630 ANNUAL REPORT OF TUE Ofif. Doc. 



Having selected the ground, the next step is to see (hat it is 

 well imderdrained. Jn my own case, we lay tiles three or four 

 feet deep and 80 to lUO iect apart. Some poojile claim that good 

 fruit soil should be naturally drained, but I have found the tile drain- 

 age to work very well in my peach orchards. 



I like to start an orchard by using a hoed crop first. I put in a 

 hoed crop, and then plant the orchard. I have been doing a good 

 deal of fall planting, mostly apple, pear and ])lum; we are usually 

 so busy in the spring that it is hard to get our tree i)lanting done. 

 Until lately, we have not been doing much with the one year old 

 trees. My preference has been to get a two-year-old tree. Most 

 of my orchards are ])lanted twenty feet apart each way on the filler 

 system, for which purpose I have used apples. I have a great many 

 early varieties, and I prefer to use them in part. Some growers 

 have been very successful with peaches, as a filler, but I have pre- 

 ferred not to mix my varieties, and have used the apples, chiefly 

 of the early bearing varieties, such as the Yellow Transparent, 

 Oldenburgh, Jonathan or Eome Beauty, all of which do very well 

 with us. You can hasten the bearing of these filler trees by proper 

 methods. In the case of the apple, I like fall planting, and in spring 

 planting I want to get them in just as early as possible after the 

 ground is ready. After 1 have planted the tree in the fall, I top 

 work it the following spring. I prefer the Northern Spy for a 

 stock and have used the Ben DaWs. I always like to cut the scions 

 in the early winter and keep them as nearly as possible in a dormant 

 condition; in short, just as with anything else, don't let them get too 

 wet or too dry. Then after the trees get well started, and the buds 

 come out, we do our grafting, and we get better results by working 

 this way. The general ])ractice is to wait a year before doing any 

 grafting, but I am satisfied that you lose time by it. 



We start about 20 inches from the ground, and use a single scion. 

 We have off one corner in putting in the scion, and we get a good 

 deal better results in healing over in this way. 



Now, I have j»racticed it for fifteen years, and while I have no 

 data to show that J have secured any better fruit by selection, I be- 

 lieve that I have gotton better results than if I had not practiced it. 

 There are several things that go toward producing early bearing, 

 but I believe this top working is one of them. 



In the matter of pruning, my maximum is that pruning is a nec- 

 essary evil. It is imi)ossible to get a tree that does not require 

 any pruning, but every limb that is cut otf takes that much from the 

 tree. I head my trees about 20 inches from the ground; the Rhode 

 Island Greening we do stnrt out a little higher, but our principle is 

 to keep the trees down as low as possible, because with the present 

 day implements, one can cultivate close enough. It may look a little 

 better to cultivate to within an inch or two of the tree, but in a 

 year or two it does not matter, and you are avoiding a large, high 

 tree. 



Then we plant in the orchard, potatoes or currants or straw- 

 berries. There are some objections to strawberries; the first year 

 it is all right, but the second year they rob the orchard of some 

 moisture. We seldom pick our strawberries over one year, and the 

 latter part of June, the apple orchard is ready for cultivation. 



