our neighbors; and yet we grow them in a 
gravelly loam; they have no such, thing 
around them as alluvial soil. 
Our neighbor. Fallenwaldkr, hovevet, 
down here a piece, gives us yearly plenty cf 
Limhertwigs, Pennocks, &c M which he c&r- 
ries to market, just as he.does his potatoes, 
and I have no doubt finds a ready market 
from such intelligent men as the one who 
prepared my text. 
But my friends I will not weary you with 
talk, for 1 really think the absurdities noted 
in my text are not worth your time, as all 
know t here are few localities containing a like 
soil. We practical men know that often only 
one hundred yards changes the entire surface 
formation of the earth; and we practical men 
do know we have grown as good, yea better, 
apples on our sands, our days, and our grav¬ 
els, as have ever yet been produced on allu¬ 
vial loams; and further, we do know that 
with pears or cherries alluvial loams are the 
most undesirable soils we can possibly adopt, 
if we look for long life, health, vigor and 
fruitfulness of the trees. Let us therefore 
advise our neighbors and friends to go on 
with their planting, taking counsel as to kinds 
suited to their soils, but never doubting that, 
whether on clay or loam, gravel or sand, they 
can grow fruits in perfection, and to the com, 
fort and profit of themselves and families. 
ABOUT FRUIT GROWING 
BY NOW AND THEN 
A Look nt Present Practices. 
Fruit growing in this country is increas¬ 
ing rapidly, and bids fair to become not only 
the leading business of farmers, but many 
genthmen of wealth and leisure are engaged 
in it; and as large ns it is, it. is yet in its in¬ 
fancy, for the results to the fruit-growers of 
the present day are no more or less than ex¬ 
perimental success or failure. In one sect ion 
they plant their berries in bills; in another 
in beds. One mulches, and another does 
not; some grow one variety, others reject 
the same. In one locality they Him the 
vine in the spring, while others do the same 
work in the fall, each claiming they are right 
and the others wrong. Thus it, is, that one 
man fails anti another succeeds; no one is 
satisfied with the present, but each one tries 
to produce some wonderlul fruit, or plant, 
which will enable him to make a large 
amount of money and win a popular name 
among growers. The consequence is, we 
often hear of such wonderful fruit being 
THE DOYKNISTE DE 
greenish, fine grained, melting, buttery, 
juicy, vinous, pleasant, not rich or sugar}'; 
core, medium; seeds large, dark brown; 
season last of October and early November. 
in a slight depression, with a faint lip or 
ridge; calyx large, open, with oval flattened 
segments; basin open, broad, medium depth, 
traced with russet; flesh white, slightly 
Fruit medium, globular, slightly pyri¬ 
form ; smooth surface, of a pale yellow-green 
color, thickly dotted with minute, suffused, 
dark green dots ; stem short, rather stout, set 
IN TIIE ORCHARD 
growth, until wc had glasses that could mag¬ 
nify and show just what composed it. He 
was well aware that in regard to these mi¬ 
croscopic plants little was really known; hut 
he thought their study would throw much 
light on these mysterious diseases of our trees 
and fruits. 
Mr. J. H. Tice of St. Louis, Recording 
Secretary of the Missouri State Board of 
Agriculture, in answer to Prof. Turner, 
said that while, to some extent, these fungoid 
plants produced decay, ho was not ready to 
admit that it was their only function to 'pro¬ 
duce decay, but rather to produce chemical 
changes. It was through the action of these 
spores as evidenced in the yeast ferment that 
they changed the starch of plants to glucose, 
then again into alcohol, then to vinegar; in 
proof of which he cited the well known 
vinegar plant. It was the agent that pro¬ 
duced chemical changes in organic bodies by 
deoxidization. Others took part in the dis¬ 
cussion, but the above are all the points at 
issue of practical importance. 
Further investigation will be presented in 
regard to the lower orders of plant and in¬ 
sect life, which careful observation with the 
microscope can alone determine. 
