194 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



gaged in setting out a new orchard in connection with our 

 Lionberger & Gutmann nurseries. I plowed the ground well and 

 deep in the fall, then gave it a thorough harrowing. After that I 

 have crossed it olf by making a straight furrow for every row of 

 trees. I then took a two-horse turning plow and deepened these 

 furrows as much as possible, after which a tree was planted in every 

 cross. 



I found that there was but little trouble in making the holes, 

 and I like this way of planting better than any other. I am now 

 planting Ben. Davis, Rome Beauty, Huntsman's Favorite, Jona- 

 than and Winesap for commercial purposes. Besides these, I will 

 have a collection of not less than seventy varieties. Were it not 

 for our nursery, of course, I would make quite a different selection. 

 I do not expect to ever plant any more Jennetings, unless to replace 

 trees that should happen to die ; for 1 do not consider them a good 

 market apple. At the same time I believe, that by thorough 

 cultivation and by careful thinning of the fruit. Jennetings could 

 be raised of a larger size and good color. For private use, however, 

 I coiisider them second to none, not even in the state that they 

 are generally found. I keep out rabbits by wrapping the trees ; 

 l;)ut consider the borer my worst enemy. My experience is, that 

 thorough cultivation is by far the best thing to keep them out. 

 This, in connection with the application of some good wash a few 

 times in May and June, I think is the best remedy yet. Where I 

 cannot give the cultivation desired, I expect to mulch heavy and to 

 wrap the trees with coarse paper. I think that mulching is of 

 great importance to fruit trees, at the same time I have found out 

 to my sorrow, that young trees could be injured by a careless ap- 

 plication of coarse manure ; at least, such is my experience. 



Last spring I employed a man to haul out some manure and 

 put it around some young trees that had just been planted. He 

 left the manure in a pile around the trees which injured the bark 

 to such an extent that two of them died, and I would have lost 

 more had I not found it out in time. The mulch should be well 

 spread over the ground as far as the roots extend. 



Pruning : — This I consider of great importance in the culture 

 of trees. While I believe in pruning more or less every year, un- 

 til the tree is about full grown, I admit that many trees are -ruined 

 by too much pruning, but this, in my opinion, goes to show that 

 no one is capable of managing trees successfully without knowing- 

 well how to prune, loliat to prune and when to prune. And, to use 

 the language of P. Barry, ''this knowledge can only be acquired 



