October 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



IS9 



growth of the youug forrests which have 

 sprung up since the cessatiou of fires on our 

 prairies. This is umloubtcdly the case iu 

 all our prairie States notwithstanding thou" 

 sanils of acres are annually cut down for fuel 

 or cleared off for cultivation. Now to cut 

 down a young forrcst that yields 5 or 10 cords 

 of wood per acre which if let alone 

 a few years hunger would yield 20 or 30, i^ 

 manifestly a waste, and clear oft' the youug 

 growth from a piece of poor laud, when the 

 annual growth of timber would be worth 

 double the value of any crop that will grow 

 on it, is still more clearly a waste. Yet I 

 have in my mind a talented horticulturast 

 and ex-ofScer of one of the largest western 

 Horlioultural Societies who went directly 

 home from a Horticultural meeting where 

 tree planting had formed a principal topic of 

 discussion, and who had voted for State aid 

 to tree planters, and cut down a btautifu 

 natural copse of youug forest trees and 

 shrubs, to restore which, with as fine laud- 

 scape effect, would defy the skill of the best 

 artist iu that line, and would take at least 20 

 years of time. And what is worse, this man 

 professing a strong love and taste for trees 

 is replacing his grounds with costly ever- 

 greens and other nursery trees, in the hide- 

 ous, medieval, geometric style so common in 

 this country. 



Such acts are really crimes against civili- 

 zation, disfiguring the country and impov- 

 erishing the State. And yet this practice is 

 just the thing to put money in the pockets 

 of the nurserymen. 



Having touched upon the subject of plant- 

 ing and preserving trees for landscape effect, 

 and the hideous errors encouraged by the 

 trade,' I should like at some future time, to 

 offer some suggestions on the same, but as 

 these notes are already too extended I for- 

 bear for the present. 



C. Andrews. 



Marengo Ilk., Aug. 20, 1870. 



A Florida Apple Orchard. 



We visited, recently, the apple orchard of 

 Mr. John J. Colson, on his plantation, about 

 two and a half miles from town, in company 

 with Mr. James Colson, his son, to whom, 

 father and son, we are indebted to a pleasant 

 passing away of a couple of hours. 



The orchard presents 216 trees, planted 

 Feb, 1st, 1861, on a light, sandy soil, the trees 

 twenty-one feet apart. The planting of ordi- 

 nary seed, and the usual grafting process 

 with three years constant manuring, com- 

 prise the whole of the labor done. The grafts 

 had fruit in the third year of growth, and 

 the trees are now thrifty looking, perfectly 

 healthy, averaging twelve to fifteen feet in 

 hei'^ht, and full of fruit. Because the trees 

 bore so full, the apples this yvwr are not so 

 large as usual. The varieties known as the 

 June apple and the Horse apple. They have 

 a flue taste, rather too good for the eater to 



prefer any others while eating them. Yet, 

 in this respect, they are not so juicy as the 

 more Northern apples. They sell from ten 

 to eighteen dollars per barrel in Jacksonville 

 and Savannah. Mr. Colson thinks that about 

 a barrel could have been gathered from each 

 tree, but for the extensive raiding that has 

 been going on. The trees bear until frost, 

 from an early day iu June. Only one tree 

 of the whole number planted has died, and 

 the orchard has received little or no attention 

 until recently. The average size of the fruit 

 is not quite as large as an ordinary fist. They 

 have not been molested by any insect. These 

 trees have had fruit erery year after the 

 third year after grafting. 



The trouble and labor in having a vigorous 

 and remunerative orchard is so insignificant 

 that it seems almost a mystery that ihere is 

 not one on every farm in Gadsden county. 

 "Why, the dumplings that the farmer would 

 have, are worth all the labor. Gadsden 

 county apple dumplings may become fimous 

 in days to come ! We say nothing of "a little 

 more cider" — that's too tempting — but we 

 ask every sensible farmer to figure out the 

 profits of twenty barrels of apples at ten 

 dollars per barrel, and see if the sum would 

 not bo a very acceptable Christmas present 

 of pin monev to the worthy dame of the 

 iKUisehold. 



