Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-01-24

stance grated the Peach apple on some
yellow Crabs, and they are doing well one
bore about half bushel last year. | have
had good many Seeding Crabs winter
killed, so Crabs are not all hardy would
almost say it is pity that any of them are"
&C. S. p" is entirely sound in his obser-
vations regarding the necessity of care and
good culture to the success of an orchard. |
This care and attention is necessary every |
where, but particularly so along the north
ern limits Of fruit-growing, where trees are
often weakened, when not killed, by the
cold winters.
That more varieties of summer and fall |
apples are hardy than of winter sorts is to |
be expected, because early ripening of fruit |
and of wood usually go together, and unless |
the new wood is well matured before cold |
weather it will suffer- Still, our own ex-
perence leads to the belief that we shall
eventually find good assortment of winter
apples that will endure our hardest winters.
Good progress has already been made in that
direction, and so many are now working at
it, East and West, that the next ten years
will probably see greater advance than in
all the time past. One great trouble is, that
the standard writers on fruit all live in the
milder sections, and give very little attention
to this point of hardness, so essential above
all else to us along the border Consequently
what is being done in securing hardy varie-
ties is not made extensively known. We
have been almost the only public writer on
the subject in New England and the result
is very extensive and laborious correspond
ence with fruitgrowers in the cold sections,
and collection, by exchange, of by far the
most extensive experimental orchard, of this
class of fruit in New England. If we live
another ten years we hope to make this the
center of wide dissemination of hardy APP
pies of all sorts and seasons.
&C. S. P.'s" remarks upon Crab apples
(Siberian) accord well with the general
opinion, based on the poor sorts (but perhaps
the best of that time) that have been, in
past years, extensively sold at high prices
through Northern Vermont. There has a
great improvement taken place in the Crab
seedlings and hybrids during the last ten
years, and this improvement is still going on.
We look vet to find some of our most valu-
able varieties among them. Already we
have excellent sweet Siberians, for summer,
fall and winter, and there are as good des-
sert sorts among them, of all seasons as of
L.. l.. L.. 6 Ill
size still remains though the latest and best
discoveries in this species will average as
large as the Golden Russet, so highly priced
by many, while among the "half-breeds "
there are apples, like the Mortified Beauty
and Wealthy, as large as Baldwius.
Many have large stock of the inferior
Crabs, and are DESTROYS, like our correspond
ent, to graft them to something better. Our
experience, so far, shows that the best variety
for this purpose is the Ben Davis, which
grows very well on the Crab stock comes
soon and freely into bearing, and is a large,
handsome and long keeping apple of very
fair quality. In the matter of supplying
scionS, it ought to be understood that nursery
men, as a rule, will not sell scions of new
varieties, as they require all they can get to
supply the demand for trees. 1t is useless,
therefore, to write for scions, and if it is
desired to top-graft old trees, or young Crabs,
the best and only way is to order trees, and
take the scions from them, As young trees
always require cutting back when set out,
there is much of the wood from these cut
tings just right for scions.
| PEDIGREE CORN.
Rev. Mr.. Boardman, of Craftsbury, and
Elisha Fairchild, Esq, of Derby, have both
recently informed us of their great success
and entire satisfaction with this variety of
corn, which we recommended to our readers
last season, As many corn-fields were much
injured by drouth last year, it is hardly
probable that all had equal success but we
should be glad to receive accounts, favora-
BILE or unfavorable, in regard to the Pedi.
gree Corn" and also the "Lost Nation
Wheat" from any of our readers.