12 FRUIT-GROWING 



his consciousness for all eternity. It goes hand 

 in hand with success in fruit-growing and is as 

 absolute in its sway as the sun in the heavens. 



A fruit tree planted in rich soil is not 

 " threatened with destruction" — not by a long 

 shot. It is a pampered darling and just goes 

 on growing indefinitely. Maybe some wise guy 

 will come along claiming to be a "tree man" 

 and tell the owner that the tree needs iron and 

 he should drive nails into the trunk to make it 

 bear. The nails are driven — and if there are 

 enough of them the tree does bear — it has been 

 "threatened with destruction." Any similar 

 injury will do the same thing — such as taking 

 out strips of bark, slight girding, etc. There- 

 fore we want to plant our apple trees on soil 

 that is not too rich. We don't want the trees 

 to get the idea that they are going to have 

 things easy all their lives. A moderately poor 

 soil will enable the tree to make a good enough 

 growth, but at the same time it will encourage 

 the habit of producing fruit. 



On the other hand, we must not make the mis- 

 take of planting trees on land that is too poor 

 to produce fruit. Old fields that have been 

 cropped until they will no longer produce grain 

 are not satisfactory locations for orchards, al- 

 though land that has been farmed carefully 

 for a number of years often makes a better or- 

 chard site than does a newly cleared tract which 



