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SEASONABLE HINTS. 



D^^ F ANTING trees usually belongs to 

 the month of April, but frequently 



[^V this work is unfinished until late in 



2)^ May, owing either to the late ar- 

 rival of the trees, or to the condition of the 

 soil. It is important that the soil should be 

 in g-ood condition, both for the soil texture 

 itself and for the effect upon the tree. No- 

 thing is more difficult to overcome than a 

 stunted condition, and therefore favorable 

 conditions should always be provided. 



At our Brantford meeting the question of 

 pruning or not pruning at time of planting 

 was hotly discussed, some maintaining that 

 it was best not to cut back young trees at 

 that time. Some experiments were made 

 last year at Woburn, England, with several 

 varieties of apple trees, both dwarf and 

 standard, involving questions of pruning, 

 root treatment, manuring and planting. 

 These experiments were slightly in favor of 

 immediate cutting back on setting out, 

 rather than waiting until a year later. 



" Root pruning trees has resulted in 

 checking both vigor and growth. Trees 

 not pruned every year were in 1898 but lit- 

 tle more than half as large as normal trees, 

 and those pruned every other year only 

 about three-quarters as large. The crops 

 borne by these trees, however, were heavy 

 in proportion to their size. Trees carefully 



lifted every year and replanted at once suf- 

 fered no injury thereby, but when left three 

 days before planting, in imitation of com- 

 mercial nursery methods, material injury re- 

 sulted, amounting four years after the trans- 

 planting to a loss of 28 per cent, in size. 

 The effect of growing grass about trees was 

 most striking. 



"The grass-grown trees are, after five 

 years, scarcely bigger than when planted, 

 and the actual increase in weight which they 

 show during this time is about 18 times 

 smaller than in the case of similar trees in 

 tilled ground. The effect of weeds has been 

 distinctly less than that of grass, and that 

 of careless planting, combined with weeds 

 and total neglect, is scarcely greater. The 

 grassed or weed-grown area, in the majority 

 of cases extended to about six feet beyond 

 the stems of the trees, but in the case of 

 two of the varieties of standards the extent 

 was only three feet, and in these instances 

 recovery began in 1897 and now appears to 

 be complete, so far as the vigor of the trees 

 are concerned, although they have not made 

 up for the loss in growth experienced before 

 1897. In the case of the other trees, where 

 the ground is more eflliciently grassed over, 

 there seems to be some signs that recovery 

 is now beginning. With those trees which 

 have been recovering since 1897 the ma- 



