190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the tree, much to be preferred to the application of lime 

 or whitewash, which I have often seen applied, but Avhich I 

 am inclined to think is not as desirable an application as the 

 potash, or the soda, or this mixture of soft-soap and manure. 



With reo^ard to the heitrht at which trees should branch 

 out, we were taught, a few years ago, — and it was considered 

 to be a heresy to say anything else, — to let them branch very 

 low indeed, and I have seen the practice carried to the 

 extreme of letting them branch within a foot or so from 

 the surface, spreading out their limbs. What has been the 

 result? The result has been, that the fruit produced by 

 those lower limbs has been wanting in color ; there has been 

 additional difficulty in gathering the fruit ; and I believe now 

 that our cultivators unitedly would say, " Give your trees a 

 reasonable height to the head, depending upon the variety 

 very much, to allow of culture beneath the branches, and of 

 free circulation of air beneath the tree." Some trees very 

 soon spread over, and the limbs will reach the ground. The 

 Rhode Island Greening, for instance, if you branch it as high 

 as your shoulder or your head, in fifteen years the limbs will 

 reach the ground. That is low enough, certainly ; you do 

 not want them any lower than that ; and if you allow it to 

 branch out still lower than that, you have no opportunity for 

 the circulation of air below the tree, and your fruit, growing 

 so close to the ground, will be spotted, or will be of imperfect 

 color. There is nothing to be gained by allowing them to 

 branch out too low. Other varieties, like the Northern Spy, 

 which send their branches straight up, will bear to branch out 

 lower. The Northern Spy has shown, within a year or two, 

 that it is not quite so bad a tree for New England as w^e 

 thought. It comes very slowly into bearing. They were 

 planted among our orchards about fifteen or twenty years ago, 

 and did not answer our expectations ; but a year ago, and 

 this year, I have seen trees with their ladder-like tops leaning 

 over in the most graceful and willow-like form from the loads 

 of fruit they were producing. I am inclined to think that, 

 as the tree gains a reasonable amount of maturity here, with 

 good culture, the Northern Spy will reward us with those 

 abundant crops for which we have been looking. 



Question. In what locality is that? 



