24 
February, 1890 
February Suggestions. 
Tli ere is not much that can be done now 
in the orchard outside of cleaning up and 
getting ready for spring work. It is always 
best to mature plans in season and make 
a record of them; then one will remember 
what comes first in order. Scions for graft- 
ing should be got ready and packed away 
in a damp place. The sooner this is done 
the better. 
Indoor grafting may be done now until , 
it is time to set the grafts out in open ground. 
Scions are grafted on sections of roots by 
splice tongue grafting and tied with waxed 
No. 9 cotton warp. This warp is first wound 
loosely on balls and boiled in a composition 
of two-thirds resin to one of tallow until 
the balls sink in the boiling solution. They 
are then taken out and as soon as cold 
are ready for use. In making these grafts 
the scions should be cut about five inches 
long including the slope, so that tbe union 
may be so far under ground that the scions 
will root. The trees will then be on their 
own roots, and such trees are equal to the 
original seedings. 
If the rabbits bark the young trees wrap 
the latter with tarred paper which also 
prevents the borer from injuring them. 
This is a g d time for hauling out manure 
and spreading it on retentive land, but on 
sandy loose soil it is better to wait until 
vegetable growth begins, otherwise much of 
the substance will be carried away before it 
can be utilized. 
If it is intended to set out a new orchard 
it will be well to look around and see what 
is best adapted to the location. Which varie- 
ties to plant depends much upon the pros- 
spective market demands. Ascertain what 
varities sell the best and whether the soil 
will grow them. If there is no permanent 
su mm er market it will not pay to grow 
summer sorts. As a general rule we find 
this to be the case in the western part of the 
country, where very few summer varieties 
are grown. Ben Davis, Winesap and Missou- 
ri Pippin are enough for market and a 
few others for home use. These have a 
zone of their own and are only adapted to 
that section; north and south of it other va- 
rieties must be depended upon. And this 
zone is determined by the mean temperature 
of the growing and maturing months. 
No winter apple can be found in any 
latitude north of New York adapted to any 
section much south of Philadelphia; about 
200 miles is the extreme width of this zone 
which extends wherever the mean monthly 
temperature is the same, This simple fact 
has been overlooked by all writers on the 
adaptation of varieties to different locations. 
It is all nonsense to talk about northern 
apples adapted to Kansas or New Jersey, 
The sooner this fact is known the better we 
will be off. Every plant, fruit and vegetable 
requires a specific amount of heat, light and 
moisture to bring it to full perfection. Each 
kind will endure a certain amount of sud- 
den heat or cold without injury. To illus- 
trate these principles take the Baldwin 
apple which originated in Massachusetts 
and has been there successful. It requires 
there 12,474 degrees of heat from foliation 
until maturity, the 15th of November; after 
that period the temperature falls below the 
conditions of decay and it will keep as long 
as this exists. If we attempt to grow it in 
Kansas or any other place of equal temper- 
ature it must result in failure because it re- 
quires only 180 days in Kansas to bring it to 
the same maturity, which would be the 1st 
of October, making it a poor fall apple 
which soon decays. In Mass, it requires 
210 days to equal Kansas, which is a month 
of difference. — J. Stayman. M. D. 
Scab of Fruit and Rust of Foliage of tbe 
Orchard Fruits. 
In connection with the note of Dr. Hos- 
kins in the December number on the 
Bogdanoff apple, I would like to say that 
we introduced a number of varieties of the 
apple of the grade of hardiness of the Bog- 
danoff from South Russia, in the Spring 
of 1883 which have already produced large, 
handsome, and good winter apples in parts 
of the West, and what Dr. Hoskins ’Is 
the cold North, where the old favorites do 
not succeed. So far, the interest in these 
varieties has mainly centered in the trying 
sections where the ironclads are needed. 
But some of the peculiarities of these new 
comers will finally attract attention in parts 
where such sorts as Rhode Island Green- 
ing, Baldwin and Grimes’ Golden can be 
grown. Some of these are worthy of care- 
ful consideration: 
(1.) The foliage is firmer, thicker, and less 
liable to fungoid troubles than our common 
sorts. 
