The original of all our apples was the wild European crab. We have in
this country several native crabs larger and better than the European;
but they have not yet, as we are aware, been developed into fine apples.
Apple-trees are hardy and long-lived, doing well for one hundred and
fifty years. Highly-cultivated trees, however, are thought to last only
about fifty years. An apple-tree, imported from England, produced fruit
in Connecticut at the age of two hundred and eight years. The apple is
the most valuable of all fruits. The peach, the best pears, the
strawberries, and others, are all delicious in their day; but apples are
adapted to a greater variety of uses, and are in perfection all the
year; the earliest may be used in June, and the latest may be kept until
that time next year. As an article of food, they are very valuable on
account of both their nutritive and medicinal qualities. As a gentle
laxative, they are invaluable for children, who should always be allowed
to eat ripe apples as they please, when they can be afforded. Children
will not long be inclined to eat ripe fruit to their injury.
An almost exclusive diet of baked sweet apples and milk is recorded as
having cured chronic cases of consumption, and other diseases caused by
too rich food. Let dyspeptics vary the mode of preparing and using an
apple diet, until it agrees with them, and many aggravated cases may be
cured without medicine. It is strange how the idea has gained so much
currency that apples, although a pleasant luxury, are not sufficiently
nutritious for a valuable article of diet. There is no other fruit or
vegetable in general use that contains such a proportion of nutriment.
It has been ascertained in Germany, by a long course of experiments,
that men will perform more labor, endure more fatigue, and be more
healthy, on an apple diet, than on that universal indispensable for the
poor, the potato. Apples are more valuable than potatoes for food. They
are equally valuable as food for fowls, swine, sheep, cattle, and
horses. Hogs have been well fattened on apples alone. Cooked with other
vegetables, and mixed with a little ground grain or bran, they are an
economical food for fattening pork or beef. Sweet or slightly-acid
apples, fed to neat stock or horses, will prevent disease, and keep the
animals in fine condition. For human food they may be cooked in a
greater variety of ways than almost any other article. Apple-cider is
valuable for some uses. It makes the best vinegar in general use, and,
when well made and bottled, is better than most of our wines for
invalids. Apple-molasses, or boiled cider, which is sweet-apple cider
boiled down until it will not ferment, is excellent in cookery.
Apple-butter is highly esteemed in many families. Dried apples are an
important article of commerce. Green apples are also exported to most
parts of the world. Notwithstanding the increased attention to their
cultivation during the last half-century, their market value is steadily
increasing, and doubtless will be, for the best varieties, for the next
five hundred years.
It does not cost more than five or six cents per bushel to raise apples;
hence they are one of the most profitable crops a farmer can raise. No
farm, therefore, is complete without a good orchard. The man who owns
but five acres of land should have at least two acres in fruit-trees.
_Soil._--Apples will succeed well on any soil that will produce good
cabbages, potatoes, or Indian corn. Land needs as much manure and care
for apple-trees as for potatoes. Rough hillsides and broken lands,
unsuitable for general cultivation, may be made very valuable in
orchards. It must be enriched, if not originally so, and kept clean
about the trees. On no crop does good culture pay better. Many suppose
that an apple-tree, being a great grower, will take care of itself after
having attained a moderate size. Whoever observes the great and rapid
growth of apple-trees must see, that, when the ground is nearly covered
with them, they must make a great draft on the soil. To secure health
and increased value, the deficiency must be supplied in manure and
cultivation. The quantity and quality of the fruit depend mainly on the
condition of the land. The kinds and proportions of manures best for an
apple-orchard are important practical questions. We give a chemical
analysis of the ashes of the apple-tree, which will indicate, even to
the unlearned, the manure that will probably be needed:--
_Analysis of the ash of the apple-tree._
Sap-wood. Heart-wood. Bark of trunk.
