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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



the most perfect bearer I ever saw ; bears heavy 

 crops of the most perfect apples. The fruit is so 

 regularly distributed all through and over the 

 tree, that every apple has a full chance for de- 

 velopment. The tree makes a regular symmetri- 

 cal head, with no crowding of the branches. 

 The fruit is borne on spurs and small branches 

 on the large limbs, and out on the limbs, and 

 nowhere in clusters, consequently giving the en- 

 tire crop a chance to become perfect. It prom- 

 ises to be an excellent keeper— is just now be- 

 ginning to ripen. 



While it is a sweet apple, it is still remarkably 

 sprightly, as you will discover from the speci- 

 mens. They may not yet be as ripe as they 

 should be to have their best flavor. I should 

 say, too, that the tree bears very young. 



[This came to hand on the 20th of February. 

 The apples were in first-rate condition, and had 

 the appearance of being able to keep a long 

 time yet. Though a sweet apple, it compares 

 favorably with many Baldwins, which are the 

 popular table apple of this section at this season, 

 and perhaps would suit some tastes better. It 

 ought to become a standard variety. — Ed. G. M.] 



JAPANESE PERSIMMONS. 



BY OLD DOMINION. 



It may be of interest to you to know that the 

 Japanese Persimmon is hardy in Virginia, lati- 

 tude of Norfolk. Grafted plants imported in 

 1879, bore fruit the past season which ripened on 

 the tree at the Barker Floral Gardens, Bram- 

 bleton. One small tree, not two feet in height, 

 bore nine plums, three of which remained upon 

 the tree until fully ripe, and the largest meas- 

 ured three and a-half inches in diameter, and 

 ten and a-half in circumference. They were of 

 the seedless variety, and resembled the native 

 persimmon in flavor, but very rich and of the 

 consistency of the custard apple. Dried like 

 dates and figs, they must be very delicious. 



[This note on Persimmons, from Virginia, re- 

 minds us of an anecdote told in connection with 

 the celebrated Captain John Smith, who in days 

 long before woman's rights became a popular 

 question, was protected by Pocohontas. He sent 

 some of our native persimmons to Queen Eliza- 

 beth, which, we are told, "turned her Majesty's 

 face awry." But Smith said the Indians called 

 them "Pasheman." So far as we know the 

 meaning of Persimmon in the language of the 

 Virginia Indians, has never been ascertained. 



We don't know how the orthography became 

 changed to the modern usage, and we call atten- 

 tion to Captain Smith's mode of spelling it, as 

 perhaps affording some better chance of getting 

 at the explanation. — Ed. G. M.] 



LONGEVITY OF APPLE TREES. 



BY MILD BARNARD, MANTENO, ILL. 



The minds of horticulturists in this prairie 

 country are very much exercised over the seem- 

 ing fact that apple orchards must be renewed 

 every fifteen or twenty years, and the question 

 naturally suggests itself, why this short life and 

 early decay, when forest trees seem as healthy 

 and as long-lived as in other countries? 



The hypotheses advanced to account for this 

 state of things, vary as much as do specifics for 

 pear-blight or hog-cholera. One man thinks the 

 trouble is climatic, and another thinks it is 

 something in our soil, or something lacking in 

 the soil; others think it is caused by the present 

 mode of propagating the apple tree by root- 

 grafting, pasturing our orchards, close planting, 

 low-branched trees, and high-topped trees, etc., 

 We often hear of apple trees in the Eastern 

 States and tn Canada living and producing 

 bountifully for a hundred years or more, and 

 just in their prime at forty or fifty years old. Is 

 this a fact? and, if so, what varieties attain to 

 such longevity? Is it the improved varieties, or 

 the seedlings of ye olden time ? 



Can you give us any informtition in regard to 

 the short career of our apple orchards ? 



[There is little doubt but the average life of an 

 apple tree in Pennsylvania is about fifty years. 



The length of life in any tree depends on its 

 vital power. The English oak, in England, has 

 an average of 500 years. In America, its aver- 

 age, so far as the few instances known will allow 

 us to judge, is but about 100. The apple, we be- 

 lieve, has about the same comparative duration 

 in the two countries. 



Anything that affects the vital power of a 

 plant affects its longevity. A tree which has to 

 struggle with high winds and a low temperature, 

 will not live nearly as long as the same kind of 

 tree protected from these trying circumstances. 

 In like manner, one subjected to very dry or 

 very wet influences, or anything that is not the 

 most favorable to vegetation, will not live as 

 long as one which has everything favorable 

 about it. 



