Vol. LXV. No. 2957. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 29, 1906. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PEU YEAK. 
AN ORCHARD THAT “LOCKS HORNS ” 
How Should It Be Pruned? 
1 am out for advice with regard to cutting out some of 
(lie trees in my apple orchard. They were set about 20 
years ago, 20 to 24 feet apart, and are now “locking horns” 
in a large part of the orchard. In a few cases you can 
see down through the orchard between the rows; in others 
the limbs are just beginning to touch across, and In others 
they overlap two or three feet. I proposed to cut out 
every other row diagonally across the orchard, but a 
friend of mine strongly advises me not to do so. Who is 
right? READER. 
Maine. 
There is not the slightest question in my mind but 
that every other row should be removed. Whether the 
rows should be taken out diagonally or longitudinally 
or criss-crossically makes little difference. A consid¬ 
erable number of those trees ought to come out at once, 
however. There is positively no question about that. 
In fact, my judgment is that they should have come out 
four or five years ago. I have had some little experi¬ 
ence in this matter, though not 
very much, and I never under¬ 
took a whole orchard at a time. 
I have seen whole rows taken 
out of large orchards with 
complete success; and I have 
much more frequently seen 
whole rows left in orchards 
where they were too thick with 
disastrous failure. 
F. A. WAUGH. 
Massachusetts. 
Cut Back for a New Head. 
I would say not cut out 
every other tree. The trees are 
large enough now. Those you 
purpose to cut down top off 
the last of March. Cut every 
limb off and thin out many 
others. Let one or two sprouts 
grow on each limb cut off. In 
three years a young new top 
will be formed, and be in bear¬ 
ing condition, with a lower 
smaller top to be more easily 
sprayed and otherwise handled. 
Fruit will be finer and more 
easily gathered. After these 
trees get into good bearing, say- 
four or five years, cut the re¬ 
mainder of these trees left in 
same way. In this way renew 
the tops and keep them down where more easily sprayed 
and fruit gathered. This plan will be more like topping 
the trees for grafting, which, as experience has shown, 
will bring a new top on a regrafted tree in four years 
into full bearing. Try it on one or two trees if you 
doubt the expediency of this plan. edwin hoyt. 
Connecticut. 
Cut Out at Once. 
If that orchard were mine I would cut out every other 
row each way now. I know by sad experience that if 
you allow the limbs to interlock so as to shut out the 
light, the lower limbs will die, and you will lose the best 
part of your tree. If your soil is as fertile as mine, 
40 x50 feet is not too far apart for apple trees. If you 
want to grow marketable fruit nowadays, you must 
spray your trees thoroughly with insecticides and fun¬ 
gicides, and this cannot be done unless you have a clear 
space between the rows through which to drive and 
work your spraying machinery. Gabriel hiester. 
Pennsylvania. 
Cut Out Every Other Tree. 
Tf the orchard is of strong-growing varieties we 
should cut out every other tree as suggested, as they 
will then be but a trifle over 31 feet, which is plenty 
near enough for profit. The cutting out should be done 
before lower limbs become dead or stunted, for if left 
too long they will go up into the air, so to speak. If 
the variety was .Wealthy we should use our best judg¬ 
ment in the matter. But as a rule a properly cared for 
orchard will pay the best profit where the trees have a 
fair chance to do their best. h. o. mead. 
Massachusetts. 
Cut Out By Degrees. 
The owner is right to he sure. The trees are alto¬ 
gether too close to leave permanently, but this cutting 
out need not be done all at once. If the trees are bear¬ 
ing good crops, select the rows to be taken out, and 
cut from these all interfering branches, letting the per¬ 
manent trees spread naturally. This process may be 
continued four or five years, when they should be taken 
out entirely. With some men they might be left longer. 
It all depends, upon how well they are being fed, and 
NOT ENOUGH SUNSHINE IN HERE. Fig. 305. 
how much they shade the ground. The writer is re¬ 
ducing an orchard in the same manner. There seems no 
doubt as to the right course in this case. 
