314 



ILLINOIS STATE HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



as well as the top. Trees set two rods apart each way ; these roots will 

 meet in eight years. I have trees set that distance that the branches have 

 long since kissed each other. 



Digging the Holes. — Did I say digging the holes ? The holes should 

 be the size of the orchard; i. e., the ground should be made mellow as 

 deep as the roots are to go ; trees should be set four inches deeper than 

 they stood in the nursery, for the reason that the ground settles and the 

 tree does not. 



Selecting the Trees. — Do not be governed by the usual palaver (five 

 to seven feet) as used by the tree peddlers ; but select good stocky four 

 or five-year-old trees, with trunks four and five feet, with branches evenly 

 distributed on all sides ; avoid crotches or forks. Go to your nearest 

 nurseryman, if he is reliable, and if you can have your choice in the trees 

 for a few cents addition to price all the better for you. In setting trees, 

 always range by your stakes, not by the trees you have set, if you do you 

 will be sure to go crooked. In setting be careful to have no vacancies 

 about the roots, use your hands freely, then pack the earth well around 

 the roots, yea, stamp it well and finish with loose soil, then mulch; this 

 is indispensable ; it consists of putting any old straw or stack bottom, if 

 half rotten all the better ; this should be four inches deep and reach out 

 three feet each way around the tree. The object is to retain the moisture 

 in the ground. The next thing is to stake the trees ; this is done by 

 driving the stake on the southwest side of the tree, one foot from the 

 tree, then take your straw band, twisted hard, put it around the tree, then 

 put the strands together, twist again, then part the strands and tie 

 around the stake. I should have said above, to lean the tree in setting a 

 little to the one-o'clock sun, also put your heaviest branches on that side; 

 the object in staking and leaning the tree is to prevent it from leaning 

 towards Lake Michigan. If your trees get to leaning that way, the sun 

 will surely scald the bark on the southwest side, and your tree is gone; 

 as soon as you get the branches to shade the trunk you are safe. 



Varieties. — Be careful not to get too many varieties, say about four 

 summer, four fall and six or eight winter, and this would be too many if 

 you were sure they would bear each year. I will not name the varieties, 

 for you are to be governed altogether by your locality. 



Cultivation. — The orchard should be cultivated at least eight years, 

 or till it comes well into bearing in any hoed crop, or sown to buckwheat 

 and let it fall back on the ground ; care should be taken not to plow too 

 near, or too deep near the trees; when you seed use red clover. It is 

 advisable to shorten in the branches two-thirds the last year's growth, for 

 the reason that the tree has lost roots in being taken up, and that 

 equalizes the top and root. 



Protection from Jiabbits. — Mr. D. B. Wier says a rabbit may gnaw 

 all the bark off for six inches and the tree will not die. I say it will die. 

 So doctors disagree. But I think prevention is better than the cure; you 

 have a remedy always at hand: take an old pail, or nail keg will do, take 

 from the back-house vault aud reduce it to the consistency of paint, and 

 with a swab flirt it on the trunks of your trees in the fall and I will 



