160 State Horticultural Society. 



Fruits. — E. J. Baxter, Nauvoo, 111. ; G. H. Powell, Washington^ 

 D. C. ; W. S. Monger, Mt. Pleasant, la. 



Final Resplutions. — J. M. Irvine, St. Joseph; N. F, Murray, Ore- 

 gon ; H. S. Wayman, Princeton. 



WEDNESDAY, DEC. 9, 2 rjo P. M.— ORCHARD FRUITS. 



THE APPLE ORCHARD. 



(M. Butterfield, Farmington, Mo.) 



Shall we cultivate and prune or . not ? I believe that we are all 

 united on one thing, and this is, cultivate thoroughly up to the fourth 

 or fifth year; after that time we are not a unit. I am not going to 

 lay down any one rule to follow, as each person has to be governed 

 to a certain extent by his own surroundings. 1 remember twenty 

 3'ears ago in Missouri, there were fewer advocates of low heading 

 and no pruning than you could count on the fingers of one hand. 

 Now, I believe I am safe in saying, nearly all of the large orchardists 

 do not prune, or but little, and that with a small pruning knife 

 while the trees are young. Cultivating is certainly the right thing to 

 do and it must be done well at least from the first to the third or 

 fourth year after setting, as then you are building the foundation for 

 your orchard, and the better you cultivate the better orchard you will 

 have in the end. 



Let us go back a little further and see how the young trees were 

 cared for before they came into the hands of the planter. We usually 

 break the ground fourteen inches in depth and then work it until it is 

 like an onion bed, then cultivate and hoe all summer. We often work 

 our grafts fourteen times during the summer, besides the hoeing, and 

 the second summer, not so much, but enough to keep all the weeds 

 down and the ground in good Condition. Now, if ever a young tree 

 needs cultivation, it is the first and second seasons, and I do not 

 know of a single commercial orchard in the west that was stunted while 

 young that ever amounted to very much. And I will state right here 

 that corn is one of the best crops to grow in a young orchard. I do 

 not say why. You might say that this is too exhausting on the soil, 

 but I will say if your land is not strong enough to grow three crops of 

 corn, you would better not plant apples on that land. I want good 

 land for apples to start with. Plant two-year old trees on strong land, 

 headed low (say fifteen to twenty inches), cultivate some cultivated 

 crop well for four or five years, never prune except to take away 



