138 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



of the two-yearold, but on the whole 

 the two-year-old is better for this cli- 

 mate." 



It will be seen from these recommen- 

 dations that there is considerable differ- 

 ences of opinion as to the age at which 

 trees should be planted. This difference 

 doubtless grows out of the experiences 

 or orchardists and nurserymen in the dif- 

 ferent sections. It would seem that in 

 the South, or in sections where the trees 

 make rapid growth, that one-year-old 

 stock is preferable; while in the northern 

 sections, two-year-old stock is mostly 

 used. The Pacific Northwest being an 

 irrigated section, and the climate more 

 or less modified by the coast winds, en- 

 ables the stock to make rapid growth, and 

 one-year-old stock is almost universally 

 used. 



GR.\NVrLLE LOWTHER 



How to Determine Age of Trees 



It is very easy to determine the age 

 of a nursery tree. The age is counted 

 from the budding or grafting. The end 

 of each year's growth is marked by a 

 row of rings or scars around the trunk 

 and branches. To tell the age of a tree, 

 begin at the tip of a branch and follow 

 back to the base of the tree counting the 

 scale rings. The tree will be one year 

 older than the number of rings. It is 

 best to use the branches at the top. In 

 trees on which tjie tips of the branches 

 have been injured or removed, during the 

 summer, some difficulty may be experi- 

 enced in determining definitely, but this 

 method will serve in most cases with- 

 out difficulty. 



The best age at which to plant trees is 

 a much mooted question. The present 

 tendency is to plant trees which are too 

 old. The upper limit of age for an apple 

 tree is three years. Two-year-old trees 

 will be found better than older ones in 

 most cases. The present demand for 

 large trees causes the nurseryman to 

 prune off the side branches along the 

 first and second year's growth, thus in 

 a great many instances spoiling the 

 shape of the tree or at least making it 

 necessary to form the head too high. 



Another factor which tends to give in- 



ferior trees where they remain long in 

 the nursery is the fact that they are 

 grown very close together, and this forces 

 the branches to grow more in one plane 

 which results in lop-sided trees. The 

 shorter the period the tree passes in the 

 nursery, the more likely it is to be a good 

 tree when the grower receives it. 



It is true the younger trees require 

 longer to come into bearing after being 

 planted, but the orchardist can better 

 afford to give them one or two addi- 

 tional years' attention and have the op- 

 portunity to prune and care for them so 

 they will make first-class trees, than to 

 let the nurseryman grow them for the 

 additional length of time, and have to 

 give the same amount of care later on in 

 trying to change a spoiled tree into a 

 passably good one. It is not the inten- 

 tion to convey the idea that no good three- 

 year-old trees are produced in the nur- 

 sery, but with the present systems and 

 practices the chances are very much 

 against it. 



Two years is a compromise age, as the 

 two-year-old is less likely to have been 

 spoiled in the nursery than an older tree, 

 and it saves one year in the orchard 

 before bearing. If, however, suitable 

 two-year-old trees cannot be secured, by 

 all means use the younger trees. 



Best Height of Head — By "height 

 of head" is meant the distance be- 

 tween the base of the tree, after 

 planting, and the height at which the 

 main branches grow out. Formerly trees 

 with branches lower than five or six feet 

 were not desired because when lower they 

 were supposed to be very difficult to work 

 under. Today no good commercial or- 

 chardist would think of planting trees 

 with such high heads. 



Economics in Low Heading — There 

 are numerous reasons why a low- 

 headed is preferable to a high-headed 

 tree, but the chief one is because it facil- 

 itates orchard operations. In this day 

 of pruning and spraying and high prices 

 for labor in picking the orchardist does 

 not want a tree so headed that it will 

 require a ladder to reach the lowest 

 branches producing fruit The old objec- 

 tion that the lower branches of low- 



