STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 1 5 



the two-year-old bud. Sometimes apple trees are sold a year 

 younger than this, either as one-year-old buds or two-year-old 

 grafts. Pears are usually propagated on French pear seed- 

 lings ; plums on myrobalan stock ; cherries on both mazzard 

 and mahaleb stocks, the latter being the one most frequently 

 employed. The former is the only one to use for sweet cher-- 

 ries, and it is our native wild sweet cherry. It is much more 

 difficult to handle in the nursery than the mahaleb, and since 

 the fruit grower does not realize the difference, the nurseryman 

 has employed the mahaleb stock, with the result that there has 

 been a marked mortality among the sweet cherries planted dur- 

 ing recent years. The union made by the sweet cherry bud 

 with the mazzard stock is much better than with the mahaleb, 

 and for eastern conditions the mazzard root is the one which 

 should be planted. 



Thus far, we have been shipping our trees direct from the 

 nursery and not putting them into storage. When trees aie 

 handled freshly dug and are delivered to the planter promptly, 

 we advise that the terminal parts of the limbs be not cut back ; 

 we prefer, in the case of apples and pears, that a central leader 

 system be used in the training of the tree and that, if there be 

 eight or ten limbs on the tree when it is received, that these be 

 reduced to four well placed round the trunk, with the greatest 

 possible interval between them. That is, if a space of twelve 

 inches could be left between these branches it is more desirable 

 than six. There is no necessity to cut ofif the ends of the limbs 

 unless they be dried back. The cutting ofif of the terminal bud 

 merely retards growth, because this bud will usually start into 

 growth seven to ten days earlier than any other bud on the 

 twig, and the sooner we establish growth in the case of a young 

 tree, the better. In the planting we merely desire to emphasize 

 that it is important that the tree establish itself quickly. In 

 order to do this the soil should be compacted closely round the 

 roots. It is more important to have the ground packed tight 

 than any other thing, because it is not until the soil is in touch 

 with the roots that moisture can flow from the soil into them. 



Greening and Mcintosh begin to assume their spreading habit 

 of growth at six years after planting, and by the time they are 

 eight or ten, the width is in the proportion of 14 to a height of 

 10. On the other hand, such varieties as Oldenburg, Wealthy 



