Fall and Spring Planting. 195 



FALL AND SPRING PLANTING. 



By D. W. Adams, Wawkon, Iowa. 



All American horticulturists have been in the habit, for many years, 

 of reading the writings of William Saunders with very great pleasure 

 and profit. His article in the January number of the Journal of Horti- 

 culture is written in his usual straight-forward style, and is full of good, 

 sound thought. 



The article is an argument in favor of fall planting of deciduous 

 trees ; and a careful and repeated perusal thereof scarcely discloses a 

 single unsound or doubtful position, until w^e reach the last four lines, 

 which read thus : " Whether fall or spring is the best time to plant, 

 does not admit of any argument, so far as the principle is concerned. 

 The question can only arise as a matter of personal convenience, and 

 therefore of no pul:)lic interest whatever, so far as concerns the laws 

 of growth." 



It seems incredible that Mr. Saunders should close this paper with 

 such a sentence, after having, on the second page of the same article, 

 penned such great truths as the following : " Rules for practice are 

 promulgated as if they were of universal instead of being only of 

 special application." " No I'ules can be given that will be of equal 

 force or application in every case ; the practice perfectly adapted to 

 one soil and situation would be altogether unsuited to another, if dif- 

 ferently circumstanced." 



There is no operation in horticulture to which this fact applies with 

 more force than to that of transplanting trees. Iowa, Northern Illinois, 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dacotah, and Nebraska are larger than all the 

 New England and Middle States. Probably there is not another body 

 of land in the whole world, of equal size, that is so uniformly fertile 

 and arable ; yet, through all this great natural garden, fall planting, as 

 a rule, is a failure. Abundant trial has proved this, and spring plant- 

 ing is now almost universal here ; and we claim that this practice is 

 not based upon " empiricism," but is " governed by a knowledge of 



