773 



Handbook of Naiure-Shidii 



. 



-. " * 



.-, , . I / 



-.5^^?- \ i^ v St&l *<v "" ' 



. 



.4 bald :c in apple tree. 



THE APPLE TREE 



Teacher's Story 



As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat 

 down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 



-THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 



N old-fashioned orchard is always a delight to those of us 

 who love the picturesque. The venerable apple tree with 

 its great twisted and gnarled branches, rearing aloft its 

 rounded head, and casting its shadow on the green turf 

 below, is a picture well worthy of the artist's brush. 

 And that is the kind of orchard I should always have, 

 because it suits me, just as it does bluebirds, downies 

 and chickadees, as a place to live in. However, if I 

 wished to make money by selling apples, I should 

 need to have an orchard of comparatively young trees, 

 which should be straight and well pruned, and the ground beneath them 

 well cultivated; for there is no plant that responds more generously to 

 cultivation than does the apple tree. In such an orchard, a few annual 

 crops might be grown while the trees were young, and each year there 

 should be planted in August or September the seed of crimson clover or of 

 some other good cover-crop. This would grow so as to protect the ground 

 from washing during the heavy rains and thaws of fall and winter, and in 

 the spring it would be plowed under to add more humus to the soil. 



