162 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



If in planting small orchards a person has time and patience to spare, and 

 takes the trees up by hand so that he will get all the roots, and will prepare spaces 

 large enough to receive them without cramping or doubling, a larger tree may 

 be planted with advantage, but for commercial planting, the two-year-old tree is 

 preferable, as the tree-digger will save all the roots intact, and the work is done 

 rapidlj% I would not plant yearling trees, as the stem has not become stiff enough 

 to withstand the winds of our western prairies, but they are whipped about so 

 much that it gives them a stunted growth, with a scrubby and bushy appearance, 

 which can never make so nice a tree as those which are left in the nursery to form 

 more of a tree shape. I have planted trees one, two, three and even four years old, 

 and as a general rule, the two-year-olds have given me the best satisfaction. 



TIME TO PLANT. 



I have no stereotyped time for planting trees. It may, when the season is 

 favorable, be done with fair success at any time from the middle of October, in the 

 fall, to July, in the middle of summer. Now, notwithstanding I have plantedi 

 trees in July and had good luck, do not, by any means, wait until then before 

 planting your trees. But should you have them dug and well heeled in, but 

 through some unavoidable circumstances could not plant them before, give them 

 plenty of water and plant. You may succeed, though the chances are against you.. 



I have generally chosen the early spring for planting, for then I have a sea- 

 son's growth before having to protect from rabbits; otherwise the fall is as good, 

 If not preferable, as the ground becomes thoroughly settled around the roots dur- 

 ing the winter ; then upon the first appearance of spring the trees are ready to 

 grow. 



Whenever you plant, whether fall, winter or spring, the ground must be in 

 good working condition, the same as for planting other crops. Sometimes, in 

 replanting, I have had the rabbits injure the trees after planting in the spring. 

 The cheapest protectors I know of are corn-stalks, cut in pieces about 18 inches 

 long, split open, and tied around the trees with twine. This is a sure protection, 

 and will last two or three years. If set well in the ground close together, one 

 string tied around the top will be sufficient, and will also protect against mice. 



PRUNING THE TREE. 



Upon this subject persons run more to extremes than upon most any other in 

 the horticultural field. There are almost as many ideas about pruning as there 

 are orchards to be pruned. One will say, "Do not prune at all ; nature knows 

 better how a tree should grow than man." And he grows a brush heap. W& 

 might answer him by saying that nature made the crab-apple, but nature had to 

 be assisted by man to make the Winesap, Ben Davis, Huntsman, and many others 

 our friend would certainly prefer to the crab-apple. 



Another trims his trees to mere poles, which injures the vitality of the tree, 

 and it soon perishes. Another prunes in the fall ; another in the spring; another 

 in the summer. 1 would avoid the extremes in this as in most other matter?.. 

 Prune sparingly, and do it in time, so as to have no large limbs to cut— none larger 

 than a half-inch in diameter should be cut— and this should be done in June, as 

 the wonnds will heal over quicker then than at any other time. But if it should be 

 necessary to cut larger limbs, which it often is, I would saw them off before the sap 

 rises in the spring, leave the stumps eight or ten inches long, and then in June cut 

 close and paint the wound with some mineral paint. 



In this way we avoid robbing the tree of the foliage in the summer, and at 

 the same time receive the benefit of summer cutting, so the wound will neal 

 quickly. Do not forget the paint on large cuts ; it is very important. 



