878 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK STATE 



it may be said that the trees should not have been set so deep as 

 to make this necessary. Shallow planting was tried in the Dawley 

 and van Alstyne orchards but with disastrous results to the 

 surface-rooting Doucin and Paradise trees, many of which were 

 blown over with even moderate winds while others suffered from 

 sun, plow, and cultivation. It was found necessary to hill up these 

 shallow-rooted trees by plowing toward the rows. 



Pruning. The winter pruning of the trees, although more 

 difficult than in training standard trees, gave comparatively little 

 trouble. It consisted of cutting out crossed branches, surplus 

 branches, and such few, of course, as were injured or diseased. 

 It was necessary to head back the wood on the Paradise and 

 Doucin trees more severely, depending on the variety, than that 

 on the standards, but otherwise the pruning was much the same 

 on all. 



For the first two seasons but little summer pruning was at- 

 tempted, the trees being small and none too vigorous. Then began 

 a series of experiments, no one of which proved satisfactory. 



Measuring the Results 



In the light of ten seasons' work with drawf apples, suffice it 

 to say that the training of the plants is the most difficult and the 

 least satisfactory operation in growing these trees. Indeed, it is 

 hardly too much to assert that if dwarf apples must be headed 

 back or pinched in during the growing season, it is impossible to 

 grow them in the trying climate of Xew York. In no one of the 

 attempts at summer pruning have we been able wholly to avoid 

 weak, spindling second growths which would not mature and 

 succumbed to the cold of the next winter. 



The Union of Stocks and Scions. The value of a stock is greatly 

 reduced if the union between the consorting parts of the tree i ; 

 poor. There is no question but that varieties unit unequally 

 well with different stocks. The following figures show with which 

 stock apples irrespective of variety unite best : 31 trees on Para- 

 dise are reported to have broken off at the union during the ten 

 years' test ; four on Doucin ; none on French Crab. There were, 

 too, a considerable number of trees in which there were enlarge- 

 ments above the union as shown in the upper half of Fig. i 



