The Garden.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 195, 19 March 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Garden.

Storing Fruit. As the season advances the question of storing past the late keeping apples and pears is a consideration for those who wish to obtain" large prices during the winter. I will try and point out a few of the essentials required so as to make the storing of fruit a thorough success. First : Every care must be taken in packing the fruit so as to avoid i bruising, for the slightest bruise is sure to cause decay, where bruised the divisional cells containing the juice are burat, and the ! juice will soon ferment and putrify, causing the fruit to rot and contaminating the whole fruit, Second : The fruit should only be picked in the middle of a hot dry day, taken into a dry room and left there for one day before being .stored away. Third, storing past : The fruit should be stored past in a cool place where the temperature is aB low ac it is possible to obtain it in our climate. The best possible temperature is where it ranges from a little over 30deg to 40deg. As a rule cellars or underground rooms make the best storing places, far preferable to any structures above the ground. It is also better to exclude atmospheric air as much as possible. To do this the fruit should be packed in dry sand so that it is filtered of all impurities before it reaches the fruit. Sand operates as a preservative not only by excluding air and moisture, but by keeping the fruit cool which is a great consideration with our warm moiat atmosphere— sand being ono of the worst conductors of heat. Putrefaction requires three contingencies — moisture, warmth and atmospheric air. Now burying in sand excludes the greater portion of these. The best way to pack late keeping fruit is to make large bins in a cellar, place a layer of sand in the bottom, then a layer of fruit, keeping the fruit a slight distance from each other. Then cover the fruit with more sand and so on until the bin is full, placing a covering of about 6 to 8 inches on the top. The sand should be thoroughly dried before using.

Picking Apples and Pears. When to gather keeping apples and pears sometimes causes a good deal of consideration to people beginning to grow fruit. The usual ai^ns of r.penets in apples and pears aie : Ist, readiness to separate from the tree when the fruit is gently moved ; if the fruit is nearly lipe, the stalk will break almost by itself by a elight elevation of the fruit. 2nd, the colouring of the pips or s (> edfl inside the fruit is a 3ure indication, a? they never change colour till the tree's work is done. When a single apple or pear is cut through and the seeds are past assuming that dark colour they finally attain to, then the truit is fit of gathering Besides those almost certain indications of ripeness, there are other signs in the tree itself, in the foliage and the wood, which tell the observant grower when the fruit may be gathered; but these signs can only belearned by practical experience. Another matter to be looked to in picking fruit is that it is almost an impossibility to obtain all the fruit on auy given tree of the same degree of ripeness aC the same time, dividing the picking into two or three periods, taking those only that were ripe first, leaving the others to follow later on. But to carry this out p>operly requires the po<?ees?ion of more practical knowledge o' fruit on the part of the cultivator than is commonly met ; though, in the caae of those who only grow a few varieties, the reason of their ripening might be much extended if an effort were made to obtain the necessary knowledge. Late appie3 and pears are often gathered too earlj co as to save them from the attacks of either birds or insects. The result of being packed before th9y are tipe i-? that the fruit, instead of keeping till it matures, soone begins to phrivel, though shrivelling also arises from the fruit not being properly kept—being either too dry or too warm. The best place to keep fruit is in a cool, dark cellar where the temperature is always very low, bringing out those varieties which require a little more warmth to melt the flesh and bring out the flavour a fortnight or bo bofore they are required for use or their season begins.

Spraying Orchards. H. Shopley, of Nevada, Vernon county, Mo., reported to the Missouri State Horticultural Society an account of his experiments in spraying orchards with London purple to deetroy the canker worm, and the expense of the operation. The mode of spraying for the Codling worm is quite similar, though performed at) a different time in the season. Mr Shepley did his work on a large scale, at an expense of only three cents a tree, in the following manner. He placed three empty coal-oil barrels in a waggon and filled them with water j he then took a pound of London purple for each barrel, first mixing it well in a pail of water, and pouring it into the barrel. The waggon was driven along the windward aide 'of the row of trees if there was much wind, and with a fountain pump with a fine roao the liquid was thrown over the trees. The water in the barrel muet be constantly stirred during the operation, to prevent the poison from settling. Great care should be taken not to breathe any of it, nor allow the wind to carry the liquid toward the men or horaes. With two teams and four men three or four hundred trees can be sprayed in a day. The entire coat, including pumps, barrels, poison, and labour, was about three cents a tree for twice spraying. We have never known an instance out of many trials where this treatment was not entirely successful with canker worms, or where it did not" deetroy most of the Codling worms and give much fair fruit, which before was nearly ruined with the insect. In rainy weather it should be repeated two or three times, the first application being washed off. We have preferred Paris green to London purple, as being more uniform in its degree of strength when not adulterated. For' the canker worm the work should be I done early in the spring ; for the Codling worm when the apples are half an inch in

diameter, and repeated a few days afterward. After epraying, sheep or other animals should not bs turned into the orchard to eat the scattered herbage, till a heavy rain has washed off the poison. It may be interesting to remark that the young Coaling iasect, when halche,d from the egg laid in the blossom end of tl/e ' fiuit, weighs less than u two hundred thousandth parfc of a man, and it is therefore killed by a quantity of poison so small as to have no effect whatever on human beings. Even this ininuto portion is all washed off by the rains before the fruit is grown The above seems to be the bess system of all for the destruction of the Codling moth. Everywhere in America where it has been tried the lose of fruit from the ravages of this iusect has been reduced to a comparative trifle. In email orchards around Auckland the spraying could be done with a common gardeu syringe, and the expense would be trifling to tho value of the fruit which could be saved to the growers. Next epriug I will return to the subject, and will discuss tho matter just A8 th<3 ( season for spraying begins. — Hortus, in ( "Auckland Star." "