72 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



find out what variety of fruit is best suited to the market, 

 and also what variety would do the best in that neighborhood 

 where he intends to plant his orchard ; and also study the 

 soil. After an orchard is once planted, and two or three years 

 old, then it is too late to correct the mistake. I have noticed 

 some of the fruitgrowers who made this mistake started to 

 topgraft, but they had better cut some of the young trees 

 down than to try to topgraft, as they can never make an 

 orchard ; I have seen that tried often. 



In planting a tree most of the fruitgrowers are not careful 

 enough, and they plant too deep. The better way would be 

 not to plant deep enough . The ground on which you intend 

 to plant an orchard should be subsoiled at least eighteen 

 inches deep, and the ground should be well underdrained so 

 that the water will not stand about the trees in the winter 

 time . 



The varieties which I find do well in my district, and are 

 the best for commercial purposes for early summer, are the 

 Red Astrachan and the Gravenstein . These are the very best. 

 If you are handy to market, or a railroad or steamboat, I 

 would advise you to raise these varieties. 



For a fall apple there is the King and the Canada Renet. 

 These are very good apples for the fall trade. The Spitzen- 

 berg, the Genitian, and the Yellow Newtown, are the three 

 very best winter apples, which will sell when nothing else 

 will sell. There are buyers in the market who will buy 

 Spitzenbergs w^hen they will not buy anything else. 



Third — Pruning and cultivating. There is one very import- 

 ant thing, I find that some of the fruitgrowers go to extremes 

 both ways. Some prune their orchards too much, and others 

 not enough. But I had rather take my chances wdth an 

 orchard that was not pruned at all than one that was pruned 

 too much, and especially apples. An apple tree should never 

 be pruned after the second year from planting. The tree 

 should be shaped as it is wanted to be and never have any- 

 thing done to it afterwards, only to take off in the summer 

 months some of the water sprouts that happen to come out. 

 I read in an article in a German horticultural paper last 

 summer, of a meeting in Germany, at which a professor 

 remarked that there was more injury done to fruit trees by 

 the knife and saw than anything else. This has reference to 

 the trimming of apple trees, pears, and cherries ; prunes and 

 peaches can hardly be trimmed too much. 



