26 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



for this purpose during the summer. I have seen no instance 

 of bleeding, or a l^lackened surface. Even old wounds from 

 previous trimming were kindly remembered. I planted the 

 ground again with corn and potatoes, and kept them under 

 as clean cultivation as possible. During the last of June I 

 mulched the trees, which were set on the driest part of the 

 orchard. For this purpose I used green brakes gathered 

 from the pastures. 



The Results. 



The trees put out vigorously, much as if they had never 

 been transplanted, and shoots from four to twelve inches in 

 length were not uncommon l)y the middle of July. The 

 plant lice attacked them at this time to such a degree as 

 utterh' to stop their growth. I tried the experiment of 

 affectionately pressing the twigs covered with the lice 

 between my thumb and forefinger, but Avith no manifest 

 advantage. By the last of July, they all disappeared, and 

 the unusually wet weather of August caused the shoots to 

 start again, so that now, a stranger would declare that there 

 are two 3^ears of growth where really there is but one. A 

 perfect joint is formed between the growth of the early and 

 latter part of the season. In one instance I measured a 

 growth of thirty-two inches during the season, while a 

 changed aspect was manifest in the tops of a large majority 

 of the trees. Every week, or oftener, with knife and graft- 

 ing wax, I pruned every dead or useless twig, and covered 

 every wound with wax, and pressed the wax previously put 

 on closer to the wound, and watched the hatching out of 

 caterpillars, and killed them. 



The next step was to guard against the mice and borers. 

 For this purpose I found a pile of empty tomato cans, which 

 I threw into a fire to unsolder them. Taking the body of 

 one of these cans, I rolled it somewhat spirally around the 

 trunk of the tree and then slipped it to the ground, and next 

 to the fence, Avhere the trees are more exposed to the mice, 

 I wound another still more spirally above the first coil. A 



