294 
MAY 4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
P0mol.Ogi.CftL 
Apple Culture Suggestions 
AN OLD QUESTION REVIVED 
ANSWERS BY POMOLOGISTS 
Last fall the following appeared in the 
Rural: 
STARTING AN ORCHARD FROM APPLES. 
For many years I was under the impression 
that an apple tree would need some trim¬ 
ming—but otherwise it would take care of it¬ 
self—that it needed no more looking after 
than a forest tree. But the reading of the 
Rural for eight or 10 years has changed my 
notions. I have mulched, manured and placed 
ashes around the trees and have been sur¬ 
prised at the result. Trees that bore small, 
spotted apples before treating them, have 
since borne fruit double in size, smooth 
and well-formed I applied ashes and manure 
toaVandevere tree, as I thought, in liberal 
quantities, but for the first dozen years I did 
not get a bushel of apples from it. Last 
spring I hauled two loads of ashes and three 
loads of manure around it, making a mulch 
six inches deep, and we will get from this tree 
three or four barrels of fine apples this year. 
It may be that I overdid the good work and 
the tree may die from an over-dose of manure, 
but at this time it is very thrifty in appear¬ 
ance. This fall I shall plant an apple in the 
spot where I wish the tree to grow and save 
the best sprout for grafting, so that the 
tree shall have no check from breaking 
of the roots, such as occurs in removing 
the tree from the nursery to the or¬ 
chard. To mark the spot where the apple 
is planted, I shall place a common drain tile. 
If a tile will exclude the sun and air too much 
1 shall saw fhe tile into three or four-inch 
lengths. s. b. h. 
Crawfordsville, Ind. 
This note was referred to our readers, and 
the following answers have been received. 
FROM T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
I am asked by the Rural to comment upon 
the above communication in the light of my 
own experience of upwards of 40 years in or¬ 
chard and nursery work. Unquestionably S. 
B. H. is correct in reference to the importance 
of liberal manuring for fruit trees. It is not 
my experience that the application of manure 
or of fertilizers of any sort, will prevent the 
spotting, scabbing and cracking of apples 
subject to such defects; but without liberal 
manuring there is no solid success in orchard¬ 
ing: and a well-fed treo, even of a variety 
subject to the above diseases, will produce 
much more merchantable fruit than a neglect¬ 
ed one of the same variety. 
The method proposed by S. B. H. to start 
an orchard from the seed, (or from the apples) 
is not novel; and it is rather taking to the no¬ 
vice, when first suggested. There are, how¬ 
ever, many practical difficulties connected 
with it, and these difficulties increase greatly 
the farther nortb the experiment is tri^d. 
Speaking roughly, all apple seedlings would 
be hardy (against cold) when grown south of 
the 42nd parallel. But not nearly all (probably 
not one-quarter) of the seedlings would make 
good trees, suitable for stocks to graft upon; 
and even supposing that we were sure of get¬ 
ting one such from every apple, the choice 
cannot be determined upon until all have 
grown so large that the rejected ones cannot 
be got rid of without uprooting the one chos¬ 
en. The gain expected by Dot having to 
transplant the seedling is mostly imaginary. 
Theoretically, we might suppose it the most 
natural, and therefore the best way; but the 
immense number of very aged and yet vigor¬ 
ous apple trees in existence which have cer¬ 
tainly been transplanted, and the evidence 
gathered from experience and observation by 
hundreds of orchardists on this point, ougnt 
to satisfy any one that apple trees suffer no 
permanent detriment by transplantation. 
The better way is to plant sound, plump 
and well-ripened seeds thinly in drills, like 
peas, and care for them as carefully as for any 
garden crop. The best may be selected from 
among these seedlings at two years old; and 
10 may be said, in a general way, that the 
best seedlings for orchard planting are 
those not of too rank or too small a growth, 
*-ut such as are of a medium'growth, are not 
disposed to make ’too many limbs, (which 
makes frequent pruning necessary,) and 
have a firm,healthy foliage. Do not allow these 
choice seedlings to grow more than two sea¬ 
sons in the seed-bed, but transplant them into 
straight nursery rows four feet apart, the 
trees two feet apart in the row. Here the 
heads are to be formed,and the great point is to 
allow of no forking of the trunks or branches. 
