TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 335 



been done, and he recommended heading back to these shoots, and in 

 this way get new, healthy branches for fruit bearing. He said we must 

 plant new orchards. All our orchard trees, twenty-five years old and 

 upwards, are on the decline — in a dying state — and can not be productive 

 much longer. I would plant only twenty sorts of apples, at most ; we 

 all have too many varieties. I have only just learned what and how to 

 plant. 



0. The President — "We have Mr. Heinl, from Terrc Haute, Indiana, 

 with us, and I trust he will participate in the discussions. 



Mr. WiER (of Marshall Co.) — I have given attention to this subject 

 of pruning all my life, and some years since I came to the conclusion, 

 and from which 1 have not since wavered, that the only way I can prune 

 for the good of the orchard is to not prune at all. As has been said, our 

 orchard trees are damaged, and I tell you we are on dangerous ground 

 when we recommend pruning at all. Every tree that I have cut for the 

 last six or seven years, I have endangered its life. Take the Ben 

 Davis, for instance; where I top-grafted it — even this hardy tree was dam- 

 aged by the cutting. I also take issue with the essay, as to pruning so as 

 to admit of plowing under the trees. It is no use to plow under the 

 trees; the true way to kill the blue grass spoken of is to mulch. This 

 dying back of the limbs is no new thing. I saw it before these late, hard 

 winters. I know an old orchard in which are one hundred Gilpin trees, 

 one-third of which were killed in the winter of 1855-6; the live trees 

 threw up water-sprouts, which made branches that have borne well ever 

 since, and no pruning has been done in the trees. 



Mr. Minkler — I would like to ask Mr. Wier if his trees, that were 

 injured by grafting, were not grafted immediately after a hard winter? I 

 don't see why a man should carry about with him a mutilated arm, or 

 why a tree should carry a mutilated, worthless branch ; it seems to me 

 that amputation is the remedy in both these cases. As to plowing under 

 trees — when the blue grass takes possession it robs the trees of moisture, 

 and the sod must be broken up. 



Prof. Thomas recommended pruning olT twigs, or small branches, 

 having cocoons or eggs of insects upon them, during the mild days of 

 winter. 



Mr. Wier — Branches badly cut by the cicada never recover, yet I 

 see no use in cutting them off; if left on they will furnish leaves, which 

 will support the life of the tree while new shoots are starting, and these 

 will in time renew the tree. One of my neighbors cut off all the branches 

 of his orchard trees, that were cut ujj by the cicada, as soon as the eggs 



