IMPEOVING AN OLD OECHAED 



SCRAPING AND PRUNING- FEEDING AND 



PASTURING— POOR VARIETIES SHOULD 



■ BE TOP GRAFTED-HOW TO GRAFT— GOOD 



GRAFTING WAX — SPLENDID RESULTS 



W. H. COARD, LL. D. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, OTTAWA. 



MANY an old orchard which is now an 

 eyesore to everybody can, at little 

 cost, beyond slight labor, be converted into 

 an up-to-date tidy, prolific, and profitable 

 branch of the farm. There are many orch- 

 ards in Canada which bear more worms than 

 fruit, because the generality of farmers can- 

 not be brought to learn that fruit raising 

 pays even if it be grown merely for home 

 consumption. It will only occupy three 

 years to evolve a plentiful harvest as well as 

 a symmetrical well kept orchard out of 

 lichen and moss-covered trunks, if the advice 

 given in this article be followed with fair 

 faithfulness. 



The first thing to be done is to scrape off 

 the rough, loose bark from the trunks and 

 branches, and to prune the trees. While it 

 is true that this rough bark may appear to 

 do but little harm, it affords comfortable free 

 board and lodgings for noxious insects which 

 thoroughly appreciate and avail themselves 

 of this hospitable shelter. 



Pruning may be as simple as A B C. At 

 first only dead branches and crowding suck- 

 ers need be removed ; unless the trees be 

 old and decrepit with dying branches and 

 waning strength, and in that case the prun- 

 ing should be vigorous. As a grape vine 

 can be renewed so can an apple tree, and in 

 extreme cases a tree may be cut to the 

 ground and another one built upon a short 

 shoot which will spring up. Cut out old 

 branches, leave young suckers to take their 



place, then a new top will quickly form, and 

 good fruit will follow. Always take care to 

 thin out useless branches, because sunshine 

 and air are inseparable from the steady, 

 healthy growth of orchards as of individ- 

 uals. 



An apple tree must be fed if it is to pro- 

 duce fruit, and no diet is more suitable or 

 inexpensive than a leguminous cover crop. 

 Trees require moisture and food ; therefore 

 grass and weeds must be removed. To suc- 

 ceed, the farmer must plough his orchard 

 and till the ground, tillage being continued 

 frequently during early summer. By mid- 

 summer wood growth generally ceases and 

 tillage should stop. A cover crop sown then 

 will not only protect the soil from washing 

 but will add humus to it, while a clover crop 

 will gather all the nitrogen necessary for the 

 next year's growth. 



A good alternative to ploughing the orch- 

 ard is to pasture it with hogs and sheep, 

 preferably the former, and always to keep 

 more animals there than the grass will sup- 

 port, because this will insure supplementing 

 the grass diet by grain, which naturally will 

 bring fertility to the orchard and insure, that 

 the grass will not grow tall. Where ani- 

 mals are not grazing in an orchard the grass 

 should be mown early and left on the ground 

 to add humus to the soil ; but this is not 

 nearly so beneficial as grazing the land. 



Insects and fungi have to be considered 

 with, and it will be necessary to spray with 



