1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
461 
SOME WISCONSIN APPLE PROBLEMS 
8. IF. P., Markesan, Wis .—I would like to 
have the opinion of experienced fruit growers 
In regard to the following questions. I have 
a nursery of my own grafting, two-year-old 
trees. I intend to plant a 50-acre orchard 
the coming Spring using the best of these 
(about 6,000) trees. They are a fine lot 
and were dug and buried (heeled in) last 
Fall about the middle of November. Among 
the varieties were 500 Whitney No. 20 crabs. 
This is a very hardy variety here, and grows 
an upright and handsome tree. It was my 
intention to plant them in a part of the 
orchard, and after a few years top-work 
them with some of the better but more tender 
varieties, Northern Spy, Grimes Golden, 
Wagener and others, I was planning to 
change (hem by bark-grafting the main limbs 
when they are three or four years set in 
orchard. I choose this variety because to 
my notion it grows the finest shaped tree 
for this mode of grafting. Last Fall, October 
9 and 10, we had very severe cold here; 
previous to that date the weather had been 
mild and growing, and on those nights the 
mercury dropped to 16 degrees, and the 
ground was frozen too hard to plow the 
next 48 hours. Afterwards came on very 
warm and growing time about like September 
days, and no more frost until November 15, 
I found on digging the trees that every one 
of those Whitney No. 20 had the bark split 
(burst) on the north side of the tree a dis¬ 
tance of three inches above the ground and 
one inch below ground. This was the only 
variety of 20 that did show bursting of the 
bark, except a few of Sutton Beauty. Are 
they injured so they should not be used in 
planting? I would like to have the opinion 
of propagators as to the desirability of using 
this Whitney No. 20 as a stock for grafting, 
top-working to other varieties. Will there be 
a tendency to change the quality of the fruit? 
Our State Horticultural Society recommends 
the Virginia crab as best for topiworklng. 
Would it be in any way better to use North¬ 
western Greening or Wolf River (varieties 
that originated a few miles from here and 
are regarded as ironclad for this northern 
country) instead of the crabs? I will con¬ 
fess that I never saw a success in top-work¬ 
ing an orchard, hereabouts, while a few 
single specimens have done well. Root-kill¬ 
ing and sunscald are the bane of this 
country, and to get an orchard to bearing 
age it limits us to a few of the hardy varie¬ 
ties. Could we expect any good results from 
budding a lot of Northwestern Greenings in 
nursery? We have no San Jos6 scale as yet, 
though it Is getting closer to us. I confess 
my courage sometimes almost fails me. I 
made plans for extensive orchard planting 
three years ago and have now 2,000 trees 
doing finely, mostly in sod. This new orchard 
is in cultivated land, high north slope. The 
part planted is on a very steep north side- 
hill at the bottom of which is one of those 
old moraines, called here marsh. I have 
plenty of material to mulch the trees, or as 
you say, a small haystack for each one. 
We could not endorse such a plan for 
the region where S. W. P. is located. We 
have found that these varieties are unre¬ 
liable except in certain favored localities 
along the shore of Lake Michigan. Top¬ 
grafting is all right for the home orchard 
when we have an old tree or two that we 
want to use for a time, but in commer¬ 
cial orchard work it is rarely a success. 
I have generally looked on it as a make¬ 
shift, little better than nothing. We plant 
so that we will have apples on their own 
roots in this State, and to do this we 
plant trees that have been grafted with 
piece-roots. Regarding bark splitting on 
the Whitney I cannot understand why 
this variety should be affected more than 
others, but do not think it will prove se¬ 
rious. If the trees were mine f should 
not hesitate to use them. Budding is not 
a success in this State; never has been, 
and it is doubtful if it ever will be. I 
will repeat that S. W. P. will get much 
better results from planting good two or 
three-year-old trees, piece-root graft, than 
by any process of top-grafting. S. W. P. 
says that sometimes his courage almost 
fails. There is no need of this. Wiscon¬ 
sin is a good apple State, and there is 
plenty of money to be made if the proper 
varieties are selected and the proper site 
and soil conditions considered Plant 
largely Summer and Fall varieties on 
rather heavy soil and in elevated posi¬ 
tions, and with good cultivation the 
chances of success are just as many as, if 
not more than in New York or Missouri. 
We cannot grow apples in Wisconsin in 
sod and make a success of it any more 
than in any other State. We cannot grow 
finer Spy, Grimes Golden, Baldwin, etc., 
generally throughout the State, but we 
can grow finer Duchess, Yellow Transpar¬ 
ent and Wealthy than any other State in 
the Union, and make just as much money 
as the grower of Winter varieties in other 
sections. Frederick cranefield. 
Secy. Wis. Horticultural Society. 
