THE PROPAGATION OF THE APPLE TREE, 287 



I can impart no more valuable information in the matter of prop- 

 agating apple trees from the seed than by quoting the words of Mr. 

 E. P. DeCoster, of Oxford Co., Maine, a member of the Maine 

 State Pomological Society, who says, "I believe in raising my own 

 fruit trees. I have not fifty trees on my farm but what I raised 

 from the seed, and it has been a great pleasure to me to watch them 

 and care for them from the time they first broke through the ground 

 to maturity. I will give you my method of raising my trees. I 

 select a good deep loam soil, and if I want one row of trees I plow a 

 strip of land some six feet wide — if I want two rows, I plow four 

 feet wider. Then plow a good furrow in the center, make a good 

 ditch of it, then fill that partially full of a dressing and work it in 

 well with the soil. Upon this sow your seed. I use pomace from 

 the cider mill and cover it about the same as I do corn. This must 

 be done in the fall, as the seed must stay in the ground throughout 

 the winter. I let the trees grow the first year as they come up ex- 

 cepting I may trim them some. To keep the snow from breaking 

 them down, drive a stake in the row and tack some boards on each 

 side. The next spring take them all up and set them in a row one 

 foot apart. If these trees are properly handled, mulched and cared 

 for, in three or four years from the seed they will do to set out. I 

 prefer to raise them as seedlings and then graft in the limbs. I' 

 believe it can get better shaped trees by so doing, and they will come 

 into bearing as soon as those grafted in the nursery. In two years 

 after setting out they will do tO' graft." 



In closing this somewhat rambling paper, I want to impress upon 

 every grower of apple trees the necessity of mulching young trees. 

 Mulch in view of keeping the frost in and the heat out from Decem- 

 ber to April. The best material to mulch with is, that which if laid 

 on a path of ice or snow will keep it from melting the longest. 

 Strawy horse manure is in reach of nearly every orchardist and can 

 be had for its hauling, and with that used for mulching, spread three 

 feet around a tree and a foot deep, put around after the ground is 

 frozen and left there until May, you will have little or no winter or 

 root-killing, ■ particularly if your stock is on a crab root. When 

 apple trees are of a sufficient age and their roots are deeply imbeded 

 in the ground out of reach of the warmth of March and April, they 

 will take care of themselves winters, but it is better to mulch all 

 trees and to keep the ground loose and from sodding over. 



I was in hopes to present in this paper statistics in regard to the 

 number of apple trees in the different states, amount of apples pro- 

 duced, shipped, etc., but I find it almost an impossibility at this time. 

 Secretaries of horticultural and pomological societies to whom I 



