272 AISTNTJAL REPORT 



tarred paper. I cut it in strips and wind it around and tie with a 

 string. It not only protects against them, but also against sun 

 scald. 



PRUNING. 



One general rule will apply to pruning. Cut out your wood so 

 that the sun can get into the middle of your trees. Prune from 

 the inside — not the outside. Let the limbs grow low on the body. 

 Encourage a central shoot and cut off every aspiring limb that 

 tries to make a fork in your tree. I prune at any time in the year 

 and cover the wound with a little grafting wax. 



RESETTING. 



If any of your trees die as they sometimes will with the best of 

 care, reset them at once. Don't delay a single season if you would 

 have a compact orchard. 



♦ BLIGHT, 



On this subject I ''am at sea." It has always been my terror. I 

 know of no effective way to stop it, only with the knife. I always 

 draw it out and cut below the diseased wood and burn the part cut 

 off. If the tree is too badly diseased with it, dig it up and throw it 

 out and reset. Some think sulphur is good, and some a combina- 

 tion of sulphur and lime, but neither is a full preventive. 



INSECTS. 



A herd of insects stand ready to injure both your tree and fruit. 

 The borer is perhaps the most dangerous, for he kills. He works at 

 the trunk close to the ground usually, and before one is aware of it 

 has girdled your tree or bored into it so as to seriously cripple it. 

 1 keep ashes around the trunks of mine and watch them closely. 

 Should you see fine borings of wood there it is the borer. Hunt 

 for him with knife or wire until you tind him. The leaf-roller and 

 the coddling moth are destructive, the former to buds and the latter 

 to fruit. Keep a close watch and destroy them and their nests. I 

 know of no other preventive. 



THE FRUIT. 



And now, if you have followed these directions carefully given 

 above, in three or four years you will begin to see the reward of your 



