52 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



from the ravages of storms and relic hunters, was a work of 

 love and duty, and no one begrudged the time and money re- 

 quired. But to try to renovate these old, broken down and 

 worthless orchards of ours, that are on their last legs, to 

 preserve these old stubs or scrubs of trees, because they 

 were once fruitful, and because they are dear to us from past 

 associations, is quite another thing. It cannot be the part of 

 wisdom to spend time and money upon them. They had bet- 

 ter be exterminated at once, root and branch, and new trees 

 set in their places. Any orchard that is past 75 or 80 years of 

 age, is beyond permanent renovation ; it can only be nursed 

 and bolstered up, and at best is a doubtful experiment ; of 

 course there may be exceptional cases. Any orchard between 

 40 and 50 years of age, will need and ought to have all the care 

 we can possibly bestow upon it, and all the food material its 

 condition requires. Any orchard past fifty years of age has 

 begun to decline, and the rapidity of this decline may be 

 lessened by constant replenishing ; moreover, it will tend to 

 keep the trees fruitful and from dying prematurely. 



Having, then, settled the question of age and condition of 

 the orchard, and determined the fact that something must be 

 done to improve and replenish, we come to the question What 

 must be done, and what is the best method to be pursued? 

 There are a good many ways, but so much depends upon 

 location, age and condition, character of the soil, means of 

 obtaining fertilizers, and many other things, that it is almost 

 impossible to lay down rules that shall be a criterion for all 

 to follow. No cut-and-dried process will answer here. But, 

 a few general principles may be laid down which will be safe 

 to follow. First, we must prune our old orchards more fre- 

 quently, and judiciously ; and by this I mean, we must make 

 it an inflexible rule never to allow any suckers or shoots to 

 grow up about the trunks of the trees, and which disfigure so 

 many orchards, and to remove all suckers and dead limbs as 

 soon as they appear. Secondly, we must apply barn-yard 

 manure or some other fertilizing matter to the soil more fre- 

 quently, either as a top-dressing or plowed under. 



