24 STATE PO:\rOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



■equally opeu. If a tree is naturally dense let it be dense still. Don't try to 

 make the head of a lied Astraehan like a King of Tompkins County, nor re- 

 ■duce the number of branches in a K"orthcrn Spy to as few as the St. Ijawrcnce 

 naturally carries. For when the bearing stage comes the weight of fruit 

 opens them out, and by the folliage you have retained you have gained the 

 larger trunks and the larger amount of bearing wood. 



Mr. Lyon. — I do not quite agree with Mr. l^armelec, that pruning to pro- 

 duce fruit or wood at pleasure is a matter of slight importance. 1 tliink that 

 all experienced orchardists will agree with me that by changing the time of 

 pruning we may inlluence the setting of fruit, or the uniount of growth, and 

 this is a matter that at times means a good deal to tlie practical horticulturist. 



I do agree with the author of the address in his advocacy of low heads, and 

 I believe that every man to ])rune well must have a model, an ideal model iu 

 liis head, before he cuts a twig. It is an easy matter to take any nursery tree 

 and put the head just where you choose by cutting the top off, where you would 

 have the lower branches start. A central stem should be ])rcserved, ;ind about 

 five main branches should be distributed along it, but should by no means come 

 out together. 



Mr. John Thomas. — This suggests to me an item in my own experience. A 

 good many years ago 1 was in the nursery business a little, raising a few trees 

 for myself and for my neighbors. A small boy at my nearest neighbors had 

 some tame rabbits, which, before I knew of it, had succeeded in cutting off one- 

 third of ni}'- apple trees in the nursery rows, within a few inches of the ground. 

 I considered the work well done and the trees ruined, but thev started vigor- 

 ously the next year, branching, of course, very low, and these same trees made 

 the most satisfactory ones I ever had. 



Mr. S. B. Mann of Adrian closed the evening session with a short paper on 



THE POMOLOGY OF LEXAAVEE COUNTY. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 



I feel hardly prepared to attempt a correct report of the i)omology of Lena- 

 wee county, but will venture to say that there never was a more bountiful crop 

 of apples harvested in the county than that of the fall of 187G. This is put- 

 ting it pretty strong, for her princii)al fruit is the apple, and there are to be 

 found on almost every farm in the county large and thrifty apple orchards. 

 In fact it forms one of the most important staples of the county. Without 

 any disposition to boast we feel in Lenawee that liner apples than are shipped 

 from there every year are hard to produce. 1'he croj) of last fall, however, 

 proved of very little value, from its overabundance and the bountiful crop all 

 over the country, especially in Southern Ohio and Indiana, for usually Cincinnati 

 has been our best market. Our dealers commenced buying quite briskly of late 

 summer and fall ap})les, but were loth to touch winter fruit at any })rice, and 

 very little was packed in comparison with other years. A few of our orchard- 

 ists put up what they could store in their cellars, but this was but a drop in the 

 bucket compared with what wasted in the orchards. A few of these farmers 

 report that the apples put in their cellars are not keeping good, which is owing, 

 no doubt, to the want of }iroper care in j^acking, — the natural result of the 

 little value placed on them. 1 have lalkctl with some of our dealers who are 



