le 



THE GENESEE'-FARMEE. 





iouticultural grpirtmmt 



IMPEOVING OLD APPLE OSCHAUDS. 



In all the older settled portions of the country, 

 there are thousands of apple orchards producing an 

 enormous quantity of fruit which is entirely valueless 

 except as food for stock, or for cider-maldng. Can 

 r.ot these orchards be turned to better account ? We 

 believe they can. Even as food for stock, sweet ap- 

 ples would be far more valuable, and though the land 

 occupied by these orchards may yield as much profit 

 ■when the apples are converted into cider, as could be 

 realized from it by any ordinary farm crop, yet we 

 believe a far greater profit may be obtained by graft- 

 ing these old trees with good varieties, that will com- 

 mand good prices for cooking and desert purposes. 

 Apples for cider-making are seldom worih more than 

 eight cents a bushel, and we have known theoi sold 

 for half that price, while tvrenty-five cents a bushel is 

 a low price for ordinary "grafted fruit;" and we be- 

 lieve there is no more labor required to grow a bushel 

 of Spitzenburgs or Baldwins, than of the compara- 

 tively worthless natural sorts now so common in many 

 parts of the eountry. 



This matter should be attended to during the win- 

 ter months. Now is a good time to get grafts, to 

 decide Vv-hat varieties it is best to get, and to learn 

 which is the best means of performing the grafting 

 aperation. On this point there is some difierence of 

 opinion. We shall recur to it in a future number, 

 giving illustrations of the most approved methods. 

 In the meantime, we hope our correspondents will 

 give us their experience. 



McIntosh says that, in England, "the process of 

 heading down and grafting old fruit trees is a much 

 neglected part of fruit tree culture." The same may 

 with equal truth be said of this country. 



It may be said that it is easier and cheaper to get 

 new trees from the nui-series. We would not dis- 

 courage any one from planting young trees of good 

 varieties; we believe that a properly-managed apple 

 orchard, of the right sorts, is one of the most prolific 

 sources of wealth upon a farm; but still, those who 

 have vigorous trees of worthless sorts had far better 

 .re-graft them than to cut them down, or to let them 

 remain as they are. More fruit can be obtained in 

 a given time from one of these re- grafted old trees, 

 than from a young tree; for it is a well established 

 fact that grafting a young twig upon an old stock 

 has the effect of making it flower earlier than it 

 would otherwise do, in consequence of the accumu- 

 lation of sap in the old stock becoming beneficial 

 to the twig, and giving a check, at the same time, to 



its tendency to produce leaves. "As on example," 

 says McIntosh, "if a seedling apple be grafted the 

 second year of its growth on the extremities of a 

 full grown tree, or even on a stock of five or six 

 years from the seed, it will show blossom buds the 

 second or third year; whereas, if it had remained 

 ungra'ted, it might not have shown buds for ten or 

 twenty years." Another advantage of this mode of 

 gralting is, that the organizable matter deposited in 

 the roots and the trunk of the old tree is thiown 

 with great force into' the scions, causing them to 

 make strong and vigorous sheets. The late Ueorge 

 Olmstead, of llarttbrd, Ct, stated in an early vol- 

 ume of the Horticulturist, that by re-grafting an old 

 apple-tree — beginning to graft the top of the tree 

 firtt, and so working dovv'n, and completing the pro- 

 cess in three successive years — he had obtained from 

 this single tree, in six years from the time he began 

 to graft, twenty-eight and a half bushels of excellent 

 fruit. 



There are many old apple orchards in the country, 

 which,though of good varieties, yield no profit to their 

 owners, simply because they have been neglected. 

 Such orchards may easily and speedily be restored to 

 abundant and profitable fruitfulness. Sometime be- 

 fore the sap begins to flow in spring, thin out the 

 heads of the trees by lopping off all decayed, stunted, 

 diseased, crooked, or superfluous branches, but avoid 

 the common error of cutting of large limbs, when it 

 is not absolutely necessary. Then in the spring, if 

 the orchard has been in grass for some time, pat on 

 a good dressing of manure,and plow it under as deep as 

 you can go without disturbing the roots of the trees. 

 The best way is to throw a thin furrow slice up to- 

 wards the row of tree?, turning towards you nud fin- 

 ishing in the centre between two rows. 'J"he plow 

 can be put a little deeper each furrow as you recede 

 from the trees. 



If you have not manure to spare, spread on old 

 leached ashes, at the rate of about one hundred 

 bushels per acre, or half the quantity of unleached 

 ashes; and if a bushel or so of plaster, and ten to 

 twenty bushels of lime were added, so muclAhe bet- 

 ter. Let these be harrowed thoroughly in," and the 

 ground worked into as good tilth as p ssible. 'ilien 

 sow the land to peas, and when in blossom, jJow 

 them in. The ashes, lime and plaster furnish all the 

 mineral elements required by the trees — and of which 

 the soil has probably been impoverished by the re- 

 moval of the fruit — and the peas will supply a large 

 amount of organic matter. By growing nothing 

 among the trees for a year or two, and keeping the 

 ground clean, sowing a non-exhausting crop and 

 plowing it under, the soil may be rendered very rich, 

 and the orchard fruitful. 



We have been asked whether Peruvian guanc 

 would be good for an old apple orchard, the soil of 

 which is sandy. We have no doubt it would ])rove 

 beneficial Peruvian guano, however, though it con- 

 tains more or less of all the elements of plants, is 

 comparatively deficient in potash and soda. Many 

 sandy soils are naturally poor in these alkalies.and'the 

 removal of the apple crop from year to year, and of 

 the other crops which are — but should not be — rais- 

 ed and removed from the land, also carry with them 

 large quantities of potash and soda, so that it is pro- 

 bable that, relative to other plant food, these sandy 

 soils on which apple orchards have stood for mar.7 

 years, are^deficieut of that which_ Peruvian guuno, oi 



