THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



219 



Oharcoal on old Oeohaed Land. — 0. "W., of 

 Fairfax Co., Va., writes: "In a back number of 

 the Farmer I noticed a statement that apples did 

 not do well on the old lands in Connecticut. Char- 

 coal will supply that which old land fails to furnish 

 the trees with, while at the same time it acts as a 

 total exterminator of the grub. They cannot work 

 among it." 



Grafting "Wax. — J. P, Cosct^, Wis., sends us the 

 following recipe for making grafting wax that will 

 not melt or crack : Take one pound tallow, two 

 pounds beeswax, and four pounds rosin ; melt to- 

 gether; pour into cold water, and when cold 

 enough to handle pull it till white. Put on cold. 



EXTEACTS FEOM AN ESSAY ON "FRUIT CULTUEE 

 IN THE OHIO VALLEY." 



The author treats his subject under several heads, 

 ;h9 first of which is the 



BT W. D. GALLAGHER. 



Awarded a Premium by the Kentucky State Ag. Society. 



COMMERCIAL FEATURE. 



" Will fruit growing in the Ohio Valley answer 

 he economical test, and ' pay V " 



To prove the affirmative of this question, the 

 scarcity and insufficient supply of fruits throughout 

 ill the West, North-West and South-West, is alluded 

 as showing the demand for such produce. 



" Why is it that, with the genial climate, the ap- 

 'fopriate soils, and the favorable topographical fea- 

 iures, of the extensive region watered by the Ohio 

 jiver and its tributaries, labor enough is not found 

 ngaged in horticultural pursuits to supply fruit 

 qual to the demands of the labor engaged in other 

 ursuits ? Can it be tliat the extent of this demand 

 t not understood? Not if people who live in the 

 ountry and own farms read the papers, or attend 

 )arket with their eyes and ears open. Can it be 

 hat young trees are not to be had at reasonable 

 rices, or not at all ? Until very recently, it is true, 

 liero were not nurseries enough in the West to 

 ariiish fruit trees equal in kinds and quality to the 

 ^ants of the people ; but for many years large 

 astern nurseries have had their agents in this part 

 f the country every season, with descriptive cata- 

 Dgues in hand, not only giving our people an oppor- 

 imity to buy, but fairly begging tiiem to do so. 

 )au it be because orchards, early established in 

 his region, have proved to be unproductive in fruit, 

 r unprofitable in money ? The contrary, in refer- 

 nce to each point, is notoriously true. What, 

 hen, is the reason that we have such an insufficient 

 upply of fruit, and that so much of what we do 

 ave is indifferently good or positively bad ? 



" Two answers, we suppose, may be given to this 

 uestion, both of which are correct, and either of 

 rhicli is sufficient to account for the scarcity and 

 aferiority complained of. The first is, that -the 

 reat mass of the rural population of the West is 

 omposed of persons in very moderate circumstances 



pecuniarily, who require quick returns for their 

 labor, and can therefore better afford to accept at 

 once the small profits yielded by wheat, corn, to- 

 bacco, hemp, and other field crops, than to await 

 the larger profits of orchards and fruit gardens, 

 which can be realized only after years of labor, 

 care, and patient waiting. The other is, that fruit 

 culture, to be successful, requires knowledge of va- 

 rieties of fruits, acquaintance with the differing 

 habits of trees, skill in planting, cultivating, and 

 training, and great care in gathering, keepmg, and 

 marketing. 



"At the present period, however, the rural pop- 

 ulation of the West is in comparatively easy cir- 

 cumstances, and in its ranks numbers many persons 

 well skilled in the minutiae of horticultural pursuits. 

 It would, therefore, seem Ihat the scarcity of fruits 

 which still prevails among us is without any suffi- 

 cient or satisfactory cause ; and hence we deem it 

 the part of wisdom, and a matter of duty, to urge 

 upon our agricultural friends, one and all, the sys- 

 tematic devotion of a reasonable portion of their 

 time, labor and lands, to the careful cultivation of 

 fruits." 



"Examples of very great success in this business, 

 in the United States, are by no means rare. Four 

 or five years ago, a peach orchardist in Ohio was 

 offered $18,000 for the fruit on twenty acres of 

 peach trees, while it was yet growing, and more 

 than a month before the period at which the earli- 

 est part of it would ripen. He declined the propo- 

 sition, and realized about $20,000 from the same 

 fruit by gathering and selling it to consumers him- 

 self. This, however, was a most extraordinary 

 instance of a good combination of circumstances, 

 viz: fine fruit, a ready market, and high prices. 

 It is one of those happy accidents which occur 

 only once in a very long while. And besides, four 

 or five years of labor and care had preceded this 

 crop, which was the first borne upon the trees. 



" Some vineyards near Cincinnati have, in favor- 

 able seasons, produced nearly'$l,000 per acre; but 

 a much more common yield, one year with another, 

 is about $250." 



"In Washington County, Ohio, snug little for- 

 tunes have been made by raising one single kind of 

 apple and shipping it South-West for the supply of 

 New Orleans. Strawberry growers near Philadel- 

 phia have often pocketed $200 to $300 per acre for 

 that delicious fruit. And a plantation of three 

 acres in raspberries on the Hudson river is stated 

 to have yielded as high as $1,500 in a single year. 



" But it can not be necessary to multiply such 

 examples. Nor, on the other hand, is it altogether 

 safe to take examples like these as a guide, and base 

 operations upon them. A good knowledge of the 

 character and habits of trees and plants, as well as 

 experience and skill in their treatment at the outset, 

 and subsequent management, is necessary to the 

 attainment of results such as we have enumerated. 

 No tyro in Horticulture can do these things. Any 

 ordinarily intelligent and observing cultivator, how- 

 ever, who would go diligently and economically to 

 work — availing himself of all sources of information 

 and aiming to keep fully up with the times — might 

 reasonably count upon attaining half the sums we 

 have mentioned ; and the immense diff"erence which 

 even that would make in his yearly receipts com- 

 pared with what his tobacco, and corn, and briar 



