TOPICS OF INTEREST TO FRUIT GROWERS. 
525 
Fameuse grows freely, and bids fair to prove useful. 
Lady Apple has hitherto done well with me. It produced 
its clusters of pretty, crimson-cheeked fruit last season for the 
first time. 
The bark of Early Harvest continues brighter than that of 
most others, but I should like this and Summer Rose better if 
they produced more wood, and fewer blossoms. 
Of trees I have not fruited, 
Red Astrachan, raised from grafts received from Hovey, of 
Boston, and worked before the hard winters, grows very strong 
and thrifty. I have Northern Spy from Buffalo, and also from 
Boston grafts. They have grown tolerably well so far, but the 
Buffalo trees have not yet blossomed. I purpose trying, next 
season, the effects of high feeding on these trees, which nursery¬ 
men say agrees best with this variety. 
The growth of the Mother apple is not satisfactory, it has 
not blossomed. 
Gravenstein and iEsopus Spitzenburgh, have both failed. 
I have not one useful plant left of Rhode Island Greening and 
Fall Pippin, of which kinds I had six trees each. Three trees 
of Fall Pippin, made considerable growth the first four years, 
but the bark on the southwestern side of the stems is killed, 
and rotted off, and of course the trees are worthless. They 
have blossomed three or four years, but never fruited. One 
tree died down to the ground, but afterwards produced a strong 
shoot from the root. This I trained with a low head, so that 
when the tree is in leaf, the stem is shaded. Some consider 
this the chief advantage of low-headed trees, the foliage pro¬ 
tecting the stem from the injurious influence of the direct rays 
of the sun, thereby preventing the cracking and destruction of 
the bark on the sunny side. But I suspect this mischief is 
done long before the leaves unfold. The appearance of my 
short stemmed Fall Pippin, indicates that it will soon be as 
worthless as the others, and the bark of the large trees is de¬ 
stroyed on the leading stem, at least 18 inches above the low¬ 
est tier of branches. Very early in the season sap will flow on 
