30 
House & Garden 
THE TRUTH ABOUT DWARF FRUIT TREES 
Real Quality in Diminutive Apples, Pears, Peaches, 
Cherries and Apricots — The Necessary Culture 
WILLIAM C. McCOLLOM 
I F your first impulse is to ask “What does 
it cost?” you had better skip this article. 
It is directed to the person who wants qual¬ 
ity first of all. Yes, to be sure, we all want 
quality, but here I am using the word in its 
fullest significance. And the searcher for 
quality first is usually one who does not 
study every penny to figure how many dol¬ 
lars’ return it will yield. 
Frankly, I do not consider the dwarf fruit 
tree a really sound commercial proposition. 
There may be some cases where it could be 
advantageously treated in a commercial 
way, but generally speaking it is for those 
who want orchids for their buttonholes, and 
straight Flavana cigars—in fact, for people 
who are really looking for the highest stand¬ 
ard of quality and are willing to pay for it. 
I am not trying to frighten anyone about 
the cost of dwarf fruit trees, for their prices 
are by no means prohibitive; but where you 
get ten apples from the ordinary standard 
tree you will get but one from the dwarf. 
The quality will be of the best, but disre¬ 
garding the many other factors that make 
the dwarf fruit trees so desirable, and judg¬ 
ing only by the pound for pound return, the 
standard type outweighs the dwarf. On 
the other hand, in the proportionate quan¬ 
tity of fruit produced, the dwarf trees are 
far preferable. When you see 
these sturdy little fellows car¬ 
rying a load of fruit that even 
the larger type wouldn’t be 
ashamed of, you can’t help ad¬ 
miring them sincerely. 
Disregarding economics, there 
are a number of sound, logical 
reasons for planting the 
dwarfs. Of these I would 
place quality first, for surely 
there is nothing more worthy 
of our efforts. There is no 
class of trees of any descrip¬ 
tion that bears fruit of as high 
a standard, because of the bet¬ 
ter care they get. The situa¬ 
tion is analogous to that of a 
person with a good suit of 
clothes, and another with a 
cheap one—there is more in¬ 
volved, and so better care is 
taken. And be it known that 
among the real aristocrats of 
the fruit family, the dwarfs are 
the acknowledged blue bloods. 
What They Will Do 
The dwarf fruit trees are 
particularly valuable to those 
who want quick results. Of 
course, you can’t pick any 
fruit the day after planting, 
but you can get a fair crop the 
second season from planting, 
and if you get good stock which 
has been properly handled you 
will get some fruit the first 
season. This may sound like a 
fairy tale, but it is not. I 
planted a number when they 
were in full flower after having 
been delayed somewhere in transit, and they 
carried considerable fruit the same season. 
To people with very limited grounds, the 
dwarf brings within their grasp the possi¬ 
bility of having their own fruit, from their 
own grounds. The little fellows can be con¬ 
fined to a degree beyond our imagination 
and still continue to give results. Where 
possible it is advisable to give them a rea¬ 
sonable amount of growing space, but if 
necessary to reduce the growth to the small- 
Tomatoes or flowering plants can he 
trained on the wires until such time as 
the trees will need the entire trellis 
Part of the fun of raising dwarf fruits is training them 
strong wire trellis as a foundation, a beautiful pleached 
he created in a few years 
Summer pruning is a great factor in producing quality, 
he done around the middle of July, or as the growth 
The low branches assist the work 
est possible allowance, they can be trained 
on a trellis of some sort and the space they 
occupy need not be much more than that 
given a climbing rose bush. 
One of the greatest assets of the dwarf 
tree is the ease with which it can be prop¬ 
erly cared for. This is another reason why 
the trees get better care, for they are under 
the closest scrutiny at all times and any dis¬ 
ease or attack of insects is at once percept¬ 
ible. There are no ladders to climb, and 
spraying is easily done with a hand pump 
of the smallest type. With them, thinning 
the fruit becomes a pleasure instead of an 
effort. Summer pruning is also within our 
reach. This practice is out of reason with 
the high headed type of tree, and if done as 
it should be and the other cultural require¬ 
ments properly attended to, fruit trees will 
bear annually instead of following the bien¬ 
nial habits of a great many of our standards. 
Another important argument in favor of 
dwarfs is that because of their sturdy habit 
they are little affected by wind storms which 
often ruin quantities of regular fruit by 
causing it to fall before it is ripe. Then 
again, the dwarfs have so much less growth 
to sustain that they can be used in garden 
effects without killing adjoining plants by 
robbing the soil of every bit of fertilizer; 
and casting a very short shad¬ 
ow, they are possible in 
either the vegetable or the 
flower garden. 
What They Are 
The dwarf fruit tree can be 
had in a number of forms, the 
trained types coming in fan 
shape, cordons of various 
trainings, horizontals, U-shape, 
gridirons, etc. These, of 
course, require a trellis of some 
description, or they can be 
trained against a wall, the side 
of a building, or some similar 
surface. These trees are ex¬ 
tremely ornamental, and can be 
used in garden effects of vari¬ 
ous kinds; they are attractive 
when in flower, and are both 
interesting and pleasing after 
the blooming period. 
Dwarfs must be grafted, else 
you cannot confine them. Some 
unscrupulous dealers send out 
very low headed standard trees 
as dwarfs, so get your trees 
from a reliable source. Pears 
should be grafted on quince 
stock, thus giving them the 
short jointed, dwarf habit of 
the quince without in any other 
respect changing the character¬ 
istics of the tree. The Para¬ 
dise or Doucin stock has the 
same effect upon the apple 
when the latter is grafted to it. 
Peaches should be worked on 
the plum, which is the best bar¬ 
gain we can make in this case, 
{Continued on page 82) 
With a 
alley can 
It should 
requires. 