Jar, rounded at end, not pointed; berries 
small, round, light yellowish green, holding 
firmly to the peduncle, which is short; flesh 
tender to the center, juicy, sweet, delicate, 
without any tinge of native aroma; skin 
rather thick, but not so as to make it objec¬ 
tionable. A most promising variety. 
rboricnlturt 
I go through my orchard every week; 
sometimes twice or thrice, and each time my 
eye discovers one or more cocoons or masses 
of insect larva; attached to the limbs, or laid 
up carefully in some crotch of a limb. It is 
strange what a multiplicity of insects there 
are, and to me still more strange that 1 can't 
see them all at any one time, no matter how 
carefully I look. It is a point in fruit-grow¬ 
ing that knows no finis. 
I always carry my knife, or hand shears 
along also; for almost each time, looking 
from tree to tree, 1 discover some little twig, 
crossed limb or half-ripened end of a shoot, 
that is better away than on the tree. When 
one is pruning, oil times some ot her thoughts 
arise than just those of his present labor, and 
the eye or mind fails to reach as perfectly as 
it will at another time, when, unintention¬ 
ally, without regard to pruning, we look at 
the tree as an item of beauty. 
Frank Amon. 
SOIL FOR FRUIT TREES 
Simon Slowpnce Takelh a Text und Tsilketh. 
An old man and lacking perhaps some¬ 
what of the vigor and energies of younger 
compeers, yet, my friends—cultivators of fruit 
trees, young and old—I find my eyesight 
good and I continue to read. My memory 
also of past and present experience and ob¬ 
servation is yet fully in its prime, and you 
will therefore pardon me for being garrulous, 
when 1 undertake to record the thoughts 
that come welling up in my mind as I read 
the outpouring of wisdom or ignorance 
which regularly appeareth in the publica¬ 
tions of most agricultural and horticultural 
journals. 
A day or two since I was reading an essay 
on “ How to Plant Fruit Trees,” which con¬ 
tained so much of good, and so much of 
bad, that 1 confess, like a, mm de plume edi¬ 
tor of a monthly journal, I was induced to 
question what it contained, “ whether more 
of good or more of bad.” From it, how¬ 
ever, I take the following as my text for the 
present talk. It is the second point made by 
the author—the third, fourth and fifth I pro¬ 
pose for future talk. 
“2. Be careful in your choice of soils. A sandy 
soil is leacby, contains no moisture, and is liable 
to drouth. A clayey soil is directly the oppo¬ 
site—too wet, tough, and adhesive; few or no 
fruit trees do well iu it. A gravelly soil is hard¬ 
ly more desirable, but a deep loamy or alluvial 
soil may always form a good choice." 
Now, my friends, I have had twenty-eight 
years" experience in cultivating sandy soil; 
and while I grant the correctness of the es¬ 
sayist as to its leaching, I know he is mis¬ 
taken as to its containing no moisture. Silex 
is a great component of sandy soil, and it is 
never void of moisture; and with ordinary 
cultivation it. will carry a crop of trees or 
even of com through the most severe drouth 
better than a heavy clay loam. As l say 1 have 
had twenty-eight years’ experience in sand, 
l have also in my possession clay ground, 
from loamy clay to the toughest wet and 
stitf material that ever plow turned over. I 
have also several acres of gravelly soil; and 
1 have two or more acres of alluvial, loamy 
soil resting on a clay subsoil; and while 1 
have no wish to class the essayist from 
whom I take my text as among those whose 
youth displays their ignorance, or dee versa, 
I feel like telling him he knoweth not all, nor 
so much even as he will, if he lives a few 
years more and bends his back, as I have 
done, to the spade and plow. 
