244 PRACTICAL TREE REPAIR 



and after many interviews with men who have 

 studied the matter carefully, the writer has be- 

 come strongly of the opinion that fillings of even 

 moderate size cannot be put into old apple trees at 

 an economic profit. This conclusion is based on 

 the following reasons. 



1. Filling has no effect on fruit bearing. 

 Those measures which do affect bearing should be 

 tried, and their success should be assured before 

 the trees are filled. 



2. The value of old apple trees is at best very 

 slight. They have often exhausted their soil, 

 which can with difficulty be restored to good heart. 

 Their tops contain but little healthy bearing wood. 

 They are often infested with scale and fungous 

 diseases. 



3. The fillings are by no means certain to ac- 

 complish their purpose of stopping the course of 

 decay. The reason for this lies in the ease with 

 which insects and decays attack the apple tree, 

 and especially the susceptibility of apple bark to 

 decay. There is also the difficulty of completely 

 eradicating the decay, if it has worked up into the 

 limbs. The heavy strain put upon the filling by 

 the leverage and swaying of the limbs, and the 

 slowness with which old trees build calluses, also 

 conspire to make peculiarly difficult the filling of 

 old apple trees. 



This matter of the restoration of old orchards 



