Voh. LVIII. No. 2565. NEW YORK, MARCH 25, 1899. si per year. 
Van Deman’s Fruit Notes 
All Sorts of Questions Answered. 
••Natural" Apple Trees. 
A neighbor says that apple trees raised from seed (natural 
trees, he calls them), and top-grafted when four or five years 
old, are much hardier as to withstanding blight, etc., than the 
ordinary root-grafted nursery stock. He says, also, that budding 
or bud grafting is not good for apple trees, though all right for 
cherries and plums. Is he right on these points? v. r. M. 
Colorado. 
This is an old question, and deserves a candid an¬ 
swer. It is really a comparison between top-grafted 
and root-grafted seedlings. Taking the billions of 
apple trees that have been propagated by root-graft¬ 
ing and planted in orchards all over the country, and 
their fruitfulness, long life and freedom from blight, 
as compared with those which were grown by our 
forefathers, and I do not believe they appear unfavor¬ 
ably, except certain kinds that are constitutionally 
weak. It is not to be ques¬ 
tioned that many of the 
grafted trees of to-day are 
not as vigorous as they 
should be, but there are 
reasons for it aside from 
any bad results from root¬ 
grafting, in most cases. 
Some varieties are natu¬ 
rally very susceptible to 
blight, fungous diseases 
and insects, and it mat¬ 
ters little what they are 
grafted upon, or whether 
they are seedlings. For 
instance, the Russian ap¬ 
ples, as a class, are very 
subject to blight, and no 
stock upon which they 
have been worked, so far, 
has given them immu¬ 
nity. Others are weak, 
constitutionally, in their 
roots, or in all their parts, 
and will not grow well 
under any conditions. 
However, I have noticed 
that, if some kinds of ap¬ 
ples and other fruits are 
top-grafted upon very 
thrifty stocks, they are 
forced or fed into a better 
growth than if allowed to 
form their own root sys¬ 
tems. In case of apples 
of this character, there is 
seedling that 1 have 
the method of propagation, as regards hardiness, 
resistance to blight and other troubles. 
Ben Davis Apple and Peaches for Virginia. 
1. Will tbe much-despised Ben Davis do well in northern Vir¬ 
ginia ? 2. Will you name some of the best kind of peaches suited 
to this locality, that will furnish fruit from the earliest to the 
latest? 3. Will 10 degrees below zero kill peach buds? r. v. 
Virginia. 
1. Certainly ; Ben Davis does very well in northern 
Virginia. It is a market apple that pays almost 
every one who grows it there. 2. A good list of 
peaches for that section for family use, arranged in 
order of ripening, is as follows: Sneed, Triumph, 
Rivers, St. John, Mountain Rose, Elberta, Family, 
Stump, Walker, Chairs, Salway, Wilkins and Hen¬ 
rietta. 3. No; it is not certain that a temperature of 
10 degrees below zero is fatal to peach buds, although 
it often is so. The injury depends much upon the 
condition of the trees, the state of the soil, and the 
duration of the cold spell. If the trees are vigorous 
Fruits for Cold Wisconsin. 
A CROP OF QUESTIONS, PERTINENT AND PERENNIAL. Fig 
beeuiiug uii.au x 
rer seen that is better than root-grafted trees of Ben and the fruit buds well ripened and entirely dormant, 
_ rx /\ ^ • 11 • 1 — i-t. ma! 1 /x n m ^ Vl A Cl A W Awn rtrtl A 1 TT D'f (3 Vl OT* f 1 . fl 11 • 
)avis and Northern Spy. Ordinary seedlings vary in 
hriftiness, hardiness, etc., just as ordinary root- 
rafted nursery stock varies. Some of the most sub- 
tantial apple trees that I have ever seen were grown 
rom root-grafts. 
The idea that budding is not a good way to propa¬ 
gate apple trees, but “all right for cherries and 
ilums”, is a mistake. Some nurserymen bud a great 
nany of their apple stocks, and grow good trees by 
hat method. In a climate where apple trees are in¬ 
ured by the severe Winters, it is a common practice 
o top-work upon very hardy stocks, such as Olden- 
jurg, Virginia crab, etc., and both grafting and bud- 
ling are used. These stocks are originally obtained 
jy root-grafting and setting so deep that they are 
ikely to form some roots above the graft. There- 
are, these very hardy trees are, after all, nothing 
ut top-worked trees on root-grafted stocks. The 
the soil moist and the severe cold only of short du¬ 
ration, there may be little damage to the buds. I have 
had some peaches in my own orchards in the West 
after the buds had passed through more than 15 de¬ 
grees below zero. 
