124 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



Sept. 



The Season and Fruits. 



D. W. Adams, Waukon, Aug. Otli, writes us, 

 " Drouth severe here through June and Ju- 

 ly, siuce then abuudaut raius and every 

 thing growing maguiflcently ; apples are 

 nearly equal in quantity to last year — my 

 own orchard 25 per ceut better. Fruit rather 

 small now but growing fast. Early Joe, 

 Harvey, Fameusc, Codlin, Oldenburg, Sops 

 of Wiue, Ben Davis aud Tallman sweet, very 

 full. Saxlon, Astrachan, Jewel's Red, Jona- 

 than, Roman Stem, moderate crop. Golden 

 Russett, Belleflower, "Winesap, Northern 

 Spy, etc., a failure. Cherries aud pears, a fail- 

 ure. Grapes growing beautifully but bunches 

 few and small, owing to imperfectly ripened 

 wood last fall." 



Lewis Ellsworth, Naperville, 111., Aug 8th, 

 writes: — "The drouth has and still is severe. 

 Fruit crop fair, especially apples. Cherries 

 not an average crop. All small fruits injured 

 by extreme heat and drouth of the season. 



I. Gould, Beaver Dam,]Wis., writes Aug., 



lOtli.--" The apple and pear crops short, plums 



a total failure except the wild oues; grapes a 



half crop; small fruits a fiiilure; spring wheat 



15 bushels to the acre, all No. 1. Potatoes 



nearly a failure by drouth and ^bug. Corn 



never better. Rye half crop. Buckwheat 



good. 



•-•-^ ■ 



For the Western Pomologist. 



Horticulture in Crawf.rd County. 



Friend Miller.— Little can be said hor- 

 ticulturally about this part of " Old Master's 

 Garden Patch." The very few beariug trees 

 in this county are iusufficieut to determine 

 from experience, whether raising the larger 

 fruits— such as the ajjple and pear, will prove 

 a success or otherwise. But one thing we do 

 know, and that is, without the trees we can- 

 not produce the fruit. I therefore say to all 

 — plant the trees and take care of them, aud ul- 

 timately some one will have tlie apple, if not 

 the pear. Trees planted last spring and pro- 

 perly taken care of have done well, notwith- 

 standing the drouth so severe in some parts 

 of the State. I advise my friends on the 

 " slope " to plant small trees, plant them deep, 

 and if you can make no better use of your 

 pruning knife, give it to some little boy, if 

 he does whittle your cherries. Better so 

 than to use it on your trees. If trees must 

 be pruned, do it with the thumb and finger, 

 or with the hand by pinching, or rubbing off 

 the surplus buds as they appear. 



Cherries do well here. Strawberries and 



goosberries, both native aud cultivated, have 



given good crops, notwithstanding tlie dry 



season. Newly planted grape vines have 



made but little growth, but older vines large 



enough to bear have fruited well. From 



what has been done so far with the small 



fruits about here, I think they will .succeed 



well. Apples have not been sufficiently 



tested to tell whether they will be a success. 



S. J. Comport. 

 Dennison, Crawford Co. 



For the Western Pomologist. 



Peregrinations. 



Friend Miller.— On a recent visit to 

 Council Blufl's, I of course did not fail to 

 observe closely the adaptability of that loca- 

 tioD, soil, climate, &c., to the successful 

 growth of fruits ; and hailing, as I did, from 

 one of the most successful fruit-growing re- 

 gions of the State, I must say that I was 

 paiucd to see the laxity manifested upon the 

 subject of fruit-growing about the Bluffs. 

 Indeed, most of the citizens have got the 

 idea that the standard fruits generally cannot 

 be grown there successfully, and conse- 

 quently have taken to planting the Russian 

 and Siberian Crabs quite largely, which I 

 regard as a very poor substitute for fruit. 



While a the Bluffs I visited the orchard of 

 Mr. Sylvester, containing about 50 trees, 

 most of which were about 20 years old, and 

 nothwithstaudingthe fact that this is general- 

 ly considered an unfruitful season at theWest^ 

 many of these trees were well loaded with 

 fair sized fruit, and nearly all had some fruit 

 on them, and t/iey were not crabs either. He 

 informed me that last year he sold a surplus 

 of 75 bushels of apples from bis orchard. 



