398 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



apples when grown in a closed vase form, or when allowed to 

 assume their most natural shape, as shown in the frontispiece, 

 these two methods being the only ones followed to any extent In 

 New York. Upright growing varieties are trained according to 

 the first system, while those of spreading habit are allowed to 

 grow in their natural form. Ten feet appears to be none too 

 much for either form of tree, and probably twelve feet w ould fre- 

 quently be preferable. On rich soils and with vigorous varieties^, 

 a distance between the trees of fifteen feet will prove advantage- 

 ous, and it thus appears that the number of trees which may 

 jjrofitably be planted upon an acre depends largely upon the 

 habit of the variety, and upon the character of the soil; similar 

 variations occur also in the case of standard trees. Assuming, 

 however, an average distance of twelve feet between the trees, 

 there may be set 300 trees per acre. During the first five years 

 of their growth, these trees may yield some fruit, or they may 

 not; the dwarf apples growing upon the Cornell grounds have 

 been set six years, and none of the trees have borne over a dozen 

 apples during any one season. The fruit which was produced 

 was in no particular extraordinary; size, color, and quality w^ere 

 apparently identical with fruit from standard trees. Thus far, 

 therefore, our dwarfs have not distinguished themselves as pos- 

 sessing superiority of any kind, except possibly early fruiting, 

 yet we have several standard trees of other varieties which have 

 borne more fruit than these.* 



When dAvarf apples have reached the age of ten or fifteen 

 years, they become more useful. Such trees seem to average in 

 this State from three to four pecks of apples annually. Assum- 

 ing the average annual yield of these trees to be three pecks per 

 tree, about seventv-five barrels of fruit w^ould be obtained from 

 each acre of orchard, every year, by no means a poor yield. 

 But after a tree has passed its twentieth year still larger returns 

 may be expected. I have seen dwarf trees over thirty years of 

 age which were bearing from three to four bushels of fruit, but 



* These trees, however, were removed after they had been set two years, 80> 

 that their behavior may be somewhat abnormal. L. n. b. 



