STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 65 



which were pruned severely. I cut off every bud ; and now for the result. 

 Every one of those unpruned died ; every one pruned lived. This was 

 one experiment. I have made other similar experiments with the larch 

 and other varieties, and with similar results. Now, what do I mean by 

 tender ? I mean failing to grow. I do not mean simply that they can 

 not stand the cold. Trees that do well in Wisconsin are not hardy to 

 Northern Illinois. They cannot stand the drouth, it may be. They fail 

 to grow. The philosophy of it is, that the evaporation is not so great, 

 and there are other causes. In the far North all the circumstances favor 

 a dwarfish habit, which tends to harden. Dwarf does not mean necessa- 

 rily little. A tree which is not so open in growth as another is more 

 dwarf than another. A tree that is thickened up is what I call dwarfed. 

 The shortening in and making more stocky is a dwarfing process. With- 

 out pruning you have extension. It is by pruning that you get compact- 

 ness and a well-balanced tree. 



Mr. Wjer — I have heard before that a tree would not bear fruit if it 

 was out of balance. I would cut back in planting, because the roots are 

 cut ; but I do not call that pruning. I do not think any man here will 

 will say that is pruning. In my orchard of 12,000 trees I do not recollect 

 of seeing one that leans to the northeast. The reason is, they were, at 

 planting, well cut back. All this talk about " opening up the head of a 

 tree " is bosh. The more you open up the more you may, and the result is 

 a thickening up of the head of the tree. Take a tree that has been pruned 

 in the orthodox fashion, supposing it to be twenty years old, you will find 

 the fruit twenty feet from you ; while in my orchard of low heads and 

 unpruned ^rees you can reach the fruit. Mr. Gaston and Mr. Galusha 

 have seen my orchard, and they know what I say is true. It is my expe- 

 rience that trees unpruned bear earlier than trees pruned after the com- 

 mon fashion. I cultivate my trees as I would cultivate corn. 



Mr. Minkler — How far do you plant your trees apart ? 



Mr. Wier — From fifteen to forty feet, according to varieties. Sum- 

 mer Pearmain and Wagener I plant fifteen feet apart, and Early Harvest 

 twenty feet apart. 



Mr. Bryant, Sr. — The motto of our society is, "An Art that doth 

 mend Nature." 



Mr. Wier disputes that. 1 understand that he says that nature can 

 not be mended. There is one point to which I call attention in regard 

 to pruning trees one, two and three years old. Mr. Wier says there are 

 not too many branches on this tree [holding in his hand a small nursery 



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