While at the Bluffs, I was picked up by 

 Mr. J. W. Damon, aud taken out to his fruit 

 lot, which consists of six acres, on which 

 stands his house and out-buildings, occupy- 

 ing probably an acre or more, and the resi- 

 due of his ground was devoted to fruit and 

 vegetable culture. Mr. D. says he com- 

 menced there six years ago, aud from the 

 amount of stuff which he has on his lot, and 

 from the high state of cultivation in which I 

 found it, you may set him down as oue of 

 your practical men, who thoroughly under- 

 stands what he isdoing, for I found here just 

 as thrifty apple and pear trees as I have ever 

 found anywhere, and with a good showing of 

 fruit on the apple trees too. Aud I never 

 saw thriftier, healthier grape vines than here, 

 and this gentleman had a good supply of 

 them too, with a plentiful fruitage. He also 

 had strawberries, raspberries, and blackber- 

 ries in abundauce, aud of many kinds, but 

 cannot mention them all here. 



I said that Mr. Damon was a practical 

 man, and you will think so when I mention 

 that in oue season he sold from a small bed 

 of strawberries $400 worth of fruit, and this 

 bed did not exceed half an acre in extent, 

 and probably less ; and that the same season 

 he sold $900 worth of sweet potatoes from 

 another small plat of his ground. But I 

 mu.st forbear lest I be accused of "drawing 

 the longbow." 



I also visited the grounds of my fellow- 

 nurseryman, H. C. Raymond, but as you, Mr. 

 Editor, had just preceded me there, I will 

 not anticipate anything that you may have 

 to say about him. I will just remark, how- 

 ever, that while viewing his tasteful display 

 of flowers, &c., that I could not help thinking 

 " what a pity it is that he has no companion 

 to share the joys of this fine scenery ! " 

 Keosauqua, Iowa. Ira Philips. 



That's just what we told him. — [Ed. 



Reply to Mr. Suel Foster. 



It is our desire to make the Pomologist 

 a correct medium of thought, and to do so' 

 freely discuss the opinions and principles of 

 others in a spirit of candor and kindness. 



We cannot expect the various minds to 

 fully agree wheu placed under different cir- 

 cumstances, but when there is a desire to 

 impart aud receive information there is a 

 tendency to agree and be united. 



These few thoughts have been suggested 

 by the tone aud spirit of Mr. Foster's article 

 in August number of the Pomologist, in 

 reply to our article asking him to make a 

 correct quotation. 



He says, " I am a little surprised to find in 

 Jul3' No. of the Pomologist so severe a re- 

 buke for my cautioning people against de- 

 pending on seedlings for valuable varieties 

 of apples." 



Now, Mr. Foster, we do not like to be 

 under the necessity of correcting you again. 

 We do sincerely hope j-ou may be more 

 guarded and particular in what you say. In 

 our first article we did not even there re- 

 buke you for what you said about seedlings 

 in general, but what you said about the 

 Kansas Qiieen in particular ; and in the July 

 number we did refer to seedlings in connec- 

 tion with you but called your attention to 

 the misquotation. 



We consider it always more manly to 

 acknowledge an error than attempt to try 

 to justify ourselves in committing it. 



But Mr. Foster, not yet satisfied, asks us 

 presumptuously "who is tlie author" of the 

 following sentence: "The tree is so identical 

 in all of its habits with the Ben Davis which 

 is a sufficient guaranty of being hardy, pro- 

 ductive and profitable witliout further com- 

 ment from mo." Aud then says: "I can 

 find no name to father this sentence." " Is 

 it not reasonable for me to suppose he was 

 the author." " But what difference does it 

 make who the author was, it teas the subject 

 and not the author that I was upon." 



Now what does this all mean ? simply that 

 if he has not given the exact quotation 

 or author, he has given its substance and 

 («rrect meaning. We are the author of the 

 sentence aud believe we uuderstand its sub- 

 stance and nieauing, and had Mr. Foster 

 quoted it correctly we would not have had 

 anything to say ; but he now asks " what dif- 

 ference does it make ?" Can it be possible 

 that he cannot see any difl'erence after what 

 we said in the May number of the Pomol- 

 ogist which reads thus : " It is not our object 

 to prove that it was certainly a seedling from 

 the Ben Davis and therefore hardy, but we 

 compared the tree to that variety beaiuse it 

 appeared so nearly like it in all its habits, 

 health, vigor, hardiness, form, productiveness 

 and color; the Ben Davis tree boing a well 

 recognized standard of perfection." 



Is there no[lifferencc in the mianiiig of 



