102 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



ON UPLAND 



of average richness — give them fair cultivation and proper train- 

 ing — transjalant into our orchards at two or three years old, setting 

 but slightly deeper than they grew in the nursery. Continue to 

 cultivate, prune and care for them each year — keep them clear of 

 borers and other insects. Beware of the cutting and slashing 

 process called pruning. This has been practiced to such an extent 

 in Northwest Missouri that very many orchards have been literally 

 ruined. 



I do not object to judicious annual pruning. This will be 

 needed in a greater or less degree, owing to quality, lay of land, 

 and habit of varieties ; but to neglect the orchard for years until 

 the trees become a mass of brush and then go to work and cut 

 one-fourth to one-half the top, as we have so often seen, is rwm. 



The cutting away of large limbs from old bearing trees, to 

 induce new growth and thriftiness, and at the same time neglect to 

 cultivate or mulch, is foolishness. Better first feed and nourish 

 the tree, and increase the flow of sap, as the wise physician would 

 advise nourishment for a starved and emaciated patient, rather 

 than blood letting. Then if the cutting of large limbs cannot be 

 avoided, cut or saw them smoothly, at tlie right place and the 

 proper angle, and immediately paint the wound with a good thick 

 coat — using the best paint. Paint again in a day or too ; and after 

 that once in one or two years until the cut is healed over. 



Joining my place is an orchard that was planted just thirty 

 years ago. The present owner found it, in the spring of 1881, a 

 first-class specimen product of mistakes and neglect running back 

 to the day it was planted. 



He found it necessary to cut away one-third of the wood from 

 the tops. I carefully examined that orchard a few days ago, and 

 was surprised to see the good effect of painting. I examined where 

 large limbs, some of them six inches in diameter, luid been removed 

 in March and April, 1881, and found the wood perfectly sound, 

 and healing over nicely. And I failed to find the black streaks, 

 below the cuts, that we always find to follow such cutting, unless 

 painted, and which will sooner or later, kill the trees. 



BE CAREFUL 



You don't bank up the earth around the trees. I have known 

 a number of fine trees entirely killed by the earth being heaped up 

 around them from one to two feet. They will sicken and die out 

 in a few years. The nature of our soil in Holt county is such that 



