Care of Fruit Trees.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 100, 2 October 1908, Page 4

Care of Fruit Trees.

Extended experiments recently conducted have shown cicarly that fruit trees suffer very materially, and are often killed outright, when grass is allowed to grow under the tree and close up to the trunk. Various probable reasons for this eii'ect, such, as the removal of plant food and of water to the grass, also the .supposed liberation of carbonic acid, which might prove injurious to the roots of the trees, were respectively demonstrated to be outside the primary cause of injury, and finally, after seven years' work, it was concluded that the injurious effect could only bo duo to some poisonous substance formed in the soil by the roots of the grass. On the other hand, it is a well known fact that in many instances considerable difficulty is experienced in obtaining a growth of grass under trees.

A new plum, called Santa Rosa, is thus described by the distributor:--- It has been under trial in the experimental grounds at Sebastopol. California. for the last six years, during which time it has never failed to produce bounteous crops of uniformly large, perfect fruits, of a deep purplish-crim-son colour, averaging six inches in circumference each way. It possesses every essential to a marked degree calculated to make it a prime favourite wherever the plum luxuriates, vi;:., is a good grower, good bearer, fine shipper, good keeper, and in every way a money-maker. The superb market quality of the Santa Rosa plum has never been equalled. Its eating quality is unequalled; rich, fragrant, delicious, surpassingly exquisite. The tree is a very strong, vigorous grower.