INDIANA HOETICTJLTijRAL SOCIETY. 181 



t»OSSIBIIJTIES OF INDIANA FOK GROWING APPLES ON 

 A COMMERCIAL SCALE. 



BY WM. M. WALTMAN, NASHVILLE. 



When our forefathers came to the State of Indiana, sixty, seventy and 

 eighty years ago, in the southern portion of the State they found a soil 

 and climate that was suitable to the growth of timber. The hills and 

 the valleys were covered with an immense growth of poplar, walnut, oak, 

 beech, sugar, lynn, hickory and other timber, and among this growth 

 could be found wild fruits of crab apples, persimmons, grapes, blackber- 

 ries, sarvises, hawes, huckleberries and many others. 



The lay of the land is rolling and hilly, with here a high peak, yondev 

 a ridge dividing the waters of the various streams winding their courses 

 to the Ohio river, and arms from these ridges are putting out every few 

 rods, and between each arm is a deep gulch or ravine which form the feed- 

 ers for the streams. So that the surface oi the land in the southern part 

 of the State is uneven and what is termed "hilly," thereby giving the lands 

 the best surface drainage possible, nnd not only a surface drainage, but 

 also the deep gulches leading down from these high ridges give's a good 

 atmospheric drainage. The soil is of the red, yellow and white clay mix- 

 ture underlaid first with a shale of sandstone which, when exposed to thb 

 air or freezing, dissolves and becomes soluble, and is rich in the fertilizing 

 qualities that produce timber growth. After you get below the shale, then 

 you strike sand or limestone, which has large crevices or seams and per- 

 mits the roots of trees to penetrate its seams or crevices, from whence 

 they draw very rich support, giving them a most vigorous and healthy 

 growth. 



The climate is of the medium, having in the winter season from 

 freezing to zero, and sometimes ten or fifteen below, and in spring, sum- 

 mer and fall nice, lovely and balmy temperature, from freezing to ninety 

 degrees, and in extreme cases may reach the one hundred mark. The sea- 

 sons are supplied, usually, with a sufBcient amount of moisture, and 

 droughts seldom or never occur of long enough dvu'ation to kill or injure 

 the strong and healthy timber, and in the spring following one of the 

 seasons that we term a drought the timber will put forth her foliage 

 strong and vigorous. 



The lands above described are cheap, and thousands of acres of the 

 unimproved lands can be bought for from five to ten dollars per acre. It 

 is true that most of the merchantable timber from said lands has been 

 removed, and the forest fires have destroyed many other trees, but the 

 land being of such nature, soon puts forth a new growth of timber, and 

 fields and plats that have been cleared and "turned out" for a few years 



