372 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



year, April, May, June and July, in this latitude, and then when the trees 

 begin to touch, thin them out. After cultivating the ground during these 

 months, seed the gi'ound in some co\er crop that will protect it from the 

 suns of the later mouths and the cold of the winter. Early in the season 

 everlasting cultivation, and late in the season some crop that will cover 

 the gi-ouud and protect it. I use largely cow peas and clover for this 

 purpose, or some other leguminous crop that will gather in the air and 

 furnish food for the trees, shade the ground from the sun during the 

 later summer months and protect it in the winter. Oust as soon, the 

 following spring, as the clover begins to gi'ow, begin to plow. Don't let 

 the clover gi'ow, but just as soon as the ground is dry enough to plow, 

 get your plow to work, and as soon as you are through plowing, get your 

 cultivator and harrow to work. Plow the land as early as possible, and 

 then cultivate it over and over and over again, as the good woman in 

 California did. Summer prune and fall and winter prune so as to make 

 the ideal shape of ti-ee you desire. You can make a tree just as you make 

 a chicken coop. The material is there, and by leading buds in the proper 

 direction you can build any shape you desire. For the first four or five 

 years of the orchard's life, build the trees as you wish them. Crowd the 

 growth early in the season. In six or eight years you have practically 

 a well grown orchard that will begin to bear some fruit. 



Then come other problems that have to be worked out. There is no 

 reason why apple trees should not bear a good crop every year, except 

 occasionally when they get knocked out by extreme climatic conditions. 

 It is the natural condition of fruit trees to bear every year. Occasionally, 

 of course, they get knocked out, and then the next year they may over- 

 bear and tax their strength too much. It is good to bring up a tree as 

 you bring up a child, in the way it should go. When the tree begins to 

 bear you should begin the habit of thinning. If a tree, the first year, 

 attempts to bear ten specimens, I would pick off half of them. The next 

 year if it attempted to bear fifty, I would throw away thirty-five of them 

 and leave the remaining fifteen evenly (Jistril)uted over the tree. I would 

 do this each year of the tree's young life so as to produce annual bearing 

 habits. 



To me one of the most important things of all— and it is something 

 about which little is said— is the summer pruning of an orchard. In all 

 our pruning the tendency has been to work for shape, and then if there 

 were crowding branches to cut out the weak ones and leave the strong 

 branches. I have been practicing the reverse of that. The weak branches 

 tend towai'd fruitfulness, while the strong branches tend toward wood. 

 I am growing apples and not wood. Then in the summer, not too early 

 and not too late, the pruning should begin. If you prune too early you 

 start new buds and branches that will be Avinter killed. Use your own 

 brains as to the time, but summer pruning a little after midsummer should 

 always be given. Go into the top of the tree and cut out the strong 



