lO 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



Jan. 



Seedling Fniits— the Apple. 



Shall wc increase the varieties of our al- 

 ready large list of apples? It is well uiuler- 

 stood tliat our new varieties of fruits arc 

 produced from the seed j that new varieties 

 of the strawberry, grape, and indeed nearly 

 all of the small fruits are increased indefin-- 

 jtely, and, why should not the apple, the 

 fruit of all fruits, receive a larger share of 

 attention and cxi)crimeut. We are fully 

 aware that objections of no small difficulty 

 meet us at the very start, — the innumerable 

 failures that must inevitably occur to secure 

 our success, the long time necessarily re^ 

 quired to get an apple tree into bearing, &c. 



Now, on tlie first point, let those whose 

 business it is to raise seedling stock for grafts 

 ing, go carefully through their whole stock, 

 and select some of the most promising specie 

 mens, one in an hundred, or one in a tlious^ 

 and. Transplant these and put them under 

 careful cultivation. Would each nurseryman 

 and seedling stock grower in the country, 

 select a half dozen or more trees, out of sev- 

 eral hundreds of trees thus selected, there 

 may percliauce be one or more which will 

 prove wortliy of a pliice among our Ijest ap- 

 ples. Those which fail to produce fruit wor- 

 thy of propagation can of course be top 

 grafted, and thereby not lost to the experi- 

 menter. Let tliose engaged in fruit grow- 

 ing feel that he who adds one good variety 

 of tlie apple to the list, places himself on the 

 catalogue <jf benefactors of his race and de- 

 serves to be made a saint in the calander of 

 the Goddess of fruit. 



Should the seeds be taken from some of 

 the clioieest varieties already in existence, 

 we think the chances of securing an im- 

 provement will be greatly increased. Tlie 

 practiced eye of the intelligent nurseryman 

 will rarely fail, in looking through his thous- 

 ands of seedlings, in detecting one or more 

 plants possessing some peculiarity of leaf, 

 bark, or some other characteristic. Why 

 may not the next ten years add largely to 

 our present stock of valuable apples? And, 

 wli}^ may not the great West, as in many 

 other grand enterprises of tlie day, .share the 

 eliiefhoaor in this great and important work 

 of public beuefic-'uce? 



Utah Currants. 

 Both seeds and plants of these currants 

 have been repeatedly sent to the Depart- 

 ment during the past six years. They ap- 

 pear to be varieties of liibtis aureum, and 

 although the fruit of several of tliem is 

 large, of fine appearance, and of a variety of 

 colors, from light yellow to black, yet it has 

 large seeds and but little pulp, and will not 

 probably be cultivated where the improved 

 varieties of the red currant (Ribus rvbrum) 

 can be procured. It is said that fine jellies 

 have been prepared from these fruits, form- 

 ing a good substitute for that produced by the 

 red and the white currant of the gardens. 

 Many of tliese Utah sort-: jjiroduee as large 

 fruit as the ehc^rry currant, lint of no dis- 

 tinctive flavor. — ittj^art of Superintendtnt of 

 the Experimental Garden itnd Grmmds. 



"■We oan't Raise Fruit in Iowa." 



Such has been the stereotype remark for 

 twenty-five years. We heard it on first en- 

 tering the State, and a new edition, enlarged 

 and improved, has been issued with each suc- 

 ceeding year. Surely, there must be some 

 cause for such a statement current a^ this. 

 Men came to the State in its early history and 

 inclosed all of their tillable land in one in- 

 elosure, more frequently, perhaps, joining 

 one or more neighbors to save time and 

 fencing material, and inclosed their farms 

 together. Zealous to get an orchard, they 

 bought fifty or one hundred trees, set them 

 out, planted their corn, and let the trees 

 stand their chance with the crop. Then 

 autuuni and winter came. They, or one of 

 the neiglibors must winter their stock in the 

 stalk field, as in the hurry of a new 

 country they fiiiled to get hay. But then, 

 the cattle probably will not molest the trees, 

 and it must be risked at any rate. The re- 

 sult is, in the spring not a single tree is left, 

 and of course "you can't raise apples in 

 Iowa." Others have been in the country 

 for a score of years, and have never set out 

 a shade or fruit tree, because they have 

 " liearn" that fruit would not grow in Iowa. 

 But they had a splendid orchard where they 

 used to live, and have almost conluded to go 

 back where they can raise fruit. Now, the 

 fact is, with this class of men, tliey never 

 planted a tree anyiohere. And if it had not 

 been fur other than their class, there never 

 would have been fruit raised in New Eng- 

 land, New York, Ohio, or any other State. 

