Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-03-28

The eminent pomologist, so well known
throughout the country by his writings, and
many years secretary of the American Pomo-
logical Society, favors us with letter, as
follows:
"CLEvELAND, Ohio, March 10, 1877,
al am to-day in receipt of some articles of yours
published in the VERMONT WATERMAN, which |
have read with pleasure, nasmuch as they show
me a new man who is and who has been working
for the true benefit of his feow-men
"In remarks which shall now make on your
articles, must be permitted to skip from point to
point.
81 will take first the foundation, origin, of our
fruits We will first accede to the fact that
among the apples, to which your words most
tend, we have known many old varieties of real
true hardihood of nature in the tree, and at the
same time, of true goodness in the fruit. The
past ten years has brought out to the knowledge
of the observing pomoogist, many varieties
claimed to be crab apples, but of these more or
less are chance seedlings that have come up in
by places, until the fruit has drawn the attention
| of the owner of the land to them. | have been
ostracsed as 1t were, for willingness to describe
and give credit to them, but rs time passes, find
| my first impressions, and forty years of assoca-
| ton with fruits, coming quietly to the point
| Namely, first, the hardihood of tree belongs
not to itself. but to nature, in roughing it to
| maturity. Nearly all our Russian and foreign
crabs come from this first state, and so when you
carefully examine the history Of our most hardy
varieties, you will find they were not broughten
up but grew Now, with these to start upon, il
we look for progress in the way of hardihood of
| hn trpp Tn ri ia VT We IN
first grow our stocks on which to bud, or graft
| from seeds of ripe fruit from hardest trees.
As the seedlings come up, as among all of animal
| life, there will be some feeble ones, and they
must be taken out Again, our stocks, or seed
| ings, should be grown at distances apart, allow
| ing them to remain two years, being budded in
| the autumn grated in the spring after the first
| seasons growth, the bud or graft making the
| Young tree of the second season. when they can
be removed to permanent positions, without cut
ling away of top, il lit has been guided by pnching
n diSbudding the first season, and only the ends
# the lateral roots and the top roots trimmed.
| Il they not removed after the second season in
he from seed, the top roots should be cui
way in early spring Of the third wear
Taking this source for stock, and selecting from
| iur known hardest varieties. think we should
.rnn reach a haven now unknown, although |
ave written ut times upon it for years As you
ty it is knowledge Of the subj ec aud proper care
20 grow a good orchard where the cold belt
700 often reaches. Here even the hardy varie
les must have watchfulness with fair aud Intel
ilent treatment have carefully looked over
your list of varieties You name Fameuse old
French varieties of hardwood, and first planted
in this country in Michigan. From it has sprung
>hiawasse Beauty, said to be even more hardy
md a longer keeper than its parent Early Straw
berry, Early joe Wincrap, Jonathan, Red Canada
Gilpin, Lady Apple, Shockley, Milan. Craven
stein and Wine, have native hardihood in them
and although Shockley is n southern seeding, |
should look for it to bear trouble better than Ben
Davis. This latter, by the by-with its seventeen
synonyms, comes to me recently as seeding now
alive on the Nola Chucky river in Green county,
Tenn do not question the names OF apples in
your list-but have just supposition that climate
and soil has made your Peach Apple out Of the
Irish Peach OF the books. The slow growers with
fine hard wood, short jointed, you will find when
put upon appropriate stocks mot bits of roots
from refuse seeds of a cider mill), prove most
hardy. Common hardware paper dipped in coal
tar, is one OF the preventons, when put around
the bodies OF trees from danger of mice, rabbit
or sheep Mulching three to four inches deep as
far out as the limbs extend, you will find requi-
site OF success in orcharding. Nature does it in
the woods with the leaves. In pruning, a knife or
saw should never be used, in the first of budding
and growing; pnching or disbudding is all that is
needed to give free and open form to a tree"
ANOTHER LETTER ON THE SAME SUBJECT.
| NJ, I SC
) writes us a letter, in which he says, referring
: to recent article in these columns upon
Bursting of the Bark" that " 50 long as root.
grating is practiced, so long will complaints
of that kind be heard" We wish we could
believe that Mr.. Town is right in regard to
this, but the fact is that we have root
r grated trees that do not burst the bark, and
top-grafted trees that do. The writer Of
the article to which he refers, Mr.. j, j
Thomas, is afruitgrower of half century's
: experience, yet he does not attribute this
e trouble to rootgrafting. 1t is probable
e however, that seeding stocks, grown unit
large enough to top-graft, will have been
winnowed of all those likely to burst, and
d this is perhaps what has led Mr.. Town Il
] the view he holds
Mr.. Town gives it as his advice, to b'
4 extremely cautious in buying root-grafteC
y trees any way, as there seems TO be some
d thing unnatural about it, and many arr
:, grown in land made rich with fermentinl
X manures, and set in roots that grow then
&c too fast, and many that escape bursting o.
the bark get frost-bitten, linger OH few
y less all of which is very true; though a
' regards "unnaturalness," all grating ma
D be called so. Yet we have seen grating
y done by nature, where the limb of one tire
got caught in a crotch in the branch o
y another tree, and grew there
1t is certainly ofgreat Importance TO groy
IN proper stocks, as Mr. Elliott observes in hi
70 letter above, but when you have the RICH
Il, kind of stocks, it is immaterial, so far as tn
70 hardness of the tree is concerned, whethe
81 they are grated at the ground Il. c. root
y grafted) or higher up. The black-hearte
l. condition to which Mr.. Town refers is tn
,e effect of severe cold upon trees not hard
W enough for the climate And there is N
a doubt that trees forced by high manurin
IL are much tenderer than those which hav
- made slower growth. But so long a
ID purchasers insist on having tall, straight
to handsome trees, and will take no Others
there will be great temptation TO nursery
re men to force the growth. Mr.. Town say
TX further
he "My experience Of over thirty years has col
h, WINGED me that the best way to raise trees is,
"a select seed from the best and hardest varieties
= our native trees never from the cider mill
from crab trees), and plant in drills three ie
10 apart, on land In good condition. but not too rlc
and in one year pull out all the unhealthy al