SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 2& 



apple dealers have now discovered this fact, and the demand is only- 

 second to the Ben Davis. 



The Jonathan, notwithstanding some defects of tree and its habit 

 of falling too soon, yet because of its excellent quality and constantly 

 increasing demand, should occupy a considerable portion of the market 

 orchard. Unless, however, it commands a price considerably higher 

 than the average, the prdiits will prove slender. There is more money 

 in Ben Davis and Willow Twig at one dollar per barrel than in Jonathan 

 at one dollar and fifty cents. 



The Bed Astrachan and Maiden's Blush are, lam satisfied, the most 

 profitable in the list in their respective seasons in this regioD. 



PRUNING. 



There is not a single point in fruit cutting where more mistakes 

 are committed than in pruning. A very common practice is to neglect 

 the trees for years, then finding they are becoming but a mass of tangled 

 limbs and water shoots, an itinerant professional (?) pruner is set to 

 work — generally conceited and ignorant to the last degree. He cuts 

 and slashes and slashes and cuts, till there are more limbs on the ground 

 than are left on the tree. The limbs that are suffered to remain look 

 neat and trim, with a graceful tuft surmounting the top. This tuft is 

 all that is left to bear the next crop. Such a system cannot be too 

 emphatically denounced ; an orchard so treated is ruined. It has be- 

 come enfeebled and lost its vitality, and seldom recovers itself. 



The best time to prune is the time when healing will the quickest 

 follow cutting. This is not in early spring, but in early summer. 



There is great evil in pruning too much ; except to remove dead, 

 diseased or interfering branches, do not cut at all. 



In looking over the doings of this association we find much diversity 

 of opinion respecting the management of orchards when they attain 

 some size. Most seem to advocate annual cultivation. For a few 

 years this seems to be essential ; but after some years' cultivation, un- 

 less the culture is very careful and guarded, they are often as much 

 injured as benefited by it. Mulching, where the material can be pro- 

 cured, is remarkably beneficial. It causes the roots to grow near the 

 surface if kept up, and wonderfully mitigates the effect of drouth. 

 To run the orchard to grass and pasture with sheep answers well. They 

 consume the fallen fruit, and with it injurious insects. Calves and 

 hogs are dangerous ; they bark the trees. Sheep will not unless you 

 pasture too close. They enrich the ground in a peculiar way, much 

 better than any other stock. 



