VoL. LX 
No. 2705 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 30, 1901 
$l PER YEAR 
REMODELING AN OLD ORCHARD. 
WHAT TO DO WITH OLD TREES. 
Practica and Helpful Suggestions. 
ORCHARD VETERANS.—On almost every farm 
long settled are to be found old apple trees which 
seem to have outlived their usefulness. Dying and 
dead branches fill the tops; great gaping holes show 
where large limbs have been cut away, 
and the stump has rotted far into the 
center of the tree. Such trees are com¬ 
monly worthless. They are cut down 
and burned, or the suckers are allowed 
to struggle with the dead branches and 
with each other in the battle for light 
and food. They often stand near the 
buildings or along the fences, where 
trees are wanted as long as they can be 
kept. Possibilities, not often suspected, 
still exist for these old trees. Here and 
there a thrifty young sucker has found 
a chance to grow and has soon come to 
be a vigorous branch. Fruit of good size 
and quality is often found upon it. In¬ 
deed, if the tree bears any good fruit it 
is likely to be on such branches. 
A CHANCE FOR YOUNG BRANCHES. 
—An apple tree and a grapevine differ 
materially, yet it is possible to take a 
lesson in the management of the tree 
from the habit and treatment demanded 
by the vine. The vineyardist knows 
that he must depend upon young wood 
to get good grapes. He will tell you that 
3t is better to replace the main vine 
every few years with a young shoot 
starting from the ground, because the 
'old stock becomes “clogged.” He may 
Tiot be able to explain just what that 
means, but he knows that he gets better 
grapes from the young vine. Much the 
same thing holds true of an apple tree, 
though the time of renewal is much 
longer in coming than with a grapevine. 
The oft-repeated advice to avoid cutting 
large branches in pruning, while per¬ 
fectly proper for young and vigorous 
trees, may be all wrong for these old 
weterans which have already begun to 
'decay. Cut away the old decrepit 
liranches and give some of the vigorous 
young suckers a chance. They will soon 
prove that they are not enemies to be 
'Cut down at every encounter, but friends 
ready to lend a hand and bear good 
fruit at the first opportunity. Fig. 362 
shows such an old tree, with its top full 
■of dead branches but no fruit. Fig. 363 
shows the same tree as it appeared half 
an hour later. Nearly all the large 
branches are on the ground, but enough 
vigorous young sprouts are left to form 
a new top, which, barring accidents, they 
will quickly do. 
OB.JECT OF PRUNING.—But, some 
one objects, the tree will be short-lived, 
the wounds will not heal, and rot Will 
enter the tree. Very likely, but what 
of it? The tree is nearly worthless as 
it is, and this treatment is likely to give 
a few, perhaps many, good crops. It is 
worth while to get them, for we do not 
want the tree to die now, and it will not 
unless we kill it. If left to itself it will 
linger on, occupying the ground just the 
isame and doing nothing. The purpose 
for which an apple tree is grown differs radically 
from that for which a forest tree is grown. For the 
time being it matters little whether the heart of the 
tree be sound or hollow, so long as the outer wood 
and bark are in condition to perform their functions 
in carrying food and producing growth of leaf and 
fruit. I trust that no one will consider this an argu¬ 
ment for lack of care in pruning young trees. Decay 
■^rV'-A 
A TREE FULL OF DEAD BRANCHES. Fig. 362. 
threatens the life of the tree, and should be avoided 
as long as possible. Fig. 365 represents a tree pruned 
much after the same manner, perhaps not quite so 
heavily, but severely enough that a bystander said 
the pruning would kill it. The tree was pruned in 
Spring. This picture, taken in the Autumn follow¬ 
ing, shows a fair crop of apples. 
STARTING A NEW TREE.—Even if the whole top 
is worthless the case is not lost. Many 
^ of these old trees are seedlings, bearing 
fruit of little value. In such cases we 
may follow the vineyardist still further, 
and start a new shoot from the ground 
to take the place of the failing trunk. 
Fig. 364 shows such a sucker grafted the 
preceding Spring. The natural infer¬ 
ence may be that a tree started in that 
way will have little value, but facts 
often disprove theories. If the old tree 
is cut away after a year or two the 
graft soon takes its place. At Fig. 366 
is shown a larger trej started in the 
same manner. It is now about eight 
years old, and very vigorous. The 
owner says that it bore fruit the next 
year after the graft was set, and has 
borne nearly every year since. The 
method here outlined may not prove ad¬ 
vantageous in commercial orcharding, 
nor in all parts of the country, but the 
results seen certainly indicate that they 
are worthy of consideration oftener 
than they are used. The same methods 
of renewal are applicable to peaches 
and pears. It goes without saying that 
wherever applied they should go hand 
in hand with other methods of treat¬ 
ment needed to produce good fruit. 
FRED W. CARD. 
THE^OLD TREE PRUNED FOR RENEWAL. Fig. 363 
A TALK ABOUT PEDIGREE TREES. 
What Grant M Hitchings Thinks. 
We have had several articles about 
the famous orchard of Grant M. Hitch¬ 
ings, of Onondaga Co., N. Y. The fol¬ 
lowing opinions will interest most apple 
growers. We asked Mr. Hitchings 
whether he believes in using wood from 
first-class bearing trees for budding and 
grafting: 
The theory is certainly all right, and 
I am watching and experimenting along 
that line. 
What, in your judgment, has most to 
do with fine fruit production? 
The evidence thus far seems to indi¬ 
cate that the soil and location, and 
principally the way the fruit buds have 
been nourished, has more to do with pro¬ 
ducing fine fruit than anything else. 
What evidence have you of this? 
We have four Northern Spy trees 
about 30 years, set in squares 25 feet 
apart each way. Two of them on the 
south side invariably gave larger and 
finer fruit than those on the north side, 
which were crowded by other trees. 
Five years ago one of the trees on the 
north side was broken down, also those 
that were crowding the remaining one. 
Since that time this tree has given just 
as good fruit as the two south trees, 
showing in this case that it was lack 
of nourishment from limited root pas¬ 
ture, instead of bud variation. 
