34 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Ques. What is your rotation? 



Ans. Corn, potatoes, grass and early vegetables. 



Ques. What do you use for grass? 



Ans. A large proportion of clover. Perhaps half clover and 

 half timothy. 



Ques. At what season would you prune your trees if you 

 could do it just at the proper time? 



Ans. I would prune all trees in the late portion of winter 

 or the early part of the spring. I don't believe in summer 

 pruning. There may be conditions and circumstances whereby 

 it would be justified, but I believe as a rule that in summer, 

 pruning is debilitating to a tree ; and you all know that the 

 average New England tree hasn't got that amount of vigor 

 that it can lose any of it. 



Ques. On some of those slides of the orchards in blossom I 

 noticed that the ground apparently hadn't been plowed. Was 

 that a year when you did not plow? 



Ans. Those were taken in a year when the plowing had 

 been omitted. From now on, every portion of the bearing 

 orchards will receive cultivation every year, and just the 

 amount of fertilizer that the trees need to keep them in good 

 condition and in good health and vigor, and that will enable 

 them to produce fruit of the highest degree of quality and 

 appearance. 



Ques. About how much ashes do you put to the tree, and 

 how near? 



Ans. I put neither ashes nor fertilizer very close to the stem 

 of the tree, except when it is small. After the tree has become 

 established, the rule would be to put it around the extremities 

 of the branches. 



Ques. Not nearer than seven or eight feet? 



Ans. No. Of course it depends upon the size of the tree. 

 With the larger trees, such as you have seen here, I would put 

 it between the extremities of the branches on one side and the 

 extremities of the branches on the other side. The root sys- 

 tem becomes extended when the roots fill the soil, and they can 

 take all the plant food that is necessary. 



Ques. About how much do you put to a tree? 



Ans. A bushel of wood ashes would be the rule, or thirty 

 or forty bushels to the acre, and perhaps four to six cords of 

 fertilizer. 



