Winter Meeting. 185 



a wide range of types and varieties from other parts of the country, 

 many of which do not well endure our climate, and, consequently, 

 disappear and must be replaced by other forms. By far the larger 

 part of the ideas which will be embodied in this paper, however, are 

 the result of gleanings from the experience of the best orchardists 

 of the State. 



With respect to the young orchard, it is perhaps best to advise 

 in a general way that all trees which fail in the orchard should be 

 replanted up to the time when the orchard is five years of age. Cer- 

 tainly until about this age, the trees in the average orchard will not 

 be large enough to seriously crowd out replants, and replanting will 

 save vacancies which otherwise would be lost space in the orchard. 

 The desirability of keeping every space in the orchard filled with a 

 living tree during at least the first five years is very evident. The 

 orchardist counts that in the first planting of trees if, under aver- 

 age conditions, ninety-five per cent, live through the first year, he 

 has had fair success. This statement supposes, then, that on the 

 average about five per cent, of the trees in the orchard will die dur- 

 ing the first year after planting. During the next few years it is 

 safe to reckon that at least another five per cent, will die out from 

 one cause or another. Ordinarily, then, ten per cent, of the trees 

 first planted will have failed before the end of five years. This es- 

 timate is for the well managed orchard, in the hands of the skillful 

 fruit grower, who is making it a special business. If we reckon all 

 the fruit trees planted, the mortality is far greater than this. It 

 has been estimated by leading horticulturists that of all the fruit 

 trees purchased from the nurseries and planted out, not one in ten 

 ever reaches profitable bearing age. If, under fortunate conditions, 

 then, ten per cent, of the trees are likely to fail, the returns from the 

 orchard would be ten per cent, less, if no replanting is done, than 

 could reasonably be expected if the necessary replanting is done 

 each year. A margin of ten per cent, loss in some business enter- 

 prises would mean the difference between success and failure, and 

 ten per cent, of loss in our orchards is a factor which should be 

 avoided by replanting. 



In a young orchard, where good cultivation and tillage of the 

 young trees is being kept up, replanting is no serious problem. If 

 the trees are well set they are likely to do well, if planted any time 

 before the orchard is five years of age. The only question of doubt, 

 as a rule, as to the advisabilitj^ of replanting after this age is 

 whether the trees have died off from root rot or some other rot dis- 

 ease in the orchard. The question frequently comes to us : will it 



