184 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



quarter of a century you will find large droves of hogs in 

 orchards sodded with Kentucky blue grass." 



M. B. MILLIARD in Southern States.~\ 



A large apple orchard is something very rare in the far South, at 

 least within the zone of my observations. Of course, my area of 

 observation did not cover the entire South, and I have not been much 

 of a traveler for the past fifteen years; but, while there is a tendency 

 to enlarge, or, rather, to begin apple raising, it is a very recent thing, 

 very limited in its belt, and mostly confined to the summer varieties. 



There is a good deal of reason for the insignificance of apple 

 raising South. The fruit raising furore communicated to the South 

 through the small fruits and plums principally. The last two varie- 

 ties bear earlier than the apple and outsell it. The small fruits pay 

 well, yield well, and bear at once, so to speak. Then the apple of 

 the South (the early varieties) finds all sorts of competition from the 

 other fruits and from southern and eastern peaches and small fruits 

 New Jersey, Delaware, Michigan ; raspberries, strawberries, black- 

 berries and peaches from Delaware to a long way South. For the 

 winter apples of the South there is found such a competitor in the 

 whole apple belt of this continent that the South may be said, at 

 this time to be not " in it," as to raising winter apples, at all. 



Another reason why the South is in the business of raising winter 

 (or fall) varieties of apples in the small way now marking the condi- 

 tion of affairs, is that the favorite varieties of northern apples will 

 not succeed South, except with few exceptions. The writer well re- 

 members how, when a young man, he saw the delicious and superb 

 winter apples (that succeed so well in New York, New England and 

 Michigan) on exhibition at an agricultural fair in Dover, Del. The 

 agent sold trees at a great pace, no doubt. But none of the apples 

 succeeded in Delaware ; such choice varieties as Baldwin, Spitzen- 

 berg, Rhode Island Greening, Seek-no-Further and others. The 

 above experiment in Delaware is a type of what the South has expe- 

 rienced with regard to winter apples, introduced from the North, that 

 have failed South. The tree pedlar, with his highly-colored plates, 

 his smooth tongue, and his shameless deception, for all these 

 years has talked the South into buying varieties of apples that are 

 failures South. If these northern nurserymen would propagate va- 

 rieties of apples that would succeed South, and sell them here, there 

 would not be so much ground for criticism. But their present plan 

 is as much a fraud as it would be for southern nurserymen to go 

 North and East and sell to horticulturists there varieties of the fig or 

 orange, by assuring purchasers that these were hardy and would suc- 

 ceed there. If the northern horticulturists are less gullible than 

 those South, that does not alter the principle. 



Then, undoubtedly, this prevalent disfavor of the winter apple 

 iSouth interferes much with an acquisition or attempt at production 

 of new varieties. If a person South should discover a new very 

 early peach, that carried well and was fine in size and color, it would 

 be a fortune to him. The same principle would apply to a new 



