FARMERS' REGISTER— ILL EFFECTS OF TRANSPLANTING TREES, &c. 249 



ease and destruction of life, but much more fre- 

 quently it? the cause of severe treatment, which 

 would otherwise be unnecessary. Our Inws u])on. 

 this subject are wise and good, but interested 

 avarice cov^ertly operating upon public opinion, 

 has defied their execution— and laws unexecuted, 

 are worse tlian no laws. 



CHARLES WOODSON. 



FRUIT WITHOUT KERNELS, OR SEED. 



To tlic Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



Prince Edward County, 



I propose to inquire through the medium of the 

 Register, whether the art of producing stone-fruit 

 without kernel or seed, is known to any of your 

 readers — and if such art be known, what is the 

 process by which this very desirable object can be 

 efl'ected. I have twice known late frosts to destroy 

 the greater portion of the kernels in jieaches, leav- 

 ing some unaffected, which produced the fruit in 

 every resjiect as common, with stone and kernel 

 perfect, whilst the greater part of a sparse crop, 

 came to perfect ripeneas, with very small stones, 

 wliich Avere generally cleit in the growth, and 

 without kernels, and were incomparably more j 

 delicious: indeed so much more delicious, that the ' 

 fruit having no kernel, growing on trees which 

 generally bore very indifferent fruit, scarcely eata- 

 ble, was found much more delicious, than the fruit 

 with perfect stone and kernel, grown on trees that 

 generally bore very fine flavored ti-uit. 



CHARLES WOODSON. 



ILL EFFECTS OF THE TRANSPLANTATION OF 

 TREES- 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Prince Edward County, 



I submit for the consideration of your readers 

 the inquiry, or doubt whether orchards, or truit 

 trees lo, any large number, ought ever to be trans- 

 planted in "any soil. But knowing that much may 

 depend on the soil, and particularly upon the sub- 

 stratum, I should like to see published the opinions 

 of others, who have attentively observed the 

 growth and manner of trees, raised in the different 

 modes of transplanting, and from seed planted 

 where the tree is to stand and grow for life. Tliis 

 BUggestion is made with sjjecial reterence to the 

 larger kinds of trees, which take years to bring 

 them mto- mature bearing, and should be expected 

 to live long, to reward the expense and trouble of 

 rearing. My own observations, lor not less than 

 forty years, have confirmed the opinion which I 

 have entertained tor thirty-five years, that upon 

 Buch soil as is common in Virginia, from tide 

 water to the Ohio River, no trees of large growth 

 ought ever to be removed from the places where 

 the seed came up, or be ti'ansplanled, except lor 

 Bome particular purpose, such as \he introduction 

 of new or desirable kinds, or the removal from 

 places incon\"enient or improper lor them to grow 

 in, to other places more desirable. The difi'erence 

 in the time it will take to raise orcliards to good 

 bearing state, by the different modes of transplant- 

 ing, or by planting seed at once in the orchard, 

 and grail ing or budding on the young trees, is 

 jierhapa much less than would be supposed, when 



we consider that it generally takes several years 

 to raise young trees in the nursery, to the largest 

 size fit for traur^planiing. But the advantages in 

 ihvor of the tree which grows to full maturity 

 where it came up from the seed, it appears to me 

 are manifestly greater than those obtained by bring- 

 ing a transplanted orchard somewhat earlier into 

 bearing. There is no fact better established by 

 experience and observation, than that seedling 

 trees, even when transplanted, are much more 

 vigorous, and outlive grafl's; and my observation 

 leads me to the conclusion, that seedling trees which 

 stand where iheycame up, as much outlive those 

 seedlings which have been transplanted, as the 

 latter outlive transplanted graffs; and I am in- 

 clined to think, that no grailed or budded tree is 

 ever as sound and healthy as a seedling tree, or 

 one the roots and branches of which are all of the 

 same kind. I have scarcely ever noticed a budded 

 tree, the wood ol which did not become doated 

 earlier in lile than seedling trees of the same kind 

 nenerall)^ do. I would not however have it under- 

 stood, that I consider it improper to transplant all 

 such trees as may be convenient, or desirable (or 

 use or comfort, to obtain any necessary supply of 

 fruit, a few years earlier than it could be raised 

 liy ]ilanting the seed. The history of my obser- 

 vation and experience follows. About the year 

 1784, my father planted out an orchard of grafted 

 trees, apples and pears. For several years the 

 young trees prospered and grew rapidly, till about 

 the year 1790, when they began to die in every 

 ])art of the orchard. It was made my business, 

 though a small boy, to dig up the dead trees in the 

 orchard, to trace every root that could be found, 

 and remove entirely out of the orchard, every frag- 

 ment of root that could he traced to the greatest 

 depth and extent to which the roots had ramified. 

 This operation continued from year to year, till 

 about the year 1800, when a number of apple trees 

 died, and were thus taicen up, some of which mea- 

 sured near a foot in diameter. There was never a 

 root found by me, which had penetrated more than 

 about a foot deep in the ground. It had also been 

 made my business, to raise seedling nurseries of" 

 young apple trees, and to dig them up when about 

 the size of large goose quills, to be used as stocks for 

 hand grafting, to be planted out agaui, after being 

 grafted, for the purpose of raising grafted nursery 

 Frees, to replenish the orchard. Sometimes when 

 I wished to hasten the growth of my young graffs, 

 I dug up the seedling stocks, about as large as 

 goose quills, with all the tap roots that could be 

 obtained by digging to the greatest depth that the 

 tap roots had penetrated the substratum, and gen- 

 erally found that they had descended about twen- 

 ty-seven inches, and in a few cases thirty-six in- 

 ches. I'his led to the conclusion, that the tap 

 root once cut, never attempted to grow downward 

 again, or if it did attempt to grow downward, its 

 efforts were too feeble to penetrate, even a mode- 

 rately hard substratum: that tap roofs growing so 

 deep from small trees, must go much deeper from 

 large trees, and steady and support them greatly 

 against storms, as well as to render the tree more 

 healthy, by enabling it to sustain uninjured the 

 severest drought, particularlj' where orchards have 

 been planted upon hillsides, and from the neces- 

 sary tillage of the earth, the surface will be wash- 

 ed and removed downhill, gradually leaving the 

 extended roots of the trees exposed near the sur- 



