FRUIT CULTURE. 39 



fruit, and as the object in planting fruit trees is, of course, the 

 production of fruit, that treatment only is proper which maintains 

 the trees in a healthy fruit bearing condition. In order to main- 

 tain this condition, it is necessary that the soil should be favorable 

 to the growth of the tree. It is also well known that the greatest 

 growth is not always immediately connected with the greatest 

 productiveness ; on the contrary, it is a fact that a tree does not 

 display great vigor of growth and at the same time bear a large 

 crop of fruit. Here then is a hint for our guidance in determining 

 the question as to whether an orchard should be cultivated and 

 manured or laid down to grass. When trees are young it is well 

 to push their growth until they reach a proper fruit bearing size, 

 then if they give no indication of fruiting it would be well to lay 

 down to grass. Stable manure will be found to give satisfactory 

 results if it be composted with muck and leached ashes, wet with 

 soap suds. As to when orchards should be manured, we should 

 judge by their gTowth. If the soil is so rich that they make 

 annual shoots of two feet or more, it will be needless to give 

 additional stimulus. There are few orchards which after reaching 

 a good bearing state throw out annual shoots more than one foot 

 long. The owner may lay it down as a rule that when his trees 

 do not grow one foot each year they need more manure. By 

 observing the growth he can ' resolve all doubts of this kind with- 

 out difficulty. Another cause of the failure of fruit crops is the 

 ravages of insects. The borer is more destructive to the apple tree 

 than any other insect, and if it is not checked destroys the tree. 

 It is not my purpose to give a minute description of the borer or 

 its habits, for that has been better done by others than I can do. 

 But I wish to suggest some preventive that may in part obviate 

 the destruction of so many of our trees. I have put white birch 

 bark around trees to prevent them from being destroyed by the 

 mice. I have found this to be a very sure protection of the tree 

 against the borer. 



I have found washing with soap suds the last of May or the first 

 of June to kill the eggs of the beetle. We should not be troubled 

 with either the borer or bark louse, if we washed the trees 

 thoroughly with soap suets at the proper time. It makes the bark 

 smooth and glossy, and drives away various insects which before 

 preyed upon the juices of the tree. The tent caterpillar is another 

 insect that has been at times very troublesome to our trees, but 

 for two or three years past they have not been so plenty as they 



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