372 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAY 84, 1> 



For the N. E. Farmer. 



APPLES IN ILLINOIS. 



Mr Putnam — Dear Sir — I have read witli niiicTi 

 interest the "Report on Orchards," signed " E. 

 Phinney," in the N. E. Farmer, of 22d March, and 

 heartily subscribe to many of tlie practical and 

 very iisefulTemarks which it contains. I am per- 

 suaded that an orchard slionld be cultivated with 

 as much care as a field of corn, and that no weed 

 should be allowed to show its head within six or 

 eight feet of a. tree. I felt a little chafed, liowev- 

 er, at what I considered an unfounded slur upon 

 all orchards which happen to be situated elsewhere 

 than under the palmy latitudes of "41 and 43 de- 

 grees north." Your townsman, Benjamin Willis, 

 Esq., favored lis with his company last night, and 

 this morning looked at my young orchard, which 

 was planted on the 23d of April, 1836. He will 

 probably hand you this letter, and I shall request 

 him to describe to you the general appearance of 

 my orchard, and the appearance and flavor of its 

 fruit. Our latitude is 36° 40', and we flatter our- 

 selves that we can show apples which are not sur- 

 passed by those of any other region for size, beau- 

 ty, flavor, and durability. Our apples not only 

 keep, but preserve their juice and relish until July, 

 when the earlier kinds begin to ripen. 



I think that this part of Illinois, certainly, if not 

 the whole State, may be called "the land of the 

 ripple." To illustrate this assertion, I bog to state 

 that more than twenty ycnrs since, I visited a far- 

 mer then living a few miles below Alton, upon the 

 Mississippi, who led me through a large and thrifty 

 orchard. I tasted of the fruit from a great num- 

 ber and variety of trees, all of a good size, fair lo 

 the eye, and fine flavored— much of it vcn/ fine, 

 and none indifll'rent. After returning to the house, 

 I asked where he had been able to seiect so fine a 

 variety of choice fruit. He replied Vliat his trees 

 were all seedlings ! There was not a grafted 

 stock in his orchard. Probably the only serious 

 objection to his fruit was, that it was too early ; 

 the greater portion being fall fruit. 



My orchard, as I have already stated, was plant- 

 ed in 183)5. Many of the trees commenced bear- 

 ing in 1841, and our most experienced orchardists 

 agree in the statement, that a well cultivated tree 

 will commence bearing in this less favored latitude, 

 in six years. My thriftiest young trees have now 

 a diameter of more than 21 inches, and bore from 

 two to three bushels to the tree of superb fruit last 

 year, which preserves its beauty, firmness and fla- 

 vor, without the slightest deterioration or blemish. 

 Two of my neighbors are in the habil of shipping 

 apples to New Orleans, and they inform me that 

 their apples command a better price than any oth- 

 ers in that market, and that they are frequently 

 purchased there with the intention of shipping to 

 Mexican ports, or to the island of Cuba. 



One of my neighbors i.s a veteran orcliardist, if 

 not the veteran orcliardist of the State. He culti- 

 vates nearly fifteen humlred apple trees, and tells 

 me that he has a few trees in his orchard which 

 give him more than ten dollars a year each, net 

 profit, from the sale of the fruit. Ho cultivates a 

 nursery, and has adopted a mode of grafting which 

 is much more economical and t'xpcditiou.'=, and per- 

 haps no less successful, than any which prevails in 

 the Eastern States. I would describe his method, 

 but if you arc not too wise to be instructed, we 

 are too modest to think of attempting to instruct 

 our eastern progenitors. 



Having witnessed the slow growth and the crab- 

 bed propensities of the apple in latitude "41 and 

 43," when compared with the most indificrent fruit 

 of tliis latitude, it seemed but an ordinary tribute 

 to justice, that I should attempt to correct what I 

 conceive to be a decided misapiirehension relative 

 to the culture of the apple, so far as our beautiful 

 climate is concerned. 



Very respectfully, 



WILLIAM S. WAIT. 



P. S. — Our much lamented friend, Mr Fessen- 

 dcn, published in the N. E. Farmer, some years 

 before his death, an accnunt of seasons remarkable 

 for the degree of cold exhibited. If you could 

 readily turn to that account, some notice of it at 

 this time would no doubt be quite interesting to 

 your readers. 1 subjoin the range of the thermome- 

 ter in this climate for the month of March, during 

 the last three years : 



Mean temperature of March, 1841, - 40' 



1842, - 52° 



" " " 1843, - 24° 



Greatest dog. cold of March, 1841, - 10' 



1842, - 24° 



" 1843, . 0° 



82'^ 



Greatest dcg. heat of March, 1841, 

 1842, 

 184.3, - 48° 

 We have little ice or snow in this latitude at 

 any time, but the opening of spring this year, is 

 not less than six weeks later than u=ual. 

 Greenville, Bond Co., Hi, J}pril 17, 1843. 



