Notes and Gleanings. 123 



To the Editors of " The American Journal of Horticulture." 



A Yankee Bov in Prairie- Land. — Permit me to give you a statement of 

 facts to illustrate what a Yankee boy can do in this great prairie State of the 

 West, when guided by a proper energy, determination, a sound judgment, and a 

 good share of horticultural knowledge. 



Mr. Moses Hammond, a citizen of Massachusetts, emigrated to and settled 

 in Hancock County, 111., in the year 1846, Industrious and frugal, and possessed 

 of only very moderate means, he educated his boys in the practice of his own 

 habits of economy and industry. His eldest, Asaph C, was, when he became 

 a denizen of the Sucker State, but sixteen years of age. He remained with his 

 father, assisting in the cultivation of a new prairie-farm, until 1855, when he 

 married, and commenced life for himself by settUng on a tract of a hundred and 

 thirty acres of rolling prairie-land in the neighborhood. On this he began to 

 build up for himself a home and a fortune by adopting a line of policy then, and 

 even now, but little practised by new beginners in the West. He planted an 

 orchard. 



It is not my purpose to follow him in his course of tree-planting for these 

 dozen years since, but rather, in a summary way, to give you and your readers an 

 idea of what he has accomplished, and the results. 



1. To begin with an orchard of six hundred apple-trees, planted in 1856 and 

 1857. This orchard, now eleven and twelve years transplanted, has been in 

 bearing for the past five or six years, and has now probably paid expenses of 

 cost and culture. Although many of the varieties are unprofitable, being more 

 or less unproductive, yet a large number of the trees are capable of producing 

 from five to eight bushels of fruit to the tree. Many of his selections in this 

 first orchard, owing to his inexperience, were unhappily made ; but subsequent 

 information and experience have enabled him in a great degree to rectify these 

 mistakes. His leading sorts, and those which have given the best satisfaction, 

 are, — for winter, '^tn Davis, Winesap, Rawle's Janet, Pryor's Red, Westfield 

 Seek-no-farther, Peck's Pleasant, Rome Beauty, Hubbardston Nonesuch, Ortley ; 

 for fall. Maiden's Blush, Fall Wine, and Snow (or Fameuse) ; for summer, 

 Red June, Benoni, Red Astrachan, Summer Queen, and American Summer 

 Pearmain. These are generally productive and valuable; and some of them are 

 superior to any other varieties for market-fruits. 



2. In 1861, he added another orchard of seven hundred apple-trees. These 

 are largely of the Ben Davis and Winesap varieties : some new sorts were 

 added, however ; among which is the greatly-extolled King of Tompkin's County. 

 This orchard has borne two or three partial crops ; and, as in the older one, the 

 Ben Davis takes the lead. 



3. In the spring of 1866, one thousand more apples were planted, — mostly 

 Ben Davis, Winesap, Jonathan, and Hubbardston Nonesuch. From this fact, 

 we may judge it is Mr. Hammond's experience that these four sorts are most 

 remunerative. 



So that, at the present writing, Mr. Hammond has an orchard, or rather three 

 different ones, containing twenty-three hundred apple-trees, and embracing 

 about ninety varieties. 



