CARE OF THE OLD ORCHARD 



ROY P. McPitERsoN, LEROY, GEXESEE Co, !N". Y. 

 Farmers' Institute Lecturer 



Scattered tlirougliout the state are 

 numerous apple orchards worthy of atten- 

 tion. To those who have given care to 

 such orchards have corne returns in fruit 

 and cash and in the satisfaction of seeing 

 Nature's response to the assistance of man. 

 To be sure, there are old orchards whose 

 days of usefulness are past. However, 

 many apple orchards from thirty to sixty 

 years old can still be made to blooni and 

 bring forth perfect fruit, provided the 

 orchard consists of fairly sound trees of good varieties. 



ESSENTIALS OF TREE GROWTH 



It is much easier for one to handle an orchard with profit if he 

 knows the essentials of tree growth. These essentials are, water, 

 nitrogen, and the mineral elements from below T , with sunshine 

 and carbonic acid gas from above, together with healthy trunks, 

 branches, and leaves. 



The feeding roots of all plants are covered with minute hairs 

 which take up water from the soil, together with mineral matter 

 and nitrogen compounds in solution. There are no direct open- 

 ings in these root hairs, the material being taken up by diffusion. 

 In the leaves of plants mostly on the under side are minute 

 openings leading into the interior. Air passing through these 

 carries carbonic acid gas, which is absorbed by the leaf cells. 

 Also, the water taken up by the roots is carried by the trunk and 

 branches to these cells. The carbonic acid gas and the water, 

 meeting in the cells, are broken up and rearranged by the action 

 of sunlight and the green coloring matter or chlorophyll of the 

 leaf. The result of this union is a new substance called starch. 

 The leaf, then, is a starch-manufacturing center, each cell a starch 



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