Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-02-16
Selection and Planting Of Apple Orch
ard TrnaS-

dIu lIttss
DIR. John y. Warder, President OF
the Ohio State Horticultural Society,
and Vice President of the United
States Pathological Society, has pub
lished a valuable work of IA pages,
profusely illustrated, on POmology,
which is regarded by fruit culturists
as of standard authority. In regard
to the selection and planting of Apple
trees he says:
We now come to the consideration
of a matter of great importance to the
success of the future orchard-the
selection of the plants We are to set
therein. No matter how favorable
the site, how good the soil, nor how
thorough the preparations may have
been; all may be spoiled by 4 bad Sc
lection of trees, and subsequent disaP-
pointment will be the consequence.
Formerly, and in some sections of
the country even now, very erroneous
notions prevailed upon this subject
Large trees, of several years growth in
the nursery, were preferred by those
who were planting orchards; trees
ready to bear fruit, were eagerly in
quired Sor, and preferred; even if they
had been crowded together so as to be
drawn up to a great hight without any
lateral branches, and had formed their
heads at the hight of seven or eight
feet, so as to be out of the way of
browsing by cattle and horses, they
were the more admired by the pur-
chasers. Nowadays there is q great
change in the sentiment of tree plant
ers as to the age, size, and shape of the
trees that are to be set out.
Thrifty young trees are preferred to
older and larger ones on many ac-
counts. They are more vigorous and
will endure the disturbance of dig
ging, transportation, and change of
locality from the nursery to the orch
ard, much better than larger and old
er trees. They are more easily dug,
and will have a larger proportion of
roots removed with them than those
which have stood longer in the nurs.
ery-rows, so as to have pushed their
fibers beyond the reach of the spade.
Such trees are more stocky, and are
furnished with lateral branches, or
they should be so furnished, but these
would be smothered and removed
from older trees in crowded rows, as
they are usually found in the nurs-
cries. If these younger trees be not
already furnished with laterals and
elements for the formation of low
heads, by the judiciOus treatment of
the nurserymen who produced them,
the Orchardist can at least bend them
to his will. He may make of them
just what he pleases by his OWL ma
n~ipulations at the time of planting or
afterwards, without feeling that he is
sacrificing to his fancy and judgment
the growth of two or three years, by
freely using the knife and saw, in the
removal of the surplus and overgrown
top, leaving him only a bare and mu-
tilated stock to set out at the begin
ming of his orchard.
Another advantage of selecting
small trees, especially to those at a
distance from the nursery, is, that
they are so much more easily trans
ported, and freight bills are a serious
item in the expense account of a large
orchard plantation-these may be re-
duced to a minimum by the selection
of small instead of large trees. As to
forming the heads of our trees, if we
cannot get the nurserymen to do this
for us, since we are unwilling to re-
munerate them for the extra labor,
and greater space required TO form
such stocky specimens as we prefer,
the difficulty is obviated by planting
out young trees upon which we may
form the heads where we please.
As already suggested, there is a
great revolution going on in the minds
of tree-planters as to the proper age
for planting. Instead of the inquiry
for huge and cumbrous Overgrown
trees, that had stood four or five years
or more in the nursery, we now finda
growing demand for small, stocky
trees of two or three years, or even
less. OF many thriftily growing
kinds, good yearlings are much better
for the orchard than large trees espec-
tally such as have been crowded in
the nursery and are devoid of side
branches, and whose tall, naked stems
are exposed to the burning heats and
blasting cold of their new homes in
the open field, and to the depredations
of hosts of insects. Those purchasers,
who seek after the tall trees, with bare
stems, running up like fishing poles,
they who desire to buy their trees by
the running yard and to get as great
length as possible for their money, can
be accommodated by the nurseryman,
who will produce the article to order;
but such planters will soon find that
their orchards are much less satisfac-
tory than those set with short and
stOcky trees, and which have been en-
couraged to branch out so as to form
low heads. As set forth in the chap
ter upon The Nursery, such trees can
be produced, and they are greatly to
be preferred on many accounts, but
their production by the nurserymen
must depend upon the intelligence of
the orchardists producing a demand
for trees of such a character, and a
willingness on their part to pay the
grower a Liberal price for the increased
labor and expense, lin space at least
requisite for their production. This
no one should object to, for there is
economy in planting good trees; the
successful orchardist will purchase
the best; he will not have refuse or
trash that may be offered him at a low
figure, Tor he well knows that it is
dear at any price.