208 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. 



retards theii' growth or destroys them. Paint over when necessary 

 the wounds of the preceding year's pruning. 



During the summer, it is well to go round and close up the cracks 

 in the wax, occasioned by the expansion of the wood. 



See that the ground is well tilled the second year, but be careful 

 not to plough so deep as to cut off large and important roots. This 

 is not necessary. Keep the grass and sprouts away from the trunks, 

 watch carefully for the borer, and you will need to pay but little 

 more attention to your orchard for the second year. 



Pruning the second year after grafting. More orchards are 

 killed during this period of their renovation, than at any other. It 

 should be very sparingly done. It is a great temptation after you 

 see the scions well started, to trim off all the under-branches of the 

 limb. But here lies your greatest danger. The leaves are the 

 lungs of trees, and what few there are on the scion cannot take the 

 place of all the branches, and elaborate all the sap in the limb. 

 Congestion takes place, and the limb dies. Cut out such limbs as 

 may interfere with the growth of the scion. Re-graft and fill out 

 such stocks as may not have taken the previous year, observing to 

 wax over all the scions of the last year where it is started off. A 

 limb may often be saved by a little attention to this, especially where 

 but one scion took the year previous. Follow up with your paint 

 pot as on the previous years. 



The third year. The operations of this year will be but a repe- 

 tition of the previous year. Cut out a few more branches. Now 

 and then the scions may have grown so large that the feeblest scion 

 in the stock may be cut out, and the other so shaped as to form the 

 future top of the tree. If two scions are left for several years, they 

 out-grow the stock. When large branches have been cut, and new 

 wood is forming over the wound, you can frequently assist nature 

 by taking a chisel or a gouge, and a mallet, and cut out the old 

 wood so as to give the new wood a better opportunity to turn in and 

 cover the wound. 



If you have had tolerable success, you will now begin to enjoy 

 real pleasure in what you have done. Your Baldwins will begin to 

 bear, the third and fourth years after grafting, and continue to bear 

 more or less every year till they become well topped, when they 

 will bear every other year. Your Blue Pearmains will not begin 



