62 THE APPLE. 



first show good crops, allowing it to remain only on the alter- 

 nate seasons which we wish to make the bearing year.* 



PRUNING. The apple in orchards requires very little pruning 

 if the trees, while the orchard is young, are carefully in- 

 spected every year, a little before midsummer, and all crossing 

 branches taken out while they are small. When the heads are 

 once properly adjusted and well balanced, the less the pruning 

 saw and knife are used the better, and the cutting out of dead 

 limbs, and removal sf such as may interfere with others, or too 

 greatly crowd up the head of the tree, is all that an orchard will 

 usually require. But wherever a limb is pruned away, the sur- 

 face of the wound should be neatly smoothed, and if it exceeds 

 an inch in diameter, it should be covered with the liquid shellac 

 previously noticed, or brushed over with common white lead, 

 taking care with the latter, not to paint the bark also. 



INSECTS. There are three or four insects that in some parts 

 of the country, are very destructive or injurious to this tree ; a 

 knowledge of the habits of which, is therefore, very important to 



* One of the finest orchards in America is that of Pelham farm, at Esopus, on 

 the Hudson. It is no less remarkable for the beauty and high flavour of its fruit, 

 than the constant productiveness of trees. The proprietor, R. L. Pell, Esq., has 

 kindly furnished us with some notes of his experiments on fruit trees, and we sub- 

 join the following highly interesting one on the Apple. 



" For several years past I have been experimenting on the apple, having an or- 

 chard of 2,000 bearing Newtown Pippin trees. I found it very unprofitable to 

 \vait for what is termed the ' bearing year,' and it has been my aim to assist na- 

 ture, so as to enable the trees to bear every year. I have noticed that from the 

 excessive productiveness of this tree, it requires the intermediate year to recover 

 its e lf_to extract from the earth and the atmosphere the materials to enable it to 

 produce again. This it is not able to do, unassisted by art, while it is loaded with 

 fruit, and the intervening year is lost ; if, however, the tree is supplied with proper 

 food it will bear every year ; at least such has been the result of my experiments. 

 Three years ago, in April, 1 scraped all the rough bark from the ste'ms of several 

 thousand trees in my orchards, and washed all the trunks and limbs within reach 

 with soft soap; trimmed out all the branches that crossed each other, early in June, 

 and painted the wounded part with white lead, to exclude moisture and prevent 

 decay. I then, in the latter part of the same month, slit the bark by running a sharp 

 pointed knife from the ground to the first set of limbs, which prevents the tree from 

 becoming bark bound, and gives the young wood an opportunity of expanding. In 

 July I placed one peck of oyster shell lime under each tree, and left it piled about 

 the trunk until November, during which time the drought was excessive. In No- 

 vember the lime was dug in thoroughly. The following year J collected from these 

 trees 1700 barrels of fruit, part of which was sold in New-York for four, and others 

 in London for nine dollars per barrel. The cider made from the refuse, delivered 

 at the mill -two days after its manufacture, I sold for three dollars and three quar- 

 ters per barrel of 32 gallons, exclusive of the barrel. In October I manured these 

 trees with stable manure in which the ammonia had been fixed, and covered this 

 immediately with earth. The succeeding autumn they were literally bending to 

 the ground with the finest fruit I ever saw, while the other trees in my orchard not 

 so treated are quite barren, the last season having been their bearing year. 1 am 

 now placing round each tree one peck of charcoal dust, and propose in the spring 



to cover it from the compost heap. 

 My soil is a strong, deep, sandy '. 

 chard grounds, as if there were no trees on the~in, and' raise grain of every kind eir 



My soil is a strong, deep, sandy loam on a gravelly subsoil. I cultivate my or- 



cept rye, whicn grain is so very injurious that I believe three successive crops of 

 it would destroy any orchard younger than twenty years. I raised last year in 

 an orchard containing 20 acres, trees 18 years old, a crop of Indian corn which 

 averaged 140 bushels of ears to the acre." 



