WINTER MEETING AT CARTHAGE. 95 



grow down, the theory is lost. With the cioii it will be from twelve to 

 eighteen inches long when planted, and if it grows that much deeper 

 in the two years it stands in the nursery, where is the tree-digger that 

 ■can get it up whole ? 



It is a common belief that if you don't plant aphis you will not 

 have aphis. If you plant apple seed in virgin soil, you will probably 

 have aphis the tirst year. You did not plant the aphis, but it is there. 

 It is generally believed that if you plant aphis on a tree, that tree ia 

 dead. If you let grass grow around it, it will have aphis. Thorough 

 cultivation is the only safe-guard against it. The theory that if you 

 don't plant aphis you will not have it, is a mietake. I want to show 

 that the purchaser of the tree is often responsible for any defect, and 

 not the nurseymau. Many buyers want their trees too cheap. They 

 •will say to the salesman : "Mr. so-and-so offers me trees at such a 

 price," and the nurseryman is compelled to meet the competition or 

 lose the sale. It is the cheap price that sells instead of the good stock. 

 Many agents do sell trees and till the orders where they can buy the 

 cheapest. The time is coming in Missouri when the responsible nur- 

 seryman will have to quit the business unless you quit buying these 

 *'cheap John" trees. I will not admit that even the tree agent has been 

 a curse to the land. The $10,000,000 that came into Missouri in 1891 

 was largely the result of the efforts of the tree agent, who went over 

 the country and induced people to plant fruit trees. 



HOW TO RENEW AN OLD ORCHARD 

 t 



Is the subject assigned to me by Bro. Goodman. As a good, loyal and obedient 

 member of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, 1 suppose 1 am expected to 

 respond. This question is confronting many people who are occupying the older 

 farms of this State. 



Doubtless many would advise to plant new orchards and let the old ones go, and 

 not be bothered with so unpromising a task as seems to be involved in trying to get 

 those trees that for years have been "cumberers of the ground," bearing very 

 small crops of inferior fruit, or none at all, showing every mark of old age, and in 

 many cases appearing to be struck with death. To get those old trees arrested in 

 their downward career and restored to new, vigorous and fruitful life would indeed 

 seem impossible. Nevertheless, just this has been done. Many orchards go to 

 decay prematurely, which may result from many causes, or combination of causes. 

 It is not my purpose to go into the details that bring about this result. It is doubt- 

 less true that those trees that have borne large crops of fruit year after year 

 are first to fail, if they have not been abundantly supplied with the plant-food 

 used in the production of such crops, while those trees that have borne little but 

 leaves continue to grow and appear healthy and vigorous. It is also true that the 

 old first orchards were not properly appreciated, and received but little care. 

 Hence, year after year destructive insects have multiplied, scab fungi infected the 

 entire orchard. 



