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THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



279 



HORTICULTURAL. 



Winter weather has come early this season, 

 On ihe 19th and 20th November the mercury 

 sunk to 8 and 10 ° above zero. If any of our 

 readers receive trees from distant nurseries at 

 this season of the year, they should bury them 

 in the earth. Select a high piece of ground, dig 

 a trench, and cover them up with earth, being 

 very particular that theearth touches every part 

 of .the roots. In the spring, when the proper 

 time arrivei, take the trees up and plant them 

 out where you wish them to stand. 



-*' 



Tbe Planting of Orcbards in Illinois. 



BT M. L. DUKL4P, OF WEST URBANNA, ILL. 



1 



October 22, 1861. 



The questioa of orchard planting is at 

 this time assuming an importance second to 

 few other rural occupations. The high 

 price of fruit, and its now fully conceded 

 prophylactic quality, has given the subject 

 new importance, and the questions, what 

 varieties shall we plant? what kind of soil 

 and aspect shall we select? are more often 

 asked than satisfactorily ans veered. 



Up to the winter of '65-6, most varieties 

 proved hardy, though very many old and 

 well known popular sorts at the "East" 

 had made but poor return, while others 

 heretofore little known, had givea high 

 promise of great value. Orchardists were 

 slow to account for this change, and at last 

 reluctantly attribated it to the true cause, 

 — difference of soil and climate. Further 

 investigations have shown that few if any of 

 the apple family generally cultivated at the 

 East, maintain their peculiar character in 

 our prairie soil ; some of them prove tender 

 and after a few years of sickly existence 

 die out; others prove indifferent bearers, 

 while on the other hand, many prove much 

 more valuable, producing a richer fruit and 

 more abundant crops than in their native 

 home. The time of ripening and size of the 

 fruit here exhibit a marked change. Our 

 more ardent sun and dryer atmosphere in 

 most instances increase the size and hasten 

 maturity. In most cases autumn apples 

 are ripe in late summer, and early winter 

 becomes late autumn. The Rhode Island 

 Greening and Baldwin are familiar examples 

 of this change. Rawle's Janet, Limber 

 Twig and other western varieties almost 

 unknown at the East, fill up the list of oar 

 long-keeping sorts. It will thug be seen 

 that in selecting an orchard no attention 



should be paid to the mere fact of value of 

 the variety at the East, bnt to carefully 

 ascertain what isT adapted to this locality. 



Such was the condition of our fmits until 

 the winter before noted, and which will be 

 long remembered throughout the valley of 

 the Upper Mississippi for its wide spread 

 destruction of fruit trees, north of latitude 

 39 deg., where full one half of our orchard 

 trees were destroyed, whilst similar varieties 

 in the nursery suffered in nearly the same 

 ratio. Plums, peaches, pears, cherries, and 

 other small fruits, shrubs and plants, suf- 

 fered more severely. Such a wide-spread 

 calamity to our orchards and gardens came 

 with a crashing weight, tending to despond- 

 ency, and seriously checking the progress of 

 fruit culture. 



Whether another such winter will again 

 occur, is a question upon which various opin- 

 ions exist, some contending that it was an- 

 omalous, and not likely to again occur. Be 

 this as it may, we would do well to be on 

 our guard, and plant such varieties as stood 

 that searching test. In addition to the 

 general view of the subject of adaptation, 

 Tre have subdivisions that require our attea- 

 tion, from the fact that this State presents 

 three distinct belts of soil having their 

 peculiar air currents, producing a change 

 of climate quite marked and distinct in each 

 division. So fully is this change adniitted, 

 that at the late meeting of the Northwest- 

 ern Fruit G-rowers Association at Alton, 

 the committee on fruits adapted to general 

 cultivation, divided their report so as to 

 present three separate lists, each adapted to 

 different latitudes. Several varieties of the 

 apple were found worthy a place on all three 

 of the lists, while others have only a local 

 value. Under this state of things it is the 

 height of folly for one to order trees from 

 distant nurseries to supply our wants, which 

 are peculiar and not well understood by 

 these distant establishments. 



While our western nurserymen have been 

 experimenting on the adaptation of varie- 

 ties suited to the West, the "tree peddler," 

 that bane of civilized society and leech 

 upon the progress of fruit culture, has been 

 busy filling our orchards with all sort of 

 worthless trash. The rejected and refuse 

 varieties of the eastern nurseries are by him 

 renamed and sent broadcast over our beauti- 

 ful State, to engender deep disappointment, 

 and to crush the hopes of the too confiding 

 farmer. Armed with fancy- high -colored 

 drawings of fruit, which have no reality be- 

 yond the fancy of the artist; tomatoes pre- 

 served in alcohol to represent some new 



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