Potash 16.19 6.620 4.930
Soda 3.11 7.935 3.285
Chloride of sodium 0.42 0.210 0.540
Sulphate of lime 0.05 0.526 0.637
Phosphate of peroxyde } 0.80 0.500 0.375
of iron }
Phosphate of lime 17.50 5.210 2.425
Phosphate of magnesia 0.20 0.190
Carbonic acid 29.10 36.275 44.830
Lime 18.63 37.019 51.578
Magnesia 8.40 6.900 0.150
Silicia 0.85 0.400 0.200
Soluble silicia 0.80 0.300 0.400
Organic matter 4.60 2.450 2.100
______ _______ _______
100.65 104.535 111.450
This table will indicate the application of plenty of wood-ashes and
charcoal; lime in hair, bones, horn-shavings, old plaster, common lime,
and a little common salt. Lime and ashes, or dissolved potash, are
indispensable on an old orchard; they will improve the fruit one half,
both in quantity and quality.
_Propagation._--This is done mainly by seeds, budding and grafting. The
best method is by common cleft-grafting on all stocks large enough, and
by whip or tongue grafting on all others. (See under article, Grafting.)
Grafting into the sycamore is recommended by some. The scions are said
to grow profusely, and to bear early and abundantly; but they are apt to
be killed by cold winters. We do not recommend it. Almost everything
does best budded or grafted into vigorous stocks of its own nature.
Root-grafting, as it is termed,--that is, cutting up roots into pieces
three or four inches long, and putting a scion into each--has been a
matter of much discussion and diversity of opinion. It is certainly a
means of most rapidly multiplying a given variety, and is therefore
profitable to the nurseryman. For ourselves, we should prefer trees
grafted just above, or at the ground, using the whole stock for one
tree. We do not, however, undertake to settle this controverted point.
Our minds are fixed against it. Others must do as they please.
Propagation by seed is thought to be entirely uncertain, because, as is
supposed, the seeds will not reproduce their own varieties. We consider
this far from being an established fact.
When grafts are put into large trees, high up from the ground, their
fruit may be somewhat modified by the stock. There is also a slight
tendency in the seeds of all grafts to return to the varieties from
which they descended. But we believe the general rule to be, that the
seeds of grafts, put in at the ground and standing alone, will generally
produce the same varieties of fruit. The most prominent obstacle in the
way of this reproduction is the presence of other varieties, which mix
in the blossom. The planting of seeds from any mixed orchard can never
settle this question, because they are never pure. Propagation by seeds,
then, is an inconvenient method, only to be resorted to for purposes of
acclimation. But it is so seldom we have a good bearing apple-tree so
far removed from others as not to be affected by the blossoms, that we
generally get from seeds a modification of varieties. Raising suitable
stocks for grafting is done by planting seeds in drills thirty inches
apart, and keeping clear of weeds until they are large enough to graft.
The soil should be made very rich, to save time in their growth. Land
where root-crops grew the previous year is the best. If kept clear of
weeds, on rich, deep soil, from one to two thirds of them will be large
enough for whip-grafting after the first year's growth. The pomice from
the cider-mill is often planted. It is better to separate the seeds,
and plant them with a seed-drill. They will then be in straight, narrow
rows, allowing the cultivator and hoe to pass close by them, and thus
save two thirds of the cost of cultivation. The question of keeping
seeds dry or moist until planting is one of some importance. Most seeds
are better for being kept slightly moist until planted; but with the
apple it makes no difference. Keep apple-seeds dry and spread, as they
are apt to heat. Freezing them is not of the slightest importance. If
you plant pomice, put in a little lime or ashes to counteract the acid.
For winter-grafting, pull the seedlings that are of suitable size, cut
off the tops eight inches from the root, and pack in moist sand in a
cellar that will not freeze. After grafting, tie them up in bunches, and
pack in tight boxes of moist sand or sawdust.
