10 DWYEE'S GUIDE. 



at all times, in the best manner. Thorough tillage of the soil is bound 

 to bring good results, and on this requisite depends tne life and welfare 

 of your trees. Clean and thorough cultivation means that you must keep 

 your ground tree ot weeds at all times. It means more than this — that 

 you must destroy the weeds before you see them. If you do this you will 

 always, durii;g the growing season, have your ground loose and in perfect 

 order for the welfare of your trees. We see no good or sufficient reason 

 to go into any lengthy detail In this matter. The plow, cultivator and 

 harrow are to be used, and v/hen to use them must be determined by 

 yourself. Keep your ground loose and free from weeds and you will be 

 sure to give the proper cultivation. The entire ground in your young 

 orchard should be kept plowed for the first five years. You can, of 

 course, crop the ground between the rows with strawberries, or with 

 low growing vegetables, such as potatoes, tomatoes, beets, carrots and 

 beans. These are most suitable crops for the situation, but if you 

 choose you can crop the ground with corn, wheat, rye and oats; but no 

 matter what your crop may be don't plant within five feet of the trees. 

 Where trees are planted in sod ground, on the lawn or in other places, 

 the soil should be kept loose about them three to four feet in diameter. 

 It is a comparatively small and inexpensive job to cultivate your fruit 

 trees, providing you do the work in a timely season. Don't let tufts o( 

 grass grow and develop around the trunk of the trees. W^e have proven 

 conclusively and to our entire satisfaction after many years of experi- 

 ments, that (excepting the peach tree) constant and persistent cultivation 

 from year to year is detrimental to the welfare of all fruit trees. With 

 this uninterrupted and continued tillage it is difficult to keep the trees 

 under proper control; we are sure to stimulate them beyond their natural 

 possibilities and as a consequence produce an excessive and inferior wood 

 grond;h. Where we have such an over-abundance of wood growth the 

 formation and development of the fruit buds is correspondingly retarded. 

 Where there is such a superfluity of wood growth it must be removed 

 each year by severe and necessarily injurious pruning, and this together 

 with the bad results of over-feeding will in a few years exhaust the 

 vitalitj' of the trees. \Ye have trees in our orchard at the present time 

 dying and beyond hope from these causes. After your orchard has been 

 tilled for five years it should be seeded down to grass for three or four 

 years, then cultivated again as in the beginning. An alternating system 

 of this kind judiciously prosecuted of cultivation and no cultivation will, 

 we believe, prolong the life of the trees and one year with another give 

 the most permanent and profitable results. 



AFTER PRUNING. 



This must be attended to annually with unfailing regularity; it is 

 absolutely indispensable to success. There is no irou-clad rule that can 

 be applied intelligently to all kinds of tree fruits, or in fact to any one 

 kind; no two trees are just alike, nor can they be made so with the best 

 and most approved scientific skill or management. As a matter of tact 

 each tree has, so to speak, an individuality and formation of its own, 

 and should be pruned accordingly. When the trees receive annual treat- 

 ment, and have been brought into the proper shape by judicious prun- 

 ing and attention, the only pruning afterwards needed is to remove any 

 branches that are crossing or interfering with each other and to keep the 

 head in symmetrical shape and well open to the sun. light and air. In 

 neglected trees where severe pruning is a necessity, the wound should be 

 made smooth and a coaMrg of paint or shellac applied to protect it from 

 the weather, and prevent decay. 



