APPLES 
of position, or that crowd too thickly in 
the center and obstruct the light too 
much. Heavy limbs that, helped by the 
prevailing winds, are twisting strong lat- 
erals out of position should be cut and 
allow the limb to right itself. 
Tipping the side  truiting hranches 
slightly during the summer has a tend- 
ency to help the setting of fruit spurs. 
The low temporary fruiting branches 
can be used for a few years until they 
have been superseded by higher limbs 
when these first useful limbs can be cut 
away and leave a clean open frame work, 
proof against blossom infection. 
CLYDE Barnum, 
Pheenix, Oregon 
Foreing Newtowns Into Bearing 
(Rogue River Valley) 
The writer had quite a large block of 
Newtown apples growing in a heavy, 
black deposit soil, which was very rich in 
plant food. The trees had reached an 
age of eight years and were large, healthy 
and beautifully shaped, but not a single 
fruit bud had appeared. The ninth year 
started with the same conditions when 
it was decided to radically change the 
methods of growing these to see if they 
could not be brought into bearing. These 
trees had been pruned regularly each 
year and the wood growth was enormous. 
This being the fact, pruning was discon- 
tinued and not a branch was cut. At 
the end of the season the trees were a 
mass of brush but still no fruit. The fol- 
lowing season one or two large branches 
were removed from trees needing it and 
some of the brush removed from others, 
care being taken not to cut out much 
from any one tree and never to head back 
At the beginning of the third season a 
few blossoms were noticed, but the soil 
was so strong that it seemed to push the 
growth of the trees into wood instead of 
fruit, no matter what was done. It was 
then decided to plant the orchard to bar- 
ley. This was done and the entire block 
Seeded right up to the tree trunks. The 
grain was allowed to ripen, and threshed 
out over 40 bushels to the acre. 
This block was not ploughed and when 
spring came the barley had come up as 
303 
a volunteer crop and the trees had a 
good sprinkling of blossoms. It was de- 
cided to try and save both the apples and 
the inteicrop of grain, so about four fur- 
rows were ploughed next to the trees and 
this was kept cultivated When the grain 
was prime for hay it was cut Immedi- 
ately afterwards it was plowed and cul- 
tivated so as to keep a good mulch to 
conserve the moisture in the soil. This 
was necessary as irrigation was not used. 
When the apples were picked the trees 
averaged about two boxes each and the 
fruit was all good size and quality. 
In the spring the soil was ploughed 
and has been cultivated and kept free 
from all growth between the trees as 
the trees were well set with fruit. 
It must be borne in mind that the soil 
conditions were such as to produce a 
strong, heavy growth of wood, and the 
discontinuance of pruning did not act 
quickly enough to arrest this as desired. 
Therefore it required the additional crop- 
ping between the trees to check this 
growth of wood. The block is now in 
bearing and will undoubtedly continue to 
bear and we still follow the rule to prune 
lightly and not head back. 
A. C. ALLEN, 
Hollywood Orchards. 
REJUVENATING OLD ORCHARDS 
With renewed interest in the fruit in- 
dustry, there has arisen a question as to 
the practicability of renewing or rejuve- 
nating old orchards. There are orchards 
in some states which have reached an 
age of more than 50 yearsand show every 
evidence of neglect Will it pay to at- 
tempt rejuvenation? That depends on 
the circumstances, but in general I would 
say it will not, and for the following 
reasons: 
First: The trees can never be made to 
bear as good fruit as new trees that have 
been properly cultivated and have never 
been neglected. 
Second: New trees can be grown at 
about the same cost, or perhaps at less 
cost than that of expensive pruning and 
rejuvenating the old orchard. 
Third: In these old orchards are many 
vacant spaces where trees have died. In 
