American Pomology. Apples

by J. A. Warder

I have already alluded to the theory, that the north hillsides maintain a later growth than other situations, and have stated that the facts do not sustain the position. The warm exposures on southern slopes and sheltered nooks, are apt to favor the premature starting of the sap in the mild weather that often occurs during the winter, in our changeable climate. On the prairies, and on flat lands elsewhere, an excess of humidity in the soil will contribute to this disaster; and in such situations we may often observe the most terrible destruction following a great and sudden change of temperature. Exposure to long-continued cold, with severe winds, seems to dry up the juices of the plants, in some instances, and thus effect their destruction. This, in the far North, is believed to be a frequent cause of the evil. The condition of the tree upon the access of severe cold is too important a subject to be lost sight of, and has already been alluded to.

Of any given variety, the more perfectly dormant the plant, and the more complete its condition of hybernation, the greater will be its immunity from this evil. The atmospheric changes and conditions we can not control, and we can modify them only in a very limited degree, by hedges, by timber-belts, and by evergreen screens, the value of which begins to be appreciated. The state of the soil, as to its moisture, is under our control, and by thorough and surface-drainage, we may obviate one very important condition that conduces largely to the injury under consideration—the excess of moisture in and upon the soil.

The more perfect ripening of the wood, is likewise a matter of great moment, and this is also subject to our control, particularly in young trees in the nursery and orchard.

Certain varieties are much more subject to injury from cold than others. Among these are some of the most thrifty and free growing sorts. There appears to be an inherent quality of hardiness in others, that enables them to resist the most trying alternations of temperature. Why some should be thus hardy, and others tender, we do not know, but it is not their Northern or Southern origin; some having the former are most tender. Sad experience has taught us the fact, and since the dreadful winters of the past decade, in some parts of the West, the first question asked, respecting a new variety of fruit, is that regarding its hardiness. Pomological societies have endeavored to collate the names of the hardy and tender kinds, and have thus, by their united experience, been enabled to present lists of a few of the known hardy apples, for the guidance of planters.

Soils.—It will be proper, in this place, to say something about the soils best adapted to orcharding. The apple is a gross feeder, but a good-natured one, and, like a good citizen and a cosmopolite, it submits to surrounding circumstances. In our own country, it flourishes alike on the granite hills of New England, or the mountain ranges stretching thence to the southwest, in the limestone valleys amid these ridges, on the sandstones and shales that form the southeastern rim of the great valley of the West, upon the vast drift formations that overlie the rocks from the tide-waters of the St. Lawrence to the sources of the Missouri, upon the rich diluvial and alluvial deposits of our river bottoms, and our vast prairies. I have said that the apple flourishes alike upon these various soils and under these so different circumstances; perhaps this expression should be somewhat modified; there are varieties that appear peculiarly adapted by their nature for all of these different situations; there are, perhaps, none that will thrive equally well in all.

The orchardists of each section of the country must ascertain for themselves what varieties are best adapted to the peculiarities of their soil and climate; hence, no one region can furnish lists of varieties to be taken as a guide for the planting of others differently situated. Hence, too, the importance of local organizations for pomological study, and the great value of the labors of those who are engaged in the prosecution of these investigations in the American Pomological Society, which will, it is fondly hoped, ultimately give us corrected lists of fruits that are adapted to all the varying circumstances of soil and climate, in each of the great geological regions of our country. This has already been proposed by the excellent general chairman of Fruit Committees, as an important work for the National Society; and so soon as the subject receives a fair consideration, its merits will be appreciated, and a union of the best minds, and the best experience of the pomologists of each district, will be concentrated upon this labor.

Let me not be misapprehended in the statement, just made, with regard to the wide distribution of which the apple appears to be capable. There are soils and situations, in all of the widely-separated regions alluded to, that are wholly unfitted to orchard culture, upon which it were folly to plant an apple-tree; and yet, many of those may be rendered entirely suitable, if subjected to treatment, suggested by science, and executed by human ingenuity and industry; the missing element may be supplied, the compactness of the soil may be overcome by mechanical comminution, and by that effected by aeration; the excessive moisture may be removed by surface and thorough drainage; other disqualifications, such as those of situation and climate, may not be so readily overcome; they have already been alluded to; and even in them we may hope for improvement with the advance of science.

Different soils may be designated as porous and compact. Leaving out of view for the present, their chemical composition, let us look to their mechanical structure. Porous soils are composed of materials that always allow of the escape of superabundant moisture; they are generally underlaid by beds of diluvial gravels, or by rocks of a porous character. Such lands are peculiarly adapted to orchard planting. The compact soil, on the contrary, is made up of the finest materials, among which alumina largely predominates. Such are called clayey soils or clays, and are among the most valuable upon the surface of the earth, not because alumina is a component of vegetation, but because the elements associated with it, are all of them in a state of extreme comminution.

Clays are compact soils, not only by reason of the fineness of their particles, but because the predominating alumina swells and becomes pasty when it is wet, and thus prevents the passage of water through them. On this account, soils that are too compact, especially if they be underlaid by stiff clay subsoils, are not so well adapted to orcharding as those that are more porous. This is especially true of level lands, upon which water accumulates, to the great injury of the fruit-trees planted upon them; but even in hilly situations, with good natural surface drainage, the excess of clay is indicated by a "spouty" condition of the surface. So many varieties succeed in clayey lands, however, and some are so superior in their products when planted upon clays, that we need not be discouraged by this apparent difficulty; it may be overcome by the ingenuity of the skillful farmer. Thorough or under-drainage will remedy all the evils of clay soils, and bring out their superior advantages. This will be more fully explained in another place. Much may be done toward removing the redundant moisture, even in the flat clay lands of the prairies and other extended plateaus, by the simple means of ridging up the lands with the plow. What is familiarly called "back-furrowing" enables the plowman to raise a ridge upon which to plant his trees, and at the same time he opens a furrow for the escape of surface water. While a portion of the redundant moisture is thus removed, another great object of drainage is not attained: I allude to the aeration of the soil.

From what has been said upon a previous page, it might be inferred, that as the apple may be cultivated upon soils of such great diversity as those that occur over the range of territory indicated, as well as upon the western coast of this continent, and in the temperate regions of the Old World, the peculiar soils that are characterized by their underlying rocks would be equally acceptable, whether these were granites, shales, sandstones, or limestones. Such is not the fact, however, and we have found, in this utilitarian age, that geology has much to do with the planting of an orchard. There are varieties that succeed better upon one rock than upon another, and there are those that fail to be remunerative when transplanted to a rock, which to them is obnoxious, though it may be a very paradise to other varieties.