128 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



followed up as will keep the whole compact, and always full 

 of young, bearing wood. 



The subject of the reclamation of old orchards is one of 

 considerable importance, inasmuch as there are great numbers 

 of old trees all over New England, which are bearing apples fit 

 only for the manufacture of cider. A large portion of these 

 trees may be made to pay handsomely for the cost of grafting 

 and the requisite care necessary to bring them into a fruitful 

 condition. If the trunk of a tree is sound, and shows some 

 degree of vigor, it will unquestionably remunerate the owner 

 for the time and labor required to renovate it by grafting and 

 cultivation. A good deal of care, however, is required in order 

 to prevent the tree from dying in consequence of an excess 

 of well-meant, but often misjudged and misapplied kindness. 

 Many a healthy, vigorous tree, more especially of the pear, has 

 been sacrificed to the want of knowledge on the part of the 

 experimenter. 



A judicious plan of proceeding we conceive to be as follows, 

 and in order to more fully comprehend the matter, we will 

 consider but one operation at a time. First, then, we will take 

 up the subject of grafting. It is generally considered best to 

 graft but about a third of an old tree in any one year, begin- 

 ning with the topmost branches. This is a very good rule, but 

 liable to some exceptions. If the tree is unthrifty, and has 

 made but a trifling amount of wood during the previous season, 

 we would graft half of it at once, and even in some cases we 

 have grafted the whole tree at a time. The object in view- 

 should l)e to cut away so much of the tree as may be necessary 

 to produce a thrifty growth of the scions. If too little is 

 removed, the growth will be weak and the union imperfect. 

 If too much is cut away, we may get too large a growth, which 

 with certain varieties of the pear, is a result very much more 

 to bo feared than the opposite. In the second spring, another 

 third or half, as the case may be, is grafted, and the whole 

 operation completed in the third year. 



The effect of thus removing in two or three years all the 

 foliage bearing parts of an old, established tree, is that of an 

 energetic stimulant. All the powers of the tree are roused to 

 repair the loss sustained, and in the operation it may be said 

 to renew its youth. It puts forth its energies in making wood 



