Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-12-27

N"N0 VI Pi"hSi hOeaUiy tuo lOmUdiui ato ieoo
liable to suffer from this cause than others
so we enjoy partial crop of plums nearly
every year, and are satisfied with heavy
crop every second or third year. The Duke
and Morello cherries bear nearly as often as
plums; but the sweet or Heart and Bigar-
reau varieties, though perhaps yielding a
light crop every other year, only give full
crop occasionally. On the whole there is no
money in them.
Peaches, Quinces, &C.,
we sometimes have. The trees will survive
some time aud occasionally bear. Shelburn
Point peaches for cooking are some years in
Burlington market.
1t is not all seasons that are warm enough
or long enough to ripen the later
Grapes.
In close proximity 10 the water, however,
even the Oatawba will ripen nearly every
year and we're it not for the fact that nearly
every good grape here requires winter protec.
tion, grape culture on the islands and shores of
Champlain might become an extensive enter.
prise. As il is we ought to raise the grapes
we require-and SO we ought to raise our
own small fruits, our
Strawberries, Raspberrtes, &c.
But small part of the amount Of these
fruits consumed in our towns and villages is
grown in the vicinity. The fact hardly re.
fleets TO the credit Of our cultivators, for
they can be produced here with almost the
same facility as elsewhere.
Our Fruit Lands
| will endeavor briefly to designate, The
most valuable of these are the islands and
headlRnds Of the lake. Much of the soil of
the large islands at the lower end Of the
lake, Isle La Motto, Grand Isle, and North
and South Hero, is admirably adapted to
fruit trees. The soil in the elevated por-
tions of these islands being underlaid with
porous, slaty or limestone rocks is naturally
we'll drained, and is generally strong, clayey
loan. The same is true to a greater or less
extent OF the smaller islands lying near these
or scattered up the lake in the vicinity Of
either shore; and it is especially true of the
headlands and points Of the lake of which
St. Albans and Shelburn Points on the east
and Willsborough Point and Cumberland
Head on the west shores are the most con-
spicuous. Besides these locations there are
numerous smaller points, headlands or lake
ridges along both shores Of the lake for near
Iy its whole length, which are in no degree
inferior for this purpose. In many places in
this region the perfection of fruit culture has
already been attained. But the capacity of
The lands for fuller development of the in.
crest must long remain unexhausted.
Some three TO five miles back from the
East shore Of the lake, from Crown Point to
he Canada line, runs much broken chain of
ow mountains and hills,--Snake Mountain |
in Addison, Buck Mountain in Walt
nam, Sugar Loaf and others in Char
otte, Cobbe Hill and Snake Mountain
n Milton and Bellevue in st. Albans, the |
very outposts Of the green Mountains facing
he line Of the Adrondacs. Between this
.ange Of hills and the lake the land is quite |
evel and poorly drained. 1t averages some
ihy or hundred feet above the lake. In |
ome parts it is hard clay fiat; in others
| dry, sandy plain. On the whole it is not
he best fruit land, yet on many low ridges
md swells it offers favorable sites for orchards. |
70 the east of this range of hills already
mentioned and between them and the outer
'ange Of the Green Mountains, runs another
,elt varying in width from ten to twenty
niles. This is an undulating plateau some
wo or three hundred feet above the lake,
'ut is broken everywhere by ridges and hills.
Among these hills, or on these ridges, are
many sheltered slopes of warm, rich soil, gen.
rally strong, gravely or clayey loan,
These lands the farmer occupies with his corn
ields, and they are often most excellent
orchard lands. Indeed Il was in such spots
hat the first settlers Of our valley planted
heir most extensive orchards. Near the
from whose gorges issue cold
Winds, a care must be exercised to plant none
# the most tender varieties, but where these
lopes overlook the lake, or are contiguous to
t. the Baldwin and the Bartlett sometimes
hriye better than on the more exposed lands
bout the shore.
On the western shore the Adirondacs in
ONE places come down to the waters edge
tut from Port Henry to Westport, and from
Essex to Plattsburgh and northward the OPP
'Ortunities for fruit growing are hardly sur
'assed by those of the opposite side.
In view of the restricted limits to which
he most remunerative fruit culture is, in
he Northern States, confned,-a narrow
'elt along this or that river, or beside this
# that lake,--it must appear of advantage
o fully occupy and develop a field which
promises so good results as does this Valley
# Lake Champlain.
Continued nert l0eek.)