Transplanting Fruit Trees

Transplanting Fruit Trees.

 Occasionally we hear it said in various sections of the West that such and such regions are not suitable for growing fruit. On examination of the soil, it does not disclose any reason for such statements, and otherwise the cause is not apparent. The fact is, people are ever looking away from themselves for the cause of their failures, whenever they meet with them.

  A friend on the prairie, in one of the more northern counties of Illinois, years ago made a failure of his apple orchard, though be selected the list varieties which were good bearers in the same latitude. He decided that his section was a failure in fruit. A gentleman well versed in transplanting and acclimatization of trees, learning "where his trees grew, assured him that the fault was in transplanting them from a nursery, far south of his own location, in the fall season. He tested this theory with a few trees of the same kind from the same nursery, but planted in the spring, and to the surprise they flourished and bore fruit abundantly. This kind of mistake is frequently made, and the locality, rather than the man, is charged with the cause of the failure. Transplanting trees to a colder climate should always be done in the spring, and to a warmer climate than where growing, in fall. This is true whether done by seeds, scions, or otherwise. 

-Indiana Farmer