_Transplanting._--This is fully treated elsewhere in this work. We give
under each fruit only what is peculiar to that species. In mild climates
transplant in the fall, and in cold in the spring. Spring-planting must
never be done until the soil has become dry enough to be made fine. A
thoroughly-pulverized soil is the great essential of successful
transplanting. Trees for spring-planting should always be taken up
before the commencement of vegetation. But in very wet springs, this
occurs before the ground becomes sufficiently dry; it is then best to
take up the trees and heel them in, and keep them until the soil is
suitable. The place for an apple-tree should be made larger than for any
other tree, because its roots are wide-spreading, like its branches. The
earth should be thrown out to the depth of twenty inches, and four or
five feet square, for an ordinary-sized tree. This, however, will not
do on a heavy clay subsoil, for it would form a basin to hold water and
injure the tree. A ditch, as low as the bottom of the holes, should
extend from tree to tree, and running out of the orchard, constructed in
the usual method of drains, and, whatever be the subsoil, the trees will
flourish. The usual compost to manure the trees in transplanting will be
found elsewhere. In the bottom of these places for apple-trees should be
thrown a plenty of cobblestones, with a few sods, and a little decaying
wood and coarse manure. We know of nothing so good under an apple-tree
as small stones; the tree will always be the larger and thriftier for
it. This is, in a degree, beneficial to other fruits, but peculiarly so
to the apple.
_Size for transplanting._--Small trees usually do best. Large trees are
often transplanted with the hope of having an abundance of fruit
earlier. This usually defeats the object. The large trees will bear a
little fruit earlier than the small ones; but the injury by removal is
so much greater, that the small stocky trees come into full, regular
bearing much the soonest. From five to eight feet high is often most
convenient for field-orchard culture. But, wherever we can take care of
them, it is better to set out smaller trees; they will do better for
years. A suitable drain, extending through the orchard, under each row
of trees, will make a good orchard on low, wet land.
_Trimming at the time of transplanting._--Injured roots should be
removed as in the general directions under Transplanting. But the idea
of cutting off most of the top is a very serious error. When large trees
are transplanted, which must necessarily lose many of their roots in
removal, a corresponding portion of the top must be separated; but in no
other case. The leaves are the lungs of the tree. How shall it have
vitality if most of them are removed? It is like destroying one lung and
half of the other, and then expect a man to be in vigorous health. We
have often seen the most of two years' growth of trees lost by such
reckless pruning. If the roots are tolerably whole and sound, leave the
top so. A peach-tree needs to be trimmed much closer when transplanted,
because it has so many more buds to throw out leaves.
_Mulching._--This is quite as beneficial to apple-trees as to all
transplanted trees. Well done, it preserves a regularity of moisture
that almost insures the life of the tree.
_Pruning._--The tops should be kept open and exposed to the sun, the
cross limbs cut out, and everything removed that shows decided symptoms
of decay. The productiveness of apple-trees depends very much upon
pruning very sparingly and judiciously. There are two ways to keep an
open top: one is, to allow many large limbs to grow, and cut out most of
the small ones, thus leaving a large collection of bare poles without
anything on which the fruit can grow;--the other method is to allow few
limbs to grow large, and keep them well covered with small twigs, which
always bear the fruit. The latter method will produce two or three times
as much fruit as the former.
The head of an apple-tree should be formed at a height that will allow a
team to pass around under its branches.
_Distance apart._--In a full-grown orchard, that is designed to cover
the ground, the trees should be two rods (thirty-three feet) apart.
When it is designed always to cultivate the ground, and land is plenty,
set them fifty or sixty feet apart. You will be likely always to have
fine fruit, and a crop on the land beside. Our recommendation to every
one is to set out all orchards, of whatever fruit, so as to have them
cover the whole ground when in maturity. Among apple-trees, dwarf pears,
peaches, or quinces, may be set, which will be profitable before the
apples need all the ground.
_Bearing years._--A cultivator may have a part of his orchard bear one
year, and the remainder the next, or he may have them all bear every
year. There are two reasons why a tree bears full this year and will not
bear the next. One is, it is allowed to have such a superabundance of
fruit to mature this year, that it has no strength to mature fruit-buds
for the next, and hence a barren year; the other reason is, a want of
proper culture and the specific manures for the apple. Manure highly,
keep off the insects, cultivate well, and do not allow too much to
remain on the trees one season, and you will have a good crop every
year. But if one would let his trees take the natural course, but wishes
to change the bearing year of half of his orchard, he can accomplish it
by removing the blossoms or young fruit from a part of his trees on the
bearing year, and those trees having no fruit to mature will put forth
an abundance of buds for fruit the following season; thus the
fruit-season will be changed without lessening the productiveness. Go
through a fruit-region in what is called the non-bearing seasons, and
you will find some orchards and some trees very full of fruit. Trees of
the same variety in another orchard near by will have very little fruit.
