Winter Meeting. 193 



nicer, and will keep longer and sell better. By planting the trees 30 

 feet apart the crops grown between the trees can be cultivated better and 

 will produce better, thereby lessening the expense of growing the 

 orchard, which is considerable for a commercial orchard of any size. 

 Planted in this way, the land occupied by the trees will hardly be 

 missed from the farm. The trees will also last longer. 



As to tools we have used in the cultivation of a young orchard a 

 breaking plow, a good adjustable iron-tooth harrow, an 8 shovel, two- 

 horse cultivator and a Pknet Jr. five-tooth, one-horse cultivator is 

 enough for anybody ; using the one-horse cultivator for the tree rows. 

 Another important item is to plant the corn so it can be cultivated both 

 ways, thereby lessening the amount of hand labor in hoeing, etc. I 

 have always thought that trees planted in squares were more easily 

 cultivated than those planted in diamond shaped spaces. 



^ow as to the pruning. I have always primed heavily on plant- 

 ing, then the head should be formed by allowing only the best limbs to 

 remain and only those that are growing exactly where you want the 

 head to form. This is best done, that is to require the least labor 

 and to give the least shock to the tree, while the wood is yet soft and no 

 more than a sprout. I think the heads should be formed not more 

 than 2-| to 3 feet from the ground. We must always remember that 

 there is such a thing as over-pruning which gives a shock to the tree and 

 stunts its growth and also that there is such a thing as under-pruning 

 which will in later years give the tree a bushy appearance, allowing no 

 sunlight into the interior and hardly any circulation of air through it. 

 The safest plan is to strike the happy medium and j)rune just enough 

 which will also induce fruiting to a certain extent. 



With all this hue and cry of selection of varieties, of planting, cul- 

 tivating, pruning, spraying and the endless amount of labor required 

 for years to gi-ow and produce an apple orchard, and with all the good 

 literature and papers written by able men who are experienced orchard- 

 ists, it is one thing to read all this and to listen to all this, but it is 

 quite another to select the proper soil which has the natural fertility, to 

 select the location which has the proper frost and water drainage, to 

 H— 13 



