8 



The manure should be spread around the same way as for any other crop and 

 worked into the soil, but, of course, it must be applied within reach of the roots of 

 the young tree. The roots usually extend farther than the branches. It is a mis- 

 taken idea that the manure should be applied close around the trunks, because the 

 most of the feeding roots of the tree a;re at the ends of the larger roots, although a 

 small proportion of them are distributed all along the main roots. 



Artificial fertilizers, with the exception of wood ashes, are not used at all. A 

 few farmers are using their wood ashes on the orchard, but they apply them the 

 same way as they do the barnyard manure. Wood ashes should be applied about the 

 rate of fifty bushels per acre and should be spread and worked in the same way as 

 the manure. Young trees should not require heavy fertilizing every year. If they 

 are making good growth of two or three feet of new wood and look healthy, with a 

 dark green hue to their foliage, they have sufficient of the elements available in the 

 soil for their immediate use. 



Pruning. — This is a feature of orchard work that has been absolutely neglected 

 in the care of young orchards, with the exception of the little pruning some of the 

 trees receive at planting time. 



The young trees should be carefully pruned and trained each year. A few 

 principles may be in place here, but there is no stated rule to lay down, and the 

 [>runer must rely largely upon his own judgment. In the first place he must have 

 an ideal and prune intelligently, always with that ideal in view. All crossing, weak 

 and ill-formed limbs should be taken out, and no weak crotches left that will in 

 after years break down with the load of fruit. The head should be kept fairly well 

 thinned, so that there may be free circulation of air and sun through, and so that 

 the tree will not be induced to grow too higli, as it will surely do if allowed to 

 become too dense, when the lower limbs will die from lack of sun and air. The 

 height of heading a tree is a point for much controversy, but, if the fact that the 

 limbs of a low-headed tree will tend to grow upward, is borne in mind, it will easily 

 be seen that the limbs of a low-headed tree v/ill interfere with cultivation no more 

 than those of a high-headed tree, as these latter will grow out and tend to droop to 

 the ground. The advantages are obviously greater in performing every other opera- 

 tion on the low-headed tree than on the high-headed tree. 



Effect of Winds. — Many of the young trees have become badly distorted by the 

 prevailing winds where they are exposed to its full force. The whole tree becomes 

 lop-sided and leans badly to the east, and the new growth each year is blown up and 

 turned towards the centre of the tree, thus making the top unbalanced and the 

 ^'entre too dense. If the orchard is not naiurally sheltered from the prevailing wind, 

 a wind-break of spruce, pine, or cedar should be planted on the north and west sides, 

 about the same time the apple trees are planted; these will grow at the same rate or 

 a little faster than the apple trees, and will protect them from the full fury of the 

 north-west and westerly gales. It is a good practice when planting the orchard to 

 slightly lean the trees against the prevailing wind, and they will straighten up later 

 under the influence of the wind. 



Pests. — Most of the young orchards were badly attacked with the Oyster-shell 

 scale or Oyster-shell bark louse, the apple aphis, and in some cases, the Buffalo tree 

 hopper. The disease known as the apple tree canker was also found, even in one 

 vear planted orchards. Young trees attacked by the Oyster-shell scale should be 

 sprayed with lime-sulphur, either commercial or home-made, of a strength of one 

 gallon to nine or ten of water, before the leaf buds burst. The Buffalo tree hopper 

 is best controlled by cultivation, and any diseased areas should be cut out and 

 destroyed by burning. , 



