38 W. VA. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION [Bulletin 141 



Failure to properly form the head of the young tree has caused 

 bearing trees to split assunder under stress of storm or load of 

 fruit. Failure to observe the first principles of proper pruning 

 (to cut the limb close up to the main stock and leave no stubs) has 

 admitted the germs of decay to the heart wood of the tree and 

 hastened a decrepit old age. Pruning enough in one season to 

 last for the next five years has thrown the tree off its balance and 

 set it to producing water sprouts and brush instead of fruit. Fail- 

 ure to prune at all has produced a "back to nature" condition in 

 some orchards that can be compared only to a hawthorn thicket or a 

 brushy hedge. 



STARVATION. The ambition to make two blades of grass grow 

 where only one grew before is laudable, but to expect apples to 

 grow in neglected thickets of Spanish needles, Beggars' Lice, Yel- 

 low Locust and Sassafras is the height of folly. A thrifty growing 

 orchard must be given unrestricted use of all the land upon which 

 it stands if profitable crops are to be expected. Whenever we see 

 a tree making an inch or two of growth per year, the foliage yellow 

 and dropping early in the fall the conclusion is at once reached 

 that the orchard is being robbed of its proper nourishment. Even 

 a sod of blue grass will rob the tree of its rightful amount of water 

 and food. 



POOR LOCATION. Improper location on low grounds, in frost 

 pockets, in shut-in coves where the air drainage and circulation are 

 poor and the fogs hang until late in the day, are serious drawbacks 

 to any orchard. 



LACK OF DRAINAGE. Poorly drained soils will not produce profit- 

 able orchards. "Wet feet" are the forerunners of sickness, dis- 

 ease and death, whether the subject be orchards or mankind. Mere- 

 ly because the location is upon a slope is not necessarily proof that 

 the soil is well drained. Hard impervious ridges or out crops of 

 rock may dam up the flow of the ground water and produce a 

 greater or lesser area of cold, sour, poorly aerated soil in which no 

 fruit tree will thrive. 



OLD AGE. The age limits of an orchard are indefinite and with 

 the apple, vary in different parts of the country and under different 

 treatment from 30 to 100 years. Old age is purely a relative term 

 in any case. Mr. Brown's orchard may be old at twenty-five while 

 liis neighbor's is young at forty. 



Any one, or as is more generally the case, all the above mentioned 



