296 STATE HORTICULTURAL ' SOCIETY. 



well into the fall. Do not let them ripen so early that the fruit buds 

 will be thoroughly developed, and thoroughly ripened, well matured, 

 perfectly so, early in October, for then, perhaps, if we have some warm 

 weather early in October or early in November, they swell and think it is 

 spring. I think the later you can keep your trees growing, within 

 reason (I don't mean trees that are kept growing late in the fall because 

 they have gotten a liberal taste of nitrogen), the better will they carry 

 not only their wood but their fruit buds, under most conditions; and 

 that is true of your raspberries and your blackberries. To my mind 

 that is one of the most important ideas in culture that I have developed 

 in my business within the last four or five years. Feed for vigor and 

 hardiness of tree first, and that comes largely with heavy tastes of 

 phosphoric acid and potash; and when it comes up to the fruiting time 

 you can hardly give too much potash, because, as President Morrill says., 

 what the tree and fruit do not take up is there for future use. In talking 

 about the color of Elberta, some one said, ^'Give it potash enough and you 

 can color it." You certainly can paint the peach red, with potash, and 

 the more the merrier, up to the limit of your bank credit. 



In the matter of feeding, of course, local conditions must be con- 

 sidered — soil and everything of that kind; you must judge for yourself. 

 Our friend Riehl tells us it is not necessary, or does not pay, to supply 

 potash at all on his soil. I am not talking to him, then, about potash. 

 Everything that is said in relation to the management of your orchard 

 or your trees or your business, of course does not have general application 

 and must be modified to suit each localit3\ 



After the orchard is planted, its early cultivation may be carried on in 

 any way that suits you best. Anything that will stir the soil deeply the 

 first two or three years, so as to get the roots down well, and after that 

 not so deep stirring; and what you can use most economically are gang- 

 plows, spading harrows, cut-away harrows, smoothing harrows, or disc 

 harrows — they are all good, each one has its place under your soil or your 

 particular conditions; but something that will keep the soil stirred, and 

 from the time it is planted until it is time to sow in the fall or mid- 

 summer, to sow in the crop which you wish to put in. My practice is to 

 sow between the rows either cow peas or soja beans, then keep the culti- 

 vator going between the rows until late in August, when their tremen- 

 dous growth drives us out of the field and they take possession. 



I was sorry that the subject of pruning was taken up this morning 

 and I was obliged to be absent. I would like to have heard what 

 President Morrill said on the subject, and what others had to say about 

 it. In its early days, after a tree has been planted according to methods 

 that you or I may adopt, either by the single system or leaving one or two 

 side branches, of course we get the first year a tremendous growth — two 

 or three or four or five or six feet, according to the soil we plant on 

 and the conditions under which we plant. It has been an old recommen- 

 dation to shorten in one half or two thirds, shorten in down to a foot or 

 sixteen or eighteen inches on the stem the first growing year. I think 

 that is a mistake. If we shorten in as closely as that the first year, we 

 get a solid, compact head. Each shoot we cut off this spring, in the 

 summer will show two or three heads, and we get a too thick and compact 

 head near the ground; so that my idea is that the first year's pruning^ 



