RENEWING OT.D ORCHARDS. 201 



orchards, and they were set. Some of them were taken care of and 

 some were not, but few of them are in good condition and bearing 

 paying crops at the present time. But with proper care they could be 

 brought into bearing within one-fourth the time required to bring a 

 young orchard into profitablei bearing. 



Some of these old orchards have only a part of the trees sitanding, 

 others have practically all of the original trees, some of which are sev- 

 enty-five years old or older and yet they will bear profitable crops if 

 properly taken care of. There' is really more business in the man who 

 goes out and makes the old orchard "blossom as the rose" than the 

 man who goes out and sets the young orchard. The latter may stay 

 with his job and make it a success, while the former is sure of success 

 at the beginning, and now is when this nation needs apples; the future 

 will be able to take care of itself. 



If you only knew what luscious fruit is locked up in those old, 

 partly dead, diseased trees, you would jump at the chance to get it out 

 at once. It is there, and you need not worry, for if you do your part the 

 trees and nature will do the rest. 



Never was this matter brought more forcibly to our minds than last 

 spring, when, in making our annual pruning, we came to the old Milam 

 trees, trees that had stood there for at least three-quarters of a century, 

 and only one crop of apples in the past twenty yea:rs that was fit for 

 anything. We naturally concluded that they were no good, and after 

 some few arguments, decided to cut them down, as they were disease- 

 breeders and were a means of infection for the younger trees. However, 

 the work was delayed, and before we were ready to do the work, we 

 had concluded to experiment with them, and experiment we did. 



The pruning was done carefully under my supervision, and very little 

 top was left on them, at least some of them. However, we wanted a 

 crop of apples the first year, as we were anxious to see the results, and 

 care was taken to leave some of the healthiest small limbs which had fruit 

 buds on them, but we were very particular to get the tops out so we 

 could get them down low enough to work on them. „ 



We aimed to take out the dead wood, but did not in all cases; In 

 fact, some of our limbs bearing the most of the healthy twigs were 

 dead half way around, so we left them, and trust that the new growth 

 will in a few years take their place. Even some of the bodies have 

 quite a lot of dead wood in them. In fact in some cases we chiseled 

 this wood out, that is, if it was decayed too much to be solid. We soon 

 found that we were right in our guess, that these trees were veritable 

 incubators of disease and insects. 



After the heavy pruning was over, I went over the trees personally 

 with pruning f:hears and pruning knife and cut out small diseased 

 branches which had been overlooked. In many places, too, the twigs 

 were too thick; here I thinned out the desired amount. 



Just as the buds were swelling, but before they were open, we 

 sprayed them with commercial lime-sulphur in the strength of 11 to 1, 