Oy^The remark of our corro.spondent that his 

 trees of seven years, are 21 inches in diameter, we 

 think must have been a slip of the pen. He 

 meant, we presume, circumference. If such bo not 

 his meaning, we may think the trees fruitful for 

 their t/ears, but not so for their size, if they bear 

 two or three bushels apiece. 



Our wisdom here at the East, is not so great but 

 that we need to learn more — and the modesty of 

 our western friends, will not, we hope, deter them 

 from instructing us. 



That method of grafting, we trust, will be de- 

 scribed to us. 



We are very happy to loarn that the dwellers in 

 latitude 38° 40' have so good an apple climate, 

 and are pleased to see one of them so well nttost 

 the merits of the skies that bend over him. We 

 take his word for the excellence of Illinois apples, 

 but at the same time, we shall hold our opinion 

 that Massachusetts apples are No. 1, until we get 

 a tasle of those that grow out West. Our corres- 

 pondent may bo sure that any thing more that he 

 may wish to say upon this or any other subject, 

 will be welcome Ed. N. E. F. 



The Crops. — Tlie Germantown (Pa.) Telegraph, 

 of a late date, says : "Notwithstanding the back- 

 wardness of the season, we received on the first of 

 May, several stalks of rye handsomely in head. 

 One of them was full three feet in height. The 

 fields from which these were taken, promise very 

 fine crops ; and we learn that the grain generally, 

 wheat and rye, looks quite encouraging. The 

 grass, too, within the last week, has sprung up 

 amazingly, and with mild weather the present 

 month, will yield abundantly." 



Never promise what you have not the means and 

 the intention to perform. 



THE FARM HOUSE OF THE XIXth CEN- 

 TURY. 



This is the title of a French work upon agricul- 

 ture, by M. T. Bailey — translated by Eiizur Wright, 

 Jr. : published in parts by S. P. Haskell, New York : 

 1842. 



A friend has kindly loaned us the first No. of 

 this work, containing 48 pages. We have turned 

 over its leaves, and have inferred that it will be a 

 valuable work in the library of every farmer who 

 has time and" ability to read extensively and re- 

 flectingly. We hope the translator will receive 

 sufficient encouragement to enable him to go on 

 and finish a work which he has well begun. The 

 following extract may serve as a specimen of the 

 work, and perhaps contain some suggestions which 

 may be found useful upon some cold evening or 

 morning: 



" Of Cooling and Congelation. 



" It is known that during a calm and clear night, 

 the bodies upon the surface of the earth, become 

 colder than the atmosphere, becauee in the ex- 

 change of caloric which goes on between^ them 

 and the sky by radiation, they emit more than they 

 receive. Certain bodies that are bad conductors 

 of heat, particularly, possess this property of emia- 

 sion. Such are the herbaceous parts of vegeta- 

 bles. So the vapor of water, which is dilVcised 

 through the atmosphere, is condensed upon their 

 surfaces, and forms, according to the season, the 

 dew or the hoar-frost 



The dew exerts only a favorable influence upon 

 vegetation. The hoar-frost is the more to be fear- 

 ed, because it is ordinarily struck by the rays of 

 the sun, and in rapidly meetmg, must take from 

 the parts of the plant with which it is in contact, 

 so much heat as seriously to injure the organiza- 

 tion. 



By a remarkable exception from the ordinary 

 laws of nature, water in passing into a solid state, 

 sensibly increases its volume. Its expansive force 

 is such in this state, that it can raise masses of 

 rock and burst metals. Hence when the cold sur- 

 prises vegetables in the sap, the latter dilating, 

 while the vessels that contain it diminish in diame- 

 ter, by congelation, there necessarily result dama- 

 ges, always serious and sometimes mortal. 



This fact serves to explain in a general manner, 

 why the plants the most sensible to frost, arc those 

 whose vegetation, as in warm countries, is con- 

 stantly active, and why those of our climate dread 

 the alternating of sudden frosts and thaws, much 

 more than they do gradual and durable freezing, 

 although it may be much more severe. 



The effects of these sudden frosts seem to be 

 the more fatal because the sun immediately strikes 

 the parts seized by them. Whether this is owing 

 to the considerable cooling produced by evapora- 

 tion, which can scarcely be admitted except when 

 the surface of the vegetable is covered with ice, 

 or to the difl'erent temperature of the part.s which 

 are or are not exposed to the calorific rays, the 

 fact is affirmed, and gardeners frequently |)rofit 

 by their knowledge of it, in saving' their plants. 

 When the plants are in pot, they take them into 

 closer places some moments before the sun op- 

 pears. Deprived for twcntyfour hours of the great 

 light and heat of day, they thaw gradually, equally, 

 and rarely experience the injury they would have 

 felt in the open air. If they are in the earth, they 

 endeavor to shade them, and cover their stems 

 with straw. 



J 



