Omaha daily bee., 1883-04-17
Iowa Orchards.

Iowa Ho nestead.
At the present time the outlook for
Iowa orchards is q very gloomy ne.
The old orchards that have attaiued
an age of from fifteen to twenty five
years seem to be as badly damaged as
those that have not yet come into
bearing. There Is a possible hope
that this widespread injury may not
prove fatal. A few weeks will deter
mine. In the meantime take Capt.
Watrous' ~advice-glve the trees the
best chance possible, and cut none Of
them down. If our orchards are hot
absolutely killed, the dam.
age done to them will amount
to millions of dollars. All
through this part Of the state the
cherry, peach, pear, plum and apple
trees are 80 badly injured that fully
one.hslf of them In our opinion can
never under the most favorable condi.
tons of weather, fully recover or be.
come vigorous, healthy trees. We
have been engaged In oroharding to
some extent in Iowa for thirty years,
and In all that time have seen no such
sweeping damage to fruit trees a. the
the past winter has wrought. The
winter of 1866 was very severe and
destructive to tender varieties.
But T. laugh. us which varieties
were tender In the early history
of Iowa orcharding and intelligent
tree planters have since supposed
that they could with safety plant the
varieties that withstood that arctic
winter. But now, after twe.ty.seven
years of added experience, We are
again overtaken with q disaster that
Is likely to dwarf the losses Of 1856
into insigni6oanoe. We find thai
such sorts rs Red June, Johnathan
Wine Sap, Jannetting, Ben Davis
Roman Stem, Gross Pointer, and Do
mamie are apparently fatally Injured
The Duchess, Red Astracan and vii
low Twig, v far as we have heard ant
examined, have escaped.
PERTAINING TO PARsNIPs.
The value OF parsnips as food 10
men and cattle 10 not appreciated Il
this country. When boiled, sliced
and fried brown they form q tabl
delioaoy difficult to obtain at this sea
son of the year. The olrcumstano
that they are improved instead Of in
jured by freezing 10 In their favor
1t Is not necessary to dig and put Their
In the cellar In order to keep ther
over winter. They can remain In tn
ground where they grow till they or
wanted for use. II desirable
those wanted for use during tn
winter ban be dug In the fall an
placed In pits where they will be eos
TO obtain when they are wanted
Cattle are fond Of parsnips, and wi
generally eat them In preference t
any kind Of roots. 1t appears to b
immaterial to them whether they hav
been frozen or not. The process G
freezing and thawing cause most {
the starch in the roots to be convcrte
Into sugar, which gives the swet
taste to those that remain In tn
ground all winter. An average GRO
of carrots when raised on vel
MANFRED aud well.cultivated Ian
which IL suitable to their growt
Is five hundred bushels to the ac-,
The land should be pulverized qui,
deeply aud the seed sown as early q
the soil becomes tolerably warm. IL
field culture the rows should be wild
enough apart to allow a narrow cult
vator to run between them. III
wedding of the rows when the plan
are small and the thinning of ther
must be done by hand The plan,
should stand about four inches apaI
In the rows. Plrsnips stand drougi
better than almost any roots eIoeI
carrots for the reason that the ROOF
are buried In the earth while tn
leaves are so close to the surface tn,
they serve the purpose Of q mulch.