You will see, my friends, that only the al¬ 
luvial soil is commended; and you Jones, 
you SMEE.you Leick, as well as many more, 
are left out so far as having any prospect of 
success in growing fruits. Better sell out 
and go in town and become editor of the 
Agricultural Department of some of the New 
York weeklies, than make any further at¬ 
tempts to grow fruits on your lands if the 
words of this essayist were even partly true. 
But you, Smee, kmw you have good ap¬ 
ples—as good as mine; and your soil is the 
veriest tough clay that, ever lay out of doors. 
7 know, too, that horticultural committees 
have visited yon, and commended your or¬ 
chard. You have no deep alluvial loam; 
and if you had followed this writer’s advice, 
we should never have eaten the splendid 
Esopus Spitzenbergs and Red Canadas that 
wo have done from your trees; nor should I 
ever have had a good Chenango strawberry, 
nor a Fameu.sc, from my sandy soil as 1 now 
can and do yearly show my friends. You, 
Smee, like myself, can almost yearly show 
the nicest of Winesaps, Belmonts, etc., rival¬ 
ing and almost surpassing those of any of 
FUNGI AFFECTING FRUIT. 
Hon. M. L. Dunlap, Champaign, Ill., sends 
us the following abstract of a paper on this 
subject, read at the recent meeting of the 
Illinois State Horticultural Society, by Prof. 
John B. Turner of Jacksonville, Ill.: 
Professor Turn ku took the position that 
most of t he diseases of fruits, trees and vines 
are due to fungoid growth; that rott en wood, 
dead bark and the decaying filaments of 
plants furnished the nidus for the breeding 
of tbe spores that- produced the mischief; 
that, when these spores, like the pear tree 
blight, attacked the bark, it could be arrested 
by an application of turpentine and lamp¬ 
black, or a weak solution of carbolic soap in 
water. The Professor asserted that pear 
trees were generally first attacked on the 
outer bark, or rough, or that portion of it 
that had begun to form olcl bark; that, it ap¬ 
peared as a dark colored patch of more or 
less size ; that if this bark was at once dressed 
oil’ (the outside) with a shaviug knife or any 
sharp instrument, the spores would be de¬ 
stroyed and the disease at once arrested. 
The turpentine would kill the spores, while 
the lampblack would be useful in protecting 
the wounded bark, until a new growth was 
formed. 
Fungi, lie said, might he produced or have 
its nidus inside of the body of the tree and 
out of the reach of any such application, as 
in the case of the rotten heart, wood of the 
apple, and that the spores thus formed might 
enter the fruit though the sap vessels and 
produce decay. He thought this might ac¬ 
count for the lack of keeping qualities in tbe 
fruit of rotten-hearted apple trees. In the 
case of peach, grape and apple rot, doubt¬ 
less the disease was introduced through the 
circulation, for the same disease did not prey 
upon the leaves. Those spores finding the 
material suited 1o their rapid production 
caused the rot, something like the ferment in 
yeast; its effects were rapid and fatal, as the 
entire tissues were involved. He thought 
the primary function of fungi was to pro¬ 
duce decay and decomposition of all organic 
elements; that they were the scavengers of 
organic forms, although they might at times 
produce useful form, yet their peculiar func¬ 
tion was to promote decay. From this lie 
drew the following conclusions: 
1. That without rotten wood, decayed 
bark, or dead tissues, the spores would have 
no nidus wherein to breed, 
2. That these spores entered into the cir¬ 
culation of fruits and produced the grape and 
other rots. 
:5. That grape vines and fruit trees, injured 
by frost , famished an abundant nidus for the 
production of these spores. 
4. That an old rotten frame, stump, or de¬ 
cayed portion of a building, presented a 
proper nidus for the grape rot, and that no 
vines, however healthy, should bo allowed to 
trail over them. 
6. That a diseased vine layered and then 
separated from tbe parent vine would pro¬ 
duce sound fruit, hence the renewal of vine¬ 
yards by layers was recommended; mul that 
it also accounted for the healthfulness of the 
fruit on young vines and young orchard 
trees. In no case are vines of value after 
having been injured by the winter; for all 
such had within them the proper nidus to 
develop the spores that produce death. 
