Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-02-21

DIR. Hoskins thought nearly all transplant
ed naples taken from the woods whom of
considerable size and roughly trimmed with
the axe were likely to be more or less rotten
inside, even though they might appear thrifty
and growing we'll.
Another speaker name not obtained) said
he had very fine tree apparently perfectly
healthy and thrifty which he tapped for
several years but got no sap. Finally he
cut it for wood, and found it much deoayed
internally.
Mr.. Lane said il was believed that about
All ne sugar of a maple tree was contained
id ihe Two or three outside layers of wood.
It = - use to bore deeper.
TUESDAY EVENING.
The editor of the FARMER addressed the
meeting extemporaneously upon
"Fruit Growing I'm Northern Vermont"
A friend who took notes, furnishes the fol-
lowing summary of his remarks. Dr. Hos
kins said
We often hear people envyiug the resi-
dents of tropical countries the abundance
and variety of fruit which is there produced.
But it is only necessary to institute rigid
comparison to find that the facts do not con-
firm the common idea in this matter. The
temperate regions furnish fruits more abund-
antly, of more species aud varieties, and of
as good, if not better quality than the trop-
les. For the oranges, pneapples and BAN
anas with few others not known to us be-
cause not transportable we have the apple
all the year round, the pear, the peach, the
grape, the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry
and various other small fruits, not to men,
ton plums, cherries, currants, gooseberries,
huckleberries. &C., &c. In number and va
riety as well as excellence, the fruits Of the
temperate zone are not surpassed, if equal ed
by the productions of the tropics. What
equatorial fruit compares with our strawber-
ry, or surpasses the grape or the peach, or
can fill the place of the applet
In our part Of Vermont, indeed, we must
dispense entirely with the peach, but all the
rest OF the list is open to US, if not in all its
varieties, yet in some good varieties Of every
species. And some fruits grow best, think
in the coolest parts of the state According
to my experience the strawberry is more
successfully cultivated on Lake Memphre-
magog than in Massachusetts, New York or
Kentucky, because our deep SHOWS give a
regular and cheap protection to the plants
during winter. Every farmer should grow
the strawberry in his garden. 1t is the
most delicious aud at the same time one Of
the most easily raised of fruits, yet the hay
field is not a profitable place to have a
strawberry bed.
But | suppose | am more especially ex-
pected to speak at this time upon the culture
of apples, which is now attracting large
degree of thought and attention from the
farmers of Northern Vermont. 1t has been
held that we cannot grow apples in this sec
ton, but here and there there is and always
has been orchards that contradicted the as
sumption Yet it cannot be denied that
much money and labor has been fruitlessly
spent in trying to start orchards among us,
and that many have been disguised and dis
couraged by their failures. Still, if it can be
shown that others succeed it may be well to
find out how they do it and try again.
The main causes of these failures have
been three. First, in buying apple trees of
varieties unsuited to our climate, of which
there are many Perhaps seven-eighths
states south and west Of US are unsuitable
for this region, Yet this is not generally
known and the tree-peddlers, with their
pretty picture books, beguile purchasers to
buy beautiful apples, that will succeed only
where the peach will grow. Second, these
tree-peddIers have not supplied good trees.
They usually buy the refuse stock of the
nurseries, and even that they deliver in
dead or dying condition. Third, purchasers,
even when they get good, hardy trees, in
good condition, either through ignorance or
inattcntioH, fail to set them out and care Tor
them rightly, and they either die, or give no
satisfactory yield of fruit.
Apple trees require no more care nor labor
than any other crop yielding an equal return.
But in our climate they must have the care
they do need, or you cannot have an orchard.
The trees, even the hardest, will not grow
and come into successful bearing spontaneous
ly. A hundred trees need not require more
than hundred hours labor annually, but #
they DO require that neither ten hours nor
fifty hours will do.
The speaker then went on to give the de-
tails of selecting, planting, pruning and pro-
tectng apple trees in this climate, for which
space cannot be afforded IN this place. In
reply to questions, he said that he would not
expect good results from the best trees set in
grass ground that he preferred to prune
late in the winter, or very early in the
spring before the sap starts but little
heavy pruning is required if the trees are
attended to, and undesired branches removed
when small does most Of his pruning with
a pen knife; preferred to branch low and
plant close, say branch at two feet from the
ground, and set fifteen feet apart each way,
thinning out when the trees begin to inter-
lock, When snow lies in drifts, or along
fences, would start the branches out high
enough SO as not to be broken down by snow.
Never would set any apple tree, even a crab,
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