STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 27 



tivation in the growing of apples that I am eliminating every- 

 thing in the orchard where the trees are of bearing age except 

 the apples. 



Question. How far apart are those trees? 



Ans. Our rule in planting trees is forty feet between the 

 rows and thirty-five feet between the trees in the row. That 

 applies to Baldwins. A\'here I inter-plant, as I have in some 

 cases, Baldwins and Wealthy, I plant thirty feet apart. But 

 after the AA'ealthies are taken out it will leave the Baldwins 

 sixty feet apart. And I think I will show you later, by some 

 of the photographs of trees that were planted twenty-two years 

 ago, that sixty feet will be none too far, looking ahead and 

 allowing the same rate of growth to continue as has been made 

 in the past. 



We have next a picture of one of a block of trees that, has 

 been planted five years. I buy the best two-year-old trees that 

 I can buy, and buy of a good, reputable nursery firm, and specify 

 that only good, healthy, vigorous trees shall be furnished. In 

 the West they talk a great deal about the large growth which 

 their trees attain. I claim that here in the East, if we give the 

 proper treatment and adopt intensive methods of culture, we 

 can grow trees of practically the same size in the same length 

 of time. I believe in growing a tree as rapidly as you can grow 

 it and still mature the wood for the winter. I cease cultivation 

 of all kinds along in mid-summer, and it is a very rare thing 

 to have any winter-killing whatever. 



Here is a type of tree that is to be avoided. I think you will 

 agree with me in that. And still how often, upon our country 

 side, do we find trees of this type, where the art of pruning is 

 unknown and Avhere the trees are pruned until they look more 

 like a lion's tail than anything else ; where the apples instead 

 of being where they can be easily reached by a picker, are 

 found clear up on the tops of the trees and the bearing surface 

 of the tree is very much restricted. The expense of spraying 

 and picking reduces the profit to the very lowest possible point. 

 I ask you to avoid any such methods of pruning as that, and I 

 think the object lesson w^ill show you conclusively that they 

 are to be avoided. The lower branches, in my opinion, should 

 be pruned so that when they are loaded with fruit they will just 

 about touch the ground. 



