228 "Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



KESETTIXG OLD ORCHAEDS. 



E. W. Daniels, Auroraville. 



Tliere is one fact in horticultnre of which T have never had a 

 satisfactory solution, one too which is susceptible of ocular 

 demonstration hy every orchardist in our part of Wisconsin, or 

 country; that is, that apple trees will not grow with thrift, or at 

 all, to pay for culture, on ground once used for an orchard or a 

 heavy crop of nursery trees. I tried a few grafts two years ago 

 on ground that was set with nursery trees twenty or twenty-one 

 years ago, and dug out clean eleven or twelve years ago. I se- 

 cured about one hundred out of every one thousand set, of 

 ver}' inferior quality and size. These I removed last spring on 

 to ground no better, only that it had not been cropped with trees 

 before. The ground where they were set the first time had been 

 well manured and cropped. Set some of same kind of ground 

 with grapes, and they flourished as well as any on the farm. 

 Last year again I set grafts on ground plowed for that purpose 

 where there had been a few orchard trees previously, and which 

 was well adapted. Most of them grew well; bnt where I plowed 

 within a rod of an apple tree and planted my grafts, I found 

 they would not grow more than a few inches during the summer, 

 while those some little distance from the old line of trees grew 

 an average of two feet, and the line of demarkation is so very 

 conspicuous that the trees standing on the old ground, in juxta- 

 position to the others, appear like dwarfs. Another sure indica- 

 tion, in tliis patch of trees I observed that a circular form 

 through which three or four rows passed were much smaller than 

 the rest. I inquired of a Mr. Dunham the cause; " why," said he, 

 " I dug up an apple tree there two years ago." I took up all 

 these dwarf trees last fall, and shall reset them on other ground, 

 where I think they can get the right kind of food for their 

 growth if their vitality is not destroyed. 



The distance for setting trees, I have hitherto advised, is two 

 rods each way with one in the center of the squares; but will, if 

 ever I set a new piece, put them farther apart than that. I think 



