FRUIT CULTURE. 747 



Renovating Old Orchards. Old, neglected orchards can frequently be made profita 

 ble for several years by proper care and cultivation. Too many moss-covered, barren 

 orchards, that were formerly productive, are to be seen in many parts of the country, which, 

 by proper care, could be made productive for years. The hard sod should be plowed up and 

 made mellow, admitting the air and moisture, and a liberal supply of plant food in the form 

 of manure may be applied. Barn -yard manure, muck, or loam, which has been used as an 

 absorbent of the liquid manure of the stables, the material from the compost heap, decom 

 posed chip-dirt, lime, salt, iron filings, etc., are all excellent for this purpose. If farmers 

 would save more of both the liquid and solid manure from their stables that now are wasted, 

 many of them would have three or four times the quantity for use that they now have for 

 the different farm purposes. Give the old orchards a new and plentiful supply of food in a 

 substantial top-dressing, and a great change in productiveness will soon be observed. 



The moss should also be scraped from the trunks with a blunt hoe or a sheet of iron 

 made to fit the tree. The borers may also be killed with a knife or wire. The bark of the 

 trees should be washed with diluted soft-soap, mixed with a little sulphur, or potash water. 

 All sprouts should be cut away from the base of the tree, and if pruning has been previously 

 neglected, the decaying limbs should be sawed off; thus by thinning out the branches and 

 admitting more sunlight, the roots will be better enabled to support a more vigorous growth 

 in those that remain. By such treatment we have known old orchards to become apparently 

 rejuvenated and brought into a fine state of vigor and productiveness. 



Changing the Bearing Year. With most varieties of apples, and also some other 

 fruits, there is generally a heavy yield every alternate year, which is commonly termed &quot; the 

 oearing year.&quot; This is doubtless due to the exhaustion caused by the excessive crop pro 

 duced; hence time is required for the tree to recruit, and collect a sufficient supply of the 

 proper material from the soil, water, and atmosphere, to form a new supply of fruit buds, 

 and contribute to their growth and full fruitage. When half the fruit is thinned out, leaving 

 only a moderate crop, the fruit will not only be large and more perfect in form, but there 

 will be a tendency to fruit production the following year; consequently if on the bearing year 

 of a single tree, or a wnole orchard, nearly all of the early formed fruit or blossoms are 

 picked off, allowing them to remain on the alternate or non-bearing year, the habit of pro- 

 duction in that year will usually be formed after a few such trials. This work is compara 

 tively easy on young trees which have small crops and are more accessible than old ones, and 

 is more likely to produce a permanent change than an old tree with fixed habits. 



If a moderate annual crop is desired, the young fruit should be thinned out, if the trees 

 are liable to overbear, and good cultivation given, together with an application, every spring 

 or fall, of manure or wood ashes, salt, and oyster-shell lime to the soil above their roots. It 

 is quite desirable to be able to furnish fruit for the market when there is a scarcity, since it 

 will at such times command a much more remunerative price. 



A fruit-grower in Pennsylvania gives the result of testing the above plan for producing 

 crops on alternate sides of apple trees: &quot;Many years ago a neighbor near me tried an exper 

 iment on his trees with complete success. His trees, as usual, bore more apples during the 

 even year than he could make use of and in the odd year not enough. So he went to work 

 and picked off all the apples he could see from the south side of the tree when they were 

 about the size of hazel or hickory nuts. The result was that his trees for many years bore 

 full crops annually on alternate sides. As I frequently saw the trees before and afterwards, I 

 am satisfied that it was a success in his case. Probably this operation would succeed best if 

 performed in the even year, or when the trees have too heavy a crop.&quot; 



We see no reason why the above plan should not prove a success, although the quality 

 of the soil, cultivation given, and other conditions largely modify the amount of fruit pro 

 duced in any season. 



VOL. II. 40 



