1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



109 



paid much attention to this subject, says in the 

 " Western Reserve Magazine" for March, 1845 : 

 " Observation shows us that, with few exceptions, 

 the more elevated the locality the greater cer- 

 tainty there is of fruit crops. The peach tree 

 rarely fails on the high grounds in Burton, Man- 

 tua, Edenberg, Hartford, and Poland ; and well 

 cultivated orchards of the apple and pear trees 

 bear some fruit every year. On the low grounds 

 I in the same townships, the peach is not produc- 

 itive more than one year in four, perhaps not so 

 'often, and the apple and pear very uncertain." 

 Early autumn frosts are also very injurious in 



liOKlltULl URAL DErARlMEj\l. j young wood of trees, on low grounds, is usually 

 ^^ rank and soft, and unable to resist the effects of 



CONDUCTED BY P. BARRY. i p . . . u • » 11 



early frosts that come heaviest on such places. 

 j There are, however, in all parts of the country, 

 I a vast number of persons who can not choose for 

 The great interest felt at the present moment I their garden the most suitable situation. Pos- 

 in regard to the Garden Culture of Fruits, in'sessing, perhaps, but a small lot, from a 



The Fruit Garden. 



fourth 



cities and villages, as well as among the Agri- j of an acre to an acre ; selected, not from its 

 cultural population, induces us to offer a few ob- 1 adaptation to fruit culture or gardening, but on 

 servations of a practical nature, which must of [account of its convenience to their place of busi- 

 necessity be brief and imperfect, suggestive in ness ; they are compelled to do the best with it 

 some degree of the best mode of procedure, on I just as it is. What is to be done in such cases, 

 this subject. The main considerations are the i where the situation is unsuitable ? Why, art 



Situation, Aspect, Soil, Arrangement, Selection 

 of trees, and Planting. 



1. The Situation for a Fruit Garden should, 

 if possible, be on a sloping and somewhat eleva- 

 ted ground, as well to admit of thorough drain- 

 age as to avoid fogs and frosts that frequently 

 prove fatal in low places, unless they happen to 

 be on the margin of a lake, or river of consider- 

 able size. Situation is a matter of much less 

 importance in some latitudes and 

 country than in others ; for instance, here in 

 Western New York, in some ten or twelve 

 counties the fruit crop seldom suffers from frosts 

 even in the lowest situations. An observing 

 fruit grower says that, to the best of his knowl- 

 edge, there has not been a failure of the peach 

 crop, even, more than once in ten years on an 

 average, in a circuit of many miles from lake 

 Ontario. Where no danger is apprehended from 

 frosts the only evil to guard against, in low 



must provide what nature did not. Protection 

 must be given to the trees, both in spring and 

 autumn, on the approach of untimely frosts. — 

 This is easily done where the trees are trained 

 or kept low. Pear, plum, apple, cherry, &c., 

 may be grown in a dwarf or pyramidal form not 

 to exceed six feet in height. Apricots and oth- 

 ers may be trained on the walls or fences, or 

 trellises, and in all these forms trees are easily 

 sections' "of i pi'otected by having mats or other suitable cov- 

 ering ready to throw over them on the approach 

 of danger. And besides, such trees are more 

 appropriate and profitable for small gardens than 

 standard trees. 



2. Aspect. — There seems to be a very gene- 

 ral misapprehension of the effects of exposure 

 among inexperienced cultivators. The suppo- 

 sition being that the tender trees should have a 

 south aspect. Experience shows that this is 

 wrong ; the frequent freezing and thawing pro- 



places, is too much moisture, producing a cold, duced by such exposures being much more fatal 

 wet subsoil, on which none of the finer fruits i than the more uniform cold of even a northern 

 can be cultivated with success. In many parts aspect. A correspondent of the Horticulturist 

 of this State, however, as in some of the middle writes (January 21, 1848,) from Schenectady, 

 counties, such as Oneida, Herkimer, Otsego, [ that a nurseryman there informs him " that his 



plantation of pears which do not receive the sun 

 in winter till after mid-day have never been frost 

 bitten, while those which receive the morning 

 sun were much injured last winter as well as 

 this." In the colder portions of the country it is 

 better to avoid both a full no]-th and south aspect, 

 and the effect of high north and west winds should 

 be broken by trees or some other object. 



3. Soil, of all other things, is the most im- 

 Prof. KiRTiiAND, of Cleveland, Ohio, who has i portant, as depending on it are the health, fruit- 



and in Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, &c., 

 where late spring frosts are prevalent and fre- 

 quently destructive, low situations are complete- 

 ly unfit for fruit trees. Throughout Ohio, Mich- 

 igan, and most of the Western States, one of the 

 chief difficulties the fruit culturist has to contend 

 with is the late spring frosts ; and experience 

 has fully proved that the only way to avoid them 

 is to choose elevated sites for the trees. 



