Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-08-23
FIELD AND GARDEN
Eatted bv NJ. q. BATEHAM.
FRUIT cRoPs-oRCHARDs AND VINEYARDS
AROUND TOLEDO AND ON THE ISLANDS.

of the State Horticultural So
.eiety, to Toledo and Ppt-in1Bay, |
the past week, was very pleasant affair.
We found the truit crops in that region |
much better than in this and most other |
sections. of the State After reaching
Monroeville and Sandusky, and from
there to the Maamee River there is |
quite a fair crop of apples, and also Of
pears wherever there are trees large
enough to bear. Peaches are failure
but the trees show less injury than
around Cleveland and Painesville, the
past winter having been less severe
along the WESTERN part of the Lake
Shore. There has also been less rain
during the month past, in that region,
espeeiaHg arsand Toledo and on the Is
lands, than about here. This has been
an advantage to the grape crop.
Our first visit was at the, fruit farm
of Mr.: A. Fahnestock, on the Maumee,
6 miles below Toledo, where, besides
many acres of small fruits, is beauti-
ful near orchard of thousand trees,
ten years old, most of them bearing a
fine crop, and promising large income
to the proprietor. The soil is rich,
deep, clayey loan. rather fat but well un-
der-drained. The trees have grown
finely. and most of them are beautiful
Pyramids, with branches within two or
three feet Of the ground. Hundreds OF
them are now bearing from three to five
bushels. each OF handsome ifruit-Flem-
ish Beauty the most abundant of all,
but Bartlett and others also doing well.
The Buffam and Louise Bone have
not done well and the Seckel Lroves too
small for the markets. The remarkable
vigor of the majority of the trees, and
their exemption from blight, Mr.. Fahne-
stock attributes to the excellence of his
soil and his mode of pruning, 80 as to
have them form low heads and thereby
give shade and shelter to the trunks. ~,
Mr.. Dinner OF Dayton, who is the
largest pear grower in Ohio, was
member of our party, and said he had
never seen so fine show of pears as at
this orchard; and speaking about blight,
he said the fear of this disease ought
not to deter any one from planting
pears. He had lost some trees by this
cause, but always planted two or three
for every one that died, and he found
pears more reliable and profitable than
any other tree fruits.
Crossing to the east side of the river
we visited the farm of Taylor, who has
good apple orchard Of about 40 acres,
fifteen years old and bearing full crop
of very fair fruit. Its remarkable ex-
emptlon from injury by worms is attrib-
utable to the practice of keeping large
number Of hogs, and occasionally a
flock of sheep in the orchard, to eat up
every. apple that falls. The hogs also
root up large part of the sod beneath
the trees, thus stirring the soil and pro-
noting their growth. ~
Mr.. Taylor also has vineyard of ten
acres, bearing full crop of Concord
grapes, and 10 acres more coming on. He
does not find any other variety reliable,
and although the Concord does not bear
shipping long distance, it is quite a
profitable crop with him; most of the
fruit being sent off in baskets by the
steamboats,. 4.A4 .l.
Another vine-yard-near by, owned by
Joshua Rowland, about six acres Of
Concords is also bearing fine.crop.
There are other good orchards around
UHoIa1o 10th of y1oarc and onfa1os oh
we had not time to see, but hope to dc
so before long.
At Perrysburgh some of our party
visited the fine apple orchard of Mr.. J
W. Ross, who is well known as an in.
telligent pomologist. He has taken
special pains for many years past, to col.
lect and test all the promising varieties
of apples, and his orchard now contains
about 12o varieties in bearing, and is O
course an interesting study to nursery
men and fruit growers.
At Put-in-Bay Island we found thu
vineyards in better condition than W.
xpected---showing but little injury, tt
the vines by the winter, although
the crop of Catawba fruit il
quite small--not one-fourth of al
average; but of Concord, Ives ant
Delaware there is from one-third to one
half crop. We met here number o
the vineyardists from Kelley's Islant
and other Islands, and they told us tina
that the grape crops there were abou
the same as here; but one or two vine
yards of Catawba that were freely sui
phured the past season to prevent mil
dew of the foliage, are now bearing
fair crop; the wood being better ripene'
in the fall escaped injury by the winter
CULTURE OF BASKET WILLOW.
A young farmer who has a piece O
wet land, wants to learn something
about the culture and sale of osier vii
low, for basket making. He says ther
is some of it grown in Geauga county
Presume some one of our readers ther
will tell us about it; in the meantim
we copy the following from a commu
nication in the Cincinnati Gazette:
While in Southwestern Ohio the will
4
has sprung up and become quite exten
siye in other parts of the State wher
the soil is better adapted to its growth
and where the business can be conduct
ed on much larger scale; where un
broken tracts of hundreds of acres Q
the very best willow land can be had
For instance at Cranberry Prairie, Mel
Ger county, Ohio, willows have for tn
last twelve years been extensively an
successfully cultivated. This Prairie
covering about 900 acres of land, lie
about ten miles south of Celina, tn
county seat of Mercer county.
The willows cultivated for the trad
are not "Wild Willows" as many sur
pose them to be. They are foreig
varieties. They are propagated frol
cuttings, which ought to be foot /
length, stuck into the ground-th
ground having previously been we
plowed and narrowed. They are thu
planted in carly spring, in rows, rams
ing from fourteen inches to three fe,
part, each way--as the fancy of Il
party planting may incline, or the fe
tility of the soil justify. The rich
and better adapted the soil is to the
growth, the closer may they be prof
ably planted, and the more. per acr
will be their yield. They should
kept clear of weeds and grass for Il