STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 55 



apples. This tree was 16 years old. It is true, as has been said, 

 that the tree grows slowly. They were prime apples ; some of 

 them are here on the table. Of that 16 bushels I don't think there 

 is a peck at this time that have begun to decay. They bear every 

 year. The year before, I took 15 bushels from the same tree, and 

 though apples were very plenty, I sold them higher than any other 

 variety I raised. The other varieties I raise are so numerous that 

 it would be idle for me to attempt to speak of them. 



I think I have too many varieties. When I have seen a good 

 variety I have had the curiosity to try it, and hence I have got a 

 large variety of apples in my orchard — some sixty different kinds. 

 Many of them I would not dispense with, notwithstanding that it 

 makes it rather troublesome to have so many sorts when you want 

 to sell them ; but they will sell as well as the standard and more 

 prominent varieties, such as the Northern Spy and the Greening. 

 I raise the Greening. I cultivate it a little more extensively than 

 any other variety I have. They produce well almost every year. 



In regard to pruning, I think friend Smith has hit the point 

 pretty well. I have been almost ready to conclude that early 

 winter pruning is full as good, if not better, thau any other sea- 

 son, for the sap has no tendency to move when the ground is fro- 

 zen, and the wound has all the winter season to dry up and close 

 the pores in the wood and bark. I have also had very good suc- 

 cess in pruning in the early summer, because the sap is not then 

 in active circulation. I think it is highlj' important not to prune 

 when the sap is in active circulation, for then it will leak out and 

 form a slimy coating, and you can hardly heal the wound made by 

 pruning in March. I once knew a tree that was pruned at that 

 season. It was a large tree — more than a foot in diameter — and 

 every spring after that there would invariilbly be a black substance 

 running down from the wound that was made; it never healed. 

 Reasoning from that I never would cut off a limb from an apple 

 tree in March. 



I think we can train our trees to suit our own tastes. My friend 

 Smith says a low tree is better for him. In going through my or- 

 chard I hate to crouch ; I want free access about my trees. I 

 know a low tree is convenient to pick fruit from, and I suppose 

 the wind don't have so much effect ; but you may have a broad top, 

 and have it so you can walk along and not have to pick up your 

 hat every time you go under the limbs. If you are to plow the 

 orchard, of course you want a chance to get round under the trees. 



