T HE neigh¬ 
borhood 
garden behind the 
jail was a great 
success this sum- 
rn e r, and M r. 
Parke Gladden 
has planted three 
splendid plane 
■trees there this 
f a 11 — great, big 
it h i n g s that I 
should have been 
afraid to trans¬ 
plant, but he was 
not. Next year 
•we are looking 
-forward to doing 
.a good bit more 
.along this line — 
■not c h i 1 d r e n’s 
gardens, nor any¬ 
thing of that sort, 
but just neighbor¬ 
'll o o d “parklets” 
where there are 
rubbish-filled va¬ 
cant lots that the 
owners will let us handle. To be sure, we run the risk of their 
selling or wanting to build just when our greenery is established; 
'but we feel we can assume a risk on places that have stood still 
for from five to ten years. They are not likely to start ofif sud¬ 
denly with a boom. 
This month it was Mr. Gladden himself that entertained us at 
“Stone Acres” — something which we never dreamed of his doing. 
For no one ever has gone there, and there has always been a great 
mystery about his unhappy, mad wife; and it was supposed that 
no one would ever be asked to go there. There were no evi¬ 
dences of anything peculiar anywhere; and he seemed to enjoy 
having the Club there so much that the pathos of his solitary, 
lonely life, and hers, stood out all the more. Really, the Garden 
Club has been a great boon to him—and to several of its members, 
if I mistake not. 
The subject was the renovation of old fruit trees — something 
that I had never thought much about, never having had any 
to renovate. Mr. Gladden himself had suggested it, for it seems 
there was an old-fashioned, down-at-the-heel and dejected or¬ 
chard at “Stone Acres” when he took the place, and it is one of his 
great triumphs that he has successfully renovated it and brought 
it up to present-day standards of form and health and bearing. 
The man who helped him do this was the lecturer — a young agri¬ 
cultural college man in those days, fresh from the inspiration of 
the class room, and the class field and orchard — to-day a famous 
grower himself. 
His lecture told us really the story of this orchard at “Stone 
Acres" — described its appearance first and the reasons why it had 
fallen into such a state, explained the faults in handling that had 
provoked its seemingly hopeless condition, contrasted the old ways 
with the newer scientific methods of pruning and general orchard 
practice; and then proceeded to show, out in the orchard and by 
means of the trees themselves, just what had been the first step 
towards correcting and rehabilitating, and the second step, and so 
on through all the process. With this concrete example before 
us, it was a very vivid and illuminating afternoon indeed. 
The old-fashioned methods of pruning — or lack of method in 
pruning — came in first for explanation and condemnation. Really, 
it seems curious that they didn’t know better than to do some of 
the things they 
did, and the evi¬ 
dence certainly 
would seem to in¬ 
dicate that less 
thought was de¬ 
voted to farming 
— real though in¬ 
telligent, serious 
and constructive 
—by the average 
farmer than a 
chicken devotes 
to scratching for 
worms! Fancy 
their standing on 
the ground when 
they pruned their 
trees, for exam¬ 
ple, and just cut¬ 
ting branches ofif 
as high up as they 
could reach, be¬ 
cause that way 
was “handier” 
than to get up and 
into the trees 
with a ladder and 
use some gumption and intelligence about taking growth away! 
That the trees towered up to the skies wh^re no one could get at 
their topmost fruits, even from tall ladders, was a secondary con¬ 
sideration ; never mind about getting all the fruit if in order to 
do so a different and bit more fussy method of pruning must be 
resorted to! That seems to have been the idea! 
Old and neglected orchards are pretty certain to show high, 
lanky trees—so said the gentleman—resulting from this shiftless 
habit of pruning. The first thing to be overcome, then, is this 
height, when the pruning which is to restore and renovate is 
started. But to correct the ancient fault and at the same time to 
secure a little fruit the very first year the work is undertaken, he 
recommended as an ideal. There is absolutely no necessitv for 
sacrificing everything for two or three years just for the sake 
of the tree’s form, according to him; for a fair amount of fruit 
may be secured by going at the task with restraint, and at the 
same time the tree will be really more stimulated and benefited 
than is the case when a general holocaust of branches is brought 
down all at one time. 
So about one-third of the advance towards the ideal of a low¬ 
headed tree, open enough to give the sun and air free access to 
every fruit it bears, consisting of three to four main limbs or 
branches which shall be the source of the smaller ones that bear 
the fruit, may be traveled the first year; the second third the 
second year, and the final third the third year; while a moderate 
crop of fruit is being harvested each year. 
With the orchard at “Stone Acres” they had proceeded in this 
way by three stages. The first year they cut out all water-sprouts 
and cleaned up the limbs, as well as shortening two of the four 
branches selected to become the main framework of each tree. 
The second year they cut back the remaining two similarly 
selected, and cut away altogether two of the large branches con¬ 
demned utterly. And the third year they cut away the others, 
except in some instances where there were more of these than 
they cared to eliminate in the one season. 
Every tree bore, and bore fairly well, each year — for pruning 
stimulates fruiting. And these old trees were so astonished, I 
fancy, at finding themselves the objects of anyone’s care and 
(Continued on page 318) 
Editor’s Note: The garden club is a great factor in neighborhood betterment. Here is a true story of the work 
of a certain such club and its accomplishments, taken from the diary of one of its members. What this club actually 
did should be a stimulus to all who love gardens, and a guide to the ways and means of improving our towns and 
villages. These chapters began in the February issue, when the organisation of the Club was discussed. Each install¬ 
ment shows how the program of activities was followed out. 
293 
