No. 4. Age of Apple Trees — Do Natural Trees outlive Grafted? 107 



with which we have put in this flill, the en- 

 tire field of wheat containing- about 40 acres. 

 Respectfully, 



Charles Noble. 

 Philadelphia, Tenth mo., 184-1. 



P. S. The acre yielding 40 bushels of 

 wheat, it will be seen I have not compared 

 with the broadcast, in their per centage 

 yield, because of their distance apart, sup- 

 posing that the difl'erence of yield might 

 have been owi'.ig to some difference in soil. 



Age of App!e-tiees— Do natural trees 

 outlive the Grafted ? 



K Long Island Farmer \\r\t"s the fdllnwiiig to the 

 New York Observer: it is not there only, but through 

 the conntry generally, that tho lingering of the large 

 old apple trees can be reinombered. These were, per- 

 haps, all raised from the seed, and show that while we 

 improve our fruit by the grafting, we pay for the lux- 

 ury in the frequency with which we must renew our 

 orchards. The editor well remembers the cutting 

 down in his own orchard, from year to year, of strag- 

 gling trees which towered up above the more recent 

 ones that surrounded them, and which were doubtless 

 from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five 

 years old. The remedy which is frequently urged, 

 will, we trust, not be neglected. There is no question 

 we must keep up our stock of good fruit by obtaining 

 it from seedlings. — Ed. 



"Apple trees live to a great age. There 

 is a tree on Peak's Island, in Portland har- 

 bour, that has been known to bear fruit 

 every season, for more than a hundred 

 years." 



The above paragraph was in your sum- 

 mary of last week ; and as I observe you 

 have a small agricultural department in 

 your papei, I take the liberty of submitting 

 a few remarks suggested by the above ex- 

 tract. 



The fact stated is unquestionable. I can 

 well remember when it was a common thing 

 to see apple trees not only of vast age, but 

 of immense stature. When I was but a 

 child, I can distinctly recollect the remains 

 of an orchard, on my father's farm, the prin- 

 cipal part of which the British had cut down 

 for fuel. Eight or ten trees only remained, 

 a venerable cluster in one corner of the field. 

 Almost every tree was not far from two feet 

 in diameter, and in form more like the lofty 

 and wide-spread oak, than our present apple 

 trees. Some of them were from forty to 

 fifty feet high, and of proportional breadth. 

 I can well recollect, also, tlie gradual decay 

 of these early tenants of the virgin soil, and 

 the remarkable tenacity with which they 

 cling to life. As one large limb after an- 

 other decayed and fell, new and vigorous 

 young shoots would spring forth and grow 



with astonishing rapidity. I recollect one 

 tree in particular, whose limbs had all de- 

 cayed and fell off, one after another, till no- 

 thing but a liollow trunk, reduced to a per- 

 fect .sliell, about eight feet high remained. 

 And yet this apparently lifeless cylinder 

 sent forth strong shoots near its top, which 

 grew and bore fruit for many years. And 

 it is now but a few years since the last re- 

 mains of this ancient orchard were eradi- 

 cated from the soi]. 



What rendered the longevity of these 

 venerable trees more striking was, that on 

 this same farm there was anotlier orchard 

 of len acres, tiiat had been set out with 

 ffreat care, only a few years before the 

 revolutionary war, and was then too small 

 to tempt the depredations of the enemy, and 

 these trees long ago put on the appearance 

 of premature old age ; and now scarcely a 

 solitary tree remains to remind one that the 

 ground was once an orchard. In fact, it is 

 many years since it lost that name. This 

 orchard, I may add, had been grafted with 

 great care, with a choice variety of fruit, 

 and when I first knew it, was flourishing 

 and productive. 



1 have stated these facts with some par- 

 ticularity, for the sake of suggesting some 

 inquiries, as the following: 



Is it common, now-a-days, to meet with 

 very large and aged apple trees, except 

 where they were set out on the virgin soil 

 of the country] And if not, as I suspect 

 will be found to be the fact, to what cause 

 is the decay of our later planted orchards to 

 be ascribed! We know, by sad experience, 

 that many other kinds of trees, which once 

 grew, in all these regions, almost spontane- 

 ously, and bore t>uit abundantly, as the 

 peach and plum, for instance, now require 

 to be cultivated with the greatest care, and 

 even then are exceedingly short lived. Many 

 a time, when I was a boy, have I, after eat- 

 ing a fine peach, said to my companions, I 

 will now plant this stone, and if my life is 

 spared, in three years I will eat of its fruit; 

 and as often have I realized the fulfilment 

 of the prediction. In those days, our hedges 

 were loaded with peaches, which, from their 

 mere abundance, the very hogs disdained to 

 eat, except to crack the stone and eat the 

 pit! This fiict I have witnessed with my 

 own eyes. Why then has it become_ eo 

 difficult to raise peaches'? Is it to be im- 

 puted to any change in the climate? or to 

 the exhaustion of some particular property 

 of the soil? And does not the same cause 

 operate on our apple orchards'? 

 1 But there is another inquiry wlich I wish 

 to submit. Are not all these larg,' and aged 

 I apple trees the production of th: natural 



