Farm and Garden.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 446, 3 November 1904, Page 2

Farm and Garden.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

BUDDING FRUIT TREES. THE peach tree is perhaps one of the . easiest of all trees to bud, and a few suggestions.will enable any one to grow the most desirable £ and hardiest budded varieties ;—Pits of the peach are saved

from ripening fruit and should be stratified in moist soil, or should they be allowed to lie a considerable time and become dry it is considered best to let them stand in very moist soil for some little time before planting. Then they should be planted in soil that has been carefully prepared and not likely to dry out during dry weather. The kernel of the pit should be plump enough with moisture so that tho frosty weather of winter, expanding the moisture i of the pit, should rupture the shell and allow germination the following spring These pits should bo planted three .inches apart in nursery rows three and a half feet apart. With good cultivation they will attain the first season a height of from two to five feet, depending on the oharaoter and quality of the soil and the amount of rainfall and cultivation. Towards the end of summer these little trees should be budded at the surface of the ground with matured leaf buds—not fruit buds—from other trees of desirable varieties. Using a very thin and sharp knife a cross cut is made just' through the bark, a slit an inch or more in length below it, allowing the insertion of the bud cut from the twig in such manner that there is tho slightest possible of film of wood and bark half to three-quarters of an inch in length ; that bud is tucked into the open slit of bark and then tied in, using three or four wraps below the bud and as many above, the object being to keep the bark closed to exclude air and water, Those should be knit in a few days, and within two weeks it is usually necessary to cut the string on the opposite side of the tree from the bud to allow for the expanding size of the growing stock, otherwise the expansion of the growing stock would cause the string to girdle the tree and choke tho bud. Early the succeeding spring, before sap starts half-inch above the bud, cut away the seedling stock, and be careful to allow only the bud desired to grow. Rub off suckers. These young trees the first summer will, with suitable care, attain a height of three to seven feet, depending on the character of the soil, amount of cultivation, and the rainfall.

TO DISTINGUISH INFERTILE EGGS. After the fifth day test out all white shell eggs that show no signs of growth. Brown shell eggs cannot be tested with any certainty until about the eight day. Eggs that are as clear as when newly-laid are infertile and should be thrown aside, and only those which show a little dark body, with minute blood vessels running from it, should be retained. On the tenth day, again, all eggs should be tested. Those should be thrown aside in which one cannot see bright red- blood vessels at the large end of the egg, in which there are no voluntarily movements of the growing chick, in which there seems to be a red line partly or wholly surrounding the growth, and in which the growth moves loosely when shaken. Many of those seed embryos have no red line surrounding them. In some eggs a small dark spot can be seen attached to the shell near the air space, which is unmovable when shaken. The dead embryo can frequently be rolled from side to side or up and down, which is not the case with a live germ. The dead growth occupies only about one-third of the egg, and at that time usually shows a reddish outline. With dark shelled eggs it is not easy to distinguish the dead germs. Again, on the fifteenth day they should be tested a third time. Eemove all eggs that have a pale, colourless appearance, which do not show bright red blood vessels and no voluntary movements of the dark body. Hold the large end of a white shelled egg 'toward you and put the small end down into the tester, and .if you see no bright lines or blood vessels near the air cell, nor any voluntary movements within the shell, one may conclude that the chick is dead. The white of the egg is usually a pale cream colour at this period. Some people again test on the eighteenth day in the same way as on the fifteenth day. If the chicken is moveable only when the egg is shaken, or if it is surrounded by a pale cream-looking fluid and no blood vessels can be seen, then one may be sure that it is dead.