My preference is for three main branches, 
started at least a foot apart on the trunk. 
From each of these, the second season in nur¬ 
sery, three secondary branches may be start¬ 
ed, taking the same precautions as to distance 
and symmetry. If the soil and care are what 
they should be, these young trees will be 
ready for transplanting to the orchard in two 
or three years after the first removal. The same 
care should follow them there; and as soon as 
they are again well started and growing 
thriftily they may be budded or grafted to 
the varieties desired. 
The above described method requires modi¬ 
fication in the “ Cold North,” where only the 
THE WEEPING BEECH. 
“iron-clad” varieties succeed. Here, the 
seedlings, (preferably grown from the seeds 
of iron-clads, though this is not essential) 
should grow, I think, but one year in the seed¬ 
bed, and only such as attain, at least, the size 
of an ordinary cedar pencil be selected,the rest 
being discarded. These selected seedlings I 
would tongue-graft at the crown with selected 
iron-clad cions about seven inches long, and 
set out, in well prepared nursery ground, so 
deeply that not over two inches of the cion 
will show above ground. The growth from 
these grafts should be managed and treated 
exactly like the seedlings, as above directed; 
and the young trees may be transplanted into 
the orchard, when they have reached a like 
size, to be there top-grafted to the desired va¬ 
rieties. There is probably some choice to be 
exercised in the selection of the iron-clad 
cions used in the first grafting, but as yet 
nothing very positive can be said. On gen¬ 
eral principles, making iron-clad hardiness 
the primary condition, I should regard a 
habit of free growth as generally desirable in 
those cions which aie to form the trunk and 
first forks of the new tree. With this a sound, 
vigorous bark, that has no tendency to blight 
and die, either on the trunk and limbs or in 
the forks, is most important. Oldenburgh 
and Switzer seem to fill these conditions with 
me. For grafting tardy bearers, I find 
Tetofsky as a stock very satisfactory, though 
this variety is not entirely free from bark dis¬ 
ease. Much is yet to be learned on these 
matters, for iron-clad orcharding is yet in its 
infancy. 
I ought to add that the object in setting the 
iron-clad root grafts so deeply is to get roots 
started from the cions. This very generally 
takes place when Russian cion? are used. Of 
course, the same or deeper planting must fol¬ 
low in the orchard, and this necessitates deep 
and thorough preparation of the soil, a thing 
most beneficial in any case, where fruit trees 
are concerned. 
Orleans County, Vt. 
FROM PRES. T. T. LYON. 
Although the words trim and prune are 
Winter Picture. Fig- 102, 
said to be synonymous, the former conveys, 
to some minds at least, the idea of trimming 
to a single shoot—removing all side branches. 
We, therefore, prefer the word prune, which, 
in its horticultural sense, means to thin out 
superfluous shoots, to shorten or remove cross¬ 
ing or interfering ones, or to cut back the 
more vigorous branches to secure the proper 
form or balance of the head, each and all of 
which become more or less needful to the 
prosperity and profitableness of both fruit 
and ornamental trees under the artificial con¬ 
ditions to which they may be subjected under 
cultivation. 
With young trees, especially of certain 
classes and varieties, the copious application 
of manures might, quite possibly, occasion ex¬ 
cessive wood growth, and thus defer fructifi¬ 
cation, occasioning also late growths and 
imperfect ripening of the wood, with conse¬ 
quent liability to injury from the cold of 
winter. With older trees this danger mainly 
disappears, the effect being to largely increase 
the size, quality and quan^ty of the fruit. 
In such case excess of manure may be wasted, 
and there may be danger of injury from the 
excessive application of such as contain pot¬ 
ash or other caustic substances. 
The experiment of planting apples will 
not be an expensive one, and will be only 
likely to occasion delay, since the seeds of the' 
apples planted are quite sure to lose their' 
vitality before the pulp of the fruit will have 
sufficiently decayed to afford material to sus¬ 
tain the growth of the germ. Nature always* 
provides for the separation of the seeds of 
fruits from the pulp before planting. This is 
even necessary in the case of berries and small 
fruits generally, even though their pulp is less 
in quantity and more perishable. 