Prof. Turner stated that we might not 
fully comprehend the action of fungoid 
MORE ABOUT CHESTNUTS. 
Seeing an article in the Rural relative to 
growing the chestnut, I venture to write 
from experience. Here in Otsego county we 
have abundance of chestnut; perhaps no 
section of country grows it in a greater state 
of perfection than Central New York. In 
point of value, it stands next to the pine. It 
grows best on upland, and is very profitable 
to grow; it is much used for hop-poles, rail¬ 
road ties, fence posts, shingles and finishing 
off inside of houses. As a post it. has but 
few equals; for joiners’ work it has a beauti¬ 
ful grain, which only needs sizing and varn¬ 
ishing. It is a very rapid growing timber; 
renews itself from the roots when cut down; 
it bears an abundance of nuts, which, if 
rightly cured, can bo packed and shipped to 
the Western States with safety to the germ. 
Gathering the nuts and curing for planting 
should be attended to in September and Oc¬ 
tober. The cost of the nuts depends upon 
the yield. Geo. W. Wentworth. 
Mt. Vision, N. Y. 
than was received for it. On the same prin¬ 
ciple wc frequently hear of large quantities 
of fruit being raised hi some localities with¬ 
out the information as to how many acres 
are planted or the net result of the sales. 
Whenever there is a chance to make a sen¬ 
sation report, it is made much of, while the 
essential points are entirely ignored. 
I have said that fruit growing is in its in¬ 
fancy, and so it is, although many think that 
even now it is completely overdone. The 
class of persons who think thus are generally 
of a very ardent temperament; previous to 
engaging in the business they had read of 
the wonderful yield, and profits made from 
a single acre, and they jumped at the con¬ 
clusion that at that rate they would realize 
a fortune in a few years; the idea of the fail¬ 
ure of the crop, or of their own want of 
knowledge, never entered their minds until 
the unpleasant fact was realized by their ill 
success; then they conic to the conclusion 
that the business is overdone. However, the 
larger portion of farmers of the present day 
are fast learning to grow fruit, and they 
firmly roftise to invest largely in novelties 
until they are well tested; and this is the 
class of men that make money by fruit-grow ¬ 
ing. Owning good farms, they understand 
the nature of their soil, and soon learn the 
kind of fruit that will grow best and yield 
them the largest amount, of money. Having 
discovered ibis important, fact, they stick to 
this fruit, and make it an object of great care, 
in order to perfect it ; then they learn the 
best mode of marketing it , and are well satis¬ 
fied with the result of their labor. They un¬ 
derstand that fruit growing is to farmers 
what the line arts are to mechanics, and that 
few mechanics ever succeed in becoming 
first class artists. In my next I will com¬ 
pare the past with the present, and then see 
if the future is not bright with prospects for 
fruit-growers. 
Standard and Dwarf Pear Trees.— In planting 
a pear orchard, which would be best to plaut— 
standard or dwarfs? How much longer shall 1 
have to wait for fruit from standards Uian from 
dwarfs: and which are the hardiest on the 
prairie?—J. Denman, LoQOM Co., IU. 
There are some varieties of pears which are 
not hardy on the prairies as dwarfs and others 
which are hardy and productive. The best, 
guide lor you that we know of is the reports 
and fruit. Jists of the Illinois Horticultural So¬ 
ciety', which may be obtained by sending one 
dollar to \V. C. Flagg, Alton. III.. Corresponding 
Secretary, which will make you a member of 
that Society and entitle you to its transactions. 
We advise you to plant standards. You will 
only hare to wait about as long as for an apple 
orchard to fruit. Some varieties fruit much 
earlier than others. The experience of prairie 
cultivators will be found in the Transactions, 
and should be carefully studied. 
