VoL. LX. No. 2707. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 14, 1901 
$1 PEK YEAR 
MULCHING FOR APPLE TREES. 
WHY SOIL WARMS HP, 
Besi Plan for Spring Budding. 
There has been so much interest shown in the ac- 
counit of that famous apple orchard owned by Grant 
G. Hitchings that we print more of his opinions: 
You do not place much dependence on bud variation? 
The theory seems all right, but as yet I have seen 
no distinct case of the variation being constant. I 
have noticed that the same itree will vary its fruit, 
some years being better than others, depending on 
the season and the supply of available 
plant food. 
You lay great stress upon the need of 
humus in ihe soil. Why not keep this up 
by plowing under green crops as many 
recommend? 
It occurs to me that we can keep up the 
humus supply much better and cheaper by 
adding it on top of a sod in the orchard, 
by letting what grows go back, and, if 
necessary, by growing Alfalfa in our back 
lots that are hard to cultivaie, and draw¬ 
ing and applying ithat where needed. In 
starting a young orchard you can accumu¬ 
late humus before the trees get large, and 
with this accumulation and what grows 
each year it seems to be sufficient to keep 
the trees producing good apples each sea¬ 
son. How long it will last is of course a 
question. To guard against a possible 
shortage of humus last Spring I seeded 
down 20 acres to Alfalfa, and will use this 
as a mulch for strawberries, and if needed 
in the orchard. 
What would you do with an old orchard? 
In an old orchard the best thing to do 
to renovate it is first to tear up the old sod 
and decay it, then reseed and apply the 
cheapest available humus; if trees are 
close cut down one-half of them, and if 
you want to keep the orchard permanent 
set young ti’ees near where old ones were 
;ut. By applying the vegetable matter 
they appear to do just as well as those set 
on new ground. When these get to bear¬ 
ing cut down the remaining old trees and 
reset. By this method you are obtaining 
all the apples your ground is capable of, 
and gradually changing from an old or¬ 
chard to a new one. 
Are you not troubled in buying from 
nurserymen with trees untrue to name? 
I never have had much trouble about 
trees proving untrue to name. In fact, I 
can tell a good many kinds by the trees; 
they have certain characteristics of growth 
and appearance that are reliable. I think 
the trouble is caused by buying of agents 
who claim they are selling certain nursery¬ 
men’s trees, but in fact are buying where 
they can the cheapest. 
What about root-pruning trees? 
I agree perfectly with Mr. Stringfellow in his after 
treatment of trees. But there are two objections io 
the severe root pruning. First, in our stony soil, the 
tree may stand surrounded by stones, and second, 
after a year or two, when the itree is full of foliage, 
the wind would injure those fibrous roots more by 
rocking the tree than if they started eight or 10 
inches from the body, the larger roots acting like an 
anchor to hold the trees until the new roots become 
well established, and of course the surface to heal 
would not be so large. This is only opinion, how¬ 
ever; the method may be all right. The roots on 
apple trees go deep enough the other way of setting. 
In sinking stones I noticed roots from seven-year-old 
trees (three feet below the surface in heavy clay. 1 
believe the roots that do the tree the most good are 
near the surface, and I don’t think it would be any 
better to start them deep unless you cultivate. 
We hear reports from those who sow Alfalfa in 
their orchards. Is this good practice? 
I would not grow Alfalfa in the orchard; it grows 
too vigorous in the Fall. It would rob ithe soil of 
available plant food at the time the trees needed it 
most. There are two orchards near here seeded with 
BUDDLEIA VARIABILIiS. Fig. 37.5. See Page 838. 
Alfalfa that I have watched all Summer. This Fall 
the trees showed very plainly that the Alfalfa robbed 
the (trees of needed plant food. The aftermath of 
weeds and hay does not draw on the soil in the Fall 
like Alfalfa. 
SPRING BUDDING.—G. H. R., page 804. will not be 
likely to succeed with the so-called Spring budding. 
If he will cut his trees down in early Spring before 
sap starts much, and let one young shoot grow, and 
June-bud that, he will succeed if it is properly done. 
The trees should be cut as close ito the surface of the 
soil as possible. This can be done better by removing 
some of the soil, and cutting the stock off near the 
roots, so that too many shoots will not start. Let 
them grow until about six inches high, and then pull 
off all but the strongest and most upright, as early 
as it is possible to secure young shoots from the trees 
he wishes to get his buds from, say when they are 
six to eighit. inches long. No matter if they are soft, 
so that the buds are formed. Take them and put the 
buds in the young shoots from four to six inches 
from the ground. Be sure to leave a few leaves on 
the stock below the bud, and as soon as the bud is 
put in cut the itop off within six or eight inches of 
the bud, so that there is some foliage be¬ 
low and more yet above the bud. Tie the 
bud in as in ordinary budding. We use 
common cotton twine, such as the mer¬ 
chant uses to tie up his sugar, etc. Let 
this remain about 12 days, and then cut 
the top off even*with the bud. This will 
cause several shoots to start from the 
stock. When they have started out a few 
Inches we go over and pinch or pull the 
tops off these shoots, so as to retard 
their growth and permit the bud to grow. 
After the bud is three or four inches long 
cut off all the shoots below it, and let the 
bud grow. The buds must be gone over 
the second time if they start out. By this 
treatment the orchardist will get good 
stocky trees from two to four feet or more, 
according to condiitions. Buds can be ob¬ 
tained earlier from young orchard trees 
than from the nursery. The trees will be 
ready as soon as it is possible to get the 
buds. Ripe buds are not necessary in this 
case; no matter how young so that they 
are firm enough to be taken from it,he 
shoots. This is one of the surest modes 
of budding when conditions are at all fa¬ 
vorable. CHAS. RI.ACK. 
New Jersey. 
TEMPERATURE OF SOIL.—H. L. D., of 
Tennessee, page 774, makes a mistake in 
thinking that “the ground being compact, 
the sun did not penetrate, and the blooms 
were late.” As a maitter of fact, the heat 
rays penetrate compact soil much more 
readily than a cultivated surface. The 
loose soil acts as a shade and mulch, thus 
preventing the absorption of heat, for 
which reason we cuitivate in Summer, as 
well as to prevent evaporation of moisture. 
I give an instance on page 32 of the New 
Horticulture, where I lost several hundred 
dollars on melons by disregarding these 
facts in early Spring. Experiments have 
shown that the temperature of the soil has 
little or nothing to do with the staiiting of 
tree growth in Spring. A grapevine plant¬ 
ed on an outside border and trained into a 
hothouse, will leaf out the same time that 
one planited on the inside will. It is the . 
temperature of the air and action of the 
sun on the branches that regulate Spring 
growth and blooming. The true reason of his suc¬ 
cess on the uncultivated crop was that the entire sur¬ 
face rooit system being let alone, his peach trees were 
able to resist the action of frost and hold on to their 
fruit, just as Grant G. Hitchings’s apple trees do, 
when cultivated orchards around shed theirs. The 
well-known “June drop” of the peach is also due to 
continued destrinition of growing surface roots by 
the cultivator. Who ever heard of “June drop” on 
trees standing in hard ground? As Mr. Hitchings 
says, the roots that do the tree most good are near 
the surface. ii. m. strixgfeli.ow 
