THE GENESEE FARMER. 



225 



" every year" thoronghly for four or five feet in 

 diameter around each tree, and manure was well 

 forked in. 



Now, whatever others might look for, we should 

 expect failure with dwarf trees thus cultivated. 

 Root crops do well for all other trees, yet not so 

 well as simple cultivation without any crop, as we 

 have long since and repeatedly stated. But a crop 

 of roots growing at the foot of a dwarf pear, ope- 

 rates precisely as a crop of weeds, — for trees recog- 

 nize no difference between a potato or turnip, and 

 a thistle or pig-weed. The hoeing given to the 

 roots is an important help to the tree, but this hoe- 

 ing is less frequent and more expensive than may 

 be performed on a clean bare surface. The dwarfs, 

 however, mostly grew well, till the land was laid to 

 grass. Then commenced rapid failure, not^ith- 

 8tanding the spaded circles. Now, we respectfully 

 submit that a spading once a year is too infrequent; 

 but if it had been done once a week it would still 

 have been insufficient to promote proper growth. 

 For a circle four or five feet in diameter is a radius 

 of two to two and a half feet from the grass to the 

 tree. Now, it has been ascertained that the roots 

 o£ grass often extend much beyond this distance ; 

 and there is no doubt that this spaded surface was 

 soon underlaid with a dense net-work of grass roots, 

 abstracting nourishment and moisture from the tree. 

 Every observant person must have seen the darker 

 green and ranker growth of the grass at the outer 

 rim of such spaded and manured circles, owing to 

 the higher feed thus given to it, and by which its 

 roots are encouraged to thrust themselves over the 

 whole surface thus prepared for them, and robbing 

 the tree. But this is not all. The roots of trees 

 extend much further than most cultivators imagine. 

 We have on former occasions fully demonstrated 

 that peach roots run beyond a circle whose diame- 

 ter is double the height, and that a tree ten feet high 

 should have, not a dug circle three feet in diameter 

 or less, as is usually given it, but one more than 

 twenty feet in diameter, or a surface forty times as 

 great as the three feet space. Apple and pear roots 

 extend about as far — the quince roots of dwarf 

 pears only about half as far, and a dwarf pear six 

 feet high does not therefore require a cultivated cir- 

 cle more than six feet in diameter, with an addi- 

 tional ring two feet wide to compensate for the 

 inner extension of grass roots — making the whole 

 space ten feet in diameter. The four feet dug cir- 

 cles were therefore only a sixth part of the mellow 

 surface they should have been, even if they had 

 been repeatedly stirred through the season. 



We had once hoped that the absolute necessity of 

 high cultivation for the dwarf pear, was destined 

 to work a revolution in fruit culture, by teaching 

 planters to give all their trees better management. 

 This hope has not been realized ; for instead of ef- 

 fecting an improvement in cultivation, it has only 

 induced negligent cultivators to pronounce dwarf 

 pears humbugs. 



It is generally recommended to confine the dwarf 

 to gardens^ where the soil has been mjade rich, and 

 where in spading and hoeing vegetables, they will 

 get a share of the benefit. As orchards are usually 

 cultivated, it would be perfect folly to attempt the 

 raising of dwarfs by orchard management. But as 

 they should be treated, and as they may easily be, 

 iJiii mode is superior to every other^ garden culture 



not excepted. For, as we have just shown, vege- 

 tables growing near them interfere in the same way 

 that weeds do, but less in degree on account of the 

 hoeing they get. Besides this, the surface in gar- 

 dens is mellowed by hand less frequently and at 

 more cost, than by horses, on a large scale. An 

 acquaintance has several acres occupied with dwarfs, 

 among which he allows no crop whatever to grow. 

 The trees are eight leet apart each way, (twelve 

 would be better,) and he keeps the whole surface 

 as mellow as an ash heap, with less labor than is 

 required for a field of corn, by means of a two-horse 

 cultivator. He sold his fruit crop last year, during 

 the severest season of the money-pressure, for 

 about ticelve hundred dollars^ cash in hand, and a 

 large portion of his pears {Angoulemes) sold at six 

 cents each iy the larrel. — Country Oentleman. 



NOTES FROM OREGON. 



Messes. Editors : — I venture once more to send 

 you a few lines upon Oregon.* We have had an 

 unusually dry season ; plowing of sod and fallow 

 has been suspended nearly four mouths, and conse- 

 quentlv the wheat sown will fall short nearly one 

 half. "The crops of wheat and oats were rather 

 light, but otherwise good. Vegetables are very 

 scarce, and the potato crop unusually small. Prices 

 run high: wheat $1.25 to $1.50; oats 75 cents to 

 $1 ; potatoes $1.25. The apple crop has been only 

 tolerable this season ; under good cultivation it has 

 been good, bi;t under neglected cultivation it has 

 paralleled your ever-memorable Slapdash's success. 



The mildew has borne a conspicuous part this 

 season, and many a hmb has been amputated on 

 account of it. This disease is misnamed here, and 

 the consequence is, a great many farmers labor 

 under a mistake in regard to it. It is caused by ft 

 small bug, about the size of a common pin-head, a 

 little spotted. This fellow eats ofi' the under coat 

 of the leaf, which causes it to curl up and renders 

 it useless to the tree. Sometimes it preys upon the 

 tender shoots, but generally attacks the leaf only. 

 The flour-like or mildew appearance is the excre- 

 ment^ of this bug. Touch the shoot on a cool, still 

 morning, and the bug will fall at your feet motion- 

 less ; touch it at noon, when warm, and it will fly 

 hke a gnat. I have caught multitudes in a short 

 time, on a cool morning, by holding a tin pan, with 

 a little water in it, under the shoots, and giving 

 them a slight jar. 



Apples ripened off unusually early, as the season 

 was uncommonly long, warm and dry : they sold 

 for about $5 per bushel. Plums have done well, 

 and are perfectly free from malady. Our pears are 

 not to be excelled in any of the four quarters of the 

 earth, for size, flavor and productiveness. Grapes 

 have come up to the work this season, even beyond 

 our most sanguine expectations. 



Horticulture is still onward here. Thousands of 

 fruit trees are coming out here this fall and winter, 

 and from present appearances we anticipate a fome 

 for Oregon, ere long, in the line of horticulture, 

 which, for her age and population, will be without 

 a parallel in the annals of the world. 



Eola, Polk Co., 0. f.. Pec, 1857. WM. RUBLE. 



* We shall at all times be glad to hear from our esteemed cor- 

 respondent. Occasional "Notes from Oregon" wUl be read wilk 

 interefct by ourselves and our readers. [«»«• 