This shows that the bearing season is a matter of mere habit, in all
except what is determined by late frosts. This fact may be turned to
great pecuniary value, by producing an abundance of apples every year.
_Plowing and pasturing._--An apple-orchard should be often plowed, but
not too deep among the roots. When not actually under the plow, it
should be pastured, with fowls, calves, or sheep. Swine are recommended,
as they will eat all the apples that fall prematurely, and with them the
worms that made them fall. But we have often seen hogs, by their rooting
and rubbing, kill the trees. Better to pick up the apples that fall too
early, and give them to the swine. Turkeys and hens in an orchard will
do much to destroy the various insects. They may be removed for a short
time when they begin to peck the ripening fruit.
Orchards pastured by sheep are said not to be infested with
caterpillars. Sheep pastured and salted under apple-trees greatly enrich
the soil, and in those elements peculiarly beneficial.
_Enemies._--There are several of these that are quite destructive, when
not properly guarded against. Two things are necessary, and, united and
thoroughly performed, they afford a remedy or a preventive for most of
the depredations of all insects: 1. Keep the trees well cleared of all
rough, loose bark, which affords so many hiding-places for insects.
2. Wash the trunks and large limbs of the trees, twice between the 25th
of May and the 15th of August, with a ley of wood-ashes or dissolved
potash. Apple-trees will bear it strong enough to kill some of the
finest cherries. We add another very effectual wash. Let cultivators
choose between the two. Into two gallons of water put two quarts of
soft-soap and one fourth pound of sulphur. If you add tobacco-juice, or
any other very offensive article, it will be still better.
_Apple-worm._--The insect that produces this worm lays its egg in the
blossom-end of the young apple. That egg makes a worm that passes down
about the core and ruins the fruit. Apples so affected will fall
prematurely, and should be picked up and fed to swine. This done every
day during their falling, which does not last a great while, will remedy
the evil in two seasons. The worm that crawls from the fallen apple gets
into crevices in rough bark, and spins his cocoon, in which he remains
till the following spring.
Bonfires, for a few evenings in the fore part of June, in an orchard
infested with moths, will destroy vast numbers of them, before they have
deposited their eggs. This can not be too strongly insisted upon.
[Illustration: Apple-Worms.
_a_ The young worm. _b_ The full-grown worm. _c_ The same magnified. _d_
Cocoon. _e_ Chrysalis. _f_ Perfect insect. _g_ The same magnified. _h i_
Passage of the worm in the fruit. _j_ Worm in the fruit. _k_ Place of
egress.]
_Bark-louse._--Dull white, oval scales, one tenth of an inch long, which
sometimes appear on the stems of trees in vast numbers, may be destroyed
by the wash recommended above.
_Woolly aphis_--called in Europe by the misnomer, _American blight_--is
very destructive across the water, but does not exist extensively on
this side. It is supposed to exist, in this country, only where it has
been introduced with imported trees. It appears as a white downy
substance in the small forks of trees. This is composed of a large
number of very minute woolly lice, which increase with wonderful
rapidity. They are easily destroyed by washing with diluted sulphuric
acid--three fourths of an ounce, by measure, from the druggist's--and
seven and a half ounces of water, applied by a rag tied to the end of a
stick. The operator must keep it from his clothes. After the first rain
this is perfectly effectual.
_Apple-tree borer._--This is a fleshy-white grub, found in the trunks of
the trees. It enters at the surface of the ground where the bark is
tender, and either girdles or thoroughly perforates the tree, causing
its death. This is produced by a brown and white striped beetle about
half an inch long. It does not go through its different stages annually,
but remains a grub two or three years. It finally comes out in its
winged state, early in June, flying in the night and laying its eggs. If
the borers are already in the tree, they may be killed by cutting out,
or by a steel wire thrust into their holes. But better prevent them.