(2.) They always perfect their wood in 
autumn, like the Duchess, and store the 
needed nutriment for starting growth, and 
the newly formed fruit, in the Spring. 
(3.) They are hardier in fruit buds and 
fruit blossoms than old sorts. 
(4.) They never scab as in these days the 
Southwest European sorts, and the Ameri- 
can seedlings from them, are apt to do. 
During the past season the Russian apples 
were all fair and handsome, while our few 
— so-called — American varieties were sadly 
disfigured by scab. 
In connection I will say that this climatic 
consideration of the fungi seems to apply 
equally well to the rust of the leaves of the 
pear and cherry, and the rot of the plum 
and accompanying loss of foliage. 
It has been difficult the past summer to 
find a healthy leaf on any variety of the 
cherry or pear from the west coast of 
Europe even as far north as St. Petersburg. 
On the other hand the cherries from Cent- 
ral Russia and Central Asia were free, or 
nearly free, from leaf troubles, and the 
pears from Central Russia and North- 
western China were equally exempt. 
With the plum our remnants of varieties 
from Southwestern Europe and from any 
part of Western Europe, or their American 
seedlings, were defoliated early on account 
of fungous diseases; while our native plums, 
and plums from Central Russia, Central 
Asia, and Northwestern China, were per- 
fect or nearly perfect in leaf, and the fruit 
without trace of rot. I give these facts for 
what they are worth. We have long known 
that certain varieties of the cereals, grass- 
es, and fruits were less subject to fungous 
diseases than others, but I believe that no 
systematic observations from the climatic 
standpoint have as yet been undertaken. — 
J. L. Budd. 
Native Western Plum*. 
Under this heading Dr. Hoskins assumes 
that our select varieties of native plums at 
the West are not improved varieties but 
“wildlings selected from the native plums 
found scattered by the water courses all 
over the West.” 
So far as we can prove, a part of our se- 
lected list are wildlings, yet we have reason 
to believe that they have been improved by 
man’s agency. As Mr. Catlin has said our 
westernlndian tribes were gatherers and cul- 
tivators of the plum, and they seem to have 
gathered from widely separate sources. For 
instance the Chickasaw family of the plum 
is not indigenous to our State yet near the 
ancient Indian encampment grounds varie- 
ties have been found of excellent quality 
which are clearly and plainly of the Prunus 
chicasa type in the tree and fruit. The 
Maquaketa has this origin, and the Cheney 
De Soto, and others have, I think, some of 
this pedigree from natural crossing with 
the introduced sorts from the South. Again; 
we have reason to believe that the Rolling- 
stone and other varieties of the native plums 
with more or less blue bloom, and peculiarly 
plicate leaves, are derived from plums in- 
troduced by the Indians from the Black Hills 
and Wyoming, where such plums are only 
found truly native. 
Still again; the Wolf, Potawatamie, W T v- 
ant and two or three other select sorts, are 
plainly crosses of our native plums with 
the plums and prunes of the very early 
French settlers of the Mississippi and Mis- 
souri valleys. — J. L. Budd. 
TWO APPLES OF MERIT. 
Early Queening. 
Fruit, large to very large; form, roundish- 
oblate slightly conic; color, light-rich green- 
ish yellow splashed, mixed and striped with 
reddish purple, with a light bloom, hand- 
some, dots small, scattered, grey; stem medi- 
um, rather stout ; cavity wide, deep, green, 
wavy ; calyx small, nearly closed ; seg- 
ments stout, recurved ; basin wide, shallow, 
slightly furrowed ; core medium, slightly 
open ; carpels large, wide, open; seeds medi- 
um, ovate, dark brown ; flesh yellowish 
white, tender, juicy, spicy, sprightly sub- 
acid, quince flavored ; quality very good ; 
use, table, kitchen and market; season, July, 
August. Tree vigorous, very spreading, 
