The Columbus journal., 1896-01-22
Setting Appletrecs.

(From the Farmers Review.)
In reading your issue of December II
1 struck very interesting article on
planting Orchards signed civilian
Gray" While his article contains
many excellent points which 1 most
freely endorse. it contains one that
would most seriously condemn, viz.
The tree top should incline to the west
several inches" He further states that
the prevailing winds are from the west
and that nearly all the orchard trees
are found leaning east. This may be
the case with him, but in all this great
northwest the prevailing winds are
from the northwest and our trees lean.
not to the east, but to the northeast.
have examined thousands of orchards
in Wisconsin. Minnesota and Iowa and
have almost invariably found the older
trees leaning and growing to the north
east. He says they lean east by west
winds. claim to have any amount of
evidence in our township that they lean
northeast and not from the force -cf
wind from the southwest, but from the
direct rays OF the sun. This reported
in our book report of 1873. When every
body claimed this leaning was caused
by the southwest winds took bold
stand then and was considered much be-
side myself by my best friends, who
tried then to keep me from arguing the
question there, as it would be sure to
expose my Ignorance. 1t is impossible
with the limited space am given to
branch OF and reason all these points in
one short article, but IL objected to by
any will try to make my position as
clear as sunshine. We have eight Or
ehards in our grove here on the east
side, open on the east. closely shut in
on the south and west by tall timber.
All these trees lean seriously to the
northeast except the row that stands
near the grove on the south side of the
field. The trees in the west side row,
too, are found nearly upright, caused
by the shade they receive from the sun
by the grove. II anyone doubts my po-
he will be most thoroughly convinced
by his own convictions. I do not say
the southwest winds never set the trees
over to the northeast. The wind does
this sometimes. but not any oftener than
they are set over to the southeast by
the northwest wind. These are excep-
ti0ns to the general rule.
l have found trees leaning in every
conceivable direction. But as a rule
they lean and grow to the northeast.
The time was when this talk was called
Gaylord's theory and weighed little. At
this time lin 1879 I wrote to a noter
professor in Michigan to learn what
caused our trees to lean or grow over to
the northeast. His reply was then it
was caused by the heavy southwest
winds. This was about seventeen years
ago, but venture to say now that not
q professor in the northwest could be
found to utter such a conclusion. II
there are any We hope they will come
to the rescue, as this old-fogy notion
is now most thoroughly exploded.
The best can do in this short article
is to state a few facts very briefly and
defer the rest till some future reply. A
tree standing erect and in the open sun
without anything to prevent the direct
rays from striking its trunk will be in
jured and barked at just half past one
No time-piece could show more truly.
But IL a tree leans from the sun. from
any time from sunrise til! sunset, the
dead line will appear on top or facing
the sun. There are Unnumbered
of evidence. even in our own
to prove this beyond all pos
sible doubt. These being facts, then
how shall We set our trees so as to
best make them self-rrotecting? We
al set our trees here now leaning to
The sun at about l o'clock-not later.
Up till quite recently We have been set
ting and advising setting at half-past
|. This is little too much. we think.
Is We now find here and there trees
that have been set over as far as 2 |
md 3, and In almost every case trees
thus grown will show injury. even as
far east as sunrise or from in the |
There were q few trees in a
small plat I found years ago leaning,
Dne northwest barked on southeast, one |
leaning north barked on south, one |
leaning southeast barked on southwest; |!
pne stood close to the north side of the |
Fcnce. stood upright and sound. This |
gave me evidence in a nutshell; and
since / have examined thousands of |
trees and universally find the same
conditions, producing the same effect.