326 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



agricultural press, from which he might draw a large amount of 

 information; enough, it would seem, to enable him to meet every 

 emergency. Yet, after all, such has been the experience of half a 

 century of attempted apple culture — not only in Northern Illinois, 

 but throughout the north and west — that I venture the assertion,, 

 that, should any man, from any part of our country east and south 

 of Lake Michigan, attempt to grow an apple orchard in this section r 

 or anywhere north and west of this, though he avail himself of all 

 the knowledge obtainable from the books or the press, he would, 

 in all probability, make a miserable failure of it, unless he be 

 possessed of that practical information obtainable only from 

 those who have wrestled with this problem right here on the spot 

 for a series of years. 



Do not misunderstand me. I fully appreciate the merits of the 

 elaborate works of those excellent writers. No other country 

 possesses a better horticultural literature than America does, 

 let, notwithstanding all this, those eminent men reasoned and 

 wrote from the standpoints of their own experiences, and had not 

 the practical knowledge of the intricate difficulties which half a 

 century's experience has developed; hence they could not give 

 such advice as a novice out here would need. Moreover, the 

 incalculable damage inflicted by recent test winters, has thrown 

 the problem back upon the experimental stage, out of which we 

 are but slowly emerging. 



There are all sorts of theories advanced as to the real causes of 

 the difficulty, while some of the remedies proposed are simply 

 ridiculous. For instance, one writer proposes that the root graft 

 should be planted out into the orchard, where the tree is to grow, 

 so as to prevent the necessity of transplanting, which, he claims, 

 is the cause of black heart. Others advise the planting of the- 

 one-year-old tree, which is to be headed back to within eighteen 

 inches from the ground, as a prevention of sun-scald. Others, 

 again, claim that two-years is the greatest age admissable for the 

 planting of a tree in the orchard. Still others claim that the 

 growing of seedling stocks from seeds obtained from the cider 

 mills has gradually deteriorated the constitutional vitality to such 

 an extent, that the whole race of apples has become enfeebled, 

 and is no more able to stand the severity of the climate. 



Now, such theories may appear plausible enough, but what are 

 the actual facts? If it be true that transplanting causes disease 

 and death, how does it come that millions of nursery trees that 

 had never been transplanted have been destroyed by hard 

 winters ? How is it that the low-headed trees planted years and 

 years ago have perishe*d? And again, how is it that tj?ees which 

 were three, four, or even five years old when transplanted, have, 

 on an average, been every whit as valuable, or as worthless, as 

 the case may be, as any that were set out at the age of two 

 years ? 



