THE GENESEE FARMER. 



29 



PLANTING APPLE TREES. 



!Jever before have apple trees been so extensively 

 mted in this section as during the past autumn. Far- 

 ;rs are beginning to realize that raising good fruit is a 

 ofitable business. The apple crop the past season was 

 t as large as in 1860, but the prices, notwithstanding 

 i high rates of freight, have been good, and it is said 

 it the fruit growers have realized as much profit from 

 sir crop as in the previous more plentiful years. We 

 ar of cases where $400 an acre has been paid for Bald- 

 u apples on the trees— the buyer to gather the fruit. 

 An intelligent farmer a few days since told us that he 

 is going to plant 1,000 Baldwin apple trees, and re- 

 irked that his only regret was that he had not done so 

 l years ago. He had no doubt that this and other win- 

 r varieties will always command a fair price. Even if 

 ey do not, he thought, "it would pay to grow them to 

 >d cattle and hogs." 



The varieties planted most extensively are the Baldwin, 

 e Golden and Roxbury Russet, and Rhode Island 

 •eening. 



There can be no doubt that the soil and climate of 

 estern New York are very favorable to the growth of 

 iples, pears, etc. The fruit is exceedingly fair, and will 

 ways command good prices. A considerable quantity 



winter apples have been sent from here to England. 

 e have no doubt that those who have exercised due care 



assorting out all poor and bruised fruit, and in seeing 

 at they have been carefully handled, will realize hand- 

 me profits from their investments. 

 Many apples are also sent from this neighborhood to 

 inada. The variety which commands the highest price 



Montreal is the Pomme Grise. It will readily bring $450 

 i $5.00 per barrel, while the. Baldwin sells for $2.50. It 



a most excellent apple, but of not sufficient size to suit 

 le popular demand with us. It is a favorite with all who 

 ulge apples by the taste rather than by the eye. The 

 ourassa is also a popular apple in Montreal. Both these 

 irieties bear well in this section and should be more 

 euerally planted, especially by all who expect to send 

 pples to Canada. 



RENOVATION OF OLD GBAPE VINES. 



Under this heading, in the Journal <P Agriculture Pra- 

 'que, of September 20th, appeared a long letter from M. 

 e Laistre, giving aD account of the successful operation 

 f the new system of cultivating vines which is creating a 

 omplete revolution in the French vineyards. The letter 

 s too long to transfer entire to our columns, but we give 

 , resume of it. 



His vines were twelve or fifteen years old, and had be- 

 some almost barren, but after reading a book by Dr. 

 ruLES Guyot, he determined to try his system. In the 

 irst place, a trench was opened around each princi- 

 pal stock from which shoots had sprung up, of a depth 

 sufficient to disengage all the shoots. Then one was se- 

 lected to form the stock for the new culture. Then an- 

 other as a companion for the first. The remaining shoots 

 were all cut down and destroyed. Then a trench was 

 opened in a line with a row of vines sufficiently large to 

 enable the workman to manure the two shoots at the same 



time. The branches which come from these shoots are 

 trained vertically upon a simple wire trellis. The second 

 year after this, M. de Laisthe's vines gave him a most 

 magnificent crop. His vines have borne a crop estimated 

 at an average of three lbs. of fruit to each vine stock, and 

 he has obtained the " high approbation of the Agricul- 

 tural Society of Poitiers." 



This seems a very simple mode of culture, but it in- 

 volves a comparatively new principle which is but little 

 practiced here, and, under the name of the "renewal sys? 

 tern," has excited some discussion in the various horticul- 

 tural societies and periodicals. 



PEAR CULTURE IN THE NORTHWEST. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer : No part of fruit-growing has 

 been more neglected, perhaps, in his country than that 

 of the pear, and no good assignable reason. Notwith- 

 standing we have a soil and a climate that are adapted to 

 the production of most of the varieties of the best pears, 

 yet a pear tree is seldom found among the farming com- 

 munity. That pear trees have been planted to a consider- 

 able extent, and have proved a failure, is no argument 

 against pear culture. They have generally come to us in 

 bad order, of varieties frequently not adapted to our cli- 

 mate, and set in bad order, and little cared for when set, 

 and a consequent failure must necessarily follow. I will 

 give my method and success, believing that it may dispel 

 the skepticism of some on this subject. 



In 1856 I ordered from a reliable nursery in Central 

 New York sixty pear trees of first quality, selecting the 

 varieties mainly from those that had been tried here and 

 found " hardy" and " half hardy," and some that had been 

 reported tender, and others that had not been reported as 

 either, including thirty varieties ; about 50 standard, and 

 the remainder dwarf on quince stock. 



These were planted on high, dry, open, unprotected 

 prairie land, that had been deeply trenched, and the stiff 

 loam composing the subsoil thoroughly mixed with the 

 surface soil. An underdrain was made 3£ feet deep,- run- 

 ning lengthwise the plot of land occupied, also a slight 

 surface drainage. I regarded the mixture of the stiff 

 loam which composed the subsoil with the surface as .es- 

 sential to the health and vigor of the pear tree. I planted 

 them 12 feet apart each way, and have kept the land under 

 cultivation with vegetable crops, pruning them lightly, 

 cutting down the tops of the standard trees to prevent too 

 high a growth, and thoroughly using the knife on the 

 dwarfs, keeping a low pyramidal head. Last year three 

 of the trees were loaded with pears, two of them being 

 Bartlett (standard). This year I found that 12 of the va- 

 rieties produced specimens of the finest pears. Of the 

 Bartletts three were standard and two dwarfs. One of 

 the standards produced nearly a half bushel of fruit. The 

 Swan's Orange proves a very hardy, vigorous tree, and 

 fruited well. The Oswego Beurre, Dearborn's Seedling, 

 Seckel, White Doyenne, Flemish Beauty, Stevens' Gene- 

 see, Buffam, Beurre Bosc, Duchesse d'Angouleme, and 

 Beurre d'Aremberg all produced fruit this year, and rre 

 strong healthy trees. A few of my trees were injured 

 with the frost blight in the winter of 1859 and 1860, and 

 last fall (I860) I tied around them a part of a mat cov- 

 ering; the residue I covered with long rye-straw, tying 



