150 Practical Orcharding On Rough Lands. 



How loose and moist the soil, the leaves of the 

 apple trees are large and thick, and are still a 

 very rich, dark green; although the maple and 

 elm have put on their coats of many colors. 

 The apple twigs are slender and each soft, 

 tender end carries young, ipimature leaves, 

 while those of the elm and maple if examined 

 would be found to be thick and woody, each 

 terminating with a well-matured terminal bud. 

 The difference in their condition in the spring 

 will be that the apple will be more or less 

 frozen back or winter killed, while the elm and 

 maple will be unharmed. Because the wood 

 of the apple was immature and full of sap 

 when the freezes of winter came on, while the 

 wood of the forest trees had ripened or ma- 

 tured and was able to withstand the winter. 



Often such troubles are attributed to too 

 rapid growth in young orchards and the grower 

 is advised to crop the ground heavily and by 

 removing annual crops lessen the fertility of 

 the land, thereby checking the growth of the 

 trees. It should be remembered that it is very 

 rarely, if ever, that trees make too rapid a 

 growth, but it is a common occurrence for well- 

 tilled, fertile lands to encourage too long a 

 growing season in young trees, not allowing 

 them to cease their growth early enough in the 



