FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 265 



call a low tree. I like eighteen to twenty-four inches of clean body, and 

 this is based on my observation and experience. To have them higher 

 allows a little more opportunity for culture, but it causes lots of extra 

 labor in picking, pruning, etc. If I can have eighteen inches of clean 

 body that is all I want. 



Mr. Voorheis : I do not know as I understand you in regard to rubbing 

 off the buds, the first year as often as they leave out, and starting out 

 little branches all along up the top; and I want to inquire whether it is 

 best to keep everything all rubbed off except the branches that you want 

 to grow and develop. 



Mr. Morrill: I have heard it stated by men that know more than I 

 that they prefer at least to start the bud, but I have made the practice of 

 selecting along in June the branches I want. 



Mr. Tucker: Is it always necessary to prune the roots of young trees 

 before they are set ? 



Mr. Morrill : A good deal depends upon when they have been taken up. 

 Still I know that men who are old in the business prefer to have a clean, 

 nice cut on them. I always cut all ragged roots. There is something 

 now that a few people are experimenting on, and I do not know what 

 there is in it, of cutting nearly all the roots. I saw samples of trees that 

 had been set one year and two years and taken up; they were 

 trimmed right to a spike, and they certainly had a better root system. 

 There may be something in it, but we have tried to get all the roots we 

 can. It never looks quite right to me, but they showed plenty of evi- 

 dence that they were right. 



Q: If we have failed to prune the roots of the trees in the fall, 

 would you rather prune them in the spring than not at all? 



Mr. Morrill : Yes, if they are broken and ragged. 



Mr. Burton: Do you think it makes a difference about the land? If 

 oup land is not very good it would not start them so well. Do you advo- 

 cate planting for that and then set thein sixteen feet the other way? 

 That sometimes breaks the wind. 



Mr. Morrill: Regarding what you say about close trimming of roots, 

 I do not advocate that at all; I like all the good roots I can get just as 

 you do. But I have seen some things that make me think perhaps that 

 is not right. The best thing a man ever took into an orchard is plenty 

 of brains and good judgment. 



Q: Is it necessary to cut the nursery buds the next fall and cut the 

 bearing tree the year before on account of the buds taking so much bet- 

 ter out of the nursery stock? 



Mr. Morrill: They just bud what they intend for the next season, 

 because there is so much greater loss. I have advocated that the trees 

 should be budded and bearing at least one or two years before that. 

 Other varieties I budded before, and have done so year after year, and 

 that is the reason I think they should not go too long from the original 

 bearing tree. I am quite fully convinced that it is one of the secrets 

 of getting a successful orchard, but it is an idea that will be combatted 

 by nurserymen. 



Q: In connection with the preparing of the soil, you think you would 

 like to turn under a clover sod. What do you do when you prepare an 

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