224 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



HOKTICULTUEAL NOTES FEOM IOWA, 



Editors Gexesee Faemer : — For the benefit of 

 your numerous western readers, I am willing to 

 spend a short time in jotting practical suggestions 

 on the science of tree planting, training, &c. 



Nurserymen are usually too chary of their ground. 

 The trees are crowded too much in the row, seldom 

 exceeding sis or seven inches apart — causing the 

 stocks to grow tall, slender, and weakly, often as 

 large three or four feet from the crown as they are 

 at it, with sometimes two or three straggling limbs, 

 very frequently all growing from the same side. 

 Such trees are not worth the labor of planting, 

 much less the time lost in waiting year after year, 

 in the hope of gathering fruit from the ill-shapen 

 things, until finally the spring storms of wind and 

 rain shall snap off or uproot the swaying flagstafts, 

 misnamed fruit trees, and sad experience shall force 

 the truth upon you, that only stocky, low-headed, 

 well-balanced trees will thrive and bear to any ])er- 

 fection in our western prairies. Jno. W. Feazier, 

 of Henry county, one of the most successful fruit- 

 raisers in the west, and who has some twenty-four 

 hundred apple-trees bearing, informed me that his 

 trees which were headed as low as twelve or four- 

 teen inches, although set but two years — being 

 then but two years old from the graft, (root-graft) 

 — bore double a,nd many of them treble the quan- 

 tity of fruit that the long-bodied ones did, although 

 many of tlie latter were three or four years older, 

 and of the same varieties. A tree of tlie variety 

 known in the west as Mother bore a fiiU half-bushel 

 of excellent specimens ; two years old when set, and 

 out four years. Gh-avenstei?i and Ortley nearly as 

 well. 



One of the principal causes of the failure of trees 

 to grow, is the manner they are usually planted. — 

 Taken from tlie crowded nursery row, the roots, 

 being interlocked, are rubbed badly; these are 

 jammed into holes often not over twelve or four- 

 teen inches across, leaving all the mutilated roots 

 dangling ; the dirt is shovelled in and pressed down 

 with the foot, to the maiming of the few remaining 

 fibres that may have been so fortunate as to be left. 

 Too much haste in setting trees almost invariably 

 results in failure. A case in point : — 



Neighbor this spring purchased one hun- 

 dred apple-trees. They were received in the eve- 

 ning ; the next day by noon the boys had dug all 

 tlie holes and the trees were set. Two days after, 

 we liad a heavy rain with wind, and when I passed, 

 fully one-half of the trees were lying at an angle of 

 45 deg. These were straitened by raising them up 

 with the hand, and by good luok with the heels on 

 the lee side, and the work was done. 



This is not an individual case. Scores of young 

 orchards are treated in the same way every year, 

 to my personal knowledge. The Fruit Books all 

 give such plain directions for planting trees, that it 

 is almost superfluous to say anything in regard to 

 it. However, as Fruit Books are not as plenty 

 among our farmers as Oenesee Farmers are, I will 

 venture a remark on the sulgect. 



After liaving selected your trees, af varieties 

 known to be hardy here — and they are but few — 

 such roots as are bruised must be trimmed at the 

 break, by a smooth cut from the under side. The 

 holes should be dug deep, and filled up to the point 

 on which the tree will rest with the surface soil, 



and they should be in width fully twice the full 

 expanse of the r6ots. One person should place the 

 tree in its proper position, holding it plumb, while 

 another, with his hands, should scatter the finelj 

 pulverized earth around and over the roots, — being 

 careful that there are no vacancies left imder any 

 of them, and the fibres placed in a horizontal posi- 

 tion. After aU the fibres are covered carefully, the 

 balance of the soil may be shoveled in. Keep your 

 feet off. If your trees are such as I have recom- 

 mended, they will need no stakes. Plant two and 

 three year old trees. If the summer is dry, mulch 

 with saw-dust ; it will keep the ground sufficiently 

 moist all summer. I seldom water trees. 



The ground set with young trees is usually crop- 

 ped, the same as if no trees were there. Corn or 

 sowed crops should never be raised in an orchard- 

 Beans, potatoes, vines — in fiict, any low hoed crop 

 — will not interfere. Trees are almost invariably 

 treated as a secondary object. It is almost impos- 

 sible to find an orchard where the trees are not 

 more or less scarred by the whiffletrees, to avoid 

 tearing up a hill of corn or potatoes. Malce tlie 

 the trees the crop on the ground set apart for them, 

 — nse good judgment in selecting them, — set care- 

 fully^ — cultivate them under standingly, — read the 

 Genesee Farmer thoroughly^ and there is no danger 

 of failure. w. c. jones. 



Viola, Iowa, May, 1S58. 



PEAKS FOE MARKET. 



Our respected friend L. F. Allen, of BuiRilo, has 

 written an article in the last number of the Horti- 

 culturist, to show that pears for orcharding, and 

 especially dwarf pears, have proved a failure. On 

 looking over his five pages on this subject, the fol- 

 lowing are the prominent points of his evidence and 

 argument. He planted largely and well of both 

 standards and dwarfs, but chiefly the latter. They 

 grew well for two or three years, and then many of 

 them began to die, and these losses continued rap- 

 idly to take place, the dead ones being replaced, 

 until in five years the renewals were about equal to 

 the original number. Afterwards, during a winter 

 when mice were very abundant, these depredators 

 destroyed nearly all that were left. Thus ended the 

 experiment. Apple and quince trees immediately 

 adjoining, succeeded well with much less care, and 

 bore fruit in abundance. Twenty or thirty of his 

 friends and neighbors commenced pear cultivation 

 about the same time — with diverse soils, exposures, 

 and cultivation, and all these admit their failure 

 except one, who is " constitutionally obstinate" in 

 never confessing to an error. Tliis want of success 

 appears to have been the chief reason for condemn- 

 ing the pear. ****** 



On looking a little further at the article of our 

 friend Allen, we think we can perceive a cause of 

 his failure, independently of what may be supposed, 

 that the soil was unsuitable, or too wet, or that 

 fire-blight, which no skill can wholly avert, may 

 have prevailed unusually just at that time. He 

 states that for two or three years after setting, root 

 crops were cultivated among his trees, witli plenty 

 of good stable manure, and that during this time 

 many of them grew well. But, three years after 

 planting, at the very period when failure cora- 

 fmenced, the land was laid into grass, but dug 



