TRANSACTIONS OF CHAMPAIGN CO. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 281 



eight feet is a good distance apart, and the trees should be set two to four 

 inches deeper tlian they grew in the nursery, so they may stand firm in 

 the ground. Fill in about the roots with fine earth, only as high as the 

 roots were covered with earth in the nursery, leaving the surface dishing 

 toward the tree the two to four inches it was set deeper than it grew in 

 the nursery. This gives the roots the full benefit of the sprhig and sum- 

 mer rains, dews and sun, all necessary to the growth of the tree. This 

 hollow should be filled up in the fall, so that no water can stand about 

 the tree. 



The trees should be slightly leaned to the southwest, so they may 

 better resist the prevailing winds from that quarter, and lesson the injury 

 from the sun shining on tlie trunks of the trees during the warm part of 

 the day. 



A young orchard should be cultivated the first eight or ten years, in 

 some crop that would give good culture to the trees early in the season, 

 and continue culture until the first part of August, when it should cease, 

 and allow the buds and wood to ripen, so they may stand the winter 

 without injury. Corn is as good as any thing for this purpose. 



Pi-uning. — Each form has its many friends, some admiring low 

 heads, others high. I would recommend a trunk of from three to four 

 feet in height, allowing the upright growers to branch lower than the 

 spreading varieties. Use care in pruning the young trees, so that but few 

 large limbs will have to be cut out in coming years, and encourage 

 growth so as to protect the trunk and large limbs from the direct rays of 

 the sun, and on this side the preponderance of the weight should be 

 maintained; in fact, the side of the tree presenting the heaviest limbs 

 should be set in this direction to begin with. The tops should be lightly 

 thinned out annually, and no great quantity taken off at one time, just 

 enough to admit light and air sufficient to mature the greatest quantity of 

 good salable fruits, as that on the inside of a brushy topped tree is of but 

 little value for any use. Three feet of trunk to an upright grower, and 

 four to a spreading kind, with proper pruning afterward, will give room 

 for the pickers, and allow the mowing machine bar to pass under in 

 mowing when in clover, the only grass that is suitable for an apple 

 orchard. When the orchard has attained eight or ten years of good, 

 growth, it can be sowed in this grass and annually pastured with hogs, 

 sheep and horses, in early summer, until they begin to eat good fruit. 

 Hogs should be let in occasionally through the season, to eat the wormy 

 wind- falls. Sheep must be well salted, and only allowed to run in an 

 orchard while in leaf, or they will bark the trunks. Cattle are often 

 inclined to hook the trees, and are, therefore, objectionable. The clover 

 if not pastured off, should be cut and left on the ground. This should 

 be done before it gets such a rank growth as to be liable to smother the 

 roots. 



The Borers. — The apple-tree root-borer, in many locations, is very 

 injurious. The most effectual remedy is to take them out with a knife. 

 The eggs are mostly deposited a little above the ground in the bark, 

 during the month of June. From the first of July till winter sets in, the 



