6 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



and cold, wet weather at blooming time, as if all those con- 

 ditions did not prevail in the "Auld Lang Syne" as well as 

 now. Hear what Mr. S. F. Alberger, in a recent issue of the 

 Orange Judd Farmer, has to say about the conduct now of 

 some of these old-time apple trees : "The apple trees that 

 pay best now in Western New York are from sixty to one 

 hundred years old. I think it is because their branches sel- 

 dom intersect, and their roots run deep into the soil, and dur- 

 ing our customary dry fall weather, supply to the fruit buds 

 not only moisture, but the kind and quality of food neces- 

 sary to give them the vital power required to perfect the fer- 

 tilization of the flowers and the setting of the fruit the next 

 spring. I think the lack of vital force in the buds is one 

 great fault in our commercial orchards of to-day. In many 

 of these orchards, if the trees are dug up, it will frequently 

 be found that they have no tap-roots at all, but the roots 

 start out at almost right angles, and in some cases are 

 found, at fifteen to twenty feet from the trees, to be only six 

 inches or a foot below the surface. Some of these trees 

 showed decay at the center of the trunk ; in three cases, 

 where the trees had been grafted, it could be seen between 

 the layers of yearly growth from six to twelve years after 

 planting, but the trunks of a twenty-two-year-old seedling and 

 several seventy-five-year-old seedlings that were limb-grafted 

 do not indicate any decay. Does the insertion of the graft 

 or scion into the crown cause this delay ?" 



Verily,- Mr. Alberger is hitting very close to the truth, in 

 his diagnosis of the commercial orchards of the present day, 

 grown from large, fibrous and long-rooted trees. But to an- 

 swer the interrogatory of the New York Legislature more fully 

 as to this well-known decadence, let us go back to the time, 

 several hundred years ago, when there were no orchards in 

 America. When the Mayflower glided alongside of Ply- 

 mouth Rock, folded to rest her white wings, that for many a 

 long, weary day and night had breasted the Atlantic's gales, 

 and from her deck the Pilgrims stepped in search of new 

 homes, we know that they brought seeds, including fruits of 

 various kinds, and when settled, from time to time imported 



