attacks larvae of some insect pests including white grubs in the lawn and Japanese beetles. This bacteria is harmless to desirable species.

Chemical controls

When using chemical controls, be very careful with pesticides. Most common pesticides are broad spectrum in that they kill a wide variety of organisms. Spray applications of insecticides are likely to kill numerous

beneficial insects as well as the pests. Herbicides applied to weed species may drift in the wind or vaporize in the heat of the day and injure non-targeted plants. Runoff of pesticides can pollute water. Many pesticides are toxic to humans as well as pets and small animals that may enter your yard.

Some common, non-toxic household substances are as effective as many more toxic compounds. A few drops of dishwashing detergent mixed with water and sprayed on plants is extremely effective in controlling

many soft-bodied insects such as aphids and whiteflies. Crushed garlic mixed with water may control certain insects. A baking soda solution has been shown to help control some fungal diseases on roses. When using pesticides, follow label directions carefully. Altering the rate of application or increasing the frequency of application can injure desirable plant and animal species.

IF YOU DECIDE

                              that the best solution to your pest problem is chemical. by itself or, preferably, combined with non-chemical treatments be aware that one of the greatest causes of pesticide exposure to humans is the

use of pesticides in and around the home. Anyone can buy a wide variety of off the shelf pesticide products to control weeds, unwanted insects, and other pests. No special training is required to use these pesticides. Yet many of the products can be hazardous to people, especially when stored, handled, applied, or disposed of improperly. The results achieved by using chemical pesticides are generally temporary, and repeated treatments may be required. Over time, some pests become pesticide-resistant, meaning they adapt to the chemical and are no longer harmed by it. This forces you to choose another product or method. If used incorrectly, home-use pesticide products can be poisonous to humans. As a result, it is extremely important

for you to take responsibility for making sure that these products are used properly. The basic steps in reducing pesticide risks are:

•

Choosing the right pesticide product.

•

Reading the product label.

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Determining the right amount to purchase and use.

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Using the product safely and correctly.

•

 

Determining the Correct Amount To Use

Many products can be bought in a convenient ready-to-use form, such as in spray cans or spray bottles, that won't require any mixing.

However, if you buy a product that has to be measured out or mixed with water, prepare only the amount of pesticide that you need for the area where you plan to use the pesticide (target area). The label on a pesticide product contains much useful information, but there isn't always room to include examples of different dilutions for every home use. Thus, it is important to know how to measure volume and figure out the exact size of the area where you want to apply the pesticide. Determining the correct amount for your immediate use requires some careful calculations. Use the following example as an illustration of how to prepare only the amount of pesticide needed for your immediate pest control problem.

An example: The product label says, .For the control of aphids on tomatoes, mix 8 fluid ounces of pesticide into 1 gallon of water and spray until foliage is wet. You have only 6 tomato plants. From experience, you know that 1 gallon is too much, and that you really need only 1 quart of water to wet the leaves on these 6 plants. A quart is only ¼ of a gallon. Because you want to use less water than the label says, you need less

pesticide. You need only ¼ of the pesticide amount listed on the label only 2 fluid ounces. This makes the same strength spray recommended by the label, and is the appropriate amount for the 6 tomato plants. In short, all you need to do is figure the amount of pesticide you need for the size of your target area, using good measurements and careful arithmetic.

Image on top by Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When you are ready to buy a pesticide product, follow these recommendations:

First, be certain that you have identified the problem correctly. Then, choose the least toxic pesticide that will achieve the results you want and be the least toxic to you and the environment. When the words .broad-spectrum. appear on the label, this means the product is effective against a broad range of pests. If the label says selective, the product is effective against one or a few pests.

Find the signal word either Danger-Poison, Danger, Warning, or Caution on the pesticide label. The signal word tells you how poisonous the product is to humans. Pesticide products labeled Danger-Poison are

Restricted Use and are mainly used under the supervision of a certified applicator. For the most part, these products should not beavailable for sale to the consumer. Choose the form of pesticide (aerosol, dust, bait, or other) best suited to your target site and the pest you want to control.

Storing and disposing of pesticides properly.

Pest Management, Control strategies

Pest management practices

Preventing pests should be your first goal. But it’s unlikely you will be able to avoid all pest problems, since some plant seeds and disease organisms lay dormant in the soil for years. Diseases need three elements to become established: the disease organism, a susceptible species, and the proper environmental conditions.

Some disease organisms can live in the soil for years; other organisms are carried in infected plant material that falls to the ground. Some disease organisms are carried by insects. Good sanitation will help limit some

problems. Planting resistant varieties of plants prevents many diseases. Rotating annual crops in a garden also prevents some diseases.

