102 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



we have decided that we might as well spend our money some 

 other way. 



In fertilizing we meet with another difficulty. We believe in 

 breaking up the soil and have done it somewhat but, having no 

 team of our own, we are obliged to hire the work done and we 

 hnd it hard to get it done properly and at the right time. So 

 we have decided that top dressing is best for our smooth fields. 

 One rough piece was several years ago fenced for pigs and they 

 have kept tlie ground well plowed. The result has been a great 

 improvement in the appearance of the trees and in the quantity 

 and quality of fruit. Next year we hope to fence our Ben Davis 

 orchard of about one hundred young trees wdiich have scarcely 

 begun to bear. A man of our acquaintance stands ready to put 

 in fifteen or twenty pigs as soon as the hog fencing is up. Thus 

 far we have used only barn dressing and wood ashes for fertil- 

 izing. Next spring we intend to try a commercial fertilizer. 



One or two years we were troubled by mice. As a safeguard 

 against them we used tarred paper with good results and stopped 

 mulching the young trees. Whenever a thaw came in early 

 winter we had the snow trodden hard around the trunks of the 

 trees. 



The matter of trimming the trees is a serious one with us. 

 1 ew who understand the business have time to work for others. 

 For the past two or three years comparatively little has been 

 done in this line and the trees look sadly neglected. We have a 

 few trees in the garden around our house. The last time these 

 were trimmed for lack of better help I hired a man whose 

 kiiowledge of the art was as limited as my own. So I told him 

 to cut off simply the dead limbs and suckers. At first I kept an 

 eye on him but, as the first two or three trees were done all 

 right, I soon went about my household duties which were rather 

 pressing just then. Later in the day I went out to see how he 

 was progressing and was dismayed at the naked appearance of 

 the trees. One tree in particular I remember — a Garden Royal, 

 the whole top of which had been grafted to Ren Davis, leaving 

 onlv a few lower limbs of the early fruit for our own use. He 

 had cut oflf nearly every one of those cherished Garden Royal 

 limbs. When I expressed my disapproval and asked why he did 

 not follow my directions he replied, " W^al, I knew them natural 

 fruit limbs ought ter come off so the grafts in the top could 

 grow. I thought \f)U, bein' a woman, didn't know, so T follered 



