TALK IN THE APPLE ORCHARD. 



for several weeks, to go from town to town, with his grafting tools, and an assortment of 

 scions of his own selecting, setting them for two cents each, and warranting them to live, 

 and waiting for his pay till the following year, when he again goes over his route. This, 

 you will say, is entrusting the business to rather unskillful hands. And so, indeed, it is, 

 but it is for better so than not done at all, for by similar means, have some sections of our 

 state been filled with the best varieties of fruit. To be sure, one who trusts to another's 

 selection of varieties, finds himself egregiously deceived sometimes, when his trees come 

 to bearing, for every man has some favorite kind of apple, which he persists, against light 

 and knowledge, in regarding as superior to everything else in the world. It may be some 

 discovery of his own, of some fruit of about the size of a pumpkin, and of similar flavor, 

 or more likely it is the product of some famous old tree, that stands by the back door of 

 the old homestead, where he used to play with his brothers and sisters and the old house- 

 dog, and eat green apples when a boy. I have a picture of just such a tree in my memo- 

 ry, of which the apples were sweeter than any that grow now-a-days. I always forget to 

 set scions which are recommended as coming from anybody's father's or grandfather's 

 place; and there are reasons less complimentary to poor humanity, for not trusting to 

 itinerant performers in these branches. 



I may as well confess to having fallen in with the practice of my neighborhood, of prun- 

 ing in early spring, at the time of grafting. Kenrick and Forsyth were considered good 

 authority, formerly, and although I admit that my opinion has been at times much sha- 

 ken by more modern writers, I have, from personal observation, seen no reason to change 

 my practice. 



The reasons of convenience with us, are very strong for pruning in April, rather than 

 in summer. Besides the fact that it is comparatively a leisure season, are other reasons 

 for preferring tlie spring. At that time the bark do s not slip, and there is less danger tlien 

 than later, of injury to the tree by standing on the limbs, as well as by the starling of the 

 bark where the brimch is cut off. 



With us, nobody pretends to graft after the bark begins to slip, and it requires more 

 care and skill than can readily he purchased, to remove limbs of large size without leaving 

 bad Avounds, from the causes referred to. I am fully aware that we who read the Horti- 

 culturist, know how to ampuJate limbs scientifically, and that we should, by no means, 

 be guilty of placing a lawless foot upon any tree, to its liurt; but the fact is that many 

 of the orchards arc owned by farmers, who do not wear velvet slippers, especially when 

 at work, and one "finds no rest for the sole of his foot" on a tree, without some sub- 

 stantial protection against knots and the rough bark, so that it must and does happen, 

 although against all propriety, that man}' thick boots go upon our trees, and many coarse 

 saws are used in pruning, and a great many limbs are taken off by persons too unskilful 

 or indolent to cut on the undzr side first, to prevent splitting or stripping off the bark. 



Again, spring prunhig is most convenient, because in summer we usually have our or- 

 chard land under cultivation, and by pruning then, the crops must be much injured by 

 trampling them down, and by the branches thrown upon them. I am perfectly aware of 

 the answer which will be at once given by the merely theoretical man, that orchards 

 should by no means be cultivated for other crops than apples — and I reply, that although, 

 perhaps trees may grow faster with no vegetation about them, j-et they Avill grow fast 

 enough for the first ten years, upon ground properly cultivated, with any hoed crop cov- 

 ering all the ground, except a small space round each tree. And besides, there is great 

 difficulty in keeping land fallow and free from weeds, for successive years, and lastly 

 man nature has always had a strange propensity to enjoy the present at the expense 



