This in a large measure, in the writer's opinion, is the result of the stimulus started 

 by the demonstration work done by the Department of Agriculture near and around 

 Morrisburg during the last two years. In the other two counties only one or two 

 new orchards have been planted, and they are of small extent. The planting as a 

 rule has been poorly done, although a few of the planters understood their work. 

 Many trees have been planted too shallow, and very little or no pruning has been 

 done at the time of planting. 



The trees should be planted in the spring as soon as the weather and soil con- 

 ditions will permit. A large hole two feet in diameter and a foot deep should be 

 dug, pkcing the top soil in one pile and the bottom soil in another. The roots 

 should be all pruned back to a'bout six inches long and all dead and injured roots 

 taken off back to healthy tissue; they should be spread out evenly in the hole and a 

 little top soil work in around them by hand. The soil should be tramped in around 

 the tree as fii-mly as possible, and the tops pruned back to balance them up with the 

 roots. If the tree is a straight whip, the top should be cut off about two feet ahove 

 the ground, and the two year old trees should be pruned back to three or four main 

 limbs, and these again pruned to six or eight inches long. No watering should be 

 necessary, hut if the planting season should be unseasonably hot and dry, as the past 

 one has been, water should be used. Apply it just above the roots and not on top of 

 the ground. See that surface soil around the tree is left loose. 



Cultivation. — Fifty-five per cent, of the young orchards have been cropped with 

 corn or potatoes between the trees, eight per cent, were sown to grain, while thirty- 

 seven per cent, were planted in sod. With young orchards, it is in the interest of 

 economy to raise other crops between the rows of trees, but upon no consideration 

 should these crops he allowed to encroach upon the trees. The youno- trees when 

 first planted should have at least three feet each side of them which should be kept 

 cultivated so as to secure a dust mulch that will conserve the moisture. This dis- 

 tance should be increased yearly as the trees increase in size and require the ground. 

 Cultivation should continue once a week or after every rain during the summer up 

 until the 15th of June, when it should cease and a cover crop be sown at the last cul- 

 tivation. Those trees that were cultivated with the corn or potatoes have made an 

 average of a foot and a half growth during the season ; those in the sod grew about 

 half as much. Those planted amongst the grain liave made a little growth, and in 

 some cases no more than kept alive, while a larger percentage of them have died. A 

 cultivated crop is hest to grow in the young orchard, as then there will be a better 

 chance to give the trees thorough cultivation ; and about once in three or four year? 

 clover or some other leguminous crop should be grown as a cover crop to add humus 

 and nitrogen to the soil, unless liberal coatings of manure are worked in annually 

 or biennially. 



It has been strongly recommended by the largest growei's, and by Professor 

 Macoun, of Ottawa, that bearing orchards should be kept in sod, which should be 

 occasionally broken up and then re-seeded. This practice is to ensure necessai-y 

 protection from winter injury, which is a great factor in this section. 



Fertilizing. — ^The majority of orchards have had ample manure applied to 

 them, but it has not been applied in the right manner. In a great many cases it 

 is piled around the trees and up against them, and is sometimes taken from the 

 trunks and sometimes left there over winter. Most farmers, however, realize the 

 danger from mice in this latter practice, although they pile against the tree in 

 summer. Their arguments are that it retains moisture around the tree abd saves 

 hand-hoeing the weeds from around the trunks. 



