THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



187 



ers of tlie Genesee Farmer are many of them, per- 

 haps the majority, in want of some of the cheapest 

 luxuries in the whole world. 



The farmer is too remote from markets to get a 

 daily supply of perishable fruits, except from his 

 own garden ; there is no excuse, however, for not 

 having an abundance from there. He has land in 

 abundance ; time enough, too. Although he usually 

 thinks a day spent in following his plow over an 

 acre of laud intended for oats, well spent, if he can 

 get in a crop from which he will realize a profit of 

 perhaps five dollars, perhaps nothing, the same time 

 and labor spent in procuring, planting and culti- 

 vating delicious garden fruits would give him five 

 times the intrinsic value, and conduce greatly to the 

 comfort of his wife and daughters, who have hard 

 enough work to make his daily table comfortable, 

 and cannot possibly make it what it should be, 

 without those delicious fruits of the season which 

 there is no substitute for. We have little patience 

 to labor with the former in this region, and in these 

 days, who allows his family and himself to go with- 

 out these cheap luxuries, while he toils himself and 

 sous to death on his field crops. It is sheer rob- 

 bery of the whole family, of comfort, health, and 

 those reasonable pleasures spread by the beneficent 

 hand of the Lord, richly to be enjoyed. 



There is a degree of barbarism and want of good 

 sense upon this subject, both as applied to the 

 fruit, the flower, and the vegetable garden, and also 

 to the orchard, which our whole tanning commu- 

 nity ought to be ashamed of, and which we think 

 must vanish before the millenium can reasonably 

 be looked for. n. e, h. 



WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THE FAILirRE OF SO MANY 

 TREES SENT OUT BY NURSERYMEN] 



We have received a great many articles on this 

 subject, and think our readers will be interested in 

 the following extracts from a few of them : 



" That very many trees sold by the nurserymen 

 throughout the country do fail, is a fact which is 

 too evident to be denied. As the above question 

 has been proposed to elicit individual opinion on 

 the subject, we will state ours. 



We would say, first, that a great many trees sold 

 are not fit to be transplanted. With a great many 

 planters, a tall, smooth barked tree, that has made 

 a strong growth, is preferred. I^ow to attain this 

 object, nurserymen apply abundance of manure and 

 plant close ; the consequence is, the trees shoot up 

 like magic, and being close together, have few small 

 roots and few or no side branches. 



Now when these trees are removed to the or- 

 chard, in the majority of cases they have no shelter, 

 but are exposed to every storm that blows, and fre- 

 quently with good care tliey are unable to bear the 

 sudden change. How small, then, is their chance, 

 when they are carelessly removed, with their roots 

 broken and mangled, and after being exposed to the 

 drying influences of the air, are crowded into small 

 holes, with the earth carelessly tlirown in about 

 them, and then left to take care of themselves as 

 best they can ? 



There are undoubtedly more trees lost by care- 

 less planting and negligent afterculture, than by all 

 other causes put together. The fact is, arboricul- 

 ture forms no part of the study of many who have 



to plant. It would save them a vast amount of 

 disappointment and positive loss, if they could only 

 be persuaded to inform themselves on the subject, 

 by procuring a good work on pomology, or sub- 

 scribing for a good agricultural paper, which have 

 all a horticultural department, and which are to be 

 had for a very small outlay, and it is to be regretted 

 that it is not oftener done. In how few cases does- 

 a man who is spending ten or perhaps fifty dollars 

 upon trees, spend one tenth part of even the least 

 of these sums on reliable information on the sub- 

 ject. But to return ; when trees are carelessly 

 planted into a popr soil and an improper situation, 

 and left to fight against grass and weeds which are 

 already in possession, it is impossible that they can 

 thrive — in fact, it is a wonder that they exist. If 

 the spring should happen to be favorable, they may 

 leaf out, but when the weather becomes warm and 

 dry, the moisture soon evaporates, the ground be- 

 comes hard, and the trees dry up, and even when 

 they do survive, they are feeble and sickly, making 

 but little growth ; and if they are so fortunate as 

 to escape the cattle, and begin to bear fruit, it is of 

 inferior quality. 



How many orchards are there to he seen with 

 large gaps in the rows, fair samples of Farmer Slap- 

 dash's orchard, which you gave in a former number 

 of the Genesee Farmer ; and it is no wonder that 

 we hear it often said that fruit-growing does not 

 pay. If that is the method, it certainly will not ; 

 but if a man will get good trees and plant them 

 well, and take good care of them, protecting them 

 from cattle, and cultivate the ground about them, 

 the result will be a diflerent story altogether; in 

 such cases fruit-growing will pay, and pay well. 

 In fine, the great secret of success is Good CrLTUEE. 

 B.—Flambro West, 0, IF. 



The question might be very readily answered by 

 simply saying, "a want of proper care;'' but ano- 

 ther question immediately arises, viz : " What is the 

 want of proper care V — and therein lies the whole 

 matter. 



The desire for choice fruits is very natural, and 

 therefore very general. A., B. and 0., in a certain 

 township, are very successful fruit culturists ; they 

 have all the choice varieties in perfection. Their 

 neighbors are stimulated by the example, and think 

 that they may as well have good fi-uit as A., B. and 

 0. Accordingly they order varieties of good repu- 

 tation somewhere — it may be in Maine, or it may 

 be in Kentucky — they do not stop to consider 

 where. They ask not a question about the adapt- 

 echiess of certain varieties to certain soils and loca- 

 tions. They seem to think that "a tree is a tree,'' 

 and if placed in the ground — no matter how, and 

 no matter when — it must needs groio, and bear an 

 abundant harvest of fruit. Tliey have never devo- 

 ted a moment's time to acquiring information with 

 regard to the wants, nature and habits of fruit trees. 

 They cannot tell why the apple, pear, peach, plum, 

 cherry, quince and grape will not flourish equally 

 well on the same soil and with the same location. 

 They do not know why a hole that will, answer for 

 a jx)^^ will not serve equally well for a tree. They 

 evidently tldnk that the small fihrous o'oots, through 

 which alone the tree can receive its nourishinent 

 from tlie soil, are an unnecessary ajipendage, and in 

 transplanting, they allow them to be broken ofi" or 

 matted together, or wound around the large roots, 



