ORCHARDS. ilT 



bably we shall agree, for a tree of which the diameter of the 

 trunk is four inches, one-half bushel of fruit may be reason- 

 ably looked for, and for each additional inch in diameter four 

 quarts may be added. Now, let us farther agree on the num- 

 ber of cherries required to fill a half bushel. As our way 

 will double and perhaps triple the size of the leaves, the fruit 

 ivill 5s correspondingly large. Hence we reduce the usual 

 number, five thousand, to eighteen hundred to fill the mea- 

 sure; next, we estimate our buds, so many to each spur— five 

 will be about right. Now, each of these buds ought to j/ield 

 three cherries, fifteen to each spur; we shall need, then, only 

 one hundred and twenty spurs, but we will allow a few, and 

 say one hundred and thirty, to provide the required amount. 

 This determined, some time before the buds open in the 

 spring we prune away all the spurs except the requisite num- 

 ber, leaving those that are to remain evenly distributed 

 throughout the tree. In addition to the spurs already formed, 

 there will be a great many of small one-year old spurs devel- 

 oping for fruit for the next and succeeding years. Each 

 year thin these out, always leaving as many again as you 

 ultimately expect to reserve for fruit-bearing, as some of 

 them, under the treatment we have described, are pretty sure 

 to run off into wood growth. Alternate bearing trees man- 

 aged in this way cannot overbear one year, and hence will 

 not require a whole year 8 rest in which to restore their ex- 

 hausted energies, as would be the case had the trees received 

 ordinary treatment." 



This management of cherries by Dr. Hull may, and doubt- 

 less will, succeed admirably, but the process is rather scien- 

 tific and tedious for most farmers, but may suit amateurs and 

 those who have more leisure. As far as this theory is adapted 

 to apple-culture, there is not so much trouble about it. Ac- 

 cordinor to Downins: and others, when about half the fruit is 

 thinned out in a young state, say of the size of common 

 grapes, leaving only a moderate crop, the apple, like other 

 fruit trees, will bear every year., unless the fruit is destroyed 

 by frost or cold winters. The bearing year of an apple tree, 

 or a whole orchard, may be changed by picking off the fruit 