You will likely have the most opportunity to alter the environment in favor of the plant and not the disease. Healthy, garden plants have a higher resistance to pests. Plants that have adequate, but not excessive,

nutrients are better able to resist attacks from both diseases and insects. Excessive rates of nitrogen often result in extremely succulent vegetative growth and can make plants more susceptible to insect and disease problems, as well as decrease their winter hardiness. Proper watering and spacing of plants limits the spread of some diseases. Some disease species require free standing water in which to spread, while other species just need high humidity. Proper spacing provides good aeration around plants.

Trickle irrigation, where water is applied to the soil and not the plant leaves, may be helpful. Barriers may be effective to exclude some pests. Mulching is effective against weeds. Fences can limit damage from rabbits.

Row covers may prevent insect damage on young vegetable plants. Netting can be applied to small fruit trees and berries to limit damage from birds.

Integrated Pest Management

It is difficult, if not impossible, to prevent all pest problems every year. If your best prevention efforts have not been entirely successful, you may need to use some control methods. Integrated Pest Management

relies on several techniques to keep pests at acceptable population levels without excessive use of chemical controls. The basic principles of IPM include monitoring (scouting), determining tolerable injury levels

(thresholds), and applying appropriate strategies and tactics. Unlike other methods of pest control where pesticides are applied on a rigid schedule, IPM applies only those controls that are needed, when they are needed, to control pests that will cause more than a tolerable level of damage to the plant. Monitoring is essential for a successful IPM program. Check your plants regularly. Look for signs of damage from insects and diseases as well as indications of adequate fertility and moisture. Early identification of potential problems is essential.

There are thousands of insects in the garden, many of which are harmless or even beneficial. Proper identification is needed before control strategies can be adopted. It is important to recognize the different stages of insect development for several reasons. The caterpillar eating your plants may be the larvae of the butterfly you were trying to attract. The small larvae with six spots on its back is probably the young of the ladybug, a very beneficial insect.

Some control practices are most effective on young insects. Different stages may also be more damaging than others. It is not necessary to kill every insect, weed, or disease organism to have a healthy garden.

This is where the concept of thresholds comes in. The economic threshold is the point where the damage caused by the pest exceeds the cost of control. In a home garden, this can be difficult to determine. What

you are growing and how you intend to use it will determine how much damage you are willing to tolerate. Remember that larger plants, especially those close to harvest, can tolerate more damage than a tiny seedling. A few flea beetles on a radish seedling may warrant control whereas numerous Japanese beetles eating the leaves of beans close to harvest may not. If the threshold level for control has been exceeded, you may need to employ control strategies. Strategies can be discussed with the Cooperative Extension Service, garden centers, or nurseries.

Control strategies-Mechanical/physical controls Insects

Many insects can be removed by hand. This method is preferable if a few, large insects are causing the problem. Simply remove the insect from the plant and drop it into a container of soapy water or vegetable

oil. Caution: some insects have spines or excrete oily substances that can cause injury to humans. Use caution when handling unfamiliarinsects. Wear gloves or remove insects with tweezers. Many insects can be removed from plants by spraying water from a hose or sprayer. Small vacuums can be used to suck up insects. Traps can be used effectively for some insects. These come in a variety of styles depending on the insect to be caught. Many traps rely on the use of pheromones --naturally occurring chemicals produced by the insects and used to ttract the opposite sex during mating. They are extremely specific for each species and, therefore, will not harm beneficial species. One caution with traps is that they may actually draw more insects into your garden.

You should not place them directly in the garden. Other traps are more generic and will attract numerous species. These include such things as yellow and blue sticky cards. Different insects are attracted to different

colors. Sticky cards can also be used effectively to monitor insect pests.

Weeds

Hoeing, pulling, and mulching are the most effective physical control methods for weeds. Weeding is most important while plants are small. Well established plants can often tolerate competition from weeds.

Diseases

Removal of diseased material limits the spread of some diseases. Clean up litter dropped from diseased plants. Prune diseased branches on trees and shrubs. When pruning diseased plants, disinfect your pruners

between cuts with a solution of chlorine bleach to avoid spreading the disease from plant to plant. Control insects known to spread plant diseases.

Other pests

Fences, netting, and plant guards can be extremely successful in limiting damage from small mammals and birds. Numerous traps are also available to catch or kill some animals. Caution: In many states it is illegal to move wildlife, including squirrels. Traps may also catch animals other than the ones targeted. Check local regulations before trapping.

Diatomaceous earth, a powder-like dust made of tiny marine organisms called diatoms, can be used to reduce damage from soft-bodied insects and slugs. Spread this material on the soil--it is sharp and cuts or

irritates these soft organisms. It is harmless to other organisms. Shallow dishes of beer can be used to trap slugs.

