No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 477 



as Yolk Imperials, iUildwins aud t5pics. Suuliglil id the most im- 

 portant factor from which the apple tree derives power to run its 

 machinery. The amount of this power that a tree can use largely 

 determines the amount of fruit the tree can bear. It is, therefore, 

 evident that the surface area of the top of an apple tree should be as 

 large and as well exposed to the sunlight as possible. The practice 

 of cutting off the lower limbs of an apple tree is entirely too com- 

 mon. In a well developed tree this would amount to from four hun- 

 dred to eight hundred square feet of the normal bearing surface of 

 the tree. This custom also results in permanent injury to the tree, 

 whose natural habit is to form a rounded top and bend its branches 

 low to catch every ray of sunlight it can appropriate. It has been 

 demonstrated by experiment that the limbs of apple trees exposed 

 to strong light produce more fruit buds than those which are in 

 partial shade. 



The CHAIRMAN: We have heard four solid papers, each and 

 everyone giving us a large amount of food to choose, and as we 

 have about half an hour of the morning session yet we will consume 

 as much of that time in discussing these papers as may be neces- 

 sary. I will ask you, however, to make your speeches as short and 

 to the point as possible, because there may be a great many who 

 wish to speak. T will not designate what papers shall be discussed 

 first. 



MR. JAEKEL: Some of the papers have said something about 

 choosing the land for the orchard. There is not a piece of ground 

 in the State of Pennsylvania in which you can readily stick a spade 

 which would not be fit to plant some trees. It is true that the 

 pear wants clay soil aud the cherry tree a lighter, dry soil. It is un- 

 derstood that all trees want to have dry feet on well drained 

 ground. But trees will grow on any ground. Some years ago the 

 idea was that apple trees would not grow after apple trees. I made 

 an experiment. I had a Maiden Blush that broke down, and I dug 

 a large hole and I put several cart loads of street ground in and I 

 planted a Smokehouse in it and that is just twice the size now, and 

 has been bearing nearly as much as the other tree and is twice as 

 large. So you can plant apple after apple if you provide food for it. 

 There is not a piece of ground in Pennsylvania in which you can 

 stick a spade which is not fit for some tree or other, and it is very 

 wrong in farmers not supplying their homes and their people with 

 the luscious fruit from the strawberry to the late pear and the 

 Russet apple. 



SECRETARY MARTIN: I would like to bring a question before 

 th<» convention regarding this program. Certainly you ought to 



