STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 59 



soil thoroughly pulverized, in fact everything had been done to make 

 it a model orchard. It was just getting well into bearing, and soon 

 would have been a source of profit as well as pleasure to the owner, 

 when lo ! and behold, he awoke one fine spring morning to find that 

 his trees were nearly all winter killed. A sudden cold wave had come 

 down on them in March, after a long spell of verj' warm weather, 

 and in one short night that beautiful orchard was ruined. Brother 

 orchardists, let us take a lesson from this, not to plant on a south 

 cant, no matter what the inducements ma}- be. 



Again, what shall be the height of our trees, from the ground to 

 the limbs ; or in other words, shall we have a high-headed, or a 

 low-headed tree? Botli have their advantages and disadvantages. 

 Long-bodied trees will admit of working around them with a team 

 better than low ones, but they are more exposed to the winds than the 

 low trees, the trunks are more exposed to the burning suns of 

 summer, thus causing sun-scald, than low ones. I think the tendency 

 with too many of our farmers is for the high-headed tree. I think 

 many times they come from the nursery trimmed too high. 



DRAINAGE. 



Another mistake is in the proper drainage of orchards. Let us 

 remember the old saying that "what is worth doing at all is worth 

 doing well." This applies more especially to the orchard not only 

 in the preparation of the soil but in the drainage. I believe we 

 should drain deeper for an orchard than for any other crop. I recol- 

 lect draining a part of one of my orchards one fall. The trees in 

 that pari of the orchard had never seemed to thrive and grow as well 

 as I wanted them to, so I put an underdrain between every row of trees, 

 digging the drain three feet deep ; and the next summer it was sur- 

 prising to see the change in the trees on the drained land, over those 

 on the undrained land. The foliage was of a darker hue, the 

 trees made a better growth, looked healthier, came into bearing 

 younger and bore better, in fact, were better in every respect and 

 have already'' paid the cost of drainage. 



I believe almost an}- soil is better for being drained, especially if 

 we intend to plant an orchard upon it. 



PRUNING. 



Perhaps a few words in regard to pruning at time of transplant- 

 ing may not be out of place just here. 