This can be done effectually by placing a small mound of ashes or lime
around each tree early in the spring.
On nursery-trees their attacks may be prevented by washing with a
solution of potash--two pounds in eight quarts of water. As this is a
good manure, as well as a great remedy for insects, it had better be
used every season.
[Illustration: Borer. Eggs. Beetle.]
_Caterpillars_ are the product of a miller of a reddish-brown color,
measuring about an inch and a half when flying. They deposit many eggs
about the forks and near the extremities of young branches. These hatch
in spring, in season for the young foliage, on which they feed
voraciously. When neglected for two or three years, they often defoliate
large trees. The habits of the caterpillar are favorable to their
destruction. They weave their webs in forks of trees, and are always at
home in rainy weather, and in the morning till nine o'clock. The remedy
is to kill them. This is most effectually done by a sponge on the end of
a pole, dipped in strong spirits of ammonia. Each one touched by it is
instantly killed, and it is not difficult to reach them all. They may
also be rubbed off with a brush or swab on the end of a pole, and
burned. The principle is to get them off, web and all, and destroy them.
This can always be effectually done, if attended to early in the season,
and early in the morning. If any have been missed, and come out in
insects to deposite more eggs, bonfires are most effectual. These
should be made of shavings, in different parts of the orchard, and about
the middle of June, earlier or later, according to latitude and season.
The ends of twigs on which the eggs are laid in bunches of hundreds (see
figure), may be cut off in the fall and destroyed. As this can be done
with pruning-shears, it may be an economical method of destroying them.
[Illustration: Caterpillar Eggs. Canker-worm Moths, Male and Female.]
_Canker-worm._--The male moth has pale-ash colored wings, with a black
dot, and is about an inch across. The female has no wings, is oval in
form, dark-ash colored above, and gray underneath. These rise from the
ground as early in spring as the frost is out. Some few rise in the
fall. The females travel slowly up the body of the tree, while the
winged males fly about to pair with them. Soon you may discover the eggs
laid, always in rows, in forks of branches and among the young twigs.
Every female lays nearly a hundred, and covers them over carefully with
a transparent, waterproof glue. The eggs hatch from May 1st to June 1st,
according to the latitude and season, and come out an ash-colored worm
with a yellow stripe. They are very voracious, sometimes entirely
stripping an orchard of its foliage. At the end of about four weeks
they descend to the ground, to remain in a chrysalis state, about four
inches below the surface, until the following spring. These worms are
very destructive in some parts of New England, and have been already
very annoying, as far west as Iowa. They will be likely to be
transported all over the country on young trees. Many remedies are
proposed, but to present them all is only to confuse. The best of
anything is sufficient. We present two, for the benefit of two classes
of persons. For all who have care enough to attend to it, the best
remedy is to bind a handful of straw around the tree, two feet from the
ground, tied on with one band, and the ends allowed to stand out from
the tree. The females, who can not fly, but only ascend the trunk by
crawling, will get up under the straw, and may easily be killed, by
striking a covered mallet on the straw, and against the tree below the
band. This should be attended to every day during the short season of
their ascent, and all will be destroyed. Burn the straw about the last
of May. But those who are too indolent or busy to do this often till
their season is past, may melt India-rubber over a hot fire, and smear
bandages of cloth or leather previously put tight around the tree. This
will prevent the female moth from crossing and reaching the limbs. Tar
is used, but India-rubber is better, as weather will not injure it as it
will tar, so as to allow the moth to pass over. Put this on early and
well, and let it remain till the last of May. But the first, the process
of killing them, is far the best.
_Gathering-and preserving._--All fruit, designed to be kept even for a
few weeks, should be picked, and not shaken off, and laid, not dropped
into a basket, and with equal care put into the barrels in which it is
to be kept or transported. The barrel should be slightly shaken and
filled entirely full. Let it stand open two days, to allow the fruit to
sweat and throw off the excessive moisture. Then head up tight, and keep
in a cool open shed until freezing weather; then keep where they can
occasionally have good air, and in as cool a place as possible, without
danger of freezing. Of all the methods of keeping apples on shelves,
buried as potatoes, in various other articles, as chaff, sawdust, &c.,
this is, on the whole, the best and cheapest. Wrapping the apples in
paper before putting them into the barrels, may be an improvement.