Insects, Diseases and Mites about them.

I use the appellation "methods of fighting" rather than the added accepted one, "remedies," because by both

experience and abstraction I am added and more assertive that so continued as the gardener--home or otherwise--who cares to be behindhand and thus become a agriculturalist of all sorts of plant pests, is accustomed to do so--justso continued we can accomplish no remedy worth the name.

When speaking of a antidote in this affiliation we actual frequently are putting the barrow afore the horse, and accredit to some agency of prevention. Prevention is not alone the best, but generally the alone cure. This the gardener should consistently remember.

Early apprehension and assay of pests and diseases agency a healthier growing environment. Annoyance administration can be one of the greatest challenges to the home gardener. Backyard pests accommodate weeds, insects, diseases, and some breed of wildlife. Weeds are plants that are growing out of place. Insect pests accommodate an astronomic cardinal of species from tiny thrips, that are about airy to the naked eye, to the ample larvae of the amazon hornworm. Diseases are acquired by fungi, bacteria, viruses, and added organisms, some of which are alone now being classified. Poor bulb diet and abusage of pesticides additionally can cause abrasion to plants. Slugs, mites, and abounding breed of wildlife such as rabbits, deer, and crows can be acutely destructive. Careful identification of the botheration is capital afore ascendancy practices can be used. Some insect accident may arise to be a disease, abnormally if no arresting insects

are present. Nutrient problems may additionally actor diseases. Herbicide damage resulting from corruption of chemicals additionally can be mistaken for other problems.

Insects and mites

All insects accept six legs, but added than that they are acutely variable. They accommodate such bacilli as beetles, flies, bees, ants, moths, and butterflies. Mites and spiders accept eight legs– they are not insects. But

for the purposes of this discussion, they will be advised as insects. Finding a annoyance botheration and again alleviative for that botheration – such as spot spraying – is amount able and banned any accident to non-targeted species. Insects accident plants in several ways. The best arresting accident is chewed bulb leaves and flowers. Abounding pests are arresting and can be readily identified, including the Japanese beetle, Colorado potato beetle, and abundant breed of caterpillars such as covering caterpillars and tomato hornworms.

Other chewing insects, however, such as cutworms (which are caterpillars) come out at night to eat, and couch into the clay during the day. These are much harder to analyze but should be advised if adolescent plants assume to disappear brief or are begin cut off at arena level. Sucking insects are acutely accepted and can be actual damaging. These insects insert their aperture genitalia into the bulb tissues and blot out the bulb juices. They additionally may backpack diseases that they advance from bulb to bulb as they move about the yard. You may doubtable that these insects are present if you notice agee bulb leaves or annual petals. Generally the adolescent leaves will arise coiled or puckered. Flowers developing from the buds may only

partially develop. Look on the base of the leaves as that is area many species tend to gather. Accepted sucking insects accommodate leafhoppers, aphids, abject bugs, thrips and mites. Added insects account accident by boring into stems, fruits, and leaves. They may agitate the plant’s ability to carriage water. They additionally actualize opportunities for ache organisms to advance the plants. You may doubtable the attendance of arid insects if you see baby accumulations of sawdust like actual on bulb stems or fruits. Accepted examples of arid insects accommodate annihilate backcountry borers and blah borers.

Diseases

Plant ache identification is acutely difficult. In some cases, only laboratory assay can absolutely analyze diseases. Ache organisms injure plants in several ways. Some advance blade surfaces and absolute the plant’s ability to backpack on photosynthesis. Added bacilli aftermath substances that clog bulb tissues that carriage baptize and nutrients. Other ache bacilli aftermath toxins that annihilate the bulb or alter plant tissue with their own. Symptoms associated with bulb diseases may include the attendance of mushroom-like growths on trunks of trees; leaves with a grayish aged appearance; spots on leaves, flowers, and fruits; sudden wilting or afterlife of a bulb or branch; sap exuding from branches or trunks of trees; and bantam growth.

Misapplication of pesticides and nutrients, air pollutants, and other environmental altitude such as calamity and freezing can additionally mimic some ache problems. Yellowing or bloom of leaves and stunted

growth may announce a comestible problem. At aboriginal glance, bloom end rot of tomato, in which the basal of the amazon turns black, might appear to be a ache acquired by some pathogen. It is absolutely caused by the plant’s disability to booty up calcium bound abundant during periods of accelerated growth. Prevent this botheration with able moisture–adding more calcium is of no benefit! Blade crimper or agee advance may be an aftereffect of herbicide application.