STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I23 



This orchard has never produced many apples until I bought 

 it and this year neighbors say it grew more than it had produced 

 all its life up to that time. This orchard, as well as the one 

 described before, is about 38 to 40 years of age. I am con- 

 vinced that more apples can be raised by tillage than by sod and 

 will continue to cultivate most of the time, although in a wet 

 season it is a disagreeable task to harvest a crop of apples from 

 a tilled orchard. 



All the apple orchards I had up to last spring I had bought 

 and from what I had seen of orchards in other states I thought 

 I would raise an orchard to suit my own ideas, so I took a piece 

 of new land that two years ago was covered with stumps. 

 These had been removed with dynamite, and one crop of beans 

 raised on the land. 



I bought No. I trees that had been fumigated and inspected 

 by two New York state inspectors and declared free from scale. 

 Right here is where theory and practice fell out, for according 

 to Dr. Twitchell at the New Hampshire meeting fumigation and 

 inspection are sure. The trees were set just the opposite from 

 the Stringfellow method. I did not trim the roots unless broken 

 nor the tops except to get the right number of limbs, and did not 

 cut back at all. As the field was next two main traveled roads, 

 I had lots of advice about the way to trim the tops, but they did 

 not get trimmed and grew finely all summer. In the new 

 wood's dirt, and being well set, they did not know it was a dry 

 year and but three or four trees died on the 20 acres. 



I set the entire orchard 42 feet apart with Baldwins and put 

 in three fillers to each Baldwin, 21 feet apart, of early bearing 

 kinds like Alexander, Wolf River, M. Blush, Twenty Ounce, 

 Mcintosh Red, etc. 



In this orchard I intend to sow clover or some cover crop to 

 be left on the ground, and while the ground is new and fertile 

 and might be cropped for several years safely, I believe if I 

 let the cover crops go back the ground will store up fertility and 

 when the trees produce fruit I will have enough better quality 

 to repay me for all the crops that would have been raised there. 

 I do not intend to trim the trees much except to remove water 

 sprouts and limbs that cross. My theory is that trimming 

 young trees throws them to producing wood instead of fruit. 



