20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



range of latitude within the United States is not very extreme, the history of the apple within 

 our own country < ill make more apparent our meaning, and the ground tor this hopefulness for 

 the future. It is known to the horticultural public that in the extreme northern States and 

 Territories the apple tree, (in its varieties best known in this country) does not withstand the 

 rigors of winter, and that far south (except in very elevated districts), the fruit falls bufore the 

 end of summer, and con-equently, the extreme North is wholly, and the South partially, depend- 

 ent on the middle districts ot the States tor this admirable fruit. How far the idea oi Introduc- 

 ing the Siberian and other northern species as a basis of propagation for the extreme north will 

 succeed, cannot yet be determined, but it seems to be justified by the fact, that those sj»ecies have 

 exhibited the tendency to improvability, and that it is in accordance with a very important princi- 

 ple enumerated by Mr. Flagg, in an article for the Missouri State Horticultural Society, (see re- 

 port for the year '66, page 704), namely: " that a given amount of heat is required to mature a 

 given variety." 



If on the other hand we examine the history of the past efforts to grow winter varieties in the 

 south, we shall find that regard has not been paid to this principle, but on the contrary, it has 

 been wholly disregarded. Thus England, in giving us the first impulse towards settlement, gave 

 us also our first stock of seeds and trees — the major part of which were introduced by the Ply- 

 mouth colony, and consequently, but slightly varied, thermally from their origin in the old world. 



Those seeds and trees formed then an admirable basis from which to disseminate the apple west- 

 ward on a similar isotherm of summer heat. iJut it so happened (from causes which we need not 

 name), that those who secured this old English stock became the most active disseminators of the 

 apple on this continent: and being quite unacquainted with climatic laws — limiting varieties to 

 certain isothermal lines — sought in the spirit of " true propagators" to extend as widely as pos- 

 sible the range of varieties, which with them were faultless. So zealous and active were the Ply- 

 mouth colony and their decendants in the work, that French and Spanish apples — which later 

 obtained some foothold in the country — and which from their origin, would have proven more at 

 home in the south, were in many instances displaced to make room for Pearmains, Greenings and 

 Kussetts, which on trial, ripened and decayed in mid summer, thus tending to create the belief 

 that all apples would mature befbre cool weather in the South. The lower Ohio and Mississippi, 

 which originally received a large snare ot the French and Spanish importations, and which from 

 geological and climatic conditions, would have profited specially by their retention, became so 

 accessible to northern nurserymen — that millions of their trees early found places on the banks 

 of these streams and lower tributaries, only to magnify into immense proportions the distrust to 

 all varieties for winter use. But in this case, as in many others, failure only stimulated to re- 

 newed efforts, leading cultivators to the propagation of local seedlings — mainly from the old 

 French and Spanish roots — which resulted in triumph sufficient to date therefrom an epoch in 

 apple culture on this continent, and to give to almost the entire South an assurance of success 

 with this most useful of all fruits. 



In districts where varieties cannot be obtained that will hang on the tree till cool weather 

 (under ordinary treatment) something may be done by choosi.ig the most northern exposures 

 with lightest colored and least sandy clays accessible ; by deeply breaking the subsoil ; by remov- 

 ing the trees to the orchard site at an early age, by preserving and facilitating in every possible 

 way the downward tendency of the tap root; by encouraging the upward tendency of a leader or 

 upright stem — having side branohes sufficiently low and numerous to shade well the trunk and 

 surface roots of the tree when it arrives at a bearing ages, by keeping the surface soil well and fre- 

 quently pulverized during the hot months, or otherwise well covered with a mulch of leaves, 

 straw or compost. 



The majority of these conditions are so essential to the highest degree of usefulness and great- 

 est longevity of the apple tree, that we need only reverse the requirement in point of soil to one of 

 darker color and more sandy, and they are equally applicable to Northern latitudes. Indeed, it is 

 fair to attribute many of the failures with the apple to inattention to or wide departure from 



