222 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



to the nature and habit of the tree. Another mistake with some 

 otherwise good pomologists is, the idea that the apple may be trained 

 with a straight central stem, with the limbs coming out regularly 

 about it. I have heard it argued before the Horticultural Society 

 of Wisconsin, by a well known pomologist of Illinois, and an able 

 man. It is mere theory that will not bear, successfully, the test of 

 experiment. 



The apple is, as to type, a round topped tree, formed on a com- 

 paratively short stem. The pine family, including the pine sub 

 family, have tall shafts, with the limbs coming out at regular inter- 

 vals along the stem from the ground up. By heading back, and 

 persistent labor, you may make a comparatively round topped tree 

 of a pine; but, at the expense of its value. So with persistent 

 labor, you may force some varieties of apples to assume a quasi 

 upright growth. The attempt to do either will result in about the 

 same practical value as with a cedar tree I saw in the Japanese 

 Department at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. It was 

 one hundred years old, three feet high, and rugged and uncouth to 

 a most hideous degree. We must so prune as to preserve the great- 

 est quantity of wood and leaf surface that the habit of the tree will 

 admit. There are three types of trees that may do for illustration. 

 The Perry Russet is thick, compact, a round headed tree Talman 

 Sweet is spreading in its habit. The yellow Bellflower is between 

 the two in habit. The Northern Spy is upright in its growth — 

 decidedly so. 



My own practice has always been to manure liberally, raise some 

 early maturing crops in my home orchard — potatoes, early sweet 

 corn, peas — or in lieu of that, some crop that might be plowed 

 under; to prune as little as possible, and assist open-top trees to 

 make closer heads rather than to take anything away. I have sel- 

 dom found any tree too close, even Northern Spy, which grew 

 cpaite dense with me, requiring but little thinning, except taking 

 away here and there inside shoots that interfered with each other. 

 I certainly was successful in getting good crops of fruit, even in 

 Cook county, Illinois, a locality not celebrated for fruit orchards. 

 One more point and I have done with this branch. I would rather 

 have anywhere in the west the first fifteen bearing years of an 

 apple orchard, than all which might follow in the life of the orchard 

 thereafter. The rule will apply to any fruit, except in rare loca- 