New York. w. a. bassett. 
As An Ohio Proposition. 
Personally I have had no experience in cutting out 
trees where they have grown too close together. That 
distance is about close enough here, and they seldom 
grow together on our thin hills. Also, the trees begin 
to bear so young and the borers and root rot cause them 
to begin to die before they grow large enough to inter¬ 
lock. Our varieties being different from those in Maine, 
and the soil probably of a different nature, would make 
another proposition entirely. At 25 or 30 years of age 
half of the trees are dead here. With such varieties as 
Baldwin on good land it is likely they ought to be cut 
out in some way. If a man has not the courage to do 
it himself he should hire a man and tell him what to 
do, and then go off on a visit till the workman does it. 
All the lower limbs will be killed by the shade in a 
few years if the trees are not cut out, and it is just as 
well to cut out some of the trees and try to save the 
lower limbs, as apples can be grown and harvested 
cheaper near the ground than in the tops of high trees, 
considering the spraying, thinning and picking. 
Ohio. u. t. cox 
Cut Out Half the Trees. 
Many and many an orchard all over the country fails 
to produce the most fruit and of the best quality, by 
reason of being planted too thickly. Look at a full- 
grown Baldwin apple tree planted out by itself. If in 
congenial soil it is from 40 to 60, and sometimes even 
more, feet in diameter, and from 20 to 50 feet high, its 
leaves thick and rugose, and loaded with apples of 
fine color. Turn and look at that Baldwin orchard 
across the way, in as good soil and of the same age, but 
planted even 30 feet apart. Here the trees are equally 
as tall, but tops matted together so no sunlight ever 
reaches the ground. Most of the lower limbs are dead, 
and what apples there are are mostly on upper limbs 
and what happen to be on lower part of top are pale in 
color, and of very poor quality. Apples cannot grow 
without sunshine, and it must 
shine not only all over the 
trees, but should reach the 
ground all about as well. If 
this man’s trees are 20 feet 
apart, and he cuts out half of 
them diagonally they will still 
be only a little over 28 feet 
apart; if 24 feet and he cuts 
half they will be not quite 34 
feet. But very much depends 
upon the soil. On some soils 
34 feet will do very well, but 
on other soils 40 feet would be 
much better. We had an or¬ 
chard 24 feet apart, and we cut 
out half the trees and got more 
apples and of better quality, 
and after a few years we cut 
out another half, leaving them 
48 feet and still got more and 
better apples than before. I 
would surely cut out a half and 
maybe three-fourths of the 
trees, depending on soil. 
j. s. WOODWARD. 
New York. 
Study the Trees Carefully. 
Most varieties should not be 
set much, if any, nearer than 
40 to 50 feet. I am inclined to 
think the latter distance the 
better for most varieties. It was, and is now with 
many a favorite idea, that trees should be headed low 
so as to make the picking of apples easy, but there are 
other considerations that come in here. Recent re¬ 
search teaches the importance of cultivation in the 
orchard, and this can hardly be done wjien the trees 
are headed low. I feel quite safe in saying that the 
best cultivated orchards are the most productive or¬ 
chards. John W. True, of New Gloucester, has two 
orchards of a hundred trees each, one of the Sutton 
Beauty and the other of the Ben Davis. The trees in 
each were set about 10 years ago, and the orchards 
have been in cultivation each year since. I know of 
no other orchards in Maine that have done better than 
these. The trees are set about 35 feet apart, and headed 
so as to admit of a free passage among them with team. 
In some parts of Maine it is important to have the 
trees pruned high to protect them from the drifting 
snows, which otherwise would break down the limbs. 
This system affords plenty of light and heat among 
the trees, and both are important in the growing of the 
finest fruit. When an orchard has been set too thickly, 
as in the instance given, it is difficult to give any defi¬ 
nite direction for thinning out, because each tree may 