We hope Mr. Colson will furnish the Ag- 

 ricultural Association with a paper, giving 

 the full details of his success in raising 

 apples.— (Jmncy (Fla.) Journal. 



Commercial Value of Insects. 



Commerce brings into the market almost 

 everything that has a being in the water, on 

 the earth, and in the air, from the whale that 

 spouts and foams iu the great deep, to the 

 smallest insect that exists in the land. The 

 importance of insects to commerce is scarcely 

 ever treated of. Great Britain does not pay 

 less than a million of dollars annually for the 

 dried carcasses of a tiny insect, the cochineal. 

 Gum shellac, another insect product from 

 India, is of scarcely less pecuniary value. 



A million and a half of human beings 

 derive their sole support from the culture 

 and manufacture of silk, and the silk-worm 

 alone creates an annual circulating medium 

 of between one hundred and fifty and two 

 hundred millions of dollars. Half a million 

 of dollars is annually spent in England for 

 foreign honey ; ten thousand hundred weight 

 of wax is imported into that county each 

 year. Then there are the gall-nuts of com- 

 merce, used for dyeing, and in the manufac. 

 ture of ink, etc., while the cantharides, or 

 Spanish fly, is an important insect to the 

 medical practitioner. In this way we .see 

 the importance of certain classes of the 

 insect race, while in another view, the rest 

 clear the air of noxious vapors, and are sev- 

 erally designed by nature for useful purposes 

 though we, iu our blindness, may not under- 

 stand them. Ex. 



Keeping Grapes Under Ground. 



Many years ago while in the nursery busi- 

 ness, a customer wanted some vines of me 

 and while they were being dug up he asked 

 me if I had kept any grapes over winter. Thig 

 was in March. Of course he got a negative 

 reply. Well, said he, when I come next 

 week for trees I will bring you some along. 

 The thing seemed but a joke at the time, but 

 of course I thanked him for the offer. True 

 to his promise, when ho came a week or ten 

 days thereafter, he brought me some. Not 

 a few berries as might have been expected, 

 but at least five pounds. They were Isabel- 

 las and Catawbas, perfectly plump, sweet 

 and fresh, although most of the berries had 

 dropped from their stems. With the excep- 

 tion of a very slight earthy taste, they were 

 certainly excellent. 



The question of course, was asked, how 

 do you keep them thus? The reply was, 

 that in the fall as late ascold will admit, they 

 were gathered in a clear day when perfectly 

 dry ; a box about eight inches deep was 

 taken ; a layer of green leaves was taken 

 from the vines and laid on the bottom ; on 

 these a layer of grapes, then a layer of 

 leaves again, until the box was full, finishing 

 with a layer of leaves. Put the lid on tight 

 and bury deep enough to escape the frosts of 

 winter. Of course it must be where water 

 cannot settle into the box. 



The stems of those grapes were quite fresh 

 when given to me. The man told me his 

 father-in-law had keijt them thus for years. 

 — Correspondent Orape Cidttirist. 



Sheep in the Orchard. — A writer in 

 the Wetern Rural s^ys: "Some years ago, in 

 answer to our inquiry through an agricultu^ 

 ral journal, one farmer stated that he had 

 pastured an orchard with sheep for several 

 years. When he first turned them in there 

 was so little growth that he could not cut a 

 graft from the orchard, there being no re- 

 cent growth of suflicieut length and thrift 

 ti) furnish scions. In three years' time the 

 trees improved materially, making from a 

 foot to eighteen inches of new wood every 

 year. Another reported that sheep pastured 

 iu an orchard for two or three years, made 

 great improvement iu the fruit. Neither 

 spoke of any injurious effect on the flock. 



We have pastured sheep in an old orchard 

 more or less, for two years past, and to its 

 manifest improvement. The grass is better 

 than before, and the trees have a more thrif- 

 ty look. As to the flock, they have done 

 better than usual. This we attribute in part 

 to changing them from pasture to jiasture, 

 frequently, and to the liking they have for 

 their orchard pasture, especially iu the hot 

 season. 



Orchards often suffer from the want of 

 grazing. Tlwy get overrun with weeds and 

 briar.s, as they will not when sheep are kept 

 iu them a portion of the time." 



