42 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



know you will be saying: How are you going to cultivate such 

 a tree? The point is well taken, but the objection is more 

 seeming than real. I have done my large trees more harm 

 than good by deep cultivation close up. As a matter of fact, 

 before these low-headed trees come into bearing they can be 

 worked as deep as need be with a one-horse reversible beam 

 plow, and after the limbs get too low with the modern orchard 

 tools one can do all the cultivation that is necessary, and do 

 it well. 



PRUNING. 



This really is a subject that demands a lecture by itself, and 

 I can only emphasize a few vital principles. I would lay this 

 down as the first: Prune just as little as possible to keep the 

 trees shapely, sufficiently opened that the sun can penetrate and 

 spraying can be well done, and to remove all diseased or broken 

 wood. Whether to prune when the tree is dormant, or in full 

 leaf*, is wholly dependent on conditions. If the work is done 

 in the first case in winter, when the sap is stored in the roots 

 in proportion to the top that the tree had the fall previous, 

 and a portion of this top has been removed, when the sap rises 

 in the spring, it must either force an undue growth of the 

 wood remaining, or produce a lot of suckers, both indicative 

 of wood growth rather than the development of fruit buds. 

 To prune at this seasen, then, means to encourage growth 

 rather than fruitfulness. 



If the tree is pruned when in full leaf, after the sap has been 

 distributed through the top, a portion of this top then being 

 removed will leave only the right quota to each branch, and 

 the shock to the tree — for it is a shock — will tend to produce 

 fruitfulness. 



CULTIVATION. 



When one sets an orchard he must register a vow to care 

 for it according to the laws of trees, and of nothing else, or 

 in other words, one cannot expect results and make the orchard 

 a grain field or a meadow. I do not believe it necessary to give 

 up the land entirely to trees during the first years of the or- 

 chard's life. Hoed crops, such as corn or potatoes, may be 

 planted between the rows, keeping a good distance away from 



