1861. 



THE ILLIKOIS FAEMEE. 



356 



by fprouts from the roots of the o'd trees. From 

 whom these trees come no one can tell. Mr. V. 

 is nearly seventy years old, and they were there 

 ■when he was a boy. They prob ibly were brought 

 in by the old French settlers some hun Ireds of 

 years since. Mr. V. has several apple tre-s 

 dwarfed on the Paradise, which came from Ro- 

 chester, but they have evinced no particular de- 

 sire to be loaded with fruit — they had on now 

 and then straggling specimens. If they will not 

 do well near Cobden, the very seat of Pomona, 

 we catinot expect any great returns from them on 

 the prairie. We know of no other place in the 

 country where the Paradise has fruited, and do 

 not now recall to mind reading any account of 

 such an occurrence ; but of the above we know, 

 having seen both trees and fruit. 



We are nowprepared to make the assertion that 

 the apple dwarfed on the Paradise or Doucian, is 

 worthless for the prairie, and of doubtful value 

 on timber land ; even there a crop is the excep- 

 tion, not the rule. We therefore advise tree- 

 planters not to depend upon them, for they will 

 bring nought but disappointment. 



But what shall we do for fruit at an early day 

 on the new prairie farm '? asks one. If you de- 

 pend upon the dwarf, it is certain that you will 

 be disappointed; nor do we believe one-tenth 

 part of the glowing accounts of the productive- 

 ness of dwarf apples at the East. Too. many 

 of these accounts come through those who have 

 the tree for sale, but we can point out a path by 

 which you will be iosureJ an early fruitage. 

 PliDt two or three year old trees, that have low 

 heads, none of them over a foot from the ground, 

 treat them as you would dw.rfs, by giving them 

 good culture, and shelter them on the northwest 

 and south, giving them an open aspect to the east, 

 but to succeed in this you must select certain va- 

 r'eties that have the habit of early bearing, for 

 such as Northern Spy, Baldwin, Rhode Island 

 Greeaing, Spitzenburg, Swaar and Seek-no-fur- 

 ther, will certainly disappoint you. The most 

 valuable of all early bearing sorts is the Kes- 

 wick Codlin. Three year old trees properly 

 treated, will almost invariably bear a fair crop 

 the second year after setting out. Hawthornden, 

 Yellow lagestrie. Early Pennock, Holland Pip- 

 pin, Duchess of Oldenburg, all bear young, are 

 valuable and will furnish fruit from the last of 

 July to the last of October, in this part of the 

 State. For autumn, we can have Fameuse, 

 Cooper's Early White, Fall Swaar and Late 

 Golden Sweet. The winter varieties are more 

 tardy — Stannard, Dominie, Raules' Janet, Wine- 

 SBp and RamsJel's Sweet are among the best. 



For the purpose of early fruiting we would 

 prefer to plant them ten feet apart, so that they 

 will afford shelter to each other, but for the or- 

 chard, we would put them twenty to twenty-four 

 feet. We have already in a previou«i article dis- 

 cussed the subject of low heads, and if there is 

 any value to be derived in that direction, it should 

 be in favor of the dwarf tree, as all of thom are 

 cultivated in that manner. 



If there is any person still a believer in the 

 value of dwarf apples, let him set out alterna- 

 nate trees of standards that thrive alike, and at 

 the end of four years he will see his error. We 



have until within the past two years, been ini- 

 pressed with the value of the dwarf apple, sup- 

 posing that if it did not yield large crops, yet 

 that it would come into ear'y bearing ; but after 

 having been disappointed year after year, we be- 

 gan to inquire if ihat was peculiar to our own 

 grounds, but found that our trees came within 

 the general rule, which was, no fruit, while a 

 moderate crop was the exception. As a nursery- 

 man, the above view of the case is not a pleas- 

 ant one, for we have long rows of dwarfs for 

 sale; but there is this consolition, the believers 

 in dr-arfs yet live, and will not give up their fa- 

 vori'e theory, though we should preach to them 

 a year. But we advise all of that class to plant 

 at least half of their orchards standards, and by 

 way of compromise, treat them as they do their 

 dwarfs. 



THE DWARF CHEERT. 



Thou=iands of trees dwarfed on the Mahaleb 

 stock have been planted on our prairies, yet who 

 ever heard cf a peck of the fruit of these trees 

 ever reaching market? It is probable that some 

 fruit has been grown, in fact we have seen it on 

 several occasions, but in such limited quantity 

 that the encouragement to plant more of them is 

 not certainly warranted. In the north part of 

 the State the Mahaleb is too tender, for if any 

 part of the Mahaleb stock is exposed above 

 ground, it is pretty certain to be killed in a 

 severe winter, and of course the tree will die; 

 we have lost hundreds from this cause, bo'li in 

 the nursery and the orciard, when a resident of 

 Cook county. This stock does not really dwarf 

 the cherry for the first dozen years, if at all. as 

 can be seen by any person at all conversant with 

 the subject. To make the rapid growing sorts 

 assume the form of dwarfs, they must be cut 

 back at a year old, so as to form low heads, and 

 these low heads are the only valuahla thing in 

 regard to them. As far north as Bloomington 

 and Loda, we consider the Mahaleb s'ifficiently 

 hardy for stocks, even then we would prefer the 

 common Morello or Kentish stocks. 



It is safe to say that not less than a quarter of 

 a million of dollars have been sunk by our farm- 

 ers and other tree planters in proving that the 

 Mazzard, so lauded by Downing as a valuable , 

 stock for the cherry, was worthless for the West. 

 Years before that fact was conceded by our nur- 

 serymen and tree planters, we had become con- 

 vinced of the fact and discontinued its use, and 

 nearly ten years since we pointed out to the 

 readers of the Tribune that it neither of itself 

 dwarfed the tree grafted upon it or was hardy. 

 It was something new and would take the place 

 of the condemned Mazzard, whether of any value 

 or not. 



When we speak of a dwarf tree, we under- 

 stand that it is one grafted upon a slow growing 

 stock, that gives a dwarfish habit to the variety, 

 but as the Mahaleb fails to have this effect, it ia 

 sheer nonsense to call trees grafted upon it 

 dwarfs, for at best they are simply low headed 

 trees. The fact is we have no true dwarf chcry 

 trees, while we have several of dwarfish habits, 

 among which may be enumerated Early May, so 

 1 called, and known throuj-hoat Kentucky, Ohio, 



