FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT. 51 



fill the soil with humus by any methods that might be employed to best 

 advantage with the means at hand. 



In the planting of trees I have usually selected varieties that were 

 hardy, and had a good root system, regardless of top system, using 

 Northern Spy and Ben Davis, and top-graft from scions of other varie- 

 ties, and think that by so doing I have gained some in early productive- 

 ness; and then, too. I know tliat the varieties that I will have when 

 I gather the fruit will be right, and true to name; and more, I will have 

 gained by having all of my varieties on a good hardy root system. Both 

 of the above mentioned varieties have an excellent root system, and I 

 think more uniform results can be secured by top-grafting. I presume 

 you have all noticed a variation in the individuality of some kind of 

 trees. For instance, one Baldwin will produce better fruit, higher color, 

 more uniform in size, even in the same soil, than another tree of the 

 same kind. 



I have planted at different distances. I plant about 20 feet apart 

 each way and use apple trees as fillers. If I plant a variety coming 

 into late bearing, I would fill in with some other variety that bore at 

 an earlier date. If I am planting Jonathan, I just as leave use Jona- 

 thans as fillers as anything else, and the same holds good with some 

 of the earlier varieties. I am not condemning the use of other trees, 

 such as plum, peach and pears asi fillers, if you want to, but I see no 

 objection to using apple trees. If your peach trees are properly cared 

 for, they should last 12 or 15 years, and anybody would see that an apple 

 tree should bear much sooner than that. 



We keep our trees down by pruning. Keep them so that the sun- 

 light will get to them. This is one of the essentials of fruit growing, 

 and quite as much as spraying. High-colored fruit comes from the 

 sunlight getting to it. It is not the crowding of the roots that does 

 harm, for j^ou can feed these roots and make up to a certain extent, at 

 least, for the lack of fertility in the soil to support them when too 

 much crowded, but when you neglect to let sunshine into your trees, then 

 the fruit is going to suffer in more ways than one. 



Our method of cultivation is not so much different than other grow- 

 ers, and is divided into three distinct i)eriods. First, when the tree 

 is first planted, we top-graft, yet most writers I believe advocate letting 

 the trees stand a year before grafting. We plant the trees in the fall 

 or as early in the spring as possible and then in the spring we graft 

 with scions cut in the late fall, about the time of the holidays, as soon 

 as the wood is ripened and we store them in any place where there 

 is an even temperature. They can be stored in sawdust, moss or sand, 

 and keep them donnant, as nearly as possible as they were when tali^en 

 from the trees. In the spring, wait until the trees you have planted in 

 the fall or spring, begin to leave out, even until blooming time and then 

 do your top-grafting. 



We use the old-fashioned cleft graft — we cut the tree off at two feet, 

 from the ground. These are too small to put in two scions, so we use only 

 one. The reason for this is that there is not enough force in the tree 

 to support two. Then instead of leaving a square cut, and letting the 

 opposite corner from the scion die, we cut off that corner. We have 

 had excellent results by this method, and I do not think we lose more 



