Buchanan County bulletin and guardian. (Independence, Iowa) 1866-1869, 1867-10-11
For the Bulletin.
Fruit Culture In Delaware County.

DELHi, Iowa. Sept 80, 1861.
Ep,roR BrLLnr,S :-Amid the excitement
Of " reconstruction" "impeschment,' fe-
male suffrage" "license." and State and
County elections. l see that o wisely re-
serve space for items Of interest concerning
our less exciting. but more important, home
life and business: so send you a few lines
upon the old but ever interesting business Of
Embarrassing in Iowa. In our own county
appls-rsising has been q costly,
alive experiment with many. and NOT, so far
AS l have heard, very successful with any
but il may be encouraging to know that, in
a neighborins county, this business is a
practical, largely r~enunera,ive success. that
there are orchards here worth asmall future.
where one NAV see long rows Of trees. laden
with the riches, of fruit, in all varieties. re-
minding one Of the orchards Of Illinois,
Ohio, and New York.
Only this wss necessary to make our beau
,ifal Northern Iowa region equal to the best.
and every citizen mus, rejoice that the OBJ
siacles 10 arple-rais;n g have been overcome.
and that orchards, equal to Any in this lai-
tude, east or west, are simplya question of
tune and care.
Near this place. in 1851, a large nursery
was started ; some OF the tres we're trans
planted in he same fed, in other places
the surpertaous trees were removed. leaving.
altogether. an orchard Of forty acres ; the
orchard was started in 1854 and 1855; it is
owned BY Judge Dooli,tle, who viii harvest.
this year, somewhere from 500 10 700 bush
els Of apples, much Off Of the finest quality /;
his orchard has not reached one>third Of its
bearing capacity. = considerable number of
The trees having been renewed, and being
vet young. and none of them in full bear
ing.
In 1856, trees we're taken from Judge
Dooliule's nursery, and another orchard.
nov owned By Hon. J.. NJ. Brsyton, was
started the original number of trees was
nearly . thousand, subsequently increased
OF er two hundred ; the late trees are not yet
bearing to any amount
Mr.. Bray,on this year has nearly or quite
GOO bushels of apples ; about half Of them
are Of the finest quality, the rest inferior,
mostly seedlings: . large portion of these
would be marketed 1t fair prices, we're they
not worth more to manufacture into vine-
gar. NJ. Brayton's orchard has no, reach.
ed more than ons>,hird or one-tourth Of its
bearing capacity yet.
Mr John Porter has an orchard which, for
uniform size and thrifty appearance of trees
| have never seen excelled ; it is smaller
than the others mentioned, but he has 200
bushels or more this season.
There are several orchards / have not
seen M. McElmeel's producing 700 BUSH
els or more Mr.. Helms from $50 to 200
A. E. House's from 60 to so, aud sone 9th
ers. Mr.. Stone. DIR. Boomer, Mr.. Hove, Mr.
Fleming, Mr.. Penn, and others, also have
smaller orchards, some Of them raisii Z, the
preseu, season, nearly or quite 100 bus els
each. /, is estimated that altogether, over
5000 Bushels Of apples we're raised in this
township.
Judge Dooliule, Mr.. Braytos, and Mr..
Porter. have nurseries in connection with
their orchards, where trees Of the SAM vari-
cites in their orchards may be procured
and no one who has been in their orchards
this fall can doubt that in appearance and
esery other quality, their fruit is equal to
that can be produced in this latitude.
/. is the ~opinio1 Of SOME farmers here, that
the winter killing Of ,rees has been largely
caused by cultivating the orchards too much.
10 that the trees grow too fast and too late,
the trees loo tender for our severe
winter weather. DR.. Boomer is very CERTAIN
that he lost . considerable portion OF his or
chard in that way, and that his trees have
done much better since be stopped ~cultiya-
ting the ground. Quite ~ few trees have
died in Mr.. Brayton's orchard as in any, aud
the former owner neglected them entirely,
protesting to believe that they we've worth
nothing, and would come to nothing. Per
hsps be would not think 50, this year, to see
ali sbe ine apples sold at &l,5O per bushel.
the rest, including windfalls and decay
I'd ones, made into vinegar 50 rs 10 realize
from ti,o0 to ei,25 per busbel above ex
pense Of manufacturing.
A word in regard TO future apple culture.
In Ill our fruit>rsising regions il has been
he kinds that originated in that section that
have thriyed the best it seems natural to
suppose that such will be the case here. In
he different orchards here there are seed
ling Trees which produce apples equal or SUI
perior to the grated trees BY their side and
these trees are propogated and developed,
they probably viii be, into varieties hav>
their origin on our own soil. . valusble
will have been gained in this very
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