TRANSACTIONS OF NORTHERN ILL. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 337 



grow without deterioration from climatic causes, I cannot see why we 

 should not be able to arrest, to a very great extent, this and other forms 

 of mildew, both in the apple and other fruits, by the use of proper fertil- 

 izers. The steady increase of the various forms of mildew in and on our 

 fruits, should awaken the most serious apprehension among our fruit- 

 growers. 



I would say, as before stated, that 1 have much confidence in full 

 and open exposure to sunlight and air. As a further evidence of the 

 sun's influence, it is well known that this low form of life is found more 

 l)revalent as we reach the higher latitudes, and also that it is oftener found 

 in places that are cold and damp. As another means to save our fruits 

 from loss, I have thought that where an orchard is annually pastured 

 (with cattle — and young are better) except during the season of the fruit's 

 maturity, that the fruit was fairer and more abundant. I have watched 

 an orchard thus treated for the past ten to fifteen years, and can 

 attribute the favorable results only to clean culture induced by pasturage, 

 and to the daily consumption of the waste and fallen fruit by the stock. 

 This orchard was annually mulched, which I consider necessary in every 

 place where the soil is not stirred or cultivated. I believe that a clean 

 and open surface adds very much in j^reserving our orchards from the 

 depredations of insect, parasitic and fungoid life. 



To aid all these, the careful hand of the pruner comes in. The want 

 of a better and more general knowledge under this head is painful to wit- 

 ness, not only in our public parks, but especially in our orchards. The 

 loss to planters, from this cause alone, can not easily be estimated. Where- 

 ever a fork is suffered to grow, it only ensures, sooner or later, the 

 destruction of the tree. Branches having a relative length and size should 

 alone be suffered to grow on any fruit or shade tree. To do this work 

 well, very much depends upon the practiced eye and judgment of the 

 skilled cultivator (pruner;. I hardly need say that the pyramidal, at least 

 as nearly so as the habit of the tree will admit, is the form that experi- 

 ence has most generally approved. A proper system of pruning appears 

 to be as essential to the life and health of the tree as it is to secure a 

 healthy and well grown quality of fruit. Both fruit and shade trees 

 having branches over-large are liable to be broken down by excessive 

 bearing, high winds, and also by the ice of winter. Exce.ssive pruning, 

 however, should always be avoided, and is never neces.sary if a judicious 

 system is practiced when the trees are young. Annual prunings, although 

 slight, should never be neglected — in the spring, by shortening in of all 

 branches having an undue extension, and the removal of, or shortening in 

 of, all branches that are dead or decaying; in the summer, by the removal 

 of suckers, which, as a rule, should be ijerformed by the hanil. 



The height of trunk should be such as to .secure air and sunlight, 

 but never so high as to bare it to a full expo.sure of the sun's rays. The 

 trunk-borer seldom fails to make his home in this exposed surface. To 

 speculate upon, or to even recommend a remedy for this enemy, is to 

 remove the cau.se. We in this instance, as in many others, induce disease 

 when we turn aside from life's normal condition. I would not, however, 



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