346 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Where the soil is adapted to the apple, or where an annual 

 supply of nourishment is deposited under the trees by cattle, 

 or washings from the road or hillsides in the spring, or during 

 heavy showers, the apple will live and flourish, and produce 

 large crops for nearly a century. 



I have recently cut down apple-trees in such a locality, 

 from two to three and a half feet in diameter, that were old 

 trees sixty years ago, when my father first came on to the 

 place ; some of these trees have produced forty and fifty 

 bushels in a single year. The tops of several of these trees 

 were changed by grafting some thirty or forty years since. 

 They produced several large crops ; and then, limb by limb, 

 from its own weight, fell to the ground, for want of strength 

 in the old stock to support the superabundant young growth. 

 I have lono; since come to the conclusion that grafting old 

 trees does not pay, even if the grafting is successful, and 

 large crops are produced for several years. The cost of pick- 

 ing apples on a thirty or forty foot ladder will amount to more 

 than the crop is worth in market. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



Ill this latitude we prefer the early spring. Select trees of 

 thoroughly ripened wood. Prune severely, to balance the 

 loss of roots, cutting back the wood on each branch, at least 

 one-half of the last year's growth of wood. My orchards were 

 set thirty-three feet apart each way, — forty feet would be 

 better. Trees to form a perfect head, require light and air 

 from all directions, and if set too close, will grow upwards, 

 like forest trees, to get at the light and air, while the lower 

 branches die and drop off. Forest trees in the open field 

 form a perfect head as well as fruit trees, with foliage to the 

 ground ; so on the edge of the forest, we find the limbs reach- 

 ing far out horizontally to catch the breeze, wdiile in the dense 

 forest only the topmost branches grow and thrive, and are 

 ever reaching upwards to the sun and light ; it being a wise 

 provision of Providence to supply the tall timber trees for the 

 wants of man. Having set the stakes two rods each way, the 

 holes were dug from two to three feet wide and one and a half 

 feet deep. The surface-soil was saved, to be used in setting, 

 and the subsoil spread over the ground. Sufficient rich earth 