 Somebody must set out, watch over and pro- 

 tect young trees, or you can never raise 

 fruit anywhere. 



Now opposed to this notion, we claim, 

 not only can we raise fruit in Iowa and the 

 contiguous Western States, but that we can 

 do it better and more of it than in any other 

 section of the country. There are noble 

 pioneers who have planted, and waited the 

 necessary time, have cared for their trees, 

 have wiitched the adaptation of our climate 

 to difl'erent varieties, have learned, some- 

 times by costly experience it is true, what to 

 adopt and what to reject, and we are now 

 reaping a golden harvest in sonic of the 

 finest orchards and vineyards, and with spec- 

 imen fruits that challenge, and carry off the 

 premiums as the finest in the pomological 

 exhibitions in the country and tlie world. 



The history and experience of these noble 

 men is within our reach, and it shall be the 

 work of the " Western Pomoloyist " to gather 

 up and spread before its readers such facts 

 and statistics as shall eradicate from the 

 western States, the odium cast upon them, 

 and place them where they in truth belong, 

 in the very van of the fruit-growing States 

 of the country. 



To this end we a.sk the assistance of ama- 

 teur fruit-growers. Tell us your expe- 

 rience. Tell us the ago and varieties of your 

 trees. At what age from the setting your 

 varieties began to bear, and what amount 



your trees are producing now. What pro- 

 portion of your trees have died, and from 

 what causes. In short, everything that has 

 interested you in your noble work. And 

 that is just what will interest and prove val- 

 uable to those just entering upon the busi- 

 ness. 



We mean to make the columns of the 

 PoMOLOGiST teem with facts and figures, 

 showing how winiderfully our soil and cli- 

 mate aid the Western fruit-grower. Let us 

 hear from every part of the Western States. 



The Kind of Trees to Plant. 

 Here is a bit of common sense and true 

 philosophy that every man about to plant 

 a tree should read and remember. And here 

 we shall put in a word about the roots of 

 trees dug for transplanting ; and that is, we 

 would rather have the principal roots of a 

 good healthj' apple tree cut to within six or 

 eight inches of the crown, than to have them 

 left longer. If the tree be rightly trans- 

 planted, new roots will be pushed out ciuicker 

 and more vigorously, than if left twelve 

 to fifteen inches in length. It is from the 

 new roots that strike out from the terminous 

 of the old ones, that determines the future 

 of the tree, rather than the latterals, which 

 at best never amount to much on the old 

 roots. The extract alluded to is cut from 

 the catalogues of Messrs Hargis & Summers 

 of Quimy, Illinois. 



" Many persons think if thej' select an old 

 tree tliey must have fruit much sooner than 

 by selecting a young (me. Every _year the 

 filu'ous roots, (the life of the tree,) grow 

 fartlicr and father from the stem, and conse- 

 i|Uently, in digging a tree four or five years 

 old unless more pains is takcii th;i.n the tree 

 is worth, you have naked rods for roots, 

 from twelve to eighteen inches lo)ig, which 

 may throw out fibrous roots before the tree 

 can grow, and unless the top is,severely cut 

 back, no gmwth will be made the first sea- 

 son ; whereas by selecting a 3'oung, vigorous 

 tree, a mass of flue roots is found at or near 

 the stem, ready, as soon as trans] ilanted, to 

 take hold of the soil and connnencc feeding 

 the top. Good, thrifty tw<i and three year 

 old trees will give the best returns; two in 

 jireference to four, and one in preference to 

 five year old trees, unless more than ordin- 

 ary care is bestowed upon them. 



Pl.\steii for the Cuucdwo. — A corres- 

 pondent of the Western Rural .saved his 

 plums from the curculio for three years by 

 the use of plaster. His process consists of 

 dusting the trees with plaster while the 

 leaves and fruit are wet with dew. The 

 ]ilum should be entirely coated with plaster 

 from the time they begin to set until they 

 have outgrown danger from the curculio, 

 Use about two quarts of very dry plaster on 

 each tree, dusting it on from under the tree 

 as well as from both sides. When the plas- 

 ter is washed oft" by rain it .should be re- 

 newed, as the curculio is very iiersevering 

 and searches for a suitable place to deposit 

 its eggs. 



— The tillers of the .soil are the only peo- 

 ple wlio have a solid foundation in business, 

 althoiigli they may not alwa3's make the 

 largest profit on their labor. 



