No. 4.] SOIL IN FKUIT CULTURE. 81 



people who are purchasers, and I find this very question 

 coming to me so often. My advice to all the buyers of 

 these farms is tliis : To at once appropriate 10 or 20 or 

 30 acres of the best land, and set out a new orchard. 

 They are all more or less interested in growing trees. 

 While this is being done and good care is being taken of 

 the young trees, they can work on the old trees. Trim up 

 the old trees, if they are not too old and too high, give 

 them a good pruning, clover the land, spray them thor- 

 oughly, and they will still continue to yield good fruit for 

 the years while the young orchards are developing. In the 

 mean time, the San Jose scale is going to clean them out, 

 because it is spreading everywhere. It is surprising how 

 that scale is getting over all the trees in Noav York State, 

 particularly the southern portion, Connecticut, New Jersey 

 and all southern States. The scale is just sweeping through 

 the country, and that is why I advocate these low-headed 

 trees, where the spraying may be done effectively, where 

 we may grow, as dwarf tree's, trees such as this very excel- 

 lent Sutton Beauty. I consider that the very great bearing 

 quality of the Sutton may make it an exceedingly valuable 

 tree to be grown as a dwarf tree, because on a low tree the 

 thinning is a practical thing to be done. So I would say to 

 you agriculturists here, experiment. I don't know about 

 dwarf trees, — it is a new culture ; I am testing it, and am 

 growing on a commercial scale, but I can't give any advice 

 as to the results, or the probable results, as yet. So I 

 would say, appropriate a good piece of ground for young- 

 trees, then take as good care as you can of the old trees for 

 a few years, get all the fruit you can from them, and then 

 clean them oft" right to the ground. 



Mr. Elmer D. Hoave (of Marlborough). The speaker 

 advocates startino- trees at a distance of about 20 inches from 

 the ground, and also advocates interplanting an orchard. I 

 was wondering what kind of a tree you could get under a 

 20-inch tree. 



Mr. Powell. That is a very practical question indeed, 

 but this system of close planting, of course, necessarily 

 carries with it a very thorough system of pruning. You 



