266 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



arc so admirable. A gentleman in Ohio, on being asked for 

 a list of a hundred trees for an orchard, replied, "set out 

 ninety-nine Golden Russets, the other one you can choose 

 for yourself." 



ATTENTION TO ORCHARDS. 



CLEAN OUT your orchards. Let no branches lie scattered 

 around. If in crops, let the tillage be thorough and clean. 

 In plowing near the tree be careful not to strike (let 1 )* 

 enough to lacerate the small roots and fibres. An orchard 

 should be tended with a cultivator rather than a plow, and 

 the space immediately about the tree should be worked 

 with a hoe. Look to the fence corners, and grub out all 

 bushes, briers and weeds. A fine orchard with such a ruffle 

 around it, is like a handsome woman with dirty ears and neck. 



Pruning may still be performed. Those who are raising 

 young orchards ought not to prune at any particular time 

 between May and August, but all along the season, as the 

 tree needs it. If a bad branch is forming, take it out while 

 it is small ; if too many are starting, rub them out while so 

 tender as to be managed without a knife and by the fingers. 

 If an orchard is rightly educated from the first, there will 

 seldom be a limb to be cut off larger than a little finger, 

 and a pen-knife will be large enough for pruning. In the 

 West there is more danger of pruning too much, than too 

 little. The sun should never be allowed to strike the inside 

 branches of a fruit-tree. Many trees are thus very much 

 weakened and even killed if the sun is violently warm. 

 Over-pruning induces the growth of shoots at the root, 

 along the trunk, and all along the branches. 



Grub up suckers, and clear off from large and well 

 established trees all side-shoots. After a tree is three inches 