It is not best stock, from Iowa exper¬ 
iments covering 30 years. Virginia crab 
(Fluke’s) of Iowa origin, is the best 
stock; I have it under test, and many 
have, and it is well equipped in forks 
against injury. It is best to bud in young 
limbs the size Qf lead pencil or of smaller 
finger while tree is young, after set out 
in orchard. Do this in budding season in 
Fall; leave dormant till Spring, then cut 
back to within three inches of buds. This 
is better than grafting, and wind will not 
blow grafts out. After shoot is two feet 
long cut back to it and it will grow over 
same season. Or the budding can be done 
in May after bark is loose, taking buds 
off dormant bud-stocks kept dormant in 
a buried box. The buds can be used up 
to June 20, and growth is checked in same 
limb by cutting back to near the newly-set 
bud a few days after; then later bud 
starts with others. Pinch others back and 
check and encourage those starting, and 
in same season two to three feet growths 
are often possible. I do not think in¬ 
quirer needs to be much scared as to 
scale for such a locality or latitude. I 
take very little stock in insect and scale 
scare for rigid climates and arid West. 
Humid countries and those with lake con¬ 
ditions and ocean climates are in more 
danger. Mulch in his location can be 
made a good condition, and also a bad 
one. Dry soil should not be mulched 
over trees to keep rain out when it does 
come. Summer mulch causes surface 
rooting conditions; roots come up and 
need light and air, and the mulch shuts 
those off; trees if mulched very deeply 
several years have surface systems not 
shallow and are liable to root injury and 
freezing out. If ground is well watered 
in Fall, plenty of moisture in it, mulch is 
good until Spring; then it should be taken 
off. If ground freezes up dry and mulch 
is applied heavily in February or March 
and trees are locked up late in Spring 
and do not. get Spring rains early around 
the roots it is a damage. A general 
mulch over ground in orchard is more 
often a benefit, but mulch can be a dan¬ 
gerous factor and condition in variable 
western and northern climates. It is 
needful to understand the science of its 
application in, the West, where we have 
dangerous extremes of climate. 
Iowa. W. M. BOMBERGER. 
CRIMSON CLOVER OR COW PEAS . 
One of our readers in central New Jersey 
asks us the following questions about sow¬ 
ing Crimson clover: “What about sowing 
Crimson clover as soon as I can get the 
ground ready, and when it gets up, say six 
inches, plow it under and sow again, and 
keep on so all Summer? I have a poor field, 
and would like to bring it up.” This Is a 
new proposition to us, and we never heard 
of its being done. Do you know of any 
case where it has been tried? In your 
judgment, would such a scheme succeed, or 
would you rather sow cow peas after once 
plowing under the Crimson clover? 
Our custom has always been to sow at 
last cultivation of the corn, as a cover 
crop for the Winter. We have no experi¬ 
ence in sowing Crimson clover in the 
Spring, and do not believe it could grow 
successfully on a light soil unless it was 
well treated with fertilizers. My own 
judgment would be to sow the Soja bean. 
He could bring up his land quicker than 
with Crimson clover. To sow and grow 
Crimson clover up to six inches high, 
and then plow under, would not in my 
judgment improve the soil very fast. 
New Jersey. d. c. lewis. 
Crimson clover is generally a failure 
when sown in Spring. I would advise 
your correspondent to sow cow peas soon 
after June 1, plow under early in Septem¬ 
ber and sow rye for cover crop, plowing 
that under the following May, and plant 
what he wants to. This is for poor light 
soil; if he has clay soil with clay subsoil 
plow in Spring, harrow over occasionally 
until July, then sow Crimson clover and 
let stand all Winter. If he sows it in 
early Spring it goes to seed before any 
size, and is a failure. It would also prob¬ 
ably be a failure on poor sandy soil. Cow 
peas are best for such soils. I have had 
long experience with Crimson clover and 
this is the result. chas. black. 
New Jersey. 
The plan proposed by your correspond¬ 
ent is new to me, and one that in my 
opinion it not likely to succeed satisfac¬ 
torily. Spring-sown Crimson clover has 
not given such results in this section ?s 
to cause farmers to continue the prac¬ 
tice. Both the root and top growth are 
weak. It soon heads out, and does not 
furnish much humus for the land when 
plowed under. Had I such land to im¬ 
prove I would much prefer fitting the 
ground nicely, and sowing about the mid¬ 
dle of May with a wheat drill o..e bushel 
of cow peas per acre, applying at the 
same time from 200 to 300 pounds per 
acre of a moderately good wheat phos¬ 
phate. This should make a good growth 
of vine, which can be secured for hay in 
time to sow Crimson clover after the land 
has been well prepared either by plow¬ 
ing or using a disk harrow. Another 
light application of fertilizer at the time 
of sowing the seed will pay well. The 
cow pea hay crop should more than pay 
all expenses of seed and fertilizers, be¬ 
sides leaving the land in the best possible 
condition for a good crop of Crimson 
clover the following year. 
Delaware. chas. barker. 
7 
An Open Letter I 
Dear Sir: 
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