244 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



Location and Aspect of Orchards.— Per- 

 haps nothing would be more serviceable to the 

 inexperienced cultivator than the power of know- 

 ing in advance the capabilities of any grounds he 

 mio^ht design to appropriate to orchard culture. 

 Inclining strongly to this opinion, the committee 

 have gone somewhat into detail upon facts tending 

 to shed light upon this subject. They are clearly 

 of opinion that, if heretofore there was any doubt 

 upon the subject, the facts now before them war- 

 rant the assertion that, otiier things being equal, 

 the highest grounds are best fitted for success in 

 orchard culture. Those of great elevation being 

 subjected to such increased cold as keeps vegeta- 

 tion back in spring till the danger from frost pass- 

 es by i whilst smaller undulations upon the sur- 

 face and the higher strata of the hill-sides are 

 supposed to part with less of their surface heat by 

 radiation than the more moist low lands. The 

 committee are in possession of a well authenticated 

 instance of the effect of absolute height, furnished 

 by a gentleman of high standing and of the most 

 competent ability to form an opinion on such a 

 kubject. This gentleman has owned and had cul- 

 tivated for many years a farm lying within the 

 peach district; his own orchards occupying parts 

 of the slopes of hills of no great height, inclining 

 gently toward a river distant only a few hundred i 

 yards. His success has been marked with the un- 

 certainty common to a fickle western climate — that 

 is, a fruit year and a failure, or perhaps two years 

 of productiveness and three of disappointment in 

 every five. Within five miles of his farm, how- 

 ever, is located a hill six hundred feet high, and 

 which is thereby made visible at his farm. Upon 

 this hill the peach crop has not failed since he first 

 knew it. 



In far the greater number of cases, the cultiva- 

 tor has to choose between places varying in height 

 only a few feet; under which circumstances, it 

 appears that elevation secures a greater amount 

 of heat, by keeping the surface within the range 

 of moving strata of air and from other causes, 

 than is experienced in the bottoms or depres- 

 sions. 



That they may be the better understood the 

 the committee quote freely from a topographical 

 survey of his orchard grounds executed by one of 

 their correspondents. This gentleman's site occu- 

 pies the midst of a plain 250 feet above the level 

 of the Ohio valley: its figure is a parallelogram, 

 the long sides running northeast or southwest 100 

 rods; the short at right angles thereto, in length 

 75 poles. A valley heads at the eastern short 

 boundary about the middle and runs through the 

 midst of the orchard, crossing the lower or west- 

 ern boundary at a depression of 52 feet below the 

 summit. 



The sides of this valley include a large portion 

 of his bearing trees. The map of this survey is 

 marked by horizontal lines at every ten feet de- 

 pression, counting downward from the summit, 



so that one sees at a glance how much each tree 

 on the slopes of the valley falls below the summit 

 of the plain. The author of this survey remarks 

 that trees situated near the horizontal line of 30 

 feet, counting from the summit downward, lost 

 many of their fruit buds on the lower branches 

 during the winter of 1849-50, while other trees 

 of the same varieties at higher elevations pre- 

 served their fruit buds unhurt. Again, that, after 

 blooming in the spring, the same trees were more 

 or less affected by frost, as they were below or 

 above said horizontal line of 30 feet — whilst inore- 

 over as depression deepened toward the lowest 

 point in the valley the injury from cold increased 

 until not only the fruit buds were killed in 1849— 

 50, but also the small branches or spurs them» 

 selves on which the buds were growing. Again, 

 the surplus waters falling upon the plain had in 

 time furrowed out a channel which crossed the 

 southern side of the parallelogram running down 

 one slope of the valley into the stream gliding 

 through the centre. Trees located in or near this 

 channel, even when above the horizontal level 

 aforesaid of 30 feet, were not secure from injury 

 like others on tiie same horizontal parallel only a 

 few rods distant. To give an example of general 

 results, he states that the Heath tree on high 

 ground bears this j^ear abundantly; below the line 

 of 30 there is not a fruit, and between the horizon- 

 tal lines 45 and 50 he has some dozen thrifty trees 

 that have not borne in eight years, although in 

 that time there have been three full crops and 

 two partial ones. 



The committee have received no account, writ- 

 ten or verbal, differing materially from this, ex- 

 cept in accuracy of detail, One jrentleman states 

 that his peach orchard inclines gently from either 

 of two opposite sides inwardly, but that the de- 

 pression at the lowest point does not, he thinks, 

 exceed five feet; yet near this lowest point the 

 fruit buds were killed last winter, and even some 

 trees destroyed by cold. Another correspondent, 

 residing upon the flats of Beargrass, a plain which 

 is unbroken for miles in extent and which would 

 be one great morass but that its lands are so fer- 

 tile and friable as to filtrate the waters which de- 

 scend upon its surface, assures the committee that 

 only high lands are suited to orchard culture, and, 

 as proof of his theory, points to barren trees along 

 the margin of his streams, moving sluggishly 

 along, almost without banks and without current, 

 whilst his other trees, a little way off, not ten feet 

 higher, bear well. Still other correspondents, 

 whose orchards lie upon hill sides, assert that they 

 can tell in spring where the line of safety ends, 

 and that of injury begins, and that they can per 

 ceive the gradations of injury grow greater as the 

 hill sides are descended. 



The cause of this injury will doubtless be found 

 to consist either in the greater intensity of cold 

 prevailing in bottoms or the greater susceptibility 

 to harm on the part of trees located amid the 



