FRUIT CULTURE 145 



Question. ^Yould the Mcintosh do well on this same soil? 



Prof. Sears. I think it would, Mr. Chairman, yes, fairly well, 

 but I should not think that it was ideal Mcintosh soil. I think 

 the Mcintosh ordinarily demands a little of the Baldwin soil. 



Mr. Wheeler. I might ^ay, in that connection, that on the end 

 of Cape Cod Mr. Corey has an orchard growing in practically 

 Cape Cod sand, and so far as I have seen his fruit I think he has 

 got all the varieties that Prof. Sears has mentioned, and several 

 others. Mr. Smith, of Ipswich, who will speak next Saturday, has 

 such soil, and he is growing the Wealthy, Mcintosh, and Rhode 

 Island Greening on that kind of a soil, a very sandy soil, with a 

 gravel sub-soil. 



Question. Will a two or three-year-old apple tree from a nursery 

 stand as severe cutting back as one a year old? 



Prof. Pickett. You cannot head it back in the same way. 



Question. I mean to get the low head. 



Prof. Pickett. You cannot do that, because you won't have buds 

 on the stem of the two or three-year-old tree as you have in the 

 one-year-old tree. A few latent buds, or some of the largest buds 

 that may arise, might perhaps throw up some stems, if the top were 

 cut off, but you could not depend on where they would arise, or 

 getting an even head from them. It can be done by cutting the 

 whole top off before the buds start out and simply waiting until 

 some sprouts appear near the base of the tree, and in that way you 

 make a new tree from them. 



Question. I want to know in order to get a well-headed orchard. 



Prof. Pickett. You must start them with new trees, or, if not, 

 a nursery that heads its trees low. 



Question. That would be true of the pear? 



Prof. Pickett. Yes. They do not make so much growth for 

 the first year, but they are approximately the same. 



The Secretary. One of the questions asked me perhaps more 

 freciuently than any other in the line of fruit growing is as to the 

 age and size of trees suitable for planting in new orchards, whether 

 they should be one, two, or three years old. 



Mr. Wheeler. I think Prof. Sears can answer that readily, 

 whether the trees shall be one, two, or three years old for new 

 planting. 



