Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1875 — Starting Apple Orchards. [ARTICLE]

Starting Apple Orchards.

The value of a generous supply of good apples in the family is beginning to be understood by almost every one; yet there are many farmers and rural residents still .without an orchard. The securing of other necessities has caused a delay in planting fruit trees. With thousands every year the period arrives to make the beginning; and until then but little thought is given to the location of an orchard or to the varieties best adapted to the climate. Generally the first question to be considered is the selection of the location. With many there is but little choice in tte situation. If the chief object is the supply of fruit for the family the convenience of access will constitute an important element in the solution of the question. All such persons will de sire to have the planting done near the dwelling-house. But even here the most elevated site should be preferred, as elevation is often a condition that secures a crop against the effects of late spring frosts, and besides the treeswill aid in protecting the building from rude blasts, and the foliage will also afford a pleasing background to the rural landscape. Where more extensive orcharding is contemplated, with a view to send the fruit to market, if a more elevated and favorable location can be made, more remote from the dwelling, convenience must sometimes yield to considerations of profit. For it is well known that valleys are l colder than hills, and a few feet elevation will sometimes securea crop when in the valleys it would be entirely cut off. As you approach the more southern latitudes this danger from frost increases. Another important consideration in favor of a more elevated situation for an orchard is, particularly where a rich soil prevails, that on the elevated grounds, beside having the advantage of throwing off the excess of water from the surface, the soil is generally more porous and dry and favors a more healthy growth than the valleys or flat lands. If the soil is not naturally porous and dry underdraining is indispensably necessary to insure profitable crops. After the most favorable location has been chosen the next most important step to be taken is in tlie preparation of the soil for apple trees. If the ground' is sufficiently dry without underdraining it should be deeply trenchplowed and the soil thoroughly pulverized. If the land is not rich it should be manured and the manure thoroughly incorporated with the soil; as fresh manure should never come in contact, in any considerable quantity, with the roots of new-ly-planted trees. Rich earth from the woods or from tlie fence corners, where the ground requires enriching, is best to be placed around the roots of trees. Large holes should be dug and filled in with the rich earth some time before planting, so that the rains may settle it, and that the trees when established shall stand no deeper in the ground than they did in the nursery. Great injuiy is often done by planting trees too deep. The roots require a certain degree of heat and air to thrive well, and too deep planting deprives them of these essentials. If an orchard is to be planted in the spring it is best to put tlie ground in order in the fall, because the soil will be improved by the action of the frost, and is no time to be lost when the planting is deferred till spring. But the work should be done the first favorable weather and before .the circulation of the sap begins. There are several considerations in favor of spring planting, and generally it may be regarded as the best season. If the soil selected for the orchard is of a dry, porous character and the has been favorable for the ripening of the wood of the young trees in the nursery trees may be planted in the fall. At that season there is genetally more leisure to do the work well, and if properly done and the trees securely supported with stakes or if a cone of earth is thrown up around the base of the trees to give them sunport no injury would be sustained. When the planting is put off

till spring.it .is too frequently done in a hurry or deferred until too latefofter the circulation of the sap has commenced and th& young rootlets have put out. Then the trees,often sustain a serious check in their growth from the loss of these young roots and from the dry weather that fre- • quently ensues before the rains have thoroughly settled the earth about the roots. Where the subsoil is so compact that it is difficult for the roots of trees to stick downward our practice has been to mark out a land, say twelve feet wide, where a row of trees is to be planted and pjow this land three or four times, throwing the furrow slices outward. In this way a broad middle furrow may be worked open two feet in depth. Then,reverse the plowing so as to level off' thq ground and plant the trees on the surface of a fleeply-pul verized sCed-bed.— N.Y. Herald.