WARSAW HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 311 



Sweet, ten Willow Twig, and thirty-three Bea Davis. There are 

 many other varieties excellent in quality that might be planted if 

 the planter is willing to increase the number of his trees, but those 

 named will give a succession of the best fruit. In productive years 

 there will always be a surplus, and by planting this large number of 

 Ben Davis, it will be of a marketable quality. 



There is no secret in the preparation of the ground. Plow and 

 harrow carefully as for a crop of corn, and plant two rods apart, 

 with an inclination to the southwest of twenty degrees, and in five 

 years the tree will stand very near perpendicular, and be free from 

 sun scald and flat-headed borers. The old plan of planting on a 

 ridge is wrong, as it causes the water to run off rapidly which should 

 remain and penetrate the soil. Where drainage is needed, it can be 

 secured in a less objectionable way. 



If I was asked to name the two principal causes of orchard des- 

 truction and deterioration, I should say drouth and starvation. 

 Thirty years ago our soil was fresh and rich, and drainage very im- 

 perfect, and trees grew rapidly and bore annual crops of choice fruit, 

 and in my opinion the loss of trees and shrinkage in quantity and 

 deterioration of quality of fruit is not entirely, or even principally, 

 due to severe cold. During the winters of 1855-56 and 1856-57 

 the mercury sank as low as it did during our late severe winters. 

 These first mentioned cold winters did not injure our trees in the 

 least, while the latter ones swept them half out of existence. In a 

 paper read before this society a year ago, I referred to the changes 

 that had occurred in our soil and surroundings since the planting of 

 our first orchards, and expressed the opinion that to these changed 

 conditions are due the failures of late years, and careful observation 

 another season has convinced me that the theory then advanced is 

 correct. 



At that time most of the prairie was covered with grass, and 

 lakes and ponds, in which water stood nearly all the time, were very 

 common; and even the rolling timber land, being covered with 

 trees, brush, leaves and fallen timber, held the water for days and 

 weeks that now passes off in an hour. The atmosphere, therefore, 

 as well as the soil, was much of the time saturated with moisture, 

 which, in connection with the fresh, virgin soil, enabled trees to 

 properly ripen their wood and go into winter in such a condition 

 that they could endure the same amount of cold that has now proved 

 fatal. 



But, says one, "What are you going to do about it? Would 

 you turn back the wheels of progress a third of a century? Would 

 you stop the thousands of miles of drains that have converted these 

 swamps and ponds into fruitful fields, and make them agrtin the 

 home of the water fowl and moccasin, that these conditions of 

 moisture may be restored?" Nay, verily; but scientific investiga- 

 tion and intelligent observation have taught us how to overcome 



