FERTILIZERS IN THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD 315 



stem with few or no branches. The man who wishes to do the best with his 

 on-hard will select these "maiden," or one-year-old trees for setting. There 

 are several advantages in this. The trees can be had for less money than 

 the two or three year trees commonly planted. The planter can start the head 

 of his trees uniformly, just where he wants to start it, and the young tree, 

 not being crowded in a nursery row, can develop a head of proper proportions, 

 and by the time it has reached the age at which most people want to plant 

 from the nursery it is a far larger and better proportioned tree than the one 

 left in the nursery row. The nurseryman heads back the* trees in his rows 

 the second year, but he does not head them down so low as they should be in 

 the orchard ; and when we plant a two or three year old tree we generally have 

 an ill shaped head started, and started where we do not want it. The result 

 is that if we are to get the uniformity of head we want there must be a great 

 deal harder pruning done at planting time, and the trees are never as symmet- 

 rical as they would have been had they been planted as yearlings and properly 

 started. 



Writers on fruit culture have various notions as to what should be the 

 method used in starting a tree in the orchard. Many insist that the central 

 stem should never be shortened, while others would head back as the nursery- 

 men do, and form an open headed tree. We certainly prefer this plan. 



Five years ago we planted two apple trees of the same variety within 30 

 feet of each other. The trees were planted in a close sod and have never 

 had any cultivation. They are in a soil of fair fertility and on a la,wn near 

 a dwelling. One tree at planting was headed hack to the point where we 

 wished the head to start; the other had the leading shoot left, and the side 

 branches merely shortened. Both have been properly pruned to keep the head 

 clear of becoming a tangle of shoots, and both have grown fairly well. But 

 the tree headed back and formed into a round, open head has far outstripped 

 the other, is now about twice the size and bearing apples, while the other has 

 not reached this stage. The headed back tree has a trunk of not over 20 inches 

 from the ground. The other has a trunk of four feet. The growth of the 

 tree headed back has been rather phenomenal, and is fully as great as that 

 of trees set at same time in the orchard and kept cultivated annually. But 

 the lawn where it stands has merely been mown, and nothing has been re- 

 moved from the soil. All the grass decays where it falls, and no manure of 

 any kind has been given to either tree, but there will be some applied now that 

 they are getting into bearing. It seems evident, however, that the decaying 

 organic matter from the grass has furnished the trees all the nitrogen they 

 needed, since all the organic matter produced has been returned to the soil, and 

 they will need only light dressings of acid phosphate and plenty of potash. I 



