THE FAILURE OF ORCHARDS, AND ITS REMEDY. 221 



Culture of Apple-trees on Prairies. A great many per- 

 sons, who pass for shrewd and intelligent men, do not hesi- 

 tate to affirm that apples can not be grown with satisfac- 

 tory success on the Western Prairies ; and they will point 

 to the untold number of failures on the prairies as incon- 

 trovertible evidence that their assumptions are reliable. 

 Yet our doctrine is, that bountiful crops of apples can be 

 grown on any ground that will yield fair crops of wheat, 

 provided the trees are produced and cultivated as directed . 

 in the former part of this book. 



Dr. J. A. Warden, who is accepted authority at the 

 West, states, in the " Prairie Farmer Annual," that it has 

 been too much the custom, in many portions of the West, 

 to accept as true the oft-repeated dogma that orchards can 

 not be grown on the prairies. It is surprising that such a 

 notion should still prevail among many of our large farm- 

 ers, since the contrary has been so fully proved in every 

 county, and in almost every township. The failures, in al- 

 most every locality, maybe traced to some, or to all of the 

 following causes: 1st. The bad condition of the trees plant- 

 ed; 2d. The bad selection of varieties; 3d. The want of 

 suitable preparation of the soil ; 4th. Bad planting, and 

 want of suitable cultivation and training; 5th. Exposure 

 to the elements, and to the depredations of stock and wild 

 animals. 



This bad condition of the trees may arise from the dan- 

 gers or delays of long transportation ; from carelessness in 

 handling and defective packing ; from frosts, when exposed 

 to the air ; or simply from drying of the roots, when care- 

 lessly exposed, after they have been received. It is unfor- 

 tunately true, also, that some nursery-trees are badly grown, 

 especially when they have been much crowded, and when 

 the nurseryman has injudiciously sacrificed stockiness foj 

 height. Thus the blame is distributed all the way from a 



