The Garden Magazine, March, 1920 
77 
Why Not Grow Fruit in the North? 
S O much has been written of the abandoned 
farm with strong emphasis upon the scenery 
as its chief asset, that people are coming to think 
that New Hampshire is good for holidays and 
summer residents only. 1 do not dispute the 
charge that much of the land is run out but 1 do 
assert that fruit can be grown, for we have done 
it. 
This “farm” lies in Carroll County where we 
are sheltered from north and west winds by the 
lower range of the White Mountains, and here 
are to be found the conditions that contribute to 
successful fruit growing in any locality: — a 
porous well-drained gravelly loam with a sub- 
soil of clay and snows to the depth of from three 
to five feet which protect the roots from freezing. 
They lie from November into early April, and in 
melting saturate the ground to a great depth. 
The spring season does not open until late April 
or May which retards a premature burst of 
fruit buds; and the gradual warming of the earth 
is followed by a moderately cool summer tem- 
perature that allows fruit to mature slowly 
without burning. 
We acquired one of these sites for the sake of its 
scenery. There were a few old apple trees 
representing half a dozen varieties of no particular 
value, and in a neglected state. These were 
grafted over. Down by the sea coast it had 
taken a reclaimed orchard twenty years for 
grafted limbs to bear; but here they began to 
fruit in five years. 
Every year witnessed the setting out of a few 
new trees: plums, pears, quinces, cherries and 
even peach trees. The light gravelly loam 
reinforced with wood ashes and bone dust seemed 
equally favorable to all, and they are now in full 
bearing. During these years we have not lost a 
crop from late spring frosts. 
The peach crop begins to ripen by the middle 
of August, and with early, medium and late 
varieties continues to bear until late in October. 
We have had on our table at Thanksgiving fresh 
peaches from native seedling trees, gathered after 
the first autumn frosts, and ripened artificially 
in drawers. These trees began to bear in four 
or five years; and, instead of dying at the age of 
ten or twelve years, are going strong twenty-one 
years later! 
What one man has done for pleasure others 
migRt do on a still larger scale for profit. Why 
go out to Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming to plant 
fruit trees when New England has idle cleared 
land and provides favorable conditions for every 
variety of fruit, and throws in a home market and 
civilization to round out the bargain? We feel 
almost like pioneers in this old settled part of the 
country; for people stood around and said fruit 
could not be raised in so stern a climate! 
Our plums and pears have a richness of flavor 
impossible in a hotter climate where fruit makes 
a rapid coarse growth. 
When I reported to the peach expert at 
Washington, D. C., that our peach trees were not 
only unhurt during a winter when the thermom- 
eter went to 35 to 40 degrees below zero in our 
vicinity but were actually in bearing, he could 
scarcely believe it as old and tried orchards 
throughout the South were ruined, and farther 
north the fruit buds were injured, though the 
trees were still alive. He said that Early 
Crawford, for example, could not withstand 12 
degrees below. Our Early Crawfords then in 
their twenty-second year not only lived to refute 
the statement, but had the hardihood to bear so 
heavily that the branches were propped as usual. 
So much for the advantages of a late cold spring 
(Continued on page 78) 
It Pays to 
Plant the Best 
It is easy to plan tasty meals when you have an 
abundance of crisp fresh vegetables right at hand. 
Give mother and the gids the benefit of an extra 
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