284 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1910 



in The American Cultivator over sixty years ago. 

 But I then could not sell the young trees because 

 planters said they could not drive their teams 

 under the branches. The advantages of the low 

 head are now so well known that it will hardly be 

 necessary for me to mention them, except for the 

 benefit of the amateur who is contemplating planting 

 such trees. The wind does not so much affect the 

 tree, many apples can be gathered without a ladder, 

 and with a step-ladder more than one-half the crop 

 can be easily handled. If an apple falls to the 

 ground it is not so liable to get bruised. The low 

 branches shade and protect the roots during the 

 hot weather, causing less evaporation from the soil, 

 and being so near the ground and shielded from the 

 sun, cause the under side to grow the fastest and 

 to make its growth more upright; whereas the 

 branches of a tree that has a long trunk will grow 

 out horizontally, and, when loaded with fruit, 

 are more likely to bend to the ground than the 

 branches of a low head. 



To produce a low head it is necessary to cut 

 back the first year's growth of the bud or scion to 

 about six buds, which will make the lower branches 

 of the low head. When the tree gets so large that 

 it needs thinning take out three of the lower branches 

 instead of trimming them up to make more room, 

 a mistake which many make. The accompanying 

 photograph shows a tree the second year from the 

 bud, and the line across shows to where it should 

 be cut back. The cutting should be just above 

 a bud that is on the outside, so that the branch 

 from it will grow outward and make a better head. 

 In buying young stock from nurseries, trees one 

 year from the bud should be ordered. Cut back as 

 directed above, leaving six buds to form the future 

 head. 



RENEWING AN ORCHARD 



The question how to renew an old orchard is 

 often asked. I have had considerable experience 

 in this line of work. To take a ladder, a basket 

 of tools, wax or clay, and start in to top-graft an 

 old orchard is anything but a pleasant job. To 

 stand on a ladder or some of the branches, to saw 

 off and clear out the branches that are to be grafted, 

 and attempt to split the winding and cross-grained 

 stock and to fit the scion where the wood has split 

 in one place and the bark in another, requires more 

 patience than I ever possessed. That method is 

 not only disagreeable, but uncertain and expensive, 

 and never results in a good permanent head. 

 A better method is to cut the trees down level 



The wrong way. This tree was allowed to run out 

 of control and cannot give fancy fruit 



Starting the low head. The first year's growth 

 was cut back to a few buds 



with the ground in the winter, for the stump will 

 then sprout better than if it is cut in summer. The 

 next spring the stump will throw up many sprouts, 

 all of which should be allowed to grow for a while 

 to relieve the roots of the shock caused by removing 

 the top. 



Thin out as the growth increases, and finally 

 remove all but three or four of the strongest. The 

 following spring the remaining sprouts should be 

 grafted low down near the stump. The scions, 

 having the full force of the roots, will make a strong 

 growth and should be cut back the same as young 

 trees. This method will give a new orchard in 

 place of the old one at small expense, and results 

 will be obtained much more quickly than by set- 

 ting out young trees. 



MAKING NEW VARIETIES 



Many are taking up the hybridizing of the apple. 

 The effects of this will be to weaken the productive 

 quality of the hybrid, though it may, and in many 

 cases should, improve the quality of the fruit and 

 give vigor to the hybrid. It will tend to impair 

 the vitality of the seeds and induce sterility, but 

 from that source we will obtain many real and valu- 

 able seedless apples — a result worthy of the effort. 



Imagine the condition of things when a boy will 

 not ask for the core, simply because there is none! 

 All new seedling apples should first of all be grafted 

 on their own roots. Every nurseryman handling 

 such apples should have one or more trees upon 

 its own roots to cut scions from. It should be kept 

 on its own roots until it is found that it will do better 

 on some other. I am doing that with my new ones. 



Hybridizing the apple will probably produce a 

 medley like Bailey's pumpkin — there will be such 



a multitude of characters to deal with. But as the 

 object is not to determine the laws of heredity 

 governing the apple, but to produce new varieties, 

 hoping for an improvement, a result can probably 

 be obtained in about five years by grafting the 

 hybrid on the top of a fruiting tree. A large 

 majority of the fruit of the above mentioned i,ooo 

 trees were fall apples striped with red on a yellow 

 ground, showing a common origin, but the four 

 considered worthy of propagation were distinct 

 from all others. The dark red winter sweet and 

 the winter Gravenstein seemed like sports or 

 mutants. 



I am inclined to believe that the best way to cir- 

 cumvent the scales may be to grow the trees as 

 shrubs, say from five to six feet high, cutting them 

 back every year as we do grape vines. It would 

 have many other advantages besides, permitting the 

 planting of more trees to the acre. 



VALUE OF A MULCH 



Judging from my own experience, I am thor- 

 oughly in favor of the mulch, but there are some 

 cases where the orchardist has no choice, or, per- 

 haps, only a choice between mulch and grass. 

 Grass in itself is not a sufficient mulch. There are 

 many tracts, well adapted to the apple, that are 

 so rocky that they cannot be cultivated — tracts 

 that were never ploughed and never will be. The 

 experiment at the Geneva Experiment Station to 

 test the comparative value of mulch and culti- 

 vation was incomplete, inasmuch as the mulch 

 (simply the grass that was grown on the ground) 

 was insufficient. A mulch should be heavy enough 

 to prevent all grass and weeds from growing. 

 Such a one would be of great advantage to both 

 young and old trees. After a mulch of this kind 

 has been once applied the subsequent annual 

 mulching will require much less material. It 

 prevents evaporation and induces small roots to 

 grow nearer the surface of the ground, where they 

 will be able to get the benefit of showers during 

 the hot and dry period. Cultivation and the 

 heat drive them down and they get no benefit 

 from a shower, as the water quickly evaporates. 

 When low-headed trees get large, much less mulch 

 will be required, as the shade of the trees will pre- 

 vent grass and weeds from growing under them, 

 and therefore the orchard requires much less 

 labor than a cultivated one. The mulch, as it 

 decays, furnishes vegetable matter to the trees. 

 Apples that drop do not get bruised, muddy and 

 dirty as in a cultivated orchard. An orchard well 

 carpeted is a thing of beauty. 



The Gumming of Fruit Trees 



THE excessive gumming of peach and plum trees 

 is often caused by the bark becoming so tight 

 and resistant that the sap cannot properly flow and 

 consequently bursts through the bark. This con- 

 dition may be relieved by slitting the bark and the 

 first layer of wood from the ground to the lowest 

 branches, making the cuts about three inches apart. 





The .right way. The low head standard is easily 

 cared for and the fruit gathered without injury 



