No. 4.] FRUIT GEOWING. 173 



Secretary Sessions. Give us specific questions, gentle- 

 men. I think Mr. Wood can answer tliem. 



Mr. A. Pratt (of Nortli Middleborough). I think Mr. 

 Wood has well placed the apple as the most important fruit. 

 Now, I wish he would go further and tell the best way to 

 prepare the land and the best method of cultivating and fer- 

 tilizing crops among the apple trees until they become of 

 sufficient size for bearing purposes. 



Mr. Wood. As for preparing land, any land that will 

 produce a good crop of corn will be good apple land, and in 

 setting out trees I would set them at least thirty feet apart ; 

 thirty-five feet is better, especially the Baldwin. It is a 

 spreading tree. While the trees are making their growth 

 any of the root crops and all the small fruits may be grown 

 among the trees, and any fertilizer adapted to the crops 

 grown. After the trees commence bearing and other crops 

 are discontinued an occasional dressing of fertilizer contain- 

 ing a large proportion of potash, if the ground is kept under 

 cultivation and free from weeds and grass, will be found 

 sufficient, I would get three-year-old trees, and when they 

 start to grow do not allow too many ])ranches from the main 

 trunk. That is one serious fault in starting a new orchard. 

 A man has an orchard set out and he is inclined to let them 

 throw out too many limbs and in a few years he will have to 

 remove more or less, and cutting a limb from a tree is like 

 cutting a limb from a man. It weakens the tree, makes a 

 wound and it takes a long time to get entirely over it. If 

 you will start with four branches as nearly equidistant apart 

 around the trunk as possible, you will have all the top in 

 ordinary trees that you will want. 



Secretary Sessions. You do not mean equidistant around 

 the trunk, but up and down the trunk? 



Mr. Wood. No. They will start out very near together. 

 It is desirable to get them as near together as possible. 



Mr. Pratt. I wish you would go a little further. I am 

 more particularly interested in the form of cultivation. 

 What fertilizer would you use to fertilize the orchard ? 



Mr. Wood. I would have stable manure, if I could get 

 it, until the trees commence bearing. When they come to 

 bearing fruit you want a fertilizer which makes the fruit, 