Applying Ashes to Fruit Trees.—A correspond¬ 
ent of the X. E. Farmer says:—I often make use 
of ashes around my trees, certainly as often as 
once a year, and believe it to be of great benefit 
to them. But, Like some of your other corre¬ 
spondents, I have learned not to apply it in con¬ 
tact with the bark of the trees, as they become 
moistened and form lye often too strong for the 
growing wood. I generally use about one quart 
of ashes to a tree, scattering it around them as 
far as the roots are supposed to extend under¬ 
neath. My large trees, in bearing ten or twelve 
years, receive an application of from six to 
eight quarts of unleaehed ashes to each tree, 
scattered in same mariner. I never permit the 
ashes to lie upon the ground in any place more 
than one inch in depth. 
Tree Peddlers in Iowa.—The President elect 
of the Iowa llort. Society, James Mathews, in 
his speech accepting the office, deprecated the 
planting of Eastern uuaecllmated trees. He said 
Iowa fruit growers must expect to succeed only 
by untiring experiments. Tree planters are 
continually being imposed upon by tree ped¬ 
dlers. Of £47,000 worth of peddlers’ trees sold in 
Centra] Iowa, not, one-tenth will ever do any 
good. _ 
-- 
Forest Trees for Kansas.—The Kansas State 
Hort. Soc. recommend for general cultivation 
the Black Walnut, Cottonwood, Silver Maple and 
Honey Locust among deciduous trees, and the 
Norway Spruce, White Pine, Austrian Pine, 
Scotch Pine, Balsam Fir und Bed Cedar- among 
the evergreens. The Osage Orange was unani¬ 
mously recommended as a hedge plant, and the 
African Tamurix for ornamental borders. 
General Apple List for Illinois.— The following 
apples are recommended by the Illinois State 
Horticultural Society for cultivation for market 
in all parts of that Stater—Red Astrachun. Caro¬ 
lina Red .Time. Golden Sweet. Jonathan, Kes¬ 
wick’s Codlin, Maiden’s Blush. Porter, Rambo, 
Eawles’ Janet. Winesap and Willow Twig. The 
State is divided into three fruit districts.—South, 
Central and North—for each of which especial 
CROTON GRAPE, 
This is a seedling of Stephen Underhill, 
Croton Point, New York, and not yet offered 
for sale, the owner, as we learn, having belief 
that there is more money to bo made in grow¬ 
ing and fruiting the vines himself than in of¬ 
fering them for sale. 
In appearance the grape is very promising, 
and, if it ripens as early as stated—before 
Concords—and keeps as we know it to do— 
having before us the fruit as wc write in 
January—certainly it must be valuable. 
From the bunch before us wo describe: 
Bunch large, shouldered, or rather with a 
small side bunch springing from near the 
base of the stem; moderately compact,regu- 
Wesibrook Apple.—Mr. Blodget writes the 
Gardener's Monthly that this apple originated 
in one or tbe tributary valleys Of the Upper 
Susquehanna, whence it was taken by Aha 
Blodcikt to Chautauqua Co., N. Y., about 1820, 
where- a large number of trees were grafted 
with it in that and Ontario Co. The Gardener’s 
Monthly says that from this it appears that this 
is not tbe West!.rook apple ol’ Virginia or the 
AVestbroolf is not a Virginia apple. 
Hlppophae AuifustifoJiu.—It la surprising that 
this ornamental shrub is so little grown. It is 
perfectly hardy, of easy cultivation, and its sil¬ 
very leaves make it very attractive in tdl places, 
but especially when it is planted among low- 
growing evergreens. It bears shade and even 
the drip of trees, and yet will grow iu a full, 
open exposure. 
Soli for Belnivisre Grape.—A lady asks us 
which is the best soil for the Delaware grape. 
So far as our own observation goes, it does best 
on light sandy loam and on calcareous soils. 
We shall be glad to publish experience to the 
contrary if any of our readers have had such. 
