502 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



those decays if you only cut properly. The ideal time to prune is 

 just before the buds start in the spring. Anytime after the leaves 

 fall in the autumn and before they open in the spring. 



Member: What is your objection to an open top? 



PEOF. WILSON: It is liable to spread. All your weight is on 

 the sides. Moreover, there is a whole lot of space there in the center 

 that might be bearing wood. 



PROF. STEWART. With reference to what Prof. Wilson just 

 stated, that it Is desirable not to let the foliage get too thick in the 

 center, I am inclined to think that you will have to do more pruning 

 than usual. Your center pruning, spraying and picking will be 

 more economically done from the stepladder type and of course 

 those things are in favor of the open center tree. You can get 

 more light with less pruning and you can keep the tree lower and 

 consequently pick the fruit and spray the tree better. If you choose 

 the open center type, the thing to do is to not save too many 

 branches. I am inclined to think that three branches properly 

 chosen would make an ideal top for a tree. Those branches should 

 be distributed so as to occupy the space properly. If you start 

 your tree right in the first spring you set it out, you can get enough 

 branches that will come out in all directions and you have a good 

 opportunity to select. Those three branches should by no means 

 come iQut any closer together than a foot if you can get it thus, 

 varying of course with tine growth of a tree. 



MR. D. M. WERTZ: Would it be very risky in trimming at this 

 time of year? 



PROF. WILSON: Any time while they are dormant. There 

 might be a little drying out on the wood surface between now and 

 spring. Always paint a large wound, say of three inches in diam- 

 eter. 



MR. WEiRTZ: Would you paint them right away? 



PROF. WILSON: I should paint them as soon as I could. Pro- 

 bably as good a paint as any is white lead and I would color it with 

 a little lamp black. 



MR. COX: You spoke a while ago about farther apart the trees 

 are, the better the returns: 



PROF. WILSON: There is a limit to that. I went as far as 

 forty feet. I don't know where the limit is. 



PROF. STEWART: Don't you suppose they vary with the vari- 

 ety? There are trees that demand more space than some of the trees 

 we have here. 



WHAT CROPS CAN BE PROFIT A P.LY GROWN IN A YOUNG 

 ORCHARD PENDING ITS MATURITY. 



Mr. HORACE ROBERTS, Moorestown. N. J. 



First, it is my pleasant privilege to extend to you the greetings 

 of the New Jersey Horticultural Society and to invite you again 

 to send delegates to our meeting at Trenton on the sixth and seventh 

 of January. 



My subject is, "Crops in a Young Orchard." As soon as I was 

 of age, I started to make a fruit farm of my home. Father told 

 me there was a §tarve-tp-(Jeatb period between the time a tree was 



