176 :Rawl^s Janet. 



Hawle's Janet. 



ONE of the most remarkable sorts of apple trees we are acquainted with, is the 

 Rawle's Janet. As a profitable late keeper few kinds excel it on good sites. 

 Orchards for profit should be only on good sites, and of such orchards the Rawle's 

 should form a good part. For heavy cropping it is surpassed by no variety we have 

 s een, trees of it all through this section bearing to excess, and showing more fruit 

 per tree than many more famous but less meritorious sorts. 



As a late keeper few apples equal it. At this date they are plump and fresh, not 

 one apple in fifty showing the least sign of decay. 



Downing speaks of it as not having succeeded well at the North, but that it 

 is particularly valuable for the South and Southwest where it is much cultivated, 

 and that it puts forth its leaves and blossoms much later than other varieties in the 

 spring, and consequently avoids injury by late frost, therefore being adapted to that 

 climate. It is, however, becoming popular throughout the Northwest, and our 

 observatiens of it in this section warrant us in the conclusion that it is entitled to 

 rank as one of the most profitable late keepers known here. At Clinton, in this 

 state, 600 llawle's Janet were set in an orchard at one time, which fact shows that 

 it is not unappreciated. 



It is, however, peculiar, requires peculiar treatment and favorable circumstances. 

 It is an excessive cropper, and on poor soil will exhaust itself when it comes to 

 fruit. Give it a good upland clay loam on a limestone subsoil, with good culture, 

 thorough and heavy mulching when in fruit, and it will yield more bushels of fruit 

 than ninety-nine hundreths of the kinds usually set. If overcropped and it is not 

 well sustained with good soil and culture, but left without care to struggle un- 

 assisted through a severe drouth without mulching, its very generosity in fruiting 

 proves its ruin, and well it is if it can recover in another season from its exhaustion. 

 While young, however, when the tree is not yet in fruit, care should be taken that 

 the soil is not too fertile, and that the culture is not carried to extremes to cause 

 the trees to put on an excessive growth that cannot mature, for thorough ripening of 

 the wood is essential to the greatest hardiness. 



It is a very fine thing in theory to have regular bearing and long-lived trees. 

 The impression may prevail that the llawle's is not a regular bearer from the fact 

 of its cropping one season to such extremes as to require the next to recover. Also 

 that it is short-lived from the same cause. We take it that the most successful 

 orehardist is the one who grows the most value of fruit with the least expense, and 

 we believe it a fact that the production of a bushel of apples of whatever sort, re- 

 quires an investment of capital of soil and genial elements of growth of nearly 

 proportionate value. It may be well for those who prefer it to grow a Northern 

 Spy, and wait for its tardy crops for the sake of having a long-lived and regular 

 bearing tree. Give us, however, instead the tree that has a tendency to bear the 

 apples in liberal, generous crops, one that will break itself down with its full ex- 

 uberance of fruit, and we will take more pride in giving it good care, sustaining 

 feed and culture to fully support it and keep it vigorous and healthy, than we 

 would in tinkering patiently with a tree that has to be coaxed to bear a small crop, 

 even though they were of rare specimens, and we believe the Rawle's Janet to be 

 just such a full cropping, generous fruiting tree, worthy of general culture. 



Ithaca, Wis. A. L. Hatch. 



