FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 45 



and with cei-tain vegetables. I use this same formula, but my pocket- 

 Iwok got thin buying bran, so T mixed fine sawdust with molasses and 

 arsenic and I got the same satisfactory results. 



A Member — What about the birds, will you not kill them? 



A Member — Not if you use sawdust. 



A ^Member — There is a gentleman u]) in our country who was through 

 my orchard about three years ago and it had made a good thrifty growth. 

 Some of the lind)s had made such a growth that it caused the trees 

 to swing back and forth. This gentleman advised me to cut these limbs 

 back. I cut them back for two years. They threw out a good growth 

 of limbs, but they shot out there from eighteen inches to three feet, and 

 some four feet. Last year I cut them back to just short stumps, so as 

 to make as low headed trees as possible. A neighbor told me that this 

 summer that if I would follow this u]) for two or three years they will 

 stop coming and uoav 1 wonder if doing this will l)e of any injury to 

 the tree? 



Mr. Eose — I know it does not hurt the peach tree or the cherry tree — 

 I have not had any experience Avith the apple. 



A Member — This is an ai)j)le tree. And I would like to ask if it is 

 not a fact that these limbs, unless they should be center limbs, will 

 oi>en out and spread out without being cut out? 



Mr. Bristol — I took an orchard that had never been touched and the 

 trees headed themselves clear to the ground, so that the sheep and hogs 

 even had difficulty, in getting arimnd under the trees. I went through 

 it with a saw and made it look different. 



Mr. Farrand — Just a word about low-headed trees. The tree that we 

 get from the nursery we sometimes think too high-headed — I had to take 

 trees like that when I set my orchard nine years ago, but now these 

 trees are down within a foot of the ground. Do not worry about these 

 trees that are too high headed, they will come down to the ground all 

 right. 



Question — ^Did you head them back? 



Mr. Farrand — I headed in all my main branches. 



Question — After that will they have their own way? 



Mr. Farrand — Five years ago when I left the exijeriment station and 

 went back to my own orchard I did not think it had been pruned enough. 

 We had been in the habit of doing pretty heavy pruning, and this I did, 

 and when we got through there Avas plenty of chance for sunlight. I 

 did this on all except three roAvs of Mcintosh Red. These trees that 

 were primed made good, strong growth, and yielded well. Xow I am 

 going to prune these trees, for if I had treated all my orchard alike I 

 Avould have been Si^oOO better off. 



Question — In planting another orchard, Avould you do the same way? 



Mr. Farrand — After the third year I Avould leave it for three yeai'S. 

 I am of the opinion that we prune too lieaAy to get the first crops early. 



A Member — I think Mr. Rose struck the keynote on pruning AA'hen he 

 savs you must consider the character of vour tree. There are hardlv two 

 apple trees that require just the same treatment — that should be pruned 

 just the same. The Northern Si>y should not be headed in so low as 

 some other trees. When you liaA-e the forks so near the fulcrum there 

 is danger of splitting, especially in trees that have a Avillow groAvth. 



A Member — It has been my experience with the api)le tree that it is 



