1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 25 



it might very naturally be attributed directly to the wet 

 season ; but there is something back of that, I think, that we 

 do not know of. 



In regard to the apple orchard, I most heartily concur with 

 Dr. Fisher in what he said about the matter of pruning. I 

 wish every one might carry his ideas home, and ponder them 

 well. I think young trees, just as they are transplanted, 

 are hardly ever pruned enough, and old trees are almost 

 always pruned too much. 



I like a tree that is well supplied with roots, evenly 

 balanced root and head ; and when it is compacted, well set 

 out, I would like to take out three-quarters or more of the 

 top, and there will be no need of staking ; the tree is there, 

 it is o-oino; to hold there, and it will orow. And if we can 

 prune our trees so that we shall have just so many main 

 branches and so many secondary branches, and prune from 

 time to time so as to balance the tree, and cut out the super- 

 fluous branches, I think we shall then have the beau ideal of 

 a perfect tree. I have looked through Connecticut to find a 

 perfect orchard, and have not found it. I have not seen one 

 in Massachusetts, and if there is one within a long distance 

 I should be happy to go there to get a look at it. We do 

 not carry an ideal in our minds, and endeavor to bring our 

 orchards up to it. But, in order to do that, I think we 

 should start with a perfect tree ; and if we have a perfect 

 set of trees in an orchard, that orchard will be uniform, and 

 then, with proper care and culture, as has been recom- 

 mended, we shall have profitable orchards. 



About 1854 I planted an orchard, mainly of three varie- 

 ties, — the Baldwin, the Rhode Island Greening, and the 

 Roxbury Russet. I selected those trees from a model. For 

 the first ten years there was not a missing tree in that 

 orchard. About that time a man in my employ managed 

 somehow to spoil one of them by driving over it ; but with 

 that exception the orchard remained intact for several years 

 more. Since that time, from one cause and another, perhaps 

 four or five trees out of the entire number on the two acres 

 have gone. Aside from that, the orchard is very uniform 

 and has been very productive, and I think that is what we 

 should aim at. 



