Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-06-09
Northern Limits of Fruit Growing.

Enthusiasm is necessary to the success
full accomplishment of any business. and
especially in the business of farming and
orcharding. Enthusiasm is one of the
farmers greatest needs. Mr.. W. T.
Macoun is probably little too sanguine
when he says: "Apples will be grown
successfully in America as far north as
go degrees, and that considerably before
the end of the present century," Mr..
Macoun, like an optimistic farmer in
Ohio, probably believes that man was
given dominion over the EARTH" and
with the advance of knowledge will be
able to raise good crops of grain and
fruits in spite of drouths, blights, worms,
insect pests and arctic weather.
Enlightened men have accomplished
wonders, but they will never be able to
temper the fierce blasts of the frigid
zones, and raise choice fruits in the
''land of the midnight sum-" unless they
do it in glass houses, warmed by steam
heat, which would hardly pay in 4 COM
mercial sense. All parts of the earth
have their own advantages and produce
the things especially designed for their
particular soil and climate. This is ex-
pressed il the nursery rhyme:
AN OLD man of the mountain one dav asked me
How many Strawberries grew in the sea:
answered him rs thought good,
As many re herring as grew In the wood!'
Apples can always be grown in Russia
in a latitude farther north than in
America, because her climate is temper
ed by the broad current of warm water
that flows north along the whole western
coast of Europe. Mr.. Macoun speaks of
the capabilities of Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island for producing fine
apples; but it should be remembered
that they lie in latitude of only A de-
grees north, and the wintry winds are
tempered by their proximity to the sea.
To raise apples Us far north as 90
degrees, Mr.. Macoun admits that great
will have TO be overcome,
special methods of pruning and culture
adopted, and new varieties produced
which will resist the dry and cold winds.
''When these new varieties are finally
produced, which will resist the dry and
cold winds, is there not danger that
their size and quality will be reduced so
they will not take high honors in the
London and Liverpool markets? Even
the forest trees native in high ATTITUDES
grow stunted and scraggy. The pine
trees in Maine are so short-bodied that
the ship builders inthat state have to
obtain their tall maSts elsewhere. The
writer has been on Spar-rafts floating
down the Susquehanpa River on the way
to n ship yard in Maine.
There are vast districts in the states
west of Lake Michigan, where the coun-
try is level, with no mountains or forests
to break the force of the prevailing wind,
where apple orchards cannot be success
fully grown because the trees are so
A friend who has lived forty
years in northern Illinois told me that
eight years was the average lifetime OF
apple trees there. | observed that all
the trees in his orchard from the ground
to the top were dead, or dead on the side
towards the prevailing wind. The first
thing that strikes the attention of an
eastern man when visiting the West is
that the wind is blowing all the time.
Men, animals and trees can endure a
very low temperature when the air is
still, but when an arctic air is put In
motion with velocity of 30 to 90 miles
m hour it becomes more uncomfortable
the men and animals must find shelter or
,uccumb, and the trees, if unprotected
by a wind break, will receive a death
chill.
The late B. F. Johnson of Champaign
County, H., who had lived there for
ong time, was of the opinion that the
trees first lost great deal OF their
vitality during the severe summer
tirouths, and then succumbed to the cold
winds of winter. George E. Newell,
writing of Illinois and Wisconsin, says;
Struggling orchards existed on nearly
every farm, but their thinned ranks
showed where the trees had died one by
Dne, and those remaining looked lone
some and unthrifty." That the wind
causes the death of the trees in Illinois
appears evident from two apple trees
that stood on the lee side of my friends
house and were sheltered from the pre-
sailipg wind, which trees looked thrifty
and showed no decayed side.-Cor. in
ronntry Gentleman