MISCELLANEOUS PAPEBS. 351 



Planting Apple Seeds. 



By request, I state my mode of planting apple seeds. Having 

 planted more or less each year for the last forty-two years, and tried 

 spring and fall with varied success, the fall planting always did the 

 best. I sow the seed in the drill and cover not more than one inch 

 deep, and so planted, scarcely a seed will fail to germinate the next 

 spring. The seeds to do their best should be i)lanted not less than 

 one inch apart, and if to be grown as orchard trees without grafting, 

 they should take one winter in nursery to test their hardiness, and then 

 reject all that fail to make a healthy growth and a perfect terminal 

 bud. Take up and set in orchard at one year old, for at that age the 

 tap root can be had entire and easily planted. In growing a healthy 

 tree the most important point is the tap root. Small fibrous side roots 

 are better cut off, doing more injury than good. I grow and fruit 

 thousands of seedlings, and in a promiscuous lot not more than one in 

 fifty will be a fairly good apple. To make seedlings a success requires 

 experience and carefdl culling. My best success was 1200 culled from 

 10,000, and even then some poor ones. 



Peter M. Gideon, Minnesota. 



Selection of Apple Trees. 



Prof. Taft, of Michigan, says that the success or failure of the 

 orchard will depend largely upon the varieties and the character of the 

 trees purchased. 



While many experienced orchardists wisely prefer a strong one- 

 year tree to anything that is older, as it enables them to form the head at 

 the height and the manner they prefer, for the ordinary planter a some- 

 what larger size is to be commended. As a rule the two-year, medium, 

 four to five feet, five-eights to three-quarter inch trees will do as well, 

 or better, than those of a larger size, and the cost and expense for 

 boxing, freight and planting will be materially less than for the three 

 or four-year-old trees that some planters insist upon having. The No. 

 1 two-year trees, graded at five to seven feet, three quarter inch and 

 upward, are, as a rule, not objectionably large. While it is desirable 

 to obtain trees at a reasonable price, cheapness should not be the only 

 consideration. When buying trees of the above-mentioned sizes, care 

 should be taken that the nurseryman does not work off cull trees that 



