290 APPLES. 



CULTIVATION. 



The importance of thorough cultivation has been already 

 noticed, and cannot be too well understood. If two speci- 

 mens could be exhibited side by side, the one showing the 

 stunted, lingering, mice-eaten, and moss-covered trees, caused 

 by neglect; and the other, the vigorous and thrifty growth, 

 and the fair and abundant crops, resulting from fine and clean 

 culture, none could fail to be satisfied of the superiority of 

 the one and impolicy of the other. 



RENOVATING AN OLD ORCHARD. 



It is not an easy matter to outline treatment for an old and 

 barren orchard. One cannot often tell just why such an or- 

 chard does not bear. Through long years of neglect the trees 

 have got into a non-bearing habit, and it may be next to im- 

 possible by any kind of treatment to thoroughly renovate and 

 recuperate them. The one safe thing always to advise is better 

 care and good tillage. If the orchard has not been ploughed 

 for many years, it is probable that the roots are so high that 

 ploughing is practically impossible. In that case it is well to 

 make a surface mulch by cutting up the sod when rather 

 moist and soft with a spading harrow, spring tooth harrow, or 

 other strong surface-working tool. After the sod is once 

 broken, it can be got into fine and mellow condition, and 

 thereafter surface tillage may be employed to hold the mois- 

 ture. In most cases it will be necessary to prune the lower 

 limbs in order to allow a team to work in the plantation. If 

 the heads are so low that a team cannot work in the orchard 

 even after the trees are pruned, it may be well to apply an 

 annual mulch of straw or litter. After the ground is once 

 mellow on top, it may pay to add stable manure or commer- 

 cial fertilizer. If one has only a few such trees, he may dig a 

 trench around the tree somewhere near the edge of the spread 

 of limbs, and put manure therein. 



The trees should be pruned. Heavy pruning- of the top in- 

 duces wood growth. This pruning therefore will tend to 

 reinvigorate the trees and to correct any of the mistakes of 

 earlier years. Heavy pruning is not a direct means of setting 

 trees into bearing; in fact, it is rather a means of setting 

 them into growing. But after they have been renovated by 



