IV inter Meeting. 167 



fruit with a »tep ladder. Don't lean a tree to the southwest, but let the 

 center grow over as the wind makes it, then shorten in the side limbs and 

 branches will come out and balance the top so that the tree will set even. 

 ■If the branches come out on the northeast side and make that side heavier 

 so that it will be blown over by the southwest wind, the tree will become 

 sunburned. Sunburn comes from freezing, which loosens the bark so 

 that it dries out and fungi and borers get in. Keep the sun ofif of the 

 trunk of a tree in the winter and there will never be any sunburn, for it 

 is in the winter that sunburn occurs. Protect the trees with wooden 

 wrappers. The wind doesn't blow the apples off if the limbs hang low. 

 I once ran across a nurseryman who was going to revolutionize the ap- 

 ple business by selling apple trees budded on seedling roots, but it can't, 

 be done. It is easy to grow a tree according to my plan. I have put my 

 ideas down in this little book and have given some of these ideas to you. 



Capt. Lincoln. — I will say in answer to Mr. Speakman's question, 

 that I selected ten rows of trees and pruned the trees at different times 

 throughout several months of the year, I began in October and finished 

 the 17th of July. When a gentleman asks when the best time is to prune 

 I show him the trees. The best time to thin out the little branches is from 

 the time they begin to bloom, up to the time that the apples are as large 

 as hickory nuts, 



W. A. Gardner. — If you prune in June it will take the tree just a 

 year to get to the same stage again. Mr. L. H. Bailey says prune "when 

 the knife is sharp." That is the best time. 



T. C. Love. — I differ with Capt. Lincoln about having the limbs 

 droop ; for apples which hang to the limbs even if these are on the ground 

 take on a good color if they stick to the limb. I agree with the Captain 

 that the apples color up well on the limbs above twelve feet. I am using 

 twelve foot ladders but I believe I will have to have eighteen foot ones 

 made to pick my fruit. I believe in heads so as to run the mower and 

 cultivator under. On my trees the limbs come out four feet from the 

 ground so that I can't cultivate when the apples are large. When the 

 limbs are drooping they will be bent still more by a heavy crop of fruit, 

 but as soon as the crop is picked the limbs straighten up. Any that stay 

 down should be cut off. I agree with Mr. Gardner that the best time to 

 prune is whenever a limb needs to be taken off. I carry a knife and 

 shears with me every time I go through the orchard and cut where it 

 is needed. I like the disk harrow to work the soil with, as it is better 

 and cheaper than the cutaway. I pull the dirt away from the trees for 

 eight or ten inches. The disk harrow pulls the grass down and you must 

 go over it with a spring-tooth harrow ; then mow, to keep down the weeds, 