We can see no benefit, but injury instead, 
from the employment of tile to mark the po¬ 
sition of the seed when planted. It will be 
better every way to use one or more short, 
light stakes for the purpose, since these will in 
no way interfere with the influences of light, 
and moisture. 
Van Buren County, Mich. 
FROM PROFESSOR J. L. BUDD. 
If properly understood, the plaa>is to-platnr 
the seed where the orchard trees*are to stupid,, 
and to top-work the seedlings when laijgfr 
enough. In Indiana the defect will be tender- 
ness in a large per cent, of the seedlings* and 
irregular growth in the small per cent, that 
stand. If SS. B. H. will plant, Gros Pomier for 
stocks he will find that they will start upward 
like young cottouwoods, and that strong, 
vigorous roots will go downward as in the 
wild crab apple. When the time comes to 
top-work, the stems will be uniform and 
straight, and the trees can be made uniform 
in higbt and will make uniform development 
of stem and top. In this connection I will say 
that the present craze for top-working ancti 
the war on root-grafted trees are,in my opia 
ion, not well supported by facts. At. the, 
West varieties of the apple that havv-gpod; 
foliage and are hardy in the tops, bu^,liabl6- 
to bark-bursting or sun-scald of the stems.ariei 
benefited by top-working on stockxnot liable* 
to injury. But, on the other hiyid, the long; 
list of varieties with foliage- not able to.erji- 
dure the heat and aridity of air, off 
our summers, and liqftle to winter-kiUi- 
ing from the top downward, are noi ma¬ 
terially benefited if at all by, work¬ 
ing on iron-clad stocks. Agaip. such va¬ 
rieties as Willow,Grimes’s Golden and Roman* 
Stem, that are benefited by putting perfeefr, 
stems under them, are found to ripen their 
fruit prematurely, if worked on such prepo*- 
teDt early varieties as Duchess, Whitney’s. 
No. 20, or Tetofsky. Last year Grimes’s 
Golden on Duchess was mellow the first of 
October, while on Winesap it was. hard and 
crude at that date. As to the war on root¬ 
grafting the apple, we must not forget that 
the Duchess is an iron-clad yet, though it has 
been root-grafted or crown-budded for gen¬ 
erations. I suspect that the climatic changes 
in the heat and relative humidity of the air of 
eur summers, wrought by the destruction of 
timber m the Eastern States, and the loss of 
our sea of prairie grass, and tens of thousands 
of swampy drainage centers at the West,, 
have had more to do with our orchard 1 
troubles than the practice of root-grafting. 
With varieties hardy enough to endure - 
fectly the conditions of air and soil ofi auy v - 
particular part of our country, 1 truly qelievp, 
that root-grafts—with short root apd, lpng£ 
cion set down to the top bud of the cion—wu/jf 
make as long-lived and perfect tv<ees,ae we 
can produce. But if wedded to, the belief 
that top-working is best, be sujya of ebe hardi¬ 
ness of your stock and that the season of its 
fruit is as late at least as that of Gros Pomier, 
Hibernal, or Recumbent. 
Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
fftinn Ctfttwimj. 
A HOME-MADE PLANTER. 
Mr. C. P. Todd, of Washington County, 
Oregon, has sent us drawings of a planter 
that he made himself at a cash cost of $2. As 
it has saved him many days of hard work, he 
thinks others may like to know about it. He 
took the hind wheels of his wagon to which ne 
bolted a tongue, as shown at Fig. 104. The 
bolt on the under side of the tongue, 
a larger picture of which is shown at 
No. 5 Fig. 105, is to fasten the plow 
as will be explained hereafter. This bolt 
came from an old plow which one of the 
neighbors had thrown away. At Fig. 108 is 
shown the plow arrangement which is fast¬ 
ened under the tongue shown at Fig. 104. 
The first shovel opens a trench. Directly 
back of it is apiece of stove-pipp. It will be 
seen that a piece of potato or a number of ker¬ 
nels of corn dropped into this stove-pipe must 
