THE CULTURE OF THE APPLE. 99 



THE CULTUEE OF THE APPLE. 



MIDDLESEX SOUTH. 

 From an Essay by Abel F. Stevens. 



There are certain things that are requisite, in the successful 

 cultivation of the apple, in order to secure the best results. 

 We shall briefly notice them under soils, situation, shelter, 

 pruning and management of trees, and the selection of vari- 

 eties. The soil and location selected must be such as will be 

 adapted to the growth of the tree and the production of fruit. 

 We regard a good, rich, mellow loam, on a strong, clayey sub- 

 soil, the very best for an apple-orchard; on such soils we 

 find the greatest and most enduring vigor and fertility, the 

 healthiest and hardiest trees, and the finest and best-flavored 

 fruits. Apples grown on a clayey soil keep better and longer 

 than those grown on light soils. If the location can be had 

 on the south-eastern or south-western slope of a hill, so much 

 the better. If the site chosen for the orchard is not protected 

 naturally, then a good belt of hardy evergreen trees — the 

 Norway spruce or white pine, set out in hedge-form — will 

 make an excellent protection. 



We consider the matter of shelter and protection of the 

 greatest imi^ortance. Its necessities are twofold : to guard 

 against excessive aridity during summer, and severe cold 

 during winter ; in other words, to modify the debilitating 

 eflfects of the injurious evaporation produced by the extremes 

 of heat and cold. Our natural forests are rapidly being 

 destroyed, and their destruction tends to lessen the moisture 

 both of the atmosphere and the soil. Thus we must protect 

 our fruit-gardens from both extremes, for ])evfeGt maturity of 

 growth is the great object of all cultivation. This very impor- 

 tant fact should always be uppermost in the mind of the fruit- 

 grower, — cultivation and pruning of the tree. 



