PLAIS^TING FRUIT TREES. 83 



Tised an abundance of water unless the ground was very wet. I don't 

 believe in wetting the ground and then tramping it, but leave the ground 

 wet without tramping. 



Mr. Yager: I have had some experience jvith stock such as Mr. 

 Beltzer mentions and if it is the same kind of stock that he spoke about, 

 he did his part of it which was to the effect that he dug these cherry- 

 trees up every week or so to see why they were not growing. I think 

 that had "a great deal to do with not getting the trees to grow. Mr. Brown 

 lias not recommended anything of that kind. I don't believe that is right. 

 Another thing Mr. Brown touches on which is of vital importance. It is 

 true that the whole matter of planting trees and getting them to grow 

 successfully has been threshed over a good many times in these meetings 

 and anyone actively engaged in horticulture knows or ought to know 

 by this time how to plant trees. It is a fact that a great many of those 

 who plant trees are not familiar with the best methods of planting and 

 ■do not get the success they ought to. I do believe there is great need of 

 enlightenment along that line. Many people wish to do the best by their 

 trees possible but they fail for various reasons. I think the point that 

 Mr. Brown made is a good one. 



In relation to cutting trees back. This has all been talked over ever 

 since we were members of this society; but I think it is one of the most 

 essential things of all. The limbs must be cut back. Brown recommends 

 two-thirds of last year's growth to be cut back. There is no definite rule 

 iy which you may go, but a large portion of last year's growth should be 

 cut back to get good results. It is very essential. It is just as essential 

 as the water and the digging of the hole deep and all those things. You 

 can take two trees, two or three years old right from the nurseiy with 

 good branches that have giown last year, good thrifty trees, both of 

 them similar in all respects and plant them in the same soil; cut the 

 branches of one of them back two-thirds of last year's growth and the 

 other one plant without cutting the branches back, and the result will be 

 so much better and in favor of the one having its branches cut back, so 

 that a person with this experience or knowledge will afterwards always 

 follow that rule. He is sure to secure better results and a better shaped 

 tree. 



Mr. Emerson: I would like to ask how much you should cut back a 

 •cherry tree, and how much you should cut back a peach tree. 



Answer. A peach tree ought to be cut back more than a cherry tree. 

 You cannot cut back a peach tree too much. I remember several years 

 ago of a number of peach trees being planted on Watson's ranch near 

 Kearney, Buffalo county. They were instructed to cut back to the trunk. 

 The peach trees had great limbs on them, some of them four feet long 

 and they had wonderful success with those trees. You can hardly cut a 

 peach tree back too much, but a cherry tree should not be cut back more 

 than two-thirds of last year's growth. 