Sprouting Apple Seeds. 
I could not get apple seeds in time to plant them and have 
them freeze. Can I sprout them successfully by soaking in hot 
or cold water? j. d. a. 
Wichita, Kan. 
Apple seeds that are now being kept out of the 
ground may, probably, be induced to sprout by soak¬ 
ing them in cold water for a week before planting. 
Change the water often, and keep it very cold. At 
this late date, no time should be lost in getting them 
into the ground. As soon as the soil is fit to stir, 
plant them in drills as close as they can be cultivated. 
Sow them not over one inch deep, and in the best of 
UU UUJJ H ---O 
anclusion is that more depends upon the variety than soil, so they will make thrifty plants. 
I am thinking of planting a few trees—apple, crab, pear and 
plum, also some small fruits—currants, gooseberries, etc. I 
would like some information as to varieties suitable for plant¬ 
ing in this latitude. The climate is very severe, the thermometer 
sometimes going to 40 or 50 degrees below zero. The soil Is 
sandy, and the land nearly level, with what Blope there Is to¬ 
wards the south. It will be an experiment, as there is no orchard 
in the county. I think that I will try about 40 trees at first; I 
want them for home use. Will you give distances to plant, etc.? 
Would it be best for me to purchase trees grown In Missouri ? 
Is there any nursery firm whose word can be relied upon ? 
Hayward, Wis. c. K. D. 
There are very few apples and pears that will endure 
the climate of that country, where the thermometer 
registers 50 degrees below zero, and blizzards blow 
for several days at a time. Crab apples and plums 
of the native, Prunus Americana, type are more 
hardy. Among the most hardy of the apples are 
Hibernal, Oldenburg, Charlamoff and Peerless. Of 
the crabs, Martha, Whitney, Virginia and Briar 
Sweet are good. Many of the plums of the species 
mentioned will do very 
well—Wolf, Cheney, Stod¬ 
dard, Rollingstone, 
Ocheeda, New Ulm, 
Wyant, Hawkeye, Gay¬ 
lord and De Soto. If any 
of the pears be tried, 
Bessemianka is most 
likely to endure the severe 
climate. Twenty feet 
apart is sufficient for all 
but the apples, and they 
should be 30 feet there. 
Where the apple succeeds 
well, this is too close for 
the trees when they get 
old. My advice as to 
where to purchase the 
trees is to get them of 
some nursery as far north 
as good stock can be 
bought. There are good, 
reliable, honest nursery¬ 
men in Minnesota and 
Wisconsin, from whom 
they may be had. There 
are so many chances to 
cheat in the nursery busi¬ 
ness, that bad men some¬ 
times take advantage of 
the circumstances, but 
there are many honest 
people in the business, too. 
Sometimes honest nurs¬ 
erymen send out stock 
wrongly labeled because 
they bought it so without 
knowing it. Nearly all of them have to buy more or 
less of each other, and this is the cause of much un¬ 
intentional wrong and apparent dishonesty on the 
part of really honest nurserymen. 
Propagating Butternuts and Grapes. 
1. Is there any practicable way for a farmer to propagate the 
butternut, except from seed ? Many of the trees around here are 
barren, and some bear inferior nuts, so that seedlings might not 
be satisfactory. If they are to be grown from seed, would nuts 
that have been stored in a dry place since last Fall, be suitable 
to use, and how should they be treated now ? If not, how should 
they have been kept ? Would the seedlings require shade the 
first season ? 2. I have some grape cuttings, secured late last 
Fall and buried, part in sand in the cellar, and part in a dry 
place out-of-doors. How shall I manage with them in the Spring 
to secure the largest number of plants practicable ? I have 
had no experience in growing grapes, or in starting the vines. 
Vermont. 8. s. c. 
1. Seedlings from butternuts are variable, but not 
to so great an extent as is the case with improved 
varieties of nuts and fruits. They are likely to run 
tolerably close to the natural type. But there is no 
