THE GENESEE FARMER. 



es 



RENOVATING OLD APPTE ORCHARDS. 



What can I do with my Apple trees ?" asks a 

 Suffolk correspondent ; " they are old trees in an 

 Id orchard. At one time their fruit was good and 

 it for market ; but now, and for many years past, 

 hey are cankered and mossy, and weak, and their 

 ruit is for the most part unsaleable. My gardener 

 ays that this has been caused by neglect of pruning 

 eientifically. Is this so ? What is meant by prun- 

 ng scientifically ? I am rather afraid of so great a 

 .vord from the mouth of a man who, although a 

 ivorthy young felow, seems to me to have nothing 

 icientific about him. And besides I remember 

 jeing told when in Normandy that although the 

 iruit trees in that Apple country, when pruned 

 ipon scientific principles, were beautiful specimens 

 31 art, yet that they had the fault of bearing very 

 Tittle fruit." 



"We fear that our Suflfelk friend will find little 

 'avor in the eyes of those gardeners who believe 

 -hat all manner of virtue resides in a pruning knife 

 md narrow saw, and whose greatest pride is to cut 

 Lheir trees into wonderfully regular forms. And 

 yet he is justified in his apprehensions ; for there 

 aau be no doubt that more harm is done by over- 

 pruning, which is too often meant by " scientific " 

 pruning, than can arise from leaving trees to the 

 undisturbed operation of natural processes. In the 

 latter case indeed ftuit may be small and bad ; but 

 in the former at is as likely to be altogether absent, 

 while the health of trees is irretrievably ruined. 



There is no branch of gardening in which expe- 

 rienced or fanciful persons do more harm than in 

 pruning. They seem to forget that fruit trees are 

 grown for the sake of their fruit and not as objects 

 «f decoration, and that three ends, and three 

 only, are to be gained by the operation ; that is to 

 say, increase of quantity, improvement of quality, 

 and better ripening. Nothing but skilful pruning 

 will eflfect these purposes; unskilful, in which is to 

 be included unnecessary pruning, has a directly 

 opposite tendency. In short, the golden rule in 

 this case is not to prune at all if it can be 

 AVOIDED. Pruning, however, is unavoidable ; but 

 it should be had recourse to as little as possible. — 

 As to overpruning, it is we repeat far worse than 

 no pruning at all. One thing is certain, that the 

 more Apple trees are pruned the less they bear ; 

 and the same may be said of pear trees. 



The author of one of oar best practical works, 

 having described how an Apple tree should be 

 managed for the first three or four years, remarks, 

 " after this nothing more will be necessary than to 

 look them (the trees) over from time to time, cut- 

 ting out carefully any superabundant hranclies that 

 may appear, particularly those which have a ten- 

 dency to injure the proper figure of the head, or 

 are likely to become stronger than the rest : these 

 latter, if suffered to remain, will injure any descrip- 

 tion of tree, whether it be a standard, an espalier, 

 oi* whether it be trained against a wall. This is 

 the best advice that can be given to those who have 

 the management of Apple trees in an orchard. It 

 is like the worthy Mr. Glasse's instructions to " let 

 them alone." But our Suffolk correspondent's 

 trees are in a state of ruin. They seem to be like 

 the Devonshire trees, which Mr. Belfikd describes 

 " with heads tangled and matted together so as to 

 set both sun and air at defiance ; live wood strug- 



gling for existence amongst the dead, and all hoary 

 with Moss and premature old age." 



With such trees the pruning knife and saw must 

 be used unsparingly ; and if that.is what our Suf- 

 folk correspondent's gardener means by " scientifi- 

 cally" we agree with him. Not that there is much 

 science in the operation. Th.Q first thing to do is to 

 cut down to the quick every dead branch, limb or 

 spur ; they a&n do no good, and are mischievous on 

 account of the interruption they offer to sun and 

 air, which are as necessary to the tree as to the 

 gardener. Until that has been done live wood 

 should remain untouched. Secondly, as soon 

 as the dead wood is gone, and the gardener 

 can see distinctly what he has to work upon, he 

 should prune out every shoot that whips or crosses 

 or rubs against another, so as to leave plenty of 

 room between the shoots ; a foot is not too much. 

 In doing this the weakest shoots should be removed. 

 Thirdly, aU the thinning having been done, the 

 end of each branch should be stopped by removing: 

 more or less of it according to its strength. Fourth- 

 ly, after the stopping all loose bark and Moss should 

 be scraped off the branches and main stem with the 

 blade of an old hoe or some such blunt edge, and 

 the scrapings should be burnt. In this way alone 

 can insects with their eggs be destroyed with cer- 

 tainty. Such scrapings can do no harm ; and in 

 addition to the removal of insects it enables the 

 tree to breathe more freely, a very important mat- 

 ter, for the Uving bark is as much a portion of an 

 Apple tree's lungs as the leaves are. This done, 

 skill can go no further, and it is only necessary 

 afterwards to leave the tree to its vital powers ; 

 watching however how the new shoots grow, and 

 cutting out from time to time all such as in any 

 way whip, chafe, or cross^ each other. 



In these remarks the state of the soil is not 

 noticed. If however there is any doubt about its 

 being thoroughly drained, that also must be care- 

 fully looked to, for no Apple trees can retain their 

 health in waterlogged ground. Neither can they 

 prosper when soil is exhausted of all its nutritive 

 matter. When that is the case weak manure, such 

 as plenty of decayed leaf-mould, burnt weeds, or 

 any similar material should be employed. Strong 

 ammoniacal manure is to be avoided. — Gardener'' s 

 Chronicle. 



— ♦ ^ 



Eakly Ripening Geapes. — To those of our 

 readers who have Isabella or other grape vines 

 that do not ripen their fruit, we commend the ex- 

 periment of F. Abokn, Esq., o^ Augusta, Maine, as 

 given in the Maine Farmer : 



" A few years since, a neighbor of mine had & 

 vine in his garden. The ground was kept rich and 

 it had the whole garden to gather nourishment from 

 but it would not bear, and he told me that if I 

 would dig it up I might have it. I did so, and 

 pulled it apart, and made four roots of it. I then 

 dug holes snug to my cellar wall just large enough 

 to put in an old barrel without heads, one in each 

 hole, into which I put some leather scraps, a few 

 bones, and rich earth, and then set a root into each 

 barrel. The grapes on these vines have got ripe, 

 while those having the advantage of a wide, rich 

 border, are like those the fox couldn't reach." 



