278 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



APPLE ORCHARDS IN ENGLAND. 



A writer iii Gardening Illustrated gives an account of the 

 management of orchards in Devonshire, a locality more favorable 

 than most others for the success of the apple crop. Screens or 

 other jorotection are important to prevent the fruit from being torn 

 off by gales, and dashed to the ground long before it is ripe enough 

 to gather. A good deep soil, with free, natural or artificial 

 drainage, is essential. A poor and a wet soil causes canker. In 

 artificial drainage the ditches must be cat deep. Top-dressing 

 heavily with manure is regarded as the best remedy for stunted 

 growth and moss on the bark. Gi'azing with sheep or pigs in 

 addition to the top-dressing is recommended, but cattle must be 

 excluded. This English management is very nearly the same as 

 that adopted by the best orchardists in this country. This is nearly 

 identical with the treatment of one of the most profitable orchards 

 in Western New York, planted on a light, deep, rich soil, top- 

 dressed in alternate years, which has yielded in twelve years over 

 820,000 above all expenses, on eleven acres, and from five hundred 

 trees. 



FOR SUCCESS IX APPLE ORCHARDING. 



We must have healthy trees, first of all. Many insect ene- 

 mies are disseminated from the nursery. The trees should be ex- 

 amined before planting, and if infested with the root-louse, dipped 

 in water heated to one hundred to one hundred and fifty degrees. 

 One pound of Paris Green to two hundred gallons of water was 

 also commended for this purpose, and one pound of concentrated 

 lye to two gallons of water for the bark-louse. Better kill infested 

 trees by heroic treatment, even if consigned to the brush-heap, than 

 attempt to make an orchard from such material. Select such var- 

 ieties as have proved reliable in your neighborhood on soil of a sim- 

 ilar character. Autumn planting was preferred, and the strongest 

 roots should be spread out in the direction of the strongest winds. 

 In cold soils plant further apart, for sunshine and warmth ; ni 

 warm soils closer, for shade ; and strong growers further apart than 

 sloAv ones. Young orchards should be cultivated in some hoed 

 crops, except corn, for three or four years. Sow the ground to rye 

 in the fall and plough under in May or June. An application of 

 two or three hundred pounds per acre of bone dust and kainit each 

 3'ear is advisable ; the latter is unjoleasant for the root-louse. The 

 more you crop an orchard the more manure is required. Hundreds 

 of trees supposed to be winter-killed, are in reality destroyed by 

 ground mice, which have been known to follow roots three feet under- 



