Middletown transcript., 1869-04-03
Horticultural department.
From tie Baltimore Weekly Sun.
Applc-Tree Planting.

ing in large proportion of Maryland, a.
well as elsewhere, is the loss year after
year of the apple crop. Such of it as is
not total loss is Of such quality that il
cannot. by any care. be preserved half the
usual time of good keeping apples. The
chief enemy of the crop is, no doubt, the
curculio; but there is something beyond
that which passes our skill and knowledge
and leaves us destitute of apples. When
we find an instance of successful cultiya-
ton, we are interested, of course, to know
how it was brought about. Such one
we find described in late number of the
Horticulturist. Wilson Marshall, of Cecil
county, Md. we are told, has sixty-five
trees on an acre and a half of land, which
have never failed to bear since two years
from the planting, and from which he sold
few years ago, in one season, S265
worth of apples.
His orchard was planted on the south
side of slope and the ground was worked
until the trees were ten years old great
care having been observed in planting the
trees, keeping them straight and we'll
pruned. The ground was well manured
and lined, and good crops of grain, pota-
toes, &c. were obtained whilst the trees
were small. He pruncs about the first of
June and trims off all shoots and suckers
in August. This summer pruning is an
advantage in the fact that the cuts grow
over with new bark, and are prevented
from dccaying. To prevent the growing
of shoots, the trees should be scored around
the butts. Since the trees have become
large, the manuring and lining have not
been abandoned, but the ground is treated
to liberal coat yearly, and occasionally
ploughcd. BY this course of treatment
Mr.. Marshalrs orchard has never entirely
failed to bear since the trees were two
years planted, whilst orchards in the same
neighhorhood, planted about the same
time, never bore rightly, and are now al
most gone.
That is good management that results
in success, yet there are one or two points
in w. Marshalrs that experienced culti-
vators would take exception to. The
growing of grain, for instance. is scarcely
allowable, and is only tolerablc under the
very favorable circumstances afforded by
the general course pursued. The yearly
cultivation of the ground up to ten years,
and abundant lining and manuring, were of
prime value no doubt. In very rich ground
the grain Git is not said what kind) may
have had the effect of checking excessive
or too rapid growth of wood, and caused
early bearing. Ceasing to work the ground
after ten years, except an occasional plow-
ing, and continuing to manure yearly,
constitute good treatment for such an or
chard. The occasional blowing is, per-
haps, of questionable utility, as it must
come in serious conflict with the roots that
fill the groud. If very lightly and care
fully done, and crop of oorn-feld peas
sown, to be consumed by stock in the fall,
it might be very useful We should use
an apple orchard for hog pasture, and
expect to find it greatly relieved from cur
culio and other destructive insects by their
presence.
There is a point in the management of
apple trees lately brought to notice which
may be worthy of consideration mean
the distance of planting the trees. Forty
feet apart each way, or forty by thirty,
has been considered not to much distance
for planting, and twenty-five to thirty, or
at the outside forty trees to the acre,
have heen thought enough This is about
the number of Mr.. Marshalps. The edi-
tor of the Horticulturist some time since
published an article in which it was argued
that by this great distance in planting the
young trees are subjected to the burning
heat of the SUMS rays in long, hot sum-
mer's drought, and are left to stand alone,
as it were, and bear singly the storms
of wind that, winter and spring, bend their
tops and crack and tear loose, by leverage.
their roots. "Our own practice" SAYS
the editor, ''has been most successful
in apple orchards at twelve by sixteen feet
and We have known the best results from
a like distance by some extensive orchards
in the West The past two years we have
doubted if even this distance had not bet
ter be reduced, and in exposed, bleak,
wintry situations, on prairies or bluffs, we |
are satisfied it had. The closer trees are |
planted to each other the more do thew as |
sist each other in breaking the force Of the
wind and in gradually ameliorating the
climate. They will sooner shield and
shade the ground, and their roots, retain
hS SiOaoCi
If moisture and food they will come sooner
nto maturing and frqiting their blossoms
md as they increase in size will acquire
he rough bark that comes with maturity
md belongs to them in health, SO that they
become too thick for the light to keep them
'ound and full in the contour and exten-
lion of branch, they will be the better en-
lbled to stand alone, while the fruit that
las been gathered from the trees requiring
will be found to have more than
'epaid the first cost Of the whole orchard.
Were we to plant an apple orchard to-
lay, We think We should set our trees ten
" fifteen feet. and if of standard pears,
en- by ten feet or Of dwarf pears or APP
,les, six by eight feet"
A correspondent of the same journal, in
+ February number. writing from VIM
nTr a n Il 4