92 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1913 



To remedy the moon-climbing habits of old "two-year" trees. All the up- 

 ward growing limbs are cut of! every year till the new growth is forced to droop. 



How a 2-year tree heads about six feet from the ground. The frame limbs 

 all coming from one height on the trunk. This tree is a low growing variety. 



year trees, that they take hold in their 

 new homes quicker than two-year trees, are 

 better nourished and grow faster from the 

 start. Of course there are differences, but 

 the general statement is true proportion- 

 ately, not only of apples, but of other 

 fruits. In the matter of certainty of 

 growth, the best I ever saw done with 

 two-year trees was to get 815 to grow out 

 of 900 planted. With one-year trees last 

 year in one orchard 1,100 one-year trees 

 were planted, and 1,097 0I them are alive 

 and thriving now. Soils and varieties had 

 nothing to do with the comparative results. 



As to price, one-year trees, four to 

 five foot size, which is the best grade, are- 

 quoted at 40 cents each -or $32 a hundred, 

 and two-year trees of equal grade at 50 

 cents each or $40 a hundred. In many 

 catalogues, quotations on two-year trees 

 are omitted on two thirds of the varieties. 

 Freight charges and cost of handling one- 

 year trees are lighter than with two-year 

 trees by at least 20 per cent. They always 

 cost about one fourth less than two-year 

 trees to plant and prune during the first 

 season, after which the cost of care is about 

 equal for the two classes. 



Early bearing probably is the most vital 

 requirement of all. On account of their 

 taking hold in earnest more quickly, one- 

 year trees do much more growing than 

 two-year trees during the first few seasons. 

 Here again varieties differ, and it would 

 not do to compare a slow-growing sort with 

 a fast growing one. A two-year Delicious 

 tree will outgrow a one-year Grimes — 

 but a one-year Delicious planted at the 

 same time will be ahead of the two-year 

 Delicious. At four or five years one-year 

 trees can be made a third bigger than two- 

 year trees planted at the same time. 



Which class will bear the sooner? In 

 this matter experience seems conclusive. 

 The great fruit-growing section of New 

 York is noted for its advocacy of older 

 trees for planting — trees two years old 

 and even three years old. C. A. Green, 

 of Rochester, has put himself on record 



many times saying that apple trees never 

 are expected to begin bearing before they 

 are eight or nine years old, nor to produce 

 fruit to any commercial extent till they are 

 ten or twelve years old. This is the gist 

 of the opinions of those who plant two- 

 year trees. Part of this excessively long 

 wait for fruit is due to the nature of the 

 varieties usually planted in New York — 

 Baldwin, Spy, Greening, Hubbardston, and 

 other old standard sorts noted for tardy 

 bearing. In the West, in Pennsylvania, 

 New Jersey, Maryland and other states 

 where one-year trees are the rule, the chief 

 varieties — Stayman Winesap, Winesap, 

 York Imperial, Yellow Transparent — are 

 by nature earlier bearers. But in New 

 York, with two-year trees, the waiting 

 period is shortened only a year or two even 

 when early bearing sorts, such as Mcintosh 

 Red, Stayman, and Delicious, are planted. 

 But it is different with one-year trees, in 

 New York or Pennsylvania or Maryland 

 or any other section. The orchardists of 

 the West make Yellow Newtown and 

 Spitzenburg, among the tardiest bearers of 

 all, begin to produce fruit when the trees 

 are four years old. At seven and eight 

 years these orchards are producing big 

 commercial crops. None but one-year 

 trees are planted in the West. It is the 

 same in the East with other varieties. 

 W. J. Lewis & Brother, of Pittston, Pa., 

 have twenty acres of Stayman planted 

 on the hills of Luzerne County. These 

 trees were five years old in the spring of 1913. 

 In 1 9 10 Mr. Lewis showed me these 

 trees, and that year they had set as 

 high as sixty apples each. They had on 

 an average of thirty or forty apples 

 that year. Most of this crop was removed 

 on account of the tender age of the trees. 

 Last year these little trees set three times 

 as many apples as they did the year before 

 — that is, every four-year old tree was 

 bearing upward of a hundred apples. 

 Alongside these one-year trees Mr. Lewis 

 planted sixty two-year trees at the same 

 time, and last year the whole sixty of 



these trees did not produce a hundred 

 apples ! Another example of how one-year 

 trees bear very early is the orchard of W. 

 Scot Whiteford & Sons, Whiteford, Md. 

 In 191 1 they had about a thousand 

 one-year trees which then had been planted 

 five and six years. That year the five- 

 year old trees averaged two bushels each, 

 and the six-year old trees averaged five 

 bushels each. Nearly all are Stayman. 



Aside from the advantage of low heads, 

 which one-year trees have and two-year 

 trees such as you buy on the market to-day 

 can not have, the former has other im- 

 portant points of superiority. The devel- 

 opment of fruit buds can be forced by the 

 same treatment that shapes the heads 

 properly, and bearing wood can be dis- 

 tributed throughout the head. On two- 

 year trees the fruit is borne mostly on the 

 "surface" of the trees. Varieties differ 

 in this respect, as, for instance, Stayman 

 has a habit of setting fruit all along the 

 limbs, and Rambo sets nearly all its fruit 

 out toward the ends of the limbs, nearly 

 like a peach tree. The formation of fruit 

 buds can be forced or trained and directed 

 to a marked extent, however, and the more 

 even distribution of fruit which it is possi- 

 ble to get on one-year trees enables them to 

 carry bigger crops of fruit without breaking. 



Even distribution of fruit throughout 

 the heads of the trees effects its quality 

 considerably because it occurs only in con- 

 nection with a large amount of bearing 

 wood well scattered through the trees, 

 and round, low, open heads. To say this is 

 to describe one year trees. Under such con- 

 ditions the apples can be thinned so that 

 none rob others near them, and so that the 

 sun comes in the top to every leaf and twig 

 and apple. The two-year trees, with their 

 canopy of leaves, have long stretches of 

 bare limbs which are pretty completely 

 shaded. The low, open, gradually grown 

 heads of one-year trees require a half less 

 work to prune them each year, can be 

 sprayed much more thoroughly, and from 

 them the fruit can be picked in less time. 



