96 



THE GEIS^ESEE FARMER. 



Cold Graperies. — The buds of the vines will show 

 signs of burstiag toward the end of the month, retard 

 them as much as possible by keeping the vines shad- 

 ed and the house ventilated on all mild ocaasions. 



Rochester, JY. Y. Josiah Salter. 



LOCATION OF 0KCHAED3. 



All the best writers upon fruit growing, agi-ee that 

 the location of trees has much to do with their pro- 

 ductiveness and the flavor and beauty of the fruit. — 

 The experfence of cultivators also confirms the opin- 

 ion thiit much of the value of a fruit tree depends up- 

 on where it is planted as well as upon the cultivation 

 it receives. The planter of trees, therefore, may well 

 stop to consider whether he ha^ a proper place to 

 plant before he proceeds to buy and spend time and 

 labor upon something which will never remunerate 

 him. 



There are now many orchards of old trees which 

 have never been, and never will be worth the labor 

 bestowed upon them. 



The reason for the ill success of these plantations is 

 sought for sometimes in the climate, the aspect of the 

 ground to the sun, or the exposure to winds; and in 

 each of these considerations there is much to instruct, 

 and much that is worthy of consideration in choosing 

 a location; but by far the most potent diificulty — and 

 generally ©ne of the most difficult to overcome — is the 

 nature of the sub soil. There are many orchards now 

 growing upon a fertile surface soil, but with a sub-soil 

 of mingled clay and stone, so hard and impenetrable 

 to water that wet remains about the roots for such a 

 length ©f time that no good fruit is ever produced. — 

 A good tree must have a dry, permeable sub-soil, tj' 

 it is ever to become projitable. 



After much examination and observation, we have 

 thought that among all the drawbacks upon success- 

 ful fruit culture, in this vicinity at least, no cause is so 

 destructive of every good quality in fruit trees, as the 

 want of a proper under drainage. 



Want of good under drainage, often exists where it 

 is not suspected by a superficial observer. It is often 

 the case that extensive slopes, having various inclina- 

 tions, all of them sufficient, if good channels existed, to 

 carry oil' water rapidly, are nevertheless ruined for 

 fruit growing, and indeed for almost all farming pur- 

 poses, by the fact, that whilst the surface for a foot 

 or more in depth, is mellow and porous, the soil be- 

 neath is hard-pan of the most impervious sort. The 

 surface becomes saturated and remains full of cold 

 water, until, by gradual evaporation, or by slowly 

 soaking along from the high to the lower land, it be- 

 comes firm enough for the plow — too late, however, 

 to be available for fruit trees. Unless some remedy 

 is found, such land will always remain unfit for orch- 

 ards. 



Thus it frequently happens that the man who be- 

 lieves he has a fine hill for an orchard, has by no 

 means as good a site as he imagines; hills having as 

 often as bad sub-soils .as flat lands or valleys, and if 

 the sub-soil be bad, the fact that it is a hill,"will keep 

 the lower portions of the slope wet the longer. Hill 

 sides are therefore often tl?8 worst of locations. 



The planter of trees should make it his first study 

 to ascertain the nature of his sub-soil ; look for 

 springy places, and go over the land frequently during 

 the spring and autumn rains and snows, and ascertain 

 carefully where the land is firm and dry soon after 



heavy rains, where it will do to plow and plant early 

 in the season, and select such, and such land only jQ 

 the place for orcharding. 



It will surprise many men to find that surface soil is 

 so often deceptive in regard to the character of this 

 sub-soil. A man looking over his farm after a flood, 

 with this in view, will frequently find himself up to hh 

 ancles in water, upon what he supposed was a gravely^ 

 dry place ; gravely it certainly is upon the lop, but 

 not so below, whilst the patch of clay which he feared 

 would swamp him is quite firm; he did not know that 

 gravel lay below here, and the water had fallen 

 through very readily. Sandy surfaces are also often 

 found saturated with water, held there by the clay sub 

 soil beneath. 



The depth to which the natural drainage of waftr 

 exists is, in our view, a most important considei^ 

 tion. The roots of large trees extend to considerabte 

 depth, an i will, of course, be effected by the water 

 iu the soil, if they reach it, and if water exists in 

 super abundance at some considerable distance from 

 the surface, it wiU effect the surface so as to sensibljr 

 diminish the temperature early in the season. A Boil 

 dry to a great depth, then, we think desirable. 



We have spoken only in favor of soils naturnlty 

 underdrained to considerable depth; we know it will 

 be said that we have the means of making any soil 

 dry enough for fruit where there is sufficient fall for 

 the use of draining tiles. Without asserting thai 

 this may not be done, we must beg planters of trees 

 for orchards not to be too sanguine before trial of 

 the benefits of draining tile, and if they do drain, to 

 drain deeply, and at no great distance apart. 



Apple trees in orchards are expected to grow large 

 and their roots to extend a corresponding depth intb 

 the earth, and to cover a large surface. To drain fOr 

 such roots is quite a different affair from draining for 

 grass and grain, or even for dwarf fruit trees, and 

 small fruits. 



From some experiments in the use of drain tile, ■fio 

 carry off the water from an unprofitable appte 

 orchard, we are satisfied that if accomplished at aU^ 

 the w.ork of draining a springy piece of land, so 

 thoroughly as to make it valuable f^or orcharding is a 

 serious undertaking, and that, although it is not very 

 difficult to make the soil useful for grass or ordinaiy 

 crops, it is much more difficult to get good, melloviE, 

 fine flavored and fair apples to grow upon such a 

 hard pan bottom, than it is to select a proper goil 

 before planting the trees. 



The season is now at hand when many of our 

 farmers will be planting new orchards, and enlarging 

 their old ones, and we throw out these hints to induce 

 watchful care in selecting a proper basis for those 

 operations which must, from necessity, be long in 

 producing results, but which will be very profitable if 

 carried out with sound judgment. 



It is a well established fact that the apple orchards 

 of Western New York are the best investments our 

 farmers can make, and we hope to see the good work 

 of planting extensively, go forward upon Bonud 

 principles. H. E. H. 

 . — ■ I ■ 



Beet Leaves were blanched by the Romans mncji 

 in the same way as gardeners blanch endive at thfl 

 present day, by laying a tile over it. These 

 were esteemed preferable to lettuce. 



