Two- Year or One- Year Apple Trees?— J. r. Mattem, f 



THE CASE IS PRESENTED FOR THE YOUNGER TREE — HAS THE OTHER SIDE ANYTHING TO SAY? 



IN THE spring of 19 13 a man who has 

 two hundred acres of orchard now 

 and who is planting a hundred acres 

 more told me that he was using only 

 one-year trees. He said that it made a 

 difference of from ten to thirty per cent, 

 in the net earning capacity of your orchard 

 whether you started it with one-year or 

 two-year trees. If this man is correct in 

 his position there are a great many planters 

 who are badly wrong in their present 

 methods. 



It must be understood exactly what are 

 one-year and two-year trees. Most nur- 

 serymen who do their own propagating 

 bud or graft little trees of two years' growth 

 from the seed. One-year apple trees, then, 

 are trees whose roots are three years old 

 and whose tops are the growth from a bud 

 during one season. And two-year trees 

 are these same one-year trees kept in the 

 nursery for an additional twelve months. 



Commercial orchard and home planting 

 requirements are not much different. For 

 either purpose trees should (1) cost as 

 little as possible; (2) cost the least to plant; 

 (3) grow fast and get big quick; (4) begin 

 to bear soon; (5) bear as much fruit as 

 possible right along; (6) produce the best 

 possible quality of fruit; (7) be properly 

 shaped, which means that the heads will 

 not split under their loads of fruit. 



The trouble with two-year trees begins 

 in the nursery. In the latter part of the 

 summer, if one-year trees are not to be sold 

 as such, the nurseryman cuts off the whips 

 about four feet from the ground. The 

 next summer he keeps pruning away at 

 the growing trees, cutting off all the side 



At left a 1-year peach, tree; in middle, 2-year 

 apple tree: right. 1-year apple tree. Notice that 

 the head of the 2-year apple tree is formed already 

 and is entirely too high, also that the branches 

 that must form the frame of the future orchard 

 tree all come out in a group 



shoots, and forcing the growth up and up 

 — to make them "big two-year trees." 

 When these trees finally reach planters all 

 the lower limbs have been removed, and 

 the trees have been given a tendency to 

 grow high all their lives. In the orchard 

 these trees will send out frame limbs four, 

 six, even ten feet from the ground, depend- 

 ing on the habits of growth of the varieties. 

 A Spy or a Stark tree will start very high 

 and keep going higher, while a Yellow 

 Transparent or M. B. Twig will start lower, 

 and grow more spreading. Even the lowest 

 of such trees, however, will be difficult to 

 climb without a ladder when they are 

 fifteen years old. 



If these same trees had been planted in 

 the orchard w r hen they were only one year 

 old, and at that time cut off about twelve 



or eighteen inches high, their heads would 

 have been started from one to two feet 

 from the ground. Even more important, 

 the side limbs which later form their 

 frames could have been selected intelli- 

 gently and made to shape the heads 

 properly. The trunks of two-year trees 

 cannot be cut off as the trunks of one- 

 year trees can nor can the heads of two- 

 year trees be shaped with anything like 

 the advantage of the heads of one-year 

 trees. It may be urged that not every 

 orchardist will prune his one-year trees 

 carefully so as to properly locate their head 

 limbs. But that is his lookout. He has 

 the opportunity with one-year trees; he 

 does not have it with two-year trees. 



To determine how sure a tree is to grow 

 look at the roots. The roots of one- 

 year trees are smaller, shorter, finer and 

 more fibrous than those of two-year trees. 

 When the trees are dug, fewer of these 

 short, fine roots are broken than of the 

 long, ropy ones, and a less proportion of 

 the tops of one-year trees have to be pruned 

 off than of two-year trees, to balance the 

 amount of roots destroyed in digging. For 

 planting anywhere north of the cotton 

 belt, roots are what count in making a 

 tree take hold and thrive. For planting 

 south of that latitude, roots may be pruned 

 severely, but in the north the trees need 

 every root and rootlet that they ever grew. 

 With all the roots, there is far less shock 

 to the trees. And it is because of this and 

 because it is far easier to get the dirt 

 packed tightly around the roots of one- 



A 1-year which has had two and a half season's Trees shown above as they should be planted. 

 growth. It is properly headed. In the summer of The long whip top leaning on one stub is what 

 1911 when three years old it set nine apples was cut off the 1-year apple 



91 



The result of the crotches which it is almost 

 impossible to avoid having when 2-year trees are 

 planted 



