212 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



apart each way on poor land and thirty feet on rich or bottom lands ; 

 heads formed at three to four feet high and no forks. The ground 

 should all be cultivated in root crops or corn for the first five years, 

 after which the cultivation should be continued for fruit alone. Care 

 must be taken that trees are not barked or broken in working among 

 them, and the entire surface of the orchard should be kept real fine, 

 smooth and level. Experience has proven that an apple tree in the 

 orchard will grow one-third faster when the surface is kept thoroughly 

 fine and smooth with hoe and garden rake, than those cultivated alone 

 with corn cultivator. 



It is not our purpose to recommend any one of the many imple- 

 ments now in use for stirring the soil for the cultivation of the orchard, 

 of which there is a great variety, and some quite good ; but in our opin- 

 ion there is great room for improvement in the line of implements for 

 orchard culture. What our orchards need to give the best results is 

 frequent stirring of the entire surface to the depth of only two inches,, 

 and the finer and smoother the surface is made each time the better. 

 In extreme drouths it will act as a mulch and give wonderful results. 



A friend recently related to me that he had two large trees of New- 

 town pippin in his old orchard on the bluff, which had been in grass 

 for years, that they bore so little fruit they did not pay for their room, 

 concluded to try an experiment, and dug around one of them out as far 

 as the branches extended, and spread one wagon load of stable manure 

 around over the ground dug ; did this in the spring, and one year from 

 the plowing season he picked forty bushels of fine apples from it, but 

 the other, not so treated, had a meager and worthless crop. 



Young orchards should never be mulched with straw and coarse 

 manure and left without cultivation. It will induce the roots to run 

 and feed very near the surface, and they will suffer a great check and 

 damage if plowed in after years. The rule should be to thoroughly 

 cultivate the orchard while young and middle aged, but as they grow 

 older and the roots become exposed (as they will on sloping lands), then 

 they should have a top-dressing of fine manure and a good mulch of 

 straw. If this application extends entirely over the surface of the 

 orchard, all the better. But bear in mind that when you abandon cul- 

 tivation and a opt mulching you must keep it up. 



Orchard trees should be moderately pruned each year. Cut out 

 all dead, broken and cross limbs ; keep the tops as evenly balanced on 

 the trunks as possible; cut out water-sprouts while the trees are young; 

 but after they bear a few heavy crops and begin to droop their branches 

 from the effect of being weighted down with fruit, you will notice that 

 the tops that seemed too thick prior to bearing now appear quite open 