Apples gathered just before hard frosts, or as they are beginning to
ripen, but before many have fallen from the trees, and packed as above,
and the barrels laid on their sides in a good dry, dark cellar, where
air can occasionally be admitted, can be kept in perfection from six to
eight weeks, after the ordinary time for their decay. Apples for cider,
or other immediate use, may be shaken off upon mats or blankets spread
under the tree for that purpose. They are not quite so valuable, but it
saves times in gathering.
_Varieties_ are exceedingly numerous and uncertain. Cole estimates that
two millions of varieties have been produced in the single state of
Maine, and that thousands of kinds may there be found superior to those
generally recommended in the fruit-books. The minute description of
fruits is not of the least use to one out of ten thousand cultivators.
The best pomologists differ in the names and descriptions of the various
fruits. Some varieties have as many as twenty-five synonyms. Of what
use, then, is the minute description of the hundred and seventy-seven
varieties of Cole's American fruit-book, or of the vast numbers
described by Downing, Elliott, Barry, and Hooper? The best pear we saw
in Illinois could not be identified in Elliott's fruit-book by a
practical fruit-grower. We had in our orchard in Ohio a single
apple-tree, producing a large yield of one of the very best apples we
ever saw; it was called Natural Beauty. We could not learn from the
fruit-books what it was. We took it to an amateur cultivator of thirty
years' experience, and he could not identify it. This is a fair view of
the condition of the nomenclature of fruits. The London experimental
gardens are doing much to systemize it, and the most scientific growers
are congratulating them on their success. But it never can be any better
than it is now. Varieties will increase more and more rapidly, and
synonyms will be multiplied annually, and the modification of varieties
by stocks, manures, climates, and location, will render it more and more
confused.
We can depend only upon our nurserymen to collect all improved
varieties, and where we do not see the bearing-trees for ourselves,
trust the nurseryman's description of the general qualities of fruit.
Seldom, indeed, will a cultivator buy fruit-trees, and set out his
orchard, and master the descriptions in the fruit-books, and after his
trees come into bearing, minutely try them by all the marks to see
whether he has been cheated, and, if so, take up the trees and put out
others, to go the same round again, perhaps with no better success.
Hence, if possible, let planters get trees from a nursery so near at
hand that they may know the quality of the fruit of the trees from which
the grafts are taken, get the most popular in their vicinity, and
always secure a few scions from any extraordinary apple they may chance
to taste. It is well, also, to deal only with the most honorable
nurserymen. Remember that varieties will not do alike well in all
localities. Many need acclimation. Every extensive cultivator should
keep seedlings growing, with a view to new varieties, or modifications
of old ones, adapted to his locality.
We did think of describing minutely a few of the best varieties, adapted
to the different seasons of the year. But we can see no advantage it
would be to the great mass of cultivators, for whom this book is
designed. Those who wish to acquaint themselves with those descriptions
will purchase some of the best fruit-books. We shall content ourselves
with giving the lists, recommended by the best authority, for different
sections, followed by a general description of the _qualities_ of a few
of the best. Downing's lists are the following:--
APPLES FOR MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE EASTERN STATES, RIPENING
IN SUCCESSION.
Early Harvest. Vandevere of New York.
Red Astrachan. Jonathan.
Early Strawberry. Melon.
Summer Rose. Yellow Bellflower.
William's Favorite. Domine.
Primate. American Golden Russet.
American Summer Pearmain. Cogswell.
Garden Royal. Peck's Pleasant.
Jefferis. Wagener.
Porter. Rhode Island Greening.
Jersey Sweet. King of Tompkins County.
Large Yellow Bough. Swaar.
Baldwin.
Gravenstein. Lady Apple.
Maiden's Blush. Ladies' Sweet.
Autumn Sweet Bough. Red Canada.
Fall Pippin. Newtown Pippin.
Mother. Boston Russet.
Smokehouse. Northern Spy.
Rambo. Wine Sap.
Esopus Spitzenburg.