374 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the young tree, the old tree, the exceedingly vigorous tree and 

 the slow growing tree; we must simply get at the principles 

 underlying those things and then adapt them to the variety and 

 its condition of growth. 



Fertilizers. In our experience one of the most important 

 things in bringing the tree into profitable productiveness is to 

 give the ground a good application of manure occasionally, say 

 every three or four years put on eight to ten tons to the acre. 

 You get out of that more than the beneficial effect of the fer- 

 tilizer, you put more humus into the soil, and it increases its 

 capacity to hold moisture and so gives the tree a continuous 

 supply of moisture for carrying on its work. 



We have an orchard which we took hold of in 1910 for ex- 

 periment purposes. It was then an orchard in full bearing. 

 As I recall it, the trees were about eighteen years old. The or- 

 chard was not in good condition. The land had been farmed 

 until it was pretty badly run out before the orchard was planted. 

 When we got hold of it the ground was all covered with rose 

 briers and other things that go with that kind of cultivation or 

 lack of cultivation. We took hold of it in June. The season of 

 1910 was characterized by a very late freeze, which took the 

 fruit off the trees in all that region, so we had no fruit that year. 

 The following year, 1911, we had our first crop of fruit from 

 that orchard, which was 1,700 bushels. The next year we got 

 3,500 bushels. We began to prune and spray all of it, and por- 

 tions of it were cultivated so that we were putting it into better 

 condition for productiveness. The first year was 1,700, the 

 next year 3,500, the next 2,000 and the next year 4,300. In 

 1915 we got 6,000, and this year, 1916, we will have at least 

 4,000, and probably more than that. 



This is an orchard which two years ago we fertilized by a 

 good dressing of stable manure. We have had crops, as you see, 

 every year during all this period since 1910. What have we done 

 besides manuring it once to make productive that orchard which 

 formerly was unproductive? We have pruned as needed but not 

 heavily. We have pruned sufficiently so that we can spray read- 

 ily. We have sprayed for the protection of the foliage against 

 the attacks of insects and diseases. Since we are carrying on 

 an experiment in cultivation and cover crops, some of the plots 

 have been cultivated, some have been put in clover sod and some 

 in blue grass for the purpose of comparing these different kinds 



