132 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There is a difference of opinion as to how high apple-trees should head, but 

 this is largely a matter of convenience in cultivating, as nobody now-a-days wants 

 them very high. Pious people will want the limbs higher from the ground than 

 those who don't mind a little profanity. But in this the habit of the variety must 

 be taken into consideration again. The kinds that spread must have their first 

 limbs higher than those of upright growth. • 



In the Ben Davis, Willow Twig, Jonathan and Maiden Blush— the leading 

 varieties raised in North Missouri — the first limbs should be about three feet from 

 the ground. That will admit as close plowing as a tree should have, if orchard 

 harness is used, and the fruit will be nearly or quite to the ground when the tree 

 gets to bearing prime. 



But it is not necessary that the limbs should all be cut off that high up at the 

 start. Some good orchardists encourage limbs very low down for the first few 

 years, clipping them back to within about a foot of the center stem, then cutting 

 the lower ones from year to year close to the tree as the top expands to cover the 

 body. It is claimed for this method that the limbs encourage a healthy, stocky 

 growth of the lower part of the body. In one of the healthiest orchards I have 

 ever seen, the bodies of the trees were hidden with short, shaggy, matted limbs 

 clear to the ground. And I will add here that not a tree in the ten acres had ever 

 been pruned, except to clip the ends of limbs to make the top balance, and to cut 

 out dead and broken branches. 



After your trees spread so you cannot get close enough to them, in cultivat- 

 ing with a horse, you can use a small donkey for the purpose. Such an animal 

 is quite strong enough, for you must baar in mind that it will not do to plow deep 

 enough to disturb the roots of a fruit-tree of any kind. Besides, even every jack- 

 ass in the country should be made to earn his living. 



The pruning needed in an apple orchard should be done before the trees are 

 five years old from planting, and that should be done in way of training, rather 

 than pruning in the common sense of the word. 



The orchardist should have definitely in his mind just how he wants his tree 

 to be when grown, and so construct it by cutting off" and out all limbs, when 

 very small, where he does not want them ; also by encouraging others to come and 

 grow where he does want them. And the grower of a small; orchard may, for 

 pride's sake, bud and graft limbs in, when Nature does not produce them according 

 lo his fancy. 



Theae are, of course, some varieties of apple trees you will have to prune 

 more than others, and some few where you can not produce center stem trees — 

 the Willow Twig for instance. But still you can train it so as to avoid forks that 

 will cause the tree to split when it comes into fruiting. 



And right here, before I forget it, Mr. Jones, let me whisper to you one of the 

 secrets of successful orchard-growing, a profound secret it is, too. But as it is one 

 of the tricks of the trade, you must have it. It is this: We kill, on the spot, all 

 professional tree-pruners who come around planning against our orchards, either 

 through ignorance or for the paltry dollar. We kill 'em, and this is the reason they 

 are not so plenty as they used to be. 



We can stand borers and blight, fungi and sun-scald, but professional tree- 

 pruners, never ! Never ! 



They were the greatest enemies to apple-culture and we had to kill them off, 

 and what became of them after that God Almighty in his mercy only knows. 



