HOW TO GROW AN APPLE TREE. 343 



As fast as the grafts are set a man follows with a rake and fills 

 the trench partly full of dirt and packs very firmly with the foot ; 

 then fill trench full, packing slightly and smoothing off with rake. 

 The grafts are set slightly slanting, for it is not an easy matter to 

 open a trench with the side next the wire perpendicular, and it is 

 easier to pack the dirt around the bottom of graft firm when the 

 trench is slanting. 



As soon as grafts are set, cultivate with some kind of six shovel 

 riding cultivator with solid, not rod, shields. We use a Deere com- 

 bined riding and walking as a rider. Set the front shovel so it will 

 run about two inches deep, the middle one a little deeper and the 

 rear shovel deeper still. 



Cultivate through the summer as often as necessary (from twelve 

 to twenty times) until August 15th; then sow the ground thickly 

 with oats for winter protection. 



If the grafts get covered with lumps they can be removed very 

 quickly with a light garden rake. A hoe made from a five or six 

 pronged manure fork works nicely removing weeds from the grafts. 

 If the ground is so dry that oats cannot be grown for winter protec- 

 tion, it will be necessary to do something else to prevent root-killing. 

 Once in our experience the oats were just coming up when the 

 ground froze, and the most of the grafts root-killed. I think that if the 

 ground had been covered as we cover strawberries they would have 

 been aH right. I have tried a right and left hand plough bending 

 the tops down with a padded block and covering everything with 

 dirt that way. I have tried cutting tops off in the fall and covering 

 with plough, but like a good covering of oats best of all. 



Sometimes in the spring the best way to prune one-year trees is 

 to cut off close to the ground, and at other times to prune to a whip 

 before leaves start. Care must be taken in summer pruning not to 

 remove leaves enough at one time to check the growth. I have had 

 trees ruined that way because the foreman had the big head and 1 

 was sick. The nurseryman grows trees to sell, and if his customers 

 want tall-bodied trees he must grow them, but he wants to remember 

 that he cannot grow a tree with good roots and nice body unless he 

 has plenty of leaves. 



Farther south, and in some locations here, trees are grown big 

 enough to put on the market in two years, but it takes from three to 

 four years at Winnebago to grow trees big enough so it will pay to 

 run a digger under them. I have found that if trees are kept clean 

 the first two years, they will grow and make good trees without 

 hoeing if they are cultivated first-class, but the nursery looks much 



