Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1866-08-07
Fruit Culture The Experience of an
old Settler.
Mr.. Cover

ly appeared in the HERALD on the
subject Of fruit culture, and as You
request fruit ra,sers TO give their
thoughts on the subject | have
mind to write some of my views and
observations, and if you deem wor-
thy you may lay them before your
readers.
In the first place / will state that
| was born, and partly raised, in the
state OF Kentucky, where the Pear
7 Peach, Plum, Apple and Cherry flour
ish almost spontaneously. | never
SOW a fruit tree in that country show.
ing any signs Of disease, but when |
came to Edgar County, in the State
of illinois, which is 2 Or 3 degrees
further north the fruit trees did
sometimes winter kill ! rccoIect
) that the winter Of 1880 and 81 was
extremely cold the snow laying on
the ground three feet deep all oyer
The face Of tue country, the following
Cpring showed that all the Peach
trees and about a third Of the Apple
trees were killed. Orchards stand
irg in the creek bottoms taring the
worst and those on hill sides rolling
to the north suffering very little. /
have been cultiyating orchards in
Wisconsin p years and find they
die out much worse than ia Illinois
in tie spring Of 1865 had about 500
apple trees IN = loUrishng condition
they were pruned a little in March,
when they all looked healthy and
sound. the buds started soon after
wards a snow fell on the 10Th of
April which lasted several days,
which was succeeded By hard freez-
ing until about the goth Of May when
they began to bloom out and the
weather being quite dry the leaves
began to wilt and many Of my trees
died out. The grated trees suffer
ing the worst and seedlings that had
never been trausplanted doing the
best Here ! will remark that my
orcnard y surrounded BY pretty
heavy timber especially on the north
and north west the land rolling TO
the SOUTH west had small lot
Of trees from the Lancaster nursery
set out in April, 1868 which were
not injured ut all and they are still
doing we'll / will remark that as
soon as the dry wcarher ceased and
the ground became wet the trees be-
gan 10 revive. From these ciroum-
stances | draw the following conclu-
sions
First, That trees are not always
destroyed ~ the same process.
Second, That cold yeathcrdoes
not destroy fruit trees it has some
thing to do with It.
Third, That diseased circulation
does often Kill fruit trees. My con-
clusion is that the snow and hard
freezing after the sap started, de-
stroyed or injured it insomuch that
the roots being in dry condition
were unable t. give the trees suti-
cieut support.
ana clearly satisfied that orchards
o.. land rolling to the south or south
vest suffer more from the alterna,
tons Of weather than those on land
inclined to the north or north east.
The great difficulty in raising or
ehards in this country is the seasons
arc 50 short the wood does not get
well ripeucd If we could always
have ate dry fall J think there
would be little winter killing Of trees
! believe Chat many fruit trees are
destroyed at the time o. removing
them from tho nursery keeping the
roots out Of the ground sometimes
for days or weeks.
Cl4.,,,1j Il ~ In, TO
another orchard III Ills country |
would plant neither seedlings nor
gratis but ! would plant seed right
where wanted the trees to stand
in the orchard if a large number
Of seeds be planted in Il place !
would select only such rs exhibited
the greatest degree Of hardness and
the most thrift The rabbits can be
Kept from gnawing them by smear
ihg taem from bottom to top with
fresh blood either from slaughtered
swine on bcevos.
From an examination of my trees
| think they were some OF them XII
led by badly formed forks but tor
reasons already given / DO not
think that is the prime cause eff
the difficulty | should like to Know
what there is III the soil or climate
Of Wisconsin to make the fruit trees
grow with badly formed forks more
than there is / or ) degrees further
south. | agree with you that this is
a good country for fruit in a certain
sense but not in the sense that the
most OF people would understand it.
If your readers think that fruit trees
can be made to grow and flourish
with the same amount of labor and
the kind Of culture they received in
Kentucky, | think they will tipd
themselves under grave mistake.
believe the right time orprunfng
trees iii this country IS the latter
part Of July or the beginning Of
August but am quite certain
that pruning in March did not azure
fruit trees in Kentucky and Illinois
as that was the month universally
agreed on aS the proper time for pru-
ming The best aud beaithie~t trees
! ever raised ere oruncd very lii.
tie il i best a. safest to prune
quite spaungty or none At all.
No.