226 ANNUAL llEPOKT 



you make provision to fill the vacancy, but at once obtain another 

 of the same or a better variety, (for all this time you will have 

 been learning the value of trees for this climate) and set it in line 

 about two to four feet from the other, north or south, and care for it 

 as I have directed. This will change the course of your trees a 

 little, but you can keep the rows straight one way ; and as your 

 desire and aim is apples and plenty of them, it will make no differ- 

 ence in their bearing, other things being all right. 



Next, I consider the time for pruning very important for a Min- 

 nesota orchard, and I sum it up in my experience in a few words : 

 Cut the limb at a time when the chances are that it will not be 

 exposed to freezing before it begins to heal, and when it can have 

 all the time possible to heal before winter. April 1.5th to June 

 1st is my time. Avoid all fall pruning in this climate, and if you 

 should cut scions in the fall, do not cut nearer than an inch of the 

 main stock, and trim clor.ely the next spring. Afoid using a saw 

 all you can, as a limb cut with a sharp knife heals over quicker. 

 Cut all small limbs that when grown would be likely to crop in 

 and make the center of the tree compact. 



Now I wish to say a word about budding and grafting, without 

 which this essay would be deficient, as it is important for several 

 reasons. First, if you practice this it will awaken a greater inter- 

 est in the orchard as to growth and progress. It will increase your 

 observation, you will be constantly looking for something hardier 

 and of better keeping quality, and when you find it bud or graft it 

 into your most hardy stocks. Avoid cutting all the original top at 

 once but take two or three years to form the new one. 



I like budding best for the reason if it fails to grow it does not 

 injure the limbs like cutting. Having learned and practiced the 

 foregoing, you have created a new interest in the orchard. You 

 will be anxious to see the result of your work. You will visit it 

 oftener and care for it better ; watching with new interest the 

 union that is forming, and hail with delight the appearance of blos- 

 soms and fruit on the embryo twigs. I have read from the pen 

 of practical fruit men that if a tree was not hardy enough to stand 

 on its own stock it would be of no use to top-work it, but my expe- 

 rience is different ; I have trees that bear heavy crops of good fruit 

 that I know fail on their own stocks in body and crotches, hence 

 1 am top-working considerably, as I find we can utilize seedlings 

 and worthless crabs to quite an extent by so doing. I find the 

 Wealthy makes a good union on many kinds; even bears fine fruit on 

 the Soulard crab. I have an excellent opinion so far of the Whit- 



