LETTERS FROM PROMINENT HORTICULTURISTS. 65 



LETTERS FROM PROMINENT HORTICULT- 

 URISTS. 



Kearney, Nebr., January 9, 1890. 



G. J. Carpenter, Fairbury, Nebr. : Dear Sir — I have thought 

 for some time back that I would be able to attend the meeting of the 

 Horticultural Society this month but find I cannot take the time, and 

 thinking I might be able to contribute some items that may be of 

 value I will write. 



It has been my privilege to visit many bearing apple orchards in 

 this county (Buffalo) during the past season. I noticed that some 

 kinds that I would not have recommended for trial were very fruitful, 

 such as Jonathan, Winesap, Janet, Dominie, etc., and that the trees 

 were in very good condition considering the sudden freeze in Novem- 

 ber, 1887. At that time the leaves on the trees were yet quite green. 

 The fall had been quite warm, with considerable rain, so that trees had 

 made a late growth, and up to the day of the " blizzard " (Novem- 

 ber 16, I think it was) we had no frost to speak of so that trees of 

 all kinds were in very poor shape to stand 32° below zero. The 

 freeze would not have done so much damage had it not been for the 

 unusual heat in February following, at which time the thermometer 

 registered 80° above zero in the shade. This intense heat after the 

 hard usage in November literally cooked the southern side of many 

 kinds of trees, so that on that side many are nearly or quite dead. 



I notice that the Tetofsky, Duchess, Wealthy, Wal bridge, Lim- 

 ber Twig, Haas, Pound Pippin, Ben Davis, Iowa Blush, Clark's 

 Orange, and some others I do not know, are in better condition than 

 any other varieties that have came under my observation. Red June 

 and Red Astrachan do not come up to the mark for soundness when 

 compared with the kinds above named, and yet on the upland twelve 

 miles north of Kearney I saw two Red Astrachans that appeared to 

 be perfectly sound and were very fruitful, but those in the valley lands 

 that I have seen of this kind are in bad shape. 

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